Politics

Bloomberg The US is taking sanctions against Russia to a new level. The US Treasury turned away from past efforts like curbs on visas to unleash measures that will sever access to global financial markets, buyers and suppliers for several of Russia’s Kremlin-connected billionaires. One of them, Oleg Deripaska, bears the brunt. And sanctions against him entangle some of the ...

MOSCOW / Reuters The Russian embassy in London has sent a request for a meeting of its envoy, Alexander Yakovenko, with British foreign minister Boris Johnson to discuss the investigation of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter poisoned in Salisbury, the RIA news agency reported on Saturday. “We hope for a constructive response from the British side and are counting ...

GAZA / Agencies A Palestinian journalist died on Saturday after being wounded by Israeli fire while covering deadly protests along the Israel-Gaza border, health officials said. Yaser Murtaja, 30, a cameraman for Palestinian Ain Me-dia, was the 29th Palestinian killed in the week-long protests. Photos showed Murtaja lying wounded on a stretcher wearing a navy-blue protective vest marked ‘PRESS’ in ...

MELBOURNE / Reuters Australian voters want Malcolm Turnbull to remain prime minister, according to an opinion poll on Saturday, as questions about his leadership gain momentum with his coalition facing possibly the 30th straight loss in a major poll on Monday. Losing 30 Newspolls, one of the country’s most respected political polls, would be a symbolic blow for Turnbull since ...

Bloomberg The triple alliance of Russia, Turkey and Iran, now the dominant actors in Syria’s war, is stepping up efforts to impose a peace. It may end up presiding over a partition. Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting his Turkish and Iranian counterparts in Ankara on Wednesday for their latest summit on Syria’s future. The three leaders have buried their ...

THE HAGUE / Reuters Russia’s proposal for a joint inquiry into the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in England is “perverse”, Britain’s delegation at the global chemical weapons watchdog said on Wednesday during an emergency meeting requested by Moscow. Moscow convened the watchdog’s decision-making executive to counter accusations by Britain that it was behind the March 4 poisoning of Sergei ...

PARIS / Reuters Millions of French commuters suffered a second consecutive day of travel chaos on Wednesday as striking rail workers locked horns with President Emmanuel Macron’s government in a dispute over reforming the state-owned SNCF railways. Commuters in and around Paris pushed their way onto the few trains running during the rush-hour while many platforms in the French capital’s ...

ROME / Reuters Italy’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement proposed a German-style governing contract with two of its rivals as formal talks aimed at seating a government began on Wednesday, a month after an election ended with a hung parliament. The inconclusive March 4 vote left soft-spoken President Sergio Mattarella to coax sworn adversaries towards a coalition deal. The process could take ...

Reuters Libyan citizens are to be asked for their views on the country’s future in a series of UN-backed public consultations aimed at breaking a political stalemate and preparing for new elections after years of conflict and division. The first meetings will be held in the eastern city of Benghazi and the far western city of Zuwara on Thursday. More ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump says the US will withdraw troops from Syria “very soon.” He’s also vowed to counter Iran’s influence throughout the Middle East. Doing both at the same time may be impossible. Trump’s off-the-cuff aside at a rally in Ohio last week — “We’re knocking the hell out of IS. We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very ...