Politics

Bloomberg The Philippines plans to convert a South China Sea island into a military hub amid rising tensions with China. The Philippine military will ask President Rodrigo Duterte to fund a logistics hub on Thitu Island, its chief General Cirilito Sobejana said, as the nation seeks to sustain patrols in the South China Sea. It’s also planning to place high-resolution, ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson’s administration plans to push through new government procurement rules by the end of the year, replacing what it sees as excessively “complex” procedures it was tied to in the European Union. Bills on procurement and state aid will be included in the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday in Parliament, people familiar with the matter said. The annual event ...

Bloomberg South Korean President Moon Jae-in plans to use his final year in office to reach an “irreversible peace” on the Korean Peninsula, and will seek help in salvaging one of his policy priorities at a summit next week with President Joe Biden. Moon said in a speech marking the start of the final year of his single, five-year term ...

Bloomberg Vaccines need to be viewed as a global public good and the intellectual property, knowledge, technology and data related to Covid-19 vaccines should be available to all, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his weekly letter. South Africa and India have recently submitted proposals on the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights that ...

Bloomberg India’s health authorities warned about a fungal infection seen in some Covid-19 patients which can disfigure facial features and even kill, as the country continues to grapple with the world’s fastest-growing coronavirus outbreak. Mucormycosis, also called the “black fungus” infection, can damage the sinuses or lungs when the spores are inhaled, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said ...

Bloomberg The battle for the future of Scotland has begun after a dramatic set of British election results left the UK starkly divided. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative party cemented its grip on Labour’s former heartlands in northern England, while in Scotland parties pushing to split away from the UK won a historic majority. That threw Johnson and Scottish National ...

Bloomberg Gunmen killed 12 police officers in weekend attacks targeting security agents in two of Nigeria’s oil-producing states in the Niger River Delta in an escalating conflict fuelled by secessionist tensions. Seven of the officers were killed in Rivers State in the southern part of the country, the police confirmed in an emailed statement. Authorities have blamed previous incidents on ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Boris Johnson is celebrating triumphant early results in UK elections, but he faces trouble ahead with Scotland cementing support for its independence movement. In a key set of local and national votes, Johnson’s ruling Conservatives tightened their grip on the pro-Brexit former industrial heartlands of northern England. They took the parliamentary seat of Hartlepool, which overwhelmingly backed ...

Bloomberg China is asking United Nations member states to stay away from an event organised by some Western countries that will address human rights issues in its Xinjiang region, Reuters reported. The virtual event is “politically motivated” and interferes with China’s domestic affairs, the report said, citing a memo by the Chinese UN mission. It’s being organised next week by ...

Bloomberg After dipping into his savings to weather India’s snap pandemic lockdown last March, Manoj Kumar was just getting his head above water again earning 600 rupees ($8) a day as a construction worker in the tourist hotspot of Goa. He’d squirreled away enough for a trip last month to his native village in Bihar some 1,490 miles away for ...