Politics

Bloomberg Virus samples sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology seven years ago closely resemble Covid-19, according to a report in the Sunday Times that highlights unanswered questions about the origins of the global pandemic. Scientists in 2013 sent frozen samples to the Wuhan lab from a bat-infested former copper mine in southwest China after six men who had been ...

Bloomberg Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike declared victory in an election for a second term, as the city tries to keep a fresh surge of Covid-19 in check and maintain hopes of hosting the Olympics in 2021. Koike, the first woman elected to govern the 14 million-strong city, prevailed over 21 challengers on Sunday to win another four-year term, national public ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s three-week stretch of no new local Covid-19 cases may have been broken after two people tested positive for the virus, Radio Television Hong Kong reported, citing unidentified people. A 59-year-old man is in stable condition at Princess Margaret Hospital after testing positive for coronavirus, RTHK said. The results of a second check to confirm the infection have ...

Bloomberg Nigerian doctor Avwebo Otoide had just finished visiting a patient when a Toyota Hilux with flashing lights pulled her over. A man with a flak jacket jumped out, pointed a gun at her and demanded she show her identity document. As she rummaged in her bag to find her medical card, he slapped her on the head. She was ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is suspending Canada’s extradition treaty with Hong Kong, making it the first country to break law enforcement links with the former British colony since China tightened its control over the territory. Trudeau announced the measures at a press conference, joining allies in efforts to sanction China. Steps will include a ban on the export of ...

Bloomberg The US is sending the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz aircraft carriers to the South China Sea for military exercises as China ramps up its own drills in the area, drawing protests from Washington. Dual carrier operations and exercises are being conducted in “international waters of the South China Sea to support a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the ...

Bloomberg In appointing a relatively unknown figure to be his new head of government, Emmanuel Macron is sending out a clear message: his solution to turning around the flagging presidency is more Macron. The mayor of a small southern French town, 55-year-old Jean Castex only started to make a name for himself earlier this year when he was appointed to ...

Bloomberg North Korea is ruling out more talks with the US, saying the American authorities are using the idea as a mere political tool. “We do not feel any need to sit face-to-face with the US,” North Korea Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency on Saturday. The US does not consider ...

Bloomberg Portugal protested the UK requirement that British travellers self-isolate when they return to England from the Iberian nation as “profoundly unfair.” It’s “absurd,” Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said on RTP3 television station. “When a country that has 28 times more deaths from Covid-19 than Portugal wants to impose quarantine rules to passengers from Portugal, I would say that ...

Bloomberg US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, the Trump administration’s main representative for North Korea, will visit South Korea on Tuesday before heading to Japan, Yonhap reported Saturday, citing unidentified diplomatic sources. Biegun will visit Seoul on July 7, where he is likely to meet South Korean counterpart Lee Do-hoon along with diplomatic officials at the foreign ministry and ...