Politics

Bloomberg Germany’s Social Democrats began taking sides on forming a government with Angela Merkel as the party leadership stepped up efforts to convince doubters of the need for a rerun of their grand coalition. SPD leader Martin Schulz continued his tour of key Social Democratic Party regions on Tuesday to sell the preliminary deal reached last week with Merkel’s Christian ...

Bloomberg Republican congressional leaders are struggling to separate the immigration blow-up set off by President Donald Trump from a funding bill to avert a US government shutdown at the end of this week. Democrats say the burden is on Trump to help break the stalemate after he rejected a bipartisan proposal to shield young, undocumented immigrants from deportation and ignited ...

Bloomberg Palestinians will “slap back” for the humiliation they’ve suffered from the Trump administration and seek to replace the US with other international players in future peace negotiations with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said. Opening a conference of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee in Ramallah, Abbas criticized US President Donald Trump for recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump told reporters he’s “the least racist person” as fallout continues from a vulgar remark about immigrants from Africa and Haiti attributed to the president following a meeting with lawmakers last week. “I am not a racist,” Trump said in response to a shouted question from reporters as he entered his Palm Beach golf club. “I am the ...

Bloomberg Czechs will decide in a runoff presidential election whether pro-Russian incumbent Milos Zeman keeps his post for five more years or is ousted by a pro-European Union professor who’s won endorsements from candidates who tumbled out in the first round. Zeman, a veteran politician who supports Russian leader Vladimir Putin and was one of early backers of US President ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s ruling-party leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, said that while Jacob Zuma’s government must obey the decisions of the African National Congress, he doesn’t want to “humiliate” the president and divide the nation. Ramaphosa, speaking in a television interview broadcast by Johannesburg-based eNCA, said the ANC has to be careful about deciding on Zuma’s future as the nation’s leader before ...

Bloomberg Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg strengthened her power base as the Liberal Party agreed to join her minority coalition. The new government will be built on a “broader center-right platform,” Solberg said at a televised press conference in Moss, south of Oslo. “We are seeing more polarized landscape in many countries with parties refusing to take responsibility,” she said. ...

Bloomberg Tunisia’s main opposition parties derided a government pledge to increase aid for low-income families, urging Tunisians to step up protests over IMF-backed austerity measures as the country marks the seventh anniversary of the revolt that inspired the Arab Spring uprisings. “Government actions are just painkillers and cannot deal with the situation,” Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, head of the opposition Democratic ...

Reuters An Iranian oil tanker has sunk after burning for more than a week following a collision on Jan. 6 in the East China Sea, Chinese state media said on Sunday, adding that large amounts of oil are burning in the surrounding waters. Iranian officials said the remaining 29 crew members and passengers of the tanker were presumed dead. Iranian ...

ANKARA / Reuters Iran’s president said on Sunday the United States had failed to undermine a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers, and hailed the accord as a “long-lasting victory” for Iran, state television reported. US President Donald Trump delivered an ultimatum to European signatories of the deal to fix the “terrible flaws” of the agreement with Iran, or ...