Bloomberg Biden administration officials told lawmakers that they plan to seek $30 billion in new spending to combat the Covid-19 pandemic in conjunction with a $1.5 trillion government funding package lawmakers want to complete by March 11. Department of Health and Human Services officials made the informal pitch to lawmakers, with a formal White House request expected at a ...

  Bloomberg Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi pushed through long-delayed changes on how Italy assigns licenses for public beaches, despite the opposition of one of the parties backing his government. The government approved a plan to set up competitive tenders for the lucrative licenses from 2024, which allow bathhouses and resorts to be built on public land in exchange for ...

  Bloomberg Canadian consumer price inflation accelerated to a new three-decade high in January, adding to pressure on the Bank of Canada to start raising interest rates as early as March 2. Annual inflation was 5.1% last month, up from 4.8% in December, Statistics Canada reported in Ottawa. Economists were anticipating inflation would be unchanged in January. The average of ...