Politics

Bloomberg Ukraine said Russia had partially restored access to its ports on the Azov Sea following months of disruption and a week after its navy was fired on by its neighbour. As of Monday, ships were allowed to move in both directions through the Kerch Strait separating the Azov and Black Seas, according to Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan. Russia ...

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron’s government reversed course and suspended a planned fuel-tax hike that had sent as many as 300,000 protesters into the streets for three weeks in sometimes violent clashes. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced the decision after detailing the plan in his regular meeting with governing party lawmakers. “No tax merits putting the nation in danger,” Philippe ...

Bloomberg Social Democratic leader Stefan Lofven said Sweden’s political crisis has now entered a “new phase” as he prepares to start “sharp” negotiations with key opposition parties on forming a viable coalition. The Social Democrats will hold negotiations with the Center Party and the Liberals, as well as its ally the Green Party, he said. “We will make every effort ...

Bloomberg The UK should be allowed to reverse Brexit, according to an advisory opinion from the European Union’s top court that will fuel the campaign to thwart the divorce. The opinion, which isn’t binding, comes at a crucial moment for Prime Minister Theresa May who’s trying to convince Parliament to back the deal she brought back from Brussels but faces ...

Bloomberg Clean-up crews were at work across Paris after Saturday’s riots as President Emmanuel Macron returned from Argentina and held an emergency cabinet meeting. Last week’s “Yellow Vests” protests saw 412 arrests and 133 wounded, including 23 among the security forces, according to the Paris police. There was also violence in Toulouse, Nantes, near Lyon, and in the Ardennes. Rioters ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump said he expects to hold a second summit with North Korea Leader Kim Jong-un as soon as next month and that three locations are being considered. “I think we’re going to do one, fairly, into January, February,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. ...

Bloomberg Spain’s political establishment suffered another significant crack on Sunday as the far-right group Vox won its first ever representation in a regional election in Andalusia, carving off voters who were targeted by the center-right People’s Party. Vox won 12 seats in the 109-seat regional assembly, a stronghold for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists for the past 36 years. The ...

Bloomberg Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal issued an interim order preventing newly appointed prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government’s ministers from exercising powers until it hears a petition challenging their authority. The court issued its order on Monday after 122 members of Sri Lanka’s parliament, who are allied with ousted prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, filed a legal action on ...

Bloomberg Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has an unusual new campaign pitch: he isn’t dead. In a Facebook post following a meeting with Nigerians in Poland, Buhari said he’d been asked whether it really was him speaking to the group or a clone, given speculation he’d died last year when he was absent from the country on medical leave. “I can ...

Bloomberg The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) suggested the European Union will give the UK a better Brexit deal, as members of Parliament prepare to give their verdict on Theresa May’s accord. “Does anyone for a moment think that the EU states don’t desperately want a deal by March?,” Foster said in remarks to Conservative Party members, and e-mailed to Bloomberg. ...