Politics

Bloomberg The US is projecting “strategic confusion” in the South China Sea, the Philippines’ top diplomat said, prompting the Southeast Asian nation to deepen its ties with China. President Rodrigo Duterte prefers China’s offer of loans and investments in the absence of a clearer stance from the US in the disputed sea amid growing rivalry between the two nations, Philippine ...

Bloomberg Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is fighting to preserve her position as Angela Merkel’s heir apparent after her attempts to accelerate the transfer of power backfired. Kramp-Karrenbauer, who replaced Merkel as head of the Christian Democratic Union in December, embarked on a charm offensive to demonstrate her loyalty to the German chancellor after failing to win support for an effort to persuade ...

Bloomberg Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini’s top aide turned against Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte as tensions within the populist government escalated over immigration before this week’s European vote. Giancarlo Giorgetti, who’s also Cabinet secretary, voiced long-running frustration among lieutenants of the right-wing League party against the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which picked Conte a year ago. “Conte is no longer impartial,” ...

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 ...