Politics

  Bloomberg Liz Truss is considering cutting Britain’s VAT sales tax by as much as 5 percentage points across the board, the Telegraph reported, a move that may head off criticism she lacks a plan to tackle the country’s cost of living crisis. The potential reduction to 15%, flagged in a newspaper that has strongly backed her leadership campaign against ...

Bloomberg Taiwan welcomed its third US congressional visit this month, as Senator Marsha Blackburn began a three-day trip to the island that’s likely to further test Washington’s tense ties with Beijing. Blackburn, a Republican on the Senate’s Armed Services Committee which oversees defense policy, met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday morning, after landing in Taipei the previous evening. Days ...

  Bloomberg Representatives from Turkey, Finland and Sweden met on Friday and agreed on further talks as the Nordic countries seek to convince Turkey to ratify their applications to join defense alliance Nato. The meeting of officials took place in Vantaa, Finland, on Friday, the Finnish government said in an emailed statement. Turkey remains one of seven members of the ...

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden’s approval rating rose to 44% in the latest Gallup poll, the highest in a year and a fresh sign he and his party are gaining political ground ahead of November midterm elections. Biden’s approval rating in August jumped six percentage points from July, when it hit a low of 38% in Gallup’s survey. But even ...

Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to boost its troop total by 137,000 to 1.15 million, the highest level in more than a decade, as Russia digs in for its war against Ukrainian forces backed by the US and its allies. Putin’s brief decree, published on the Kremlin’s website, didn’t explain the motivation for the increase or where the ...

  Bloomberg Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reinforced his call for occupying Russian troops to withdraw from Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant after damage to transmission lines in the occupied territory disrupted power supply. There are no immediate safety concerns and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is being powered through a restored electricity line, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom said. Transmission ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s presidential front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to lead a stable economy and avoid the mistakes of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, if he’s elected. During a 40-minute, prime-time interview on the nation’s most-watched news show, Lula said he’ll govern with predictability, stability and credibility in comments that sought to reassure the undecided voters who have doubts about ...

  Bloomberg Pakistan’s military-backed establishment faces a dilemma: The more they seek to boot Imran Khan out of politics, the greater the risk he becomes even more popular. Since his ouster in a no-confidence vote in April, Khan has sought to rally his supporters in the world’s fifth-most populous country to hit the streets and push for a fresh national ...

  Bloomberg As the Pentagon rushes to replenish billions of dollars in weapons sent to Ukraine, its inspector general says he’s on high alert for signs of fraud and abuse in the thousands of contracts being awarded. “We have developed a universe of thousands of Ukraine-related contracts” that come in under $2 million each, Acting Inspector General Sean O’Donnell said ...

  Bloomberg Taiwan proposed raising its total spending on the military by almost 14% next year, contributing to what’s expected to be a record increase in the government’s budget as it bolsters its defenses from a surge in Chinese military activity. The cabinet signed off on spending plans for 2023 at its weekly meeting Thursday. At a briefing in Taipei, ...