Bloomberg Iraqi intelligence chief Mustafa Al-Kadhimi was picked to form a government, as the country sought to end months of damaging political deadlock with the slump in oil prices and coronavirus outbreak adding to a list of urgent challenges. President Barham Salih turned to Al-Kadhimi after major Shiite parties blocked his previous choice for prime minister — former Najaf governor ...

Bloomberg India has further tightened lockdown measures and enhanced surveillance at hundreds of areas designated as virus hotspots, as PM Narendra Modi described the epidemic as a “social emergency.” Authorities have sealed settlements, lanes and apartment complexes in the financial capital of Mumbai, as well as in Delhi and the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, allowing in only medical services, ...

Bloomberg Every night at 8 pm, Spaniards head to their balconies and windows to clap for the healthcare workers risking their lives to save others from the coronavirus pandemic. An hour later, there’s a second wave of noise in some neighbourhoods as people come out with pots and pans. This time it’s not in praise, but in protest at the ...

Congress is already considering another coronavirus relief bill, its third, and it probably won’t be the last — nor should it be. But as Washington continues to address the economic fallout from efforts to suppress the pandemic, it needs to think more carefully about both incentives and operational details. To be clear, Congress was right to act to swiftly to ...

Before the pandemic, 100,000 seafarers travelled in and out of the world’s ports every month. Some had spent weeks or months aboard the cargo ships, tankers and other merchant vessels that are essential to moving products and commodities across the globe. In a ritual little noticed outside the industry, new crews would regularly arrive to relieve them, ensuring that the ...

The economic fallout for Italy from Covid-19 is going to hammer its already precarious government finances. The country’s 1.7 trillion-euro ($1.9 trillion) debt mountain is the largest in Europe, and there will no doubt be a substantial jump in its ratio of debt to gross domestic product from 135% to beyond 150%. Nevertheless, Rome’s ability to manage its borrowings may ...

Andrew Bailey, the new Bank of England (BOE) governor, was at pains in an FT interview to draw a clear distinction between the BOE’s bulk buying of bonds and its direct financing of the British government’s coronavirus spending plans. The latter simply wasn’t going to happen, he said, because it would damage the central bank’s credibility in pursuing its defining ...

Bloomberg The Indian tycoon whose net worth surged the most among peers as the deadly coronavirus roils markets worldwide can thank nation’s hoarders with millions scrambling to stock up on staples amid the world’s biggest isolation effort. The net worth of Radhakishan Damani, who controls Avenue Supermarts Ltd., has surged almost 11% this year to $10.7 billion, singling him out ...

Bloomberg Asian tycoons are looking to snap up assets pummeled by the deadly coronavirus at bargain prices, but they are also facing hurdles as more governments seek to deter foreign takeovers of local firms. Over the past three months, top executives of companies based in mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore have told investors that they are looking for acquisitions. ...

Bloomberg South Korea has so far raised about one-tenth of the target for its stock-market stabilisation fund and has yet to make any investments, Kang Shinwoo, the advisor for the fund, said in an interview. The emergency fund aims to raise 10.7 trillion won ($8.77 billion) in total from local banks, brokerages and other financial institutions to support the nation’s ...