Politics

Bloomberg After using the Summit of the Americas for more than a decade to help whip up anti-US sentiment in Latin America, Venezuela this week found out how isolated it truly is. Barred from attending the two-day event, Venezuela had to watch as country after country condemned the administration of President Nicolas Maduro and called for the restoration of democracy ...

BERLIN / Reuters German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday said government subsidies were needed to address lingering disparities in the quality of life in the states of former Communist East Germany and West Germany 28 years after unification. In a video webcast, Merkel said the government needed to look at ways to address the structural differences that would remain after ...

Bloomberg The US, UK and France hit targets in Syria in retaliation for an apparent chemical weapons attack outside Damascus by Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The US allies sought to shore up international support on Saturday after overnight strikes. President Donald Trump said that missile strikes focussed on chemical weapons sites, and the Pentagon said a research center and weapons storage ...

LJUBLJANA / Reuters Slovenia will hold an early general election on June 3, President Borut Pahor announced on Saturday, a month after centre-left Prime Minister Miro Cerar resigned over a legal obstacle to a government investment project. “On this day I dismiss the parliament and determine June 3 as the date of early parliamentary election,” Pahor told a news conference. ...

Bloomberg The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats may have shunned some of its more extreme members, but the party with neo-Nazi roots is still far from being welcomed by the establishment. While SD is poised to become a kingmaker in September’s election, potentially winning close to 20 percent, interviews with the center-right opposition leaders revealed the group will still need to make ...

Bloomberg Pakistan’s Supreme Court issued a lifetime ban on politicians holding office after legal disqualification — a ruling that will bar former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from ever holding an elected position following a corruption probe against the ex-premier last year. The top court’s 5-member panel made the judgment on Friday after its July decision that ousted Sharif didn’t disclose ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump pardoned I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby for lying to investigators probing the leak of a CIA officer identity, offering official forgiveness to a conservative figure whom supporters have argued was unfairly swept up in a politically charged special counsel’s investigation. “I don’t know Mr. Libby,” Trump said in a statement, “but for years I have heard that ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said relations with Russia are worse than they have ever been and warned the country to “get ready” because a volley of US missiles would soon be sent into Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack. “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will ...

ALGIERS / Reuters More than 250 people were killed when a military plane crashed in a field near Algeria’s capital on Wednesday, state media said, with witnesses saying they saw a wing catch fire shortly after the plane took off. Dozens of firefighters, rescue workers and military officials worked around the blackened fuselage of the aircraft, which had been ripped ...

Bloomberg South Korea President Moon Jae-in said he expected a “big step” towards denuclearisation of the peninsula during a unprecedented summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “Both sides are preparing for this with commitment, and I look forward to a big step being taken during the US-North Korea meeting,” Moon said in Seoul. ...