Politics

Bloomberg The Indonesian government rejected opposition allegations of “massive fraud” in the presidential vote and urged supporters of Prabowo Subianto to allow the election commission to peacefully complete the election process. The opposition has claimed widespread tampering of voters list and accused the country’s independent election commission of colluding with President Joko Widodo’s administration to deny a win for Prabowo, ...

Bloomberg The leader of Scotland’s pro-independence government vowed to push for another vote on leaving the UK within two years to protect the country from the consequences of Brexit. Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of the semi-autonomous administration in Edinburgh, said the political system in London had failed Scotland, ignoring its vote to stay in the European Union and undermining the ...

Bloomberg Sri Lanka’s government has blamed local extremist group National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) for one of Asia’s deadliest terrorist attacks in years, and said other nations had shared intelligence warnings ahead of the blasts. The death toll rose to 290 in the coordinated blasts on Easter Sunday at churches and luxury hotels, which the government said were carried out by ...

Bloomberg The Philippines was struck by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Monday afternoon that shook buildings in the capital and prompted the evacuation of thousands onto the streets of Manila. At least eight people have died, according to local media. The quake occurred 1 kilometre from Gutad, located to the northwest of Manila, according to the US Geological Survey. The ...

Bloomberg Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a frosty response to comic Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s landslide election as Ukraine’s new president, with the Kremlin saying it was “premature” to offer congratulations on his victory. “Moscow respects the choice of the Ukrainian people, especially since this choice is very obvious,” though it’s too soon to consider possibilities for Putin and Zelenskiy to work ...

Bloomberg A government-backed candidate scored a razor-edge victory in the first round of North Macedonia’s presidential election and will advance to a runoff against an opposition figure who opposes the deal that opened the way to western integration. Stevo Pendarovski, the coordinator for the country’s accession talks to NATO, won 42.8 percent in the vote, according to the Electoral Commission, ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump returned from a long Easter weekend in Florida to a new political landscape, one where his administration is at last freed from Robert Mueller’s pursuit yet laid bare in all its dysfunction by the special counsel’s report. Trump arrived to his Mar-a-Lago resort with the swagger of a conquering hero, after Mueller reiterated that he had found ...

Bloomberg Multiple explosions rocked Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday as attacks on churches and hotels left at least 207 dead including as many as 30 foreigners in the worst violence since a civil war ended a decade ago. The government imposed an island-wide curfew as security forces try to maintain law and order and investigate the attacks. Those responsible for ...

Bloomberg Rudolph Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s lawyer and a former federal prosecutor, said there’s nothing wrong with a US presidential candidate taking information from Russian sources. “It depends on where it came from,” Giuliani told moderator Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.” While in hindsight he’d advise against accepting Russia’s aid “out of an excess of caution,” Giuliani ...

Bloomberg Tripoli’s Mitiga International Airport has reopened to flights after being shut down for several hours. Flights were suspended because of airstrikes aimed at forces loyal to the internationally recognised government, which is based in Tripoli in northwest Libya. The airport closed earlier this month following an air strike, the first in an offensive by warlord Khalifa Haftar to take ...