Politics

  Bloomberg Venezuela freed the former head of the government’s intelligence agency five years after he was arrested for allegedly instigating a rebellion against President Nicolas Maduro, according to people familiar with the matter. Miguel Rodriguez Torres, a former major general in the army who fell out of Maduro’s favor, was set free Saturday morning and left the country for ...

Bloomberg A retired general pledging unequivocal support for Ukraine is favored to defeat a billionaire former premier in the final round of the Czech presidential election next weekend, opinion polls showed. In the first round of voting last week, Petr Pavel, who once served as Nato’s highest-ranking military official, finished first by a razor-thin margin, ahead of former Prime Minister ...

Bloomberg Germany’s new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said his government hasn’t made a decision yet on supplying its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine but that it could move quickly if an agreement can be reached with Nato allies. Speaking to reporters after talks at the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany, Friday, Pistorius said that defense ministers and military officials had ...

  Bloomberg France will increase its defense budget over six years as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to adjust the nation’s military to new threats posed by the war in Ukraine and technological attacks. In a speech Friday, Macron said he expects the state to spend 400 billion euros ($433 billion) between 2024 and 2030, an increase from the 295 billion ...

  Bloomberg The US signaled growing impatience with Turkey over its resistance to ratifying Nato’s expansion to Sweden and Finland. “The United States urges remaining allies to quickly ratify their accession,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in an account of a call between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto. He used similar language in ...

  Bloomberg Over the past few years, Vietnamese Communist Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong has won praise from investors for removing corrupt officials. Now as some big names fall, it’s becoming clear his campaign serves another purpose: strengthening his hand in choosing a successor. This week Nguyen Xuan Phuc was ousted as president after assuming “political responsibility” for the “violations ...

  Bloomberg Europe mustn’t get embroiled in a standoff between China and the US, and should instead forge its own path in strengthening economic relations, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. There is a “slight gap” between how Europe and the US deal with China, he told Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua at the World Economic Forum in Davos. It’s ...

Bloomberg The Biden administration is planning to send about 100 Stryker armored vehicles in its next package of military aid to Ukraine worth about $2.5 billion. The US is poised to unveil the package as part of a broader announcement by western allies of new hardware for Ukraine that’s set for Friday, when defense ministers meet at Ramstein Air Base ...

  Bloomberg India dismissed as a “propaganda piece” a recently broadcast BBC documentary about the 2002 Gujarat riots and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the violence in his home state. More than 1,000 people — mostly Muslims — were killed in sectarian violence across the state after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was burned allegedly by a Muslim mob. ...

Bloomberg Taiwan’s Premier Su Tseng-chang has tendered his resignation, leaving President Tsai Ing-wen to make a crucial appointment for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party as it seeks an unprecedented third straight term in power in next year’s presidential election. Su, Taiwan’s longest-serving premier since its first democratic elections in 1996, requested the president form a new Cabinet in a statement ...