Politics

Bloomberg The US Senate unanimously passed a bill aimed at supporting protesters in Hong Kong and warning China against a violent suppression of the demonstrations — drawing a rebuke from Beijing. China reiterated on Wednesday a threat to impose unspecified retaliation if the bill became law and urged the US to stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs. Separately, the city’s ...

Bloomberg Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has decided to resign, state-run Daily News reported, days after his party’s candidate lost the country’s bitterly contested presidential poll and allowing newly-elected president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to choose a replacement. The Daily News didn’t say whether Wickremesinghe, who leads the United National Party and the ruling coalition, took the decision in order to ...

Bloomberg Ethiopia’s ethnic Sidama began voting in a referendum on whether to create a new regional state, the first of what’s expected to be a series of demands for more autonomy. The plebiscite will test whether the Horn of Africa nation can hold a general election scheduled for next year peacefully. The outcome will provide an indication of whether the ...

Bloomberg A court in Thailand disqualified from parliament a key opposition leader who had criticised the royalist establishment’s grip on power. The Constitutional Court found Future Forward leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit guilty of breaking rules meant to prevent politicians from owning shares in media firms. The court also barred him from being a member of parliament. He’d been suspended pending the ...

Bloomberg French president Emmanuel Macron’s government unveiled an emergency funding plan for ailing hospitals in an effort to calm protests from doctors and healthcare workers as the country braces for strikes over pension reform. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the government will raise the budget for hospitals by 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) over the next three years, starting with ...

Bloomberg For the longest time, Angela Merkel was Germany and under her the center-right Christian Democrats were the dominant political force in the European Union. Today the party is a shambles and its new leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK), can’t seem to straighten it out. Just last month, the CDU suffered a historic beating in the eastern region of Thuringia. Mike ...

Bloomberg Lebanese protesters flocked to the capital on Tuesday and forced parliament to postpone its session indefinitely after facing off with the army and anti-riot police, adding to a political storm in the country even as banks reopened after a weeklong closure. The legislature will meet at a later date after demonstrations prevented enough lawmakers from reaching it to form ...

Bloomberg The US is conducting more patrols in the South China Sea to send a signal to China that it intends to maintain freedom in the area that’s crucial for global trade, defense secretary Mark Esper said. Esper said at a media briefing in Manila the US “rejects attempts by any nation to use coercion or intimidation to advance international ...

Bloomberg The US walked out of military cost-sharing talks with South Korea, after the key American ally balked at President Donald Trump’s demands for a five-fold funding increase. The chief US negotiator, James DeHart, said that the American side cut short talks in Seoul because the South Koreans “were not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden-sharing.” The ...

Bloomberg Poland’s populist government suffered another blow to its sweeping judicial reforms after the European Union’s highest court raised fresh concerns about the independence of judges. The EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg said it was up to Poland’s Supreme Court to decide if a new disciplinary body for judges was autonomous from political influence, leaving the fate of the ...