Politics

  Bloomberg The US is willing to support Ukraine’s finances with $1.5 billion a month in aid throughout the war against Russia and is pushing its European allies to commit to similar amounts, according to people familiar with the matter. The Biden administration, which signed off last week on $4.5 billion in grants to cover the rest of the year, ...

Bloomberg Vladimir Putin vowed his annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine is irreversible, as the Russian president formalized Europe’s biggest land grab since World War II and accused the West of trying to subjugate his country. “They will become our citizens forever,” he told officials in a Kremlin ceremony Friday before he and Moscow-installed leaders signed annexation documents. He ...

Bloomberg A suicide bomber attacked an educational center in Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 19 students who were appearing in a mock university entrance examination. The death toll could rise in Dasht-e-Barchi as the attacker, disguised as a student, has also injured 27 teenagers, Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for the Kabul police, said by phone. The victims were aged ...

  Bloomberg Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Russia’s jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny top the shortlist for potential winners of this year’s Nobel Peace prize, the Peace Research Institute Oslo said in annual predictions. “Both Tsikhanouskaya and Navalny are vocal critics of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” according to a statement in Oslo on Friday. “A shared Nobel Peace ...

Bloomberg Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and leftist challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva traded insults in a televised debate that marked their final face off before Sunday’s election, with polls giving the opposition leader a wide lead. The men went on the attack from the get-go, with Bolsonaro calling Lula a “liar,” “ex-convict” and “gang leader.” The comments drew a ...

  Bloomberg Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha will remain in office after the highest court ruled he hadn’t breached a constitutional term limit, handing him a victory as political jockeying increases ahead of elections that must be called by March. The nine-member Constitutional Court said Friday the eight-year term limit can’t be imposed retroactively on Prayuth, who first took office ...

  Bloomberg Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s chief aide resigned after becoming embroiled in an email-hacking scandal that has plagued the government for more than a year. Leaks of emails allegedly stolen from aide Michal Dworczyk’s private inbox exposed sensitive correspondence with administration officials including Morawiecki and became frequent media fodder. Dworczyk, who stepped down Friday, said the account was ...

Bloomberg Russia vowed to go ahead with the annexation of the parts of Ukraine that its troops currently control after UN-condemned votes, putting the Kremlin on a fresh collision course with the US and its allies. Russia will sign treaties to absorb the four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine at a Kremlin ceremony at 3pm Friday, President Vladimir Putin’s ...

Bloomberg North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast, ramping up tensions a day before US Vice President Kamala Harris is set to visit the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas. The launches took place from the Sunan area near Pyongyang’s international airport at around 6:10 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. respectively Wednesday, South Korea’s ...

Bloomberg Russian leaders declared victory in a series of stage-managed, UN-condemned “referendums,” as the Kremlin moved to annex a large chunk of occupied Ukrainian territory after a string of humiliating military setbacks. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russian Security Council, wrote on his official Telegram channel in the early hours of Wednesday that the referendums were over. “Results are clear,” ...