Politics

Bloomberg Hong Kong hospitals were overwhelmed with injured protesters who evacuated from a university campus after a standoff with police that’s transfixed the city, as schools were due to reopen following days of chaos in the financial hub. Leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that she wanted a peaceful end to the showdown between protesters and police at the Hong ...

Bloomberg A Hong Kong court has found that the local government’s controversial mask ban unconstitutional, delivering a fresh legal blow to an administration struggling to contain increasingly violent protests. The High Court ruling came on Monday in response to a challenge filed by the city’s opposition lawmakers. Chief Executive Carrie Lam imposed the ban last month by invoking colonial-era emergency ...

Bloomberg The bonhomie between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is nearing a key deadline showing new signs of strain. Trump urged Kim to “act quickly” to get a nuclear deal done, suggesting the two leaders could meet again “soon.” His comments came hours after North Korea ruled out nuclear talks without a policy change by the ...

Bloomberg After weeks of Republican complaints that the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry relied on secondhand information, the centerpiece of the public hearings is testimony from a man with a direct line to President Donald Trump. The political peril for Trump, who was dealt a series of setbacks, will be heightened as the House investigation accelerates with three days of public hearings ...

Bloomberg Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who won Sri Lanka’s bitterly contested presidential poll, promised tolerance for all religions and cultures in a nation where racial tensions have divided communities for decades. “All minorities’ right to practice religion and culture will be assured,” Rajapaksa said at his swearing in ceremony at a highly venerated Buddhist site in the north central district of Anuradhapura. ...

Bloomberg Emmanuel Macron wants to make it tougher for the European Union to accept new members, adding to signs of French unease at the prospect of Balkan countries joining the bloc and raising the risk of further strains with Germany. In a document circulated to EU governments, France said the process of EU enlargement should be more “gradual,” terms of ...

Bloomberg Supporters of Juan Guaido staged their biggest protest in Caracas in months as Venezuela’s opposition leader seeks to revive his campaign to oust president Nicolas Maduro. A week after Maduro’s ally Evo Morales was toppled in Bolivia, Guaido is seeking to boost thinning crowds that have grown apathetic since a botched uprising in April failed to remove Maduro. “I’m ...

FILED – 03 November 2019, Lebanon, Beirut: Protestors shout slogans and wave national flags during an anti-government protest in downtown Beirut. Demonstrators took the streets across Lebanon to protest against the government for the 18th consecutive day. Photo: Marwan Naamani/dpa[/caption Bloomberg Mohammed Safadi, a wealthy Lebanese businessman and former finance minister, has withdrawn his name as a candidate for prime ...

Bloomberg The defense chiefs of South Korea and Japan discussed a potential extension of their bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact at a meeting in Bangkok, but only at an “in principle” level, Yonhap reported. “We talked about it only at a theoretical level,” South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo was quoted by Yonhap as saying. He was speaking to reporters in ...

Bloomberg A family of strongmen who tilted Sri Lanka towards a deep reliance on China clinched victory in a tightly-fought presidential election, as voting showed the country remains divided down ethnic lines. Gotabaya Rajapaksa won 52.3% of the votes, while ruling alliance candidate Sajith Premadasa had 42% at the final count, according to the Election Commission of Sri Lanka. There ...