Politics

Bloomberg China has punished a slew of officials for failing to curb a Covid-19 outbreak that’s spawned nearly 900 symptomatic infections across the country in less than a month, a resurgence that complicates Beijing’s strategy of keeping the virus out entirely. The eastern Chinese city of Yangzhou issued warnings to five officials for mishandling mass testing that they said allowed ...

Bloomberg Australians’ approval of Prime Minister Scott Morrison has fallen to the lowest level since the pandemic began, with voters wearying of virus-induced lockdowns amid his government’s tardy vaccine rollout. Support for Morrison’s handling of the crisis has fallen from 85% in April last year —when his conservative government imposed strict border controls that helped keep virus fatalities to less ...

Bloomberg Two former US Marines imprisoned in Russia are likely to seek transfers to the US to serve their sentences, an early test of whether the Kremlin is ready to respond to President Joe Biden’s policy of re-engagement. Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years for spying last year, is expected to submit the request this month, according to ...

Bloomberg US military aircraft have been hitting ground targets in Afghanistan in an effort to protect allies, according to US Central Command, as the Taliban makes rapid advances in the void left by withdrawing American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops. “US forces have conducted several airstrikes in defense of our Afghan partners in recent days,” US Air Force Maj. ...

Bloomberg Support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party bloc declined in a poll that suggested momentum for the Social Democrats and their candidate, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. The weekly Insa poll hints at the challenge faced by Armin Laschet, the leader of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, who’s running to replace her after the September 26 federal election. Scholz is the ...

Bloomberg China called on the US to respect Chinese sovereignty and stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs, in a response to President Joe Biden’s move to offer some Hong Kong residents temporary safe haven. A memo signed by the US president August 5 showed gross interference in Hong Kong and China’s internal affairs, Hua Chunying, spokesperson for Chinese Foreign Ministry, ...

Bloomberg Leaders of the ruling African National Congress are debating whether South African Deputy President David Mabuza is medically fit to remain in office, the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times reported. The party’s National Working Committee discussed Mabuza’s prolonged absence once he returned to South Africa following treatment in Russia for an unspecified ailment, the newspaper reported.

Bloomberg USS Hershel “Woody” Williams, the first ship permanently assigned to Africa, arrived in Nigeria’s commercial capital city of Lagos as part the US government’s support to combat piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. “Ship visits like this one clearly demonstrate the US’s continued dedication to our partners in the Gulf of Guinea as they strive for security of their ...

Bloomberg President Jair Bolsonaro’s relentless attack on Brazil’s voting system soured his relationship with the Supreme Court, leaving the country on the brink of an institutional crisis. Top Justice Luiz Fux canceled plans for a meeting with Bolsonaro and the heads of congress that was intended to defuse rising tensions between them. The move came a day after the court ...

Bloomberg Two citizens of Myanmar were arrested in the US and charged with conspiring to injure or kill their nation’s ambassador to the United Nations, federal prosecutors in New York said in a statement. Phyo Hein Htut and Ye Hein Zaw are charged with plotting with a Thai arms dealer who sells weapons to Myanmar’s military government, which took over ...