Bloomberg Theresa May was expected to face a vote of confidence in her leadership of the Conservative Party as the embattled UK prime minister warned the rebels who want her out that they will be putting Brexit at risk. Tory members of Parliament were expected to vote on Wednesday evening on whether they have confidence in May. If she loses, ...

Bloomberg Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to deploy national police to the restive Catalonia region, as tensions escalate between Madrid and Barcelona. The central government sent three letters to the pro-independence Catalan administration this week warning that the regional Mossos police had failed to ensure basic security during recent protests, which paralysed several highways for hours with impunity. Sanchez ...

Bloomberg Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s long march towards one-man rule in the heart of the European Union hit a new milestone. Shrugging off the threat of sanctions from Brussels, Orban’s lawmakers approved a law that will further tighten his hold over the country’s court system. Opposition lawmakers tried to prevent the opening of the parliamentary session and then whistled ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is not expected to visit the South before the end of the year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s office said. Kim may still travel to Seoul in January for what could mark the first trip by any North Korean leader to the South’s capital, presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan said in a text message. Yonhap ...

Bloomberg The top leaders of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters, famous for abrasive politics and brawling in parliament, have become embroiled in a string of scandals that has dented the party’s efforts to portray itself as a voice of the poor ahead of elections in May. Deputy party leader Floyd Shivambu allegedly secured funds looted from the failed VBS Mutual ...

Bloomberg As Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte prepared to present his budget in Brussels, one of the main powers behind Italy’s government, League leader Matteo Salvini, may be looking beyond the crisis a failed spending plan could trigger and toward new elections early next year, la Repubblica reported. With both Salvini and fellow Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio of the ...

If you like betting on embattled underdogs, President Tsai Ing-wen is worth a look. She’s tempting the wrath of her powerful neighbour in mainland China by arguing that Taiwan must maintain its own open culture, democratic values and, yes, its sovereignty. Tsai is a petite woman, dressed in a plain black suit, who speaks the careful language of a Cornell-educated ...

People who know Urjit Patel, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, told me he would stay on and fight. That was in late October, when it became clear from his deputy’s speech that New Delhi was making a determined attempt to curtail the RBI’s authority as a banking regulator, and even to raid its capital. But after a November ...

Apple Inc. investors looking for any ray of hope may have found it in Taiwan. Shares of Apple have fallen more than a quarter since October on concern that iPhone sales are slowing, a prospect that’s been exacerbated by the threat of US tariffs on devices made in China. Revenue at the two main assemblers of iPhones showed growth that ...

Facing a historic defeat for her Brexit deal in Parliament, British Prime Minister Theresa May has, almost unbelievably, managed to make things worse. In a speech before the House of Commons on Monday, May postponed a vote on the deal and vowed to reopen talks with the European Union on the most contentious aspect of the whole undertaking, the Irish ...