Politics

Bloomberg The ground-based system of interceptors that the US would use to defend the mainland and Hawaii against a threatened North Korean attack is improving after past setbacks, the Pentagon’s testing office said in a new report. The $36 billion system “demonstrated the capability to defend the US homeland from a small number” of intermediate range or intercontinental ballistic missiles ...

Bloomberg Venezuela appears set to hold presidential elections before the end of April, a plan abruptly announced after the European Union blacklisted seven key allies of President Nicolas Maduro. Diosdado Cabello, second-in-command of the ruling socialist party and among those sanctioned, announced the vote in the South America nation’s all-powerful constituent assembly. The short time before the vote will wrong-foot ...

Bloomberg Kenyan Attorney General Githu Muigai filed a High Court petition seeking to block the opposition from swearing in Raila Odinga as the so-called people’s president. Muigai asked the court to rule as illegal motions that were passed by 15 county assemblies backing the creation of constituent assemblies, which plan to declare Odinga as the nati-on’s leader on January 30, ...

Bloomberg It’s been a decade since western bankers commanded the deference in Davos they enjoyed before the financial crisis. That blight appears to be spreading to politicians. The so-called masters of the universe headed to this year’s annual gathering of the global elite are looking less than magisterial. With the US in “America First” mode under Donald Trump, Britain consumed ...

Bloomberg For UK Prime Minister Theresa May, the Irish border issue may resurface sooner than she imagined. In a deal agreed last month to unlock divorce talks with the European Union, May guaranteed no hard border will re-emerge on the island of Ireland after Brexit. If all else fails, Northern Ireland will play by the same EU rules that apply ...

Bloomberg US Vice President Mike Pence said the US should retain its dominant role as mediator of the Israeli-Palestinian conf-lict, rebuffing Palestinian appeals to the European Union to take the reins. “The United States has played a historic role in this region to pursue and promote peace, and I think the United States should continue to play a preeminent role,” ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s main opposition party is proving to be its own worst enemy as it bids to topple the ruling African National Congress from power in next year’s elections. Instead of capitalising on voter antagonism towards the ANC and President Jacob Zuma over a succession of scandals, the Democratic Alliance has stumbled, with its mayors’ performance drawing criticism in ...

WASHINGTON / Reuters The US government’s aid chief, Mark Green, made an unannounced visit to Raqqa in Syria, the most senior US civilian official from the Trump administration to visit the war-struck northern city months after it was retaken from IS. Green was accompanied by head of the US Central Command General Joseph Votel as the United States ramps up ...

Bloomberg With the Trump administration warning of a possible war with North Korea, US allies in Asia are sounding the alarm on another risk: a clash with China in the western Pacific. China has recently accelerated air and naval excursions in sensitive areas near Japan and Taiwan, part of a longstanding quest to expand its military presence further from its ...

Bloomberg Lawmakers failed to negotiate an end to the government shutdown despite a bipartisan effort to broker a deal, raising the political stakes as federal agencies begin closing at the start of their normal workweek. Many more Americans will begin feeling the repercussions of a shutdown that officially began at 12:01 am after most government offices had stopped work for ...