Politics

Bloomberg Nigel Farage’s newly-created Brexit Party is threatening to wipe out Theresa May’s Conservatives in the European Parliament elections. One reason behind the Farage surge in the polls may be his dominance of social media, the crucial election cyber war. With a series of polished and professionally produced videos — rapidly cutting from packed rallies with the party’s diverse candidates ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia does not want a war with Iran but will respond “with strength and determination” if Iran decides to start one, a top Saudi official said. “We don’t want a war in any way, but at the same time we won’t allow Iran to continue its hostile policies towards the kingdom,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel ...

Bloomberg At least 16 people were injured when an explosive device targeted a tourist bus near the Giza pyramids in Egypt, said Hanaa Serour, an official at the Health Ministry. Some of the wounded were foreign nationals, according to Mohammed El-Saghir, head of police investigations in Giza’s al-Haram neighbourhood. The blast occurred in front of a museum that’s under construction, ...

Bloomberg PM Narendra Modi is likely to return to power at the head of a coalition government, with exit polls predicting his Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies will win a majority of seats in India’s parliament. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance will win as many as 306 seats in India’s 543-seat lower house, according to an exit poll from ...

Bloomberg Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz ended his controversial coalition with the nationalist Freedom Party after a video compromised his junior partner, seeking an early election in a gamble he can govern alone. Twenty-six hours after Austrian politics was turned upside down by the publication of secretly filmed footage showing his deputy promising government contracts in return for campaign funding, Kurz ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Europeans against falling sway to populists, evoking the continent’s wars in a proxy showdown with Italy’s deputy premier before voters have their say next week. On a day when far-right politics brought down a government in Austria, Merkel stepped up her message that only the EU’s established parties could protect liberal values and seven ...

Bloomberg President Rodrigo Duterte is in his residence at the presidential palace in Manila signing papers, his spokesman said, denying that the Philippine leader was confined in a hospital. “I just talked to him,” spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement. “He’s neither confirming nor denying that he went to the hospital,” the spokesman said. ABS-CBN News said in a ...

Bloomberg Australian PM Scott Morrison’s conservative government appeared poised to claim a come-from-behind victory in Australia’s election against the left-leaning Labor party. While opinion polls had pointed to a Labor win, with more than half the votes counted the Australian Broadcasting Corp predicted the Liberal-National coalition would form government, though it remained unclear whether it would get the 76 seats ...

Bloomberg Indonesian police have arrested dozens of extremists linked to IS, who authorities said were plotting attacks next week on political rallies outside the nation’s election commission office during the announcement of the official result of the presidential vote. Most of the 29 suspects detained in the past two weeks were former IS extremists, who fought for several years in ...

Bloomberg Austria may be headed for snap elections after the center-right government stumbled over a video showing the vice chancellor promising government contracts in return for campaign funding. The ball is in the court of conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz after Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, from the nationalist Freedom Party, stepped down, calling his own actions “dumb” and “embarrassing.” Kurz is ...