WORLD

Puebla, Mexico | AFP |  All around the world, the coronavirus pandemic has left people scrambling for protective face coverings. But in Mexico, where the masked stars of “lucha libre” wrestling are already cultural icons, people are using their colorful masks to ward off the disease in style. The wrestling masks, fitted …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The race is on to produce a vaccine against COVID-19 but it is not certain that one can be found, the head of the global vaccines alliance said Friday. Seth Berkley said the more competition the better in the scientific fightback against the new coronavirus pandemic, …

Washington, United States | AFP | The growing use of export restrictions by governments can be “dangerously counterproductive” as the world deals with the coronavirus pandemic, the IMF and WTO warned Friday. The two institutions called on global leaders to commit to refrain from imposing or tightening controls on product sales, as they did at …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The United Nations on Friday launched a global push to speed up production of a vaccine for the new coronavirus as US President Donald Trump came under fire for suggesting injecting patients with disinfectant. The pandemic has upended life around the planet as nations try to …

Steinebrunn, Austria | AFP |  As in many Western countries, one of the shocks of the coronavirus crisis in Austria was how vulnerable farms were when suddenly deprived of foreign labour — but the country is having some success in getting Austrians to plug the gap. The Schreiber family farm in …

Budapest, Hungary | AFP |  A Budapest care home ravaged by the novel coronavirus has become a frontline in an escalating battle between Prime Minister Viktor Orban, emboldened by new emergency powers, and Hungary’s beleaguered opposition. Orban and the Budapest municipality, run by a liberal mayor, blame each other for a …

Moscow, Russia | AFP |  Elena Milashina had received death threats before. But they were never so direct or brazen. The erratic and iron-fisted leader of Chechnya in southern Russia, unhappy with her journalism about the coronavirus, put out an unambiguous call for violence against the reporter on social media this …

Paris, France | AFP |  The coronavirus pandemic blindsided international organisations, prompted individual states to unilaterally strike out alone and heralded a new chapter in the 21st century’s chief geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China. In the post-COVID-19 era, will multilateralism be dead? Regional and international organisations from the …

Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP |  A man believed to have belonged to the Islamic State (IS) group goes on trial in Germany on Friday accused of genocide and murdering a child belonging to the Yazidi minority who he held as a slave. Identified only as Taha al-J., the 37-year-old …

Washington, United States | AFP |  The new coronavirus is quickly destroyed by sunlight, according to new research announced by a senior US official on Thursday, though the study has not yet been made public and awaits external evaluation. William Bryan, science and technology advisor to the Department of Homeland Security …