Politics

Bloomberg Seven political parties opposed to Thailand’s ruling junta said they had the numbers to form a majority coalition following the general election, intensifying a tussle for power with a pro-military bloc. Sudarat Keyuraphan, a leader of the Pheu Thai party linked to exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, said the coalition would unofficially have 255 seats in the 500-seat lower ...

Bloomberg China’s Communist Party expelled former Interpol President Meng Hongwei, months after he went missing during a trip to the country. Meng was also removed from his government post as vice public security minister over violations that included the taking of bribes and abuse of power, according to a statement from the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). The ...

Bloomberg As South Sudan’s main combatants prepare to join forces to end a brutal five-year civil war, recent fighting involving a renegade military officer suggests the conflict may be far from over. Thousands of civilians have fled their homes in Yei state in the southwest of the country this year, witnesses to alleged murders and looting as government troops battle ...

Bloomberg Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, following a tense day that began with a rocket attack on a home in central Israel and a counterstrike that reduced the office of Hamas’s leader to ruins. Amid the escalation, both sides made preparations for the possibility of a broader confrontation. Israel moved troops closer to its southern ...

Bloomberg Syrian Kurds will merge their forces into President Bashar al-Assad’s military if he agrees to grant them some measure of political autonomy, an envoy in Moscow said. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces can incorporate their fighters into Assad’s army “if there is agreement on a new constitution guaranteeing the rights of all peoples in Syria rather than keeping central ...

Bloomberg The UK Parliament seized control of the Brexit process from PM Theresa May and will now seek to decide how Britain exits the European Union. In a vote, the House of Commons split 329 to 302 to schedule votes on a series of alternative strategies, potentially including a second referendum, keeping the UK in the bloc’s customs union, leaving ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s first election since the 2014 coup was always going to be messy. But it’s turning out to be even more chaotic than many observers expected, setting the stage for renewed tumult after five years of military rule. Election authorities have faced calls to resign for repeatedly delaying the full results and failing to account for mounting irregularities, including ...

Bloomberg Former PM Nawaz Sharif, who is serving a seven-year jail term in a corruption case, got bail for six weeks to enable him to seek medical treatment for a heart condition. Pakistan’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa in his verdict in Islamabad on Tuesday barred the ex-premier from seeking his treatment overseas, Khawaja Harris, Sharif’s lawyer ...

Bloomberg Russia urged US President Donald Trump to seize the opportunity to reset relations after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report found no evidence of collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin. “There’s a chance to renew much in our relations, but the question is whether Trump will take the risk,” Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the international relations committee in the ...

Bloomberg China protested the latest transit through the Taiwan Strait by American warships, warning the US not to undermine relations between the two countries. “China has been closely monitoring from start to end the passage by the US warships through the Taiwan Strait,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular news briefing in Beijing on Monday. “China has ...