Bloomberg Belarus provided shelter for migrants in a logistics hub near the Polish border, offering temporary respite to an increasingly violent standoff on the European Union’s eastern frontier. More than 1,000 people spent the night in a Belarusian warehouse near the Kuznica border crossing, which witnessed the worst clashes since the crisis began, state-owned news agency Belta reported. The move ...
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Thailand rejects new attempt at ‘reforms’
Bloomberg Thailand’s parliament voted yet again to reject a charter overhaul proposed by pro-democracy activists seeking to eliminate the legacy of the 2014 army coup. This was the second time in about a year that the parliament, dominated by royalist lawmakers, pushed back against the rewriting of the military-drafted constitution that anti-government protesters have been pushing for the past 16 ...
Read More »Bosnia must get on EU accession path or risk split, says int’l envoy
Bloomberg Bosnia-Herzegovina must revive its bid to join the European Union to avert the possibility of the ethnically divided country being torn apart, the country’s top international envoy said. Among six EU hopefuls in the Western Balkans region, the country of 3.3 million is among the furthest from accession. The process has stalled since 2016 as its politicians bicker on ...
Read More »Biden charts path forward with Xi as Taiwan tensions simmer
Bloomberg With expectations low heading into the first face-to-face summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, they appeared to accomplish as much as politically possible: An agreement to keep on talking, without letting tensions over Taiwan and other disputes derail the US-China relationship. The virtual meeting lasted longer than expected, running for more than three hours as the leaders covered ...
Read More »China urges Germany’s next leader to build on Angela Merkel’s legacy
Bloomberg China urged Germany’s next government to continue outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s legacy to ensure the two countries work closely together, as prospective coalition partners in Berlin favor a tougher line towards the Asian giant. Zhang Ming, China’s ambassador to the European Union (EU), noted during a European Policy Center event on Tuesday that next year will mark the 50th ...
Read More »Explosions in Ugandan capital leave one dead
Bloomberg At least one person died when two explosions hit the Ugandan capital, the fourth blast in Kampala in the past month. The blasts occurred outside an office of insurer Jubilee Holdings Ltd and near the city’s central police station, the Daily Monitor reported, citing eyewitnesses. Images posted on the newspaper’s Twitter handle showed cars on fire outside the Jubilee ...
Read More »Belarus border crisis turns violent as leader speaks of détente
Bloomberg Poland used water cannon and tear gas to stop Belarus-backed migrants from crossing the European Union’s eastern frontier a day after the bloc approved new tools to punish those escalating the crisis. Under the threat of new sanctions and facing accusations of mounting a “hybrid attack†on the EU by ushering travellers to the border, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ...
Read More »Johnson: It’d be ‘legitimate’ to scrap part of Brexit deal
Bloomberg Boris Johnson said it would be “perfectly legitimate†for the UK to suspend part of the Brexit deal with the European Union (EU), though his government still wants to negotiate a solution to their escalating trade spat. The UK is demanding a major overhaul of the divorce agreement it signed with the bloc, arguing that its implementation is causing ...
Read More »US, China seek to stabilise ties with Biden-Xi summit
Bloomberg US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have plenty to discuss during their first virtual summit — from sanctions to Taiwan — even as expectations for a breakthrough on major issues are low. A Biden administration official said the US expects the virtual summit in Washington to last several hours, a time frame that includes translation for ...
Read More »Nato chief alarmed by Russian troop buildup near Ukraine border
Bloomberg The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) military alliance urged Russia to prevent any escalation in the wake of its build-up of forces near the border with Ukraine. “What we see is a significant, large Russian military build-up, we see an unusual concentration of troops and we know Russia has been willing to use these types of ...
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