Politics

Bloomberg The White House lawyer tapped to oversee disbursements from a massive US pandemic relief fund is a former seminarian with decades of oversight experience yet still faces questions over whether he’ll do President Donald Trump’s bidding instead of protecting taxpayers. Brian Miller will be the main watchdog over $500 billion directed to big business by Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s Treasury ...

Bloomberg Prime minister Boris Johnson was taken to the hospital for tests as he struggles to recover from coronavirus, dealing a serious blow to the UK as the country prepares for the worst of the crisis. Almost 5,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the UK so far and, according to government advisers and scientists, the peak of the outbreak ...

Bloomberg Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said he will propose declaring a month-long state of emergency in seven prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, after a renewed surge of coronavirus cases in some of the nation’s biggest cities. He also announced a much larger-than-expected stimulus package of 108 trillion yen ($988 billion) to support households and businesses struggling from the impact ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump warned that deaths from the coronavirus in the US will escalate over the next one to two weeks, and could be on par with the number of fatalities seen in world wars. “There’s going to be a very, very deadly period, unfortunately,” Trump told reporters at the White House. The president said that as the number ...

Bloomberg Queen Elizabeth II was expected to strike an optimistic note about Britain’s response to the global coronavirus crisis in an address to be broadcast on Sunday, according to excerpts from the speech reported by the BBC and others. “I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge,” ...

Bloomberg There are signs that the death rate in Sweden is growing faster than elsewhere in Scandinavia, raising pressure on the government to abandon its controversial hands-off approach in tackling Covid-19. The Swedish experiment has drawn international bewilderment as schools, restaurants and cafes have remained open. And while other countries passed laws restricting movement, Sweden’s prime minister Stefan Lofven relied ...

Bloomberg The Philippine government said an emerging consensus is for the lockdown on the main island of Luzon to be extended for two weeks. “There is an emerging consensus coming from medical experts, businessmen, government officials and other well meaning individuals that an extension of two weeks for the enhanced community quarantine or lockdown is necessary,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump is stepping up his campaign to oust Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro with the coronavirus pandemic and plunging oil prices threatening to worsen a humanitarian disaster years in the making. The Trump administration says its restrictions don’t prohibit humanitarian aid from flowing to Venezuela, the same argument it makes when pressed about sanctions on Iran. As a result, ...

Bloomberg Spain saw a decline in the number of new deaths from the coronavirus for the third consecutive day, raising hopes that the worst of the country’s outbreak may be over. The Health Ministry reported 674 fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 12,418. The number of confirmed cases rose to 130,759, from 124,736 a day earlier. ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he doesn’t support mail-in voting as a way to limit the spread of the coronavirus, arguing that sending ballots increases the likelihood of fraud. “I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think people should vote with voter ID. I think voter ID is very ...