Bloomberg UK jobless claims increased last month as the coronavirus pandemic began to have an impact on the labour market. Claims rose 12,200 compared with a 5,900 gain in February, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday. The claimant count rate rose to 3.5%, the highest since the start of 2014. Unemployment is sure to keep rising after the ...

Bloomberg French automaker PSA Group posted a 16 percent slump in first-quarter sales and forecast the European market will shrink by a quarter this year as the coronavirus pandemic slams the car industry. The company has secured liquidity and cut costs, Chief Financial Officer Philippe de Rovira said in the statement on Tuesday, adding that it is preparing for a ...

Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc. won approval to serve as a business vendor to the US government, allowing the company to vie for an estimated $810 million in spending over the next five years. Politicians and campaigns have for years relied on Uber for rides to and catering for their events, but the decision is the first clearance for federal agencies ...

Bloomberg Mystery surrounded Kim Jong-un’s health after US and South Korean officials gave differing accounts of the North Korean leader’s condition following his unusual absence from recent holiday celebrations. Kim was in critical condition after undergoing cardiovascular surgery last week and the Trump administration wasn’t sure of his current health, said US officials, who asked not to be identified. One ...

Bloomberg Italy will present a plan this week to ease its rigid lockdown, joining Germany, France and Austria in pursuing a gradual return to normality as coronavirus infection rates fall and pressure mounts to reopen businesses. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte aims to roll out a detailed restart program beginning on May 4, indicating that the process will take time to ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he’ll sign an executive order temporarily suspending immigration into the US as the country tries to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Trump made the announcement by tweet, and did not offer specifics, such as the time frame or the scope of who would be affected. The White House did not immediately respond to a ...

Bloomberg The threat of social and political unrest around the world is rising as the coronavirus crisis fuels discontent amid food shortages, job losses and lockdowns. That may particularly impact nations that are already battling food crises, according to a report from 16 organisations including United Nations agencies and the European Union. The number of people facing acute food insecurity ...

Bloomberg As many as 15,000 people in Mumbai, including many in Dharavi, Asia’s most crowded slum, will be given an anti-malarial drug as a preventive therapy to ward off the deadly coronavirus. The first-of-its-kind mass experiment of using hydroxychloroquine as a prophylaxis is being undertaken in the state of Maharashtra — home to India’s financial centre that’s racing to curb ...

Even before President Donald Trump announced that he intends to temporarily suspend immigration to the US because of Covid-19, it was becoming clear that the effect of the virus on migration would be powerful, long-lasting and unfortunate. Many countries besides the US have already shuttered or severely limited entry from foreigners — and many of those restrictions will not be ...

What exactly are we to make of the protests against the current shutdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic? For one thing, they’re small and unrepresentative: The vast majority of US citizens say they support the shutdown policy, and that support is if anything growing. Political scientist John Sides has the data. “Cancel all meetings or gatherings of more than 10 ...