Politics

Bloomberg Venezuela abandoned its decision to sever diplomatic ties with the US, stating that each country agreed to keep a so-called interest section open in their respective capitals. The announcement that the missions would remain open was a retreat after days of bellicose rhetoric prompted by the US decision to recognize National Assembly leader Juan Guaido as the nation’s rightful ...

Bloomberg In four decades of independence, Zimbabwe’s rulers have been able to deploy the security forces to crush protests even as the southern African nation sank deeper into economic crisis. Judging from the latest bout of unrest, that may no longer be true. Crowds showed little fear as they poured onto the streets of the capital, Harare, and other major ...

Bloomberg Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara declined to rule out running in next year’s presidential election amid speculation he will seek a third term, a move that the opposition says would be unconstitutional. “I want to organize the RHDP during the first quarter of this year so that we can pick our candidate next year,” Ouattara told ministers and supporters ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump agreed to re-open the federal government for about three weeks without any guarantee Congress would provide money for his proposed border wall, his top campaign promise, capitulating to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Trump agreed to a deal hastily negotiated by lawmakers after the 35-day shutdown, the longest in modern US history, began to seriously impact air ...

Bloomberg A tailings dam owned by miner Vale SA broke in the state of Minas Gerais on Friday, hitting a local community near the capital and echoing a similar accident that became Brazil’s biggest environmental disaster three years ago. Approximately 200 people are missing, a spokesperson for emergency services in Minas Gerais state told Bloomberg, adding that poor mobile phone ...

Bloomberg Secretary of State Michael Pompeo takes the US effort to recognise Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), part of a broader international campaign to pressure and replace President Nicolas Maduro. The emergency session of the Security Council was called for by the US. With Venezuela’s competing leaders — Guaido heads the National ...

Bloomberg Greece gave NATO and the European Union a boost in the volatile Balkans by ending an almost three-decade dispute over a word: Macedonia. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised Greek lawmakers for backing a deal that clears the way for the newly-named Republic of North Macedonia to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the EU. Prime Minister ...

Bloomberg Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari suspended Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen just weeks before what’s set to be a tight presidential vote, in a move the main opposition party condemned as an “act of dictatorship.” Buhari, 76, appointed Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad in an acting capacity, he said in a statement. Onnoghen was put on trial by the Abuja-based Code of Conduct ...

Bloomberg Thailand will hold a general election on March 24 for the first time since a coup in May 2014. The date was set by the Election Commission in Bangkok on Wednesday, a few hours after a royal decree was issued authorising the poll. Voting will take place under a military-backed charter, ending one of the longest periods of rule ...

Bloomberg Russia showed foreign envoys a missile that’s at the centre of a dispute with the US over a landmark nuclear treaty, as Moscow mounted a diplomatic offensive against Washington’s plans to withdraw from the pact. US demands for the elimination of the 9M729 missile are “unacceptable,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in a televised briefing for foreign ...