EXCLUSIVE BNP hires advisers to explore $15 bln Bank of the West sale – sources

BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) is working with advisers to assess a sale of its U.S. arm Bank of the West as it seeks to retreat from the American retail banking market after struggling to compete with larger and better capitalised rivals, sources told Reuters.
Corporate law’s partisan gulf widened in 2020, analysis finds

Lawyers and staff at major law firms donated nearly six times more to Democrat Joe Biden than to incumbent Republican president Donald Trump in the 2020 election, according to a new analysis of campaign contributions by University of Iowa law professor Derek Muller.
EXCLUSIVE White House to target bank mergers, financial data with competition order

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s planned executive order to promote greater U.S. competition will target bank mergers by pushing the Federal Reserve and the Department of Justice to update merger guidelines and increase scrutiny of deals, according to a source familiar with the matter. It will also ask the Consumer Financial Protection […]
Analysis: Gaza truce shifts focus to Egypt’s regional role

Egypt’s work to broker and secure a truce in the Gaza Strip this month has thrust it into the diplomatic spotlight, prompting top-level reengagement from Washington and overshadowing moves by several Arab states to normalise ties with Israel.
Twitter shuts down accounts for attempting to evade Trump ban

Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) suspended several accounts this week that were set up to share statements from a new part of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s website, saying they broke its rules against evading an account ban. Trump was banned from Twitter, where he had more than 88 million followers, and multiple other social media platforms following the […]
Brazil’s Bolsonaro says govt reduced environmental fines for ‘peace and tranquility’

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Saturday that his government had opted to reduce the number of environmental fines handed out to ranchers in order to bring “peace and tranquility” to the countryside. Environmental specialists have attributed a reduction in environmental fines in Brazil in recent years to the diminished capacity of federal environmental regulator […]
In historic move, Biden says 1915 massacres of Armenians constitute genocide

U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday said the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide, a historic declaration that infuriated Turkey and is set to further strain frayed ties between the two NATO allies.