Politics

  Bloomberg Emmanuel Macron is hosting a dinner on Wednesday for the leaders of several West African countries in Paris, where he’ll discuss his pitch to shift the focus of European forces battling an insurgency from Mali to another nation. The French president will be joined by the leaders of Chad, Mauritania and Niger, according to an official in his ...

  Bloomberg Russia should continue talks with the US and its allies on its demands for security guarantees in Europe, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told President Vladimir Putin, suggesting the Kremlin will extend efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to surging tensions with the West. Putin said “all right” in response to Lavrov’s proposal, made in comments shown on state ...

Bloomberg A Russian court sentenced the leader of a hacking gang to 14 years in prison, RIA Novosti reported, bringing an end to a trial in which the man claimed to have helped the country’s security service to hack Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Konstanin Kozlovsky was convicted of organising a criminal ring and large-scale fraud after the Lurk gang stole ...

  Bloomberg Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah dug in after parliament picked a rival premier, vowing to lay out later this week a plan for holding delayed presidential elections in the war-torn Opec member. “The election train has set off,” Dbeibah said in a televised address. Lawmakers last week selected Fathi Bashagha, a former interior minister, as premier, saying ...

Bloomberg The US refusal to recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan, coupled with sanctions and frozen assets, could push the country into chaos and threaten Pakistan’s stability, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said. Khan said in an interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” that the current humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, caused in part by the abrupt cancellation of foreign aid ...

Bloomberg Spain’s ultraconservative Vox party is poised to enter a regional government for the first time, after record results in local elections on Sunday. Vox came third in the central Castilla y Leon region, more than tripling its share of the vote after winning 13 seats in the 81-strong assembly. The main opposition center-right People’s Party (PP) came first with ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a rare cabinet meeting and was expected to speak with provincial leaders over protests in Canada’s capital city that have entered their 18th day. The protests against Covid-19 vaccine mandates, which include hundreds of semi-trucks parked in the streets of Ottawa, swelled into the thousands over the weekend. But truckers were met with counter-protests ...

Bloomberg US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and foreign ministers from Japan and South Korea committed to work together to deter further Russian escalation along Ukraine’s border and condemned North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches. Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Chung Eui-yong stressed the “critical importance” of strong cooperation among their countries ...

  Bloomberg Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of the late Philippine dictator, widened his lead in a presidential preference survey conducted by pollster Pulse Asia Research Inc in January. Marcos, a former senator, was chosen by 60% of the 2,400 respondents, Pulse Asia said, higher than the 53% he garnered in December. Vice President Leni Robredo, the opposition leader, came second ...

  Bloomberg Tunisia’s president extended his power that has alarmed critics and international allies, giving himself the right to fire judges and setting up a temporary new judicial watchdog after slamming its predecessor. Kais Saied’s replacement of the Supreme Judicial Council, announced in a decree in the government gazette, came after he signalled changes to the institution that safeguards judicial ...