Politics

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing growing criticism over his party’s conduct, as a former Conservative prime minister and opposition members speak out against him following a lobbying scandal. Johnson is “trashing the reputation of our democracy,” opposition leader Keir Starmer said in a BBC interview, after the prime minister outlined plans to overhaul rules on politicians’ behavior ...

Bloomberg North Korea conducted an artillery fire drill that could target its rival Korea’s heavily populated capital, after Washington and Seoul kicked off joint military aerial exercises despite Pyongyang’s rebuke. North Korea’s mechanised troops held an “artillery fire competition” to boost the country’s “mobile artillery combat capabilities,” state-run Korean Central News Agency said on Sunday. The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, ...

Bloomberg PM Jacinda Ardern said there is a “maturity” in New Zealand’s relationship with China, its biggest trading partner, which her government believes enables it to raise issues of concern, amid simmering tensions between Beijing and the West. “New Zealand has always been very consistent in saying regardless of that economic relationship, we do still believe that we have the ...

Bloomberg Thousands of opposition protesters in Georgia rallied outside the prison holding former president Mikheil Saakashvili, on a hunger strike for more than a month. They demanded he be moved to a hospital. The activists set up tents and makeshift huts outside the prison, vowing to continue rallies until their demand for his move, within 24 hours, was met. Saakashvili, ...

Bloomberg As the world’s powers wrestle over the future of the planet in Glasgow, another politically fractious issue will play out on the sidelines of the COP26 summit — Taiwan’s exclusion from international organisations. Two weeks after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for Taiwan to have a greater role at the United Nations, a delegation from Taipei, led ...

Bloomberg The recent coup in Sudan puts into question a July Paris Club agreement to rework $23.5 billion of Sudan’s debt, France’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “It is obvious that the October 25 military coup puts the process into question,” the ministry said. Debt cancellation was part of France’s support to democratic transition, it said. The US already ...

Bloomberg The woman most likely to become Sweden’s next prime minister began her tenure as leader of the ruling party by taking a dig at Wall Street bankers. In her first speech to the Social Democratic Party after her election, Magdalena Andersson recalled encounters with “grinning bankers” who said her country’s welfare model was doomed after Sweden’s financial crisis in ...

Bloomberg US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s struggle to deliver on President Joe Biden’s two biggest policy priorities has illustrated the distrust and divisions within her party at a time Democrats desperately want to show they can govern. Democrats eked out a victory on a $550 billion public works bill after months of wrangling between moderates and progressives. As soon as ...

Bloomberg Chile’s conservative candidate Jose Antonio Kast would beat both of main leftist contenders in a presidential runoff, according to one of the final polls released ahead of the highly-contested election. Kast got 44% of support while leftist rival Gabriel Boric got 40% in a second-round vote, according to a survey by Cadem. Kast would also edge out Yasna Provoste ...

Bloomberg The Taliban government has banned the use of foreign currencies in Afghanistan in a surprise move that could weigh on an economy struggling with a cash crunch and further isolate the country. The move came as the Taliban were pushing for the release of billions of dollars of reserves overseas, which was frozen by the US and its Western ...