Politics

Bloomberg Twin explosions rocked Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing one and wounding at least 14, a sharp escalation after months of growing violence between Israelis and Palestinians. The first blast detonated near a bus stop at the entrance to Jerusalem on Wednesday morning and a second exploded 30 minutes later near the Ramot junction in the city. Police said they suspected ...

Bloomberg Talks between the leaders of China and the US were good for peace in Asia-Pacific, Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said, underscoring how tensions in the region have eased in recent weeks. “The kinds of messages coming from the United States this time, we feel rather comfortable about the meetings,” Wu said Tuesday at a briefing in Taipei before ...

Bloomberg President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday threatened to start a long-suspended offensive against US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria to push them further from Turkey’s southern border. The Turkish leader spoke as his country’s warplanes and artillery kept pounding positions of Kurdish YPG militia it holds responsible for a deadly bomb attack in Istanbul last week and cross-border shelling of ...

Bloomberg President Jair Bolsonaro’s party is questioning the result of Brazil’s runoff election, seeking to annul votes that gave leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a tight victory on October 30. Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party claimed that older models of Brazil’s electronic ballots had problems that make it impossible to properly identify the machines, and requested that votes cast through ...

Bloomberg US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urged China to avoid “destabilizing actions” toward Taiwan in his first face-to-face meeting with Defense Minister Wei Fenghe since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in August. In talks Tuesday in Siem Reap, Cambodia, the Pentagon chief also called for the two sides to maintain open lines of communication and warned of ...

Bloomberg The US and Russia urged Turkey to avoid escalating violence in northern Syria as Turkey’s leader vowed a fresh incursion against Kurdish militants that could threaten existing cease-fire agreements. Turkey over the weekend started an aerial attack on the Kurdish militia it holds responsible for a deadly bomb attack in Istanbul last week. The army may also launch a ...

Bloomberg The search for Malaysia’s next leader hit a snag when former ruling coalition Barisan Nasional said it will stay out of any new government and become part of the opposition instead, prolonging the uncertainty after the weekend’s inconclusive vote. The move deprives both Anwar Ibrahim’s reformist group and ex-premier Muhyiddin Yassin’s pro-Malay alliance the support they require to form ...

Bloomberg The US and Chinese defense chiefs are likely to meet for their first talks since Beijing suspended dialog with Washington over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August visit to Taiwan —the latest sign that ties between the two nations are stabilizing. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would welcome a meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe during a gathering of ...

Bloomberg Separatist Kurdish militants in Syria launched a cross-border mortar attack on a Turkish border town, killing at least three people including a school teacher, authorities said. Violence between Kurdish militants and Turkey is spiraling after Turkish warplanes bombed bases of outlawed Kurdish PKK group in northern Iraq and affiliated US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria in retaliation for a deadly ...

Bloomberg Veteran opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who has come tantalizingly close to leading Malaysia during his tumultuous political career, is suddenly on the cusp of clinching the top job —but a final hurdle stands in his way. Anwar’s reformist coalition won 82 parliamentary seats in Saturday’s election, the biggest haul among the competing blocs. While it’s short of the majority ...