Politics

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 ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson revealed a controversial plan to send asylum seekers who cross the English Channel to Rwanda, a move the UK prime minister said will face significant legal hurdles as he tries to position his government on a flash-point political issue. Migrants who come to Britain on small boats risk being sent to the African state, Johnson said in ...

Bloomberg Sri Lanka needs between $3 billion to $4 billion this year to pull itself out of an unprecedented economic crisis and plans to start talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help, Finance Minister Ali Sabry said. The nation is looking at making a “decent case” before the IMF to help preserve the economy, he said in an ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden for the first time accused Russia of committing genocide in Ukraine, significantly escalating his condemnation of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. Speaking at an event in Iowa laying out steps to lower fuel costs that have surged during the war, Biden described Russia’s actions in the conflict as a “genocide.” He later stood by his comments, but ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s ruling party, the Social Democrats, have decided to support a Nato entry bid by June, newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported, citing party sources it didn’t identify. The Social Democrats led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson have long been a holdout in the debate on whether Sweden should join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato), officially opposing an entry and ...

  Bloomberg Switzerland is mirroring further trade and financial sanctions implemented by the European Union against Russia as the war in Ukraine continues. The latest sanctions, which include banning the import of coal and other products like vodka, as well as a ban on the participation of Russian companies in public procurement, was expected to come into effect from Wednesday. ...

  Bloomberg Aid has trickled into parts of Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region since federal and rebel forces declared a truce late last month after 17 months of fighting, but has only reached a tiny proportion of the millions of people who need it so far. The World Food Programme dispatched 20 trucks carrying food and other supplies to Tigray on ...

  Bloomberg Over the past few years, the US has accused China of using “debt diplomacy” to make developing nations across the world more dependent on Beijing. Yet the cases of Sri Lanka and Pakistan — both friends of China facing dire financial situations as inflation soars — show that President Xi Jinping’s government is becoming more reluctant to pull ...

  Bloomberg Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is ready to meet the protesters, who are holding rallies for the past five days and calling for the ouster of the government for its economic policies that have brought the county to the brink of a debt default. “Understanding that this is a tough time for all of us, I invite ...