Politics

Bloomberg Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched his bid for a historic third-straight term as ruling party president, attempting to put months of scandal behind him and become Japan’s longest-serving premier. The widely anticipated announcement kicked off what was expected to be an easy campaign for leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party. Media surveys of lawmakers and party members who will ...

Bloomberg Australia’s Julie Bishop has resigned as foreign minister and will return to the backbench as the fallout from Friday’s dumping of Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister continues. The 62-year-old stood in the three-way contest to become Liberal Party leader and prime minister after the ousting of Turnbull, but was knocked-out in the first round, gaining just 11 of 85 ...

Bloomberg Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Nigeria’s northern state of Kano, will seek to oust President Muhammadu Buhari in elections scheduled for February. Kwankwaso, who’s now a senator, will announce on August 29 that he will compete to become the presidential candidate for the main opposition People’s Democratic Party, which will hold primaries later this year, his spokeswoman, Binta ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump’s surprise about-face on his top diplomat’s trip to North Korea—just a day after it was announced—reinforced a sense of drift in the administration’s strategy since the president proclaimed a June summit with Kim Jong-un an historic success. The tweets cancelling a visit to Pyongyang by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo cited a lack of “sufficient progress” in ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he wants Jeff Sessions to look into corruption on the “other side” of the Russia investigation that he regularly derides as a witch hunt, as the row between the two men threatened the attorney general’s job security. Trump’s call came the day after Fox News aired an interview in which the president bashed Sessions by ...

Bloomberg The US announced details of limited new sanctions against Russia over the March poisoning in the UK of a former Russian agent and his daughter, the latest sign relations between the former Cold War foes continue to deteriorate. Restrictions released by the State Department target remaining sources of foreign assistance and arms sales to Russia, and deny any US ...

Bloomberg The US has told Russia it is ready to take strong military action against Syria if President Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons to recapture one of his country’s last rebel-held areas, according to four people familiar with the discussions. US officials say they have information Assad may be planning a chemical attack in the northwestern province of Idlib. At ...

Bloomberg Zimbabwe’s top court dismissed the main opposition’s bid to overturn the results of last month’s disputed presidential election. The ruling confirms the victory of incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a 75-year-old former spy chief who has wooed international investors as part of his pledge to rebuild an economy devastated by decades of former President Robert Mugabe’s autocratic rule. A nine-member ...

Bloomberg The Democratic Republic of Congo disqualified one of the country’s most popular opposition politicians from running for president. The decision removes a second key opponent from the race against President Joseph Kabila’s anointed successor and raises the risk of angry protests by opposition supporters. It casts doubt on the credibility of the December 23 election in the cobalt-rich nation, ...

Bloomberg As the European Union tries to resolve differences over Kosovo and welcome new members from the former Yugoslavia, one hopeful may have a tougher issue to overcome. Serbia, the largest of the six Balkan countries the bloc says could join from 2025, is being forced to choose between the benefits of the world’s No. 1 trading alliance and loyalty ...