Politics

Bloomberg Kim Jong Un expressed satisfaction with South Korea’s treatment of his sister during a visit to mark the opening of the Winter Olympics, and called for more efforts to improve ties between the countries. A high-level delegation including the North Korean leader’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, spent three days in South Korea before returning on Sunday to Pyongyang. South ...

Bloomberg China’s once-powerful politician Sun Zhengcai is to stand trial for bribery, state media announced, moving a step closer to the conclusion of a case that has brought down one of the country’s political elite. The case involving Sun will be heard in Tianjin, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Beijing, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The 54-year-old Sun, ...

Bloomberg South Africans awoke to find their nation in limbo after President Jacob Zuma’s refusal to obey his ruling African National Congress’s request to resign voluntarily prompted its top leadership to order his removal from office. The ANC’s National Executive Committee decided to “recall” Zuma, 75, during a 13-hour meeting that ended early Tuesday, according to five people familiar with ...

Bloomberg Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian leader-turned Ukrainian opposition politician, lost his appeal in a Ukrainian court seeking protection and refugee status after his homeland sought extradition. Officials of Ukraine’s migration and border-security services told Saakashvili on Monday he was to be returned to Poland, where he stayed before his most recent arrival, Oleh Slobodyan, a spokesman for the border ...

Bloomberg The White House said on Monday that Donald Trump supports domestic violence victims, after the president was criticized for sympathetic public statements about a former aide who resigned last week following allegations that he abused two ex-wives. “The president and the entire administration take domestic violence very seriously and believe all should be investigated thoroughly,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee ...

Bloomberg The US is ready to engage in talks about North Korea’s nuclear program even as it maintains pressure on Kim Jong Un’s regime, Vice President Mike Pence said, signaling a shift in American policy. Pence and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in agreed to pursue dialogue with North Korea during conversations at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the Washington Post ...

Bloomberg South African President Jacob Zuma’s fate is set to be sealed when the top leadership of the ruling African National Congress meets to conclude the transition to a new administration. The National Executive Committee was expected to assemble on Monday in the capital, Pretoria, as Zuma, 75, has defied growing pressure to resign since his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, replaced ...

Bloomberg Israel is counting on Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep confrontations with Iran and Syria from spiraling into war as the Trump administration mostly watches from the sidelines, a senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “The American part of the equation is to back us up,” but the US currently “has almost no leverage on the ground,” ...

Bloomberg Conservatives’ infighting over how to engage with the rest of a united Europe has helped bring down the party’s past three prime ministers. Now, Theresa May has given her government a few weeks to forge a position—and flesh out details—they can all get behind as the UK negotiates its way out of the European Union. With interlocutors in Brussels ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she’s determined to serve another full term, rebuffing party critics who say she sold out to the Social Democrats to extend her 12 years in office. Faced with a backlash against last week’s coalition agreement and calls by some in her Christian Democratic Union to start thinking about a successor, Merkel defiantly brushed aside ...