BLOOMBERG Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan officially kicked off the toughest election campaign of his career on Friday, with the broadest-ever opposition alliance standing between him and a third decade in power. Erdogan brought elections forward by more than a month to May 14 from the original date of June 18, despite twin earthquakes devastating much of the country’s southeast …

BLOOMBERG The US ambassador to Hungary said Prime Minister Viktor Orban has reached a crossroads and that the “time is now” for him to pivot away from Russia and shore up the country’s relations with its western allies. The unusually direct remark for a sitting US ambassador about a Nato partner’s international policy adds to mounting pressure on Orban to …

BLOOMBERG The Kremlin is opening up Vladimir Putin’s schedule around this year’s G-20 summit in India in September to make it possible for the Russian president to participate in the leaders’ gathering after skipping the last two, according to people familiar with the planning. Kremlin defiance is growing as efforts by the US and its allies to isolate Russia over …