Politics

  Bloomberg The US is sending its top China defense official to Taiwan, according to the Financial Times — though it’s unclear how Beijing will respond given the softer tone it has adopted in its diplomacy with the US and allies recently. The deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Michael Chase, will make the trip “in the coming days,” ...

Bloomberg Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto said it’s up to Turkey to decide whether Finland and Sweden join Nato together or not. “We have an understanding with Sweden: both of us should become members as soon as possible. Turkey has its own understanding of the situation and the way forward —that’s entirely in Turkish hands,” Niinisto told reporters at the Munich ...

Bloomberg The UK and European Union have made significant progress towards a deal on new post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland — but more work is still needed to finalise an agreement, the region’s political parties said. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held a series of meetings with leaders in Belfast to discuss the status of talks aimed at resolving the ...

  Bloomberg China questioned whether the US genuinely seeks to repair ties damaged by the dispute over a balloon just as the two nations’ top diplomats head to a security conference in Germany, where they may have an opportunity to meet on the sidelines. The balloon saga “tests the US’s sincerity and capability to properly handle crises and stabilise relations ...

  Bloomberg India will begin work on its first all-weather highway to carry troops and hardware to its disputed Himalayan boundary with China and add 9,000 additional soldiers to bolster defenses at its border as tensions linger. The cabinet cleared the project to build a 4.1 kilometre (2.55 miles)-long tunnel through the mountains in the border state of Himachal Pradesh. ...

  Bloomberg The Biden administration suspects that three unidentified objects downed served commercial purposes and weren’t used for spying, a judgment that may help ease anxiety over a Chinese balloon that traversed the US before being shot down. The intelligence community believes the objects — unlike the giant airship shot down on February 4 — “could just be balloons tied ...

Bloomberg Turkey has the right to decide how it wants to ratify Finland and Sweden’s Nato memberships, the alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, even as he urged Ankara to give the green light to both Nordic countries. “It is for Turkiye to decide whether they ratify both — and I recommend that — or whether they ratify only one ...

Bloomberg Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon resigned after more than eight years as head of the country’s government and independence movement in a surprise move that will reverberate across UK politics. Sturgeon, 52, has headed the semi-autonomous administration in Edinburgh since 2014. The decision to step down comes after an unusually turbulent time for Sturgeon. It leaves her Scottish National ...

Bloomberg Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan said his party will court arrest to protest the government’s refusal to hold early elections and fight the tough measures being put in place to unlock a crucial loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party will continue its campaign to push for early elections — and will take to ...

  Bloomberg UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer blocked his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a candidate for the party at the next general election, as the opposition seeks to draw a line under the antisemitism scandals that have plagued its recent past. “Jeremy Corbyn will not stand for Labour at the next general election,” Starmer said morning, in ...