Politics

Bloomberg The US hasn’t begun withdrawing troops from Syria, the Pentagon said in the military’s most extensive comments yet as questions about President Donald Trump’s timeline and strategy for pulling troops from the eight-year conflict there continue to fuel confusion. “We have taken a number of logistical measures to support an ordered withdrawal,” Commander Sean Robertson, a Defense Department spokesman, ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump lashed out on Saturday following a New York Times report that the FBI had opened a probe in 2017 to determine if the president had been working, knowingly or unknowingly, on behalf of Russia. In a series of early-morning tweets Trump said that the agency had opened a probe “for no reason and with no proof, after ...

Bloomberg Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the fugitive son of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, supports holding presidential elections as soon as possible, a representative said, criticising the United Nations envoy to Libya for his proposal to hold the vote only by year-end. “Any delay creates more problems,” Mohamed al-Qailoushi, an aide to Saif al-Islam, said by phone. “The only solution is ...

Bloomberg Two powerful regional parties announced they will fight elections together in India’s most populous state, threatening Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid to retain power in federal elections due by May. Mayawati, leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Akhilesh Yadav, head of the Samajwadi Party, jointly said they will together contest 38 each of the 80 parliamentary seats in ...

Bloomberg Sweden is nearing an end to a record-long political stalemate after Social Democratic leader Stefan Lofven struck a deal across the aisle to remain in power and deny influence to the country’s growing nationalist party. The accord comes after four months of tumultuous talks, but risks raising the ire of voters who demanded change in an election that handed ...

Bloomberg A large crowd blocked a major avenue in eastern Caracas to protest President Nicolas Maduro’s swearing-in, a ceremony that perpetuated what the opposition and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have labeled a “usurpation.” About a 1,000 people gathered to listen to Juan Guaido, the 35-year-old head of the National Assembly. The body is the country’s only remaining opposition-controlled ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump summoned the nation’s attention to the Oval Office for a prime time pronouncement on the border wall standoff at the centre of the government shutdown. Then, he offered nothing new. Instead, Trump used the president’s most symbolic and powerful perch — traditionally reserved for times of war or calls for national unity — to rattle off familiar ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un left Beijing after talking and dining with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to South Korean media, in a show of unity as they engage in delicate negotiations with President Donald Trump’s administration. Kim spent a little more than a day in the Chinese capital and was en route to Pyongyang on Wednesday, Yonhap News ...

Bloomberg The Republic of Macedonia will try to clear the biggest hurdle to joining NATO and the European Union this month with a decisive vote to change its name that will either open the path to membership or slam the door shut. The former Yugoslav state is at the centre of a tussle for influence over Europe’s most volatile region. ...

Bloomberg Japan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the South Korean ambassador to seek talks in an escalating standoff over forced labour claims that it has said risks undermining the legal basis for relations between the neighbours. The ministry summoned Ambassador Lee Su-hoon after a South Korean court this week approved the confiscation of assets in South Korea in a case involving Nippon ...