Politics

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 ...

Bloomberg The UK government is facing renewed calls to speed up testing of patients and healthcare workers for the coronavirus, as the outbreak spreads. Ministers and officials were challenged to explain why they said 10,000 tests were being carried out every day but only 7,000 people had received them. The concerns over testing rates came after a week of lockdown ...

Bloomberg Prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc orders a 15-day period of isolation nationwide beginning from Wednesday, according to a statement on the government’s website. Residents must stay at home and can only go outside for “essential needs,” such as food, medicines, urgent medical services or to go to work at companies permitted by the government to remain open, it said. ...

Bloomberg Hungary’s parliament handed prime minister Viktor Orban the right to rule by decree indefinitely, effectively putting the European Union democracy under his sole command for as long as he sees fit. While governments around the world assume emergency powers to fight the coronavirus, locking down all aspects of every-day life and shutting borders, few democracies have given their governments ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump abruptly abandoned his ambition to return American life to normal by Easter, heeding advice from the government’s top doctors that re-opening the US economy in two weeks risks greater death as the coronavirus outbreak accelerates. In a stark shift from two weeks of measured optimism, the president said his guidelines for Americans to practice “social distancing” ...

Bloomberg Coronavirus deaths in Italy and Spain rose above 17,000, keeping Europe focussed on further restricting people’s movements and avoiding a health-care collapse. Italy, the country with the most reported deaths, recorded 756 new fatalities on March 29. Spain’s Health Ministry said 838 people died from the virus over a period of 24 hours, its highest daily number yet. Both ...