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The world in brief, October 30th 2018

*Angela Merkel said she will step down as Germany’s chancellor in 2021, when her fourth term ends. She will also step down as leader of the Christian Democratic Union in December, a position she has held since April 2000. The announcement, following her party’s poor performance in the election in Hesse on Sunday, reflects Mrs Merkel’s fading influence.

America increased the number of troops sent to its Mexican border, from several hundred to 5,200. A dwindling caravan of several thousand migrants has been making its way there on foot from Central America; some probably hope to claim asylum in America. President Donald Trump is calling them a threat, with heightened vigour in the week before mid-term elections.

A large majority of Mexicans voting in a referendum decided to reject a new airport for Mexico City—though just 1m people turned out. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president-elect, had called the consultative referendum, which he hoped would deliver a “no” on the huge project. The airport is already partly built. Stockmarkets and the peso slid on the result.

America’s commerce department said it would block a Chinese chipmaker from buying parts to “limit its ability to threaten the supply chain for essential components” in America’s military systems. Micron, an American competitor, has accused Fujian Jinhua of stealing its chip designs. In April a similar ban, eased one month later, almost crippled ZTE, a Chinese telecoms giant.

Britain’s government promised to introduce a tax on digital services. It is aimed squarely at American tech giants such as Amazon, eBay, Facebook and Google, which thus far have managed to breeze lightly past the taxman; it would apply an extra 2% levy, but only to profitable businesses making more than £400m ($512m) in revenues. British companies can rest easy.

BP reported profits of $3.8bn in the three months ending in September, more than double the same period last year. The British oil company, which benefited from higher oil prices and production, will now be able to pay for its acquisition of BHP Billiton’s American shale assets entirely in cash. BP’s shares rose 4% in early trading.

Their friends may think them an odd couple, but ProSieben and eHarmony have decided to make it official. The German broadcaster will buy the American dating website, adding it to a majority stake in a holding company for Parship and ElitePartner, two other dating websites, and beziehungsweise, a relationship magazine. ProSieben’s boss cited “leveraging synergies” as motivating the acquisition. Hot.

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