Politics

Bloomberg The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator said he’s ready to intensify the pace of talks with the UK, as the window of opportunity to begin trade talks this year is closing. “I’m ready to speed up negotiations,” Michel Barnier told reporters in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Tuesday. “We have proposed three dates, three weeks of new rounds of ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security to bolster the vetting of immigrants coming into the US after an Uzbek man allegedly drove a truck down a bike path in New York, killing eight and injuring almost a dozen more. “I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct ...

Bloomberg Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for meetings with Iran’s top leaders as Moscow voices increasing criticism of US President Trump’s move away from the nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic. Putin will hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that will focus on the nuclear issue and economic ties, the ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s main opposition alliance said it won’t challenge the results that gave President Uhuru Kenyatta a landslide victory in last week’s disputed election rerun in court and instead vowed to mobilize its supporters to press for a another vote. “This election must not stand,” opposition leader Raila Odinga told reporters in Nairobi, the capital. “If allowed to stand, it ...

Bloomberg Ousted Catalan President Carles Puigdemont was summoned to a Spanish court on suspicion of sedition, forcing the rebel leader to choose between a possible 30-year jail term and life as a leader in exile. Puigdemont fled to Brussels after Spain seized control of his semi-autonomous government in response to Catalonia’s declaration of independence. While members of his team who ...

Bloomberg South Korean President Moon Jae-in is seeking a detente with both North Korea and China in a bid to calm tensions a week before US President Donald Trump arrives in Seoul. South Korea and China on Tuesday agreed to move beyond a year-long dispute over Seoul’s decision to deploy a US missile shield, paving the way for closer ties ...

Bloomberg In the final days of Spain’s complex political chess match with Catalan separatism, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy made the best tactical moves. The longer game of keeping the country’s economic powerhouse in Spain may prove harder to win. Rajoy lined up backing from the opposition Socialists for his plan to sweep out the Catalan government while his diplomats ensured ...

Bloomberg Czechs moved closer to a rare minority government envisaged by billionaire Andrej Babis as his euroskeptic party failed to find coalition allies after winning this month’s general elections. President Milos Zeman said he won’t object if Babis proposes forming a government that lacks a parliamentary majority, because a single-party cabinet would rule more efficiently. While Babis, the second-richest Czech ...

Bloomberg Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s Progressive Party is considering triggering the third snap parliamentary elections since 2014 as it moves to further consolidate power in the European Union candidate. Vucic, a former ally of war-time leader Slobodan Milosevic, said his party are discussing early elections this week. His party won snap bal- lots in both 2014 and last year bef-ore ...

Bloomberg Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the landslide winner of a chaotic election rerun that his main rival Raila Odinga rejected as a sham. Kenyatta, 56, won 7.48 million votes, or 98.3 percent of the total cast on Oct. 26, Wafula Chebukati, the chairman of the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission, said in Nairobi, the capital. The turnout was ...