Politics

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May and her Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang set thorny political issues aside and offered a bullish vision of the two countries’ blossoming trade relationship after Brexit. The two leaders put their countries on the path towards negotiating a future free-trade agreement, setting up a high-level panel to review and expand commercial ties. A British official ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump was eager to have a Republican memo alleging bias in the Russia probe released to the public, several people around him said. Now that’s it out, Trump took to Twitter to promote it for that purpose — although the document may not be as effective as the president wants it to be. It didn’t, for one ...

Bloomberg Given all the tension US President Donald Trump has fomented with Mexico over the border wall and immigration, it was surprising to hear the country’s foreign minister say ties are better than they’ve been for a long time. “That’s a fact of life,” Luis Videgaray said at a news conference in Mexico City with US Secretary of State Rex ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel said German parties need to overcome “very serious differences” if they want to seal a government pact this weekend and pave the way for her fourth term. Heading into her coalition-building endgame , Merkel said she’s “hopeful that we can make it work.” Social Democratic leader Martin Schulz, whose party is split over whether to stay ...

Bloomberg Togo’s opposition has agreed to suspend protests to allow West African mediators to resolve a months-long political crisis triggered by planned constitutional reforms which could extend the rule of President Faure Gnassingbe. Mediators from Guinea and Ghana will oversee talks between the opposition and the government of the West African nation from Feb. 15, according to an emailed statement ...

Bloomberg The Kremlin has decided to delay Vladimir Putin’s annual state-of-the-nation speech to closer to the March 18 vote, giving him a key platform for him to lay out priorities for his next presidential term, according to three officials familiar with the plans. The landmark event on Russia’s political calendar is expected to take place in late February or early ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May arrived in China seeking to balance her desire to build a powerful post-Brexit trade relationship with a clutch of political concerns. At the start of a three-day trade mission to the country, May said she would raise the sensitive topics of China’s human rights record and Hong Kong democracy in talks with President Xi ...

Bloomberg Two years into his rule, Tanzanian President John Magufuli has some unexpected new fans: his political opponents. His chief rival in the 2015 vote, Edward Lowassa, has praised his reforms and urged others to support them. Another challenger became one of his regional commissioners, while two opposition lawmakers recently defected to the ruling party and will run as candidates ...

WASHINGTON / Reuters The Taliban are openly active in 70 percent of Afghanistan’s districts, fully controlling 4 percent of the country and demonstrating an open physical presence in another 66 percent, according to a BBC study published. The BBC estimate, which it said was based on conversations with more than 1,200 individual local sources in all districts of the South ...

Bloomberg Mali will deploy additional troops to its central region in a bid to halt an escalation of extremist attacks as pressure mounts to stabilise the West African nation before elections later this year. “Our biggest concern is the security of central Mali,” Security Minister Salif Traore said in an interview in the capital, Bamako. “We are under time constraints ...