Politics

Bloomberg The Taliban’s spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada made his first public appearance since 2016 at a famous Islamic seminary over the weekend, praising the militant group for sweeping to power as the US withdrew from Afghanistan. Akhundzada hasn’t been seen in public since he became the supreme leader of the Taliban about five years ago. After the Taliban took control ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron are heading for a full frontal collision in the next 48 hours that threatens to disrupt the United Nations’ climate summit. Macron’s government is on Tuesday set to introduce additional controls on goods moving across its border with the UK and block British fishing boats from unloading their catches ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s controversial president and climate skeptic, Jair Bolsonaro, cut a lonely figure at the Group of 20 summit. That is until Angela Merkel sidled up to him at dinner in Rome. The two had an unusually frank chat that morphed into a friendly and meaningful conversation between two leaders with different world views, according to two G-20 officials who ...

Bloomberg Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ruling party may be on track for its worst election result in 12 years, but is expected to stay in power with help from its junior coalition partner, according to exit polling by broadcaster NHK from Sunday’s election. The LDP alone is set to win 212-253 seats in the 465-seat body after the vote, ...

Bloomberg Georgia’s ruling party all but swept the board in second-round local elections that have been marred by violence and claims by the opposition that the vote was unfair. Only in one municipality did the ruling Georgian Dream party fail to beat the United National Movement, the Central Election Commission said on Sunday. In the battle for mayor of the ...

Bloomberg Taiwan has no future prospect other than unification with China, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Rome at the G-20 summit. Wang was responding to questions on efforts by countries including the United States to support Taiwan’s greater participation in the United Nations and in the international community, according to a statement posted on China’s foreign ministry website. ...

Bloomberg China’s President Xi Jinping urged Group of Twenty (G20) leaders to treat all Covid-19 vaccines equally as he pushed for greater mutual recognition of World Health Organization-approved shots. Addressing the summit via video link, Xi called on nations to back the World Trade Organisation making an early decision on whether to waive intellectual property rights for vaccines and encouraged ...

Bloomberg Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s performance rating plunged, according to the latest poll, with the pandemic continuing to challenge the country’s resilience. Net satisfaction with the president fell 10 points to 52% in the third quarter, according to Social Weather Stations. That compares with 62% in June 2021 and is the lowest since Duterte’s 45% rating in June 2018. While ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that France may already be violating the terms of the post-Brexit trade deal and hinted at retaliation if Paris refuses to back down in a dispute over fishing rights. “We are a bit worried that France may be about to become in breach, or is already in breach,” Johnson said to broadcasters at ...

Bloomberg Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators marched across cities in Sudan to protest the toppling of the joint civilian-military government by the army. Since the military removed the government led by Abdalla Hamdok as prime minister, doctors, oil workers, academics, bankers and others have staged protests. That’s thrown the North African nation’s democratic transition into chaos two years after ...