Politics

  Bloomberg Boris Johnson is being squeezed from both sides of the argument over how to tackle a “staggering” surge in Covid-19 omicron infections — and that could have dangerous implications for the UK. The prime minister suffered the biggest Conservative rebellion of his tenure, as 100 members of Parliament opposed his strategy for clamping down on the new coronavirus ...

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Mark Rutte reached a coalition deal nearly nine months after the Dutch general election, marking the longest negotiations in the nation’s history. Rutte, who is expected to be named prime minister once again, presented the agreement between his Liberal party and three partners in the hall of the Dutch parliament building in The Hague. “It took ...

  Bloomberg US Secretary of State Antony Blinken scrapped the rest of his tour of Southeast Asia and will return to Washington after a member of the press travelling with him tested positive for Covid-19, State Department spokesman Ned Price said. Blinken and other senior staff have tested negative for Covid, Price said, and the person who tested positive didn’t ...

  Bloomberg Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticised China’s “aggressive actions” in Asia while laying out plans to more closely integrate US allies and security partners in Asia. During a key policy speech in Jakarta, Blinken underscored US efforts to deliver high-quality infrastructure and vaccines to the region while working closer on security issues. He said the Biden administration doesn’t ...

  Bloomberg Exiled opposition leader of Belarus Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya vowed to continue her campaign against authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko after a court in the country jailed her husband for 18 years. “The dictator publicly takes revenge on his strongest opponents,” Tsikhanouskaya said on Twitter, following the conviction of Siarhei Tskihanouski at a closed trial in a Belarus prison. “We won’t ...

  Bloomberg The European Union (EU) agreed to broaden accession talks with Serbia, the largest of the six Balkan countries aspiring to join the bloc, reviving a process that had shown little progress for two years. None of the Balkan aspirants are expected to join the bloc before 2025 at the earliest, as enlargement fatigue and a decade of crises ...

  Bloomberg Voters in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland see themselves united as one country in the next 10 years, according to polls conducted on both sides of the border. South of the border, 62% of people favour Irish unity, though the majority view it as a long-term project rather than an immediate priority, according to a ...

  Bloomberg South Africa jettisoned a plan that would have forced about 200,000 Zimbabweans to return home, to the satisfaction of critics who said it would have caused a humanitarian crisis. The Department of Home Affairs gave no reason for withdrawing its directive to end the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit. The cabinet’s decision to end the permits drew a chorus of ...

  Bloomberg The son of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top domestic policy adviser was appointed the head of the country’s biggest social network after Gazprom PJSC-linked companies bought a controlling interest in it. Vladimir Kirienko, 38, who was previously a first vice-president at state-owned Rostelecom, has been named chief executive officer at VK, the company said in a statement. He ...

  Bloomberg The Economic Community of West African States threatened over the weekend to impose new sanctions on Mali to compel the country’s military leaders to set a timetable for February 27 elections that would restore democratic rule. Ecowas, as the regional economic bloc is known, is considering “economic and financial sanctions” from January 1, according to a statement issued ...