Politics

  Bloomberg North Korea appears to have launched its first ballistic missile in about two months, after leader Kim Jong-un indicated he was more interested in bolstering his arsenal than returning to stalled nuclear talks with the US. North Korea fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile from land into waters off its east coast Wednesday, South Korea’s military ...

  Bloomberg Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accepted the government’s resignation on Wednesday after increases in fuel prices led to clashes between protesters and police in central Asia’s largest energy producer. The unrest intensified even after Tokayev declared a state of emergency in and around the country’s largest city, Almaty, and the oil-rich Mangystau region. The declaration allows him to impose ...

  Bloomberg Australia and Japan will sign a “historic” treaty that will further strengthen defense and security cooperation during a virtual leaders’ summit on Thursday, in a move that could further inflame tensions with China. The agreement is the first of its type for Japan, other than with the US and the UN, and marks a step closer in a ...

  Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Beijing Winter Olympics venues a month before the games begin amid a worsening Covid-19 outbreak and diplomatic tensions with Western nations over human rights. He toured the National Speed Skating Oval, athletes’ village, and operations and media centers, according to state-run China Daily. Xi told event organizers that the Olympics would be considered ...

  Bloomberg The US Treasury sanctioned Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and his associated media outlet for engaging in destabilizing and corrupt activities that threaten to tear Bosnia-Herzegovina apart. “Dodik has undermined BiH institutions by calling for the seizure of state competencies and setting in motion the creation of parallel institutions in BiH’s Republika Srpska entity,” the Treasury said in ...

  Bloomberg Beijing is calling on the world’s nuclear powers to expand discussions on global security to include emerging threats, following a rare multilateral pledge to temper the risks of nuclear war. Fu Cong, director-general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Arms Control Department, told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday that the so-called P5 nations — China, France, Russia, the US ...

  Bloomberg Sudan’s army is incapable of running the impoverished country and new leaders are needed to stem further unrest, the United Nations special envoy said, after the prime minister’s Sunday resignation once again left the military in sole charge. The generals, who launched a coup in October before restoring Premier Abdalla Hamdok to office the following month, are unable ...

  Bloomberg Former President Donald Trump’s two eldest children have been subpoenaed by New York authorities probing whether his real-estate business manipulated the value of key assets for tax and insurance purposes. Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., longtime business associates of their father, filed a joint motion in New York state court to block the subpoenas, accusing New York ...

  Bloomberg Venezuelan opposition political parties extended Juan Guaido’s mandate as the country’s interim president, but in a more limited capacity that deals a blow to the US-backed effort to confront President Nicolas Maduro. The opposition’s legislative body, following up on December 27’s preliminary approval, voted to amend a governing statute in order to extend its own term for another ...

  Bloomberg The medical team treating Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro has ruled out the need for surgery for now as the president’s condition improved after a day of clinical treatment. The Vila Nova Star Hospital, where the president was admitted in the early hours of Monday after feeling abdominal pain, said in a statement Tuesday morning that Bolsonaro’s intestinal obstruction “disappeared” ...