Politics

  Bloomberg South African President Cyril Ramaphosa notched up another win in the leadership contest for the ruling African National Congress, after his allies secured a resounding majority of posts on party’s top decision-making structure. At least 65% of 80 additional members of the ANC’s National Executive Committee, who were elected at its December 16-20 national conference, appeared on a ...

Bloomberg China is building up several unoccupied land features in the South China Sea, according to Western officials, which they said was part of Beijing’s long-running effort to strengthen claims to disputed territory and potentially bolster its military presence in a region critical to global trade. Fishing fleets that operate as de facto maritime militias under the control of authorities ...

Bloomberg The Royal Thai Navy said that at least five sailors have been confirmed dead after a ship sank off the coast of southern Thailand during a storm. There were 105 sailors on board the HTMS Sukhothai, a corvette which went down 37 kilometers (20 nautical miles) offshore the province of Prachuap Khiri Khan, according to a navy tweet and ...

  Bloomberg An explosion was reported at Russian gas pipeline that goes to Ukraine for further supplies to Europe. The blast occurred at the section of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod link, according to Russian media reports, citing the press office of the regional governor. It wasn’t immediately clear if flows of gas were impacted. A fire site was extinguished after the incident ...

Bloomberg South African President Cyril Ramaphosa emerged from a ruling party electoral conference with a stronger mandate, yet still has to overcome a series of political hurdles to tackle a daunting economic to-do list. The country is gripped by an energy crisis that’s idling businesses for six or more hours a day, the crumbling freight-rail system prevents key exports from ...

Bloomberg The double-whammy of one House committee referring Donald Trump for criminal prosecution and another debating release of his tax returns adds to an accumulation of political blows that some Republican strategists say will further hobble the former president’s already troubled bid for another run at the White House. The House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol attack made four ...

Bloomberg Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made a surprise visit to Bakhmut, a city hailed by his deputy defense minister as “our eastern fortress” amid heavy fighting over the past few weeks. As the president handed awards to servicemen, Ukraine’s government said it had reached a deal with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp to get thousands more Starlink antennas to ...

Bloomberg Explosions were heard on Monday in Kyiv as the city government said drones further damaged the capital’s critical infrastructure. That followed a warning by an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Russia could sharply escalate the war in a winter offensive driven by mass infantry and that Western allies needed to be prepared. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ...

Bloomberg North Korea said it carried out the final tests of a military spy satellite, publishing a pair of black-and-white overhead images of South Korea’s capital region in an attempt to show the device worked. The country announced the breakthrough via state media, a day after South Korea said its rival lobbed at least two suspected medium-range ballistic missiles through ...

  Bloomberg Thailand’s Navy is searching for 31 officers stranded at sea after a vessel sank on Monday during a storm. As of noon local time on Monday, 75 officers have been rescued out of 106 on board the HTMS Sukhothai corvette, which sunk 37 kilometers (20 nautical miles) offshore in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, according to a navy tweet ...