Politics

Bloomberg The top Russia expert on President Donald Trump’s National Security Council (NSC) has left his post after about three months, according to three people familiar with the matter. Andrew Peek, the NSC’s senior director for European and Russian affairs, was escorted from the White House grounds, two of the people said, asking not to be identified because they weren’t ...

Bloomberg Two Hong Kong police officers were beaten at a rally in the city centre that was dispersed as it descended into confusion and violent clashes. The officers, from the Police Community Liaison Office, both suffered head wounds after being attacked with wooden sticks and other weapons near the gathering in Chater Garden in the Central business district. The meeting ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump’s legal team says Democrats mounted a “brazen” bid to overturn the 2016 election, echoing the president’s aggressive posture in the first formal White House response to impeachment proceedings in the US Senate. Two people close to the team previewed how Trump’s lawyers plan to mount his defense over the coming weeks, largely tracking public statements the president ...

Bloomberg “Read the transcript!” That’s the rallying cry of President Donald Trump and supporters who say he did nothing wrong in the Ukraine impeachment saga. Democrats countered that the White House readout of Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president offers strong evidence of his guilt. The key line they point to is this: “I would like you to do us a ...

Bloomberg North Korea’s Ri Yong Ho has been replaced as foreign minister after about four years as the country’s top diplomat, NK News reported, citing people familiar with the matter in Pyongyang. The name of his replacement has not been made public, although NK News said it may be announced on or before an event for resident diplomats, scheduled for ...

Bloomberg Democrats seeking to counter President Donald Trump’s use of “socialism” as a slur can look to a yearlong effort to fight back now underway in Florida. Trump frequently attacks Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as socialists in the mold of progressives in Congress like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are pushing the party to adopt far-left policies. This attack has ...

Bloomberg The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee threatened to subpoena Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to testify about the administration’s policy in Iran, Iraq and the Middle East following the US drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad. The warning comes as Democrats continue to demand clarity over why Qassem Soleimani — the head of ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong must not give up on its youth and should invest in future generations, finance secretary Paul Chan said at a forum on Saturday, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) reported. The city faces declining income and a growing deficit as it tries to deal with ongoing social issues, Chan said. Hong Kong has endured seven months of violent ...

Bloomberg Iran will transfer the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder of a crashed Boeing aircraft to Ukraine for further investigation, according to Iranian media. “The black boxes of Flight 752 will not be decoded in Iran and will be transferred to Ukraine instead as per the country’s request,” semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing Hassan Rezaeifar, head ...

Bloomberg European nations insist they still want to save the Iran nuclear deal, but to do that they now need to turn up the pressure on Tehran. Germany, France and the UK triggered an escalation in the standoff with Iran, starting formal action against the Islamic Republic for breaching restrictions on uranium enrichment set out in the 2015 accord. Violating ...