Politics

  Bloomberg Greek air defense missile locked onto Turkish F-16 fighter jets flying in international airspace over the Mediterranean, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement. Greece’s Russian-made S300 air defense system on the island of Crete locked onto the Turkish planes on Aug. 23 as they flew over the Mediterranean, according to the statement. Earlier in the week, ...

  Bloomberg South Korea’s main opposition picked a high-profile rival of the president as its new leader, adding to the government’s challenges as it struggles to build support after three months in office. The progressive Democratic Party elected Lee Jae-myung on Sunday to lead the charge against conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol. Lee, a populist who pushed to introduce universal ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s governing African National Congress has a chance of retaining its majority in national elections in 2024, according to a survey conducted by the Social Research Foundation. The results of the survey of 3,204 registered voters in July contrasts with a slew of polls forecasting the party that led South Africa out of apartheid in 1994 will dip ...

  Bloomberg Liz Truss is considering cutting Britain’s VAT sales tax by as much as 5 percentage points across the board, the Telegraph reported, a move that may head off criticism she lacks a plan to tackle the country’s cost of living crisis. The potential reduction to 15%, flagged in a newspaper that has strongly backed her leadership campaign against ...

Bloomberg Taiwan welcomed its third US congressional visit this month, as Senator Marsha Blackburn began a three-day trip to the island that’s likely to further test Washington’s tense ties with Beijing. Blackburn, a Republican on the Senate’s Armed Services Committee which oversees defense policy, met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday morning, after landing in Taipei the previous evening. Days ...

  Bloomberg Representatives from Turkey, Finland and Sweden met on Friday and agreed on further talks as the Nordic countries seek to convince Turkey to ratify their applications to join defense alliance Nato. The meeting of officials took place in Vantaa, Finland, on Friday, the Finnish government said in an emailed statement. Turkey remains one of seven members of the ...

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden’s approval rating rose to 44% in the latest Gallup poll, the highest in a year and a fresh sign he and his party are gaining political ground ahead of November midterm elections. Biden’s approval rating in August jumped six percentage points from July, when it hit a low of 38% in Gallup’s survey. But even ...

Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to boost its troop total by 137,000 to 1.15 million, the highest level in more than a decade, as Russia digs in for its war against Ukrainian forces backed by the US and its allies. Putin’s brief decree, published on the Kremlin’s website, didn’t explain the motivation for the increase or where the ...

  Bloomberg Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reinforced his call for occupying Russian troops to withdraw from Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant after damage to transmission lines in the occupied territory disrupted power supply. There are no immediate safety concerns and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is being powered through a restored electricity line, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom said. Transmission ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s presidential front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to lead a stable economy and avoid the mistakes of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, if he’s elected. During a 40-minute, prime-time interview on the nation’s most-watched news show, Lula said he’ll govern with predictability, stability and credibility in comments that sought to reassure the undecided voters who have doubts about ...