Politics

Bloomberg China’s parliament unanimously reappointed Xi Jinping as president while installing one of his most trusted allies as vice president, highlighting how little public opposition remains to his rule. The rubber-stamp National People’s Congress voted 2,970-to-0 to give Xi a second five-year term on Saturday, days after repealing a constitutional provision that would’ve barred him from a third. Although legislative ...

BRUSSELS / Reuters Britain, France and Germany have proposed fresh EU sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missiles and its role in Syria’s war, according to a confidential document, in a bid to persuade Washington to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. The joint paper, seen by Reuters, was sent to European Union capitals, said two people familiar with ...

Bloomberg Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired the FBI’s former deputy director, Andrew McCabe — a favourite target for President Donald Trump and Republicans, two days before he was to retire. Sessions made the politically explosive decision after the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility recommended that McCabe be dismissed for not being forthcoming about authorising discussions with a reporter about a ...

MOSCOW / Reuters Russia said it had information that the United States planned to bomb the government quarter in Damascus on an invented pretext, and said it would respond militarily if it felt Russian lives were threatened by such an attack. Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia’s General Staff, said Moscow had information that rebels in the enclave of eastern Ghouta ...

Bloomberg The Japanese government is exploring the possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Japanese media reported. Japan is considering a new way of dealing with Pyongyang after US President Donald Trump’s decision to meet Kim, Kyodo News said, citing unidentified government officials. The surprise move by Trump, which followed a ...

Bloomberg South African lawmakers said they will summon the Gupta family and the son of former President Jacob Zuma to appear before an inquiry that is investigating the mismanagement of public funds at state-owned enterprises. The former chairwoman of South African Airways, Dudu Myeni, will also be subpoenaed after failing to heed two invitations to give testimony at the hearings ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel was formally elected to a fourth term in a parliamentary vote, extending her 12 years in office at the helm of Europe’s biggest economy. Merkel, 63, was backed by a majority of 364 lawmakers in the 709-member lower house on the strength of a coalition deal between her Christian Democratic-led bloc and the Social Democrats, ...

Bloomberg The White House hosted 19 nations, including Israel and Arab Gulf states, to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but the Palestinian Authority boycotted the meeting, angered by the Trump administration’s policies on Jerusalem. US President Donald Trump reversed decades of US policy in December, when he decided to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy ...

Bloomberg Italy’s center-right alliance led by the euroskeptic League has taken the first step toward negotiating with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, raising the prospect of a populist administration which investors regard with alarm. League leader Matteo Salvini has been given a mandate by his partners in the bloc to talk to Five Star and the center-left Democratic Party, spokesmen ...

Bloomberg Now that Republicans have terminated the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe, the biggest outstanding question is whether the public will ever see transcripts from dozens of its closed-door witnesses. Republicans on the Intelligence panel are reversing their earlier plans to release those transcripts, while Democrats say they plan to attach the documents to their final report. With Republicans and ...