WORLD

London, United Kingdom | AFP | British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday he could begin to ease a nationwide coronavirus lockdown next week, but warned he would do nothing that would risk a new surge of cases. He was speaking the day after Britain overtook Italy to become the worst-hit …

Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to backtrack on plans announced the previous day to shut down the task force advising him on the coronavirus pandemic. The White House’s earlier suggestion that the high-level team could close around the start of June was Trump’s latest …

Moscow, Russia | AFP | President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday chaired a meeting to discuss a gradual withdrawal from lockdown as Russia registered the world’s sixth highest total number of coronavirus cases. Russia recorded more than 10,000 new cases for the fourth day in a row, bringing the total number of …

Berlin, Germany | AFP | German Chancellor Angela Merkel and state leaders on Wednesday gave the Bundesliga the green light to restart behind closed doors from mid-May after weeks of shutdown imposed to control the spread of the coronavirus. The political blessing makes the German top-flight the first of Europe’s five …

Berlin, Germany | AFP |  Germany is eyeing an almost complete return to normality in May, with plans to send all pupils back to school and to restart the top-flight football Bundesliga, according to a draft agreement seen by AFP Wednesday. “Even after initial steps to open up were introduced from …

Rome, Italy | AFP |  A sleek new bridge in Genoa built in record time is being acclaimed in Italy as a model for rebuilding the economy by investing in major infrastructure projects. Such stimulus is sorely needed as the country slides towards its worst recession since World War II because …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The Red Cross on Tuesday launched what it said was the first global network of social media influencers to battle misinformation about the new coronavirus and spread lifesaving content about the pandemic. Experts have been warning for months that the pandemic has been cloaked in a …

Washington, United States | AFP | US exports plunged 9.6 percent in March — the biggest monthly decline on record — increasing the trade deficit to $44.4 billion as the coronavirus pandemic disrupted global commerce, according to government data released Tuesday. While widespread business shutdowns in the United States did not …

Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russia cemented its place as the European country reporting the highest number of new coronavirus infections Tuesday as its total cases soared passed 155,000. Yevgeny Mikrin, chief designer at Energia, Russia’s top producer of spacecraft, has died from the coronavirus, becoming one of the infection’s highest-profile victims in the country, …

Paris, France | AFP | An antibody that can stop the new coronavirus infecting cells in laboratory tests has been identified by researchers in the Netherlands, in what scientists say could help the development of therapies for COVID-19. The antibody neutralised the new coronavirus, according to the research published in Nature Communications, and the authors …