MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has said its decision to pull out of the 2020 Tokyo Games was unilateral and made without the knowledge of Canada or the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The AOC said last Monday it could not a... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said on Monday that it would extend a suspension at all of its factories in Europe with the exception of Russia until further notice, with a restart expected no earlier than April 20. With the spread of the coronavi... More »
(Reuters) – Major sports events around the world that have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic: OLYMPICS * The International Olympic Committee and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe concluded the Tokyo 2020 Olympics must be postponed and held no later than the... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Alex Marquez celebrated a first MotoGP win — even if only virtually — in a ‘#StayAtHomeGP’ esports race featuring 10 top riders including older brother and six-time world champion Marc. Due to the coronavirus pandemic that has brought live s... More »
(Reuters) – Four years after being inspired by watching compatriot Justin Rose claim gold at the Rio Olympics, Bronte Law had all but secured a spot on the British golf team before the 2020 Tokyo Games were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. With the O... 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 »
(Reuters) – As China reopens its economy after months of lockdown, Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone factories are largely up and running. But with the coronavirus pandemic spreading across the world, the urgent question for the company is how many buyers there will... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson returned to Los Angeles on Friday after spending more than two weeks in quarantine in Australia after testing positive for the coronavirus. The “Forrest Gump” and “Toy Story” actor and Wilson were phot... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Friday it would have to adjust its 2020 launch programme because of a halt in satellite production in Europe, amid the coronavirus outbreak. The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, will hold several mee... 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 »
(Reuters) – The White House’s top trade advisor denied on Tuesday that the Trump administration was considering a three-month deferral of tariff payments on imported goods to ease the pain of the economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Industry g... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese biopharmaceutical firm Anges Inc said on Tuesday that it and Osaka University had completed development of a DNA vaccine against the new coronavirus and that it would begin testing it in animals soon. Shares of Anges surged as much a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A worm-like creature smaller than a grain of rice that burrowed on the sea floor in search of meals like dead organic matter about 555 million years ago may be the evolutionary forerunner of most animals living today – including people. ... More »
(Reuters) – More countries imposed lockdown measures as coronavirus cases across the globe ballooned, led by a sharp rise in infections in Europe. Italy banned travel within the country, nearly one in three Americans were ordered to stay home and New Zealand w... More »
(Reuters) – Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: Olympics in the balance After Canada and Australia confirmed they would not send athletes to the Tokyo Olympics if it went ahead this year, other nations are now going public with calls ... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – The head of the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) said on Monday he had to consider postponing the Games among his options amid increasing calls from committees around the world to delay the Olympics due to the coronavirus outbreak. “From the ath... More »
(Reuters) – Yum China Holdings Inc (YUMC.N) said on Monday its business was in the early stages of recovery, weeks after the fast-food chain operator had to close over a third of its outlets at the peak of the coronavirus outbreak, which originated in the coun... More »
ATHENS (Reuters) – The International Olympic Committee is stepping up its “scenario planning” for the Tokyo 2020 Games — including a possible postponement — as the coronavirus pandemic spreads, it said after an emergency meeting on Sunday. The IOC will hold di... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said for the first time on Monday that the Tokyo Olympic Games may need to be postponed if the event cannot be held in its “complete form” due to the coronavirus pandemic. The International Olympic Committee... More »
(Reuters) – Britain’s Olympic gold medal track cyclist Callum Skinner has attacked International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach’s decision to wait up to a month to make a decision on the 2020 Tokyo Games. “IOC President Thomas Bach’s stubbornness and ... More »
(Reuters) – Canada and Australia said they would not be sending athletes to the Tokyo Olympics if the Games went ahead as scheduled in July and August this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a list of previous cancellations, boycotts and changes... More »
(Reuters) – Reaction to Canada’s boycott of the 2020 Tokyo Games due to concerns about the coronavirus. The Australian Olympic Committee has also said its athletes should prepare for an Olympics next year. COMMENTS FROM OFFICIALS Statement from Canadian Olympi... More »
(Reuters) – Argentine sailor Santiago Lange said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) deserves more time to decide on potentially postponing the Tokyo Games but the well-being of athletes should be a top priority as the coronavirus pandemic spreads. On Su... 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 »
LONDON (Reuters) – Blackrock (BLK.N), the world’s largest asset manager, will freeze global hiring for a few weeks, according to a source familiar with the situation. As the deadly coronavirus swept across the global economy, killing thousands of people, compa... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The Bank of England canceled this year’s stress test of major banks on Friday and said it may be hard to implement new global capital rules on time given the focus now on supporting lending to customers hit by the coronavirus epidemic. The d... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China’s economy is beginning to show some signs of normalization following the full-blown shock caused by the coronavirus, but stark risks remain, International Monetary Fund officials said in a blog on the economic impact of the pandemi... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Education Minister Koichi Hagiuda said on Friday the government would not extend its request that schools be closed until spring break to stem coronavirus infections, setting the stage for classes to resume at the start of the academ... 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 »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – The governor of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on Friday declared a state of emergency for the next two weeks in the city, the center of Indonesia’s coronavirus outbreak. Governor Anies Baswedan told a news conference that public entertainment... More »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – AirAsia Group Bhd (AIRA.KL) said on Friday an independent probe into corruption allegations from Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has found the Malaysian airline’s procurement process with European planemaker Airbus SE (AIR.PA) rob... 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 »
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) – Many overseas arrivals in the Asian financial hub of Hong Kong are going unmonitored as they begin two weeks of mandatory self-quarantine, with only a third of the 6,000 electronic wristbands issued to them being activated, authorities sa... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese online education platform Yuanfudao, which is backed by tech giant Tencent Holdings (0700.HK), is close to completing a financing round that would value it at around $7.5 billion, two people familiar with the matter said. The talks ... More »
ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) – Shops closed across Turkey on Thursday to help halt the coronavirus spread, dimming the economy’s prospects and raising questions for hundreds of thousands of workers after Ankara pledged $15 billion in support and advised Turks to ... More »
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Sydney Kings center Andrew Bogut has slammed Australia’s National Basketball League (NBL) for its handling of the coronavirus situation, saying the administration had failed to be proactive and had left players feeling like “pawns”. The N... More »
HIGASHIMATSUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – A plane carrying the Olympic torch from Greece arrived on Friday on Japan’s northwestern coast ravaged by a 2011 tsunami, but the welcome ceremony will have no spectators, amid worries the Games could be cancelled over the ... More »
HIGASHIMATSUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – An Olympic cauldron was ignited on Friday in Japan with a flame carried from Greece ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Games, amid concerns that a coronavirus pandemic could disrupt the event planned this summer. “We will do our utmos... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Thursday opened the door to a radical shift in the U.S. government’s relationship to private industry as the coronavirus outbreak upends the nation’s economy, saying he would back the government taking stakes in... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – The aircraft carrying the Olympic flame arrived at Japan Air Self-Defence Force’s Matsushima base, Kyodo news agency said on Friday, as concerns growth whether the Games will go ahead as planned this summer amid the coronavirus pandemic. The ... More »
(Reuters) – United States backstroke specialist Jacob Pebley has called on USA Swimming to postpone June’s Olympic trials and lobby for the Tokyo Games to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. “I am deeply concerned by the IOC’s recent statement that t... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Inside the stout fins of a fish that prowled the shallow waters of an estuary in what is now eastern Canada about 380 million years ago, scientists have found what they call the evolutionary origins of the human hand. The researchers exa... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Bavaria’s Passion Play, staged every decade since the 1630s when villagers thanked God for the end of the plague, has been postponed for two years due to the coronavirus, organizers in the German village of Oberammergau said on Thursday. Abo... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday gave his full backing for the European Central Bank’s (ECB) latest monetary stimulus measures aimed at helping the euro zone fight the global coronavirus crisis. “Full support for the exceptional m... 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 »
LONDON (Reuters) – A rush to sell global bonds in the past week has now rippled into the world of exchange-traded funds with some of the most actively traded seeing the most bulging gaps relative to the value of underlying holdings in years. Exchange-traded fu... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – A new Chinese medium-lift rocket, part of a family of launch vehicles meant to support most of China’s launch missions in future, failed on its debut flight, the official news agency Xinhua reported. The Long March 7A, a variant of the Long... More »
SYDNEY/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Airlines around the world said they would make more drastic cuts to their flying schedules, shed jobs and seek government aid after countries further tightened border restrictions because of the fast spreading coronavirus. The owner ... 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 »
TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan eased monetary policy on Monday by pledging to buy risky assets such as exchange-traded funds (ETF) at double the current pace, joining global central banks in combating the widening economic fallout from the coronavirus epi... More »
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan reported eight new cases of coronavirus on Monday, its biggest daily rise, though all of them involved people who had arrived from overseas. The total number of cases in Taiwan stood at 67. Among the latest cases were people returning... More »
ISLAMABAD/KABUL (Reuters) – Health authorities across South Asia reported rising tallies of coronavirus cases on Monday, raising the prospect of rapidly spreading outbreaks overwhelming poor medical facilities in a region that is home to a quarter of the world... 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 »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – A fire killed five people at a refining and petrochemicals complex in southern Malaysia owned by Petronas and Saudi Aramco, authorities said on Monday. It was the second fire in less than a year at the $27 billion Pengerang Integrated ... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve and its global counterparts moved aggressively with sweeping emergency rate cuts and offers of cheap dollars to help combat the coronavirus pandemic that has jolted markets and paralyzed large parts of the world econ... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish ministers said on Monday that a state of emergency over the coronavirus which has shut down much of the country will have to be extended beyond an initial 15-day period, and the government was also considering closing borders. “Obvio... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will hold talks with heads of international sports organizations on Tuesday in response to the coronavirus outbreak, a source close to an international federation briefed on the issue said. With less ... More »
(Reuters) – The Bank of Japan eased monetary policy on Monday by pledging to buy risky assets such as exchange-traded funds (ETF) at double the current pace, joining global central banks in combating the widening economic fallout from the coronavirus epidemic.... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia is considering a second round of economic stimulus, three sources familiar with the deliberations told Reuters, as Canberra accelerated efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus that has now killed five people in the country... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – BioNTech struck a collaboration deal with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical over the German biotech firm’s rights in China to an experimental coronavirus vaccine, the latest gambit in a global race to halt the pandemic. Once regulators approv... More »
MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines has detected an outbreak of avian flu in a northern province after tests showed presence of the highly infectious H5N6 subtype of the influenza A virus in a quail farm, the country’s farm minister said on Monday. Agriculture ... More »
HAMBURG (Reuters) – A case of H5N8 bird flu has been confirmed in a poultry farm in the eastern German state of Saxony, German authorities said on Monday. The social affairs and protection ministry in the state of Saxony said the case involved bird flu of type... More »
SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) – ZTE said it had not received any notice from U.S. authorities after NBC News reported on Friday that the Chinese telecoms company was the subject of a new bribery investigation. ZTE said its operations continue as normal. The NBC re... More »
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – John Coates, the International Olympic Committee’s point man for the Tokyo Games, faces mandatory self-isolation when he returns to Australia from Europe this week as part of border controls to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Australi... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – Technology giant Samsung Electronics has adopted electronic voting for the first time ever for this year’s annual general meeting (AGM) on March 18, urging shareholders to use it to help curb the spread of coronavirus. Samsung’s AGM is taking... More »
(Reuters) – Nike Inc, Lululemon Athletica Inc and Under Armour Inc on Sunday said they would close stores in the United States and other markets, joining a growing list of major retailers moving to help limit the spread of the coronavirus. The virus, which beg... More »
(Reuters) – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) must give athletes some “clarity, transparency and flexibility” by postponing the Tokyo Games over the coronavirus pandemic, British athlete Guy Learmonth has said. The flu-like virus which originated in Ch... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Formula One drivers Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were racing on Sunday but, with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix canceled due to the coronavirus, it was against invisible opponents on virtual racetracks. The world of esports came... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A European qualifying event for this year’s Tokyo Olympic boxing tournament will be closed to spectators from Monday due to the coronavirus outbreak, organizers said. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) boxing task force which is organ... More »
LOS ANGELES, (Variety.com) – Much of public life in the United States essentially ground to a halt this week. In the entertainment world, theme parks shut down, Broadway went dark, studios pulled major tentpoles from their release calendar, and virtually all H... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel plans to use anti-terrorism tracking technology and a partial shutdown of its economy to minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday. Cyber tech monitoring would be deployed to ... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Chinese billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma has pledged to donate two million protective masks for distribution across Europe, with a first consignment arriving in Belgium late on Friday. A cargo plane loaded with 500,000 masks and ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Paris’ famed Moulin Rouge cabaret, the Louvre museum and the Eiffel Tower were among top tourism landmarks that closed their doors on Friday after the government banned gatherings of more than 100 people to curb the spread of coronavirus. The... 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 »
MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A joint Russian-European mission to send a rover to Mars has been postponed by two years because its final phase has been compromised by the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, the European and Russian space agencies said on Thursday. T... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists are marveling over the exquisitely preserved skull of what appears to be the smallest-known bird – tinier than any hummingbird – encased in 99-million-year-old amber and boasting many odd traits including jaws studded with num... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Sovereign wealth fund investment in venture capital deals slipped to its lowest level in six years in 2019, with the drop-off deepening in the months after WeWork’s planned share sale failed, data showed on Friday. Sovereign wealth-backed ve... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors pulled out of most asset classes, with stocks and bond funds seeing a combined $36 billion of outflows in the week to Wednesday, BofA said, amid fears of economic damage from the coronavirus epidemic. Stock markets have been sellin... More »
HARARE (Reuters) – When Dominic Benhura started creating traditional Zimbabwean stone sculptures as a teenager four decades ago, he never imagined that art would bring him fame or fortune. Born to a peasant family in 1968 in Murewa, 90 kilometers northeast of ... More »
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia Chief Executive Rajeev Suri will step down in September and be replaced by Pekka Lundmark, who used to work for the Finnish company and is the current CEO of energy group Fortum, Nokia said on Monday. Suri has been in the role for si... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of ethnic Uighurs were moved to work in conditions suggestive of “forced labor” in factories across China supplying 83 global brands, an Australian think tank said in a report released on Sunday. The Australian Strategic P... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Paramedics dressed in head-to-toe protective gear stood guard at dedicated polling stations where Israelis under quarantine from the coronavirus voted in Monday’s election. One by one, voters in face masks and gloves who have been isolate... More »
SEOUL/GAPYEONG, South Korea (Reuters) – The founder of the church at the center of South Korea’s coronavirus outbreak apologized on Monday after one of its members tested positive for the virus and infected many others, calling the epidemic a “great calamity”.... More »
LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal registered its first two cases of the new coronavirus on Monday, SIC television channel reported. It said one case was discovered in a man who had recently traveled to Italy and another one in a man who had returned from Spain. Both... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea fired two short-range missiles off the east coast into the sea on Monday, resuming testing after a three-month pause, South Korea’s military said. The missiles were launched from the eastern coastal city of Wonsan and flew 240 km ... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – The projectiles North Korea fired on Monday flew 240 km (150 miles) and reached 35 km in altitude, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. North Korea fired two short-range projectiles off its eastern coastal city of Wonsan – from whe... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s defence ministry said on Monday there was no indication that North Korea projectiles reached Japan’s territory or its exclusive economic zone. South Korea’s defence ministry said earlier North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Monday reiterated a call for dialogue in response to North Korea’s latest missile launch and said all sides involved in efforts to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons should reconcile conflicts through discussion. Foreign m... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s chief medical officer said on Monday it was no longer possible to completely prevent people with the coronavirus from entering the country, citing concerns about outbreaks in Japan and South Korea. Australia, one of the first cou... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The Louvre museum in Paris shut its doors to art lovers and tourists for a second day on Monday as management held talks with workers over the risks associated with coronavirus. Queues quickly formed in the rain outside the world’s most visit... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The Bank of England said it was working with Britain’s finance ministry and international partners to protect the banking system and Britain’s economy from the impact of the spread of coronavirus. Investors globally have priced in more stimu... 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 »
(Reuters) – The following is a list of international sports events hit by the outbreak of the new coronavirus: ATHLETICS ** The World Athletics Indoor Championships, scheduled for Nanjing from March 13-15, were postponed until next year. World Athletics is wor... 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) – South Korea reported on Monday 476 new coronavirus cases, taking its national tally to 4,212, as the government of Seoul sought a murder investigation into a controversial church at the center of the country’s outbreak. The new cases followed... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Two Indonesians have tested positive for coronavirus after coming into contact with an infected Japanese national, President Joko Widodo said on Monday, marking the first confirmed cases in the world’s fourth-most populous country. The disc... More »
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand has reported one new coronavirus case, bringing the total number of such cases in the country to 43 since January, a senior health official said on Monday. The new case is a 22-year-old Thai woman who works with another Thai patien... More »
