Politics

Bloomberg China on Thursday warned of strong countermeasures if the US, Australia and the UK continued taking actions in response to Beijing’s tough national security law in Hong Kong, saying foreign pressure would “never succeed.” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China “deplores and firmly opposes” the US House of Representatives’ unanimous passing of a bill that would level ...

Bloomberg Scotland’s nationalists are reviving their debate over how to push for another independence vote amid growing tension with the government in London over everything from the handling of the coronavirus pandemic to how to pay for the recovery. Two prominent Scottish National Party members of the UK Parliament called on the semi-autonomous administration in Edinburgh to explore how to ...

Bloomberg The world needs more than one vaccine to tackle the new coronavirus, even as pharma companies race to be the first with a pandemic shot, said US infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci. “I’d love to see more than one vaccine get to the goal line, as it were,” Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration’s response to the allegation Russia offered bounties for killing American troops makes the US vulnerable to adversaries regardless of whether it’s true, former US National Security Advisor John Bolton says. “What it tells the Russians is that we are in disarray and ripe for this kind of provocation, not just in Afghanistan but in many, many ...

Bloomberg Russian President Vladimir Putin is on course to secure a resounding endorsement of his bid to extend his two-decade-long rule potentially up to 2036, as the Kremlin faces criticism for its heavy-handed efforts to marshal support. Putin, a former KGB colonel who came to power in 2000, is already the longest-serving Russian leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The ...

Bloomberg Minutes after reports broke that China passed a sweeping national security law for Hong Kong, Carrie Lam stood in front of a backdrop of the city’s iconic skyline for a weekly press briefing. With legions of reporters clamouring to hear details of the law that could reshape the financial hub’s future, it quickly became clear that Hong Kong’s leader ...

Bloomberg Taiwan is strengthening ties with the government of Somaliland in a bid to bolster its dwindling number of allies. While the move falls short of full diplomatic recognition, the last time Taiwan managed to persuade a country to establish ties with it rather than China was with the Caribbean island of St Lucia in 2007. China claims Taiwan as ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s government has initiated a commission to investigate its controversial approach to the Covid-19 pandemic. Sweden has taken a different path compared to most European countries by keeping much of society open and by recommending social distancing and self-isolation rather than imposing a blanket lockdown. That strategy has resulted in a much higher death rate than in neighboring countries, ...

Bloomberg China’s top legislative body approved a landmark national security law for Hong Kong, a sweeping attempt to quell dissent that drew fresh US retaliation and could endanger the city’s appeal as a financial hub. The National People’s Congress Standing Committee voted unanimously to approve the law on the former British colony as a three-day meeting began to wrap up ...

Bloomberg Joe Biden is set to sharply criticise Donald Trump’s stewardship of the response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying the president is dismissing the threat of the virus as cases surge. More than six months after the first reported Covid-19 case in the US, Biden on Tuesday will deliver a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, outlining what he will call a ...