Politics

Bloomberg The US will have to cut staff numbers by more than 700 at its diplomatic missions in Russia as a result of an order to slash the size of American representation in retaliation for new sanctions, according to two officials in Moscow. Russia on Friday ordered the US to reduce diplomatic and technical personnel at its embassy and consulates ...

Reuters The four Arab countries which have cut ties with Qatar said on Sunday they were ready for talks to tackle the dispute if Doha showed willingness to deal with their demands. The foreign ministers of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE met in the Bahraini capital Manama to discuss the crisis that has raised tensions across the region. ...

Bloomberg European leaders are declaring the continent’s financial crisis to be over, but now a political one is fermenting. A battle between European Union regulators and the Polish government over its plans to weaken the judiciary’s independence is splitting eastern and western Europe in a way that the euro region erupted along a north-south fault line. As Greece returned to ...

Bloomberg The Kenyan government denied a claim by the main opposition group that it’s planning to use force to rig next month’s election and keep President Uhuru Kenyatta in office. The National Super Alliance said on Friday it had “concrete evidence” of an “audacious plan” to subvert the August 8 vote. The ruling Jubilee Party has “clearly recognized” it will ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claimed he could strike the entire continental US after test-firing the regime’s second intercontinental ballistic missile within a month. Friday’s unusual late-night launch drew condemnation from the US and its allies, with the top American general calling his South Korean counterpart to discuss a potential military response. President Donald Trump said the test ...

Bloomberg Pakistan’s ruling party will nominate Punjab’s Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister ahead of elections next year, after his older brother resigned from the post following a historic Supreme Court ruling on Friday that barred him from office. Shehbaz Sharif, 65, will step down from his current position heading the province which is the family’s heartland and vote ...

Bloomberg Three University of Maiduguri workers allegedly abducted by Boko Haram militants during an ambush on an oil exploration team this week pleaded in a YouTube video released Friday for the Nigerian government to meet their captors’ demands. The video shows three men identifying themselves as staff at university’s geology department. It was recorded on Friday and they are being ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump’s first meeting with Vladimir Putin this month seemed to give the US president everything he wanted. The two appeared to get along. There was a modest cease-fire deal on Syria. Moscow’s meddling in the US election was raised, but both leaders were eager to move on. Three weeks later, relations between the US and Russia are at ...

Bloomberg An attack in the northern city of Hamburg thrust Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy into the spotlight less than two months before Germany goes to the polls. Police were aware that the man suspected of a stabbing spree on Friday had shown of signs radicalization, Hamburg’s interior minister, Andy Grote, said in a press conference on Saturday. The attack ...

Bloomberg Poland rejected the European Union’s move on Saturday for a possible lawsuit to halt the just-passed overhaul of the country’s lower courts, saying the bloc lacked such authority and would ultimately have to turn back. The escalation in an almost two-year row over court independence and the government’s respect for the rule of law opens the way for the ...