Politics

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 ...

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 ...