World News

A United Nations agency has warned that the world risks widespread famines ‘of Biblical proportions’ due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A week ago, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies agreed to slash production by 9.7 million barrels, a deal that brought an end to a price war between two of the biggest exporters, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

A scientific study recommended by White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci pointing to the origin of coronavirus pandemic as a jump from animals to humans also concludes it cannot be ruled out that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory.

Schools have reopened in Belarus after an extended spring break linked to the coronavirus outbreak that infected thousands here. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron fist for more than a quarter-century, ordered classes to resume at the nation’s 3,067 schools.

Several European Union member states are slowly reopening their doors in lockdowns that have impacted millions of people, many of them children. The lockdowns were introduced by authorities citing concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus disease COVID-19.

European countries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as New York, the epicenter of the outbreak in the US, have reported progress in fighting the coronavirus. There have been reports of lower daily death counts, slowing rates of infection and reductions in the numbers of patients admitted to intensive care units.

Europe’s death toll from the new coronavirus COVID-19 approached 100,000 on Sunday, and over 1 million Europeans were infected, a European health agency announced.

Germany’s health minister says the month-long lockdown has brought the coronavirus outbreak in his country under control. Jens Spahn spoke while several other European Union nations struggled to contain the new virus disease COVID-19.

The chief of the European Union’s executive has made ‘a heartfelt apology’ to Italy for the block’s slow response in handling the coronavirus pandemic. Italy suffered more than 21,000 coronavirus-related deaths, the highest toll in Europe, officials say. 

The State Department is concerned China may be conducting small nuclear tests in secret, possibly violating an international agreement banning such tests, Fox News confirmed Wednesday.

All signs are pointing to a global economic crisis of proportions not seen in decades in the face of the coronavirus pandemic crisis.

China reported that its first-quarter GDP contracted by 6.8% in 2020 from a year ago as the world’s second-largest economy took a huge hit from the coronavirus outbreak, data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China showed.

Hungary has condemned global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) for saying that an ‘Orwellian law’ has imposed an ‘information police state’ in the country. RSF urged two United Nations rapporteurs to condemn the governments of Hungary and dozens of other nations for ‘violating the right to information’ about the coronavirus pandemic.

The US 5th Fleet confirmed that on Wednesday a group of US Navy and Coastal Guard ships were subjected to about an hour of ‘dangerous and provocative’ harassment from eleven Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) vessels. The US ships were conducting joint integration operations with US Army helicopters in the international waters of the North Arabian Gulf when they were approached by the Iranian vessels.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns of global social unrest if government measures to halt the coronavirus pandemic are seen as unfairly favoring the rich.

Authorities in Germany say they have detained four suspected Islamic militants for plotting to attack American military facilities in the country. The four men, originally from Tajikistan — along with a fifth individual arrested last year — targeted several U.S. airforce bases on behalf of the Islamic State group, prosecutors said.

Confirmed cases of the new coronavirus reached two million worldwide late Tuesday, prompting several countries to extend lockdowns aimed at stopping the spread of the virus, COVID-19. The lockdowns came amid warnings that the pandemic could lead to the deepest global recession in a lifetime.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is halting payments to the World Health Organization (WHO) over its role in the coronavirus pandemic. “The WHO pushed China’s misinformation about the virus,” he told reporters at the White House.

The Chinese government has ordered new restrictions on studies regarding the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, in a further sign Beijing is hiding details behind the cause of the global pandemic.

A major World Health Organization (WHO) figure is recommending invasive measures against private homes as a means of disease containment.