Sleepwalking into an mpox calamity

The latest global health emergency highlights the perils of government neglect. [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Welcome to Balance of Power, bringing you the latest in global politics. If you haven’t yet, sign up [here](. The latest global health emergency wasn’t sudden or unexpected, but a slow, festering calamity that [highlights the perils]( of inequality and government neglect. Monkeypox virus, which causes mpox, has been spilling over from rodents and squirrels and infecting humans with increasing frequency in western and central Africa since the 1970s. Yet, even after touching off a global mpox outbreak two years ago, affecting almost 100,000 people in 116 countries, governments and funding agencies chose largely to ignore [the growing zoonotic threat](. WATCH: Pamela Rendi-Wagner, head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), says a mutated strain of the virus that causes mpox is likely to lead to sporadic imported cases in Europe. Source: Bloomberg TV Vaccines shown to provide strong protection in 2022 weren’t available in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, neither were tests crucial for diagnosing and isolating patients. Without measures to stop onward transmission, the virus spread from person to person, acquiring genetic changes that some scientists worry may have made the fast-spreading pathogen [more dangerous](. Even that critical information is still under investigation, hampered by a lack of testing for a disease reported to have sickened about 19,000 people, and killed almost 550, [in Congo]( and other African nations since the start of the year. Now, the mutated strain is being carried by infected travelers potentially far and wide, as evidenced by [cases in Sweden]( and Thailand. That’s triggered alarm — and enhanced screening — at airports 7,000 miles away in China and Indonesia. The real threat, however, remains resolutely in Africa, where the focus must be in supporting local communities and health authorities use all available countermeasures to treat infected people and prevent further spread.— [Jason Gale]( A child with mpox receives treatment at a hospital in eastern Congo. Photographer: Zanem Nety Zaidi/Xinhua/Getty Images Global Must Reads A cavalcade of Democratic stars past and present joined celebrities on the third night of the US party’s convention in Chicago to present Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz and slam Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. While Walz played up his record as a [teacher, coach and military veteran]( Bill Clinton accused Trump of being only interested in “me, myself and I,” and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey said the nation was “beyond ridiculous tweets and lies and foolery.” WATCH: Walz accepts the Democratic VP nomination in Chicago. Source: Bloomberg Multiple powers vying for influence put island nations across the Pacific Ocean at the center of an intensifying competition for maritime routes, deep-water ports and other strategic assets, Australia’s Lowy Institute [said in a new report](. Growing US-China rivalry is the backdrop to what Lowy called a new “Great Game” in the region, whose maritime location between Asia, North America and Australia mean it’s become a strategic focus for major powers. Indonesian lawmakers adjourned parliament as thousands of people protested [proposed electoral changes]( seen as favoring the alliance of President Joko Widodo and his successor, Prabowo Subianto. Legislators want to change the law to effectively allow Jokowi’s 29-year-old youngest son to run to be a regional deputy governor, while reinstating thresholds that could enable Prabowo and Jokowi allies to stand virtually uncontested in elections in Central Java and Jakarta. South Korean prosecutors looking into a 3 million won ($2,250) Dior bag given to First Lady Kim Keon Hee have cleared her of criminal charges, according to a local media report. While opponents of President Yoon Suk Yeol said the luxury bag was a bribe, he and his wife denied wrongdoing and blamed a “political maneuver” to discredit them. [Read our explainer]( to understand how the saga unfolded and dented support for the government. Ahead of a visit to Ukraine, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a speech in Warsaw that he supports peace in the region and reiterated a call for diplomacy to end the conflict. The [trip to Kyiv]( tomorrow will be Modi’s first since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and comes after he traveled to Moscow last month to meet President Vladimir Putin. Chinese Premier Li Qiang told Putin in Moscow that relations between the two countries “benefit regional and even world peace, stability and prosperity,” according to [a readout of their meeting]( from Beijing. Taiwan’s high court convicted eight people, including active-duty and retired military personnel, of [collecting state secrets]( on behalf of China, the official Central News Agency reported, in one of the largest espionage cases in years. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi told Bloomberg TV he’s enormously concerned by fighting between Russia and Ukraine near a Russian nuclear power plant because the old Soviet reactors in operation [are particularly exposed](. Brazil will start restricting entry of citizens from countries including China and India [in a bid to crack down]( on people arriving in the South American nation and then trying to illegally migrate to the US and Canada, according to a government document seen by Bloomberg. Washington Dispatch While Trump allies have repeatedly counseled him to concentrate on the issues in his campaign, he [countered yesterday]( that “sometimes it’s hard when you’re attacked from all ends.” He referred to blistering remarks by Michelle and Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Tuesday. “You know they always say, ‘sir, please stick to policy. Don’t get personal.’ And yet they’re getting personal all night long,” Trump said at a rally in North Carolina. Many of the speakers at the convention, including former President Obama, called for civility even as they criticized Trump and his record. “I urge you to meet people where they are,” Clinton said. “I urge you not to demean them, but not to pretend you don’t disagree with them. If you do, treat them with respect. Just the way you’d like them to treat you.” One thing to watch today: Initial jobless claims for last week will be published, a report that might attract more attention than usual after the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the number of workers on payrolls would likely be [revised down]( by 818,000 for the 12 months through March. [Sign up for the Washington Edition newsletter]( for more from the US capital and watch Balance of Power at 1 and 5 p.m. ET weekdays on Bloomberg Television. Chart of the Day Tech companies’ relentless push into artificial intelligence is [coming at an undisclosed cost]( to the planet. Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are concealing their actual carbon footprints, buying credits tied to electricity use that inaccurately erase millions of tons of planet-warming emissions from their carbon accounts, according to a Bloomberg Green analysis. Firms are purchasing unbundled renewable energy certificates that can make it seem that power consumed from a coal plant came from a solar farm instead. And Finally Danish transit pilot Mikael Pedersen gets a front-row view of Russia’s floating oil economy as one of a small number of non-crew members to have set foot on Moscow’s [hastily assembled shadow fleet]( of aging tankers and container ships. Many have undeclared owners and often questionable insurance as they travel from Russian ports to world markets. In interviews with Bloomberg, Pedersen and other pilots paint a picture of poorly maintained vessels — or “old piles of junk” — that prompt fears of oil spills in the Baltic Sea. 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