San Francisco, United States | AFP | What does British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have in common with virtual happy hour celebrants and thousands of students around the world? All use the Zoom videoconferencing application to get together while staying apart during the deadly coronavirus pandemic. But amid its newfound fame, …
Read More »UEFA demand leaves Scottish football clubs in the lurch
London, United Kingdom | AFP | UEFA’s ultimatum to national leagues that a failure to complete the football season could lead to exclusion from European competition has left the continent’s less wealthy leagues, like Scotland, in limbo. Scottish clubs were due to meet by video-conference on Friday with the possibility of …
Read More »Trump fires intelligence official who had key impeachment role
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump announced Friday he was firing a senior intelligence official who had a central role in the complaint last August that sparked the impeachment trial of the US leader. In a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Trump said he had lost confidence …
Read More »Living alone and in need of a hug during global shutdown
Chicago, United States | AFP | Six nights a week, Shelley Howard could normally be found at a restaurant or bar in the famous Rush Street area of Chicago, dining out or having a drink with friends. A naturally social person, Howard, 73, regularly posted online pictures from his nights out, …
Read More »Coronavirus: All that you need to know
Paris, France | AFP | Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: – More than one million cases – At least 1,082,470 cases of infection, including 57,474 deaths have been reported in 188 countries and territories around the world since the epidemic started in December, according to an …
Read More »How to stop the virus making us all fatter
Paris, France | AFP | The coronavirus has shaken the world like nothing else. But beyond the terrible toll of death, economic devastation and fear, the virus is likely to leave another lasting mark. It is going to make us all fatter. “I don’t know if we are going to come …
Read More »Test, protect, inform: what HIV can teach us about COVID-19
Paris, France | AFP | From being a killer in the shadows, to having its own international day and UN programme, HIV’s emergence into a global reality can offer many lessons in how to respond to COVID-19, the head of the International Aids Society told AFP Thursday. Kevin Osborne, who has lived with HIV for nearly half his …
Read More »Untouchable: the baby born to a mum with coronavirus
Madrid, Spain | AFP | For 10 days after giving birth to her first child, the mother was not allowed near him after she tested positive for coronavirus, for fear of infecting her newborn. And even though she has since been reunited with her son, neither she nor her husband have …
Read More »‘Superheroes’: Coronavirus survivors donate plasma hoping to heal the sick
New York, United States | AFP | As she emerges from quarantine, recovered COVID-19 patient Diana Berrent is eager to join the battle against the pandemic and donate precious antibodies that researchers hope might help others. In mid-March, the New Yorker woke up with a 102-degree (39 Celsius) fever and intense …
Read More »Global virus cases top a million, deaths surpass 50,000
Washington, United States | AFP | The number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world has soared past one million and fatalities have topped 50,000 as the United States reported the highest daily death toll of any country so far. Despite more than half the planet living in some form of …
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