Politics

Bloomberg President Donald Trump has pledged US assistance to Italy as the European country continues to be ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. US departments including State, Commerce and Defense would be involved in the relief effort, which came at the request of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, according to a memorandum released by the White House. More than 147,500 cases of ...

Bloomberg Spain reported the fewest number of new coronavirus deaths since March 23. The death toll rose by 510 to 16,353 and total cases in the past 24 hours increased by 4,830 to 161,852, the government said on Saturday. In Spain and elsewhere in Europe, political and business leaders are increasingly talking about the “new normal” that the bloc’s citizens ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s police force is showing signs of attrition with resignations increasing and recruitments declining as the city deals with a coronavirus outbreak after months of sometimes violent anti-government protests. From June last year, when the city’s protests erupted against a China-backed extradition bill, to February a total of 446 police quit the force, an increase of 38% from ...

Bloomberg A 65-year-old malaria drug that hasn’t been proven to work against the new coronavirus appears to have captured the imagination of another president. France’s Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly flew to Marseille and spent more than three hours meeting with Didier Raoult, the researcher whose work has propelled a medicine called hydroxychloroquine from fringe to famous in just three weeks. Raoult’s ...

Bloomberg The US and China should work together to show “honest leadership” or risk transforming the pandemic into a bigger crisis, the head of the World Health Organization said in unusually stern comments on the two superpowers. At the height of the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union still came together to fight and eradicate smallpox, Director-General Tedros ...

Bloomberg Medical device makers and scientists around the world are waiving their intellectual property rights to encourage companies to restore depleted stockpiles of emergency equipment and develop new tests and treatments for the Covid-19 pandemic. But it might not be enough. Some researchers and lawmakers are calling on President Donald Trump to follow the lead of Germany in restricting patent ...

Bloomberg Iraqi intelligence chief Mustafa Al-Kadhimi was picked to form a government, as the country sought to end months of damaging political deadlock with the slump in oil prices and coronavirus outbreak adding to a list of urgent challenges. President Barham Salih turned to Al-Kadhimi after major Shiite parties blocked his previous choice for prime minister — former Najaf governor ...

Bloomberg India has further tightened lockdown measures and enhanced surveillance at hundreds of areas designated as virus hotspots, as PM Narendra Modi described the epidemic as a “social emergency.” Authorities have sealed settlements, lanes and apartment complexes in the financial capital of Mumbai, as well as in Delhi and the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, allowing in only medical services, ...

Bloomberg Every night at 8 pm, Spaniards head to their balconies and windows to clap for the healthcare workers risking their lives to save others from the coronavirus pandemic. An hour later, there’s a second wave of noise in some neighbourhoods as people come out with pots and pans. This time it’s not in praise, but in protest at the ...

Bloomberg Italy is advancing plans to gradually lift restrictions to contain the coronavirus as Europe’s exit from stringent lockdown measures takes shape. Amid tense discussions weighing political and economic pressures against public-health concerns, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government is hammering out an approach that foresees the full return to normal life taking months, according to people directly involved in the ...