Politics

BLOOMBERG Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the US will gain expanded access to military sites in northern Philippines close to Taiwan, as well as in Palawan province near South China Sea, paving the way for greater American presence in key locations as tensions with Beijing linger. Marcos said at a televised briefing that the four additional sites under the ...

BLOOMBERG Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited frontline positions near the besieged city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, a focus of fierce battles with the Russian army in recent months, and was briefed about the situation on the ground. Zelenskiy earlier condemned what he called “murderous” Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight using drones, as well as fresh missile attacks ...

BLOOMBERG Turkey’s biggest non-aligned political party said it won’t field its own candidate in May’s presidential elections, in a boost to the main opposition coalition’s chances of unseating Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and five allied left-wing groups will campaign against Erdogan’s “one-man rule,” Co-Chair Pervin Buldan said. While she didn’t explicitly endorse main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, ...

BLOOMBERG South Korea plans to hold its “largest-ever” live-fire drills with the US in a move certain to anger North Korea, which has ramped up its provocations to new levels in response to recent military exercises. The joint drills, which will involve mobilising high-tech military equipment, are planned for June as part of a program to mark the 70th anniversary ...

BLOOMBERG Ethiopian lawmakers agreed to remove the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s (TPLF) designation as a terrorist group, following a ceasefire signed four months ago to end a two-year civil war. The parliament approved the resolution on the basis of the November 2, 2022 peace agreement, state-controlled Fana Broadcasting Corp has reported. The TPLF and the Oromo Liberation Army were declared terrorist ...

BLOOMBERG Chinese President Xi Jinping touted close ties with Russia on the second day of his state visit to Moscow on Tuesday, inviting Vladimir Putin to make a return visit later this year. “It fits the historical logic that Chinese leaders take Russia as a primary choice for their overseas visits,” Xi said, adding that China and Russia are each ...

BLOOMBERG Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida travelled to Ukraine for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, becoming the final Group of Seven leader to visit the nation since Russia launched its invasion over a year ago. Kishida was greeted by Ukrainian officials on arrival in Kyiv on Tuesday. The Japanese premier will make clear his support for Ukraine during the visit, ...

BLOOMBERG The French government survived two no-confidence motions late Monday to enable the immediate adoption of President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension reform bill without holding a full vote in parliament. In a tighter than expected count, the first motion got 278 votes, only nine short of the 287 needed to topple Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. The second got 94. “We ...

BLOOMBERG Hard-line Brexiteers in Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party said parts of the UK prime minister’s new Brexit deal are “practically useless,” while reserving judgment on whether they’ll rebel in a vote on Wednesday. EU law will remain supreme in Northern Ireland, new trading arrangements won’t work as billed by Sunak and a proposed veto mechanism for the application of new ...

BLOOMBERG Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow on Monday for talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin including on Beijing’s proposals to end the war in Ukraine. “During the visit, I look forward to exchanging in-depth views with President Putin on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues of common concern, so as to draw a blueprint for China-Russia ...