Bloomberg Joe Biden talked at length as a presidential candidate about the need to focus on China’s rising global power. Yet 17 months after taking office, Asian leaders are still waiting for details on a strategy for more US economic engagement in the region. Before Biden touched down in South Korea, many officials in the region have struggled to understand ...
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Australia’s election enters final days with tight result likely
Bloomberg Australia’s six-week election campaign has entered its final days with polling showing a narrow victory likely for the center-left opposition Labor Party, but an unexpected result in 2019 is still hanging over both sides ahead of voting on Saturday. PM Scott Morrison and Opposition leader Anthony Albanese are rushing to visit must-win seats across the country, with Morrison ...
Read More »US steps up aid for Ukraine to get weapons on battlefield
Bloomberg US President Joe Biden welcomed congressional passage of $40 billion in aid for Ukraine and announced a new package of weapons he said would be sent “directly to the front lines.†A top Kremlin official said Russia is intent on taking all of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. The US and United Nations are looking at ways ...
Read More »Scholz’s push to boost German military hits trouble
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 ...
Read More »China warns US a ‘dangerous situation’ forming over Taiwan
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 ...
Read More »Biden sees little to entice Kim to stop ICBM tests
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 ...
Read More »Sanctions slow burn gives Putin more time to be defiant
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 ...
Read More »Linking Trump-Russia FBI tip to Clinton seems tough
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, ...
Read More »Partygate: Johnson avoids more fines as probe ends
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 ...
Read More »Ukraine is seeking evacuation of more Azovstal troops: Zelenskiy
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 ...
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