World News

African leaders are warning of an economic collapse if financial assistance isn’t provided to the millions of people out of work because of the novel coronavirus.

China has been appointed to a panel on the controversial U.N. Human Rights Council, where it will help vet candidates for important posts — despite its decades-long record of systematic human rights abuse that the U.S. has said fueled the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 100 civil society groups urged governments Thursday not to use the global coronavirus pandemic as cover for future pervasive electronic snooping but instead make sure data is erased once the health crisis is over.

Queen Elizabeth II says Britons will overcome the new coronavirus pandemic if they confront the crisis with the same resolve that carried the nation through other trials and tragedies. Invoking the spirit of World War Two, the British monarch urged Britain in televised remarks to demonstrate the determination as generations of the past.

As countries struggle to contain the new coronavirus outbreak, a global fight has emerged over dwindling medical supplies. The tensions even led to growing competition for medical goods between the United States and its traditional European allies. Take Germany. The local government in the German state and capital, Berlin, claims that 200,000 U.S.-made protective masks bound for Germany never arrived. Authorities say the shipment was ‘confiscated’ in Bangkok, Thailand.

A former European Commission president has said the coronavirus crisis may result in the break-up of the European Union. In a rare statement last weekend, Jacques Delors said the lack of European solidarity in dealing with the crisis presented “a mortal danger” to the EU. Others have expressed similar concerns.

Thirteen European Union nations say they fear that emergency measures to contain the new coronavirus pandemic could threaten “democracy and fundamental rights.” Their statement came after EU-member Hungary introduced coronavirus legislation that allows the increasingly authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to rule by decree without parliamentary approval.

Global coronavirus cases surpassed 1 million on Thursday with more than 52,000 deaths as the pandemic further exploded in the United States and the death toll climbed in Spain and Italy, according to a Reuters tally of official data.

The U.S. military said Thursday that air defense systems are ‘moving’ into Iraq following attacks on American and coalition forces in recent weeks.

Nearly all of the people in Europe who have died from the coronavirus were more than 60 years old, the World Health Organization announced Thursday.

Saudi Arabia and Russia signaled on Thursday they were ready to cooperate to help stabilize the oil market after calls with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the slump in prices triggered by the end of a deal to curb output and a collapse in demand.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon has been accused of helping to bring coronavirus to the nation. Opponents of the powerful group point out that Lebanon took three weeks to block flights from Iran, after a woman who had just returned from there tested coronavirus positive on February 20. Hezbollah is accused of causing the delay to ensure its supporters could return home. Denying the claims, Hezbollah is trying to show the Lebanon Shiite community that it is working to protect them from the outbreak.

The world’s largest investment bank and financial services company warns of a “deep global recession” due to the new coronavirus pandemic. New York-based Morgan Stanley says worldwide economic growth could slow by as much as 0.9 percent this year. “[The virus] COVID-19 is at once a human tragedy and unparalleled synchronous shock, affecting both the demand and supply sides of the global economy,” writes Morgan Stanley chief economist Chetan Ahya in a note.

President Trump warned that Iran and its allies are planning to attack American troops “and/or assets” in Iraq.

A simple blood test can check for more than 50 types of cancer, often before any signs or symptoms, scientists say.

German scientists say they have identified a strain of bacteria that is feeding on polyurethanes, a plastic resistant to biodegradation.

With roughly half the world in lockdown and many politicians weak or ill, the largest Dutch daily concludes in a headline: “World searching for LEADER.” De Telegraaf (The Telegraph) also expresses that “Nobody takes the lead in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.” Its commentator, Frank van Vliet, complained: “While the world is on fire, international politicians are running in one direction to put out their fire. No leader has taken the lead, and solidarity is lacking. They did not read author Alexander Dumas’ Three Musketeers because “one for all and all for one” has been replaced by “own people first.”

The Trump administration on Monday renewed several waivers on U.S. sanctions against Iran, allowing Russian, European and Chinese companies to continue to work on Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities without drawing American penalties.

Chinese government researchers isolated more than 2,000 animal viruses, including deadly bat coronaviruses, and carried out scientific work on them just three miles from a wild animal market identified as the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Argentinian appellate court has upheld the 2019 criminal conviction of a doctor who refused to give a rape victim a late-term abortion. In a divided ruling on March 23, two judges found Dr. Rodríguez Lastra had ‘failed to comply with the duties of a public official’ when he refused to perform the abortion in 2017. Lastra told the court his refusal was in order to protect the lives of both mother and child.