Politics

Bloomberg Typhoon Phanfone killed at least 41 people when it slammed into the central Philippines on Christmas Eve, with dozens still injured or missing, according to the agency which oversees disaster response. The 21st cyclone to hit the Southeast Asian nation this year also damaged an estimated 1 billion pesos ($19.7 million) worth of crops and infrastructure, including more than ...

Bloomberg The race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn is exacerbating divisions in the UK’s main opposition Labour Party, as former members of Parliament who lost seats this month demanded an “unflinching” review into why the leader’s message had proved such a turnoff among voters. “We need to be honest about why our outgoing leadership’s reflexive anti-Western world view was so unpopular, ...

Bloomberg The US denied a report that it’s demanding South Korea pay as much as 20% more to host American troops, as funding talks between the two nations continue. The 10%-20% figure referred to in Korean media is “ungrounded speculation,” a Trump administration official said by email. US negotiators will seek a “fair and equitable” outcome at the next round ...

Bloomberg More than 73 people died when a truck bomb exploded during rush hour at a busy intersection in Somalia’s capital, police said. An explosives-laden vehicle hit the taxation office near a junction in Mogadishu, Ahmed Abdi Hussein, a Somali police officer, told Bloomberg News by phone. Another police official said the target was Turkish engineers who were in a ...

Bloomberg A rocket attack on an Iraqi military base killed an American contractor and wounded several US and Iraqi military personnel, the Defense Department said. Iraqi security forces were “leading the response and investigation” following the assault on the base in Kirkuk, where coalition forces are based, the Pentagon said in a statement. The names of the contractor and the ...

Bloomberg Indian police have started using facial-recognition software to screen large crowds as protests over a new religion-based citizenship law intensify, the Indian Express newspaper reported, citing people it didn’t identify. The software, originally acquired in 2018 to find lost children, was used at a political rally for the first time on December 22, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi staunchly ...

Bloomberg Austrian conservative leader Sebastian Kurz expects to strike a deal to govern in a coalition with the environmentalist Greens by mid-January, breaking new ground in Austrian politics half a year after his alliance with nationalists ended in scandal. Kurz, 33, and Werner Kogler, his 58-year-old counterpart at the Greens, said they will try to iron out any outstanding issues ...

Bloomberg Labor unions have called for marches and protests across France as they seek to maintain momentum in their month-long opposition to President Emmanuel Macron’s reform of the pension system. Protesters planned to gather at the Gare du Nord station in Paris to start one of the marches, while the CGT union’s railroad branch said they will block a train ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said that if North Korea tests intercontinental ballistic missiles, the US will “deal with it.” “I handle them as they come along,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. North Korea had long suggested it would use the end-of-year holiday season to deliver a “Christmas gift” to the US after demanding Washington ...

Bloomberg Burkina Faso said the army killed 80 militants in a two-pronged attack on a military post and the northern town of Arbinda, the latest deadly incident in an ongoing battle between the West African country and an extremist insurgency. Ground troops and fighter jets pursued the assailants following an intense battle that lasted several hours near the border with ...