Politics

Bloomberg Britain’s opposition Labour Party, still reeling from its worst electoral defeat in 85 years, elected Keir Starmer as leader, putting a moderate lawyer with an eye for detail in charge as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handling of the coronavirus comes under fire. Starmer, who served as Labour’s Brexit spokesman under ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn, beat Corbyn-loyalist Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa ...

Bloomberg Venezuelan families made destitute by Colombia’s coronavirus lockdown are walking a thousand miles or more across the Andes to get home. Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela might be undergoing one of the deepest economic slumps in modern history, but it’s still preferable to sleeping in a park in Medellin, or under a bridge in Bogota, which are now the alternatives for ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration won the dismissal of a lawsuit claiming it violated federal record-keeping requirements by conducting off-the-books diplomacy with Ukrainian officials — the same conduct at the centre of the president’s impeachment. US District Judge James E Boasberg threw out the suit, saying the alleged actions by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump’s personal attorney ...

Bloomberg A Russian military plane loaded with medical equipment took off from outside of Moscow on Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin offered Donald Trump help for the US battle with coronavirus. “The Russian side offered assistance amid the dire epidemiological situation in America,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state-run Channel One. “Trump gratefully accepted this humanitarian aid.” After his comments, ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump will not reopen the Obamacare exchanges to allow uninsured Americans to purchase healthcare coverage during the coronavirus pandemic, a White House official said. The decision comes after the president said last week he was considering a special enrollment period to allow individuals to purchase insurance during the crisis — a move that had been endorsed by ...

Bloomberg Spain reported its deadliest day yet in the coronavirus pandemic, offering a grim reminder of the risks as Germany and Italy moved to prolong rigid lockdown measures until after Easter on April 12. There were 864 new coronavirus fatalities in Spain on Wednesday, as the number of confirmed cases increased to more than 102,000. Spain, which has been in ...

Bloomberg Faced with the biggest challenge of any post-apartheid South African leader, President Cyril Ramaphosa has also been given a rare opportunity to push through the painful reforms the economy needs. The twin crises of the coronavirus pandemic and the country losing the last investment-grade rating on its debt have silenced his critics, both within his party and the opposition. ...

Bloomberg The Italian government will extend its nationwide lockdown to April 13, as relaxing rules too early would negate efforts to counter the spread of the coronavirus, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said. “Getting the timing wrong or taking decisions too early would end up cancelling out the work done in these very difficult weeks,” Speranza told the Senate in Rome. ...

Bloomberg China’s leaders normally spend a lot of time and money on keeping the country’s 1.4 billion people in line — and that was before a global pandemic ravaging the world economy threatened to put millions out of work. A rare street clash over the weekend on the border of virus-stricken Hubei province shows the challenges president Xi Jinping faces ...

Bloomberg The Kremlin’s sudden shift of ownership of multi-billion-dollar oil projects in Venezuela shields oil giant Rosneft PJSC from further US sanctions but keeps Moscow firmly behind embattled President Nicolas Maduro amid a wider stand-off with Washington. “Russia is not walking away from Maduro and will seek to thwart US efforts to depose him,” said Vladimir Frolov, a former diplomat ...