Bloomberg Singapore will relax workplace measures to allow more people to return to offices and permit larger gatherings for various activities, as the city-state gets its virus situation under control. At offices, the government’s stance will shift from working-from-home as a default to a more “flexible and hybrid way of working”, where up to 75% of staff can be at ...

Bloomberg Japan’s government and businesses are racing to bring a fire-damaged automotive chip plant back online, underscoring how important the component has become in a supply chain already under strain because of booming demand for semiconductors. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is mobilising to help Renesas Electronics Corp., one of the top providers of chips used in car ...

Bloomberg North Korea fired off a pair of cruise missiles on the heels of an Asian trip by top US officials, putting a fresh spotlight on Biden administration deliberations over how to resolve a key security dilemma. The two missiles were fired from South Pyongan province and flew over the sea between the peninsula and China, the South Korean Defense ...

Bloomberg South Korea’s top diplomat said the US ally will stand by Washington’s side in its fight against hate crimes. “We will continue to actively support the efforts of the US government to fight against hate crimes, and stand firmly by its side against hatred and violence,” South Korea’s Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong said in a text message to reporters ...

Bloomberg Like many nations, Paraguay faces an uphill battle to procure coronavirus vaccines. But its quest is being complicated by fraught relations between China on one side, and Taiwan and the US on the other. The Paraguayan government has been approached with offers of Chinese-made vaccines in exchange for breaking ties with Taiwan, the country’s foreign ministry said in statement ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s Supreme Court found that the judge who presided over corruption cases against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was biased, a ruling that could unravel the landmark Carwash anti-graft probe. A panel of justices voted 3 to 2 that former judge Sergio Moro, who spearheaded the operation, was prejudiced in convicting Lula of money laundering and corruption ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel asked the German people for forgiveness after making a rare public apology for sparking massive criticism with plans for a five-day Easter shutdown. Merkel dropped the proposal, calling it a “mistake,” after a hastily-arranged video conference with the heads of Germany’s 16 states around 33 hours after announcing the move. She defended one of Germany’s toughest ...

Bloomberg The UK government has “significantly underestimated” how much it will cost to decarbonise heating in British homes, a touchstone of its net zero promise. The simple step of insulating Britain’s drafty homes is essential before gas boilers can be replaced with low carbon technology like heat pumps. The cost of improving energy efficiency could be as much as 18,000 ...

Bloomberg France still sees gross domestic product growth of 6% this year, even after new lockdown measures came into force in Paris and other regions to contain the coronavirus. “I confirm our ambitions to reach 6% growth in 2021,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in a radio interview on France Inter. “The moment when we lift the restrictions, our ...

Bloomberg US sales of new homes declined in February to a nine-month low as severe winter weather in parts of the country limited foot traffic against a backdrop of elevated prices that may be restraining momentum. Purchases of new single-family homes decreased 18.2% — the sharpest decline since July 2013 — to a 775,000 annualised pace from an upwardly revised ...