Chaos reigns, from impeachment to Latin America: Weekend Reads

[Balance of Power]( From [Bloomberg Politics]( [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]( [Twitter Share]( [SUBSCRIBE [Subscribe]](  While some in the U.K. debated the union’s very staying power as a December election crept closer, in Washington the House impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Donald Trump went into overdrive. One career diplomat warned that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was poised to interfere in the 2020 election. Across Latin America there were parallels with the Arab Spring, which began in 2010, and the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades earlier. Countries from Chile to Ecuador and Bolivia are burning with a down-with-the-system rage. Even Germany, once a bastion of stability in a fractious European Union, is coming undone as Chancellor Angela Merkel withdraws further from day-to-day politics. Dig deeper into these and other topics and take a look at some of Bloomberg’s most [compelling political photos]( from the past week. — [Ruth Pollar](d Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the campaign trail. When Britons go to the polls Dec. 12, the rest of the world will view the tally as a plebiscite on the U.K.’s departure from the EU. But there's something different [on the minds of voters]( in the country of 66 million: the fate of the National Health Service. Photographer: FRANK AUGSTEIN/AFP [The End of the United Kingdom May Be Nearing]( Next month’s election was supposed to settle existential questions over Brexit — instead, it’s raising bigger ones over the nature of the union. While England is split over Brexit, the political dynamics in the other parts of the U.K. seem more about whether the country should exist at all, [Rodney Jefferson](, [Dara Doyle]( and [Alex Morales]( write. [Unequal and Irate, Latin America Is Coming Apart at the Seams]( In Chile, it was sparked by a minor increase in the capital’s subway fare. In Ecuador, it was the end of fuel subsidies. And in Bolivia, a stolen election. The region’s competing models of government — leftist populism and market-oriented liberalism — are both under threat, [Daniel Cancel]( reports. [Everything the Candidates Discussed at the Atlanta Debate]( With impeachment proceedings lighting up Capitol Hill this week, Trump continued to cast a long shadow over the Democratic presidential debate Wednesday, where issues of foreign policy and democracy took center stage. Track what was said in this detailed interactive from [Allison McCartney](, [Jackie Gu](, [Chloe Whiteaker]( and [Mira Rojanasakul](. [Trump Pledged to Help Small Farms. Aid Is Going to Big Ones]( Trump promised he would help embattled small farmers caught in the crossfire of his trade war with China. But big farms so far have been the main beneficiaries of the billions of dollars being distributed in aid payments, [Mike Dorning]( reports. The U.S. ambassador to the European Union was among [a parade of witnesses]( who described how Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden extended well beyond a July 25 call. And yet one key piece of Trump’s defense [remains intact](: None of the witnesses testified that the president himself directly ordered them to make a quid pro quo explicit to the Ukrainians. [China Risks Hurting Itself by Hitting U.S. Over Hong Kong Bill]( China had a swift and forceful response after the U.S. Senate passed legislation supporting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters, with multiple government agencies threatening unspecified retaliation. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” said a statement by the foreign ministry. But President Xi Jinping has a problem: Any strong measures against the U.S. also risk backfiring on China. [Israel’s Mossad Is Recruiting More Ultra-Orthodox Men]( After decades of relative isolation, Israeli’s Haredim are being drawn into the workforce via programs aimed at tapping their analytical skills for security agencies, [Ivan Levingston]( reports. With an average of seven children, the ultra-Orthodox are the country’s fastest-growing demographic. [Iran Unrest Raises a Question: Is ‘Maximum Pressure’ Working?]( Anti-government protests in Iran have left buses and banks burned, hundreds under arrest, the Internet blocked and an unconfirmed number dead. That raises the question of whether the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure’’ campaign is starting to deliver, [Marc Champion]( reports. [South Africa’s Epidemic of Hate]( From the highest level of government to the grassroots, the country is blaming foreigners for economic woes, [Antony Sguazzin]( writes. This latest bout of xenophobic violence — its frequency and brutality — is worrying political leaders across the continent. Police fire a water cannon during a protest against xenophobia in Cape Town on Oct. 30. From the end of apartheid in 1994 to Dec. 31 of last year, at least 309 people have been killed in xenophobic attacks, 2,193 shops have been looted and more than 100,000 people have been displaced. Photographer: Sumaya Hisham/Reuters [Angela Merkel’s Wounded Party Doesn’t Know Where to Lead Germany]( For the longest time, Angela Merkel was Germany and under her the center-right Christian Democrats were the dominant political force in the EU, [Arne Delfs]( writes. Today the party is a shambles and its new leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, can’t seem to straighten it out. [Abe’s Record-Setting Tenure Leaves Japan Asking What’s Next]( Just over seven years ago, Shinzo Abe was a political has-been purveying eccentric monetary policy, [Isabel Reynolds]( writes. Now he’s Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, breaking a record that had stood for more than a century, just as the country’s seven-year stretch of economic growth may be coming to an end. [Pacific Island Referendum Could Give the World a Tiny New Country]( Bougainville seems an unlikely candidate for independence, but it has one resource that could change its fortune — a massive copper deposit. But as [Jason Scott]( reports, the mine that’s the country’s blessing and curse will remain central after the results of today's independence referendum are revealed. [And finally]( ... As haze blanketed large tracts of Southeast Asia last month, experts in Jakarta were investigating the source of the choking smoke. As [Anuradha Raghu]( reports, images collected from drones flying up to 400 meters above oil palm plantations helped spot the fires — part of a technology drive catapulting palm oil to one of the fastest-growing markets for commercial unmanned aircraft. With oil-palm plantations spread across 22.3 million hectares of Malaysia and Indonesia — an area almost the size of the U.K. — the industry represents fertile ground for drone sales. Photographer: Joshua Paul/Bloomberg    You received this message because you are subscribed to the Bloomberg Politics newsletter Balance of Power. You can tell your friends to [sign up here](.  [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022