Politics

Bloomberg Australia is facing an “unprecedented” wave of espionage, including cyber-attacks and traditional spy craft, The Australian newspaper reported. The country is facing daily threats of foreign interference, the paper reported, citing outgoing spy chief Duncan Lewis, who is director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). The unprecedented level of attempted interference was a direct result of globalisation, ...

Bloomberg China accused the US of undermining global stability, as the country released its first defense white paper since Chinese President Xi Jinping initiated a sweeping military overhaul in 2015. The paper titled “China’s National Defense in the New Era” — in a reference to a key Xi slogan — said that the US had provoked competition among major countries. ...

Bloomberg The chaos in Libya, where strongman Khalifa Haftar has vowed to capture the capital from the internationally recognised government, is threatening to further destabilise its West African neighbours, Niger’s interior minister said. Several countries in the Sahel, a semi-arid region on the southern fringe of the Sahara desert, are already struggling to cope with extremist violence and a surge ...

Bloomberg Russian police detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny as a standoff intensified over the authorities’ decision to bar prominent anti-government candidates from September elections in Moscow. Navalny has called for another major rally in front of the mayor’s office after he addressed the biggest protest in three years in the Russian capital on July 20, attended by more than 20,000 ...

Bloomberg Germany’s new defense minister said the country must boost defense spending and overhaul its military equipment, risking a fresh conflict in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s teetering coalition government. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Merkel’s heir-apparent as leader of the Christian Democratic Union, said after her swearing-in that she’ll insist on “reliable and continuous increases,” and that Germany will achieve a NATO-endorsed goal of ...

Bloomberg Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini had everyone worried he would force the collapse of Italy’s government. Now he’s won concessions that have appeased him, at least for the moment. Premier Giuseppe Conte handed Salvini a victory with support for a high-speed Alpine rail link with France, a project the rightist League chief has championed in a long-running clash with ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump offered to help resolve India and Pakistan’s long-running conflict over the territory of Kashmir — citing an invitation from Narendra Modi that the Indian prime minister’s government later denied. “If you would want me to mediate or arbitrate, I would be willing to do that,” Trump told Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, at a White House ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he could end America’s longest-running war “in a week,” except that it would cost too many lives. Trump complained that the nearly 18-year US campaign in Afghanistan is “ridiculous” in a White House meeting with Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan. He said he could “win” the conflict, in which the US is trying to help ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson, the public face of the Brexit campaign, won the contest to succeed Theresa May as British prime minister, taking over a country in crisis and a government on the brink of breaking apart. After a six-week leadership race, which he led from the start, Johnson defeated his rival Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt by a landslide in a ...

Bloomberg Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila plans to run for president in a move that may cause friction within the ruling coalition as her main ally is also considering his candidacy. The ruling Social Democrats leaders pressed Dancila to join the presidential race as no other candidates were seen standing a chance against incumbent Klaus Iohannis, who’s seeking re-election with ...