Politics

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 ...

Bloomberg US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation should have just gone out of business—or at least into a two-month deep freeze—if you take Rudy Giuliani’s word for it. Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s lawyer, has maintained for weeks that September 1 was a deadline under Justice Department guidelines for Mueller to finish his Russia probe to avoid improperly affecting the midterm ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s two major political parties, which have battled viciously over the past decade, are open to joining hands after the next election to blunt the power of unelected officials. In separate interviews last week, a top leader of the Pheu Thai party affiliated with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Democrat party head Abhisit Vejjajiva didn’t rule out an ...

Bloomberg Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the arrest of one of his top critics over a failed mutiny more than a decade ago, in what observers see as his latest move to silence political opponents. In a proclamation dated August 31 that was published in the Manila Times’ classifieds on Tuesday, Duterte revoked an amnesty granted to Senator Antonio Trillanes ...

Bloomberg Gunshots and screams rang out as Rosemary Keji fled her village almost two years ago, one of millions of South Sudanese escaping civil war. After finally returning last month, she’s planting potatoes beside her wrecked house in Yei River state and vowing never to leave again. The 28-year-old mother of two is one of a steady trickle of refugees ...

Bloomberg He’s a white, 10-term incumbent in a majority-minority district. She’s two decades younger and wants to be the state’s first black woman elected to Congress. The Democrats vying in a Tuesday primary for a Boston area US House seat—incumbent Mike Capuano, 66, and Boston City Councilwoman Ayanna Pressley, 44—highlight a choice the party has been confronting around the country: ...

Bloomberg A Myanmar judge sentenced Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to seven years in prison on Monday after they were found guilty of breaching the country’s Official Secrets Act. The two reporters were arrested on December 12 after police accused them of violating the 1923 law by acquiring “important secret papers” from two policemen. They both pleaded ...

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron said Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s vision for the future is to dismantle Europe, and that the giant eastern neighbour doesn’t share the same human rights values as the Old Continent. “I do respect Vladimir Putin and I am one of the leaders who says we need to construct a new security and defense architecture with ...

Bloomberg Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a group of Israeli lawmakers and activists that President Donald Trump’s negotiating team had asked whether he would agree to a confederation with neighboring Jordan. Peace Now’s executive director Shaqued Morag, who attended the meeting, said Abbas told the US that he would agree to a trilateral confederation that includes Israel. Decades ago, ...