LONDON (Reuters) – Banksy’s “Girl with a Pierced Eardrum” has been updated for the coronavirus era with the addition of a blue surgical face mask. The mural, a take on Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” but with a security alarm replac... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – In a little over a year, when Americans file their 2020 tax returns, much of what is going on with coronavirus-linked stimulus payments will finally add up. Until then, prepare for confusion. Think you got shorted on the Economic Impact Pa... More »
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Tom Hanks has sent a letter and a Corona brand typewriter to an Australian boy who wrote to him about being bullied over his name, Corona, Australian television networks reported on Thursday. Corona De Vries, an eight-year-old from the Go... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A northwestern province on the frontline of China’s coronavirus battle reported on Tuesday its first cases in nearly three weeks, all involving travellers from overseas, as imported infections started to level off elsewhere. The pr... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China is in talks with some countries to establish fast-track procedures to allow travel by business and technical personnel to ensure the smooth operation of global supply chains, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Foreign ministry spok... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The oil price will stay low for some time as supply exceeds demand and the current situation on global oil markets is reminiscent of the 1980s oil glut, former BP boss John Browne said on Tuesday. “The prices will be very low and I think the... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 1,785 to 143,457, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday, marking a slight increase in the number of new infections after two days of declines. New in... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that any lifting of lockdowns to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus must be gradual, and if restrictions were to be relaxed too soon, there would be a resurgence of infections. Lockdo... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that it was concerned about the increasing number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in Japan. But Japan is not yet in the stage of a large-scale community outbreak, Takeshi Kasai, WHO Re... More »
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand recorded 19 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, a senior health official said, the lowest daily tally in more than a month. A 50-year-old taxi driver accounted for the latest death, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the gov... More »
HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) – The U.S. debate over restrictions for fighting the coronavirus intensified on Monday, as protesters labeled mandatory lockdowns as “tyranny,” while medical workers and health experts cautioned that lifting them too soon risked unlea... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Monday Republican and Democratic negotiators have come to terms on the “principles” of the next coronavirus relief package, which is expected to focus on more aid for small businesses and be taken ... More »
BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – British actor and filmmaker Idris Elba launched a new United Nations fund on Monday to help farmers in poorer nations, calling on richer economies to provide aid to prevent “needless hunger and suffering” stemming from ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Street-artist Banksy has followed official advice to stay at home during the coronavirus crisis by creating a new artwork in his bathroom that shows his trademark stencilled rats running amok around the sink and toilet. The elusive artist po... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Wearing white face paint, stripy top and bright red spectacle frames, Ahmed Naser stands in a street in Cairo distributing face masks and health advice to passing children. The 22-year-old engineering student has been entertaining youngsters ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s finance minister has told colleagues the economy could shrink by up to 30% this quarter because of the coronavirus lockdown, a newspaper reported, as the soaring death toll gave little hope restrictions would soon be lifted. The nu... More »
MANILA (Reuters) – The Asian Development Bank [ADB.UL] announced on Monday it was tripling the size of its rescue package to $20 billion to help developing countries in Asia counter the severe macroeconomic and health effects of the coronavirus pandemic. It pr... More »
SUIFENHE, China (Reuters) – China’s northeastern border with Russia has become a frontline in the fight against a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic as new daily cases rose to the highest in nearly six weeks – with more than 90% involving people coming fro... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China has reduced the number of people crossing its borders by 90% as part of its efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, an immigration official said on Monday. Speaking at a briefing, Liu Haitao, an official with the Na... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Monday there was no discrimination against “African brothers” in the country and rejected U.S. accusations of mistreatment of Africans in Guangzhou as an attempt to harm Beijing’s relations with African nations. Foreign minist... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Senior politicians in Germany have begun debating a potential easing of restrictions imposed over the coronavirus epidemic ahead of a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday. On Monday, Merkel and premiers of Germany’s 16 state... More »
HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) – A Vietnamese entrepreneur in Ho Chi Minh City has invented a 24/7 automatic dispensing machine providing free rice for people out of work following an ongoing nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Vietnam... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore is preparing to house hundreds of foreign workers in accommodation vessels typically used for offshore and marine industry staff as it races to find alternatives to dormitories where the novel coronavirus has been spreading rapi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The two top Republicans in the U.S. Congress vowed on Saturday to oppose Democrats’ demands to match a $250 billion proposal to aid small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic with the same amount for hospitals and state and local g... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Congressional leaders and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will hold bipartisan negotiations on the contents of a new coronavirus response bill with the goal of reaching a deal by early next week, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Sch... More »
CHIPPING CAMDEN, England (Reuters) – Costume makers in Britain who normally dress actors in shows from Downton Abbey to Game of Thrones and Batman have joined forces to make scrubs for medics fighting the coronavirus outbreak. Working from kitchens, sheds and ... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is poised to declare a state of emergency over the coronavirus, giving governors stronger legal authority to urge people to stay home and businesses to close, media reported on Monday. In contrast to stringe... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Angela Merkel’s chief of staff told German broadcasters RTL/n-tv on Monday that he did not think the chancellor’s plans not to run for a fifth term in office had changed after Bild newspaper last week raised the question of whether she might... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Mainland China reported 39 new coronavirus cases as of Sunday, up from 30 a day earlier, and the number of asymptomatic cases also surged, as Beijing continued to struggle to extinguish the outbreak despite drastic containment efforts. The ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top official at the U.S. Federal Reserve said on Sunday the $2.3 trillion economic relief bill approved by Congress was appropriately sized and that a further relief effort may not be needed if support efforts are well executed. “I fel... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick for the new watchdog overseeing $2.3 trillion in coronavirus-related fiscal spending is not independent enough to do the job, congressional Democrats said on Saturday. The White House said late on Frida... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A conspiracy theory that links 5G mobile telecommunications masts to the spread of the novel coronavirus is dangerous fake news and completely false, Britain said on Saturday after masts in several parts of the country were torched. When ask... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – It will take a week or two before Britain’s social distancing measures start to translate into lower hospitalization rates but there has been a bit of a plateauing in London in recent days, NHS England Medical Director Stephen Powis said. “T... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would ask Congress for more money to make loans to small businesses struggling with the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak if the original $349 billion allocated in a fiscal sti... More »
WUHAN, China (Reuters) – Volunteers in hazmat suits have been spraying Wuhan with disinfectant to help the Chinese city where the coronavirus first took hold get back to work as the number of new cases in China drops. Wuhan, where 11 million people live, had b... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s car sector needs immediate cash and the government should introduce measures to support suppliers, some of which only have enough money to handle the coronavirus crisis for weeks not months, the head of the main trade body told Reu... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Italy and Spain, the two European countries hardest hit by the new coronavirus, have enforced the most drastic lockdowns to curb the pandemic but one country, Sweden, stands out for allowing life to go on much as before, Google data show. An... More »
OAKLAND, California (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google has published charts showing how the coronavirus has brought hard-hit Italy to a standstill, led to runs on grocery stores around the world and prompted a stark drop in going-out between Mardi Gra... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House is expected to issue guidance for people in areas hard hit by the coronavirus to wear face coverings to help stop the spread of the disease, an administration official said on Thursday. The announcement was not planned fo... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday she will form a bipartisan select committee on the coronavirus crisis to oversee the spending of $2.3 trillion that Congress has approved to respond to the pandemic. In ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Taylor Swift is sending cash to some of her fans and Rihanna has donated $6 million to support people whose livelihoods have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic. Movie and record producer David Geffen said he is self-isolating in t... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – A South Korean K-Pop star on Wednesday pulled an April Fool’s prank announcing that he had contracted coronavirus, and later removed the Instagram post after triggering a backlash. Kim Jae-joong, a member of boyband JYJ, posted on his Instagr... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When the world feels like it is ending, it can be comforting to look to history and see that such global convulsions have happened before and the earth kept on turning. For help during the coronavirus crisis, Reuters turned to Carmen Reinh... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund said on Monday the relaxation of the euro zone’s fiscal rules and support from the European Central Bank and the European Stability Mechanism is critical to a strong regional response to the coronavirus pa... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s high court upheld on Monday a rarely-used law that criminalizes sex between men, dismissing three appeals that argued it was unconstitutional. The ruling follows challenges to the colonial-era law by activists emboldened after... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The coronavirus epidemic in the United Kingdom is showing signs of slowing and antibody tests could be ready in days, Neil Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, said on Monday. “We think the epidemic is ju... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has ordered more than 10,000 ventilators from a consortium of leading aerospace, engineering and Formula One racing teams which have met an urgent government plea for help with production due to start this week. The group, including ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Germany has risen to 57,298 and 455 people have died of the disease here, statistics from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Monday. Cases rose by 4,751 compared ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A new version of a breathing aid that can help coronavirus patients has been developed in less a week by a team involving Mercedes Formula One, and is being trialed at London hospitals. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices have... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian rapper MV Bill added his voice to a chorus of criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro for downplaying the gravity of the new coronavirus epidemic in a video clip that urges people to protect themselves. His rap “Quarantine” r... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday the House will set up a panel to oversee expenditures under the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief law. Pelosi made the comment in an MSNBC interview when asked about a stat... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. election officials looking to construct a safe voting system in a worsening coronavirus pandemic are confronting a grim reality: there may not be enough time, money or political will to make it happen by the November election. The p... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some lower-paid U.S. workers could effectively get a short-term raise if they lose their jobs during the coronavirus crisis, thanks to government computer systems that rely on 1950s-era technology. Aging state mainframes do not have the ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Five guns which were used in “James Bond” movies, including the last weapon brandished by actor Roger Moore while playing 007, have been stolen from a house in north London by suspects with Eastern European accents, British police said on Fr... More »
HANOI (Reuters) – You’ve got to eat it, to beat it: That’s the philosophy of one Hanoi chef who is attempting to boost morale in the Vietnamese capital by selling green, coronavirus-themed burgers. Laughing in the face of the global pandemic, Chef Hoang Tung a... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lily Reiche has lost nearly half of her dogwalking clients in Los Angeles because of California’s coronavirus stay-at-home order. Of the 40 or so accounts at My Dog Spot, which dried up because people are either working from home or have l... More »
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Monday that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases had risen to 402, a jump of 128 since Sunday’s announcement that could worry public health experts concerned about the country’s ... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Worried about whether you have enough toilet paper for the coronavirus lockdown? A German website can tell you how long your supply will last. Toilet paper has become one of the commodities shoppers across the world have hoarded as the co... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Mainland China saw a drop in its daily tally of new coronavirus cases, reversing four straight days of gains, as the capital Beijing ramped up measures to contain the number of infections arriving from abroad. China had 39 new conf... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The EU agreed on Friday to suspend requirements that oblige airlines to use at least 80% of their take-off and landing slots in order to keep them the following year until Oct. 24 due to the aviation industry crisis unleashed by coronaviru... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will spare no effort to help its economy weather the coronavirus crisis and is in talks with its European Union partners about how to minimize the economic impact of the outbreak, a finance ministry spokesman said on Friday. “We are ... More »
DEPOK, Indonesia (Reuters) – While many Muslims in Indonesia’s capital accepted advice to avoid religious gatherings and prayed at home on Friday elsewhere in the world’s most populous Muslim country, people ignored the risk of coronavirus and crowded into the... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has asked 65,000 former nurses and doctors to return to work and will deploy final-year medical students to fight the coronavirus health crisis, the health ministry said. As the coronavirus outbreak sweeps across the world, governmen... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s death toll from the coronavirus epidemic soared to 1,002 on Friday from 767 on the previous day, the country’s health emergencies chief Fernando Simon said. The number of registered cases in the country rose to 19,980 on Friday from ... More »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia will mobilise the army to help enforce curbs on movement aimed at reining in the coronavirus, the government said on Friday, as it grapples with the highest number of infections in Southeast Asia. Malaysia reported 130 new inf... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – A hedge fund manager in Hong Kong has publicly apologised after a parody video of him licking his finger and wiping it on a hand rail in a metro car went viral, sparking anger in the city which is grappling to contain an outbreak of the n... More »
TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia on Monday banned all foreigners from entering the country over coronavirus concerns the prime minister’s spokesman, Irakli Chikovani, told a briefing. Georgia has reported 33 confirmed cases of coronavirus. Source: https://www.reute... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s southern state of Bavaria on Monday announced a fund worth up to 10 billion euros ($11.21 billion) to help the region withstand the coronavirus outbreak, its premier said, declaring a state of emergency as the number of new cases c... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will ask manufacturers to retool production to start making specialist health equipment including ventilators and will look at using hotels as emergency hospitals to cope with the coronavirus outbreak. Br... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – If the European Central Bank sees the need for further stimulus in the area of government bonds to help countries tackle the coronavirus impact, it is ready to do so, European Central Bank policymaker Robert Holzmann said on Monday. “If ther... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders blasted President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak during Sunday’s Democratic debate, and offered competing visions for how they would lead in a time of crisis that has upended the daily li... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic presidential contenders Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders faced off on Sunday in their first one-on-one debate, a key moment before votes in four states on Tuesday that could give Biden an insurmountable lead in the party’s White H... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden, who had hinted he might choose a woman as his vice presidential running mate if he is picked as the party’s nominee, committed to doing so during his debate with rival Bernie Sanders on Sunday... More »
(Reuters) – Joe Biden smiled and reached his elbow out to touch his rival Bernie Sanders’ arm on Sunday, an unusual greeting that started a Democratic presidential debate during the coronavirus pandemic. Sanders and Biden, vying for their party’s nomination to... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday officials will have a better idea this week of the total cost of a coronavirus aid package, but predicted it will likely be “significant but not huge.” Mnuchin told “Fox News Sunday” ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Bans on mass gatherings introduced to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic might have been expected to deal a death blow to musical life, but have instead prompted a boom in free online concerts. One musician to step up to the plate i... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany must do all it can to avoid an economic crisis over the coronavirus and should emulate an ex-European Central Bank president who was key in containing the euro zone debt crisis, a senior ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thurs... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch national gallery, the Rijksmuseum, and the nearby Van Gogh museum, two of the Netherlands’ premier tourist attractions in Amsterdam, will be closed to the public at least until March 31 due to the coronavirus epidemic. Their ann... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) said on Monday that it was suspending flights to China until April 24 and to Tehran until April 30 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Lufthansa said it was also adjusting its flights to northern Italy. It said Austrian Airl... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The Chinese city at the center of the coronavirus epidemic closed its first makeshift hospital, one of 16 hurriedly built to handle the epidemic, after it discharged the last recovered patients, state broadcaster CCTV reported on M... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) reported its lowest monthly global sales in a decade in February as the coronavirus outbreak hurt demand, in what is the first major indicator of damage to the broader auto sector from the epidemic. It turned in a pr... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Sunday it remained unclear how the first American to die of coronavirus contracted the disease, and that there was no evidence he had a connection to someone who had traveled to ... More »
GHENT, Belgium (Reuters) – Belgian waffles may be about to become more environmentally friendly. Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium are experimenting with larva fat to replace butter in waffles, cakes and cookies, saying using grease from insects is mor... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Urged to restore economic activity by President Xi Jinping, large parts of China relaxed curbs on transport and movement of people on Monday as reported new cases of the coronavirus outside the worst-hit province fell to the lowest in a mon... More »
HANOI (Reuters) – Bamboo Airways will suspend flights to South Korea from Feb. 26 over coronavirus concerns, the company said on Monday. Its flights between Da Nang and Nha Trang to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport will cease operations starting Feb. 26, ... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Kuwait and Bahrain on Monday recorded their first new coronavirus cases, all involving people who had visited Iran, which has reported 43 cases of the disease, state media said. Kuwait detected the virus in three people among 700 who had been... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – An announcement that the Chinese city of Wuhan would relax some of its travel restrictions and allow some people to leave was made without authorization and has been revoked, the local government said on Monday. The city at the epi... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that Beijing was not considering issuing travel advisories for countries such as South Korea and Japan that are reporting an increase in coronavirus cases. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Liji... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – French junior transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said on Monday that he saw no need to close down transport borders between France and Italy, despite the spread of coronavirus. “Closing down the borders would make no sense, as the ... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Qatar will ask passengers arriving from Iran and South Korea to remain in home isolation or a quarantine facility for 14 days over fears of new coronavirus outbreak, Qatar Airways said in a statement on Monday. Source: https://www.reuters.com... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Kuwait said on Monday three people, including a Saudi national, who returned from Iran were infected by the new coronavirus, state news agency KUNA reported. The three cases, the first in the Gulf state, were among the 700 people evacuated fr... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian woman who was on board the Diamond Princess cruise liner docked in Yokohama, Japan, has tested positive for coronavirus following examinations by the Japanese authorities, the Russian Embassy to Japan said on Monday. The woman will... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese capital of Beijing will set up a new mask factory within just six days to meet soaring demand for protective gear in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday. The factory, to be conver... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China’s top political consultative body, is studying whether to postpone its annual meeting, state-run CCTV reported on Monday. The possible postponement of the meeting, which ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The novel coronavirus that has killed more than 1,700 people in China is “preventable and treatable”, an official from the country’s National Health Commission said on Monday. Guo Yanhong, a hospital administration supervisor at the commiss... More »
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (Reuters) – An influx of Chinese that some Cambodians resented for bringing noise, dust and chaos to the port of Sihanoukville, is the cause of more pain now that it has gone into reverse. The new coronavirus has meant yet another setba... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese parliament’s top committee will meet on Feb. 24 to discuss whether to delay the annual March meeting of the full parliament, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday, amid the country’s coronavirus outbreak. The standi... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China says a World Health Organization (WHO) delegation of experts will visit Beijing, and the provinces of Guangdong and Sichuan from Feb. 17 onwards. A spokesman for the National Health Commission announced the details of the visit at a m... More »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – A small factory in Malaysia’s capital is preparing thousands of ready-to-eat halal meals, from fried rice to chicken biryani, to be shipped off to Japan for 2020’s biggest sporting event. Food firms from Muslim-majority Malaysia, are e... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Former U.S. senator Alan Simpson summarized the argument well: seniors fighting Social Security benefit cuts were nothing more than “greedy geezers” stealing from young people “who are going to get gutted.” The Wyoming Republican’s memorabl... More »
