Politics

Bloomberg At a campaign stop outside a picturesque market town in Saxony, Armin Laschet was faced with a very delicate political dilemma for a German politician: what to put on his bratwurst. With cameras clicking, the faltering favourite to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor hesitated before picking ketchup, while a local ally from his Christian Democratic party subtly noted Saxony’s ...

Bloomberg North Korea threated a “security crisis” over US-led military drills, in what appeared to be a campaign to pressure South Korea’s pro-engagement president for greater support before he leaves office next year. Training exercises scheduled to start on Monday risk sinking a two-week-old deal between Seoul and Pyongyang to improve ties, said Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean ruling ...

Bloomberg Russia filed new charges against jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny using a law that has mostly been applied to cults, as the Kremlin moves to crush dissent ahead of parliamentary elections next month. Navalny and his allies are accused of creating “a non-profit organisation that infringes on the persons and rights of citizens,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a ...

Bloomberg A Chinese court jailed a Canadian tour organiser for 11 years for spying, while leaving room for his eventual deportation — a ruling that appeared timed to pressure Ottawa in extradition proceedings against a top Huawei Technologies Co. executive. Michael Spavor, who organised tours to North Korea, was sentenced after being found guilty of stealing and illegally providing state ...

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron rebuffed accusations that he’s handling the Covid-19 crisis in an authoritarian way on Wednesday and renewed his call for people to get vaccinated to beat the pandemic. “Never before in our history was a crisis of such magnitude fought in such a democratic way,” Macron said at the beginning of a virtual defense cabinet meeting ...

Bloomberg Afghanistan’s acting finance minister Khalid Payenda has resigned and left the country after the Taliban captured key customs posts bleeding the administration of revenue, reinforcing the government’s isolation as the extremists make swift gains. Payenda has “resigned and left the country because Afghanistan is grappling with declining revenues after the takeover of the custom posts,” Finance Ministry spokesman Mohammad ...

Bloomberg Afghan President Ashraf Ghani views peace talks with the Taliban as dead, and is looking to both arm civilians and cooperate with warlords to prevent the militant group from overrunning his administration in Kabul. Since the weekend the Taliban has captured the capitals of five northern provinces and one in the west, where they met little resistance from the ...

Bloomberg Peru’s new president is off to a rocky start, selecting contentious ministers, alienating allies and setting the stage for a brutal face-off with congress, all within days of taking office. A rural teacher and union activist, Pedro Castillo won the election after reassurances that he’s his own man, not beholden to his party’s Marxist ideology or chief. But when ...

Bloomberg Melissa DeRosa, the highest-ranking aide to Andrew Cuomo, resigned as the embattled New York governor contends with possible criminal charges over numerous harassment claims and a potential impeachment trial. DeRosa, who had remained one of Cuomo’s chief defenders throughout multiple scandals, said she would step down from her post as secretary to the governor after what she called a ...

Bloomberg Troops from Mozambique and Rwanda retook a port town at the heart of a four-year insurgency that led to the suspension of a $20 billion project by TotalEnergies SE. Soldiers from the two countries retook Mocimboa da Praia, which insurgents with ties to IS have held for a year, the Rwanda Defence Force said in Twitter post. The Mozambican ...