Politics

Bloomberg Former South African President Jacob Zuma said he will flout an order by the nation’s top court by refusing to cooperate with a judicial panel that’s probing graft during his rule, and dared the authorities to arrest him. “The Commission Into Allegations of State Capture can expect no further cooperation from me in any of their processes,” Zuma said ...

Bloomberg Supporters of jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny are staging the second wave of national protests in a week as a Russian court prepares to hand President Vladimir Putin’s chief critic a possible 3 1/2 year prison term. Navalny, who defied threats of arrest to return in mid-January from Germany after a nerve-agent attack he said was an attempt by ...

Bloomberg Vietnam’s Communist Party re-elected Nguyen Phu Trong to a rare third term as general secretary, signalling no major shifts in the nation’s economic or geopolitical direction. The party’s newly elected central committee also elected 18 members of the Politburo, which in turn will nominate individual candidates to be prime minister, president and chair of the National Assembly. The parliament ...

Bloomberg A leader of South Africa’s biggest labour movement accused the ruling African National Congress (ANC) of failing to act on corruption, highlighting the fragility of a political alliance that’s been in place since the end of apartheid. “What is most concerning is the ANC’s refusal to engage on extending the ban on public servants and the executive from doing business ...

Bloomberg Joe Biden’s presidency began at a choreographed sprint, with a series of executive actions to erase Donald Trump’s legacy and reset the nation’s course. But as his first full week in office came to a close, the new president was discovering the limits of his power. His administration’s efforts to bolster vaccine production ran into the same hurdles that ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged China to “recalibrate” as it pursues greater influence globally and to take on greater responsibility for driving international objectives from climate change action to more open markets. Addressing the World Economic Forum, Lee said as China continued to rise, it was contingent on the country to make adjustments in line with its ...

Bloomberg Italian President Sergio Mattarella asked the speaker of the lower house to lead a new round of negotiations aimed at breaking the country’s political deadlock. The head of state tasked Speaker Roberto Fico with exploring whether it’s possible to rebuild the coalition that supported Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Three days of talks led by Mattarella, who’s responsible for picking ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden held his first phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, pressing him on issues from the poisoning of opposition leader Alexey Navalny to the massive hack of US computer systems that’s been linked to Moscow. The Kremlin confirmed that the call took place Tuesday, describing the conversation as “businesslike and frank.” The leaders also talked about ...

Bloomberg The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest against China’s law giving its coast guard more freedom to fire on foreign vessels, the Southeast Asian nation’s foreign affairs minister said. “While enacting law is a sovereign prerogative, this one — given the area involved or for that matter the open South China Sea — is a verbal threat of war ...

Bloomberg Tunisian lawmakers approved cabinet changes proposed by Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi after riot police blocked protesters from nearing the assembly amid a rising wave of discontent in the birthplace of the Arab Spring. On Tuesday, 11 new ministers proposed for departments ranging from health and justice to the interior obtained more than the minimum 109 votes needed in the ...