Politics

Bloomberg A senior member of Hong Kong’s delegation to Beijing dismissed speculation that new national security legislation would be used to whisk people over the border, as Chinese authorities sought to assuage global concerns about the measure. Maria Tam, vice chairwoman of the Chinese parliamentary committee that oversees Hong Kong’s law, said in an interview that she didn’t believe the ...

Bloomberg Trump administration officials discussed whether to conduct the first nuclear test explosion since 1992, the Washington Post reported. A meeting of people representing the top national security agencies discussed the matter, according to the newspaper, which cited an unidentified senior administration employee and two former officials familiar with the deliberations. The matter surfaced after some administration representatives said Russia ...

Bloomberg The US suspects North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is currently in the wider Pyongyang area, according to a report by South Korean daily DongA Ilbo that cites an unidentified Washington government official. The official told the newspaper that the US identified what it believed was Kim’s train in Kangdong County this week, and his car and horse was also ...

Bloomberg FBI Director Christopher Wray ordered an internal review of how the bureau handled the investigation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, including any instances of official misconduct. The “after-action review” by the Inspection Division will evaluate the bureau’s role in the Flynn investigation and look into whether any current bureau employees engaged in misconduct, according to a statement ...

Bloomberg UK government officials defended Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings, who is facing calls to resign after reports that he broke the UK government’s lockdown rules. Cummings “believes he behaved reasonably and legally,” according to a statement from an unidentified spokesman for 10 Downing Street. He was seen more than 250 miles (400 kilometres) from his London home shortly ...

Bloomberg Joe Biden said he should not have been “cavalier” about support from African Americans and insisted he does not take black voters for granted after a backlash over his comments earlier in the day that if a voter is still undecided, “you ain’t black.” “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy,” he said on a call with the ...

Bloomberg Chinese authorities are planning to write the country’s national security law into Hong Kong’s charter, the news site HK01 reported, in what would be a dramatic escalation of Beijing’s efforts to rein in dissent in the city. China’s lawmakers were preparing to pass a measure in their upcoming session that would require the former British colony to enact a ...

Bloomberg The biggest cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal in two decades wrecked havoc along India’s east coast and in Bangladesh, killing dozens of people, flooding low-lying areas and affecting power supply. Amphan was likely to continue to move north-northeastward and weaken further into a depression on Thursday, according to the India Meteorological Department. The storm, which started as ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against China, suggesting that the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, is behind a “disinformation and propaganda attack on the United States and Europe.” “It all comes from the top,” Trump said in a series of tweets. He added that China was “desperate” to have former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, win ...

Bloomberg Michael Pompeo is defending the firing of the State Department’s inspector general but refuses to give any details, fuelling questions about probes the watchdog was conducting and demonstrating anew the secretary of state’s distaste for explaining controversial decisions publicly. A defiant Pompeo said at a news conference that he wished he’d asked President Donald Trump to dismiss Inspector General ...