Politics

Bloomberg Parts of Indonesian capital and its suburbs were flooded after two tropical cyclones off the nation’s coast triggered extremely heavy rainfall, inundating houses in low-lying areas and forcing evacuation of hundreds of residents. More than 200 spots of flooding were reported in Jakarta and the satellite cities of Bekasi and Tangerang with the water level in Ciliwung river that ...

Bloomberg The US and South Korea remain stalled after six rounds of talks on an updated cost-sharing agreement but the allies’ top defense officials said that they hope to break that deadlock next month. “We are engaged in negotiations,” and the “minister and I are hopeful they will reach agreement soon, preferably before the end of March,” Defense Secretary Mark ...

Bloomberg Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad abruptly submitted his resignation to the king on Monday and his party exited the ruling coalition, kicking off a race to form the next government of the Southeast Asian nation. The statement from Mahathir’s office contained no other details. It was unclear whether Mahathir would form a new coalition with other political parties, whether his ...

Bloomberg Bernie Sanders’ commanding win in Nevada dismantled the conventional wisdom about his level of appeal. It broadened his coalition to look more like the Democratic Party as a whole and will make it harder for fearful moderates to impede his path to the nomination. The knock on Sanders always has been that his energetic but narrow base — young, ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump received a red-carpet welcome in Ahmedabad on Monday, kicking off a two-day visit to India that is likely to be more about spectacle than substance. In a day packed with pageantry for the American president — who’s made no secret of his predilection for large crowds and impressive displays — Trump was greeted on the ...

Bloomberg Togolese president Faure Gnassingbe easily secured a fourth term in a February 22 vote, extending his family’s half century-long rule of the West African nation. Gnassingbe won 72% of the vote, the president of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Tchambakou Ayassor, said on Monday. Opposition candidate Agbeyome Kodjo, a former prime minister, received 18%. Voter turnout was 76% of ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) will accelerate the process of appointing a new leader as the party struggles to emerge from political turmoil. A special party conference will be held to choose a successor to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on April 25, according to a CDU official. The party chairwoman who shocked Germany’s political establishment this month by abandoning ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump’s top security aide said he’s seen no evidence that Russia is interfering in the 2020 US election in an effort to support the president’s re-election bid. On the other hand, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien told ABC News that it would be “no surprise” if Moscow was trying to help Senator Bernie Sanders win the election, as ...

Bloomberg A woman in her 60s has tested positive for the coronavirus after disembarking from the cruise ship docked in Yokohama following a two-week quarantine, according to a statement from the Tochigi prefecture. The patient, who tested negative for the virus on February 14 on board the Diamond Princess, returned to her home in the Tochigi prefecture, near Tokyo, on ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump anticipates a hero’s welcome in India on Monday, but the glitzy events filling his two-day visit with PM Narendra Modi will paper over growing trade frictions. The visit is intended to strengthen the personal relationship between Trump and Modi, a fellow nationalist whose country is regarded by the US as an important regional counterweight against China. ...