Politics

Bloomberg Madagascar’s Constitutional Court has instructed President Hery Rajaonarimampianina to appoint a new prime minister within seven days and ruled that he can remain leader of the Indian Ocean island nation until 60 days before the next election. The new PM will oversee the government until the inauguration of a new president. The country is scheduled to hold presidential and ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump expressed pessimism about whether the summit with North Korea’s leader would take place, even as American officials pressed ahead with plans for a historic meeting on June 12 in Singapore. South Korean President Moon Jae-in flew to Washington for the day amid growing uncertainty about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s goals for the summit after ...

Bloomberg Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged — after prodding by lawmakers — that he backs the finding by US intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the US presidential campaign to hurt Hillary Clinton and ultimately help Donald Trump. Pompeo, who previously was Trump’s CIA director, was pressed by Democrats on whether he accepted that finding during testimony on Wednesday ...

Bloomberg Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said he’s expelling the top two US diplomats in the country after America imposed sanctions in the wake of a disputed election, saying that the men had meddled in internal politics. Charge d’Affaires Todd Robinson and Consul General Brian Naranjo were declared persona non grata and must leave Venezuela in 48 hours, Maduro said. The ...

Bloomberg Britain isn’t the only place where Roman Abramovich is having residency issues. While the Russian billionaire grapples with delays to his UK visa, a Swiss newspaper’s appeal to report on why Abramovich’s bid for residency in the ski resort of Verbier was scuppered last year has reached the country’s Supreme Court. A spokesman for the Lausanne-based court wouldn’t say ...

Bloomberg Centuries-old communal tensions across West Africa are taking an increasingly bloody turn, fuelled by competition for land and water and an influx of weapons and fighters from Libya. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has blamed that cocktail of guns and gunmen for the intensifying clashes between crop farmers and herders as well as robberies and kidnapping by bandit gangs. The ...

Bloomberg A leading Brexit minister in Theresa May’s government was forced into a painful political admission — the UK is legally bound to settle its divorce bill even if it doesn’t get a future trade deal with the EU. To make the bitter pill of 39 billion pounds ($52 billion) easier to swallow for the public and Brexit cheerleaders, May ...

Bloomberg South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a champion of talks between the US and North Korea, will look to restore momentum for an unprecedented summit between the foes in a White House visit on Tuesday. Optimism for next month’s meeting in Singapore between President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong-un was punctured last week by a North Korean threat to ...

Bloomberg Lawyers for Paul Manafort accused prosecutors working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller of smearing their client through unflattering media accounts that originated with illegal grand jury leaks. The lawyers urged US District Judge TS Ellis III to hold a hearing focusing in particular on communications involving Andrew Weissmann, one of the Mueller prosecutors, with the Associated Press. Manafort, a ...

Bloomberg The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission questioned former Prime Minister Najib Razak over 1MDB, as a special task force hones in on recovering assets from the troubled state fund. The commission is compiling evidence and reaching out to two important witnesses to build a case on SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB, Mohd Shukri Abdull, chief commissioner at the anti-graft ...