Politics

Bloomberg Iran’s supreme leader scorned the idea of negotiations to ease his country’s tense standoff with the US in his first comments since being sanctioned by Donald Trump. “If we agree in negotiations to their demands, they will make the nation miserable,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, arguing Washington was attempting to strip Iran of its economic and defense capabilities. “And ...

Bloomberg Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed vowed to press ahead with his reform agenda, saying he won’t be deterred by attacks on the country’s leadership. “We will learn from the obstacles to prevent it from happening again,” Abiy said in a statement posted on his office’s Twitter account. “We will not steer away from our reforms, not even for a ...

Bloomberg Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a visit to Afghanistan that the US is close to finishing a draft deal with the Taliban to ensure the country doesn’t become a terrorist haven, paving the way for talks on withdrawing American troops after 18 years of war. Pompeo made the remarks from the US embassy in Kabul during the ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s Supreme Court postponed a decision on whether to release former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from jail while rejecting other requests that could have freed him temporarily. Five justices from the second chamber of the nation’s Supreme Court initially ruled against a habeas corpus for the former president, who has been imprisoned since April last year. A ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson toughened his Brexit rhetoric with a “do or die” pledge to leave the European Union on October 31 as Jeremy Hunt, his underdog rival to become UK prime minister, battled to persuade Tory party members the strategy is flawed. The front-runner challenged Hunt to match his commitment to leave “come what may” in a letter posted on ...

Bloomberg Iran said the path to a diplomatic solution with the US had closed after the Trump administration imposed sanctions against its supreme leader and other top officials, raising tensions days after the downing of an American drone brought the Middle East to the brink of war. President Donald Trump unveiled sanctions on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and eight senior military ...

Bloomberg The European Union’s center-right alliance is determined to defy French President Emmanuel Macron in the race to nominate the next EU Commission chief, according to senior party officials. European conservatives were enraged that Macron blocked their candidate for commission president, Manfred Weber, at last week’s summit in Brussels, and suspect he is seeking to undermine their role, even though ...

Bloomberg Poland’s sweeping judicial overhaul, which includes lowering the retirement age of Supreme Court judges, violates European Union rules, the bloc’s top court said in a stinging rebuke of measures described by government critics as a political “purge.” The Polish reform “is not justified by a legitimate objective” and “undermines the principle of the irremovability of judges, which is essential ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson said he believed the British Parliament would now support a no-deal Brexit, even as senior figures in his Conservative Party warned they had the numbers to stop him if he tried to push one through. Johnson, a former foreign secretary, and the favourite to succeed Theresa May as prime minister, used a BBC interview to argue that ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump is threatening Iran with additional sanctions on Monday, but there’s not much left for the US to target because most of the Islamic Republic’s economy has been crippled by earlier penalties. The US is already sanctioning significant sectors including oil, banks and steel, leaving smaller targets including certain exports and government officials. Trump could hit Iran’s ...