Politics

Bloomberg Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar arrived in Taiwan on Sunday for the highest-ranking visit by a US official to the island in decades, a trip that stands to further worsen spiralling relations between the US and China. Azar is set to discuss the international response to the coronavirus, along with supplies of medical equipment and technology, according ...

Bloomberg Lebanon’s minister of information resigned a day after deadly protests against the government’s role in last week’s devastating blast in Beirut, and hours before global leaders gathered to discuss aid to the country. Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad submitted her resignation “in response to the public calls for change,” she said in a televised press conference on Sunday. Nehmat ...

Bloomberg Afghanistan’s government will release hardened Taliban prisoners to clear the final hurdle for direct peace talks with the insurgent group and end the 19-year war. President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday said he would accept the recommendation of the Loya Jirga, a grand national assembly of 3,400 influential members of society, which sought to free 400 Taliban prisoners “in order ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s privacy chief criticised the US Treasury Department for “doxxing” Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other officials by releasing their personal information as part of its sanctions on them. “The disclosure of the data of the persons concerned by the US Department of the Treasury is obviously excessive and unnecessary,” Acting Privacy Commissioner Tony Lam said in a ...

Bloomberg The UK is stepping up efforts to stop the influx of migrants crossing the English Channel by boat, as tensions rise with France about how to control a surge in crossings. The Home Office requested help from the armed forces in dealing with the jump in immigrants trying to gain entry into the country by making the 35-kilometre (22-mile) ...

Bloomberg The US is placing sanctions on 11 Chinese officials and their allies in Hong Kong, including Chief Executive Carrie Lam, over their roles in curtailing political freedoms in the former UK colony, the Treasury Department said. “The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong and we will use our tools and authorities to target those undermining their ...

Bloomberg China and Iran are working to sway US voters against President Donald Trump while Russia is working against his rival, Joe Biden, intelligence agencies said. “Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer,” National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William ...

Bloomberg New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern launched her campaign for a second term by reminding voters of her leadership credentials and pledging to steer the country through the economic crisis unleashed by Covid-19. The September 19 election is “more important than ever” because of the pandemic, Ardern told Labour Party faithful in Auckland on Saturday. “It’s about the future. ...

Bloomberg For almost six months, Vietnamese officials every day announced a fairly astonishing statistic for a nation of 96 million: no Covid-19 deaths. But that changed on July 31, with 10 deaths being reported since. After no reports of community transmission cases since April 16, an outbreak in the coastal city of Danang turned deadly in late July. The virus ...

Bloomberg As India passes the grim milestone of two million virus cases and new hotspots emerge in villages, experts are worried infections will now rise exponentially in the world’s second-most populous country, overwhelming its under-prepared hinterland. In the remote Valad village in the southern state of Kerala, 236 people have been found positive in the last two weeks. In Katapali ...