Politics

Bloomberg Police arrested a man they suspect was the driver who rammed his car into a group of soldiers patrolling in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret on Wednesday morning, Agence France-Presse reported. The Paris prosecutor opened an anti-terrorism probe into the incident. The suspected driver was wounded during the arrest early Wednesday afternoon on the A16 highway to the northern ...

Bloomberg Iran president Hassan Rouhani brought three women into the government on Wednesday, one day after being criticised on social media for submitting an all-male list of cabinet members to parliament for approval. Massoumeh Ebtekar, head of Iran’s Department of Environment in Rouhani’s first term, was appointed vice president for women and family affairs. Laya Joneidi was named vice president ...

Bloomberg Kenyans are bracing themselves for trouble after the main opposition alliance said the vote-counting system had been hacked and that preliminary results from Tuesday’s elections showing President Uhuru Kenyatta has a commanding lead are “fake.” With votes from more than 90 percent of polling stations counted, Kenyatta has 54.4 percent support, while his main rival Raila Odinga has 44.7 ...

Bloomberg While South African President Jacob Zuma has narrowly survived yet another a no-confidence motion, the vote will do little to shore up the public’s faith in his beleaguered African National Congress. On Tuesday, ruling party lawmakers rallied around Zuma to defeat the motion 198 to 177 — the eighth such vote the president has faced, but the first with ...

Bloomberg A Venezuelan assembly rewriting the nation’s constitution is intensifying a campaign of persecu- tion that already has sent opposition politicians into hiding, exile and prison. President Nicolas Maduro said the constituent assembly, which on Tuesday declared itself the nation’s supreme political authority, will strip legal immunity from the national assembly that has opposed him. Members of the so-called constituyente ...

Bloomberg South African President Jacob Zuma survived a no-confidence motion in parliament, ensu- ring that he’ll maintain his grip on power until at least the end of the year. The motion was defeated by 198 votes to 177, Baleka Mbete, the speaker of the National Assembly, announced at a sitting in Cape Town. Nine of the 384 lawmakers present in ...

Bloomberg Two US envoys shuttling between Middle East capitals to resolve the Qatar crisis want to shift the focus away from the 13 conditions demanded by the Saudi-led alliance, according to a Gulf official with knowledge of the matter. General Anthony Zinni, a retired former head of US Central Command, and senior State Department official Timothy Lenderking will promote a ...

Bloomberg Iranian President Hassan Rouhani kept top allies in key posts as he presented his proposed cabinet to parliament, unveiling the team he’ll depend on to pursue an agenda being buffeted by escalating tensions with the US and opposition at home. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh were reappointed, as was Abbas Akhoundi, the minister for ...

Bloomberg The Republic of Macedonia’s new government is stepping up its efforts to join NATO, arguing that membership in the military alliance will protect the Balkan nation from Russia “interfering” in its affairs, the country’s defense minister said. “Influences interfering in this strategic goal aren’t helpful, and they’re not friendly,” Defense Minister Radmila Sekerinska said in an interview in Skopje ...

Bloomberg Poland’s ruling officials are stepping up calls to demand compensation from Germany for damages caused in World War II, potentially deepening a divide between the European Union’s largest eastern member and the bloc’s biggest economy. Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki lamented that Poland was “massacred” by the country’s neighbor in the war, echoing recent statements by Defense Minister Antoni ...