Politics

Bloomberg China and Australia’s top trade officials have met for the first time since 2019, in the latest sign of warming diplomatic relations between the two countries. Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and Trade Minister Don Farrell held virtual talks on Monday for more than 90 minutes, according to an Australian government statement that confirms a report by Bloomberg News. Both ...

  Bloomberg A United Nations peacekeeper died and another was seriously wounded after their helicopter was shot at in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, a day after East African Community leaders met to steady a flailing peace process. The helicopter was flying from Beni to the trading hub of Goma when it came under fire from unidentified assailants, ...

  Bloomberg Venezuela condemned what it called an “attack by the United States against an unmanned civilian aircraft of Chinese origin,” taking a clear side in the growing international dispute after a similar balloon was reported over Latin America. The US once again “resorts to the use of force” against a device that didn’t represent any military or physical threat ...

Bloomberg The US shot down an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon off the South Carolina coast on Saturday, injecting new tension into relations with Beijing which called the move an overreaction. President Joe Biden said he ordered the Pentagon on Wednesday to down the balloon as soon as possible “without doing damage to anyone on the ground.” The military decided the ...

  Bloomberg India’s main opposition party ramped up the pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his silence on the Adani turmoil and planned a nationwide protest on Monday to highlight the risk to small investors. “What action has been taken, if ever, to investigate the serious allegations made over the years against the Adani Group?” Jairam Ramesh, general secretary ...

  Bloomberg Pervez Musharraf, the former four-star Pakistani army general who governed the South Asian nation for nearly a decade after coming to power in a 1999 bloodless coup, has died. He was 79. He died after a long ailment in Dubai, said Raza Bokhari, a former spokesman and close aide. Musharraf, who was Pakistan’s fourth military leader, was a ...

  Bloomberg Ukraine’s government expects Russia’s new offensive to start this month, defense minister Oleksii Reznikov said at a press briefing in Kyiv. The one-year mark of Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor will be Feb. 24. Reznikov said the main directions of Russia’s attack are likely to be from the east and south. He discounted the possibility of an invasion ...

Bloomberg The Pentagon is tracking what it said was a Chinese surveillance balloon over sensitive nuclear sites in the western US, an incident that injected new strain into relations before a planned Beijing visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The balloon was first spotted earlier this week and had been loitering over Montana, where Minuteman III intercontinental-ballistic-missile silos are ...

Bloomberg The Czech Republic’s incoming president said the only limit to weapons deliveries to Ukraine should be nuclear arms, signaling support for sending fighter jets as he expressed confidence that Ukrainian forces can defeat Russia. Petr Pavel, a retired top Nato general who takes office March 9, also said President Vladimir Putin’s government isn’t the only one to possess nuclear ...

Bloomberg The Adani Group’s $120 billion loss in market value after Hindenburg Research accused it of fraud roughly equates to India’s annual infrastructure budget. But the government has shown few signs of worry — or at least that’s the impression it’s giving to the markets. The calculus is tricky. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is considered a close ally of Gautam ...