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Pfizer’s Medivation Win; ’Ben-Hur’ Throws a Wheel: Sunday Wrap

Pfizer’s Medivation Win; ’Ben-Hur’ Throws a Wheel: Sunday Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- Here are Sunday’s top breaking news stories from around the world:

Pfizer, which has been seeking acquisitions as sales of its older drugs slow, is said to be close to a $14 billion deal to buy U.S. biotech Medivation. The deal may be announced as early as Monday.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer signaled that he is inclined to back a rate increase this year, saying that he sees improved growth and inflation running close to the central bank’s 2 percent goal.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has been far behind Democrat Hillary Clinton in fundraising and is only now buying his first television ads, is betting on online advertising to close the gap, new campaign finance reports show. Trump’s restructured campaign leadership is shoring up ties with the Republican National Committee.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsian Loong became unsteady and stopped speaking during his annual state of the nation address. His spokesman and doctors attributed it to simply standing and speaking for 3 hours in warm, humid conditions, and Lee returned several hours later to finish his address. “I’ve never had so many doctors look at me all at once,” he said.

The “Ben-Hur” remake lost a wheel en route to the coliseum: it had only $11.4 million in sales in its first weekend and was outdrawn by four other movies. It was the latest evidence that what to do with the ailing Paramount studio is job 1 for the new board and management at parent Viacom.

Sweden’s prime minister warned that the U.K. would unnecessarily poison the well with Europe by enacting large corporate tax cuts as it goes through the Brexit process.

Volkswagen is supposed to resume talks with transmission and seat suppliers on Monday as it prepares to extend an unprecedented production shutdown to factories making the Golf compact. Prevent Group’s Car Trim seat-component division and ES Automobilguss transmission-parts unit suspended deliveries when Volkswagen refused to reimburse them after dropping a contract.

Iraq’s decision to resume oil shipments from fields around Kirkuk should increase exports for OPEC’s #2 producer by about 5 percent. Exports from those fields have been cut off since March.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he’ll greet U.S. Vice President Joe Biden this coming week with complaints about not extraditing the U.S.-based Islamic cleric that authorities accuse of directing last month’s failed coup.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bernard Kohn in Washington at bkohn2@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2@bloomberg.net, Bruce Rule