Politics

Bloomberg Writer and former Chinese diplomat Yang Hengjun, who is now an Australian citizen, has been detained by the Chinese government, according to one of his friends. Yang boarded a flight from New York to the southeastern Chinese city of Guangzhou and was scheduled to arrive on Saturday, Feng Chongyi, an associate professor in China studies at the University of ...

Bloomberg The European Commission is pushing the Irish government to lay out its plans for the border in the event of a no-deal Brexit, a person familiar with the matter said. Ireland has proved elusive when the Commission has attempted to pin down the government on its plan, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A Commission ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro pledged swift and sweeping measures to fix the economy and ward off what he said was a risk that Latin America’s largest nation turns into a Venezuela-style regime. Plans to sell a large number of state-owned companies are nearly ready, and a proposal to be sent to Congress will bring “substantial” cuts to pension outlays ...

Bloomberg Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a scion of India’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, has formally joined the nation’s political scene ahead of the general election to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party. Vadra, 47, is the younger sister of Rahul Gandhi, who’s president of India’s opposition Congress party. She’s been appointed a general secretary of the party and will manage elections ...

Bloomberg The UK’s main opposition party is backing a plan that could open the door to a second European Union referendum, bringing the possibility of stopping Brexit a step closer. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn proposed a series of non-binding votes in Parliament on options for how the UK can avoid a no-deal Brexit: One of those options is a new ...

Bloomberg Grounded in Washington by the government shutdown, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo delivered a Trump-style speech by video to the Davos summit defending disruptive politics, touting US economic strength and claiming foreign policy successes. “New winds are blowing across the world,” Pompeo said in the long-distance address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “The central question is ...

Bloomberg A group of former ambassadors and academics is calling on China to immediately release two Canadians it detained in the wake of the arrest of a top Huawei Technologies Co executive in Vancouver. The open letter addressed to Chinese President Xi Jinping, said its 141 signatories are “deeply concerned” by the detentions of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor by ...

Bloomberg South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha defended US efforts to advance North Korea talks, saying in an interview that it would be “excessive” to say Washington is compromising on its denuclearisation goals. “There’s no shifting — not a bit — about what the goal is. It’s complete denuclearisation,” Kang told the Yonhap News Agency in an interview published. Kang ...

Bloomberg Italy’s populists looking for an arch enemy to concentrate their nationalist rhetoric ahead of European Parliamentary elections have found one: France and its Europhile president Emmanuel Macron. France has summoned the Italian ambassador over comments by Deputy Premier and Five Star Movement leader Luigi di Maio that France “never stopped colonising Africa” and is contributing to the waves of ...

Bloomberg It was still dark, but Venezuela’s army had already smothered a mutiny and turned to tear-gassing protesters supporting the rebels. The loyalist Supreme Court announced that it would depose the National Assembly’s head and nullify its motion declaring President Nicolas Maduro’s rule invalid. Then, Brazil’s president predicted a speedy regime change. Governing this hungry and restive nation has become ...