Politics

Bloomberg The US Air Force is going ahead with two long-planned flight tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles next month despite efforts to damp tensions over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and encourage fragile talks with South Korea. Test launches of American missiles — without the nuclear warheads they can deliver — would be unlikely to cause much of a stir under ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel reached a preliminary accord with the Social Democrats to end Germany’s political gridlock, moving closer to a fourth term and defying domestic critics who say her time is running out. The next hurdles are a key vote by her reluctant SPD partners later this month and then finalising the deal in another round of talks. After ...

Bloomberg Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is in a quandary over whether its long-serving leader and founder Morgan Tsvangirai, who’s undergoing treatment for colon cancer, should retire before this year’s elections. While Tsvangirai, 65, has appeared increasingly frail, he remains the party’s most-popular official and his absence from the ballot could undermine its campaign. The MDC ...

Bloomberg Congressional Republicans got the green light from President Donald Trump to negotiate an immigration deal with Democrats, potentially clearing a stalemate that’s stalled action on multiple issues, including funding to keep the government from shutting down next week. During an unusual public meeting with bipartisan members of Congress at the White House, Trump offered a broad outline for an ...

JERUSALEM / Reuters Israel will approve construction of hundreds of new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said. Settlements are one of the most heated issues in efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, frozen since 2014. Palestinians want the West Bank for a future state, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Most ...

TUNIS / Reuters A Jewish school on a Tunisian island was attacked as police battled violent unrest elsewhere in the country, arresting more than 200 people, witnesses and the interior ministry said. Petrol bombs thrown at the school on the tourist resort island of Djerba, home to an ancient Jewish community, caused some damage but no injuries, the head of ...

Bloomberg South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed to never accept North Korea’s nuclear program, while also saying he was prepared to meet Kim Jong Un under the right conditions. “Denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula, which South Korea and North Korea jointly declared in the past, is a position that we could never concede,” Moon said on Wednesday during an extended ...

SEOUL / Reuters Rescue crews were forced to retreat from a stricken Iranian oil tanker in the East China Sea on Wednesday following an explosion on the ship as a fire raged for a fourth day after a dramatic collision. The blast happened on board the tanker in the afternoon after rescue crews were dousing the ship with foam in ...

Bloomberg Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski reshuffled his cabinet in a bid to breathe new life into his moribund government after his decision to free former autocrat Alberto Fujimori from jail sparked a wave of criticism. Kuczynski swore in nine new ministers at the presidential palace in Lima. Cabinet Chief Mercedes Araoz and Finance Minister Claudia Cooper remain in their ...

Bloomberg South African President Jacob Zuma said he would appoint a commission of inquiry into allegations that the Gupta family was allowed to influence state decisions and that he would abide by a court ruling for the Chief Justice to select its leader. The High Court in December rejected Zuma’s arguments that he alone can set up the commission and ...