Politics

Bloomberg After two decades in power, Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings are at an all-time low as Russia’s economy reels under the impact of the coronavirus epidemic and the slump in oil prices. What better time for him to seek to extend his presidency for potentially 16 more years? It’s a measure of how tightly Putin has controlled the operation to ...

Bloomberg The US State Department imposed visa bans on Chinese Communist Party officials accused of infringing the freedom of Hong Kong citizens, in what a senior official described as the opening salvo in a campaign to force Beijing to back off from new restrictions on the city. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a statement that he was barring ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump signed an executive order that he says is intended to protect monuments and statues from “anarchists and left-wing extremists.” “My administration will not allow violent mobs incited by a radical fringe to become the arbiters of the aspects of our history that can be celebrated in public spaces,” Trump said in the order, which was released ...

Bloomberg Micheal Martin took over as Ireland’s new prime minister at the helm of the nation’s first grand coalition, replacing Leo Varadkar in a rotating premiership. Lawmakers voted by 93 votes to 63 to make Martin, 59, prime minister, more than four months after a general election failed to produce a clear winner. His ascent to power came after the ...

Bloomberg Thailand aims to produce its own Covid-19 vaccine rather than waiting to buy inoculations from abroad, and human trials could start as early as October, according to the scientist leading one project. “We learned a very painful lesson during the H1N1 pandemic when the government signed agreements to buy vaccines, but we didn’t get any until the outbreak was ...

Bloomberg Some of Malaysia’s opposition parties will back Shafie Apdal as the candidate to become the nation’s next prime minister, former premier Mahathir Mohamad said. The opposition parties are Warisan, DAP and Amanah, Mahathir said in a statement on Saturday. Shafie was picked as he was among political leaders who opposed wrongdoings perpetrated by the Barisan Nasional government that was ...

Bloomberg Indian and Chinese troops remain in a standoff at their contested Himalayan border, days after both sides promised peace following their worst military clash in 45 years. About 50 square kilometres of land earlier controlled by India in the Pangong Tso area — a glacial lake at about 14,000 feet in the Tibetan plateau — is now being held ...

Bloomberg Hungary is breaking European Union law by thwarting asylum seekers, an adviser to the EU’s top court said, just weeks after its judges issued a separate ruling cutting at the heart of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s anti-immigrant policy. Hungary “failed to fulfill its obligations” under EU law by not ensuring “effective access to the asylum procedure” and by unlawfully ...

Bloomberg Joe Biden leads Donald Trump in every one of six key battleground states, all but erasing the advantage with White voters that Trump used to put together a razor-thin victory four years ago. The New York Times/Siena College poll of swing states, together with national polls showing Biden with a double-digit lead, helps to draw an Electoral College map ...

Bloomberg A member of Boris Johnson’s government and a “cash for favors” dispute he’s embroiled in has become the latest political headache for the premier after a difficult few months battling the coronavirus pandemic. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, under fire since it emerged that he approved a planning development from businessman Richard Desmond who later donated money to the Conservative ...