Politics

Bloomberg China fired its largest missile tests in Taiwan’s waters in decades, the day after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defied Beijing by visiting the self-ruled island it claims as its own. The People’s Liberation Army fired 11 Dongfeng ballistic missiles into waters north, east and south of Taiwan between 13:56 p.m. and 16:00 p.m. local time Thursday, the island’s ...

Bloomberg Top Taliban officials didn’t know al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was hiding in Afghanistan, a spokesman said, and an investigation is underway to check the veracity of US claims he was killed in an American airstrike in the capital Kabul over the weekend. “The government and the leadership wasn’t aware of what is being claimed,” Suhail Shaheen, the head of ...

  Bloomberg The US Senate ratified adding Sweden and Finland to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a move intended to bolster the military alliance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The vote was 95-1, far exceeding the two-thirds majority required for the approval of treaties. If the ascension wins approval from all current members of the alliance, Finland will join Estonia, ...

Bloomberg House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged that the US wouldn’t abandon Taiwan, reaffirming American support for the democratically elected government in Taipei despite threats of fresh trade curbs and military actions by Beijing. Pelosi made her comments on Wednesday during a Presidential Office ceremony with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen. The California Democrat’s arrival in Taiwan late Tuesday made her the ...

  Bloomberg It’s “wishful thinking” to expect relations between Russia and the West to return to their pre-war status soon after the fighting stops in Ukraine, as the Kremlin appears bent on creating a buffer between itself and Nato, Romania’s prime minister said. Nicolae Ciuca, a retired general who once led combat forces in Iraq, said Russia’s invasion has re-opened ...

  Bloomberg Serbia and Kosovo may resume European Union-mediated talks on mending ties later this month following weekend tensions over identification cards and car plates. The meeting in Brussels could take place on Aug. 18, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told state broadcaster RTS late Tuesday. Kosovo government spokesman Perparim Kryeziu said the meeting is expected in the third week of ...

  Bloomberg At least three soldiers were killed in fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces in disputed territory that’s overseen by Russian peacekeeping troops as part of a truce deal that halted a 2020 war. Two Armenian serviceman died and 14 were wounded when Azerbaijani troops fired grenade-launchers and used attack drones, the defense army of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic ...

Bloomberg US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the highest-ranking American politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years, prompting China to announce military drills encircling the island. Pelosi greeted Taiwanese officials including Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on the tarmac, where she posed for photos. In a statement, she said her visit “in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy” and that ...

Bloomberg Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks Friday including on a deal reached to unblock exports of grain from Ukraine, the Kremlin said. The meeting in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi will be “a good opportunity to synchronize watches on the subject of the effectiveness of this mechanism for exporting grain from ...

Bloomberg Liz Truss vowed to slash “waste, bureaucracy and inefficiency” in the civil service to save billions of pounds a year for the British taxpayer if she becomes UK prime minister. The foreign secretary, the front-runner in the race with Rishi Sunak to succeed Boris Johnson, said that she’ll align the pay of public sector workers to living costs in ...