Politics

Bloomberg Spain’s Socialists are facing an uphill task in reconciling differences between opposition parties as they seek to garner support for dislodging Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The no-confidence motion filed on May 25 by the Socialists, the largest opposition group, needs the backing of several other parties to succeed. The trust vote request, triggered by the sentencing last week of ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump’s lawyer again questioned the legitimacy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, even as a possible interview between Mueller and the president looms. “We’re more convinced as we see it that this is a rigged investigation,” Rudy Giuliani said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Nation.” Asked if he ...

Bloomberg On the waterfront of New Zealand’s largest city, a Chinese developer is building a five-star luxury hotel aimed at wealthy tourists. One hitch: there’s not enough local workers to finish it. To help complete Auckland’s NZ$200 million ($138 million) Park Hyatt hotel on time, Beijing-based Fu Wah International Group has been forced to fly out 138 carpet layers, painters ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump said his administration is holding direct talks with North Korea to salvage a summit with Kim Jong Un initially planned for Singapore next month. Trump told reporters that meetings were taking place “as we speak” in an unidentified location to push ahead with the summit, which he abruptly cancelled last week due to “open hostility” ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump pledged to soon bring home more Americans held overseas during a meeting at the White House with a US citizen imprisoned in Vene-zuela since 2016 who was released after pressure from Washington. “You went through a lot,” Trump told Joshua Holt at the Oval Office, where the former Mormon missionary was joined by his parents, his ...

Bloomberg Italy’s novice premier-designate Giuseppe Conte struggled to form a populist government throughout the weekend, stranded between a president who objects to a euroskeptic candidate for the economy ministry, and a coalition ally threatening to force early elections. Conte, 53, is working on a list of ministers to propose to Sergio Mattarella, 76, the head of state whose task it ...

Bloomberg A conference to help resolve a seven-year crisis in Libya and lead to United Nations-backed elections in the North African country has been set for Paris on May 29. Four Libyans—UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, eastern military stro-ngman Khalifa Haftar, the president of the eastern House of Representatives Aguila Saleh, and Khaled Al-Mishri, president of the High Council of ...

Bloomberg Outspoken Brexit supporter and frequent government critic Jacob Rees-Mogg said he’s not going to challenge Prime Minster Theresa May for her job. “I don’t wish to be prime minister, I’m very happy as a backbench minister in Parliament,” Rees-Mogg said on the BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday. “Of course I wouldn’t challenge the prime minister. The prime minister ...

Bloomberg Russian President Vladimir Putin urged patience in efforts to resolve a territorial dispute with Japan that’s lasted since World War II after Kremlin talks Saturday with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a disappointment for the Asian country’s leader, who’s made striking a deal a priority. “It is important to patiently continue the search for a solution,’’ Putin said. Abe, ...

Bloomberg The leaders of North and South Korea met for two hours Saturday to discuss the canceled summit with Donald Trump, less than a day after the US leader signaled the meeting may be back on citing “very productive” talks between the two countries. South Korea’s Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in a surprise move, spent two ...