Bloomberg The Russian military ended war games near its western borders as the country ramps up preventative measures to slow the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19). “It’s obvious that all of this is connected with preventive measures,†Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call on Monday. “It’s linked to the situation around the general fight against coronavirus.†The ...
Read More »Mike Pompeo visits Afghanistan in first trip since virus hit US
Bloomberg Secretary of State Michael Pompeo ventured abroad for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit the US in full force, making a surprise visit to Afghanistan’s capital on Monday as part of a bid to inject new momentum into an already faltering peace process with the Taliban. Pompeo was expected to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in ...
Read More »China’s top US envoy breaks with foreign ministry on virus
Bloomberg China’s ambassador to the US reaffirmed his opposition to promoting theories that the virus that causes Covid-19 originated in an American military lab, in an unusual break with the country’s foreign ministry. Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai said in an interview with “Axios on HBO†that he stood by his Febraury 9 statement that it would be “crazy†to spread ...
Read More »No need to postpone Nov vote: Biden
Bloomberg Joe Biden pushed back on suggestions that the November election could be postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying on March 22 it’s important that voting continues as it has during other crises in American history. “We have to let the electoral process run. We ought to be able to preserve our health and our democracy at the same time,†...
Read More »Johnson threatens full lockdown in UK
Bloomberg Boris Johnson warned Britons they face “tougher measures†including a potential full lockdown if they continue to ignore calls to stop social gatherings, as his government asks Parliament to grant sweeping powers to tackle the accelerating coronavirus outbreak. With the UK’s weekend newspapers full of reports about people meeting in parks and traveling to coastal towns, the prime minister ...
Read More »You are not a teetering, fallible contraption!
“Worrying,†wrote Lewis Thomas, “is the most natural and spontaneous of all human functions.†Thomas — physician, philosopher, essayist, administrator (dean of the Yale and New York University medical schools, head of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) — thought we worry too much about our health, as though a human being is “a teetering, fallible contraption, always needing watching and ...
Read More »Tiffany deal is testing commitment
A diamond is forever and so, perhaps, is Bernard Arnault’s interest in Tiffany & Co. Investors have been having some doubts that the chairman and founder of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA would deliver on his $16 billion takeover of the storied jeweller. But right now, Arnault is behaving like a classic luxury buyer. The bid for Tiffany is ...
Read More »Trump, too, can rally US’s industrial might
It would be charitable to describe the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as sloppy and uncoordinated. Thankfully, there is a model for an epic national comeback. It dates back to the weeks following the attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941, when President Roosevelt created the War Production Board, one of the most dynamic public-private partnerships in history. ...
Read More »Dems must act now to protect the US election
With little but uncertainty ahead, Congress and the states must mobilise immediately to shift the nation to a largely vote-by-mail system by November. There are two obstacles to that goal — one practical, one political. Lurking behind both is the fear that President Donald Trump will seek to disrupt the vote to maintain power, and that Republicans and right-wing media ...
Read More »Is delivery ok? Ethics of shopping in a pandemic
When my local supermarket opened for business at 6 am the other day, I had my plan of action in place. The instant the door was unlocked, I hurried to the pharmacy aisle, where I found, to my surprise and delight, three bottles of rubbing alcohol. But now I faced a puzzle. Should I play homo economicus and buy them ...
Read More »