Politics

Bloomberg President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday threatened to start a long-suspended offensive against US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria to push them further from Turkey’s southern border. The Turkish leader spoke as his country’s warplanes and artillery kept pounding positions of Kurdish YPG militia it holds responsible for a deadly bomb attack in Istanbul last week and cross-border shelling of ...

Bloomberg President Jair Bolsonaro’s party is questioning the result of Brazil’s runoff election, seeking to annul votes that gave leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a tight victory on October 30. Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party claimed that older models of Brazil’s electronic ballots had problems that make it impossible to properly identify the machines, and requested that votes cast through ...

Bloomberg US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urged China to avoid “destabilizing actions” toward Taiwan in his first face-to-face meeting with Defense Minister Wei Fenghe since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in August. In talks Tuesday in Siem Reap, Cambodia, the Pentagon chief also called for the two sides to maintain open lines of communication and warned of ...

Bloomberg The US and Russia urged Turkey to avoid escalating violence in northern Syria as Turkey’s leader vowed a fresh incursion against Kurdish militants that could threaten existing cease-fire agreements. Turkey over the weekend started an aerial attack on the Kurdish militia it holds responsible for a deadly bomb attack in Istanbul last week. The army may also launch a ...

Bloomberg The search for Malaysia’s next leader hit a snag when former ruling coalition Barisan Nasional said it will stay out of any new government and become part of the opposition instead, prolonging the uncertainty after the weekend’s inconclusive vote. The move deprives both Anwar Ibrahim’s reformist group and ex-premier Muhyiddin Yassin’s pro-Malay alliance the support they require to form ...

Bloomberg The US and Chinese defense chiefs are likely to meet for their first talks since Beijing suspended dialog with Washington over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August visit to Taiwan —the latest sign that ties between the two nations are stabilizing. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would welcome a meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe during a gathering of ...

Bloomberg Separatist Kurdish militants in Syria launched a cross-border mortar attack on a Turkish border town, killing at least three people including a school teacher, authorities said. Violence between Kurdish militants and Turkey is spiraling after Turkish warplanes bombed bases of outlawed Kurdish PKK group in northern Iraq and affiliated US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria in retaliation for a deadly ...

Bloomberg Veteran opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who has come tantalizingly close to leading Malaysia during his tumultuous political career, is suddenly on the cusp of clinching the top job —but a final hurdle stands in his way. Anwar’s reformist coalition won 82 parliamentary seats in Saturday’s election, the biggest haul among the competing blocs. While it’s short of the majority ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the UK isn’t prepared to align itself with EU laws as part of their post-Brexit relationship, pushing back against reports his government is exploring the potential for Switzerland-style ties with the bloc. “Under my leadership the United Kingdom will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws,” Sunak said ...

  Bloomberg Poland’s defense chief welcomed a German offer to deploy Patriot missiles in the country and proposed stationing the defense system near its border with Ukraine. Germany made the offer less than a week after a missile strike killed two people in a village in eastern Poland, raising fears of a significant escalation between Nato and Russia nine months ...