Politics

  Bloomberg Fidel Ramos, the former Philippine president who was head of the national police under Ferdinand Marcos before defecting and joining the “People Power” protests that ousted the dictator in 1986, has died. He was 94. Ramos’ family announced his passing in a statement on Sunday, without giving a cause of death. He died of complications from Covid-19, according ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping ended their call Thursday with plans to hold their first face-to-face summit, but the US and China are unlikely to halt their bickering in the months before the two leaders finally meet. The world’s two largest economies risk a fresh showdown as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi kicks off an Asian tour Friday ...

Bloomberg A US delegation met with senior Taliban officials in Uzbekistan to discuss efforts to unfreeze some $3.5 billion in central bank reserves as the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan deteriorates. The US delegation told the militant group and technocrats there was a need to accelerate efforts to unlock the reserves and reiterated the funds should be used to benefit the ...

Bloomberg Ukraine said it’s close to restarting grain shipments, although the timing will depend on go-ahead from the United Nations, which helped broker last week’s deal, and there were still few details available about how the process will unfold. “Our side is fully ready,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in the Odesa region, where he was watching grain being loaded ...

Bloomberg Rishi Sunak conceded he was the underdog in the race to be the next Conservative Party leader and UK prime minister, but vowed to fight for every vote. The former Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted his pledge not to cut personal taxes until inflation is under control was not universally popular, telling Conservative members at the first official hustings ...

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will unveil plans for a referendum on changing the Australian constitution to set up a representative Indigenous body in parliament, moving a step closer to fulfilling a major part of his policy agenda. In a speech to the Garma Festival of Traditional Culture in Australia’s Northern Territory on Saturday, Albanese was to propose to ...

Bloomberg US President Joe Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he doesn’t support a formal declaration of independence by Taiwan in the first conversation between the two leaders since March, the Beijing government said. Xi told Biden that it’s the will of the Chinese people to “resolutely safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity” regarding Taiwan and that “whoever ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened to “eliminate” South Korea and said he was ready for any battle with the US in a speech to mark the 69th anniversary of the deal that ended fighting in the Korean War. Kim, making his first appearance in public in nearly three weeks, delivered one of his strongest rhetorical attacks against South ...

  Bloomberg A US aircraft carrier and strike group have entered the South China Sea as part of what the 7th Fleet said was a scheduled operation amid rising tensions with China over a potential Taiwan visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The USS Ronald Reagan, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier, made its way to the disputed waters following a five-day ...

  Bloomberg Malaysia’s parliament on Thursday passed a bipartisan bill to curb defections by lawmakers, a major cause of political instability and a sign that elections may be round the corner. The ban on party-hopping was approved with a more than two-thirds majority and is part of a series of reforms introduced by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri in September aimed ...