Politics

Bloomberg As many as 15,000 people in Mumbai, including many in Dharavi, Asia’s most crowded slum, will be given an anti-malarial drug as a preventive therapy to ward off the deadly coronavirus. The first-of-its-kind mass experiment of using hydroxychloroquine as a prophylaxis is being undertaken in the state of Maharashtra — home to India’s financial centre that’s racing to curb ...

Bloomberg A top Wuhan laboratory official has denied any role in spreading the new coronavirus, in the most high profile response from a facility at the center of months of speculation about how the previously unknown animal disease made the leap to humans. Yuan Zhiming, director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, hit back at those promoting theories that the ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that public debate about easing restrictions to contain the coronavirus risked sparking a new wave of infections even as Germany took its first tentative steps towards normalcy. In a closed-door meeting of her Christian Democratic party on Monday in Berlin, she said “discussion orgies” about loosening lockdowns threatened to destroy the progress in fighting the ...

Bloomberg Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to ease movement restrictions after a 21-day lockdown of its biggest cities bought the government enough time to improve its preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic, said President Nana Akufo-Addo. Residents of the capital, Accra, and major centres are allowed to return to work from Monday even though other restrictions such as ...

Bloomberg Former billionaire Vijay Mallya lost a bid at a London appeal court to block his extradition to India, putting the fallen tycoon one step closer to facing fraud and money-laundering charges in his home country. A London appeal court upheld a 2018 ruling to send him back to India over allegations that Mallya made a number of misrepresentations leading ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson is resisting pressure to ease the UK’s coronavirus lockdown too soon, fearing a second wave of the pandemic could hit the country, a person familiar with the matter said. The prime minister, who is yet to return to work after being struck by the virus himself, spoke with colleagues including his deputy, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, to ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump raised the prospect that China deliberately caused the Covid-19 outbreak that’s killed over 39,000 Americans and said there should be consequences if the country is found to be “knowingly responsible.” Dr Deborah Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said on Sunday that the first country exposed to a pandemic has a “moral ...

Bloomberg Singapore overtook Indonesia in coronavirus infections and now has the most cases in Southeast Asia after the city-state detected hundreds more victims among low-wage foreign workers. Authorities said an additional 596 cases were confirmed as of noon on Sunday, bringing the total to 6,588 in the country. Of the 596, only 25 are Singaporeans or permanent residents, the health ...

Bloomberg Malians voted in parliamentary elections on Sunday despite a partial lockdown to contain the coronavirus and with the main opposition leader being held hostage by suspected extremists. Voters in the capital Bamako were hesitant to venture out, heeding calls from authorities and NGOs to stay indoors as much as possible. “I believe voter turnout will be very low,” Kalilou ...

Bloomberg For the second straight Sunday, tornadoes, thunderstorms, floods and hail hit the South with the worst sweeping across from Louisiana to Georgia, the same swath that bore the brunt of last week’s carnage. In all, almost 12.3 million people from eastern Texas to North Carolina’s southern Atlantic shore are in harm’s way. The deadly storms could strike from Shreveport ...