Politics

  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 ...

Bloomberg Nato countries may agree as soon as this summer to spend at least 2% of their economic output on defense, a slight shift from the alliance’s 10-year-old pledge to “move toward the 2% guideline.” North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the alliance’s defense ministers were supposed to discuss the target when they meet in Brussels for ...

Bloomberg Secretary of State Antony Blinken is considering a meeting with Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, at a security conference later this week, people familiar with the matter said, in what would be their first face-to-face talks since an uproar over a Chinese balloon led to a new spike in tensions. Blinken and Wang would meet at the Munich Security ...

  Bloomberg Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina Governor and Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, announced Tuesday that she’s running for president, casting herself as the Republican leader best positioned to usher in a fresh chapter for the GOP. “It’s time for a new generation of leadership – to rediscover fiscal responsibility, secure our border, and strengthen our ...

Bloomberg President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s embattled defense chief appointed three deputies as part of a shakeup aimed at quelling accusations over corruption in the top echelons of the government. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, who earlier this month confronted speculation that he would be removed from his post, is taking to damage control after officials under him were swept up in a ...

  Bloomberg The Philippines has protested China’s move to aim a military-grade laser at a Philippine ship in the South China Sea which the US said was “provocative and unsafe” and threatens peace and stability in the region. The diplomatic protest, filed with the Chinese Embassy in Manila on Tuesday, “condemned the shadowing, harassment, dangerous maneuvers, directing of military-grade laser, ...