Bloomberg US military aircraft have been hitting ground targets in Afghanistan in an effort to protect allies, according to US Central Command, as the Taliban makes rapid advances in the void left by withdrawing American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops. “US forces have conducted several airstrikes in defense of our Afghan partners in recent days,” US Air Force Maj. ...

Bloomberg Support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party bloc declined in a poll that suggested momentum for the Social Democrats and their candidate, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. The weekly Insa poll hints at the challenge faced by Armin Laschet, the leader of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, who’s running to replace her after the September 26 federal election. Scholz is the ...

Bloomberg China called on the US to respect Chinese sovereignty and stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs, in a response to President Joe Biden’s move to offer some Hong Kong residents temporary safe haven. A memo signed by the US president August 5 showed gross interference in Hong Kong and China’s internal affairs, Hua Chunying, spokesperson for Chinese Foreign Ministry, ...

Bloomberg Leaders of the ruling African National Congress are debating whether South African Deputy President David Mabuza is medically fit to remain in office, the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times reported. The party’s National Working Committee discussed Mabuza’s prolonged absence once he returned to South Africa following treatment in Russia for an unspecified ailment, the newspaper reported.

Bloomberg USS Hershel “Woody” Williams, the first ship permanently assigned to Africa, arrived in Nigeria’s commercial capital city of Lagos as part the US government’s support to combat piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. “Ship visits like this one clearly demonstrate the US’s continued dedication to our partners in the Gulf of Guinea as they strive for security of their ...

Bloomberg The $550 billion infrastructure bill cleared a procedural hurdle in the US Senate as members began working through proposed amendments in one last drive to finalise the White House-backed public works plan. The 67-27 vote to end debate on the bipartisan compromise measure puts the legislation on track to pass as soon as this weekend after weeks of negotiations ...

Bloomberg PG&E Corp was ordered by a judge to identify each of the California wildfires its equipment started this year, and to explain in particular what role the utility played in igniting the Fly fire, which has merged with the much larger Dixie blaze. US District Judge William Alsup, who oversees PG&E’s criminal probation, issued the order and asked for ...

Bloomberg With ICU beds down to a single digit, Austin sounded the alarm, using its emergency alert system to let residents in the Texas capital city know that the local state of the pandemic is “dire.” The Austin area — with a population of almost 2.4 million people — has just six intensive-care unit beds left, state health data show. ...

Bloomberg BT Group Plc has picked Adam Crozier, former chief executive of ITV Plc, as its new chairman, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Crozier, who’s currently chairman of Whitbread Plc, Kantar Group, and Asos Plc, is set to take up the role after the British telecommunications company announced in March that Jan du Plessis would retire, ...

Bloomberg AP Moller Maersk A/S’s efforts to become carbon-neutral face an unusual hurdle: there isn’t enough used cooking oil to make the biofuel that powers the vessels. “The biofuel is sourced from used cooking oil, but the problem is that the world doesn’t eat enough french fries,” said Chief Executive Officer Soren Skou. “We can’t keep scaling it. If our ...