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Crisis of Leadership Over Virus Grips Britain

Crisis of Leadership Over Virus Grips Britain

(Bloomberg) --

Britain is facing a new leadership crisis at its most vulnerable moment in decades. With the worst of the coronavirus outbreak expected to hit the country in the next 7-10 days, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been hospitalized for what Downing Street has characterized as precautionary tests.

Since testing positive for the virus on March 26, the 55-year-old Johnson has recorded a succession of “selfie” videos from his apartment, designed to prove he’s still in charge. But the shaky footage showed a visibly unwell leader who sounded short of breath and who still can’t shake off the symptoms, including a fever.

Now Johnson is handing over key duties to his untested deputy, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who will chair the daily crisis meetings. This has its own risks. Raab, along with other senior ministers including Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, stood against Johnson for the Conservative Party leadership last year.

Behind the scenes, officials squabble over what to do next as the U.K.’s strategy comes under pressure. Critics say Johnson, like U.S. President Donald Trump, didn’t move quickly enough and prevaricated over how intense a lockdown should be, a gamble that risks worsening the virus’s impact.

Queen Elizabeth II stepped in last night with a rare televised address to the nation, appealing for the unity and resolve it showed during World War II.

Yet what the country needs now is a leader with a strong enough grip on the government machine to deal with the emergency.

Crisis of Leadership Over Virus Grips Britain

Global Headlines

Worst week | The U.S. Surgeon General said this week would be the “hardest and the saddest” for Americans, likening it to the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor and 9/11 attacks. While Trump said there are signs the U.S. outbreak is beginning to stabilize, the governor of the country’s epicenter, New York, warned a day-to-day reduction in deaths there could be “just a blip.”

  • Europe’s four worst-hit countries reported a slower pace of coronavirus deaths.

  • Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed an emergency declaration for Tokyo and Osaka after cases in the capital jumped over the weekend to surpass 1,000.

  • Click here to read how negotiations over the next round of U.S. stimulus are already devolving into partisan bickering and here for details on how to access aid already in the pipeline.

Masks fight | The race to secure masks, ventilators, gloves and medicines is seeing disputes break out between countries. It shows how vulnerable the trade in medical supplies (a $597 billion industry) is to unilateral action by individual nations. As Alan Crawford writes, it’s also happening in a climate of distrust as Trump pushes his America First agenda, which has seen him criticize global institutions as well as longstanding U.S. allies like Germany and France.

Wuhan’s opening | The initial epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic will finally begin to emerge this week from the world’s first widespread lockdown. Our reporters on the ground explain how Wuhan’s tentative recovery — after suffering more than half of China’s confirmed cases and deaths — could provide one of the first glimpses at how a major metropolis comes back from a drastic Covid-19 shutdown.

Crisis of Leadership Over Virus Grips Britain

Oil wrangling | Saudi Arabia, Russia and other oil producers are racing to negotiate a deal to stem the recent price crash. While diplomats say some progress has been made they face big obstacles: A meeting of producers from OPEC+ and beyond has been delayed until Thursday and Trump has shown little willingness for the U.S. to join output cuts.

  • Oil futures erased an initial 11% loss as Trump said he didn’t think he’d need to use tariffs to get Saudi Arabia and Russia to reach a deal.

Pandemic power | Viktor Orban was Hungary’s firebrand champion of democracy when the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, the liberal student leader who told the Russians to go home. But as Zoltan Simon, Ian Wishart and Arne Delfs report, as prime minister three decades later he just called into question whether his country is a democracy at all.

What to Watch This Week

  • Euro-area finance ministry officials speak today on options for mitigating the economic hit from the pandemic. They’ll be followed by finance ministers tomorrow. It’s possible leaders will speak later this week to sign off on a plan.
  • Republicans are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block the extension of absentee voting in tomorrow’s presidential primary in Wisconsin, where the Democratic governor issued a stay-at-home order because of the virus.
  • The EU plans to impose tariffs on lighters and plastic fittings from the U.S. in retaliation over American duties on imported steel and aluminum. 
  • Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged to boost public works projects and low-interest loans to soften the outbreak blow but ruled out more significant stimulus, sending the peso tumbling.
  • Israeli lawmaker Benny Gantz told President Reuven Rivlin he may need to seek an extension beyond April 13 as he tries to build a coalition government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and aligned parties.

Thanks to all who responded to our pop quiz Friday and congratulations to Raphael Muchunu Mwangi, the winner for the second week in row after he identified Ethiopia as the first country in Africa to suspend a national election due to the pandemic. He was just ahead of Daniel Bleiberg. Tell us how we’re doing or what we’re missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

And finally ... From her home window, Belinda Constant, mayor of Gretna, Louisiana, watches the mighty Mississippi flow by. Beyond it are the sparkling lights of New Orleans. She views both warily these days. The “Big Easy” is a coronavirus hot spot, while the Mississippi has risen more than a foot in the past week, triggering emergency flood measures. And the rains keep coming.

Crisis of Leadership Over Virus Grips Britain

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