Politics

Bloomberg Russia threatened to retaliate against new sanctions passed by the US House of Representatives, saying they made it all but impossible to achieve the Trump administration’s goal of improved relations. The measures push US-Russia ties into uncharted territory and “don’t leave room for the normalization of relations” in the foreseeable future, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on ...

Bloomberg Germany expressed continued concern about US moves to tighten sanctions against Russia, while saying changes made in the bill passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday are steps in the right direction. Germany is holding to its position that sanctions rules mustn’t be used as a tool to influence specific industries, Martin Schaefer, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s government was dragged into a deepening crisis as the opposition united to demand no-confidence votes be cast against three Cabinet ministers for their handling of breaches that may have put classified information into the hands of foreign powers. The four parties in the main opposition bloc called for the motions to be brought against Home Affairs Minister Anders ...

Bloomberg Palestinians rejected Israel’s plan to defuse deadly tensions over a Jerusalem shrine revered by both Jews and Muslims, and threatened to escalate their protests with a “day of rage” on Friday. Israel took down metal detectors from the Old City holy site on Tuesday but said it would replace them with other, unspecified technologies. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ...

Bloomberg Iran promised to respond if the “blatantly hostile” vote in the House of Representatives to impose new sanctions becomes law, saying they would go against US commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers. Sanctions pursued in the US Congress “can impact the successful implementation” of the deal, the state-run Iranian Students’ News Agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister ...

Bloomberg Venezuelans are stockpiling scarce food and water as tensions mount ahead of a widely criticized Sunday vote that President Nicolas Maduro has called to elect an assembly of supporters to rewrite the constitution and strengthen his grip on power. Maduro—who’s presided over an increasingly autocratic regime that has imperiled the country’s six-decade democracy and left the economy and society ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy batted away questions from lawyers prosecuting his former party colleagues as they tried to tie him in to an alleged bribery ring run from the group’s headquarters. Rajoy said that he’d never had anything to do with party finances, despite running four election campaigns and serving as president since 2004. He insisted that he never ...

Bloomberg The US House is poised to vote on a bill to strengthen sanctions against Russia and prevent President Donald Trump from unilaterally lifting penalties, after the measure was delayed by procedural concerns and objections from energy companies. The measure, which was altered to ensure that oil companies can work on certain joint projects overseas, would also impose new sanctions ...

Bloomberg Israel began removing metal detectors from a contested Jerusalem shrine in a bid to quell violent Palestinian opposition, in a deal that also helped to end a diplomatic standoff with Jordan. The decision was part of a broader deal that allowed Israeli diplomats and embassy personnel in Jordan to return home late Monday following a deadly shooting at the ...

Bloomberg Qatar is falling short in its efforts to counter terrorism, the Saudi-led alliance said, an apparent setback to US mediation efforts after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged the bloc to ease its seven-week boycott of the Gulf nation. The group also added nine organizations based in Yemen and Libya as well as nine people from Qatar, Kuwait, Yemen ...