Politics

Bloomberg The US has some “some hard work” to do with North Korea before President Donald Trump meets Kim Jong un in Vietnam later this month, according to its special envoy Stephen Biegun. Trump is “very much looking forward to taking the next steps,” according to a pool transcript of Biegun’s remarks on Saturday. The envoy on North Korea spent ...

Bloomberg Even for a country where coup attempts, street protests and political intrigue are the norm, February 8 will go down as one of the most dramatic days in Thai history. It started around 9:15 am, when allies of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra —a tycoon who has lived in exile for more than a decade after repeated clashes with royalists ...

Bloomberg A leading Zimbabwean politician accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of treating opposition supporters like cockroaches that need to be eliminated, evoking language used during the genocide of the Tutsi minority in Rwanda in 1994. Tendai Biti, a senior member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, laid the blame for the most brutal suppression of urban protests in Zimbabwe since ...

Bloomberg The only thing Venezuela had in abundance was angry words as its main political players attacked each other in simultaneous news conferences while the nation teeters on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. In Caracas, President Nicolas Maduro denounced the presence of trailers of humanitarian aid brought to the Colombian border, calling them part of a plan cooked up ...

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron is on the offensive, seeking to regain his footing after being mocked by Italy’s leaders, largely ignored by Germany’s rising political generation and threatened by Yellow Vest protesters. Three months before a European election, the burst of assertiveness signals Macron is stepping up his campaign to boost his standing after months of scandals and domestic ...

Bloomberg Hakainde Hichilema, the leader of Zambia’s main opposition party, said police fired live ammunition at him and his supporters. The incident happened during a political rally in the southwest of the country, his spokesman, Brian Mwiinga, said in a text message. The opposition leader wasn’t hurt, he said. Police didn’t use live ammunition in dispersing an “unruly crowd” in ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump pledged to bring home US troops from Syria with IS nearly defeated and to negotiate an exit from Afghanistan after almost two decades of war, saying in his State of the Union address that “great nations do not fight endless wars.” “Today, we have liberated virtually all of that territory from the grip of these bloodthirsty ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he’ll meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on February 27-28 in Vietnam, ending much of the months-long mystery over the details of their second summit on ending Pyongyang’s atomic ambitions. “Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong Un is a good one. Chairman Kim and I will meet ...

Bloomberg After pledging full support for the embattled regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Russia is starting to show signs of doubt about his ability to survive an opposition challenge. While Moscow hasn’t given up its public backing of Maduro, it increasingly recognizes that the disastrous state of Venezuela’s economy is inexorably draining what remains of his public support, said ...

Bloomberg Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa invited opposition leaders for talks after a violent crackdown on anti-government protests over an economic crisis. The meeting was expected to take place on Wednesday at State House in the capital, Harare, Madock Chivasa, a spokesman for the opposition National Constitutional Assembly, said by phone. Political leaders who contested last year’s presidential elections can bring ...