Politics

Bloomberg Ethiopia is considering whether it can hold elections as scheduled in August as the coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic spreads. “If we can control the disease and get through it in a short time, like China did, then elections would be held on schedule. This is preferable,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a televised address to the public on March ...

Bloomberg Polish President Andrzej Duda has rarely been busier than since he suspended his election campaign and called on rivals to follow suit amid the coronavirus outbreak. The incumbent has criss-crossed the country and made television appearances at a border checkpoint, a hospital, a food bank and even oil group PKN Orlen SA’s new production line of hand sanitiser. His ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offering help fighting the coronavirus outbreak. The letter also included a plan for advancing ties between the countries, according to a statement from Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, that was published by Korean Central News Agency. North Korea has said it has avoided the virus pandemic ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration escalated its attacks on China over the coronavirus, as US officials publicly alleged that Beijing concealed and minimised the spread of the disease within its borders until it was too late to stop a global outbreak. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo called the disease the “Chinese virus” at a White House news ...

Bloomberg Mexico’s foreign minister said the country won’t yet suspend flights from Europe, contradicting US President Donald Trump, but it will restrict land travel across its northern border. Trump said in a news conference earlier on March 20 that Mexico had taken action to secure the border and suspend air travel from Europe. At his own news conference hours later, ...

Bloomberg North Korea appears to have fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea shared with Japan, hours after leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a military exercise. South Korea said it had detected the projectiles fired from North Pyongan Province near the West Sea and that they travelled 410 kilometers (255 miles). Japan’s coast guard confirmed that the projectiles fell outside ...

Bloomberg New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a coronavirus alert system with escalating restrictions on human contact, travel and business operations as the risk of community transmission grows. In a televised address to the nation on Saturday, Ardern said New Zealand had moved to level two on the four-tier system, signalling the virus is contained but domestic transmission risks ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Donald Trump and other leaders want to ramp up coronavirus testing. There’s just one problem: Providers of the diagnostics can’t make enough kits to keep up with demand. The UK will soon be testing 25,000 people a day for the virus, Johnson said at a press conference, and that could eventually rise ...

Bloomberg China took the unprecedented step of expelling more than a dozen US journalists from three American newspapers, escalating a wider battle with the Trump administration as the coronavirus pandemic threatens to drag the global economy into a recession. China’s foreign ministry said US reporters at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post must hand in their ...

Bloomberg European Union (EU) leaders agreed to restrict most travel into the continent in an unprecedented move aimed at slowing down the spread of a deadly coronavirus and mitigating its effects on the bloc. The restrictions will apply to all non-EU citizens and last for an initial 30 days, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters after a video conference with ...