Politics

Bloomberg Instgramming tourists may soon get the chance to reenact one of Asia’s most iconic moments in recent memory: April’s embrace between the leaders of the two Koreas. Visitors to the Joint Security Area—where soldiers from the two sides have stood face to face for decades—will be able to freely cross the demarcation line “in the near future,” South Korea’s ...

Bloomberg Escalating tensions between the US and China over trade, the South China Sea and recent arms sales are pushing Taiwan back into the American foreign policy spotlight, attracting Beijing’s ire. After a precedent-shattering phone call with Trump when he was president-elect, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has found a more receptive audience in the US during the recent disputes. She’s ...

Bloomberg Secretary of Defense James Mattis played down tensions with Beijing, saying the US was “not out to contain China” and was cooperating whenever possible, but that there would be times they would “step on each other’s toes.” “Obviously, we’re not out to contain China. We’d have taken an altogether different stance had that been considered. It has not been ...

Bloomberg Emmanuel Macron is changing his people, not his plans. The French president on Tuesday announced his long-anticipated cabinet overhaul prompted by the October 2 resignation of the interior minister and postponed numerous times. The reshuffled government will still be headed by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, since Macron wanted a “renewed team with the same political mandate,” his office said. ...

Bloomberg Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed named Ahmed Shide his finance minister in sweeping changes to the Horn of Africa nation’s government that included appointing women to half of cabinet posts. Abiy appointed Aisha Mohammed as defense minister and created the Ministry of Peace that will be headed by Mufuriat Kami, making them two of 10 women in his cabinet. ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro stands 18 percentage-points clear of his rival in the latest opinion poll ahead of the final round of the presidential election. Bolsonaro won 59 percent of valid vote intentions versus 41 percent for the Workers’ Party candidate, Fernando Haddad, in an Ibope poll published Monday evening. The survey also showed Haddad’s rejection rating ...

Bloomberg The UK and the European Union are on course to miss a key milestone on the road to a Brexit deal after talks hit a roadblock on Sunday. Negotiations are now paused, putting pressure on leaders to step into the breach later this week. A weekend of intense negotiations—including a surprise dash by Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab to meet ...

Bloomberg The Republic of Macedonia’s parliament is facing a vote that will either help approve a deal opening the way to NATO and European Union entry or trigger an early election. The former Yugoslav nation is at the center of the struggle between Russia and the West for sway over Europe’s most volatile region. Prime Minister Zoran Zaev’s government is ...

Bloomberg About 56 percent of Kenyans are opposed to a proposed referendum on changes to the East Africa nation’s constitution, according to a survey funded by the local Star newspaper. Some Kenyan politicians including opposition leader Raila Odinga are calling for constitutional revisions to address what they describe as a bloated executive and the government’s failure to adequately devolve power. ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a new round of coalition turbulence after her Bavarian sister party dropped to a historic low in a regional election that exposed the scope of voter disaffection with Germany’s political establishment. The Christian Social Union’s loss of its absolute majority on Sunday threatens to reverberate through Merkel’s fractious government, already hampered by infighting after just ...