Politics

Bloomberg Spanish police in riot gear smashed in the doors of polling stations and dragged protesters away by the hair, beating some with batons and firing rubber bullets at others on Sunday as they tried to shut down an illegal referendum on independence in Catalonia. Despite the force of the police against peaceful demonstrations, voting began in many locations across ...

Bloomberg Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said the government won’t allow Africa’s most populous country to break apart amid growing calls for secession by “irresponsible” groups. “We cannot and will not allow such advocacy,” Buhari said in a national broadcast on Sunday to mark Nigeria’s 57th anniversary as an independent nation. “At all events, proper dialogue and any desired constitutional changes ...

Bloomberg Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte dismissed allegations he’s hiding hundreds of millions of pesos in his bank accounts, calling them “lies” and vowing to snub a probe into his wealth initiated by the country’s top anti-graft agency. In a profanity-laced speech before lawyers in his hometown of Davao City, Duterte said his lifetime savings don’t exceed $786,0000. The savings come ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May is battling to assert her authority over a divided Conservative Party as she faces calls to quit as its leader before the next general election. While May insists she will fight on, a former party chairman said she could not be allowed to stay until the next election in 2022, amid reports that Foreign ...

Bloomberg Europe’s disaster-relief chief leans back in a chair in his Brussels office and fires off a warning: President Donald Trump’s plan to slash US international aid could undermine global geopolitical stability—and threaten America’s interests. The admonition by Christos Stylianides, the European Union commissioner for crisis management, highlights the extent to which Europe is grappling with Trump’s “America First” policy. ...

Bloomberg Two women were killed at Marseille’s Saint Charles train station by a man wielding a knife and crying “Allah Akabar.” The man was shot dead by soldiers. Prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation into the attack, which happened just outside the southern French city’s train station at about 1.45 pm on Sunday. One woman’s throat was cut, and the other ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May needs to boost her appeal and win over young voters at her party’s annual conference next week in a push to revitalise her flagging premiership after a disastrous election in June. May is trying to persuade critics inside her Conservative Party to let her stay on as leader, as her allies fear she faces ...

Bloomberg Russia denied assertions by neighbouring Ukraine that most Russian troops taking part in large-scale war games this month on NATO’s eastern border remained in Belarus after the exercises ended. “As far as the Russian troops which took part in the joint strategic exercises, Zapad 2017, they all returned to their permanent bases,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on ...

Bloomberg Voters in Lesotho began casting ballots on Saturday in elections for national assembly members in three constituencies and for local government leaders across the landlocked southern African nation. Voting began in the parliamentary constituencies of Hololo, Thupa-kubu and Teyateyaneng, where candidates died before general elections on June 3. More than 1.2 million voters were also expected to cast ballots ...

Bloomberg The US is communicating with North Korea about its nuclear programme and testing Pyongyang’s appetite for negotiations, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in the first public acknowledgment by a senior administration official of direct contact on the matter. Tillerson, speaking to reporters on Saturday after meeting Chinese officials in Beijing, insisted that the US would never accept a ...