Politics

BLOOMBERG Russia launched a devastating bombardment against cities across Ukraine, killing at least five people and casting hundreds of thousands more into sporadic blackouts with a new mix of weapons that mostly evaded air defenses. The barrage extended Russian President Vladimir Putin’s five-month campaign of air strikes targeting civilian infrastructure including the energy grid, hospitals, schools and residential buildings. At ...

BLOOMBERG North Korea fired a suspected short-range ballistic missile after the influential sister of the state’s leader threatened the US with severe consequences if it goes ahead with joint military drills with South Korea. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters the missile was fired at around 6:20 pm on Thursday from the western ...

BLOOMBERG Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the possible fall of Bakhmut “in the coming days” would not indicate a turning point in Russia’s war against Ukraine. “We must continue to provide support to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said before a meeting with European Union (EU) defense ministers in Sweden. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander in charge of Ukraine’s ground forces, made a second ...

BLOOMBERG European Union (EU) defense ministers cautiously welcomed a plan to send Ukraine ammunition from their existing stocks, but urged the bloc to work faster on jointly procuring shells to jump-start production. “What is crucial is that Ukrainians direly need ammunition and we have to ramp up production within Europe,” Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson told reporters in Stockholm ahead ...

BLOOMBERG Back in November, before the latest downward spiral in US-China ties, Xi Jinping cast himself as a statesman in a meeting with Joe Biden. Saying both nations need “a responsibility for history,” Xi appeared to play ball with US calls to “compete vigorously” with China while establishing “guardrails” to avoid conflict. After speaking with Biden for more than three ...

BLOOMBERG The M23 rebel group clashed with Democratic Republic of Congo soldiers, defying a ceasefire that was meant to go into effect on March 7, according to the United Nations. “The secretary-general reiterates his call on the M23 to respect the ceasefire to create conditions for its full and effective withdrawal from all occupied areas,” Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman, said ...

BLOOMBERG UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will travel to the US next week to meet President Joe Biden and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese for a top-level meeting of the so-called Aukus allies. Sunak will be in the US, where he will meet the US and Australian leaders, his spokesman Max Blain told reporters. Talks are expected to focus on ...

BLOOMBERG The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a fresh warning to the US and South Korea, threatening them with severe consequences if they went ahead with joint military drills set to start next week. Kim Yo Jong said North Korea is monitoring the “restless military moves by the US forces” and its South Korean “puppet ...

BLOOMBERG Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said taking the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut would let Kremlin forces push further into Ukraine’s defenses, vowing to continue a months-long siege that’s shown limited results so far. Bakhmut “is an important link in the defenses of Ukraine’s forces in Donbas,” Shoigu told commanders in televised comments. The founder of Russian mercenary group ...

BLOOMBERG China’s new foreign minister warned that soaring US-China tensions risk blowing past any guardrails in the relationship, showing that divisions between the world’s biggest economies are becoming more entrenched. “The US claims that it seeks to outcompete China but does not seek conflict,” Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday at his first news briefing since taking office late ...