Politics

BLOOMBERG Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a close Russian ally, in talks watched closely for signs that Beijing is expanding coordination with Moscow and its supporters in their standoff with the West. Belarus “fully supports the initiative put forward by you,” Lukashenko told Xi in Beijing Wednesday, according to state-run news agency Belta. He was referring ...

BLOOMBERG Russia’s war in Ukraine is expected to dominate discussions at the Group of 20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi as the conflict enters its second year. A meeting of the grouping’s finance ministers and central bank heads over the weekend failed to reach a consensus on the language to describe Russia’s aggressions in Ukraine, forcing host India to ...

BLOOMBERG Russian critics of President Vladimir Putin have spent the past year pressing the US and its allies to impose sanctions on thousands of Kremlin officials and business tycoons. Now they want a clear way for those who come out against the war to get off the blacklists. Exiled businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who spent years in a Russian prison after ...

BLOOMBERG Turkey is considering prison terms for landlords found guilty of excessive rent increases after this month’s deadly earthquakes left millions displaced and homeless. The government is weighing two-to-five year terms, an official with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg, adding that it hasn’t yet decided what would constitute an unacceptable increase. The official spoke privately because details of the ...

BLOOMBERG Britain’s governing Conservative Party is trailing badly in opinion polls, apparently on course for a heavy defeat in the next UK general election. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hopes a team-building “away day” can stop the rot. Fresh from unveiling a new post-Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, Sunak will host a gathering of Conservative MPs this week outside central London ...

BLOOMBERG The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo effectively agreed to a deal on normalising ties but must hash out how to implement it to end a dispute that has smoldered since they fought a 1998-1999 war. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti are facing a push by Washington and Brussels to ease the dispute that has ...

BLOOMBERG Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is unlikely to go to a meeting of G-20 foreign ministers in India from Wednesday due to a parliamentary committee meeting he is expected to attend, according to a government official. It remains unclear whether Hayashi will be at a Friday meeting of the Quad nations, consisting of the US and Australia, alongside India. ...

BLOOMBERG A Pakistani court issued an arrest warrant against former Prime Minister Imran Khan after he did not appear in a hearing for a complaint filed by the Election Commission that the opposition leader did not declare his assets, his lawyer Gohar Ali Khan said. An additional session judge in Islamabad handed down the order after Khan repeatedly failed to ...

BLOOMBERG Ukrainian officials are signaling that the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut may soon be impossible to defend as Russian troops level the area. “The enemy is gradually destroying everything that can be used to protect our positions, for reinforcement and defense,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address Monday evening. The top commander in charge of Ukraine’s ground forces, ...

BLOOMBERG Thailand’s major political parties are ramping up their policy promises to cement a foothold in regional bastions ahead of a general election in May. Campaigning in north Thailand’s Chiang Rai province, the main opposition Pheu Thai Party vowed to triple farmers’ income during the first four years in office if elected. That will be achieved by introducing new farming ...