Politics

Bloomberg Longtime Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek is resisting pressure to resign, fashioning himself into an unlikely rebel as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan turns a sweeping purge of Turkish society against his own party. Gokcek, who’s been elected to the post in five consecutive elections since 1994, has been under pressure to step down since early this month, when Turkish media ...

Bloomberg Catalan separatists are mobilizing a human shield to block efforts by the Spanish authorities to take control of the breakaway region as both sides prepare to escalate the political conflict. Groups will concentrate their activists around the regional government’s headquarters in Barcelona’s Gothic quarter and the nearby parliament building, according to two people familiar with the plans, asking not ...

Bloomberg Twenty-eight years after Poland led eastern Europe’s break with communism and its embrace of western-style democracy, the country’s human rights commissioner is sounding the alarm with a warning that the European Union’s largest eastern nation is on a road that leads back to authoritarian rule. The latest plan by President Andrzej Duda and the ruling party to revamp the ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition retained its two-thirds parliamentary majority in Sunday’s general election, unofficial results showed, bolstering his chances at becoming Japan’s longest-serving leader. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner Komeito won at least 310 of the 465 up for grabs, according to results shown on public broadcaster NHK. Opposition parties split the rest, with the ...

WASHINGTON / Reuters US President Donald Trump hailed the defeat of IS figh-ters in their self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa as “a crit- ical breakthrough” in a worldwide campaign against the militants. The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had formally announced Raqqa’s liberation from IS after four months of battles and said the city would be part of a decentralized federal ...

MOSCOW / Reuters Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari will meet in Moscow on October 23 to discuss the situation in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Moscow is for constructive dialogue between Baghdad and Kurdistan, the ministry added. During al-Jaafari’s visit to Moscow on Oct. 23-25, the minister will ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy invoked the most far-reaching powers in the Spanish Constitution as he aimed to strike a decisive blow against the Catalan separatist campaign that’s divided the nation and put its economic expansion at risk. Spain will dismiss Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his government, and take control of the regional police force and public television and ...

Bloomberg Voters in two regions of Italy’s wealthy north vote in referendums on Sunday to demand more autonomy from the state, in a ballot which could strengthen the anti-migrant Northern League ahead of national elections early next year. Backers of the non-binding referendums in Lombardy and Veneto, whose regional capitals are Milan and Venice, insist they have little in common ...

Bloomberg The UK opposition Labour Party could unite with rebels in Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party as a way to force her to give lawmakers a vote on the final deal to leave the European Union, the party’s Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer wrote in the Sunday Times. Starmer demanded May accept six changes to the so-called repeal bill, including ...

Bloomberg Theresa May left the European summit with warm words on Brexit from her fellow leaders, and the cold fact of a 60 billion euro ($70 billion) divorce bill they still want her to pay. The prime minister gave her clearest signal yet that she’ll cover the cost of the UK’s liabilities when it leaves the bloc, after leaders promised ...