Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron rebuffed accusations that he’s handling the Covid-19 crisis in an authoritarian way on Wednesday and renewed his call for people to get vaccinated to beat the pandemic. “Never before in our history was a crisis of such magnitude fought in such a democratic way,” Macron said at the beginning of a virtual defense cabinet meeting ...

Bloomberg Afghanistan’s acting finance minister Khalid Payenda has resigned and left the country after the Taliban captured key customs posts bleeding the administration of revenue, reinforcing the government’s isolation as the extremists make swift gains. Payenda has “resigned and left the country because Afghanistan is grappling with declining revenues after the takeover of the custom posts,” Finance Ministry spokesman Mohammad ...

Bloomberg Senate Democrats took a major step towards the biggest expansion in decades of federal efforts to reduce poverty, care for the elderly and protect the environment, passing a $3.5 trillion budget framework that opens the way for President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. The party-line 50-49 vote marks an abrupt reversal from the tax-cutting philosophy of Republicans when they controlled ...