Politics

Bloomberg President Joe Biden will host leaders of ASEAN countries on May 12-13 in Washington, signaling US efforts to engage with the group in the competition with China for regional influence. A White House statement announcing the special summit with the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations said the US administration shares a “commitment to advance an Indo-Pacific that is ...

Bloomberg The UK government’s push to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda may not deter enough migrants to make the effort cost effective, the Home Office official charged with assessing the plan said. Migrants who cross the English Channel on small boats risk being relocated to the African state with a one-way ticket, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in presenting ...

Bloomberg A group of senior US senators delivered a message of support for Taiwan during a visit, a move that China answered with a display of military force. Members of the delegation, including Republican Lindsey Graham, told Beijing that the US will start making China account for bullying Taiwan and supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “Here is ...

  Bloomberg Three Russian government officials were charged with conspiring to affect US policy towards Russia with staged events and propaganda — including efforts to influence members of Congress. An indictment against Aleksandr Babakov, deputy chairman of the state duma, Russia’s lower legislative body, and two members of his staff was unsealed in Manhattan federal court. Babakov, Aleksandr Vorobev and ...

  Bloomberg Frank James, the man arrested on federal terrorism charges for allegedly opening fire in a packed New York subway car, was ordered held without bail after prosecutors argued he posed a “serious and ongoing danger to the community.” Ten people were shot and 13 others injured during the melee that erupted after the rush hour assault in Brooklyn. ...

Bloomberg North Korea celebrated the 110th birthday of its deceased state founder, while a US aircraft carrier group was in waters east of the peninsula with Pyongyang poised for provocations that could include its first nuclear test since 2017. Festivities that included dance celebrations, music and fireworks commenced in Pyongyang, state TV said, as part of the celebrations for the ...

  Bloomberg Police detained Vietnam Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister To Anh Dung as part of an investigation into bribery accusations while he organised repatriation flights for Vietnamese abroad during the pandemic, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on its website. A former officer of the public security ministry’s immigration department and an officer at the health ministry ...

Bloomberg As Russian forces shift their military focus to the east, some Ukrainians who fled their homes early in the invasion are venturing back to see what’s left of their lives and whether they can start to rebuild. Daryna Tarasenko, a 27-year-old portrait photographer who abandoned her Kyiv apartment on the day of the February 24 attack, returned last week ...

Bloomberg Russia threatened to deploy nuclear weapons in and around the Baltic Sea region if Finland and Sweden join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) as tensions fuelled by President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine spread. “In this case, there can be no talk of non-nuclear status for the Baltic,” Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chief of Russia’s Security Council and former ...

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron has become the latest leader to warn a major Russian assault in eastern Ukraine is imminent. If that’s the plan, its troops risk repeating at least some of the mistakes made in trying to take the capital, Kyiv. According to European and Nato diplomats familiar with the matter, Ukraine’s allies see a two-week window to ...