Politics

Bloomberg The Taliban said international flights from Afghanistan will resume shortly as Qatar and Turkey help restart operations at Kabul airport and the group has complete control over the country with the last pocket of resistance in the north now defeated. “Domestic flights have already started and we’re waiting to hear when we can start overseas flights,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah ...

Bloomberg Former Foreign Minister Taro Kono’s expected run to succeed outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga may get a boost as one of his most popular rivals for the post plans to step aside, TV Asahi said. Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, 64, won’t run for leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and is instead considering throwing his support behind ...

Bloomberg President Jair Bolsonaro has urged Brazilians to come out in force on Tuesday to show their support for his government. It’s shaping up to be an all-or-nothing gauge of his chances of re-election that has Brazil bracing for potential clashes. Brazil’s banking and industry groups have issued calls for calm, as Supreme Court Justice Ricardo Lewandowski wrote a newspaper ...

Bloomberg The Taliban and other Afghan leaders have reached a “consensus” on the formation of a new government and cabinet under the leadership of the group’s top spiritual leader, an official said. Taliban supreme commander Haibatullah Akhundzada will be the top leader of any governing council, Bilal Karimi, a member of the group’s cultural commission said on Wednesday. Mullah Abdul ...

Bloomberg Serbia is becoming less enthusiastic about the process of joining the European Union as the procedure drags on and its citizens don’t see progress, President Aleksandar Vucic said. Vucic, Serbia’s most powerful politician since the nation started accession talks in 2014, has repeatedly complained that EU leaders haven’t given his country and five other Balkan membership aspirants a timetable ...

Bloomberg Malaysia is studying if it’s necessary to give booster Covid-19 vaccine shots, as the country grapples with the fast-spreading delta variant. An expert committee has been set up to assess the need for a third shot and is expected to give its recommendation by month-end, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. The priority now is to focus on people who haven’t ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s finance minister Magdalena Andersson, the favourite to replace outgoing premier Stefan Lofven, has rebuffed a plan to increase spending from the left wing of her party. The faction within the Social Democrats called for a new fiscal policy framework, saying the current rules are “a straitjacket” that hurts the economy by blocking investments. But in an interview with ...

Bloomberg The US officially ended its military presence in Afghanistan on Tuesday with the final flight out of Kabul, concluding two decades of American involvement touched off by the September 11 terrorist attacks. “I’m here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the military mission to evacuate American citizens, third-country nationals and vulnerable Afghans,” ...

Bloomberg Japan’s Defense Ministry is seeking a record $50 billion annual budget that would entail the largest percentage jump in spending in eight years as it seeks to bolster its capabilities amid simmering tensions with China. If granted in full, the 5.5 trillion yen budget request for the year starting in April would amount to a 2.6% increase on the ...

Bloomberg Angela Merkel took direct aim at efforts by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz to assume her mantle to help topple her conservative bloc in the September 26 election. Scholz, who has engineered an unlikely poll surge for his Social Democratic party to become the favorite for chancellor, has conducted an unsubtle campaign to project himself as the rightful successor of ...