Politics

Bloomberg Egyptian security forces killed 40 militants in two operations after four people died in a roadside bomb that struck a tour bus in Greater Cairo on December 28. The militants were planning attacks against churches, state institutions, economic interests, the armed forces and tourist sites, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Saturday. The operations took place ...

Bloomberg An opposition candidate in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the clear favourite to win Sunday’s presidential election if the long-awaited vote is free and fair, according to an opinion poll. Martin Fayulu, a former Exxon Mobil Corp. manager who heads an opposition alliance, had the support of 47 percent of those surveyed, according to results published by New ...

Bloomberg Iraqi lawmakers took offense at President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to US troops stationed there, with some of the most powerful groups in the Baghdad parliament urging a review of America’s military presence in the country. Trump made his first visit to troops in a combat zone as commander-in-chief on Wednesday, meeting with US soldiers at the Ain Al-Asad ...

Bloomberg Italian Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini dismissed media reports of a possible government reshuffle in which Finance Minister Giovanni Tria would resign in early January following a long tussle over the country’s budget. The idea of a cabinet revamp is “surreal and totally false,” Salvini, who leads the antimigration League, said in a statement sent by his office. “You don’t ...

Bloomberg A seventh Saturday of protests by France’s “Yellow Vests” began slowly, continuing a downward trend since weekly demonstrations began in mid-November over the cost of living and a lack of household purchasing power. French television showed images of several hundred protesters gathering in southwest Paris, with small numbers in the touristic centre and on the Champs-Elysees avenue, the scene ...

Bloomberg The speaker of Russia’s parliament raised the possibility of changing the constitution as speculation grows that the Kremlin is considering ways to allow President Vladimir Putin to remain in power beyond the end of his current term, when current law requires him to step down. “This is about the transfer of power,” said Gleb Pavlovsky, a political analyst and ...

Bloomberg The death toll from a week of demonstrations against rising inflation and food shortages in Sudan rose to more than 37, Sudanese doctors said, as protests against the nearly 30-year-rule of President Omar al-Bashir snowballed. “The number is higher than 37 as new protesters have been killed,” the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said in a statement. Amnesty International ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said that federal workers furloughed in a partial government shutdown support his effort to force Democrats to vote to spend billions of dollars for a wall on the Mexican border. “They understand what’s happening. They want border security,” Trump told reporters at the White House, after he was asked what message he had for workers affected ...

Bloomberg Hundreds attended protests in Bosnia’s two biggest cities, and the European Union demanded an explanation for police detaining the man whose months-long public search for information about his son’s death has turned into an anti-government movement. Davor Dragicevic, 49, was taken into custody in Banja Luka, in the Serb half of Bosnia-Herzegovina, after he failed to appear for questioning ...

Bloomberg US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ordered new medical testing on all children in its custody, following the death of a 8-year-old Guatemalan boy caught crossing the border near El Paso, Texas, the agency said in a statement. The directive will mean secondary medical checks on children in the agency’s care, including unaccompanied minors and those who arrive as ...