Politics

Bloomberg President Donald Trump backed away from imposing a quarantine for New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut to stop the spread of Covid-19, after floating the idea on isolating those hard-hit areas earlier in the day. In an announcement on Twitter, Trump followed up on a suggestion he first raised on March 28 at the White House, ...

Bloomberg North Korea fired what appeared to be an unidentified missile into its eastern sea, the South Korean military said, raising regional security concerns as world leaders battle the spread of the coronavirus. The launch was at least its fourth this month, which Japan’s coast guards said likely fell outside its exclusive economic zone. The projectile likely flew as far ...

Bloomberg Russia, the largest country by area, will temporarily shut all its borders starting from Monday after the number of coronavirus infections increased sharply over the last week. Health officials on March 28 reported 228 new cases of coronavirus overnight, bringing the total to 1,264, with four deaths attributed to the illness. The order, posted on the government website, followed ...

Bloomberg Africa is two to three weeks away from the worst of the coronavirus storm and needs an emergency economic stimulus of $100 billion to bolster preventative measures and support its fragile healthcare systems, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa ( UNECA). Almost half of the funds could come from waiving interest payments to multilateral institutions. That ...

Bloomberg A Trump administration effort to blame China for spawning the coronavirus has stalled for now at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), with other countries focused exclusively on urging joint global action to fight the pandemic. UN members Indonesia, Ghana, Singapore, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are proposing that the 193-member General Assembly adopt a text calling for “international cooperation ...

Bloomberg Dozens of people clashed on the Hubei border after the Chinese government lifted a two-month quarantine on the epicenter of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, highlighting the challenges of undoing the unprecedented measures taken to contain the disease. The conflict began on March 27 on a bridge connecting Hubei and neighbouring Jiangxi province as policemen from both sides argued over ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel said it’s premature to consider easing Germany’s lockdown measures as coronavirus infections can take as long as 14 days to incubate. “We’re not even close to where we can see if the measures are working,” Merkel said via audio conference from Berlin in her first public comments since entering precautionary quarantine on Sunday. The German leader ...

Bloomberg Singapore is facing a grave economic challenge posed by the coronavirus pandemic that may affect the timing of the nation’s election, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. In a meeting with reporters on March 28, Lee said the tide “had not turned” with the outbreak. As more residents come home to Singapore, more virus enters the country, he said. ...

Bloomberg A week-long paid national holiday announced by President Vladimir Putin on March 25 apparently doesn’t mean people should stop working, according to a Kremlin spokesman. “Those who have been working remotely will continue to work next week,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on an unscheduled conference call with reporters. “It’s not days off or holidays in the classical understanding of ...

Bloomberg Gunmen abducted Soumaila Cisse, the leader of Mali’s main opposition party, and members of his campaign team days before parliamentary polls. Cisse and his team were attacked as they campaigned for the vote on Sunday near the candidate’s hometown of Niafunke in the north of the country, his Union for the Republic and Democracy said. A party official on ...