Politics

Bloomberg China lashed out at the US, calling the country “very ill indeed,” after President Joe Biden secured support from European allies to present a more united front against Beijing. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian criticised Biden’s efforts during summits of the Group of Seven and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) in recent days. The response was the latest sign ...

Bloomberg China’s air force sent 28 aircraft close to Taiwan, the largest sortie this year, ratcheting up military pressure on the government in Taipei as it seeks to strengthen ties with the US. The 28 People’s Liberation Army aircraft, including 14 J-16 and six J-11 fighters, were detected in Taiwan’s southwestern air defense identification zone, Taiwan’s defense ministry said in ...

Bloomberg It was supposed to be another sign of Joe Biden bringing together US allies left adrift under four years of Donald Trump: The leaders of Japan and South Korea sitting down for a meeting at the Group of Seven summit. Yet Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and South Korean President Moon Jae-in failed to hold the first substantive direct ...

Bloomberg Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak faltered in his bid to get a high court to halt bankruptcy proceedings against him for failing to pay a tax bill totaling 1.74 billion ringgit ($420 million). Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Ahmad Bache on Monday dismissed Najib’s application for a stay of execution, according to an email exchange between the court ...

Bloomberg Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi was expected to be in court on Monday as her first trial begins on charges brought by the military junta after it seized power earlier this year. Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint, who have been in detention since the February 1 coup and face multiple charges, are expected to testify ...

Bloomberg The US Supreme Court rejected appeals by two members of a white supremacist group convicted under a federal anti-riot law for attacking counter-protesters during the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The men, Michael Paul Miselis and Benjamin Drake Daley, argued unsuccessfully that the 1968 Anti-Riot Act violates the Constitution by punishing protected speech. A federal ...

Bloomberg About 5,000 Danish nurses are preparing to go on strike from Saturday, after their union failed to reach an agreement with employers over pay. The Danish Nurses’ Council rejected the wage proposal put forward in Copenhagen, Grethe Christensen, the group’s chair, said at a press conference. The council has made the case that nurses, who are predominantly female, have ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson’s UK government doesn’t want any of the leaders at the Group of Seven summit to leave Cornwall without knowing just how angry he is with some of them about Brexit. For the second day in a row, Johnson’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has taken to broadcast interviews to condemn European “ignorance” about the UK, as a dispute ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden’s meeting with Vladimir Putin won’t be a “light-switch moment” but the start of a longer process aimed at establishing a more stable relationship, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Biden believes there are areas where the US and Russia can co-operate, Blinken said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” one of four scheduled talk-show appearances on Sunday. ...

Bloomberg The head of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party said he’d prefer to govern with the pro-business Free Democrats, rejecting higher taxes for top earners and criticising the Greens in the buildup to Germany’s election in September. Armin Laschet, Merkel’s would-be heir at the helm of Europe’s biggest economy, told Bild am Sonntag that his Christian Democratic Union is politically closer ...