Politics

Bloomberg Mahathir Mohamad may be at least temporarily out of power, but the 94-year-old leader isn’t going down without a fight. Mahathir’s abrupt resignation kicked off a week of horse-trading that saw his fortunes rise and fall by the hour. He said he had the numbers to form a government, but by late afternoon the king appointed Muhyiddin Yassin — ...

Bloomberg The first person in the US to die from the novel coronavirus was a man in Washington state, authorities confirmed, after President Donald Trump briefed the nation on his administration’s response and urged people not to panic. Trump, at a press conference at the White House, described the victim was “a medically high-risk patient in her late 50s,” adding ...

Bloomberg Shinzo Abe has overcome countless political perils on the road to becoming Japan’s longest-serving prime minister. He may have met his match with the coronavirus. In a sign of mounting concern, Abe abandoned his relatively mild approach to the epidemic last week with a shock announcement urging schools to shut nationwide from Monday. The move sent millions of parents ...

Bloomberg Slovak anti-corruption parties — propelled by lingering anger at the killing of an investigative reporter two years ago — scored an unexpectedly large majority in elections. Four groups, led by Ordinary People, garnered 45% of votes, which would represent 95 mandates in the 150-seat parliament, results from nearly all election districts showed. They’ve vowed to join forces to dislodge ...

Bloomberg Bernie Sanders is looking to deliver a knock-out blow to his progressive competitor Elizabeth Warren on Super Tuesday by winning the primary on her home turf of Massachusetts. Sanders, the national front-runner, is making an aggressive push in the Bay State in the last few days before the March 3 Democratic ballot. He held a rally there last week ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who returned to the city streets for a rally that turned violent. Protesters gathered outside Mong Kok police station in Kowloon and paralysed traffic, the Hong Kong government said in a statement. The demonstrators threw petrol bombs and set fire to barricades, according to the statement. Police used pepper spray ...

Bloomberg Mahathir Mohamad failed in his bid to return to power in Malaysia, as the king approved a government dominated by Malay-majority parties in a monumental shift from the multiracial coalition that took power after a shocking election win two years ago. Muhyiddin Yassin, 72, was named prime minister on Saturday by the country’s monarch to end a six-day tussle ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump defeated Democrats’ effort to force former White House Counsel Don McGahn to testify, in a court ruling that bolsters the president’s resistance to congressional oversight. The federal appeals court’s ruling arrives too late to affect the impeachment process, which was resolved with Trump’s acquittal by the Senate in February. But it could have an impact on other ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong media tycoon and a prominent democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, who has long denounced as a traitor by Chinese state media, was among activists swept up in a fresh wave of arrests in the Asian financial hub. Lai, 72, was arrested on suspicion of participating in an unlawful assembly last year and intimidating a reporter in 2017, Hong ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s military-backed government said pro-democracy protests risk spreading the coronavirus and asked people to avoid rallies. People gathering in crowds could make it harder to control the spread of the disease known as Covid-19, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said in a briefing on Saturday. Confirmed infections in Thailand have climbed by one to 42, the ministry said. “Big crowds ...