Politics

Bloomberg President Xi Jinping warned of “severe” challenges while laying out a road map to turn China into a leading global power by 2050, as he kicked off a twice-a-decade party gathering expected to cement his influence into the next decade. In a speech that ran for more than three hours on Wednesday, Xi declared victory over “many difficult, long ...

Bloomberg Iraqi forces pressed their campaign to retake oil-rich territory from Kurdish fighters, widening a conflict that has roiled markets and could stoke tensions outside the country’s borders. Militiamen in the Popular Mobilization Forces operating alongside federal government troops captured the town of Sinjar without resistance, Rayan Al-Kildani, a spokesman, said. “The next step is to continue imposing security, order, ...

Bloomberg The top US military commander in the Pacific warned the situation in North Korea is a “recipe for disaster,” as the region prepares for Donald Trump’s first visit to the region as president. Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, said in a speech in Singapore that China must do more to pressure its neighbor and ally ...

Bloomberg Angela Merkel is facing pressure to put her stamp on Germany’s next government as the chancellor begins talks on uniting four disparate parties into a coalition to govern Europe’s biggest economy. Almost a month after her Christian Democratic-led bloc emerged weakened from a national election, Merkel meets separately with the pro-market Free Democratic Party and the Greens on Wednesday ...

Bloomberg South African President Jacob Zuma’s decision to fire communist party leader Blade Nzimande from his cabinet is widening a rift with two of the African National Congress’s closest allies before a key leadership conference in December. In dismissing Nzimande as higher education minister, Zuma, 75, targeted the communist party, which along with the main labor confederation, Cosatu, has said ...

Bloomberg North Korea warned that a nuclear war “may break out any moment” as the US and South Korea began one of the largest joint naval drills off both the east and west coasts of the peninsula. Kim In Ryong, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said that his nation had become a “full-fledged nuclear power which possesses ...

BAGHDAD / KIRKUK / Reuters The Baghdad government recaptured territory across the breadth of northern Iraq from Kurds on Tuesday, widening a sudden and dramatic campaign that has shifted the balance of power in the country almost overnight. In the second day of a lightning government campaign to take back towns and countryside from forces of the Kurdish autonomous region, ...

Bloomberg The Venezuelan opposition has been boxed in. The socialist regime’s sweeping victories in elections marred by fraud accusations left opponents with scant hope of a fair 2018 presidential vote. International pressure has failed to move President Nicolas Maduro. Nor have months of street protests. Now, opponents are splintering over the basic question of whether the ballot box is the ...

Bloomberg Spain’s National Court ordered the Catalan police chief to surrender his passport after finding evidence that his force spied on its rivals in Madrid. A judge in the Spanish capital told Josep Lluis Trapero to report back to the court every two weeks, citing evidence that the Catalan police force, known as the Mossos d’Esquadra, may have conducted counter-intelligence ...

Bloomberg Asia’s two biggest economies both have their most powerful leaders in decades — and neither one has much incentive to mend a relationship that has long been volatile. Polls show Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party is heading for a landslide win in an October 22 election, putting him on track to become the longest-serving leader in the ...