Politics

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s leader said her government can handle unrest without assistance from Chinese forces, and still wants to hold talks with protesters despite a flare up in violence. “To this day, the SAR [Special Administrative Region] government is still confident it’s able to solve the disturbance that’s gone on for two months,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam told a regular ...

Bloomberg An Australian writer detained in China seven months ago has been formally arrested on suspicion of espionage, triggering swift demands from the government in Canberra that he be allowed to return home. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she was “concerned and disappointed” that Yang Hengjun, a Chinese native who’s now an Australian citizen, would “continue to be criminally detained.” ...

Bloomberg Russia was guilty of human rights violations that contributed to the death in a Moscow prison of Sergei Magnitsky, an ally of Kremlin critic Bill Browder, a European court ruled in a rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian officials deprived Magnitsky of “important” medical care, effectively putting his life in danger, the Strasbourg, France-based European Court of Human ...

Bloomberg Thailand will receive a batch of US-made armoured vehicles next month, as ties between the two countries warm following the end of military rule in the Southeast Asian nation. The Strykers — eight-wheeled vehicles designed to move infantry — will be deployed at a base near Bangkok, Army Chief Apirat Kongsompong told reporters. Apirat said Thailand will receive 70 ...

Bloomberg If President Donald Trump’s bid to negotiate with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is a work in progress — three meetings to date and no breakthrough — his suggestion of face time with Iran’s leader appears dead on arrival. Iranian officials ruled out Trump talks with President Hassan Rouhani, who rejected a photo-op and said the US must lift sanctions ...

Bloomberg In the South African township where Nelson Mandela joined the struggle against apartheid, Lordwick Nxumalo is reduced to hustling for a living. Each day, he and other young jobless men of Soweto hang around on Walter Sisulu Square, waiting to take passport pictures for documents like driving licenses. The licensing office boss, who owns the camera, pays 10 rand ...

Bloomberg The US said that South Korea’s decision to pull out of an intelligence-sharing deal with Japan endangers American troops — an usually blunt criticism of one of Washington’s closest allies. The Trump administration is disappointed in South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s announcement that his government would stop participating in the 2016 General Security of Military Information Agreement with Japan, ...

Bloomberg Calls on Donald Trump to start talks about the last remaining nuclear weapons agreement between Russia and the US remain unanswered, 18 months before it expires, increasing the risk of an unhindered arms race, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman. The consequences will be “quite fatal” if Russia and the US let lapse the 2010 New START treaty ...

Bloomberg Russia said air tests found traces of nuclear isotopes after a deadly blast that killed five atomic scientists and caused a spike in radiation at a remote military facility. Barium-139, barium-140, strontium-91 and lanthanum-140 were found in a cloud of radioactive gases that drifted over the city of Severodvinsk following the explosion on a nearby offshore platform in the ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he knew that Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was heading to Biarritz, site of the Group of Seven summit, and supported French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to invite him amid growing signs of active diplomacy at work. The US leader pulled out of the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018, leaving Macron and his European allies ...