Politics

Bloomberg South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol told Li Zhanshu, China’s top legislator, that he doesn’t want a US-made missile shield deployed by Seoul to become “an obstacle to relations” after Beijing slammed its use. The talks on Friday in Seoul with China’s National People’s Congress chairman took place after Yoon floated expanding the system known as Thaad — Terminal ...

Bloomberg Azerbaijan and Armenia reported that a truce appeared to be holding after border clashes that killed more than 200 troops on both sides in the worst fighting between the Caucasus neighbors since a 2020 war. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the situation remained “very tense” in separate calls with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian President Vladimir ...

  Bloomberg President Jair Bolsonaro’s late-campaign push looks to have fizzled for now, apparently leaving him a bit further behind challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva just two weeks before Brazilians cast their ballots, according to the latest DataFolha poll. Lula would take 45% of the first-round vote, holding firm from a week ago. Bolsonaro would win 33%, down a ...

Bloomberg In the oldest part of Parliament, Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin lies guarded by iconic ‘Beefeaters’ and other members of Britain’s military elite —the silence in cavernous Westminster Hall broken only by the sound of metal and boot on stone when the watch changes at 20-minute intervals. On either side, people in T-shirts and jeans, or work suits, or shorts ...

Bloomberg Russian President Vladimir Putin told his counterpart Xi Jinping he understands Beijing’s “questions and concerns” about his invasion of Ukraine, as the Chinese leader said the two countries could “inject stability and positive energy to a world in chaos.” In their first in-person talks since the war began, Putin hailed “the balanced position of our Chinese friends on the ...

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 ...