Bloomberg Italy suffered its worst day of coronavirus deaths and shut down almost all industrial production for 15 days, with the pandemic dealing blow after blow across an entire European continent in lockdown. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that Italy will temporarily halt all non-essential business activity as the country of 60 million faces its biggest challenge since World War ...

Bloomberg Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he no longer believes former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad following a series of broken promises between the two political stalwarts. Anwar, in an interview with CNBC, said “not now” when asked if he still trusted in the former prime minister. “I am just human, I take people at face value and I think ...

Bloomberg Ethiopia is considering whether it can hold elections as scheduled in August as the coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic spreads. “If we can control the disease and get through it in a short time, like China did, then elections would be held on schedule. This is preferable,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a televised address to the public on March ...

Bloomberg Polish President Andrzej Duda has rarely been busier than since he suspended his election campaign and called on rivals to follow suit amid the coronavirus outbreak. The incumbent has criss-crossed the country and made television appearances at a border checkpoint, a hospital, a food bank and even oil group PKN Orlen SA’s new production line of hand sanitiser. His ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offering help fighting the coronavirus outbreak. The letter also included a plan for advancing ties between the countries, according to a statement from Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, that was published by Korean Central News Agency. North Korea has said it has avoided the virus pandemic ...

The Pentagon created the Office of Net Assessment in 1973 to forecast America’s strengths and weaknesses relative to its main adversaries after a nuclear war. What would a similar “net assessment” tell us about how America and the world will look after the coronavirus pandemic? At the heart of such a post-pandemic assessment is the question of where America will ...

“What happened to the soap?” That’s what many Americans may be thinking as they wander forlornly through the aisles of local grocery stores (always careful, of course, to maintain a 6-foot distance from other customers). Fresh food may be abundant, but the necessities of a disease quarantine — hand soap, sanitiser, toilet paper and so on — are increasingly hard ...

Until last week, the UK government under Boris Johnson had been oddly relaxed in its response to the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike many other nations that had closed schools and restaurants and banned gatherings of even five people in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19, the UK had allowed life to continue much as normal, only testing patients entering ...

Banks are thankfully in much better shape to face the coronavirus pandemic than they were before the financial crisis. But as the economic challenge they face grows, regulatory measures to help them that looked overly forgiving just a few weeks ago may prove to be just the start. In 2008-2009, the financial sector’s woes dragged down the real economy. Now ...

Restaurants and shops are closed across the US to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Federal government has started to address the resulting economic pain with an emergency declaration by President Donald Trump releasing $50 billion for public-health measures and congressional passage of a multi-billion dollar relief bill providing some paid sick leave and extended unemployment benefits, ...