Politics

  Bloomberg New Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang sought better Sino-US ties in a phone conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on New Year’s Day, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. Qin, who served as China’s ambassador to the US prior to his new job, looked forward to maintaining a close working relationship …

  Bloomberg New York Governor Kathy Hochul promised to reduce crime, improve affordability and stem the state’s population loss as she took the oath of office for her first full term. Hochul’s inauguration capped a remarkable ascendancy in New York politics, becoming the first woman to take the state’s top office in her own right, after inheriting it in 2021 …

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged to increase his nuclear arsenal in the new year to stifle US and South Korean hostile acts, in a policy-setting address where he left almost no opening for a return to long-stalled disarmament talks. In a speech that came at the end of a nearly weeklong meeting of his ruling Workers Party, Kim …

  Bloomberg Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti is calling for a bolstered presence of Nato peacekeeping forces in his country. “A massive bolstering of Nato troops and military equipment in our country would improve security and peace in Kosovo and the entire West-Balkan region,” Kurti said in an interview with German newspaper WELT. Following recent tensions between Kosovo and neighboring …

  Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to push ahead next year with an unpopular overhaul of the country’s pension system that will effectively force people to work longer. The new rules on retirement will apply from the end of the summer, he said during a New Year’s address to the nation in which he urged citizens to remain unified …

Bloomberg When Myanmar carried out the death penalty for the first time in three decades by executing four activists in July, China and Russia stayed silent while the US and its allies condemned the junta. Now the regime is on the verge of doing it again. Seven university students were sentenced to death last month by a secretive military court …

  Bloomberg Venezuela’s opposition put an end to Juan Guaido’s interim government, voting against renewing his US-backed strategy that failed to oust President Nicolas Maduro over the course of almost four years. A proposal to eliminate the parallel government passed a second and final round of voting in the opposition-led National Assembly. Starting from January 5, the National Assembly is …

  Bloomberg China’s ruling Communist Party has named Wang Yi to direct the nation’s foreign policy after he was promoted to the 24-member Politburo following last year’s twice-a-decade party congress. The foreign ministry’s website posted a report by Wang as the director of the general office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission. His previous position as foreign minister was recently …

Bloomberg Almost two dozen government troops were killed in South Sudan during fighting, just a day after a cease-fire agreement came into effect, according to the main rebel group. The nation’s army and rebels last week agreed to cease hostilities from midnight December 24, in a bid to end three years of violence that’s claimed tens of thousands of lives …

Bloomberg Russia plans to limit the number of airbases the US can use to launch reconnaissance flights under the Open Skies Treaty, in a fresh sign of its deteriorating relationship with Washington. The restrictions will be introduced Jan. 1 in response to US measures to limit Russian military flights in its airspace, said Georgiy Borisenko, head of the Foreign Ministry’s …