Politics

Bloomberg The chances of the UK leaving the European Union are “50-50’’ if Parliament rejects Prime Minister Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement in January, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said in a Sunday Times interview. “If we were not to vote for that, I’m not sure I would give it much more than 50-50,” the veteran campaigner for Brexit told the ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump hasn’t ordered the Pentagon to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, a White House spokesman said, contradicting reports last week that he’s directed the military to pull 7,000 soldiers out of a conflict he’s long criticised. “The president has not made a determination to drawdown US military presence in Afghanistan and he has not directed the Department of Defense ...

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 ...