Politics

Bloomberg Donald Trump expressed confidence he would be re-elected president if Congress has to break an Electoral College tie in the 2020 election. “I don’t want to end up in the Supreme Court and I don’t want to go back to Congress either, even though we have an advantage when we go back to Congress,” Trump said at a rally ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong residents renewed or applied for British National (Overseas) passports in record numbers last year as anti-government protests erupted in the city, according to the South China Morning Post. The 154,218 BNO passports issued in 2019 is an eightfold jump from the year earlier, the newspaper reported, citing British government data. The authority also recorded 32,813 renewals by ...

Bloomberg North Korea warned South Korea about a maritime search operation it says entered its territorial waters, state news agency KCNA reported, citing a statement from the Korean Central News Agency. “We don’t care whether the south side conducts any kind of search operation in its territorial waters or not,” North Korea said. “But we can never overlook any intrusion ...

Bloomberg Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga declared his willingness to meet North Korea’s Kim Jong-un without preconditions, affirming the policy of his predecessor in his debut speech to the UN. Japan would seek to normalise ties with North Korea by resolving nuclear weapons and missile issues, as well as the past abductions of Japanese citizens, Suga told the General Assembly, in ...

Bloomberg An attack by unidentified gunmen in Ethiopia’s western Benishangul-Gumuz region left at least 15 people dead, including four women, in the third such raid this month, according to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. “Civilians are being subjected to repeated attacks with unmitigated cruelty in Benishangul-Gumuz,” Daniel Bekele, the chief commissioner said in an emailed statement. “Federal and regional authorities ...

Bloomberg Russia’s increased presence in Belarus, where it’s helping strongman President Alexander Lukashenko retain power amid a wave of demonstrations, is putting nearby countries on alert. One is Estonia, which like its Baltic neighbours has been edgy since Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and backed a war on the two former allies’ border. More integration between Belarus ...

Bloomberg Malaysia appeared poised for a new round of political turmoil after opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim claimed to have enough support from lawmakers to form a government. Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin denounced the move and challenged Anwar to prove his assertion, while saying his administration remains firmly in control. Key members of his coalition signed a joint statement to reaffirm ...

Bloomberg After years of shifting the Philippines closer to China, President Rodrigo Duterte appears to be leaning back towards the US. The 75-year-old leader gave his most forceful defense yet of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s 2016 ruling in favour of the Philippines that said Beijing’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea breached international law. Addressing the United ...

Bloomberg Kenya faces a historic decision to close parliament for failing to enact rules on fair gender representation in public bodies. Chief Justice David Maraga advised President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve the legislature after receiving six petitions on the matter. Lawmakers were supposed to have implemented the legislation by 2015, five years after Kenya adopted a new constitution that includes ...

Bloomberg China eased restrictions on some foreigners’ entry into the country, almost six months after it nearly sealed its borders to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Foreigners holding residence permits for work, personal matters and reunions will be allowed to enter China starting from September 28, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement posted on ...