Politics

Bloomberg President Donald Trump has directed a deliberate withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria in advance of an expected increase in military action in the region, to keep them out of harm’s way, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reiterated a US threat to damage Turkey’s economy via sanctions if Ankara does anything ...

Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping told Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli that those attempting to split China will be crushed, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Xi said any external force backing the split of China will be considered as delusional by Chinese people, the report said. Oli said Nepal firmly supports China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and won’t ...

Bloomberg Hunter Biden is stepping down from the board of a Chinese-backed private equity company and promising to forego all foreign work if his father, former US Vice President Joe Biden, is elected president in 2020. After months of keeping a relatively low-profile as President Donald Trump leveled a barrage of unsubstantiated accusations of corruption at him, the younger Biden ...

Bloomberg Pakistan is conducting shuttle diplomacy to promote talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia to end a tense standoff that has roiled energy markets and pushed the rival Gulf powers to the brink of war. During a visit to Iran on Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was acting “not as a mediator but as a facilitator” for talks ...

Bloomberg Acting PM Pedro Sanchez has pledged to make a proposal to Spain’s main political parties within 48 hours after next month’s general elections that would allow for the formation of a government and end a long-standing political stalemate in the country. Sanchez will offer the rest of the parties an agreement on basic policies with the aim of having ...

Bloomberg One of the deadliest extremist attacks in the seven-year insurgency in Mali has stoked fresh anger over the government’s failure to halt raids, months after protests forced the prime minister to resign. The Sahel region, the arid band on the southern fringe of the Sahara Desert, is experiencing unprecedented levels of violence as militants seek to extend their influence ...

Bloomberg Hundreds of Hong Kong protesters barricaded a main road in Kowloon and lobbed petrol bombs at a train station on the 19th weekend of violent unrest in the city. While protesters had a full schedule of events planned for the weekend, some demonstrators have been debating whether to soften their tactics to avoid alienating more moderate supporters. Saturday’s march ...

Bloomberg North Korea warned Japan of undesirable consequences if its longtime adversary continues to interfere with its vessels, days after Tokyo sent fishermen back to the country following a collision in Japanese waters. Pyongyang also demanded that Japan compensate it for the damage it caused after “sinking” the North Korean vessel, the Korean Central News Agency reported, citing an unnamed ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump, under siege from House Democrats weighing impeachment, suffered a stinging blow as a federal appeals court upheld a subpoena ordering his accountants to provide Congress with his financial records. The ruling, by a divided three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Washington, means Trump will lose control of his long-secret financial records at Mazars ...

Bloomberg A powerful typhoon made landfall southwest of Tokyo on Saturday evening, bringing heavy rains and violent winds, knocking out power to thousands of homes and prompting local authorities to instruct more than a million people to evacuate. Tokyo and nine surrounding prefectures have ordered around 1.1 million people to leave their homes as Typhoon Hagibis threatens flooding and landslides, ...