Politics

Bloomberg Singapore’s leaders need strong backing from voters to weather uncertain times, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said as he called on members of the ruling party to prepare for a “tough fight” at the next general election. Speaking at the People’s Action Party (PAP) convention, Lee pointed to some economies around the world where public faith in governments has ...

Bloomberg The US is encouraged that Japan and South Korea are showing their first signs of a thaw in their yearlong feud. But it’s unclear whether ties between the two American allies will warm fast enough to save a key intelligence-sharing pact. The neighbours have a little more than two weeks to stop the defense pact from becoming a lasting ...

Bloomberg Thailand tightened security after at least 14 people were killed in the restive deep south in one of the region’s worst attacks in recent years. Assailants targeted two checkpoints in Yala province, in an assault that left another five people injured. Police said they suspected insurgents were responsible and that surveillance had been intensified at other potential targets, such ...

Bloomberg With Angela Merkel’s succession plan unraveling, her Christian Democrats (CDU) are bracing for an open power struggle at the party’s national convention later this month. Less than a year after picking Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to head the CDU, a consensus is building among party officials that she’s not suited to run for chancellor after a series of gaffes, poor election ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong has been gripped for almost five months by protests demanding greater democracy. Now, a pair of bloody attacks on candidates is raising questions about whether the city can even hold an election. On Wednesday, a pro-Beijing lawmaker known for his inflammatory comments against protesters was stabbed on the street while campaigning. Earlier this week, a pro-democracy candidate ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson tried to get his campaign on track after a stumble with one of his best-known ministers in trouble for comments about people killed in a tower-block fire. Johnson launched the Conservative Party election campaign with a rally in the West Midlands on Wednesday. Before that, the prime minister travelled to see Queen Elizabeth II before returning to ...

Bloomberg Nearly six in ten Russians want “decisive and full-scale changes” in the country amid growing discontent with the authorities over living standards, according to new research. The proportion wanting change reached 59% this year, up from 42% in 2017, the study by the Carnegie Moscow Center and the Levada Center polling organisation showed. After five years of stagnating incomes ...

Bloomberg Time is running out for 83-year-old Mahmoud Abbas. Foreign aid to the Palestinians has dropped nearly 80% over the past 10 years, the political outlook is bleak after a half-century of Israeli occupation and his people’s campaign for statehood risks sinking into irrelevance. To salvage his legacy, the Palestinian Authority (PA) president has called — again — for the ...

Bloomberg The Kremlin warned that time is fast running out to negotiate a fresh strategic nuclear weapons deal with the US before the current New START treaty expires. “There is no progress, there are no signals from the Americans about their readiness to start discussions” on replacing or extending the treaty, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters ...

Bloomberg A Bulgarian accused of spying for Russia who was freed on bail was allowed by a court to visit Moscow, where he received an award from President Vladimir Putin. Despite being barred from foreign travel as part of a $28,000 bail agreement two months ago, Nikolay Malinov was able to go to Russia on November 1, according to prosecutors. ...