Bloomberg China’s soaring Covid infections are keeping people home and causing a slump in travel and economic activity, according to the latest high-frequency data. Following the recent abrupt end to Covid Zero controls, more cities have been hit by an exit wave of infections in the past week, leading to crowded hospitals and queues at funeral parlours. That’s keeping ...

Bloomberg North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles ahead of a major political meeting to set policy for the new year, after ratcheting up tensions with a record number of launches in 2022. The suspected ballistic missiles were fired at around 4:32 pm from an area near Pyongyang’s main international airport towards waters off North Korea’s east coast, South ...

  Bloomberg A suicide bomber and his accomplice detonated explosives in Pakistan’s capital when police tried to check their vehicle, killing themselves, one policeman and injuring five people. The incident, the first such attack in Islamabad in more than eight years, took place in a neighbourhood close to the garrison town of Rawalpindi, local police said on Twitter. An attack ...

  Bloomberg A shooting in Paris has left two people dead and four injured, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The shooting took place around noon on Friday in the 10th arrondissement. A 69-year-old man old was arrested, the prosecutor’s office said. Authorities are still determining the man’s identity. The shooting occurred on rue d’Enghien, near a Kurdish cultural center, Agence ...

  Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping has praised Hong Kong’s leader John Lee for reviving the local economy and safeguarding national security, while Premier Li Keqiang called for better coordination over the reopening of the city’s border with the mainland. Xi told Lee the city is on the “right track” as the two met in Beijing, according to the South ...

Bloomberg Nurses will strike again in England next month as unions and the government refuse to back down in a row over pay. The move threatens a chaotic start to the year for Britain’s National Health Service after ambulance workers called off a strike planned for next week but announced further walkouts for early next year. The Royal College of ...

  Bloomberg Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, a general who first came to power in 2014, announced that he will seek to retain his position with the help of a new party in a vote expected in the first half of 2023. Prayuth, 68, will be a prime minister candidate of the Ruamthai Sarngchart party set up last year, he ...

  Bloomberg C6 Bank, the Brazilian digital lender backed by JPMorgan Chase & Co, is planning to double its loan portfolio to midsize firms as it diversifies beyond retail clients. By the end of next year, C6 hopes to increase its loan book to such companies to more than 3.5 billion reais ($675 million) from about 1.8 billion reais now, ...

Bloomberg Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro signed into law the country’s first framework for cryptocurrency, with ground rules for brokerages that offer crypto as well as the assets’ day-to-day use. Though a formal designation is needed, the central bank is likely to be responsible for regulating and overseeing the new structure, according to the bill’s rapporteurs — the lawmakers who make ...

  Bloomberg Japan’s biggest bank sees value in further share buybacks as its $7.5 billion deal to sell a US regional lender adds to a growing cash pile. “We are always looking for growth investment opportunities,” Hironori Kamezawa, chief executive officer of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, said in an interview, adding that the lender will consider acquisitions in Asia ...