Politics

  Bloomberg South Korea’s government will grant a special pardon to former President Park Geun-hye, releasing her from prison after she spent nearly five years behind bars of a 22-year sentence for corruption. Park, a conservative and a prominent rival of the current leader, will be released on December 31, the Justice Ministry said. “From the perspective of the national ...

  Bloomberg Poland’s government rejected fresh allegations that it illegally hacked the mobile phone of a senior opposition lawmaker during the 2019 parliamentary election campaign, the latest spying scandal hitting the country’s nationalist leaders. The Associated Press reported that Senator Krzysztof Brejza’s mobile phone was hacked with sophisticated spyware when he was running the main opposition party’s campaign, citing internet ...

  Bloomberg Russia welcomed US willingness to start talks next month on its security proposals, a day after President Vladimir Putin threatened a military response if the Kremlin’s demands aren’t met. “We would like to hope that for the upcoming negotiations, which is already positive, our partners will come with clearly formulated positions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. The ...

  Bloomberg Libya’s election body proposed delaying the presidential vote by one month, calling on parliament to resolve disputes that have threatened the landmark ballot in the Opec nation. The High National Election Commission said the inadequacy of electoral legislation was a main obstacle to the vote taking place as scheduled. Its proposal to instead hold the first round of ...

  Bloomberg Former Philippine Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of the late dictator, led by a wide margin in a presidential preference survey conducted this month by pollster Pulse Asia Research. Marcos was chosen by 53% of the 2,400 respondents as their preferred successor to President Rodrigo Duterte, Pulse Asia said. Vice President Leni Robredo, the opposition leader, came a ...

  Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping told Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam the city is developing in a good direction, days after an election installed a legislature of Beijing loyalists in the Asian financial hub. Xi added that he fully recognised the work of her government, as the pair met in Beijing. Lam’s annual trip to brief China’s state leaders ...

  Bloomberg German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pushed through tighter social-distancing restrictions to stave off the threat of a “massive” surge of the omicron Covid-19 variant just as families gather for the Christmas holidays. The latest measures, which add to existing curbs that mainly affect the unvaccinated, include limiting gatherings to 10 people starting from December 28. The restrictions, which Scholz ...

  Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin threatened a military response to counter Nato expansion towards Russia’s border, while insisting he wasn’t issuing an ultimatum as he heaped blame on the US for rising tensions in Europe. The US and its allies “must understand that we have nowhere to retreat further” and Russia can’t allow them to deploy missiles in Ukraine that ...

  Bloomberg Ethiopian government forces have made major advances in their fight against Tigrayan dissidents after a 13-month conflict that’s triggered humanitarian and economic crises. Tigrayan leader Debretsion Gebremichael ordered a strategic retreat by his troops and urged the United Nations Security Council to oversee an end to the civil war. The move, which comes after the national army recaptured ...

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden will send 500 million free coronavirus tests to Americans’ homes beginning next month and dispatch the military to shore up overwhelmed hospitals as the US confronts a resurgent pandemic. Biden will announce new measures to try to curb the virus, the day after the CDC said the omicron variant first identified in southern Africa now ...