Politics

Bloomberg The Taliban’s lightning-fast advance to control more territory in Afghanistan is raising alarms from Russia to China, as US President Joe Biden’s move to withdraw troops disrupts a balance of power in South Asia that has held steady for about two decades. At least 1,000 Afghan troops this week retreated into Tajikistan, prompting the country mobilise an extra 20,000 ...

Bloomberg China is making sizable, long-term investments in weapons designed to jam or destroy satellites as the nation seeks to rapidly narrow the gap in space technology with the US, according to the top intelligence official for the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific command. China is pushing to develop antisatellite weapons with capabilities from “dazzling to jamming, to kinetic kill-from-the-ground, from space — ...

Bloomberg Haiti requested help from US troops to stabilise the country after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise plunged the Caribbean nation into political uncertainty. Prime Minister Claude Joseph confirmed Haiti had requested assistance from the US military to protect infrastructure and prepare for elections in an interview with the Associated Press. Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and ...

Bloomberg Violent protests in South Africa linked to the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma forced the closure of a key trade route in the country after trucks were torched and roads blocked. Parts of the N3 Toll Route, linking the province’s Durban Harbour with the nation’s economic hub of Gauteng, remain shut after trucks were set alight on the ...

Bloomberg President Jair Bolsonaro said, without providing evidence, that Brazil’s highest electoral authorities stole votes in previous elections and will do it again in the 2022 presidential contest unless congress approves his proposal to reintroduce paper ballots. The allegations are the latest in a series of unsubstantiated vote-fraud claims made by the far-right leader. They come just as opinion polls ...

Bloomberg The US appointed a new top representative to Taiwan, in the Biden administration’s latest move to strengthen ties with Taipei amid increasing pressure from Beijing. Sandra Oudkirk is the incoming director of the American Institute in Taiwan’s Taipei office, the de facto US ambassador in the absence of official ties, succeeding Brent Christensen later this summer, the institute said ...

Bloomberg Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in a raid on his home by a group of unidentified people in the capital Port-Au-Prince, according to the nation’s interim prime minister Claude Joseph. First Lady Martine Moise was injured in the “barbaric” attack and is hospitalised, Joseph said in a statement, published by the nation’s embassy in Canada on Wednesday. Some ...

Bloomberg India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi overhauled his cabinet in a bid to repair his dented image as the nation emerges from its devastating Covid-19 outbreak ahead of key state elections. Fifteen cabinet ministers and several junior ministers were sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony in the colonial-era president’s palace in New Delhi on Wednesday. Ruling ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s interim Prime Minister Stefan Lofven won a narrow vote in parliament to form a new coalition government as he seeks to keep the far-right from gaining influence in the largest Nordic nation. Lofven, 63, resigned as prime minister just three weeks ago, following a no-confidence vote triggered by a plan to deregulate rental housing. The vote on Wednesday ...

Bloomberg Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has promoted two senior ministers into his cabinet as he seeks to win over a major coalition partner before the country’s suspended parliament reconvenes later this month. Muhyiddin appointed Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob as his deputy, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, while Foreign Minister Hishamuddin Hussein has been promoted ...