Politics

Bloomberg Former South African President Jacob Zuma was briefly back in court on Tuesday as the start of his trial on graft, racketeering and money laundering charges inched closer, a decade after prosecutors tried to shelve the case amid allegations of political interference. High Court Judge Sharmaine Bolton delayed the trial in the eastern town of Pietermaritzburg until February 4 ...

Bloomberg Protesters continued to disupt rail and road travel as unrest flickered across Catalonia a day after a Madrid court handed down jail sentences totalling 100 years to separatist leaders who tried to split the region from Spain in 2017. Demonstrators blocked several highways while the high-speed rail service north of Barcelona to Girona was disrupted by damage to the ...

Bloomberg The French government believes that the UK presented a “serious proposal” to exit the European Union, though it is too early to say if there will be a deal by the European summit later this week. The situation regarding Brexit must be clear before the EU leaders meet on Thursday in Brussels, about two weeks prior to the October ...

Bloomberg US Democratic presidential aspirants were expected to take the debate stage in Ohio armed with a battery of fresh ammunition against Donald Trump. Trump’s would-be challengers will be targeting a president who’s the subject of a deepening House impeachment inquiry and whose whiplash foreign policy in Syria is drawing withering criticism, even from some in his own party. Look ...

Bloomberg Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took control of the strategic town of Manbij near the Turkish border amid growing pressure on Ankara to end an offensive that has drawn US and European sanctions and accusations of war crimes. In its strongest comments yet, Russia said the offensive was “unacceptable” and it was opposed to the presence of ...

Bloomberg Syrian government forces pushed closer to the Turkish border after striking a deal with Kurdish fighters, as Washington’s decision to abandon its allies reverberated on the battlefield. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his offensive into Syria is necessary to push back Kurdish militants and resettle refugees, but the rapid advance has drawn international condemnation, accusations of war crimes ...

Bloomberg Catalan separatists who tried to break away from Spain in 2017 were handed jail sentences of up to 13 years by the Supreme Court in a ruling that marks a watershed in relations with the troubled region. Former Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras was handed the stiffest sentence while eight other activists were given lesser terms of between nine ...

Bloomberg Law professor Kais Saied is poised for a landslide victory in Tunisia’s presidential election, a result that would give the political outsider a strong mandate to pursue the constitutional changes he says are needed to complete the nation’s 2011 revolution. An exit poll by Sigma Conseil pointed to Saied winning 76.9% of ballots in the run-off vote and his ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong police said a radio-controlled improvised explosive device was detonated near a police car on Sunday evening, the first time one has been used during months of unrest. The device was set off in Mong Kok in Kowloon about 10 meters (33 feet) away from a police car that had come to the scene to clear barricades, Suryanto ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson set out his ambitions for governing Britain with an outline plan for what he will do if he wins the general election that’s expected to be triggered within weeks. The British prime minister promised a focus on domestic issues if he can “get Brexit done,” as he used the pomp and ceremony of a speech to Parliament ...