Politics

Bloomberg Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he expected the next general election to come before a possible hike in taxes that has met resistance from the public and is intended to fund his unprecedented expansion of defense spending. “We will be asking the people to take on an extra burden starting at an appropriate time between 2024 and 2027,” ...

Bloomberg South Korea sent drones across the border into North Korea for the first time, an unprecedented tit-for-tat military move after Kim Jong-un’s regime dispatched five unmanned aerial vehicles into its air space. The exchange of drones, which briefly stopped flights from taking off at major airports near Seoul, came as Kim opened a major political meeting to set security, ...

Bloomberg Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine must surrender or face continued war, even as Moscow’s troops have been forced to retreat in a series of damaging defeats. In an interview with the state-run news service Tass, Lavrov said Ukraine must cede sovereignty over territories annexed by Russia since President Vladimir Putin’s February 24 invasion. He reiterated unfounded claims ...

Bloomberg Taiwan announced it is extending its compulsory military service to one year from the current four months, a signal to Beijing and Washington it is serious about defending itself. President Tsai Ing-wen said at a press briefing in Taipei that the change coming in 2024 was necessary to ensure international support and that China’s expansionism threatened regional stability. “This ...

Bloomberg Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic has ordered the nation’s army on full alert after weeks of rising tensions in neighbouring Kosovo where the local Serb minority has been confronting the authorities over new registration requirements, putting up road blockades and holding protests that threaten to tip into violence, the defense ministry says. “The President of the Republic of Serbia, as ...

Bloomberg China sent 71 warplanes near Taiwan as a part of its biggest display of military might since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the democratically run island, with Taipei accusing Beijing of “military intimidation.” The Ministry of Defense in Taipei said the flights included 47 Chinese military aircraft that crossed either the median line of the Taiwan Strait or ...

Bloomberg Three servicemen were killed during a Ukrainian drone attack at a military air base in southern Russia that hosts strategic bombers, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said. The military personnel died from falling wreckage when Russian air defenses shot down the drone, the state-run Tass news service reported, citing the ministry. No aircraft were damaged, it said. It’s the ...

  Bloomberg Brazil will reevaluate the procedures for President elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s inauguration after an explosive near capital Brasilia’s international airport was disarmed, the country’s incoming justice minister said. Flavio Dino wrote in his official Twitter account that all procedures in the inauguration, set for January 1, “will be reassessed, with a view to strengthen security.” “President ...

  Bloomberg South Korea suspended some commercial flights and scrambled military assets to shoot at drones from North Korea that crossed their heavily armed border on Monday. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the military detected multiple “unidentified objects” in the country’s airspace presumed to be unmanned aerial vehicles crossing the border from 10:25 am in Gyeonggi province, ...

  Bloomberg China may remove quarantine requirements for cross-border travellers between Hong Kong and the mainland as early as January 3, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported, citing mainland official sources. A policy known as “0+3” is being considered, under which travellers to the mainland would no longer be required to undergo five days of quarantine and instead only ...