Politics

Bloomberg As delegates from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress gather this week to pick a new leader to succeed President Jacob Zuma, they face a challenge that’s threatening to overshadow the contest: to stop the party from splitting. The likelihood of a breakup is probably the biggest in the ANC’s 105-year-old history, especially if Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the president’s ex-wife ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s main opposition alliance postponed indefinitely plans to swear-in its leader as president of a so-called People’s Assembly, after the government warned such a step would amount to treason. A ceremony that was to be held in the port city of Mombasa December 12 was called off after “extensive internal consultations and engagement with a wide range of national ...

Bloomberg China expressed pessimism about bringing the North Korean standoff to a peaceful resolution, even as Kim Jong Un’s regime touted new United Nations support for “regular” talks. Chinese Foreign Minster Wang Yi said on Saturday “the outlook is not optimistic” on the Korean Peninsula and urged all sides to end what he said was a “vicious cycle” of confrontation. ...

BAGHDAD / Reuters An Iraqi military parade celebrating final victory over IS was held in Bag-hdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, an Iraqi military spokesman told Reuters on Sunday. The country’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared final victory over IS after Iraqi forces drove its last remn-ants from the country, three years after the militant group captured about a third of ...

Bloomberg Neither the Palestinian Authority president nor the head of the Coptic Church in Egypt plan to meet with US Vice President Mike Pence when he visits the Middle East later this month, to protest the US declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. The rejections emerged as the Anadolu Agency said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and French ...

Bloomberg Liberia’s Supreme Court told the electoral commission to proceed with organising the final round of presidential elections that was initially scheduled Nov 7 but put on hold to probe allegations of fraud during the first round. The runoff should go ahead, Justice Philip Banks said in the ruling in the capital, Monrovia. The ruling ends weeks of uncertainty over ...

Bloomberg The leader of Mexico’s largest opposition group is stepping down from his post to prepare for a presidential run under a left-right coalition that’s looking to dislodge the ruling party from power. Ricardo Anaya’s resignation as party president, effective this weekend, is the first step to seeking the nomination from his National Action Party (PAN) to run in 2018 ...

Bloomberg Israeli fighter jets struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least two people, in response to rockets fired by Palestinian protesters into Israel. The clashes came as Muslims took to the streets from the West Bank to Jakarta to protest US President Donald Trump’s move to recognise contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Violence associated with the “Day ...

Bloomberg Martin Schulz signalled he wouldn’t give France a blank check on European policy if he takes the party into a government with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Fresh from re-election as head of Germany’s second-biggest party, Schulz combined a defense of his call for a “United States of Europe” by 2025 with a message to French President Emmanuel Macron. Schulz has ...

Bloomberg Honduras is headed into its third week without a winner in presidential elections amid a political standoff between the two leading candidates and few signs its worst crisis in a decade is about to end. The Central American country of 9 million has slipped into a full-blown constitutional emergency since a chaotic November 26 election ended in claims that ...