Politics

Bloomberg As Emmanuel Macron grapples with renewed violence in Yellow Vest protests in France, a president on the other side of Europe is throwing down the gauntlet against demonstrators in a show of force that may boost his popularity. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic deployed police to break up a protest at state broadcaster RTS in Belgrade on Saturday, continuing his ...

Bloomberg Kazakhstan’s leader-for-life Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his resignation as president, signalling the start of a long-forecast transfer of power after nearly three decades as ruler of central Asia’s largest energy producer. “I’ve taken the difficult decision to terminate my powers as president” as of March 20, Nazarbayev said in a televised address on Tuesday. He announced that Senate Chairman Kassym-Jomart ...

Bloomberg Theresa May looked set to seek a long extension to the UK’s European Union membership after the House of Commons speaker torpedoed her plan to win Parliamentary approval for her deal to leave the bloc. Officials privately accused Speaker John Bercow of over-reaching his powers to help pro-EU politicians deliver a softer divorce and said another vote on May’s ...

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron seemed to have overcome the worst of the Yellow Vest protests. One Saturday of renewed violence has put him back in crisis management mode. Shops on Paris’s iconic Champs Elysé es were torched and 200 people were arrested, prompting Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s office to note the police actions had shown “inadequacies.” Recent protests had ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Cabinet resolved on Monday to overhaul New Zealand’s gun laws after the nation’s worst mass shooting in modern history left 50 people dead. Ardern told reporters in Wellington that ministers had made “in-principle decisions around the reform of our gun laws” and would make an announcement on the proposed changes before Cabinet meets again next ...

Bloomberg A tropical cyclone that tore across Mozambique at the weekend may have killed more than 1,000 people, President Filipe Nyusi said as heavy rains continued to pound neighbouring Zimbabwe where flooding left dozens more dead. “It’s clear that the next few days could be worse,” Nyusi said in comments broadcast on state radio. “If more than 1,000 lives have ...

Bloomberg Brazilian Armed Forces maintain an open communication channel with Venezuela’s military even though Brasilia no longer recognizes Nicolas Maduro as president of the neighbouring Latin American country, according to Brazil’s Defense Minister. “It’s always useful to maintain this channel,” General Fernando Azevedo said at an interview in his office. “It’s part of the military diplomacy.” The dialogue is held ...

Bloomberg The European Union has to worry about one fewer member, for now, sliding into the nationalist-populist rising that’s roiling its post-communist wing. As the bloc’s executives wrangle over democratic standards with governments in Hungary, Poland and Romania, the presidential election in euro-member Slovakia propelled a supporter of deeper integration and a top EU diplomat into a runoff. The vote ...

Bloomberg Half a decade has passed since Vladimir Putin annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. For Russia, the costs continue to mount. The accession treaty signed to bring the Black Sea territory into Moscow’s fold is still unrecognized by most countries and the US and European Union led a broad effort to punish Russia with sanctions. Undeterred, Russia has kept integrating Crimea ...

Bloomberg At least 43 people died in central Mozambique and Zimbabwe after a tropical cyclone tore through the southern African nations, knocking out electricity and phone networks and cutting power to South Africa from a hydropower dam. The storm, the worst to hit Mozambique in at least a decade, had windspeeds of more than 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles) ...