Politics

Bloomberg A socialist economist who rejects fiscal austerity demanded by the IMF won the first round of Ecuador’s presidential election, and may face an indigenous anti-mining candidate in a runoff after an unexpectedly close fight for second place. Andres Arauz, the candidate most feared by bond investors, led with 32.2% of votes, with 79% of ballots counted, the electoral authority ...

Bloomberg Australia, Japan, the US and India plan to hold a summit to strengthen ties amid China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region, the Sankei newspaper reported, citing unidentified government officials. The four countries are preparing for the teleconference meeting, whose agenda will include the protection of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, according to the newspaper. India has, however, ...

Bloomberg Myanmar saw its biggest protests in more than a decade on Sunday as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in several cities calling for the release of detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In Yangon, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in an area of the city’s downtown known as the staging grounds for prior ...

Bloomberg About 150 workers at NTPC Ltd.’s hydropower plant are feared trapped or swept away after a flash flood that destroyed key infrastructure when a Himalayan river burst its banks. The Rishiganga hydropower project near Raini village in Uttarakhand state was damaged, as was NTPC’s under-construction project on river Dhauli Ganga near Tapovan, said Vivek Pandey, spokesman for the Indo-Tibetan ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial is almost certain to end in acquittal, yet it will deliver a public reckoning for his presidency and influence whether his populist supporters continue to dominate the Republican Party. The nine House managers prosecuting Trump, arguing their case as much to the American public as to the senators who’ll serve as jurors, will focus ...

Bloomberg Lyudmila Shtein, a 24-year-old Muscovite and municipal deputy, is under house arrest until May and risks a two-year jail term for encouraging people to join a protest last month. She’s among more than 11,000 people rounded up in the past two weeks after the biggest show of defiance towards President Vladimir Putin in years. As social media flooded with ...

Bloomberg Polls are open in Ecuador in an election that will decide whether the country turns its back on the US and restores an alliance with socialist regimes in Cuba and Venezuela. The result of Sunday’s voting has the potential to upend relations with Beijing or Washington, and could even jeopardise Ecuador’s continued use of the US dollar. Long lines ...

Bloomberg The US and China’s top diplomats sparred on democracy and human rights in a phone conversation which was the highest level of communications between the two countries since the Biden administration began. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “stressed” to Yang Jiechi, who sits on the Communist Party’s 25-member Politburo, that the US will keep standing up for human rights ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden said his predecessor, Donald Trump, should not receive the intelligence briefings that are typically given to former presidents because of his “erratic behaviour.” “I think not,” Biden said when asked during an interview with CBS News if Trump should still be briefed. “Because of his erratic behaviour unrelated to the insurrection,” he added, referring to Trump’s ...

Bloomberg Germany and the European Union will continue to hold the Belarus government responsible for ongoing violations of human rights in the country, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her weekly video message. The elections in the country six months ago were not free, fair or transparent and neither Germany nor the EU accept Alexander Lukashenko as the winner, Merkel said, ...