Bloomberg Malaysia reported the highest daily increase in new coronavirus cases since April 16 due to infections among people who returned from overseas. The country confirmed 94 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, of which 72 recently flew back from neighbouring Indonesia, Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a briefing. That brings the total number of cases to 5,945. ...

Bloomberg Europe took another step towards life after lockdown as France, Spain and Greece unveiled details of how they plan to emerge from the coronavirus and cautiously restart economies crippled by the pandemic. In Paris, PM Edouard Philippe announced plans to reopen stores starting on May 11. Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez said he aims to remove most restrictions on daily ...

Bloomberg The apparent increase in homeless people occupying New York City subway cars has ignited a new dispute between Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo over who’s responsible and what’s the best way to deal with the problem. The dispute went public after de Blasio proposed overnight shutdowns of 10 end-of-line stations to “deep clean” cars and to ...

Bloomberg A Hong Kong court rejected an appeal by an influential activist who was trying to reduce his prison sentence for rioting related to a violent 2016 protest. Edward Leung, 28, a self-described Hong Kong “localist” whose more radical approach to politics won him supporters among the city’s protesters, had been sentenced to six years in prison in 2018 for ...

We Americans are progress junkies, as I’ve written many times. We believe that tomorrow ought to be better than today, just as today was better than yesterday. This optimism, in part, defines us as a people. We assume that progress is the natural order of things. Problems are meant to be solved. History is an upward curve of well-being. But ...

Alphabet Inc, the parent of digital-search giant Google, is facing one of the most difficult internet ad-spending markets in its history. The company’s recent actions signal it is taking the prospect of a downturn seriously. Alphabet reported March-quarter sales results that beat Wall Street estimates. The company posted first-quarter revenue ex-traffic acquisition costs of $33.7 billion, up 14% from a ...

How much more calamity can East Africa take? Already struggling with the twin crises of the coronavirus pandemic and a Biblical scourge of locusts, the region is now being lashed by exceptionally heavy rainfall, with floods that threaten life and livelihood from Ethiopia to Tanzania, and all parts in between. For the continent’s most economically vibrant region, the trifecta of ...

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida expressed confidence earlier this month that the US could avoid an outbreak of deflation. Can we avoid such an outcome as rising anecdotal evidence of wage cuts reveals the magnitude of the negative demand shock that has slammed through the US economy? It was common early in the crisis to view the viral outbreak ...

Europe’s banks have often complained about too much regulation hampering their ability to lend. The Covid-19 epidemic shows that when times are bad the real constraint lies elsewhere: in the financial markets. The European Central Bank (ECB) has gone to great lengths during the coronavirus crisis to ensure that lenders can keep pumping credit into the economy. It immediately provided ...

As the coronavirus crisis rinds on, many companies and university research labs are trying to develop vaccines. Let’s hope one of them achieves a breakthrough — the sooner the better. But as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Max Nisen pointed out recently, the challenge doesn’t stop there. Once a vaccine is found, you have to manufacture it and deliver it to ...