Politics

  Bloomberg Premier Li Keqiang reiterated China’s support for cease-fire talks between Russia and Ukraine, while continuing to avoid criticizing the invasion ordered last month by President Vladimir Putin. “On Ukraine, indeed the current situation there is grave and China is deeply concerned and aggrieved,” Li said in response to a question at his annual news briefing at the end ...

  Bloomberg The number of Ukrainian refugees entering Poland rose to 1.52 million this morning, the Polish border guards reported on Twitter. Although Poland’s daily refugee inflow from Ukraine fell by 26%, 87,000 people crossed border with Ukraine on March 10. Yesterday, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski stated there were around 290,000 refugees in Poland’s largest city. According to UNHCR, the ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s government wants to boost defense spending to meet the target that the Nato defense alliance has set for its members, as the largest Nordic nation seeks to strengthen its ability to defend itself after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. The country, which currently spends about 1.3% of gross domestic product on its military, wants to reach the level of ...

  Bloomberg Ukrainian food conglomerate MHP SE built its business exporting grains and poultry to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. War forced a pivot, and now the company supplies the Ukrainian army and delivers ready-to-eat chicken to civilians in bombed-out cities. The shift shows how quickly Ukraine’s farming industry—a global heavyweight —flipped from feeding the world to feeding ...

Bloomberg Washington criticized China and Russia for promoting a conspiracy theory that the US military runs biolabs in Ukraine, escalating a dispute over attempts at misleading the public over the war in Europe. “We took note of Russia’s false claims about alleged US biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in ...

Bloomberg Poland is offering to send its MiG-29 fighter jets to an American base in Germany for Nato to decide what to do with them, as it grapples with public pressure from Ukraine to send in planes to help combat Russia’s air superiority. The government in Kyiv has repeatedly called for more fighter jets for its pilots, putting Poland in ...

Bloomberg A cut power cable leading to Ukraine’s defunct nuclear power plant in Chernobyl prompted officials on Wednesday to warn of potential safety risks. The 2,600 square kilometer (1,000 mile) Chernobyl exclusion zone, site of the deadly 1986 meltdown, also houses a nuclear-waste facility, where spent fuel from Ukraine’s reactors is encased for safe long-term storage. Operator Energoatom said the ...

Bloomberg Venezuela’s government released two political prisoners, days after it held a rare meeting with members of the administration of US President Joe Biden to discuss lifting oil sanctions. President Nicolas Maduro released Gustavo Cardenas, a US citizen and former executive from oil firm Citgo, according to his lawyer Diego Barboza. Cuban-American citizen Jorge Fernandez, arrested in February 2021, was ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s “high degree of autonomy” from China could last for 50 years after legally expiring in 2047, a top Beijing official said, despite China’s greatly expanded control over the financial hub in recent years. Xia Baolong, director of the mainland agency responsible for Hong Kong, made the comments Wednesday to delegates from the finance hub at China’s annual ...

  Bloomberg Kenya named Marjan Hussein Marjan as chief executive officer of its Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, barely five months before a general election. Marjan has been acting CEO at the agency since October 2017 when Kenya held a repeat poll after the initial count was nullified by the Supreme Court over irregularities. His task will be to boost ...