Politics

Bloomberg A group of 40 political prisoners in Venezuela were expected to be released on June 2, a day after President Nicolas Maduro granted conditional freedom to at least 39 people. The group includes at least six members of the opposition Voluntad Popular party, lawmaker Adriana Pichardo said. It doesn’t include the party’s founder, Leopoldo Lopez, though National Assembly lawmakers ...

Bloomberg Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he will let lawmakers decide what to do with a tax law that his administration lobbied for and is now being partly blamed for rising prices. “The law was enacted by Congress, I leave it to Congress to decide whether or not to amend, suspend or modify the law,” Duterte said in a speech ...

Bloomberg US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said the world have to deal with China’s militarisation of the South China Sea for now, but that Beijing would face “larger consequences” in the long term that could persuade it to change track. Beijing’s deployments of missile batteries and bombers to outposts in disputed areas appear aimed at intimidating neighbours, Mattis told ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump conceded that North Korea won’t agree to immediately give up its nuclear weapons as he confirmed his June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un will go ahead. In a scene that would have been difficult to imagine even a few months ago, Trump walked former North Korean spy chief Kim Yong Chol to his black SUV ...

Bloomberg Spain’s new leader began harnessing the unlikely forces that brought him to power while a populist government took over in Italy, capping a week of political drama that sent financial markets into turmoil as the future of the euro region again rose to the fore. In Madrid, Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez was sworn in by King Felipe VI as ...

Bloomberg Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro granted conditional freedom to at least 39 political prisoners, including former opposition Mayor Daniel Ceballos, imprisoned since 2014 for allegedly encouraging violent protests in his home state. The political prisoners slated for release include some arrested during anti-government rallies over the past three years amid pitched confrontations with state security forces and Maduro’s militant supporters. ...

Bloomberg Landlocked Ethiopia is planning to build a navy, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said during a briefing of the heads of the country’s National Defense Force. “Following the efforts made to build capacity of our national defense, we built one of the stronger ground and air forces in Africa,” the ruling party-funded Fana Broadcasting Corp. reported. “We should build our ...

Bloomberg Tensions are rising between the US and China ahead of Asia’s biggest security conference this week, even as the two powers push for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Defense Secretary James Mattis said while en route to the annual IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that he was planning to raise US concerns about China’s recent moves to “militarise” the ...

Bloomberg India and Pakistan agreed to abide by a 15-year-old ceasefire agreement after years of sporadic firing across the disputed border in Kashmir, a move which signals a potential thawing in deteriorating relations between the arch-rivals. The nuclear-armed nations agreed to put an end to ongoing border fighting and to fully implement the ceasefire understanding of 2003, India and Pakistan’s ...

Bloomberg Italy’s League leader Matteo Salvini dismissed an offer from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement to revive efforts to form a populist government, calling instead for early elections without revealing whom he might form an alliance with. “Di Maio’s overture? We’re not at the market and it’s also a question of dignity,” Salvini of the anti-immigrant League told a rally ...