Politics

Bloomberg Serbia’s president cancelled a meeting with his Kosovan counterpart and Serbia’s prime minister separately warned the international community not to test its patience in an unexpected escalation of tension between the neighbouring countries. Aleksandar Vucic scratched a planned meeting with Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci in Brussels on after meeting European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. Vucic had suggested ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s political establishment is bracing for a punishing on Sunday as voters in the largest Nordic economy look poised to turn out for a nationalist party in big numbers. The two traditional political blocs are running neck-and-neck, but will be far from winning a majority with anti-immigration Sweden Democrats gaining backers. The ruling Social Democrats could suffer the worst ...

Bloomberg Tropical Storm Florence is poised to strengthen as it swirls deep in the Atlantic Ocean and moves towards the US East Coast. The storm is about 905 miles (1,460 kilometres) southeast of Bermuda, with winds of about 65 miles per hour, the US National Hurricane Center said in a bulletin. It’s on pace to hit the US on Thursday, ...

Bloomberg The UK charged two Russian nationals over the attempted murder of a former spy and the use of a Novichok nerve agent on British soil, a move that will further sour ties with the Kremlin. Police named Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov as the aliases of the two key suspects in the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter ...

Bloomberg Syrian troops are readying an offensive against the last remaining opposition bastion, an assault that could draw in the US, displace hundreds of thousands of civilians and cement President Bashar al-Assad’s hold over the country if his forces prevail. The attack on the northwest province of Idlib is expected soon, weeks after government troops—whose march from possible defeat to ...

Bloomberg South Korean envoys met with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, as they sought to revive nuclear talks that have stalled since US President Donald Trump’s summit with the North Korean leader. A five-member delegation sent by South Korean President Moon Jae-in were expected to return to Seoul late on Wednesday and brief the media on the talks on Thursday, his ...

Bloomberg South African farmers’ lobby group Agri SA slammed the ruling party’s plans to change the constitution to make it easier to expropriate land without compensation and accused the government of failing to implement existing policies to address racially skewed ownership patterns. Government data shows more than two-thirds of farmland is owned by whites, who constitute 7.8 percent of the ...

Bloomberg An ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel will run for the leadership of the European Commission as the continent’s biggest party seeks to counter a populist revolt. Manfred Weber, German head of the Christian Democrats in the European Parliament, said on Wednesday he would seek to succeed Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the Brussels-based commission. Juncker’s term atop ...

Bloomberg The Democratic Republic of Congo’s top court disqualified opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba from presidential election because of his International Criminal Court conviction for witness-tampering. The decision confirms the removal of a second key opponent from the race against President Joseph Kabila’s anointed successor and increases the risk of protests by Bemba’s supporters. It also raises questions about the credibility ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies against “recklessly” attacking the northwestern province of Idlib, the last major holdout of rebels in the country’s seven-year-old civil war. Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave ...