Politics

Bloomberg The US called on Russia to release jailed Ukrainian sailors and enable a prisoner exchange, US State Department Special Representative Kurt Volker told reporters in Kiev. Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and imprisoned their two dozen crew members in November, accusing them of violating its territorial waters. The incident occurred off the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong police and protesters fought pitched battles in the northern district of Yuen Long where demonstrators converged for a march after stick-wielding mobs attacked train commuters and demonstrators on Sunday. Riot police fired tear gas and pepper spray as demonstrators hurled projectiles at them and vandalised a vehicle. The protesters, mostly clad in black and some wearing protective ...

Bloomberg Chilean police are scratching their heads over who sent two sophisticated package bombs without claiming responsibility or making any demands. The first bomb exploded at a police station in northern Santiago, leaving five policemen hospitalised. The second was intercepted at the headquarters of Quinenco SA, one of the holding companies through which Chile’s richest family controls Banco de Chile. ...

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 ...