Politics

  Bloomberg Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stood by tax cuts estimated to cost the budget billions in revenue and promised his government would undertake “reform and renewal” in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Taking questions after a speech in Canberra on Monday to mark 100 days since he took the top job, Albanese defended his decision to keep ...

  Bloomberg US Navy warships have entered the Taiwan Strait for the first time since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the self-ruled island tested ties between Washington and Beijing. The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville are conducting a routine transit through a corridor of the strait beyond the territorial sea of any state, the 7th Fleet ...

  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 ...