Politics

Bloomberg Taiwan downed a civilian drone after weeks of complaints about incursions by unmanned aerial vehicles from China, a sign Taipei is pushing back against Beijing’s efforts to encroach on its territory. Taiwanese troops shot the drone down near Kinmen Island around noon Thursday after attempts to repel it failed, according to a statement from the garrison on the Taipei-held ...

  Bloomberg Sri Lanka’s Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is set return to the island nation as early as Friday after he fled a surge in anti-government protests in July, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Rajapaksa is expected to stay in a house provided by the government in Colombo, the people said, asking not to be named because ...

Bloomberg Foreign monitors arrived at a nuclear plant held by Russian forces in Ukraine, even as shelling reported in the area threatened to put their high-stakes mission at risk. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Thursday that Ukrainian defense officials had warned his team of increased military activity in the so-called “gray zone” separating Kyiv’s territory ...

Bloomberg Taiwan warned it faces “severe military challenges” from surging Chinese military activity edging closer to the island, as Beijing tries to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. Taipei expects the People’s Liberation Army to continue sending warships and jets across the median line that divides the waterway, the island’s Ministry of National Defense said in an annual ...

  Bloomberg A court in Pakistan told former Prime Minister Imran Khan to explain in writing his angry comments against a female judge who had denied bail to Khan’s close aid, as it continues to mull initiating contempt proceedings against him. A five-judge panel headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah directed the former leader to submit a response within a ...

Bloomberg The Biden administration is preparing to sell $1.1 billion in missiles and radar support to Taiwan, according to an official familiar with the matter, in what would be the largest such transfer in almost two years. The package would include as much as $650 million in continued support for a surveillance radar sold earlier, about $90 million for roughly ...

  Bloomberg Poland will more than double military spending next year, to as much as 138 billion zloty ($29 billion), in an effort to strengthen its defenses in the face of the war in neighboring Ukraine. Spending on army is expected to rise to 98 billion zloty from 58 billion zloty this year, Premier Mateusz Morawiecki said at a news ...

Bloomberg European Union countries agreed to start hammering out the details of a proposed training mission for Ukraine’s armed forces, with countries including Belgium and Slovakia offering to host the initiative. The bloc’s defense ministers agreed “on launching the work necessary to define the parameters for an EU military assistance mission for Ukraine,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, ...

  Bloomberg Pakistan’s unprecedented flooding has forced nearly half a million people to leave their homes and move into relief camps as international aid starts to trickle in to help the South Asian nation already battling an economic crisis. At least 498,000 people are currently in temporary shelters after swirling waters either engulfed or damaged over a million homes, 3,500 ...

Bloomberg Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of trying to create a global sense of fatigue about its invasion, including by restricing the flow of gas to drive energy prices higher. The European Union is working on “an emergency intervention and a structural reform of the electricity market” to drive down spiking power prices, according to Ursula von der Leyen, ...