Politics

Bloomberg Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven lost a confidence vote in parliament, toppling his minority coalition and plunging the largest Nordic economy into political chaos. Lofven says he’ll now talk to his allies in parliament to figure out whether he can still patch together a viable coalition. Failing that, he may call a snap election, he said after losing Monday’s ...

Bloomberg President Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen both fared worse than expected in the first round of the French regional election, in a disappointing twist for the two main contenders in the 2022 presidential race. Record-low turnout is a major talking point in France, with Frederic Dabi, deputy-head of Ifop, telling Le Figaro newspaper that abstention may ...

Bloomberg Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he plans pardons for nine Catalan separatists who were jailed for their role in the illegal independence referendum of 2017. Speaking to an audience of civic leaders in the Catalan capital, Barcelona, Sanchez, 49, said he’ll recommend that his cabinet approves pardons when it meets on Tuesday. Sanchez is currently governing in a ...

Bloomberg When hundreds of protesters gathered outside Japan’s embassy in Yangon during the height of nationwide anti-coup protests in February, Ambassador Ichiro Maruyama emerged from the gates with a firm warning for the junta: Release the detained civilian leadership “immediately.” The remarks, delivered in Burmese, drew applause from pro-democracy demonstrators hoping Japan would take concrete action to pressure Myanmar’s military, ...

Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin told business leaders at his flagship economic forum this month that Russia is coping better than many other countries with Covid-19. Events increasingly are contradicting him. Moscow reported a record-high 9,056 new Covid-19 cases, days after Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered mandatory vaccination for at least 2 million employees as surging infections threaten to overwhelm the capital’s ...

Bloomberg A group of centrist Democrats have asked House leaders to slow down consideration of a half-dozen antitrust proposals virulently opposed by the big tech companies the bills target. Eight members of the New Democrat Coalition wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top deputy, as well as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, asking the Judiciary Committee to ...

Bloomberg The editor and publisher of the Apple Daily newspaper were arraigned on charges under the city’s sweeping national security law. Editor-in-Chief Ryan Law, and Cheung Kim-hung, the newspaper’s publisher and chief executive officer of parent company Next Digital Ltd, were denied bail and their case was adjourned to August 13, according to a ruling by Chief Magistrate Victor So. ...

Bloomberg Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin concluded their first summit in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday after about 2.5 hours of meetings, seeking to dial back tensions between the two former Cold War adversaries that have reached the highest level in years. The summit was substantially shorter than aides had predicted. US officials said they expected the ...

Bloomberg Clement Beaune, France’s junior European Affairs minister and key ally of President Emmanuel Macron, warned that the European Union will take action if the UK leaves the Northern Ireland protocol of the Brexit agreement. “We wouldn’t be happy to do it, but we would be ready to do it and respond,” Beaune said in an interview on the sidelines ...

Bloomberg Algeria’s former ruling party won the most seats in parliamentary elections as all-time low turnout showed deep skepticism over promises of a “new Algeria” after two years of unrest in the Opec member. Participation was about 23% in the vote, which delivered 105 of 407 parliamentary seats to the National Liberation Front (FLN) after protesters and more than a ...