Bloomberg Soybean imports by China rose 27% in May from a year earlier, after crushers increased purchases from Brazil to take advantage of cheap supplies amid strong crush margins. The country shipped in 9.4 million tons in May, compared with 7.4 million tons in the same month last year, and 6.7 million tons in April, according to customs data. Chinese ...

Bloomberg Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has launched clinical trials of a plant-derived drug it’s developing to treat Covid-19, joining the race to find an effective treatment for the disease that’s killed almost 400,000 people worldwide. India’s largest drugmaker will commence Phase II trials on 210 patients across 12 centers in India and the results are expected by October, according to ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s directive to pull 9,500 troops from Germany hits home hard for friends of America like Edgar Knobloch, whose Bavarian town has been home to US service members for seven decades. Like Chancellor Angela Merkel, the mayor of Grafenwoehr was caught off guard. It’s the latest sign of the US’s deterioration of ties with a loyal ally, ...

Bloomberg India and China agreed to resolve a current border standoff peacefully in line with various bilateral agreements and will keep each other engaged as talks remains deadlocked. “The two sides will continue military and diplomatic engagements to resolve the situation and to ensure peace and tranquility in the border areas,” India’s ministry of external affairs said. A meeting was ...

Bloomberg China lambasted suggestions that it hid information about the coronavirus outbreak, saying in a newly published white paper that it has acted transparently and informed the world of developments in a timely manner. “Some foreign politicians and media have presumed guilt for the origin of the virus, put labels on the virus and politicised the epidemic,” Xu Lin, head ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson will set out his plans for rebuilding the UK economy after the coronavirus as he seeks to stem the hemorrhaging of support for his government’s response to the crisis. The prime minister will use a speech later this month to commit to speeding up spending on roads, hospitals and research, his office said after three opinion polls ...

Bloomberg Malaysia will relax restrictions on the movement of peoplke within the country from June 10 and allow almost all activities including domestic tourism to resume, PM Muhyiddin Yassin said. The nation’s borders will remain closed and overseas travel is still restricted, he said. Theme parks etc won’t be allowed to reopen yet. The new rules will be in place ...

Bloomberg Japan has refrained from joining countries including the US and UK in coordinated criticism of China’s move to impose a national security law in Hong Kong, Kyodo reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Japan decided not to be a signatory to the countries’ joint statement on the proposed law as Tokyo tries to improve its diplomatic relations with ...

Bloomberg The world’s governments and central banks are shifting from rescue to recovery mode as the deepest slump since the Great Depression shows signs of bottoming out. After rolling out trillions of dollars worth of measures to prevent their economies and markets from collapsing, they are now doubling down with even more spending to backstop a recovery as coronavirus lockdowns ...

Bloomberg AstraZeneca Plc has approached rival drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc. about a potential merger, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be the biggest health-care deal on record. The UK-based firm contacted Gilead last month about a possible tie-up, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private. AstraZeneca didn’t specify terms for ...