Politics

Kenya party rift risks ethnic tensions

Bloomberg An alliance that helped deliver Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta two terms in office is fracturing, reviving tensions in the country’s Rift Valley region that was wracked by widespread violence a decade ago. The deputy chairman of the ruling Jubilee Party stepped down after saying Deputy President William Ruto shouldn’t be allowed to succeed Kenyatta. That undermines an arrangement in ...

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Germany and France bolster cooperation to counter fraying Europe

Bloomberg Germany and France will deepen their 55-year-old alliance as the main defenders of European Union cooperation seek to counter forces tearing at the bloc’s bonds. Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron will sign a treaty in the German border town of Aachen on January 22. The pact, which was signed off by Merkel’s cabinet, calls for joint ...

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Kim visits China in push against Trump sanctions

Bloomberg Kim Jong-un is making his fourth visit to China, in a sign that the North Korean leader is seeking Chinese President Xi Jinping’s counsel ahead of a possible second summit with Donald Trump. Kim left Pyongyang on January 7 for a visit slated to end on Thursday, North Korean and Chinese state media reported. Kim was invited by Xi ...

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White House pressure ended protection for Haitians, says lawyer

Bloomberg Elaine Duke was up against a deadline to extend Temporary Protected Status for 50,000 Haitians in the US and was inclined to do so, after repeated renewals since a massive earthquake in 2010 and a subsequent cholera outbreak devastated Haiti. But after John Kelly, then White House chief of staff, convened a meeting on November 3, 2017, Duke, the ...

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Syria sanctions bill in Senate could stall over shutdown

Bloomberg An effort in the Senate to force President Donald Trump to impose new sanctions on Syria is getting caught up in the stalemate over the partial US government shutdown as top Democrats said they’d move to block any legislation that doesn’t reopen the government. The Senate was planning a procedural vote on Tuesday on the Middle East policy package, ...

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Orban risks first union strike since 1989

Bloomberg Bolstered by a wave of nationwide protests, Hungary’s labour unions are mulling whether to hold their first general strike since the 1989 fall of the Iron Curtain. Industrial workers were among the more than 10,000 people braved freezing weather in Budapest over the weekend to demand Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government repeal a new law allowing companies to ask ...

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Modi’s ouster of CBI chief rejected by court

Bloomberg India’s Supreme Court overturned the federal government’s decision to oust the chief of the country’s top investigative agency in a blow to PM Narendra Modi just months before he seeks re-election. The government in October removed Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana after their rift — involving corruption allegations against each other ...

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Trump may try to suppress key part of Mueller’s findings

Bloomberg The White House may try to block portions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report from being shared with Congress and the public in a fight that could end up before the Supreme Court. Mueller may submit his findings on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign to the Justice Department as early as February, according to one US ...

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Trump, Kim likely to choose Hanoi for second summit

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could meet in Vietnam’s capital for their second summit on Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, the South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo said. Denuclearisation talks have sputtered since Trump and Kim held an unprecedented June meeting in Singapore, with Washington and Pyongyang each calling on the other to take action. A ...

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Risks mount for Modi as parties team up

Bloomberg Two powerful regional politicians are teaming up in India’s most populous state to take on the country’s ruling party ahead of national elections, in a move that complicates Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for a second term in office. The leaders of the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have decided “in principle” to unite to contest the polls ...

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