WORLD

Beijing, China | AFP | After Wuhan was sealed off from the world, acclaimed Chinese writer Fang Fang started an online diary about the coronavirus tragedy unfolding in her hometown. Her journal drew tens of millions of readers — but now that it is about to be published abroad in several …

Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP |  Fears that cash-rich corporate raiders could use the coronavirus crisis to swoop on weakened European firms were perhaps best exemplified by Donald Trump’s alleged bid for a German biotech firm working on a vaccine. The outrage that followed has spurred fresh action by European …

London, United Kingdom | AFP |  Ten years after an oil spill that BP’s new boss Bernard Looney admits tested the company “to the core”, the firm is facing two existential challenges: the collapse of prices and climate change. It was a decade ago this week that an explosion on the …

Washington, United States | AFP |  President Donald Trump partially blocked immigration to the United States “to protect American workers” from the economic shock of the coronavirus, as the United Nations warned the world was facing “a humanitarian catastrophe”. The UN alarm bell came as nations scrambled to not only fight …

Washington, United States | AFP | A malaria drug widely touted as a potential cure for COVID-19 showed no benefit against the disease over standard care — and was in fact associated with more deaths, the biggest study of its kind showed Tuesday. The US government funded analysis of how American …

  New York, United States | AFP | An unprecedented crash in oil prices is adding pressure to already stressed US producers, threatening key shale regions and putting vulnerable companies at risk of going under. A day after US oil futures closed in negative territory for the first time ever, US …

Paris, France | AFP | The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating threats to press freedom around the world, with authoritarian states including China and Iran suppressing details of the outbreak, activists said on Tuesday. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual press freedom rankings that the pandemic was “highlighting and …

Paris, France | AFP | The coronavirus pandemic could nearly double the number of people around the world facing acute hunger, the UN’s World Food Programme warned Tuesday. “The number of people facing acute food insecurity stands to rise to 265 million in 2020, up by 130 million from the 135 million in 2019, as …

Paris, France | AFP | Half of the world’s school and university students affected by class closures because of the coronavirus outbreak — from pre-primary to university level — do not have access to a computer for home-schooling, the UN’s educational agency said Tuesday. Highlighting “startling digital divides” between the rich and poor, a UNESCO …

Rome, Italy | AFP |  Italy’s Prime Minister said on Tuesday that by the weekend he would reveal the steps the country will take to loosen restrictions, reopen the economy and emerge from the coronavirus crisis. Italy, which has reported more coronavirus deaths than any other European country, has been under …