Politics

Bloomberg Ukraine warned of widespread blackouts after a massive wave of Russian missile attacks on Monday damaged power and water supplies across the country including in the capital Kyiv. The Kremlin meanwhile warned that grain shipments would be “much riskier and more dangerous” after it pulled out of a deal allowing Ukrainian exports from Black Sea ports following an attack ...

A handful of very tight races will determine control of the US Senate with the result unclear just days before the midterm elections. A New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday shows Democratic candidates ahead by slim margins in Georgia and Pennsylvania and tied with the Republican challenger in Nevada. Only the Arizona race shows a more comfortable lead for ...

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidential election in a dramatic comeback for the left-wing politician who was languishing in a jail cell for corruption just three years ago. He defeated the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro with 50.9% to 49.1% of the votes in Sunday’s runoff, according to the official tally. The outcome signals a change in direction for Latin ...

China increased financial assistance to the Solomon Islands and Kiribati, its newest diplomatic partners in the Pacific, even as it cut overall support for the region in 2020, research by the Lowy Institute found. Total development finance from the world’s second-largest economy fell to $187.9 million in 2020 from $205.4 million the previous year, according to the Pacific Aid Map ...

Turkey is holding talks with Russia after Moscow pulled out of the July agreement to allow Ukrainian crop shipments, a pact seen as critical to alleviate the global hunger crisis. Russia said Saturday that it was suspending the agreement, blaming strikes on its naval fleet, and on Sunday suggested without evidence that the drone attacks were launched from the Odesa ...

Brazilians head to the polls Sunday for a presidential runoff between incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in what’s become the country’s most significant election since the return of democracy almost four decades ago. Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. and will close at 5 p.m. local time, with the governorships for states including Sao ...

Michael R. Bloomberg The crisis in US K-12 public education continues to deepen, and decisions by many colleges and universities to abandon SAT and ACT scores are making it worse. Instead of demanding more accountability from high schools, colleges are expecting less. In the latest dismal signs for students, scores on the ACT college entrance exam have fallen to the ...

President Joe Biden said China’s leader had expressed worries about the US strengthening its domestic production of semiconductor chips as his administration moves to reduce reliance on Asian suppliers and restrict Chinese access to chipmaking technology. “I’ve heard from Xi Jinping that he’s a little concerned about that,” Biden said Thursday in Syracuse, New York, as he delivered a speech ...

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan started a protest march to the nation’s capital Islamabad in the latest attempt to press the government to call for early elections, while hitting back at the military’s spy chief. Khan launched the protest that he calls a march for “real freedom” standing on top of a makeshift caravan in a convoy of vehicles ...

President Vladimir Putin lashed out at the US and Europe over his war in Ukraine, heaped praise on Saudi Arabia and reiterated support for China’s claim to Taiwan as he sought to cast Russia as a champion of conservative values against Western liberalism. He accused the US and its allies of seeking global domination by pouring weapons into Ukraine to ...