Politics

Bloomberg After the tightest election in over half a century, Finland looks set to get a more left-leaning government as voters rejected years of austerity. Former trade unionist Antti Rinne is poised to become Finland’s first Social Democrat prime minister in 16 years, winning by fewer than 7,000 votes. But he faces a tough set of coalition talks, after the ...

Bloomberg The US is ready to apply new sanctions on Venezuela’s leadership, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, as the government steps up pressure on Nicolas Maduro to relinquish power and allow new elections to be held. The US government will use all political and economic means at its disposal, including sanctions and visa revocations against those propping up the ...

Bloomberg When a colleague from Zuzana Caputova’s little-known political party suggested she run for president last year, she thought the idea absurd. But then the murder of a journalist friend — an act that launched Slovakia’s biggest protests since the fall of communism — made it personal. The former NGO lawyer ran and won by a landslide, and now she’s ...

Bloomberg Sudan’s transitional military council announced an end to a curfew and a commitment to hand power to a civilian government within two years, signalling that pro-democracy protests are weakening the army’s grip in the oil-producing African nation. The moves followed the decision of Defense Minister Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf to stand down as the head of the council less ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un elevated the ranks of dozens of military officers in the latest display of his grip on power amid a stalemate in nuclear talks with the US. Kim ordered three people to be promoted to full general and 33 others to major general on Sunday to mark the upcoming birthday of his grandfather and North ...

Bloomberg Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari told an election tribunal the candidate he beat in a February vote was not a citizen of Nigeria by birth and ought not to have even been allowed to run for the office, deepening the rift between the political leaders in the oil-rich west African nation. The allegation against Atiku Abubakar, the opposition candidate of ...

Bloomberg Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas swore in a new government that excludes his rival Hamas and puts his long-time ally Mohammad Shtayyeh in the role of prime minister at a moment of intensifying pressure on the Palestinians. Benjamin Netanyahu now looks likely to serve a fifth term as Israeli prime minister. Just before Israelis went to the polls, Netanyahu ...

Bloomberg France’s Yellow Vest protesters took to the streets for a 22nd weekend, leading to clashes with police in the southwestern city of Toulouse, while the capital remained calm. Police used tear gas and water cannon in Toulouse to keep demonstrators out of the centre of the city, France.tv showed. Parts of Paris and some regional cities were declared off limits ...

Bloomberg Roger Stone, a sometime adviser and confidant of President Donald Trump, launched a blunderbuss attack on his indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, filing a flurry of papers claiming he was singled out for prosecution and demanding that his lawyers be allowed to see the special counsel’s final report. A longtime Republican political operative and dirty trickster, Stone was ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he’s willing to hold a third summit with President Donald Trump as long as the US offers acceptable terms for an agreement by the end of the year. In remarks carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim said he wouldn’t welcome a repeat of the Hanoi summit in February, when ...