Politics

Bloomberg Boris Johnson pitched his bid for UK prime minister to Conservative Party members and drew cheers when he dodged questions about a spat with his partner that brought the police to his London home. Front-runner Johnson and his opponent Jeremy Hunt made their opening appeals to grass-roots Tories at a hustings, or political roadshow, that focussed attention on Johnson’s ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he called off retaliatory strikes on three Iranian sites following the downing of a US Navy drone because the action wouldn’t have been “proportionate.” “We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General,” Trump tweeted. ...

Bloomberg United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called on the Venezuelan government to release political prisoners. “I call on the authorities to free all those who are detained for peacefully exercising their civil and political rights,” Bachelet said via webcast before departing Venezuela after a three-day visit. The UN will leave two officials in Caracas to provide ...

Bloomberg In the coffee shops of Britain’s parliament, the political conversation has already turned to the question that will define the country’s immediate future: Can Boris Johnson be stopped from pursuing a no-deal Brexit? The options under discussion for Conservative politicians who want to avoid a no-deal split from the European Union are dramatic. They include quitting the party and ...

Bloomberg Malaysia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Saifuddin bin Abdullah has called for justice to be brought to the perpetrators of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, the ministry wrote in a tweet. The social media post was sent during a regional summit in Bangkok. Southeast Asian leaders have faced pressure to take a tougher stance on Myanmar ahead of the annual ...

Bloomberg Thousands of demonstrators who surrounded Hong Kong police headquarters dispersed peacefully after they had blocked all entrances to the building for 15 hours as part of ongoing protests over a proposed China-backed extradition bill. Protesters began converging on the police complex in the Wan Chai district after moving over from the nearby central government building, which Chief Executive Carrie ...

Bloomberg Both China’s Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un have suffered from President Donald Trump’s penchant for walking away from talks. Now, he’ll have to worry about what they tell each other behind closed doors. Xi’s state visit to Pyongyang on Thursday — the first such visit by a Chinese president in 14 years — will showcase a renewed ...

Bloomberg President Hassan Rouhani said Iran’s decision to end its compliance with some measures within the nuclear deal were the “minimum” that the Islamic Republic could do in response to the US violating the landmark accord, according to the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency (INSA). Rouhani said “the other side in the agreement” hadn’t only failed to fulfil its obligations ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is “strong evidence” supporting a US accusation that Iran was behind last week’s attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. “We of course take these explanations very seriously, and there is strong evidence,” the German Chancellor said at a news conference after talks with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Berlin. “But ...

Bloomberg Japan rejected a South Korean proposal for a joint compensation fund to resolve a dispute over colonial-era forced labour claims, in the latest sign of strain between the two US allies. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it was willing to consider diplomatic talks about compensation for Koreans forced to work for Japanese companies before and during World War II. ...