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Brexit’s New Deadline, Trump Widens Biden Plea: Weekend Reads

Brexit’s New Deadline, Trump Widens Biden Plea: Weekend Reads

(Bloomberg) --

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the European Union have given themselves a week to reach agreement on the U.K.’s divorce from the bloc — otherwise, Britain’s at increased risk of a no-deal exit or another postponement. In the U.S., the confrontation between Donald Trump and House Democrats over an impeachment inquiry deepened, with the president now calling on China to investigate still more discredited allegations of wrongdoing by 2020 rival Joe Biden and his son. 

China showed its military muscle with a parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic, while unrest festered in Hong Kong with the first shootings of protesters. The authorities there invoked emergency rule for the first time in a half a century to ban face masks on demonstrators. It backfired.

Dig deeper into these and other topics you might have overlooked this week and take a look at some of Bloomberg’s most compelling political photos from the past seven days.  

Brexit’s New Deadline, Trump Widens Biden Plea: Weekend Reads

After Another Week of Bluff and Bravado, Where Next for Brexit?
Can Johnson get a Brexit deal, and is he even trying to? Will he delay Brexit or take Britain out without a deal? The U.K. finished the week with more questions about than answers over its planned departure from the EU. Robert Hutton explains.

Trump’s Impeachment Saga Stems From a Political Hit Job Gone Bad
Trump’s sudden impeachment peril is the unintended result of an effort to help him: a political hit job aimed at a likely opponent in the 2020 presidential race (Biden) and funded by a major right-wing donor (Rebekah Mercer) that Trump and his lawyer (Rudy Giuliani) hijacked. As Joshua Green writes, the consequences could be disastrous for them.

Giuliani’s Ukraine Work Tied to Firm Whose Website Has Vanished
The website of the consulting firm that forged business deals for Giuliani in Ukraine and Russia for a decade has vanished. As Stephanie Baker and Sara Khojoyan explain, those contracts are now coming under heavy scrutiny by Congress as it tries to trace his shadow diplomatic work for Trump.

Seeking the Ghost at Center of Trump Quest to Discredit Mueller
John Follain visits an elite training ground for spies and security chiefs near the Vatican to investigate the case of a missing Maltese professor that’s now one of multiple threads in the dispute over Donald Trump’s efforts to show he was the victim of foreign meddling in the 2016 election, and not a beneficiary as former Special Counsel Robert Mueller found.

Brexit’s New Deadline, Trump Widens Biden Plea: Weekend Reads

Hong Kong Mask Ban Backfires as Protesters Rampage Across City
Hong Kong’s latest effort to stem months of unrest — a ban on masks — backfired violently, as protesters rampaged across the city, halting train services and leading to the second shooting in four days. Annie Lee and Natalie Lung report.

Hong Kong Versus Shenzhen: Two Competing Visions of China's Future
Hong Kong and Shenzhen are neighboring cities whose proximity and growth prospects mean they are becoming entwined, as are the competing systems that govern them. As Bloomberg reports, the two cities offer rival visions of China's future, and the jury is out on which will prevail.

‘Post-Imperial’ Putin Glimpsed in Softer Foreign-Policy Tone
Vladimir Putin may be testing out a new look for Russia’s foreign policy. Marc Champion writes that some analysts believe his performance at the annual Valdai international affairs conference in Sochi this week reflects a sea change in Moscow’s foreign policy that will be less reactive, less defensive and less reliant on brute military force.

Three Days in Venezuela’s Oil Belt Show the Price of Pillage
The crumbling of Venezuela’s oil sector after epic mismanagement by presidents Nicolas Maduro and Hugo Chavez – exacerbated by tough U.S. sanctions – caused the nation’s broader crisis. Increasingly, Lucia Kassai and Fabiola Zerpa write, the industry itself has become a victim. 

Brexit’s New Deadline, Trump Widens Biden Plea: Weekend Reads

For Serbia and Kosovo, Support Comes With Strings Attached
For centuries, small countries such as those in the Balkan region have relied on bigger ones to protect them — the trick was to avoid becoming too much of a pawn in the greater game of the superpowers. These days, Rosalind Mathieson and Jasmina Kuzmanovic write, Russia and the U.S. and — potentially — China have aligned Balkan states with their own broader geopolitical goals.

Hard-to-Beat Houthis Force Saudi Coalition to Rethink Yemen War
The Yemeni rebels known as the Houthis have grown from humble beginnings into an obstinate enemy that’s gaining in military sophistication. Mohammed Hatem and Glen Carey explore the rise of the Shiite Islam group that’s held off the U.S.-backed forces of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the world’s biggest military spenders.

Tell us how we’re doing or what we’re missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

And finally … Cape Town residents don’t know what to blame for the disappearance of their great white sharks: The orcas that eat them, the fishermen who sell their prey to Australia for use in fish-and-chips shops or climate change. As Antony Sguazzin explains, the world’s biggest predatory fish haven’t been seen this year in False Bay, which lies off the city’s eastern coast. The absence is creating concern because, along with vineyards, the iconic Table Mountain and world-class restaurants, the species is key to a $2.6 billion provincial tourism industry.

Brexit’s New Deadline, Trump Widens Biden Plea: Weekend Reads

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