Politics

Bloomberg Azeri President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree pardoning more than 400 people, including opposition politicians and pro-democracy youth activists who were listed as political prisoners by international human rights groups. Fuad Qahramanli and Gozal Bayramli, deputy leaders of the opposition Popular Front of Azerbaijan Party, are among the pardoned, according to a statement on the presidential website. Pro-opposition youth ...

Bloomberg Violence returned to Paris as the Yellow Vests protested for the 18th weekend. Footage from TV news channels showed broken windows at stores as well as a ransacked restaurant on the Champs Elysees. A bank was set on fire near the iconic avenue, leading to 11 wounded in the building, including two police officers, AFP reported. The so-called Yellow ...

Bloomberg Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond ramped up the pressure on Brexiteer Tory MPs as he warned they will trigger a long delay to leaving the European Union unless they support Theresa May’s proposed deal when it returns to Parliament. A growing number of Tories are now backing the agreement, he said, and the deal will only be put ...

Bloomberg Thousands of Catalan secessionists marched in downtown Madrid to protest a trial of their leaders, stoking a political crisis that’s helped topple two Spanish government in less than a year. In the biggest show of Catalan strength in the capital since the secession movement began gaining traction in 2012, marchers took to the iconic Paseo del Prado boulevard with ...

Bloomberg New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she will change gun laws as the country reels from a terrorist attack at two mosques that left 49 people dead and several still fighting for their lives. “While the nation grapples with a form of grief and anger that we have not experienced before, we are seeking answers,” Ardern told a ...

Bloomberg The head of an Indonesian political party backing President Joko Widodo’s bid for a second term has been named a suspect in a graft case involving job postings at the Religious Affairs Ministry. A politician only identified by his initials RMY, and two ministry officials are suspects, said Laode Muhammad Syarif, deputy of the Corruption Eradication Commission, in a ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump issued his first veto, rejecting Congress’s effort to cancel his declaration of a national emergency to pay for a wall on the US-Mexico border, a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign. “Congress passed a dangerous resolution that, if signed into law, would put countless Americans in danger,” Trump said just before signing the veto in the Oval ...

Bloomberg An election in the heart of the European Union’s increasing populist eastern wing is poised to deliver a different kind of anti-establishment triumph. Sandwiched between Poland and Hungary — perennial thorns in the side of Brussels officials —Slovakia is set to pick as president an NGO lawyer who backs EU integration, vows to fight nationalism and wants to rebuild ...

Bloomberg Democratic presidential contenders are already making strategic decisions about where to dedicate campaign resources, putting heavy focus on select states because of a compressed primary calendar and an unusually crowded field. A cross-country sprint through 14 states to sort out winners and losers earlier than in past years. Democrats are making the first four states their top priority and ...

Bloomberg Paul Manafort will serve a total of seven-and-a-half years in prison for felonies uncovered as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference, as a judge extended his sentence on Wednesday while delivering a blistering denunciation of his illegal conduct and habitual lying. US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington ordered that Manafort must serve ...