Politics

  Bloomberg Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists blamed each other for what they said was shelling in violation of a ceasefire in the Donbas region. Both Kyiv and Moscow expressed concern about the apparent uptick in violence. No deaths were reported and there was no immediate confirmation of the allegations. It wasn’t clear how much of an escalation they may represent ...

  Bloomberg France and its allies agreed to withdraw their forces from Mali after relations with the West African nation’s government deteriorated following a military coup. French, European and Canadian troops are planning a “coordinated withdrawal” from the country given “multiple obstructions by Mali’s transitional authorities,” the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement. “We can’t remain ...

  Bloomberg China is stepping up efforts to ease broad public anger over a mother of eight children who was found chained by the neck in a shack after local authorities were accused of downplaying the matter. The government of the eastern province of Jiangsu is forming a team to “find the truth, punish those who violated laws, hold those ...

  Bloomberg Hong Kong should consider postponing the city’s leadership election next month, a Chinese lawmaker said, in the most high-profile call yet for suspending the vote amid a surge in Covid cases. Tam Yiu-chung, Hong Kong’s sole representative member on China’s top legislative body, told a radio program that potential candidates might need to focus on containing the outbreak. ...

Bloomberg Taiwan believes Xi Jinping is too focused on a key party meeting to extend his tenure as China’s leader to take military action now, regardless of what happens between Russia and Ukraine, according to two senior officials involved in security issues in Taipei. The Taiwanese government has assessed the current risk of a Chinese attack to be low, even ...

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden directed the National Archives to release to Congress Donald Trump’s White House visitor logs for January 6, rejecting his predecessor’s claims that the logs are subject to executive privilege. “The president has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified, as ...

  Bloomberg Philippine boxer-turned-presidential candidate Manny Pacquiao said he will form a “peace panel” that will negotiate with Beijing on the South China Sea dispute if elected to the top post, while also deepening defense ties with the US. “Our goal is to be a friend to all nations,” Pacquiao said at a virtual forum. The senator said that while ...

  Bloomberg While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has downplayed the likelihood of a large-scale invasion as Russia masses troops near the border, he is targeting what he sees as another threat to his country’s sovereignty: oligarchs. The president in a national address slammed unidentified businesspeople for fleeing the country in the face of a US warning of a potential imminent ...

Bloomberg Russia announced the start of a pullback of some forces after drills that raised US and European alarm about a possible military assault on Ukraine. Markets rallied on news of the withdrawal as investors took the move as a sign of possible de-escalation by Russia amid a major diplomatic push following weeks of warnings from the US and Europe ...

Bloomberg The Taliban have sought talks with the US to reverse its decision to use the Afghan central bank’s reserves to compensate victims of the September 11 attacks and support aid efforts in the country, a spokesman for the group said. The group will use “every diplomatic approach” to push President Joe Biden to reverse his decision and release the ...