Politics

Bloomberg Buying time is what Theresa May does best. When she faced a vote to oust her as prime minister last December, she promised her critics she would quit as leader before the next election in 2022. That fired the starting pistol on a contest to choose a successor, with rivals already putting their campaign preparations in place. Some ministers ...

Bloomberg After days of preparation, the trucks rolled out. They bore beans, rice, sugar, salt and the possibility that Venezuela’s army would desert autocratic President Nicolas Maduro and the moribund nation might begin its revival. Instead, there came violent action but little motion. Maduro avoided a bloodbath despite a massive border face-off between protesters and soldiers. His army didn’t desert ...

Bloomberg Afghanistan civilian casualties rose 5 percent in 2018 to the highest level in a decade, reflecting an increase of suicide attacks by Taliban and IS militants, according to a United Nations report on the conflict that has dragged on for 18 years. The report showed 3,804 deaths and 7,189 injured, with 63 percent of the casualties blamed on anti-government ...

Bloomberg France remains committed to fighting militants in West Africa, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said, two days after French troops killed a prominent extremist leader. Philippe spoke during a visit to Mali, where France has deployed about 3,000 soldiers to hunt militants following a 2012 insurgency that almost led to the collapse of the state. Despite the deployment of more ...

Bloomberg Kim Jong-un’s arrival in Vietnam this week for a second meeting with US President Donald Trump may be most remarkable for how normal it’s becoming. Since opening talks with South Korea last year, the once-reclusive North Korean leader has turned into one of the most sought-after guests in Asia. At each stop — from Beijing to Singapore and now ...

Bloomberg Special Counsel Robert Mueller told the judge who’ll sentence President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman that Paul Manafort “brazenly violated the law” for a decade and presents a “grave risk” of committing new crimes. Manafort, 69, is set to be sentenced on March 13 in Washington, where he pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and faces as much as ...

Bloomberg Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an income support program for small farmers in a bid to woo a key voter base ahead of the general election due by May. The government started distributing the first installment of 2,000 rupees ($28) to farmers who hold as much as 2 hectares (4.9 acres) of land. Under the program, it proposes ...

Bloomberg Venezuelan security forces skirmished with protesters along the Colombian border in clashes over aid shipments between President Nicolas Maduro’s government and US-backed opponents trying to drive him out of power. National Guard soldiers on Saturday fired volleys of tear gas and plastic pellets at supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido, who were trying to persuade them to defect and ...

Bloomberg Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir declared a state of emergency for one year and called a national dialogue amid political crisis in the north African country. “It’s better for all Sudanese to solve any problems through dialogue,” al-Bashir said in a televised address from the capital, Khartoum. “Civil and armed opposition” should come to the dialogue, he said. The president ...

Bloomberg Nigerians began voting in Africa’s biggest democracy in a tight presidential race between incumbent Muhammadu Buhari and pro-market multimillionaire Atiku Abubakar. While the polls officially opened at 8 am on Saturday, some balloting stations suffered delays while election monitors reported violence in some areas. The presidential front-runners are Buhari, who’s campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, and Abubakar, who’s promised ...