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Bloomberg As the coronavirus pandemic leads to anxiety over the strength of the world’s food supply chains, everyone from governments to banks are turning to the skies for help. Orbital Insight, a California-based Big Data company that uses satellites, drones, balloons and cell phone geolocation data to track what’s happening on Earth, has seen inquiries about monitoring food supplies double ...

Bloomberg Parts of the US may be ready in May to ease emergency measures taken against the coronavirus pandemic but there’s no universal “light switch” to flip on, Dr Anthony Fauci said. There’s also the possibility of a Covid-19 rebound in the fall which could be a factor in November’s elections, he said. Fauci and a range of others, including ...

Bloomberg China’s top agency overseeing Hong Kong said lawmakers blocking action by the local legislature were potentially violating their oaths, in a signal that Beijing was losing patience with the months-long legislative logjam. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office urged the city’s Legislative Council in a statement released on Monday to end the stalemate and resume normal operations. Opposition ...

Bloomberg China rejected criticism about the alleged mistreatment of Africans by authorities in the southern city of Guangzhou, a dispute that could set back Beijing’s diplomatic outreach to help the continent cope with the coronavirus pandemic. The government has treated foreigners equally and attaches great importance to their life and health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said in ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un raised the standing of his sister as a key player in the secretive state and bolstered his new foreign minister in a cadre shuffle that comes as he tries to fend off the coronavirus pandemic. Part emissary, part personal assistant, Kim Yo Jong was reinstated to her position as an alternate Politburo member of ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s government is ramping up its coronavirus testing capacity and expanding the partial lockdown to areas outside the capital after facing criticism for having one of the region’s lowest testing rates per capita. President Joko Widodo said the country will increase its testing capacity by 9,000 samples per day while regulators extended stricter social distancing measures, which includes closing ...

Even as the Covid-19 pandemic nears its peak, defense analysts are beginning to assess how the global spread of this deadly disease should change how we think about warfare. “This has exposed some genuine gaps in military planning and readiness, as well as vulnerabilities in our national preparedness,” messaged Derek Chollet, a former assistant secretary of defense who’s now executive ...

Hong Kong led the world in adopting helicopter money. Now the city’s long-term wage subsidies have again put it at the forefront of global efforts to blunt the impact of the coronavirus. Other economies should pay attention. The government said that it will fund 50% of affected workers’ salaries for six months, capped at the equivalent of $1,160 a month. ...

In the US, the headline gross domestic product number reported every quarter by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is the percentage change in GDP from the previous quarter, annualised. Other countries, and international economic-statistics compilers such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, tend to report just the quarterly percentage change and skip the annualising. I don’t know ...

A US housing crisis is coming and although it won’t be anything like the last one, that won’t make it any less painful. Even though there has been no rampant speculation or subprime mortgage fraud, housing is still overvalued. And the dearth of inventory that’s plagued the current cycle will reverse in violent fashion once the worst of the virus ...