Politics

BLOOMBERG Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Sunday as the Biden administration seeks to stabilise strained ties between the world’s two biggest economies. The top US diplomat, whose previous attempt to visit China in February was scrapped at the last minute when the US revealed an alleged Chinese spy balloon was floating over American ...

BLOOMBERG President Joe Biden called for new taxes on the wealthy and corporations and warned Republicans would roll back policies he argued had saved the US economy, setting out core themes as he kicked off his reelection campaign. Biden didn’t mention Donald Trump during a rally with union members in Philadelphia. Instead, the president contrasted his platform with his twice-indicted ...

BLOOMBERG  Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces a new electoral challenge after Boris Johnson’s surprise resignation from Parliament triggered at least three by-elections that could highlight softening support for the Conservative Party. Johnson quit after receiving the finding of the Parliament’s Privileges Committee investigation into whether he misled lawmakers over his knowledge of Covid-19 rule breaches by officials. While the findings ...

BLOOMBERG Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Sweden has “fulfilled its obligations” to Turkey to bolster its counter-terrorism laws, which should clear its path for membership in the alliance. After meeting with newly re-elected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Stoltenberg was asked if Sweden could still admitted before the alliance’s mid-July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. “There’s still time to ...

BLOOMBERG Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expects an upgrade in diplomatic relations between his country and Vietnam to a comprehensive strategic partnership soon, he said during his first visit to the Southeast Asian country. “All connections and cooperation come together in our plan to elevate our relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership and prime minister and I discuss today that ...

BLOOMBERG A highly anticipated defense forum in Singapore kicked off with a friendly handshake between Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu. It ended with few other signs of optimism that the world’s biggest economies could avoid an eventual collision. Austin used his speech at the Shangri-la Dialogue to chide China over its refusal to meet unless ...

BLOOMBERG Japan and South Korea called on North Korea to abandon a planned rocket launch they see as breaching United Nations Security Council resolutions, following reports Pyongyang intends to put a satellite into orbit as early as this Wednesday. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he instructed his cabinet to gather and analyse information on North Korea’s plans. He said ...

BLOOMBERG Russia hit an airbase in western Ukraine, damaging five aircraft and the runway, and targeted the nation’s capital in the second massive rocket and drone attack in as many days. Rescue workers worked to extinguish a fire at the air base in the Khmelnytskyi region, where a fuel warehouse and military storage as well as the aircraft and runway ...

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 ...