Politics

Bloomberg The global trade war is about to get worse, as the rules-based system of international commerce is poised to revert to an environment where the strong impose their will upon the weak, according to an internal memo circulated among European Union governments. The disputes between the US and its closest trading partners are set to escalate “in the coming ...

Bloomberg There is a corner of Berlin where the golden age of US-German relations lingers on. Visitors to the Allied Museum on Clayallee — a boulevard named for General Lucius Clay, commander in chief of US forces in Europe after World War II — are greeted by a propeller aircraft that flew in supplies to West Berlin during the Soviet ...

Bloomberg The Trump team’s mission to the Middle East will run into a dead end if it tries to dodge political issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman said. The lead US Middle East peace negotiators, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, have been visiting with leaders in the region this week as they ...

Bloomberg The US has “indefinitely suspended” military exercises in South Korea to foster Washington’s fledgling relationship with Pyongyang in the wake of President Donald Trump’s meeting in Singapore earlier this month with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis suspended the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises as well as two other war game operations that were scheduled to take ...

Bloomberg A second criminal conviction for Romania’s de-facto leader is set to fan political tensions over corruption in the Black Sea nation. Social Democrat boss Liviu Dragnea was handed a 3 1/2-year jail sentence for abuse of office, though he won’t be sent to prison until the appeals process has been exhausted. In a sign of the impending battle, the ...

Bloomberg Talks over US commercial use of a rocket launch site in Brazil are advancing and will take center stage during Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Brasilia next week, according to three people familiar with the matter. While a final agreement is unlikely during his visit, progress has been made in discussions to give US personnel access to the ...

Bloomberg Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said the next 12 months will determine whether the EU can hold together as the bloc’s leaders prepare for emergency talks on immigration this weekend. Since taking office as part of a populist coalition last month, Salvini has been stirring up tensions over migration policy, refusing rescue ships access to Italian ports, sparring with ...

Bloomberg Kim Jong-un doesn’t appear to be in a rush to dump his nuclear weapons. In talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, the North Korean leader reiterated his call for a gradual process to carry out the results of last week’s summit with US President Donald Trump. Chinese state media cited Kim as saying that denuclearisation would open ...

Bloomberg Gaza militants launched dozens of rockets and flaming kites into Israel’s south, drawing retaliatory Israeli strikes, in one of the fiercest confrontations between the sides since Palestinian protests along the border peaked in mid-May. Israeli aircraft targeted about 25 military sites belonging to Gaza’s ruling Hamas group, the army said, warning that the group was dragging Gaza along a ...

Bloomberg Ivory Coast authorities are planning an emergency response after at least 19 people died in floods and scores of others were evacuated from their homes. Heavy rains pounding the world’s biggest cocoa producer made roads impassable in Ivory Coast’s economic capital Abidjan on June 19, according to the agency that coordinates national rescue operations. President Alassane Ouattara shortened a ...