Politics

Bloomberg France must “live with the virus” rather than count on a new lockdown to contain the spread of a new variant of Covid-19, a key ally of President Emmanuel Macron said ahead of a presidential address. The country could reintroduce limits on the number of people allowed in restaurants and other venues, and extend the use of the so-called ...

Bloomberg The UK government is set to issue guidance that people are “expected to” continue wearing masks in indoor, enclosed spaces after coronavirus restrictions are lifted in England on July 19. Although face coverings will no longer be mandatory in any setting, there will be an expectation for people “to wear masks indoors, in crowded places, on public transport,” Vaccines ...

Bloomberg Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease specialist, said “ideological rigidity” is preventing people from getting Covid-19 shots and voiced frustration at the struggle to boost vaccination rates in parts of the country. “It’s not an easy solution,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week”. “We’ve got to get away from this divisiveness that has really been a problem right ...

Bloomberg The Taliban’s lightning-fast advance to control more territory in Afghanistan is raising alarms from Russia to China, as US President Joe Biden’s move to withdraw troops disrupts a balance of power in South Asia that has held steady for about two decades. At least 1,000 Afghan troops this week retreated into Tajikistan, prompting the country mobilise an extra 20,000 ...

Bloomberg China is making sizable, long-term investments in weapons designed to jam or destroy satellites as the nation seeks to rapidly narrow the gap in space technology with the US, according to the top intelligence official for the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific command. China is pushing to develop antisatellite weapons with capabilities from “dazzling to jamming, to kinetic kill-from-the-ground, from space — ...

Bloomberg Haiti requested help from US troops to stabilise the country after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise plunged the Caribbean nation into political uncertainty. Prime Minister Claude Joseph confirmed Haiti had requested assistance from the US military to protect infrastructure and prepare for elections in an interview with the Associated Press. Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and ...

Bloomberg Violent protests in South Africa linked to the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma forced the closure of a key trade route in the country after trucks were torched and roads blocked. Parts of the N3 Toll Route, linking the province’s Durban Harbour with the nation’s economic hub of Gauteng, remain shut after trucks were set alight on the ...

Bloomberg President Jair Bolsonaro said, without providing evidence, that Brazil’s highest electoral authorities stole votes in previous elections and will do it again in the 2022 presidential contest unless congress approves his proposal to reintroduce paper ballots. The allegations are the latest in a series of unsubstantiated vote-fraud claims made by the far-right leader. They come just as opinion polls ...

Bloomberg The US appointed a new top representative to Taiwan, in the Biden administration’s latest move to strengthen ties with Taipei amid increasing pressure from Beijing. Sandra Oudkirk is the incoming director of the American Institute in Taiwan’s Taipei office, the de facto US ambassador in the absence of official ties, succeeding Brent Christensen later this summer, the institute said ...

Bloomberg Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in a raid on his home by a group of unidentified people in the capital Port-Au-Prince, according to the nation’s interim prime minister Claude Joseph. First Lady Martine Moise was injured in the “barbaric” attack and is hospitalised, Joseph said in a statement, published by the nation’s embassy in Canada on Wednesday. Some ...