Politics

  Bloomberg Hong Kong intends to start reopening its borders with China before mid-January, aiming at returning to pre-Covid cross-border travel arrangements, the city’s leader said. The borders will “open fully in a gradual, orderly way,” Chief Executive John Lee said during a press briefing at the city’s airport on returning from a trip to Beijing, where he met President ...

  Bloomberg China’s military said it conducted exercises around Taiwan in response to escalating “collusion and provocations” from Taiwan and the US, after the latter authorised increased military assistance to the island. The People’s Liberation Army staged combat readiness patrols and drills around Taiwan , according to a statement from the Eastern Theater Command. The military will take “all necessary ...

  Bloomberg Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, emerged as voters’ top choice to lead the Southeast Asian nation ahead of the next general election tentatively scheduled in May, according to an opinion poll. Paetongtarn, who is widely tipped to be the prime minister candidate of the nation’s largest opposition party Pheu Thai, got 34% backing of ...

Bloomberg In the days after the assault on the US Capitol, some members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet talked about asking him to resign or invoking the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove him from office, according to testimony. Michael Pompeo, Trump’s secretary of state, told investigators for the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack that Labor Secretary Eugene ...

  Bloomberg Fiji has elected Sitiveni Rabuka as the nation’s prime minister, ending the 16-year rule of Frank Bainimarama. Rabuka gained 28 ballots to his predecessor’s 27 to become the new leader in a parliamentary vote, more than a week after a national election where no party held a majority of seats. While Rabuka’s party won fewer seats than Bainimarama’s, ...

Bloomberg North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles ahead of a major political meeting to set policy for the new year, after ratcheting up tensions with a record number of launches in 2022. The suspected ballistic missiles were fired at around 4:32 pm from an area near Pyongyang’s main international airport towards waters off North Korea’s east coast, South ...

  Bloomberg A suicide bomber and his accomplice detonated explosives in Pakistan’s capital when police tried to check their vehicle, killing themselves, one policeman and injuring five people. The incident, the first such attack in Islamabad in more than eight years, took place in a neighbourhood close to the garrison town of Rawalpindi, local police said on Twitter. An attack ...

  Bloomberg A shooting in Paris has left two people dead and four injured, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The shooting took place around noon on Friday in the 10th arrondissement. A 69-year-old man old was arrested, the prosecutor’s office said. Authorities are still determining the man’s identity. The shooting occurred on rue d’Enghien, near a Kurdish cultural center, Agence ...

  Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping has praised Hong Kong’s leader John Lee for reviving the local economy and safeguarding national security, while Premier Li Keqiang called for better coordination over the reopening of the city’s border with the mainland. Xi told Lee the city is on the “right track” as the two met in Beijing, according to the South ...

Bloomberg Nurses will strike again in England next month as unions and the government refuse to back down in a row over pay. The move threatens a chaotic start to the year for Britain’s National Health Service after ambulance workers called off a strike planned for next week but announced further walkouts for early next year. The Royal College of ...