Politics

  Bloomberg US President Joe Biden said the controversial Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany would be stopped if President Vladimir Putin orders an invasion of Ukraine. “We will bring an end to it,” Biden said at a joint news conference at the White House with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a short answer to a ...

  Bloomberg The UK government ruled out the prospect of an early election in Northern Ireland, saying it will be held on May 5 as planned. “It’s right” to allow lawmakers “time and space to pass legislation,” Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis told reporters in London. “I’ll be working to support the parties to do that and then we can ...

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comment that opposition parties were responsible for a migrant worker exodus from India’s cities during a stringent Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 has led to a Twitter spat between two state chief ministers ahead of a slew of local elections. Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, blamed the ...

  Bloomberg A Hong Kong court upheld the conviction of an American lawyer handed a jail term over a scuffle with a plainclothes cop, in a case that fueled international debate over police tactics in the city. High Court Judge Esther Toh said she found “no merit at all in any of the grounds of appeal against conviction,” in a ...

  Bloomberg A convoy of cars and campervans blocked streets around New Zealand’s parliament in Wellington on Tuesday to protest Covid-19 restrictions, attempting to mimic the truckers who have gridlocked the Canadian city of Ottawa. About 2,000 protesters descended on downtown Wellington from around the country, parking their vehicles in streets around parliament buildings, disrupting traffic and holding speeches on ...

  Bloomberg Boris Johnson promised his Conservative Party an overhaul of his top team as he strives to keep his job after a series of gaffes and scandals. Two rapid appointments over the weekend may already be too late. Reeling from the resignation of five aides in 24 hours last week, the UK prime minister moved quickly to fill key ...

  Bloomberg The US and its allies need to push back harder against China after they “acquiesced and allowed” Beijing to expand its footprint in the South China Sea over the past decade, Australia’s Defense Minister Peter Dutton said. “If we continue on that trajectory, then I think we’ll lose the next decade,” Dutton said in an interview with the ...

  Bloomberg Senator Joe Manchin predicted passage for a bill to address US election procedures including Congress’s role in certifying an election. “I think absolutely it’ll pass,” Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said during a joint appearance with Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Will it be a step ahead? Will it be important ...

  Bloomberg Canada’s capital city declared a state of emergency as police struggled to rein in protests against vaccine mandates and Covid-19 restrictions. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who declared the emergency, said that increasingly rowdy demonstrations posed a “serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents.” Hundreds of trucks continue to occupy the downtown area near Canada’s ...

  Bloomberg South African President Cyril Ramaphosa may impose limits on the types of jobs that foreigners can apply for, Business Day reported, without saying where it got the information. The South African cabinet is considering the proposal that was discussed at recent talks between the ruling African National Congress and its alliance partners, the South African Communist Party and ...