Politics

Bloomberg President Donald Trump signed a one-week stopgap spending bill, ahead of a midnight deadline to avert a federal government shutdown. Funding is now extended until the end of the day on December 18. US lawmakers aim to complete a full-year $1.4 trillion spending bill combined with Covid-19 relief legislation by the new deadline. The Senate approved the stopgap bill ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong media tycoon and prominent pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai was charged with colluding with foreign forces under the city’s sweeping new national security law and denied bail in a court appearance on Saturday. Prosecutors told the West Kowloon Magistracy that Lai committed the offense — calling for a foreign entity to impose sanctions or engage in hostile activities ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration has imposed sanctions at a record-shattering pace of about three times a day during the president’s time in office: a slew of measures targeting companies, individuals and even oil tankers tied to Iran, North Korea, China, Venezuela and Russia. President-elect Joe Biden’s team is promising a top-to-bottom review of sanctions operations, but don’t expect a significant ...

Bloomberg Ghanaian opposition leader John Mahama accused the ruling party of using the military to alter the results of the election. The government denied the allegation. Claims of election rigging are unusual in Ghana, Africa’s top gold producer and one of the continent’s most stable democracies. In the last vote in 2016, Mahama conceded defeat to President Nana Akufo-Addo before ...

Bloomberg Poland and Hungary have agreed on a compromise with Germany to unblock the European Union’s $2.2 trillion budget and pandemic stimulus plan, a senior government official in Warsaw said. The compromise would end a standoff that saw Budapest and Warsaw threaten to torpedo the EU’s 750 billion-euro ($909 billion) pandemic aid fund and the 2021-2027 budget over objections to ...

Bloomberg Joe Biden will be one formal step closer to the presidency after Tuesday’s deadline for states to certify their slates of electors to the Electoral College — locking in the names of the people who will formally vote to make Biden the president. Once that happens, there’s little turning back. Congress must by law accept those electors if there’s ...

Bloomberg Tens of thousands of farmers across India took to the streets on Tuesday during a nationwide strike demanding the scrapping of new agricultural laws, intensifying an almost fortnight long standoff with the government of PM Narendra Modi. The daylong shutdown, called by several farm groups, impacted traffic and movement in some parts of the country. Wholesale agricultural markets in ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s pro-democracy groups will hold a gathering this week to press for the abolition of a law that penalises insulting and criticising the nation’s top royals, after authorities invoked the act against protest leaders who are demanding monarchy reform. The protesters, who have been rallying regularly in capital Bangkok and other cities since mid-July, will hold “an important event” ...

Bloomberg Poland’s prime minister launched a broadside on the European Union’s push to link funding to democratic values, ratcheting up tension over his country’s decision to derail the bloc’s $2.2 trillion spending package with Hungary. EU officials have given the two countries hours to offer a clear signal that they’ll lift their veto as early as Tuesday, according to people ...

Bloomberg Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron have agreed that Brexit negotiations should be kept off the agenda of this week’s summit of European Union leaders, a sign the bloc will resist making any significant last-minute concessions to the UK and will stick with Michel Barnier’s mandate. The decision was taking during a call between Germany’s chancellor, France’s president, and the ...