By Stanley Widianto and Martin Petty (Reuters) -The Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN met in Laos on Wednesday as it seeks to advance a stalled bid to resolve a crisis in Myanmar and cool tensions in the South China Sea, days ahead of a gathering of top diplomats from the world’s biggest powers. The meeting of the foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be followed by two summits in Laos on Saturday … Read more…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday to discuss progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza and a hostage release, the White House said. Vice President Kamala Harris will meet separately with Netanyahu, it said on Wednesday. The Israeli leader is addressing the U.S. Congress later on Wednesday amid protests and discontent among some U.S. lawmakers over the conduct of the war in … Read more…

By Dmitry Antonov MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Wednesday that the upheaval surrounding the U.S. election, including an assassination attempt against Donald Trump and the exit of President Joe Biden from the race, showed the divisions in an American society in danger of “falling into a nosedive”. Former president Trump, the Republican candidate, was shot in the ear at a campaign rally on July 13, while Biden abandoned his reelection bid on Sunday and … Read more…

By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor George Clooney, a key Democratic fundraiser who made a public call for President Joe Biden to drop his reelection bid, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday as the party’s nominee for the November presidential election. Biden ended his campaign on Sunday following pressure from Democrats in Congress and top donors such as Clooney who were disturbed by the president’s disastrous debate performance in June. Harris became … Read more…

By Jason Lange (Reuters) – Vice President Kamala Harris opened up a marginal two-percentage-point lead over Republican Donald Trump after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and passed the torch to her, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. The poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, followed both the Republican National Convention where Trump on Thursday formally accepted his party’s nomination and the Biden announcement on Sunday he was leaving the race and endorsing Harris. Harris, whose … Read more…

(Reuters) – U.S. companies borrowed 4% less to finance equipment investments in June than a year ago, industry body Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) said on Tuesday. New loans, leases and lines of credit signed up by companies in June were down 2% from $10.20 billion a month ago. ELFA, which reports economic activity for the more than $1-trillion equipment finance sector, said credit approvals for U.S. companies came in at 75%, unchanged from … Read more…

By Karin Strohecker and Libby George LONDON (Reuters) -Ukraine said on Monday it had reached an agreement in principle with a group of creditors to restructure $20 billion of international bonds, bringing the war-torn country closer to an unprecedented debt rework. Ukraine’s announcement comes just over a week before a two-year debt suspension agreement struck in 2022 is due to run out and marks the first time a country has embarked on a debt restructuring … Read more…