Politics

Bloomberg Spain’s plan to crush Catalonia’s separatists is ringing alarm bells among some of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s allies before what’s set to be a decisive few days in the conflict with the insurgent region. The Socialists are balking at the government’s focus on taking control of the administration in Barcelona while shutting off options that would allow the Catalan ...

Bloomberg The US is considering new sanctions on Myanmar after nearly a million Rohingya Muslims fled the Southeast Asian nation’s Rakhine state to neighbouring Bangladesh. In a statement, US State Department spokeswoman Heat-her Nauert said that since August 25, the US had ceased cons-ideration of JADE Act travel waivers for current and former Myanmar military leaders, and was assessing further ...

Bloomberg The US and China were both open to joining separate maritime drills with Southeast Asian nations as early as next year, Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen said. Speaking on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations defense ministers meeting, Ng said China Defense Minister Chang Wanquan and US Defense Secretary James Mattis both welcomed the chance to ...

LONDON / Reuters There is absolutely no doubt that a deal between Western powers and Iran to curb its nuclear programme will survive despite the US decision not to recertify the deal, Britain’s foreign minister Boris Johnson said. Johnson was giving a speech on foreign affairs in London. US President Donald Trump broke ranks with other major powers earlier this ...

Bloomberg Whether or not Chinese President Xi Jinping signals a successor on Wednesday, he’s amassed enough power to effectively rule for decades. The Communist Party approved a sweeping charter revision at the end of its twice-a-decade congress on Tuesday that elevates Xi to a status alongside the nation’s most vaunted political figures. The document put Xi’s contributions on par with ...

Bloomberg With Sunday’s victory in legislative elections, President Mauricio Macri received the green light from Argentines to press ahead with his reform agenda – and the prospect of another six years to carry it out. The ruling alliance won in 13 of Argentina’s 24 provinces, including the five largest, in mid-term elections that were seen as a barometer of voter ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s top court will hear a petition on Wednesday filed by three Kenyans that seeks the cancellation of a presidential-election rerun scheduled for the following day, according to the Judiciary. The petitioners want the Supreme Court to compel the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission to cancel the vote, Judiciary spokeswoman Lilian Mueni said by phone on Tuesday from the ...

Bloomberg Theresa May’s battle to get her Brexit legislation through Parliament hit a new roadblock as the opposition Labour Party threatened to unite with rebels among her Conservatives, eclipsing the small victory she brought home from a summit of European Union leaders. The UK prime minister returned from Brussels bolstered by encouraging words from her European counterparts, who signaled that ...

Bloomberg US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Monday, meeting with the nation’s leaders leaders as the Trump administration pursues a new strategy pledging an open-ended troop commitment after more than 15 years of war. Tillerson met at Bagram Air Base with President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah before returning to Doha ...

Bloomberg A day after a landslide election victory, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to seek a broad consensus on revising Japan’s 70-year-old pacifist constitution and reiterated there was no fixed schedule for change. Abe, 63, saw his ruling coalition retain its two-thirds majority in the 465-member lower house on Sunday, bolstering his chances of staying in office through 2021. While ...