Politics

Australia, Indonesia unveil visa, climate pacts as leaders meet

BLOOMBERG Longer business visas and millions of dollars in green investment aimed at bolstering economic ties capped the first visit to Australia by Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo in three years. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Indonesian leader known as Jokowi discussed boosting cooperation on critical minerals, green manufacturing and security partnerships during their meeting in Sydney on Tuesday. At ...

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Nato chief extends tenure as Kyiv forces advance

BLOOMBERG Nato extended Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s by a year as the military alliance confronts Russia’s invasion, while Ukraine pressed forward with its counteroffensive in the country’s east. “In a more dangerous world, our great alliance is more important than ever,” Stoltenberg, whose extension was the third in the Norwegian’s tenure as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s chief, said in ...

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Biden to shore up Nato allies after failed mutiny in Russia

BLOOMBERG US President Joe Biden will leave for Europe in a week to firm up ties with key Nato allies, including the UK, in the wake of the last month’s abortive uprising in Russia. Biden plans to hold talks with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before heading to Vilnius, Lithuania, for the 74th Nato summit, and ending in Finland with ...

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Bosnia envoy revokes Bosnian Serb laws

BLOOMBERG Bosnia-Herzegovina’s international overseer revoked two laws adopted by ethnic Serbs as unconstitutional, the latest standoff threatening stability in the country’s fragile postwar balance. Christian Schmidt, the Western-backed envoy with powers to change legislation that harms Bosnia’s complex power-sharing set up after ethnic warfare in the 1990s, struck down laws adopted by lawmakers in the Republika Srpska entity that denied ...

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Central Intelligence Agency chief calls war in Ukraine ‘corrosive’ for Putin’s regime

BLOOMBERG The invasion of Ukraine has had a “corrosive effect” on Russian society and President Vladimir Putin’s regime, creating an “opportunity” for the US, said William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The top US spy made rare public comments, delivering a lecture at the Ditchley Foundation in Chipping Norton, northwest of London. “Disaffection with the war will ...

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French riots over killing start to ease

BLOOMBERG A fifth night of unrest across France was more subdued as authorities contained the fallout from the killing of a teenager that has reignited debate about racism and inequality. The riots and looting, which have drawn comparisons with America’s reaction to the murder of George Floyd in 2020, have become a moment of reckoning for the country which has ...

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Russia shows Putin ally with army after revolt

BLOOMBERG President Vladimir Putin’s defense minister visited combat troops in Ukraine, in an apparent Kremlin effort to bolster his position after a mercenary leader’s mutiny demanding the removal of top military chiefs. Sergei Shoigu was shown on state television meeting with officers at what the Defense Ministry said was the forward command post of Russia’s ‘Zapad’ group of forces in ...

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Argentina election shifts right in Latin America leaning left

BLOOMBERG Argentina’s presidential election is increasingly poised to usher in a pro-market government after the ruling bloc coalesced around centrist Economy Minister Sergio Massa. Markets in Argentina may rally after Massa announced his run, analysts said, fuelled by optimism that economic policy will eventually move in a new direction after four years of byzantine measures that have left the country ...

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Germany ready to station 4,000 troops in Lithuania

BLOOMBERG Germany’s defense chief said the country is prepared to station a permanent brigade of some 4,000 troops in Lithuania to help shore up Nato’s eastern flank against potential Russian aggression. The announcement by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius during a visit to Vilnius represented a more robust pledge after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government previously said the German military contingent would ...

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EU sees hurdles to seizing $219bn in Russian assets

BLOOMBERG The European Union (EU) has assessed that it can’t legally confiscate outright frozen Russian assets and instead is focussing on using those assets temporarily, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg. The EU is zeroing in on two options as it keeps exploring how it could harness more than €200 billion ($219 billion) in frozen Russian central bank assets ...

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