Politics

Bloomberg North Korea threatened the US on Tuesday, saying it will face “merciless revenge” for ignoring Pyongyang’s warnings over annual military drills with South Korea. The isolated nation said it would be a misjudgment for the US to think that North Korea will “sit comfortably without doing anything,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, citing an unidentified military spoke-sman. ...

BEIRUT / Reuters Lebanon’s president signed off on public sector pay rises and tax hikes, a move that has triggered business concerns but could help politicians shore up support ahead of a legislative election next year. President Michel Aoun held off ratifying the two laws since parliament approved them last month, amid objections from businesses about impact of more taxes ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s government could collapse if a court rules that three of his lawmakers with dual citizenship are ineligible to hold office. Even if they stay, his handling of the constitutional crisis gripping Australia’s parliament may have already sealed its fate. The High Court will begin hearings on Thursday to interpret a 117-year-old law that bars dual ...

Bloomberg Ten sailors are missing and five were injured after a US warship collided with a petroleum tanker near Singapore on Monday, the second crash involving an American naval vessel in Asia in a matter of months. Search-and-rescue efforts are underway after the USS John S. McCain collided with the Alnic MC, the US Navy said. The US Seventh Fleet ...

Bloomberg Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to step up the fight against the extremists and proponents of secession in his first speech after returning from three months of sick leave in London. Nigeria’s national unity is “not negotiable,” Buhari, 74, said Monday in a nationally televised address. “Terrorists and criminals must be fought and destroyed relentlessly so that the majority ...

BERLIN / Reuters German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised Turkey’s use of an Interpol arrest warrant to detain a German writer in Spain, telling an election town hall event on Sunday that this amounted to abuse of the international police agency. Dogan Akhanli was stopped in Spain on Saturday after Ankara issued a “red notice”. The German-Turkish writer was released on ...

Bloomberg Turkey sees a real risk that Iraqi Kurds will press ahead with an independence referendum, according to an adviser to the president, a move that would defy almost unanimous opposition among neighboring states and surprise the many observers who foresee a deal with Baghdad emerging. The semi-autonomous area in the north of Iraq might create “de facto” sovereignty by ...

Bloomberg South Korean President Moon Jae-in warned North Korea not to use his nation’s latest round of annual military drills with the US as an excuse for any further provocations. The drills “are not aimed at raising military tensions on the Korean peninsula at all,” Moon said in a Cabinet meeting on Monday. “North Korea should never distort our efforts ...

Bloomberg As summer draws to a close, the European Union will seek to tick off a number of boxes from the top of its to-do list, leveraging its new-found political capital following the ascent of pro-EU leaders on the continent. Brussels will have its hands full as negotiations ramp up with the UK on its impending exit from the 28-nation ...

BAGHDAD / ERBIL / Reuters Iraqi security forces launched an offensive to take back the city of Tal Afar on Sunday, their next objective in the US-backed campaign to defeat IS militants, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said. “You either surrender, or die,” Abadi said in a televised speech announcing the offensive, addressing the militants. A longtime stronghold of hardline Sunni ...