Politics

Bloomberg The World Health Organization (WHO) is considering a new mission to seek the source of the coronavirus in China, amid growing controversy over the origin of a pandemic that has killed more than a quarter of a million people. “Without knowing where the animal origin is, it’s hard to prevent it from happening again,” Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO ...

Bloomberg France will lay out its plan to roll back lockdown measures, joining countries including Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in easing restrictions as the economic pain from the fallout of the coronavirus intensifies. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was expected to unveil final details of his plan to end curbs on public life on Thursday. The country is preparing ...

Bloomberg Japan was set to approve on Thursday the antiviral drug remdesivir for use against the novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, without giving details. The relatively quick move by Japan’s usually conservative authorities is expected days after the US authorised Gilead Sciences Inc’s drug for emergency use on virus patients. Abe did not indicate in an interview earlier ...

Bloomberg China fired back at US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, saying he has no evidence to back up claims that the virus that causes Covid-19 escaped from a lab in the central city of Wuhan. The US attacks on China were part of an election year strategy by President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of this year’s election, Chinese ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump supports Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s proposal to hold a summit of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the American ambassador to Moscow said in an interview with a Russian news service. Trump sent a message recently to President Putin describing the initiative as a “good idea,” the Interfax news service cited ...

Bloomberg Italy’s Giuseppe Conte is insisting that he’ll serve out his full term as premier as tensions within his ruling coalition build up amid a struggle to restart the crippled economy. The current government is certain to reach the end of its term in 2023, Conte told newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano in an interview published on Wednesday. “The forces of ...

Bloomberg Hungary should no longer be considered a democracy after an unprecedented consolidation of power by the European Union member’s leader, according to an annual survey of countries that once lay behind the Iron Curtain. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s dismantling of checks and balances over the past decade, including a decision to indefinitely rule by decree triggered by the coronavirus ...

Bloomberg Taiwan urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to allow it to rejoin a key global health assembly later this month despite objections from China, as Taipei pushes for more inclusion in international bodies. Taiwan needs a seat at the WHO’s annual decision-making meeting, the World Health Assembly (WHA), on May 18 to allow it access to firsthand information about ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he will lay out the next steps in his UK government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, and some changes to the nationwide lockdown are likely to take effect the following day. As part of its plans to exit the lockdown, the government has already said it will roll out a mass program ...

Bloomberg On April 2, Zimbabwean finance minister Mthuli Ncube wrote to the International Monetary Fund and other leading multilateral lenders pleading for help. More than half of the population needs food aid, the economy collapsed even before the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic and the country’s health service is in tatters, he said. To date, he’s had no response. ...