Politics

  Bloomberg Chancellor Olaf Scholz signature policy to boost Germany’s military prowess is struggling to get off the ground. Back in February, the 63-year-old chancellor vowed to end decades of military underfunding with a debt-financed 100 billion euro ($105 billion) defense package, dismantling the tenets on which German foreign policy long-rested since World War II. But since then Scholz has ...

Bloomberg China’s top diplomat again warned the US over its increased support for Taiwan, showing the island democracy remains a major sticking point between the world’s biggest economies as Beijing sent more military aircraft toward the island. “If the US side insists on playing the Taiwan card and goes further and further down the wrong road, it will certainly lead ...

Bloomberg The last time a US president visited Seoul in 2019, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un agreed to restart nuclear talks during an impromptu meeting at the heavily fortified demilitarised zone (DMZ). As Joe Biden prepares to land in Seoul on Friday, the White House hasn’t indicated he’ll be heading to the DMZ. There’s also little he can do to ...

Bloomberg Nearly three months after Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine, Russia faces more sanctions than any other country. But thanks to surging prices for its exports of oil and gas, the Kremlin has been able to steady the ruble and limit the impact on consumers and the war effort. For now. Signs of strain are spreading across the ...

Bloomberg Prosecutors hoping to prove a top lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign lied while trying to get the FBI to investigate a suspected secret link between Donald Trump’s company and a Russian bank are having a hard time getting their own witnesses to confirm the claim. Michael Sussmann, a prominent cybersecurity lawyer with close ties to the Democratic Party, ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson won’t be fined again for breaking coronavirus regulations after UK police concluded a probe into rule-breaking gatherings during lockdown, a major boost for the prime minister after months of turmoil. London’s Metropolitan Police said it has made a total of 126 referrals for fines as part of its investigation into the “partygate” allegations that have dogged the ...

Bloomberg Ukraine is working to get more of its fighters out of Mariupol’s beseiged Azovstal compound, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as Russia threatened to put on trial those it said had “surrendered” at the steel plant. “The evacuation mission continues” overseen by the military and intelligence service with help from “the most influential international mediators,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly ...

Bloomberg Taiwan must gird itself against potential Chinese aggression through military deterrence that includes acquiring the right weapons and proper training, the top US naval officer said. “That is a big lesson learned and a wakeup call, particularly with respect to not only having the right kit but are people trained to use it the right way,” Admiral Michael Gilday, ...

Bloomberg The US deal with the Taliban — forged under President Donald Trump and implemented under President Joe Biden — was “the single most important factor” in the rapid collapse of Afghanistan’s forces as American troops withdrew last year. As in Vietnam decades earlier, the US “spent years and billions of dollars training and equipping” the Afghan National Security Forces ...

Bloomberg Kim Jong-un may be preparing to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to coincide with US President Joe Biden’s trip to the region, as the North Korean leader battles a Covid-19 outbreak posing one of the greatest crises faced by his regime. Kim looks poised to test launch an ICBM in the next two to four days, CNN said, ...