Politics

Bloomberg Russia fired on Ukrainian warships and injured some of their crew members, marking a dramatic renewal of tensions between the ex-Soviet neighbours near the peninsula of Crimea that President Vladimir Putin annexed four years ago. Ukraine said Russian warships opened fire on Sunday on a group of its military vessels in neutral waters that had previously tried to enter ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said the US will close its southern border with Mexico if needed, a day after US agents shot several rounds of tear gas at migrants after some tried to breach a border fence. “Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries,” Trump said on Monday on ...

Bloomberg Theresa May was expected to begin selling her Brexit agreement to skeptical politicians and the British public on Monday with a warning that “there is not a better deal available.” The UK prime minister will appeal to members of Parliament to vote for the contract she finalised over the weekend with the European Union and avoid the turmoil of ...

Bloomberg Taiwan’s pro-independence leader, Tsai Ing-wen, has just over a year to win back public support if she wants to avoid going down in history as the island’s first one-term president. Her Democratic Progressive Party suffered a resounding loss to the China-friendly Kuomintang in local elections. The scale of the defeat was far greater than forecast, with the DPP losing ...

Bloomberg Switzerland overwhelmingly rejected a plan that could have caused a worsening of relations with the European Union by forcing the government in Bern to renegotiate international treaties. Two-thirds voters opposed the “self-determination” initiative, which argued for the constitution to take precedence over international law, potentially triggering revisions of treaties if there are conflicts. Polls had indicated a likely rejection. ...

Bloomberg European leaders gave Theresa May her Brexit deal but warned that the UK Parliament must vote for the plan as it stands because negotiations will not be reopened if British politicians reject it. On Sunday, the prime minister got her agreement on the UK’s divorce from the European Union at a special summit in Brussels, when the leaders of ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte pledged to keep “revolutionising” Italy after a working dinner with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker failed to break a long-running standoff over the populist government’s push to follow through on expensive election promises. At a Brexit summit of European Union leaders in Brussels on Sunday, Conte clearly had other concerns preying on his mind. The ...

Bloomberg Emmanuel Macron swept aside France’s traditional parties to win the presidency. He tamed unions as he reformed the labour market and income tax, all without much mass protest. Now though, his presidency is being shaken by a grassroots movement with no real leadership. Organised through social media, the so-called yellow jackets have shut down key transport links at times ...

Bloomberg Taiwanese voters delivered President Tsai Ing-wen’s party a resounding defeat in local elections Saturday, ousting it from several key strongholds. Opposition Kuomintang candidates claimed victory in mayoral races in the major cities of Kaohsiung and Taichung as well as the governor positions in Yilan, Changhua and Yunlin counties, traditionally seen as bastions of support for Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party. ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump said Mexico would be “very smart” to stop groups of Central American migrants before they reached the southern US border, and again laid the blame for US immigration problems on Democrats. The president took to Twitter a day after reports that his administration has struck a deal with Mexico’s incoming government that would mean Washington could use ...