Politics

China still poring over little-noticed Pence speech weeks later

Bloomberg In Washington, Vice President Mike Pence’s October 4 speech ripping China was largely lost amid the uproar over the midterms and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation. In Beijing, however, Pence’s address is still reverberating. Some in China’s foreign policy community continue to study it, comparing the rhetoric with Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946, and trying to ...

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Trump vows to end violence in wake of ‘bombing attempts’

Bloomberg Donald Trump vowed to end political violence in the US after the arrest of a suspect in a string of bombing attempts aimed at the president’s critics, then used the moment to complain about hostility directed at him. “We must never allow political violence to take root in America,” Trump said at the White House, shortly after the arrest. ...

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German state vote tests Merkel’s authority

Bloomberg A German state election is putting Angela Merkel’s chancellorship on the line on Sunday as rarely before. Voters in Hesse, a state that includes the nation’s financial center of Frankfurt, are going to the polls amid public antipathy to the bickering coalition government in Berlin. It’s the last electoral test of Merkel’s standing before a Christian Democratic Union convention ...

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Super Typhoon Yutu threatens Philippines

Bloomberg Super Typhoon Yutu could rip into eastern Luzon in the Philippines on Tuesday, extending the toll of destruction it left in the US Northern Mariana Islands earlier this week. Yutu was about 731 miles east of Luzon with winds of about 155 miles per hour, equivalent to a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, early Saturday US ...

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Trump concedes ‘no proof’ terrorists among migrants

Bloomberg President Donald Trump conceded there’s no evidence for his claim that Middle Eastern terrorists are among thousands of migrants travelling from Honduras towards the US border, but blamed Venezuela and unidentified “leftists” for encouraging the so-called caravan. Trump is trying to make immigration central to the midterm elections next month that will determine whether Republicans maintain control of Congress. ...

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India removes investigative agency head over graft feud

Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has taken the rare step of removing the director of the country’s top federal law enforcement agency and one of his deputies over “grave allegations of corruption.” Alok Kumar Verma, director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, and Rakesh Asthana, a special director at the agency, have been relieved of their roles, ...

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Potential explosive devices to Obamas, Clintons stopped

Bloomberg Potential explosive devices addressed to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were detected and intercepted by the US Secret Service, which has opened a criminal investigation into the incidents. “The packages were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such,” the Secret Service said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. “The ...

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UK cabinet at war over May’s Brexit plan

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May lost control over the warring factions within her government as the Cabinet descended into open conflict over her Brexit plans at an angry meeting. According to people familiar with the matter, seven senior pro-Brexit ministers spoke out against a proposal that could allow the UK to stay inside the European Union’s tariff regime indefinitely. ...

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UN asks Nigeria to do more to protect civilians

Bloomberg The United Nations is concerned about rising sectarian violence in parts of northern Nigeria, its resident coordinator in the West African country said, citing attacks in the past week in which more than 90 people were killed. The incidents include clashes between rival communities near the northern city of Kaduna in which at least 50 people were killed and ...

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Suicides surge as hopeless Venezuelans surrender to crisis

Bloomberg The patients arrive by night or in broad daylight, alive and sometimes dead. A record surge of suicides in troubled Venezuela is wearing down doctors who work at the university hospital in the Andean state of Merida. People who have tried to kill themselves arrive at an uncertain rhythm that breeds dread in the professionals who receive them. “We ...

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