Politics

Bloomberg There is a mystery that hangs over Giuseppe Conte, of how an unassuming professor few expected to last became a political survivor and, at the height of the Covid pandemic, had more power than any Italian leader since Benito Mussolini. It’s all the more intriguing when you consider he has no power base of his own and looked out ...

Bloomberg After initially being lauded for his decisive response to the coronavirus crisis, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has been forced onto the defensive over his administration’s handling of one of the world’s most severe lockdowns. Some of the most stinging criticism came from Glenda Gray, a member of a panel that’s advising the government on the pandemic, who said ...

Bloomberg Indonesian President Joko Widodo ruled out an immediate easing of social distancing rules and ordered officials to strictly enforce a ban on travel during the busy holiday season to prevent a spike in new coronavirus cases. With new infections soaring 80% so far in May, Jokowi, as the president is known, asked officials at a cabinet meeting to increase ...

Bloomberg The UK has pushed back the roll-out of its coronavirus-tracing mobile phone application, in a potential setback for its bid to ease the nation’s lockdown. While Health Secretary Matt Hancock said last week that the app would be ready in mid-May, it is now planned to be released nationally within “weeks,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman James Slack said. ...

Bloomberg At the first meeting of the World Health Organization’s governing body since Covid-19 stormed the globe, China is set to be challenged on two of its most sensitive issues: The Communist Party’s initial handling of the virus and the status of Taiwan’s participation. While the US has launched a daily barrage of attacks on China, including suggesting the virus ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson said Britain may not be free of the coronavirus “for some time to come,” an admission that highlights the difficult task he has of persuading people to return to work and schools as the nation’s death toll from Covid-19 remains the highest in Europe. In an opinion piece for the Mail on Sunday, Johnson acknowledged people’s frustration ...

Bloomberg Barack Obama told this year’s graduates at historically black colleges and universities that the coronavirus pandemic has “torn back the curtain” on the idea that those in charge of the country know what they’re doing. “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge,” the former US president said during the first of two virtual commencement speeches. ...

Bloomberg A new study on the behaviour of Hong Kong’s police force during pro-democracy protests will be published by June, according to one of the foreign experts hired by the city’s police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC). Clifford Stott, member of the Independent Expert Panel brought in to advise the watchdog, tweeted on Sunday that he would be ...

Bloomberg Two months after most African nations closed their borders and imposed lockdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus, they’re deciding it’s not worth the economic cost. Countries began shutting their economies soon after the first case was detected in Nigeria in February and before the disease started to take hold on the continent. That helped keep Africa’s reported ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump moved to replace State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, an Obama administration appointee who featured briefly in the Ukraine impeachment saga, according to a letter he sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Trump wrote that “it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general.” “That is no longer the ...