Politics

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said that he cancelled secret meetings with major Taliban leaders and the president of Afghanistan, set for Sunday at Camp David, and discontinued peace negotiations after a US soldier was killed. The sudden demise of the talks may doom direct US negotiations with the Taliban that held out the prospect of ending 18 years of combat ...

Bloomberg France’s foreign and defense ministers will meet their Russian counterparts on Monday in Moscow, a further step in President Emmanuel Macron’s effort to refresh relations with Russia. It’s the first such visit since 2014, and follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Macron’s summer residence, just before the Biarritz G-7 meeting. “We’re not going to Moscow to lift the ...

Bloomberg What was supposed to be a sleepy round of off-cycle regional elections on Sunday has turned into a referendum on President Vladimir Putin and his ruling United Russia party. Kremlin-backed candidates for governor are vulnerable in several regions across the country as stagnant incomes and unpopular reforms fuel discontent, while elections for Moscow’s largely toothless city council have sparked ...

Bloomberg Like many expatriates in Hong Kong, Madeline Bardin is thinking more and more about leaving. The 36-year-old entrepreneur has thrived in the city for seven years, but she worries that its summer of unrest isn’t going away anytime soon. She won’t go outside with her 8-month-old son without first checking chat groups and the news for reports of tear ...

Bloomberg Transportation companies in Japan are cancelling flights and train services as Typhoon Faxai approaches. The season’s 15th typhoon was heading north-northwest at about 30 kilometres per hour as of 4:45 pm Tokyo time on Sunday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It may reach the nation’s Kanto region, which includes Tokyo, by early Monday. Japan Airlines Co. said it canceled ...

Bloomberg Iran said it was no longer abiding by limits imposed on its uranium enrichment and centrifuge research by the 2015 nuclear accord, throwing down a new challenge to European leaders struggling to sustain their diplomatic push to calm the Gulf. The Islamic Republic will forge ahead with plans to develop its advanced centrifuges and has started injecting them with ...

Bloomberg An Iranian oil tanker that the US is trying to seize is near the Syrian port of Tartus, the Associated Press reported, citing satellite images. The Adrian Darya 1 had disappeared from satellite-tracking not far from Syria’s coast, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It is thought to have 2 million barrels of oil on board. Previously called Grace ...

Bloomberg US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said China shouldn’t intervene forcibly in Hong Kong and warned European countries against becoming too dependent on Chinese investment. “We would obviously urge restraint and not to act, and to sit down and talk with the protesters and resolve the differences,” Esper said at a press conference in Paris with his French counterpart Florence ...

Bloomberg The US envoy for North Korea said the Trump administration is ready to negotiate whenever Kim Jong-un’s regime is ready, effectively confirming that months of American efforts to bring the two sides back to denuclearisation talks have stalled. “We have made clear to North Korea we are prepared to engage as soon as we hear from them,” Stephen Biegun, ...

Bloomberg Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said that the nation’s strategy to stop undocumented migrants in response to demands from US President Donald Trump is succeeding and that flows have been cut by 56 percent in three months. Ebrard, who will head to Washington for meetings at the White House on Tuesday, said that measures including the deployment of ...