Politics

Bloomberg Malaysian cabinet ministers on Wednesday unanimously pledged support for Muhyiddin Yassin to continue as the nation’s prime minister. The backing comes a week after the United Malays National Organisation, the largest party in the ruling coalition, retracted support for Muhyiddin and demanded he step down for failing to control the worsening Covid-19 situation, calling for a new leader to ...

Bloomberg Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said heavily-armed security officers penetrated his apartment building, threatening him with arrest, and detained Freddy Guevara, a top lieutenant, in a separate operation. Surrounded by neighbours who came to support him, Guaido said the men coming for him had set off an explosive. He reported no injury. Those who took Guevara pointed long weapons ...

Bloomberg The US State Department cited the Chinese government’s crackdown on ethnic Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region as one of six places in the world that are witnessing or are at risk of atrocities and crimes against humanity, as the US explores new ways to try to prevent such violence. “The crimes against humanity include imprisonment, torture, enforced sterilisation and ...

Bloomberg Japan for the first time referred to the importance of stability around Taiwan in its annual defense report, ratcheting up its concerns over the island that has been a flashpoint in tensions between China and the US The wording in the “Defense of Japan” white paper released on Tuesday increased friction between the two biggest economies in Asia. A ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s Covid-19 vaccination program has been partially halted as violent protests following the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma rage in two key provinces. State-administered inoculations have been suspended in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng, the economic hub, said Nicholas Crisp, a consultant to the National Health Department who is helping oversee the program. “We are clearly not ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a rebellion in Parliament from his own Conservatives to force his government to abandon plans to slash its foreign aid budget by about $5.6 billion. Though he enjoys a significant majority in the House of Commons, there are some Tory members of Parliament who believe they have the numbers to defeat Johnson and ...

Bloomberg Violent protests in South Africa linked to the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma have spread to the nation’s economic hub in Johannesburg with another major road shuttered. That follows the closure of a key trade route in the country’s KwaZulu-Natal Province after trucks were torched before the weekend. Parts of the N3 Toll Route, which links the port ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden’s administration doesn’t currently plan to send military assistance to Haiti despite a request by the government for US troops following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, a senior administration official said. Moise’s assassination has further destabilised the already fragile political structure in Haiti, where gang violence, natural disasters and the coronavirus have all taken their toll ...

Bloomberg A late-night talk-show host and performer of the Balkan analog of gangster rap is itching to end the run of one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders in a Bulgarian election do-over. Stanislav Trifonov, a pop-folk singer known as “Slavi,” has been railing against inequality and corruption even before Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007. He’s tapping into discontent among ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc widened its lead in a weekly poll ahead of Germany’s election as support for the Green party fell for a third consecutive week. With Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc steady at 28% in the Insa poll, the opposition Greens declined 1 percentage point to 17%, leaving them level with the Social Democrats, Merkel’s junior coalition ...