Politics

Bloomberg A triumphant President Joe Biden all but announced an end to the pandemic in the US, celebrating what he called a “heroic” vaccination campaign on the country’s Independence Day holiday. Speaking at a party on the White House’s South Lawn with more than 1,000 people in attendance, Biden declared that the US had achieved “independence” from the coronavirus, though ...

Bloomberg Former South African President Jacob Zuma, who is facing a 15-month jail sentence for contempt, accused the nation’s top court of unfairly convicting him, and said he feared that judicial system was being compromised. “I’m very concerned that South Africa is fast sliding back to apartheid-type rule. I am facing a long detention without trial,” Zuma told reporters at ...

Bloomberg Poland’s highest-ranking European official ever returned to domestic politics with guns blazing, branding the ruling party’s euroskeptic policies as a gift for Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Donald Tusk, who served as president of the European Council until 2019, took the reins of the country’s biggest opposition party, Civic Platform, at the weekend after nearly seven years in Brussels. He’s ...

Bloomberg The leader of Sweden’s Social Democrats, Stefan Lofven, will seek to form a new government via a parliamentary vote after enough parties promised not to block his comeback attempt. The 63-year old former union boss, who was forced to resign as prime minister after losing a confidence vote last month, said he has now secured sufficient agreement among lawmakers ...

Bloomberg Leading European diplomats in Beijing stressed their commitment to human rights and appealed to China for mutual respect and understanding following a defiant speech from Foreign Minister Wang Yi. References to human rights are “foundational matters” and not a geopolitical game, Caroline Wilson, the UK’s ambassador to China, said on a panel discussion on Sunday. China’s attitude is not ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden traveled to Michigan to underscore US progress in fighting Covid-19, part of a slate of Fourth of July weekend events by the administration to signal a return to pre-pandemic life. Biden picked a battleground state where he beat Donald Trump by 3 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election and where Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has ...

Bloomberg The agreement on the Irish border struck as part of the UK’s exit from the European Union risks damaging Northern Ireland’s economy and should be withdrawn, Jeffrey Donaldson said in his first television interview since becoming head of the Democratic Unionist Party last month. Under the terms of the Brexit accord, Northern Ireland — unlike the rest of the ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political opponents stepped up their demands for a probe into India’s purchase of Rafale combat jets after France reportedly launched a judicial investigation into allegations of corruption in the deal. The Indian National Congress party on Sunday called for an investigation into the allegations, including changes in the terms of the contract for the 2016 ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s national security police took over the investigation into the stabbing of a policeman and cautioned citizens from mourning the attacker’s death, calling the incident a domestic terrorist attack on the 24th anniversary of the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule. The National Security Department, which investigates offenses that endanger national security, is now probing the July ...

Bloomberg China’s foreign minister expounded Beijing’s increasingly defiant stance on the international stage, taking several swipes at the US and underscoring much of the sentiment from last week’s centennial celebrations speech by President Xi Jinping. In a sweeping speech that touched on topics from the global pandemic to counterterrorism, North Korea to the Iran nuclear issue and Taiwan, Foreign Minister ...