Politics

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 ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Theresa May faced down a rebellion from pro-European rebels in her party, keeping her Brexit strategy on track and bolstering her position. But the narrow result indicates more battles to come. Lawmakers voted 319-303 to reject an amendment to her flagship Brexit legislation that was supported by some rebels in her Conservative Party. It was intended to ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with other European Union leaders for an emergency session on migration as the clock ticks for her to strike a deal to stem the flow of refugees or face mutiny within her governing coalition. Merkel will gather with counterparts from Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta, Bulgaria, Austria and France on Sunday to try and ...

Bloomberg Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez is already facing pushback from the multi-coloured alliance that put him into office less than three weeks ago. In his first question and answer session at the Parliament in Madrid, a left-wing group from the Valencia region complained that Sanchez is backing away from plans to reform the regional financing system and questioned whether it ...