Politics

Bloomberg Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo plans to return to the West African nation this month, even as he faces a pending conviction. The Ivorian government issued two passports, an ordinary one and a diplomatic document, to Gbagbo, who’s been living in Belgium for nearly two years, his lawyer Habiba Toure said. The issuances come a month after an October ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s campaign spent $8.8 million on the legal challenges to the November 3 election in various states, including $2.7 million in legal fees, according to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission. The largest outlay was a $3 million payment to the Wisconsin Elections Commission for a partial recount in two populous counties. The recounts did ...

Bloomberg Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was seeking an apology from China after a diplomat in Beijing tweeted an image purporting to show an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child. The tweet, posted by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, was “repugnant,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Monday. The Australian premier ...

Bloomberg President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were expected to receive on Monday the same daily intelligence briefing that President Donald Trump gets, belatedly beginning the transition between leaders of some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets. The President’s Daily Briefing has been offered to every president-elect since Richard Nixon in 1968, often the morning after Election Day. ...

Bloomberg The leader of Ethiopia’s dissident Tigray state vowed to fight on after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said federal forces regained full control of the region. Ethiopia’s army captured the Tigray capital of Mekelle, after almost a month of fighting that’s left hundreds of people dead and forced tens of thousands more to flee their homes. The authorities are now ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s two biggest cities will be governed by centrist mayors who defeated President Jair Bolsonaro’s candidates in nationwide municipal elections, consolidating the return of more moderate political actors following a conservative wave that swept the country two years ago. Brazilians went to the polls to choose mayors for Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and 55 of the country’s 5,500 ...

Bloomberg The Polish government is getting increasingly upset with European Union efforts to add conditions to budget funding, but the issue isn’t enough for them to consider quitting the bloc, a deputy minister said. While Hungary and Poland have long flouted democratic values that other European countries hold dear, officials in Brussels have struggled to discipline them as each can ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson is battling to convince his own Conservative Party colleagues to back plans to keep most of England under strict pandemic controls when the national lockdown ends this week. Ministers on Monday were expected to publish analysis of the health, economic and social impacts of the pandemic and the measures taken to suppress the disease, before a scheduled ...

Bloomberg Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin called on members of the ruling coalition to strengthen cooperation ahead of a general election he intends to hold once the virus pandemic subsides. The premier acknowledged the tense ties between his Bersatu party and rival turned key ally United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which controls the most parliament seats in his coalition. Steps ...

Bloomberg Nigeria said Boko Haram insurgents attacked rice farmers in the country’s northeast, leaving at least 42 of them dead. Insurgents ambushed farmers who had gone into rice fields in the Jere district of Borno state to bring in their harvest, according to a Nigerian presidency statement on Twitter. “I condemn the killing of our hardworking farmers by terrorists,“ President ...