Politics

BLOOMBERG The UK is seeking to restart talks with the US for a trade deal, people familiar with the matter said, hoping to overcome President Joe Biden’s reluctance over agreements that are unpopular with key American voters. British officials are expected to privately lobby their American counterparts to reopen dialogue when Biden visits Northern Ireland on April 11, according to ...

BLOOMBERG India has confronted Myanmar in recent months with intelligence showing that China is providing assistance in building a surveillance post on a remote island in the Bay of Bengal, according to Indian officials with knowledge of the matter. Indian government representatives at various levels have shared satellite imagery with Myanmar counterparts that they said depicted Chinese workers helping to ...

OTTAWA / WAM Two people died and more than a million were without power after an ice storm hit Canada’s two most-populated provinces ahead of a holiday weekend, bringing freezing rain and strong winds that toppled trees and weighed down power lines, Reuters reported. Just under a million people did not have power in Quebec and about 110,000 in Ontario ...

BLOOMBERG French President Emmanuel Macron urged Xi Jinping to use his influence to help restore peace to Ukraine, saying the Chinese leader could bring all sides together to discuss a way to end the Russian invasion. “I know I can count on you to bring Russia back to reason and everybody to the negotiation table,” Macron told Xi during a ...

BLOOMBERG China accused India of kicking out journalists with its official news agency, and said it would have to take corresponding measures. India recently asked journalists from Xinhua News Agency to leave the country, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Thursday at a regular press briefing in Beijing. “The Chinese embassy and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs have ...

BLOOMBERG US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy emerged from a meeting with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen stressing the importance of the relationship between the two sides to economic freedom, peace and stability in the region. Neither leader mentioned China in their joint public remarks, even as the meeting in Southern California provided a new challenge in the already fraught relations between ...

BLOOMBERG Russian President Vladimir Putin said relations between the US and Russia are “experiencing a deep crisis,” as he sought to blame Washington for his invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. American encouragement of “colour revolutions” led to the war in Ukraine, Putin said at a Kremlin ceremony to receive the credentials of 17 new foreign ambassadors including US envoy Lynne Tracy ...

BLOOMBERG Finland selected Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd to provide an air-defense system that will plug a hole in the weaponry of Nato’s newest member at the cost of €316 million ($346 million). A neighbour to Russia with a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border, the Nordic country is currently missing high-altitude interception capability after decommissioning the BUK system acquired decades ago from ...

BLOOMBERG A Chinese surveillance ship that can track rocket and spacecraft launches was docked at the eastern port of Durban, less than two months after South Africa drew the ire of Western nations by holding naval exercises with China and Russia. The presence of the Yuan Wang 5, which is now heading west according to data compiled by Bloomberg, has ...

BLOOMBERG Finland became the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato), completing a tumultuous process of accession sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that upended the European security landscape. In a bittersweet moment, Finland gained Article 5 security guarantees and deterrence, but was forced to leave its close neighbour Sweden behind on the doorstep of the Nato. Foreign ...