Politics

Bloomberg US President Joe Biden tried to send Vladimir Putin an ultimatum about the consequences of any invasion of Ukraine in an hour-long conversation that left both sides at an impasse and Russia’s intentions unclear. Biden warned his counterpart in Moscow that Russia would face “severe costs.” For his part, the Russian leader accused the US of failing to provide ...

  Bloomberg Hong Kong will shorten the quarantine period for residents and staff of residential care homes for the elderly and those with disabilities because isolation beds will run out in days, the city’s welfare secretary said on his blog. The quarantine period for home-care residents and staff has been cut to seven days from two weeks if their test ...

  Bloomberg Frank-Walter Steinmeier was re-elected to a second five-year term in the mainly ceremonial post of German president. Steinmeier, 66, won the backing of about two-thirds of the Federal Assembly, a body convened solely for the purpose comprising all lawmakers from the lower house and representatives from the German states. He was supported by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition ...

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden was to issue an executive order to transfer shift the $7 billion in Afghan central bank assets frozen in the US so it can be used to compensate victims of the Sepember 11 terrorist attacks and support aid efforts in Afghanistan, a person familiar with the matter said. The order will direct US financial institutions ...

  Bloomberg US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “China has been acting more aggressively,” although he didn’t consider a conflict in the Indo-Pacific inevitable. Blinken spoke as a meeting of the Quad, a regional partnership that also includes Japan, India and Australia, got underway in Melbourne. “Nothing is inevitable,” Blinken said in response to a reporter’s question about ...

  Bloomberg The Taliban-appointed permanent representative to the United Nations says the new Afghan government is pressing the international body for recognition and a member’s seat as the lack of legitimacy hurts the country’s economy and diplomacy. “Why the world is not recognizing us when we have met their conditions,” Suhail Shaheen said in an interview from Doha, Qatar. He ...

  Bloomberg The European Union wants to establish a new crisis response system to defend against threats in space as well boost its capabilities to ward off hybrid and cyber attacks. By the end of the year, the EU will explore the possibility of activating “solidarity, mutual assistance, and crisis response mechanisms in case of attacks originating from space or ...

  Bloomberg Protesters against France’s Covid-19 vaccine passes began driving toward Paris on Friday to attempt to block the capital, inspired by “freedom convoys” that began in Canada. On Facebook and Telegram, people shared videos of cars setting off from across the country, including Strasbourg, in the east, Brittany, in the west, the region around Lille, in the north, and ...

  Bloomberg Russia and Belarus began their largest joint military drills in years Thursday, watched closely by the US and Europe amid tensions over neighboring Ukraine. Thousands of troops backed by tanks, fighter aircraft and advanced S-400 missile-defense systems are involved in the “Allied Resolve 2022” exercises in Belarus that run to February 20. They include drills near the border ...

  Bloomberg Lithuania’s top diplomat called on the world to stand up to China and Russia’s alleged human rights violations during a visit to Australia, while acknowledging there would be a “cost” to taking such actions. Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told the National Press Club in Canberra that countries need to cut their trade and energy dependency on what he ...