Politics

Bloomberg North Korea claimed it had successfully test launched a newly developed anti-aircraft missile a day after the country’s leader, Kim jong-un, called President Joe Biden’s North Korea policy a “petty trick” — escalating tensions with Washington. The test was of “very practical significance in studying and developing various prospective anti-aircraft missile systems,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) ...

Bloomberg Moments after Boris Johnson told Parliament he planned to break a key election pledge and raise taxes on British workers, a WhatsApp message popped up on the phones of Conservative MPs: “PM in the tearoom now.” Johnson’s charm is by far his strongest political asset and the prime minister put it to work, mug in hand, to calm his ...

Bloomberg Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he’s retiring from politics and won’t be seeking the vice presidency in 2022, a surprise move that saw his party’s nominee for the top position instead seek the No. 2 post. Duterte’s former aide and now Senator Christopher ‘Bong’ Go filed his candidacy for vice president. Go had been earlier nominated by the ruling ...

Bloomberg Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, detained as the country prepared for local elections, urged his supporters to get out and vote against the incumbent party. Saakashvili, who returned from eight years in exile in defiance of warnings he’d be prosecuted for alleged abuse of power, was moved to the Rustavi prison, near the capital, Tbilisi. The government has accused ...

Bloomberg French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian is expected to hold talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Paris next Tuesday, in a bid to improve ties after the recent diplomatic crisis between the two countries. The two ministers will hold in-depth talks “in o rder to identify the steps that could allow the restoration of ...

Bloomberg The top US military leaders pointed rare criticism at key decisions by Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden which they said undermined Afghanistan’s military and made it harder for American troops to remain as the nation’s government collapsed. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Trump’s 2020 peace deal with the Taliban had a ...

Bloomberg Myanmar’s Covid-19 outbreak has pushed more people into poverty, and the most vulnerable sections of the society may face “extreme deprivation” in the coming months, according to the UN World Food Program. “We’re concerned that the cumulative impact is putting pressure on the most vulnerable segments of society,” the food agency’s Country Director Stephen Anderson said in a Bloomberg ...

Bloomberg North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile just as its envoy was preparing to address the United Nations (UN), in a pointed gesture of defiance against international resolutions meant to prevent such launches. The projectile was fired from the northern province of Jagang around 6:40 am local time and landed in waters to the east, South Korea’s military said, without ...

Bloomberg Russian authorities said they’d opened another criminal case against jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny and his allies, this time alleging they created an illegal “extremist organisation.” If convicted, Navalny and his colleagues could face as much as a decade in prison. The probe is the latest in a rising tide of legal pressure prosecutors and investigators have put on ...

Bloomberg Top Pentagon officials will be pressed to explain whether they supported President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and why the US didn’t foresee the Afghan military’s collapse to Taliban forces, forcing a hasty American withdrawal. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and General Frank MacKenzie, head of US Central Command, are expected to ...