Politics

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, ...

  Bloomberg China’s most senior diplomat vowed to counter any perceived US efforts to disrupt a once-in-five-year Communist Party meeting at which President Xi Jinping is set to secure a precedent-breaking third term. Beijing should “resolutely respond to any words and deeds by Washington to suppress and contain China” before the 20th party congress later this year, Yang Jiechi wrote ...

Bloomberg Scotland is committed to rejoining Nato along with the European Union should it gain independence from the UK after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine heightened security risks, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said. In a speech in Washington, the Scottish National Party (SNP) leader said the war had made membership in the alliance more vital. She pointed to Scotland’s strategic position ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson’s government plans to introduce legislation within weeks to override parts of the Brexit deal it negotiated with the European Union, a move that’s likely to escalate tensions with the bloc and raise the prospect of a trade war. While the UK would prefer to reach a negotiated solution, the situation in Northern Ireland means Britain has to ...

  Bloomberg Group of Seven (G-7) finance ministers meeting in Bonn will discuss an aid package to support the immediate financial needs of Ukraine, according to government officials. While final figures have not yet been decided, the G-7 will probably consider a preliminary contribution of 5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) for the first month, said two people familiar with the ...

Bloomberg Kim Jong-un mobilised North Korea’s military to help fight one of the biggest crises he has faced in his decade as leader, as suspected Covid-19 cases reached nearly 1.5 million in less than a month. Pyongyang reported 269,510 new “fever cases” and six deaths nationwide in a 24-hour period, the state’s official Korean Central News Agency reported. Since late ...

Bloomberg Nato members rallied around Finland and Sweden after they announced plans to join the alliance, marking another dramatic change in Europe’s security architecture triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Parliaments in the Nordic nations debated the membership, with a large majority of lawmakers in each country now backing the bid. Over the weekend, most Nato foreign ministers who had ...

Bloomberg Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba ruled out potential concessions to Russia that could lead to a cease-fire in the war with Russia and said the European Union faces “moral failure” if it doesn’t approve the nation’s candidacy for membership by June. Kuleba declined to comment on whether French President Emmanuel Macron urged his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to accept ...

Bloomberg Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party lost a regional election for the second straight week, suffering a fresh blow amid wavering support for the German chancellor’s Ukraine policy. The Christian Democrats, the main opposition party at the national level, were projected to take 35.7% of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia, maintaining their hold over Germany’s most-populous state. In its former ...

  Bloomberg US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created a global crisis by exacerbating food security issues for the whole world. “The war is having an impact beyond Ukraine and it’s something that we’re very concerned about,” she said in Warsaw. “I’m afraid we really have a global crisis on our hands.” Wheat jumped by ...