Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that public debate about easing restrictions to contain the coronavirus risked sparking a new wave of infections even as Germany took its first tentative steps towards normalcy. In a closed-door meeting of her Christian Democratic party on Monday in Berlin, she said “discussion orgies” about loosening lockdowns threatened to destroy the progress in fighting the ...

Bloomberg Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to ease movement restrictions after a 21-day lockdown of its biggest cities bought the government enough time to improve its preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic, said President Nana Akufo-Addo. Residents of the capital, Accra, and major centres are allowed to return to work from Monday even though other restrictions such as ...

Bloomberg Former billionaire Vijay Mallya lost a bid at a London appeal court to block his extradition to India, putting the fallen tycoon one step closer to facing fraud and money-laundering charges in his home country. A London appeal court upheld a 2018 ruling to send him back to India over allegations that Mallya made a number of misrepresentations leading ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson is resisting pressure to ease the UK’s coronavirus lockdown too soon, fearing a second wave of the pandemic could hit the country, a person familiar with the matter said. The prime minister, who is yet to return to work after being struck by the virus himself, spoke with colleagues including his deputy, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, to ...

Where is the demand to come from? That is the crucial economic question these days. If we can’t answer it (and for now, we can’t), then the outlook is bleak. It implies a weak recovery or — worse — a Depression-like stagnation with massive joblessness. Economists project the recovery to begin sometime in the summer. But who will do the ...

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is doubling down on its cloud strategy with a $28 billion increase in spending over the next three years. Ignore for a moment that huge number, and turn instead to what this says about the e-commerce company’s priorities. China’s largest technology company is essentially admitting that the consumer story may have run its course, and the ...

The coronavirus may have upended life as we know it, but one thing hasn’t changed: Companies looking to flout good governance practices will find a way. Now they have the perfect cover — and once again, China is leading the way. While online investor meetings are becoming standard, HNA Group Co took the practice to the extreme last week. Last ...

Since the Coronavirus outbreak began, the UK has seemed more united than at any point in the last few years. The political logjam over Brexit has given way to solidarity against a common, invisible enemy. But beneath the surface, the divisions that defined the past four years persist and may grow as Britain’s transition period runs out. Even amid the ...

France didn’t need a coronavirus to wake up to the benefits of big government. The nation of Jean-Baptiste Colbert — the 17th-century top-down economic planner who likened taxation to the art of plucking feathers from a goose — was already the top state spender and tax collector relative to economic output among its OECD peers before the epidemic struck. While ...

So long, activists. No one’s giving you any cash back, at least not anytime soon. Companies and investors alike are stashing money as Covid-19 throws an uncertain future across the global economy. Liquidity is front of mind. Automakers and retailers in the US have drawn down billions of dollars on their credit lines to deal with impending shortages. But Japan ...