At a moment when Americans have new appreciation for the government professionals who protect against global threats, the Trump administration is weighing cuts in funding and staff for the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), created after September 11, 2001, to shield the homeland from attack. The debate about trimming the NCTC, as it’s known, is part of a broader examination ...

Flanked by his chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser, Boris Johnson didn’t so much announce an escalation in the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis as signal a sharp course correction. Exactly why the government has changed direction was confirmed later, when the Imperial College Covid-19 Response Team, whose epidemiological modelling helps inform UK policy-making, published a bombshell report ...

The temptation with antitrust cases — especially involving a company as high-profile as Apple Inc – is to identify an ulterior motive. Why have the authorities attacked this particular target? Why is the fine so big? Surely there’s a hidden agenda at work, with broader implications. Sometimes, though, it’s as simple as a firm breaking the rules and getting caught. ...

When it comes to the US stock market, this is not yet the historic buying opportunity some investors have been waiting for. Contrary to their reputation for weak stomachs, ordinary investors appear to be hanging on to their stocks, judging by the chatter online and continuing net positive flows to exchange-traded funds favoured by long-term stock investors. But after a ...

Europe is increasingly determined to pull out all stops to fight the coronavirus crisis. French President Emmanuel Macron declared “war” on Covid-19 with a raft of measures to keep citizens in lock-down mode, including a ban on non-essential travel, just a few days after ordering business closures and shutting schools. Germany’s Angela Merkel rolled out similar “drastic” moves to shut ...

Images of queues to get into supermarkets, and shelves stripped bare, are stoking fear. Worries about the supply of food and staples do not end there. A shortage of online delivery slots is causing concern too, with people now expected to stay at home for lengthy periods. Grocers also have to address the likelihood that their staff will contract the ...

One great unknown about the coronavirus pandemic currently circling the globe is how it will respond as the weather gets warmer. The virus will “go away in April,” President Donald Trump told a meeting of governors last month, “as the heat comes in.” That over-confident assertion has attracted criticism from virologists and fact-checkers. Most respiratory diseases — such as influenza ...

Bloomberg US equity futures declined along with European stocks on Wednesday, retracing moves from a day earlier while bonds slumped as traders weigh the impact of fiscal and monetary stimulus to counter the effect of the coronavirus. Oil dropped to a 17-year low. Contracts for the S&P 500 once again hit their lower trading curbs after the gauge jumped 6% ...

Bloomberg Indian equities declined anew, with the benchmark index tumbling to a three-year low, as worries mounted that the world’s second-most populous nation could become the next global hotspot for coronavirus infections, further damaging an already fragile economy. The S&P BSE Sensex slumped 5.6% to 28,869.51 to its lowest level since March 2017, marking a third straight session that ended ...

Bloomberg Pressure is intensifying on the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to join policy makers around the world who’ve cut interest rates and increased stimulus in response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. The central bank hasn’t dropped a bombshell so far this year, despite the franc being at a five-year high against the euro. Instead, data suggest it’s relied on occasional ...