Politics

Bloomberg A UK frigate sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the first such passage by a British naval vessel since late 2019, as a group of nations led by Washington pushes back at Beijing’s military assertiveness. The HMS Richmond transited the narrow body of water separating China from Taiwan on Monday on its way to Vietnam, according to the vessel’s Twitter ...

Bloomberg The Biden administration is considering a US-led competitor for China’s Belt and Road international trade and public works program, and a top White House official will scout Latin America next week for possible projects. Daleep Singh, the US deputy national security adviser for international economics, is traveling to Colombia, Ecuador and Panama to talk with high-level officials, business leaders ...

Bloomberg Olaf Scholz of the center-left Social Democrats appealed to potential partners to join him in a new German government as soon as possible as his conservative opponent’s rival claim on the chancellery ran into the sand. At party headquarters in Berlin on Monday, Scholz appealed to the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats to back a three-way coalition following ...

Bloomberg Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski wants to extend a state of emergency along the country’s eastern border for another 60 days, to help deal with a surge in arrivals of undocumented migrants from Belarus. Kaminski said on Monday that some migrants apprehended near the border could pose a threat to national security after evidence of links to terrorist and ...

Bloomberg For the winner of a party leadership vote this week to pick Japan’s third pandemic-era prime minister, a heavy lift awaits on economy. Getting the country past the virus will be job No. 1, requiring a road map for reopening after the latest virus emergency ends, reportedly this week, and more stimulus to woo voters before national elections this ...

Bloomberg Nato-led international peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (KFOR) boosted number and duration of routine patrols amid increased tensions with neighbouring Serbia, Gazeta newspaper reported. “KFOR is closely monitoring situation throughout Kosovo and remains focused on the day-to-day implementation of its mandate,” KFOR said in a statement to Gazeta on Monday. Tensions started last week when Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden and the leaders of Australia, India, and Japan made a show of unity against China, meeting together at the White House in a first-ever summit to discuss initiatives to counter Beijing’s influence across the Pacific. The group is “coming together to take on key challenges of our age, from Covid to climate to emerging technologies,” Biden ...

Bloomberg China’s rapidly growing military influence and unilateral changing of the status quo could present a risk to Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in an interview with Bloomberg, ahead of the first Quad summit. “The changing power balance brought by the rise of China in the Indo-Pacific, along with the increasing inward focus spurred by the pandemic have increased ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told France it’s time to get over its anger about being brushed aside as the US and Britain cut a deal to supply Australia with nuclear submarines. He made the comments in a pooled television clip in Washington on Wednesday following a meeting with US President Joe Biden the previous evening. France certainly did ...

Bloomberg A car carrying a close aide of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was shot at in Kyiv in an apparent attempt to murder an official at the heart of a crackdown on the country’s biggest businessmen. While the adviser, 57-year-old Serhiy Shefir, escaped unscathed, his driver was wounded in Wednesday’s incident, according to a police statement. Prosecutors said 18 bullets ...