Politics

AMSTERDAM / Reuters The world’s chemical weapons watchdog is investigating recent attacks in the besieged, rebel-held Syrian region of eastern Ghouta to determine whether banned munitions were used, sources told Reuters. The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) opened an investigation into reports of the repeated use of chlorine bombs this month in the district near the ...

Bloomberg Joseph Yun, the US special representative for North Korea, is set to step down, the State Department said, in a move that comes as Kim Jong Un’s regime says it’s willing to hold talks with Washington. A North Korean official told South Korea this week that the door was open for dialogue, and Washington said it was willing to ...

Bloomberg South African President Cyril Ramaphosa treaded a fine line between his ruling party’s rival factions when he named steady hands to key cabinet posts and purged some of his predecessor Jacob Zuma’s most ineffectual appointees. While keeping a handful of Zuma loyalists in largely minor positions, Ramaphosa brought back as finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, who Zuma replaced in late ...

Bloomberg Venezuela’s opposition has renewed private talks with the government in a bid to push back the date of the country’s presidential elections as President Nicolas Maduro’s administration seeks some legitimacy for the vote, according to people familiar with the matter. Two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, former Governor Henri Falcon and lawmakers from two of Venezuela’s largest opposition parties participated ...

Bloomberg Former general Prabowo Subianto is firming as a candidate for Indonesia’s presidential election, raising the prospect of a rerun of the bitter 2014 race that saw Joko Widodo take power in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. In the strongest signal yet, the co-founder of the main opposition party known as Gerindra has indicated that Prabowo would be the party’s nominee ...

Bloomberg The US Supreme Court rejected a Trump administration appeal aimed at ending deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants, steering clear for now of the debate over the fate of hundreds of thousands of people. The justices, without published dissent, turned away the administration’s appeal of a ruling that has kept the Obama-era program in place. The rejection buys time ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said it may be “very, very unfortunate” for the world if US sanctions fail to stop North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, as he imposed the largest US penalties package yet against the rogue regime. “Phase 2 might be a very rough thing,” if the sanctions don’t succeed, Trump added at a joint press conference with Australian ...

Bloomberg Angela Merkel nominated an up-and-coming conservative to a post in Germany’s new cabinet, part of a bid to reassert control of the party by placating critics while still maintaining her centrist approach to policy. Jens Spahn, the 37-year-old flag bearer for the party’s right wing, will become health minister if Merkel succeeds in securing her fourth term. His appointment ...

Bloomberg Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least two protesters and injured 47 others partici- pating in anti-government marches around the country, the UN said. A group of Catholic activists, the Lay Coordination Committee, organized the protest against President Joseph Kabila’s continuing rule of the central African nation. It was the third rally they’ve organized since ...

Bloomberg China’s Communist Party is set to repeal presidential term limits in a move that would allow Xi Jinping to rule beyond 2023, completing the country’s departure from a political system based on collective leadership. The party’s Central Committee announced it was seeking to end a constitutional provision that bars the head of state from serving more than two consecutive ...