Politics

Bloomberg Japan has refrained from joining countries including the US and UK in coordinated criticism of China’s move to impose a national security law in Hong Kong, Kyodo reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Japan decided not to be a signatory to the countries’ joint statement on the proposed law as Tokyo tries to improve its diplomatic relations with ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel was caught off guard by US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull 9,500 US troops out of Germany by September. The government wasn’t officially notified by the US about Trump’s plan, and it has so far only found out about the matter from media reports, a German government official said on Saturday, declining to comment ...

Bloomberg Joe Biden has formally clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, according to the Associated Press tally, officially setting off his general election campaign to unseat President Donald Trump. The former vice president passed the milestone after collecting 1,993 delegates to the national convention, two more than the 1,991 needed to become the nominee. Mail-in ballots from Indiana, Pennsylvania and Rhode ...

Bloomberg India will insist that China demolish recent construction and withdraw soldiers from a disputed border area as the two neighbours begin talks to end a stalemate that began in April, officials with knowledge of the matter said. The South Asian nation, at a meeting of senior defense officials on Saturday, will offer to remove construction done at the border ...

Bloomberg Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro is seeking to use the Supreme Court to accelerate the appointment of electoral officials mainly loyal to his government, laying the groundwork for congressional elections in December, according to seven people familiar with matter. Maduro’s administration is preparing to appoint an all-new board to the electoral body known as CNE through a Supreme Court ruling as ...

Bloomberg Spaniards are getting really worked up about Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. At one point last month, the defaced image of the photogenic Socialist was plastered across a giant red banner hung in downtown Madrid. The trigger has been his widely-criticised handling of the coronavirus pandemic that has seen Spain suffer among the highest death tolls in Europe. But as ...

Bloomberg Ex-defense secretary Jim Mattis condemned his former boss, President Donald Trump, over his aggressive rhetoric and strategy to quell protests that erupted after the death of an unarmed black man in police custody. “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, ...

Bloomberg Tropical Storm Cristobal brought heavy rain to southern Mexico, and with a forecast that has it re-entering the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, oil-platform workers are already being evacuated. The storm, carrying winds as high as 40 miles (64 kilometres) per hour, will dump more “extreme rainfall” on far southern Mexico, extending to Guatemala and El Salvador, according to ...

Bloomberg The US security presence “remains vital to the Asia-Pacific region,” and China would be unable to take over that role in Southeast Asia even with its increasing military might, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said. In an article published by Foreign Affairs on Thursday, Lee wrote that China’s competing maritime and territorial claims in the South China Sea ...

Bloomberg Japan will allow some resident foreigners to re-enter the country on humanitarian grounds after facing criticism its policies made their return uncertain and left the group in a Covid-19 travel limbo. A notice on the foreign ministry website says permission to land may be granted “depending on the individual situation if there are special exceptional circumstances, particularly such as ...