Politics

Bloomberg The UK clinched a historic trade deal with the European Union (EU), avoiding a bitter breakup and preparing the ground for a new relationship with its biggest commercial partner. Negotiators finalised the accord to complete Britain’s separation from the bloc on Christmas Eve, just a week before the country leaves the EU’s single market and customs union. It brings ...

Bloomberg Ethiopia will hold general elections on June 5, 2021, after delaying a planned vote in August due to the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s fiercest opposition, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, in September went ahead with the vote in defiance of the federal-government’s decision, and later triggered a military conflict when it attacked a military camp in the ...

Bloomberg Mozambique said its security forces repelled an attack by insurgents on a town close to the site where Total SE is building a $20 billion natural gas facility. The attack took place about 21 kilometers from Total’s project, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense, and is the second this month on the town of Mute in ...

Bloomberg The extension of military confrontation into the cyber sphere and space raises the risks of incidents involving nuclear weapons, Russia’s top general warned, highlighting concerns about growing tensions. “The risks of incidents is rising from interference in systems of command and control over nuclear weapons,” General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff, said in comments to foreign military ...

Bloomberg Tunisian media mogul and former presidential candidate Nabil Karoui was detained after a judge’s order, his lawyer said, amid an ongoing purge of alleged corruption that’s included the arrest of a government minister. Karoui, who founded Heart of Tunisia, the second-biggest party in both the government coalition and parliament, had been in court in connection with graft and money ...

Bloomberg Russia expects nothing good in relations with a “deeply hostile” US under the incoming administration of Joe Biden and has no plans to make unilateral concessions to improve ties, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “We are heading from bad to worse,” Ryabkov said in an interview with the Interfax news service published on Wednesday, which he later confirmed ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong media tycoon and Next Digital Ltd. founder Jimmy Lai has been granted bail by Hong Kong’s High Court, local media including the Apple Daily newspaper reported. Lai was charged earlier this month with colluding with foreign forces under the city’s new national security law. He is the owner of the pro-democracy Apple Daily. Lai was released on ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government rejected a plan by China’s Shandong Gold Mining Co. to acquire a gold miner that operates in the Canadian Arctic, potentially inflaming a diplomatic feud. TMAC Resources Inc. owns the Hope Bay gold mine in the northern territory of Nunavut, an operation that includes a port and air strips. Shandong, an acquisitive state-backed metal ...

Bloomberg President-elect Joe Biden lashed out at Donald Trump over a major hack of US government agencies and companies, saying the president isn’t taking it seriously enough, while vowing to strengthen the nation’s cyberdefenses. Biden blamed the Trump administration for having “failed to prioritise cybersecurity” during its four years in power. He also called on the president to clearly and ...

Bloomberg Negotiators are drawing closer to a historic post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and European Union (EU), with officials increasingly hopeful an accord could be struck soon. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen intervened personally in recent days, holding several phone conversations in a last-ditch bid to reach an agreement before the UK ...