Bloomberg Long-standing divisions within South Africa’s political leadership over economic policy have spilled into its management of the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. While finance minister Tito Mboweni has said the government could consider approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance to fight the pandemic, senior ruling coalition officials rejected that option on the grounds that the nation’s sovereignty ...

Bloomberg The White House lawyer tapped to oversee disbursements from a massive US pandemic relief fund is a former seminarian with decades of oversight experience yet still faces questions over whether he’ll do President Donald Trump’s bidding instead of protecting taxpayers. Brian Miller will be the main watchdog over $500 billion directed to big business by Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s Treasury ...

Today’s pandemic has simultaneously inflicted the isolation of “social distancing” and the social solidarity of shared anxiety. In tandem, these have exacerbated a tendency that was already infecting America’s body politic before the virus insinuated itself into many bodies and every consciousness. It is the recurring longing for escape from individualism, with its burden of personal responsibility. It includes a ...