Bloomberg Boris Johnson’s emergency virus lockdown is heaping last-minute pressure on negotiators as they race to reach a post-Brexit trade deal. Officials said the announcement has focused minds on bringing the talks to a conclusion within days. As the British prime minister was detailing the new restrictions for London and southeast England on Saturday, negotiators in Brussels were inching closer ...

Bloomberg Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called President-elect Joe Biden to congratulate him on winning the election, one of the last major world leaders to recognise the future US head of state. Obrador, who struck up a close relationship with President Donald Trump, said last month that he didn’t want to be “imprudent” and held off his congratulatory message. ...

Bloomberg Nigerian police said 84 people held hostage by gunmen were freed in the northern state of Katsina. Police responding to a distress call engaged the assailants in a gunfight and they fled, Katsina Police spokesman Gambo Isah said in an emailed statement. It comes days after more than 300 schoolboys seized from a boarding school in the same state ...