Politics

BLOOMBERG Nato-led peacekeepers beefed up their presence in northern Kosovo, where police clashed again with Serb protesters days after an uptick in violence raised fears that a conflict could reignite between the Balkan neighbours. Kosovo’s mostly ethnic-Albanian police forces used pepper spray in response to tear gas hurled by hundreds of ethnic-Serb demonstrators on Monday who tried to block access ...

BLOOMBERG Indian police forces killed at least 30 people from tribal groups identified as extremists, part of an ongoing security operation in a northeastern state bordering Myanmar that’s seen unrest over the access to affirmative action benefits. The government will not allow the disintegration of Manipur state by “armed terrorists,” Chief Minister N Biren Singh said. Security operations were still ...

BLOOMBERG The US will hold joint exercises with Coast Guards from Japan and the Philippines for the first time starting from this week amid elevated tensions with China in the region. The trilateral drills will be done off Bataan province that’s facing the South China Sea from June 1 to 7, according to a Philippine Coast Guard statement. The exercises ...

BLOOMBERG President Xi Jinping called on Russia to help bolster their countries’ ties at multilateral groups, as both nations seek to counter a US-led world order they’ve become increasingly isolated within. “China is willing to work with Russia to continue to firmly support each other on issues of core interests, and strengthen cooperation in multilateral arenas,” Xi told Prime Minister ...

BLOOMBERG Pakistan is considering banning Imran Khan’s political party, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said in a televised address, deepening the already tense standoff between the former premier and the country’s government and powerful military. “Whatever happened on May 9 wasn’t spontaneous,” Asif said, talking about the violence that erupted when Khan was briefly arrested by the country’s graft agency and ...

BLOOMBERG French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said no foreign power has ever tried to influence her as she sought to shake off accusations that her party’s ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have influenced her policies. She also criticised previous governments in Paris for increasing the economic reliance on Russia, including through energy ...

BLOOMBERG  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy suggested his country was losing control of Bakhmut after months of fierce fighting but downplayed Russian claims it now fully occupied the eastern city. “Today our people are performing an important task — they are in the Bakhmut, Zelenskiy said in Japan where he had met with leaders from the Group of Seven nations and ...

BLOOMBERG  US President Joe Biden said he expected ties with China to improve “very shortly” after a spat over an alleged spy balloon earlier this year derailed relations. Speaking to reporters on Sunday at the end of the Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Japan, Biden said the US’s move to shoot down a “silly balloon that was carrying two ...

BLOOMBERG The bid of Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of Thailand’s opposition group Move Forward, to form a coalition government hit a setback when a key political party said it won’t back a prime minister who wants to relax the law against criticising the monarchy. The Bhumjaithai Party, which came in third in the vote with about 70 seats in the 500-member ...

BLOOMBERG Rishi Sunak appeared to back down on his Conservative Party’s key 2019 election manifesto pledge to cut net migration, risking a fresh row with right-wing Tories disrupting his UK administration. The premier was asked three times by reporters travelling with him to the Group of Seven summit in Japan whether he stood by the promise to reduce the annual ...