Politics

Bloomberg Brazil’s combination of political polarization and passion for social media offers fertile ground for fake news in the run-up to this year’s elections, leading fact checkers have warned. Claire Wardle, a Harvard fellow and the director of an organization that coordinated fact-checking efforts during the French and UK elections, said political division combined with widespread use of WhatsApp, a ...

WASHINGTON / Reuters US Vice President Mike Pence will visit Egypt, Jordan and Israel from January 20 to 23, the White House said, embarking on a tour originally planned for last month after President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Pence will hold talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Jordan’s King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister ...

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron called for an overhaul to relations between China and the European Union, pushing for more balanced trade ties while embracing President Xi Jinping’s signature infrastructure push. Speaking on Monday in the ancient imperial capital of Xian, the eastern departure point of the Silk Road trade route, Macron repeated a call for “reciprocity” in trade ties ...

Bloomberg South Korean officials will face a challenge as tough as any Olympic feat this week: Drawing the North Koreans back to talks without undermining the US’s hard line against Kim Jong Un. The neighbours are slated to hold their first high-level meeting in more than two years at 10 am on Tuesday at Panmunjom, a border village where the ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Theresa May began an overhaul of senior ministers on Monday, stamping her authority on the UK government at the start of high-pressure year for Brexit. Boris Johnson stays on as Foreign Secretary, as widely predicted. Johnson, who led the official campaign to take Britain out of the EU in the 2016 referendum, is seen as May’s biggest ...

BEIJING / Reuters Rescue crews wrestled to bring a blaze on an Iranian oil tanker off China’s east coast under control on Monday as fire raged for a second day following a collision with a grain ship, while the body of one of the 32 missing crew members was found on aboard. Concerns were growing that the tanker, which hit ...

Bloomberg Republicans and Democrats in Congress are once again far apart on a government spending bill with just days to go before a partial shutdown. The next deadline is January 19, and after Republican leaders met with President Donald Trump and cabinet officials over the weekend at Camp David there was no indication either side had budged on some of ...

Bloomberg Israel has blacklisted 20 groups from around the world that support the Palestinian-led boycott campaign against it, barring their members from entering the country. The organisations identified include the Association France Palestine Solidarite, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign and US-based Jewish Voice for Peace. It follows up on a law passed last year that bars visits by non-citizens and non-residents ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said Congress should enact a measure to provide legal status to young, undocumented immigrants, provided other proposals, including funding for a wall on the US border with Mexico, are also adopted — a compromise Democratic lawmakers have already rejected. “We want the wall,” Trump said at a press conference at Camp David in Maryland. “The wall ...

BEIJING / Reuters A tanker carrying Iranian oil and run by the country’s top oil shipping operator was ablaze and spewing cargo into the East China Sea on Sunday after colliding with a Chinese bulk ship, leaving its 32 crew members missing, the Chinese government said. Thick clouds of dark smoke could be seen billowing out of the Sanchi tanker, ...