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When we were told over the Lunar New Year holiday that schools in Hong Kong would be closed to prevent the spread of a then still-distant illness, I went through all the stages of grief. Shock, denial, anger, bargaining. I settled on depression for a good while. With three primary-age children, my vision of juggling a new job, school, chores ...

Growing numbers of states are allowing their shelter-in-place orders to expire and letting businesses reopen. This has Republicans rooting for a rapid economic recovery as people get back to work and Democrats fearing a renewed spike in virus transmission. But take it from me, a Georgian who’s been legally permitted to get a haircut or a face tattoo for two ...

Among the many uncomfortable truths revealed by the coronavirus pandemic is, apparently, this: America can’t build anymore. Faced with an unprecedented emergency, US factories have struggled to make even relatively simple products such as swabs, masks and protective gear. This is more surprising than it seems. While millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost over the past two decades as ...

Bloomberg Former President Barack Obama delivered a blistering attack on Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it “an absolute chaotic disaster” as well as “anemic.” Obama’s remarks, first reported by Yahoo News, came in a leaked call as the former president exhorted members of his administration to rally behind presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The comments were ...

Bloomberg Shulan, a Chinese city in the northeastern province of Jilin bordering North Korea, was ordered to partially close some facilities after a surge in the number of coronavirus cases. Jilin ordered stringent curbs in Shulan city, closing all but most essential services and requesting residents to stay at home, the province said in a statement on its website. The ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong police arrested at least 10 people and fired “pepper balls” in an attempt to disperse groups of pro-democracy demonstrators who defied social distancing rules, local media reported. Demonstrators appeared in malls across Hong Kong, including the Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, Taikoo Shing and Sha Tin districts, chanting anti-government slogans and singing protest songs. The police warned ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson’s government said any changes to the UK lockdown will be limited when the prime minister addresses the nation on Sunday, with the rate of coronavirus infections ruling out a major kickstart of economic activity. “There will be no grand reopening of the economy,” Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told the BBC. Instead, the government is adopting a more ...

Bloomberg South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has won such praise for his handling of the coronavirus crisis that he’s being touted as a possible successor to President Cyril Ramaphosa. Advised by a panel of top scientists, Mkhize has crisscrossed the country assessing the health system’s ability to cope with an anticipated surge in cases. A medical doctor, he’s made ...

Bloomberg Italian debt is once again the must-watch bellwether for growing tensions within the euro-area. Global investors have lasered in on the nation’s bonds because, while they feature tempting yields, the government’s relatively weak finances add to the shared risk across the region. UniCredit SpA estimates foreign asset managers and hedge funds’ exposure to Italian government bonds may be around ...

Bloomberg Canada lost 2 million jobs in April as a result of pandemic-related shutdowns, by far the biggest decline on record but only about half what economists had expected. The drop in employment adds to the 1 million decline in March. The jobless rate jumped to 13% in April, the agency said in Ottawa. Economists were anticipating a loss of ...