Politics

Bloomberg As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Russia’s Vladimir Putin and attends a summit with China’s Xi Jinping on Friday, he’ll need to avoid looking too chummy with the US’s two top adversaries. Modi’s face-to-face meeting with Putin will take place Friday in Uzbekistan, where a host of leaders are gathering for a summit of the Chinese-founded Shanghai Cooperation ...

Bloomberg Swedish right-wing opposition parties are stepping up negotiations on forming a new government, after Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson tendered her resignation on Thursday. The Social Democrat leader has conceded defeat in Sunday’s election, and Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson will now try to forge an agreement with three parties that backed his candidacy. They include the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, ...

  Bloomberg Shortly before invading Ukraine in February, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping declared a “no limits” friendship. Yet even as his forces suffer humiliating losses on the battlefield, Russia’s president shouldn’t expect much help at his first meeting with his Chinese counterpart since then. Xi and Putin meet face-to-face in Uzbekistan on Thursday in their first sitdown since a ...

Bloomberg The US will put $3.5 billion in Afghanistan’s central bank reserves under the control of a Swiss-based oversight board to pay for limited financial services in the country while ensuring the Taliban regime doesn’t get access to the money, the US Treasury Department said. The funds, which the US froze after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year, will ...

Bloomberg Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the newly recaptured city of Izyum on Wednesday, an appearance that underlined the stunning success of a counteroffensive against Russian forces in the country’s northeast. The unannounced visit appeared to belie claims from Moscow that parts of Izyum, which had been a critical staging post for Russian weapons and troops fighting in the eastern ...

  Bloomberg In the almost 1,000 days since Xi Jinping last ventured abroad, China has found itself increasingly isolated within the US-led world order. He’s finally reemerging this week alongside Russia’s Vladimir Putin to showcase his vision for a viable alternative. Xi and Putin this week are expected to hold their first in-person chat since Russia invaded Ukraine, showing that ...

  Bloomberg In just over 70 days under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Philippines has lodged 52 protests against Beijing over the South China Sea, signaling pushback from the new government amid an ongoing territorial dispute. The diplomatic protests were filed due to China’s “incursions” and “illegal presence” in the South China Sea, including the conduct of maritime scientific research, ...

  Bloomberg Slovakia’s ruling party pushed through a cabinet reshuffle as it seeks to hold on to power without a majority after a rival party abandoned the coalition this month. Prime Minister Eduard Heger’s minority coalition was expected to face a test on Tuesday to muster enough lawmakers to open Slovakia’s parliamentary session. Richard Sulik, who served as economy minister, ...

Bloomberg Russia hit power plants deep behind Ukrainian lines, causing blackouts across the northeast of the country as Kyiv’s forces pressed a lightning offensive that’s reversed months of Moscow’s advances. More than 30 settlements, including Kramatorsk and Dnipro, suffered Russian missile and air strikes over the past day, Ukraine’s General Staff said in its regular update on Facebook Monday. Kharkiv ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s coalition of right-wing parties looks set to secure a narrow victory in a general election that promises to rewrite the political map in the Nordic region’s biggest country. The likely victory hinged on the rise of the anti-immigrant party, the Sweden Democrats, which saw the biggest gains of any of the parties on Sunday and now makes them ...