Wednesday,  Apr. 22nd, 2020

[Monday]New data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array and Hubble Space Telescope, published in the Nature Astronomy journal, suggests interstellar comet 2I/Borisov contains large amounts of carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide. The new findings suggest the object was formed in the cold outer region of its planetary system. (BBC)

Unrest breaks out in Paris, Berlin, and in Vladikavkaz as people oppose lockdowns. (The Guardian)

[Monday]Seoul-based Daily NK reports North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is recuperating from a heart procedure done earlier this month, after his disappearance from various events led to speculation about his health. (Reuters)

CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus could be ‘even more difficult’  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield on Tuesday warned that in the winter, a second wave of the coronavirus could be “even more difficult than the one we just went through” because it will likely coincide with the beginning of flu season. “When I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean,” Redfield told The Washington Post. “We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time.” Having concurrent coronavirus and flu outbreaks would overwhelm hospitals, Redfield said, and federal and state officials must use the next few months to get prepared for a rough winter. He suggested officials continue to encourage social distancing, increase testing, and remind Americans during the fall to get their flu shots. Source: The Washington Post

[Monday] Germany reopens shops, but Chancellor Angela Merkel warns of a second coronavirus wave in the country. (The Guardian)

Senate passes $484 billion coronavirus relief package Congress has come to an agreement on a new coronavirus relief package, with the Senate passing it Tuesday evening by a voice vote. The House is expected to vote on the package Thursday. The bill’s price tag comes out to $484 billion, with about $320 billion going to the Paycheck Protection Program, as the fund for small business loans recently ran out of money, Politico reports. Additionally, the bill includes $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for coronavirus testing. The bill, Axios notes, also has “carve-outs so that community businesses and lenders don’t have to fight bigger businesses and banks for the same funding,” something Democrats had been pushing for.Source: Politico

California endorses coronavirus testing for people without symptoms California is changing who is eligible for coronavirus testing, becoming the first state to broaden the strict federal guidelines. Public health officials on Tuesday said they are now recommending that asymptomatic people who work at places where the coronavirus could spread easily, like prisons or nursing homes, get tested, labeling them “Priority 1.” The federal guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list hospitalized patients and health care workers displaying coronavirus symptoms as the primary people to receive testing. People who do not show any symptoms are a non-priority. Bob Kocher, a member of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) task force on testing, told the Los Angeles Times that combined, high-volume labs in the state are able to run more than 80,000 coronavirus tests every day. Source: Los Angeles Times

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announces that the state will begin testing residents for COVID-19 antibodies as the state plans to reopen the economy. (Politico)

Missouri becomes the first U.S. state to file a lawsuit against the Chinese government over the coronavirus pandemic, claiming the government is responsible for the virus’s negative impact on the state’s economy and that the nation is “hoarding” masks. (Reuters)

The Lebanese Parliament legalizes cannabis farming for medicinal purposes, in hopes that it will bring revenue to the country. (Reuters)

A man kills his wife, brother and seven others in Baakline, Lebanon, in the country’s worst mass shooting in years, before being arrested. It is suspected they were honor killings. (Reuters)

 

Tuesday,  Apr. 21st, 2020

[Monday]Swedish auto manufacturer Volvo Cars resumes full production at its plant in Torslanda, Sweden, which had been shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March 26, 2020. (Just Auto)

[Monday]U.S. oil prices for May contract settle at an all-time low, finishing down over 300% to −$37.63 per barrel. (Market Watch)

[Monday]United Airlines reports a $2.1 billion loss in the first quarter of this year, blaming restrictions on the aviation industry due to the coronavirus pandemic. (CNBC)

Russia reports 5,642 new confirmed cases and 51 more deaths from COVID-19, the highest daily death toll in the country to date, bringing Russia’s death toll to 456 and 52,763 total cases. (TASS)

A 56-year-old urologist becomes the first Russian doctor to die from COVID-19 at a hospital in Moscow. (The Moscow Times)

 

 

Monday,  Apr 20th, 2020

Miami Police disperses crowds who violated social distancing guidelines during David Guetta’s coronavirus relief concert in the city. (ABC News)

Citing jobs and the ongoing pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump announces he will sign an executive order temporarily suspending immigration to the United States. (The Hill)

Saudi Arabia announces the Great Mosque of Mecca and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the two holiest mosques in Islam, will remain closed throughout Ramadan this year. (Reuters)

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says that the country will ease its lockdown on April 27 if progress is maintained. (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White Alliance leader Benny Gantz agree on a deal to form a unity government, thus ending more than a year of political deadlock. As part of the deal, Netanyahu will hold onto his position for 18 more months, with Gantz replacing him afterwards. (The Times of Israel)

The Wuhan Zall football team returns to Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, after their lockdown restrictions have been lifted. (ABC News)

 

 The End

 

Starting the sixth week of a lockdown in Boston that began in earnest Tuesday, March 17th, St.Patrick’s Day, 2020.

One thing I think I’m seeing the last week, and I can’t be sure, is the appearance of more actual old-style news in “the news.”

There are actually a relatively high frequency of murders, and international relations incidents, and other “stuff” being reported in contrast to the ongoing, constant, slo-motion COVID-19 Olympics saga.

Okay, focus. Back on topic.

Here’s a story you don’t even have to read – just the headline – to understand how none of the numbers really mean anything. Nigeria has a population of 196 million, two-thirds as big as the United States. Chalks up only 17 deaths, but one of them is the chief-of-staff to the President. Go figure.

Nigerian Chief of Staff to the President Abba Kyari dies from COVID-19 in Lagos. Kyari is the highest profile person to die from the virus in Nigeria so far. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reports 493 total cases and 17 deaths from COVID-19. (Reuters)

And then suffers more deaths in some vague insurgent action. Some might say COVID-19 is the least of their worries.

Gunmen raid multiple villages in Nigeria’s Katsina State, killing at least 47 people, according to police. (Reuters)

Globally, the virus has plateaued in the last week as far as the reported numbers show, killing a steady 7,000 people a day with about 80,000 new cases each day. The good news is it doesn’t appear to be spreading as fast as a month ago. The bad news is there is really no evidence it is slowing down overall and it might actually be spreading faster but it is happening in places like Africa, India, Brazil, and Mexico with huge populations and lacking the resources to test for the virus or care for the sick or even record the cases.

Meanwhile,  in parts of the United States which have been lightly infected and fail to observe any cataclysmic effects of the pandemic there is a nascent movement to end the lockdown, send people back to work and restart the economy.

The reality is that 20% of the population of the United States is infected at an average rate of about 6 people per thousand. While the other 80% of the country is only infected at an average of under 1.5 per one thousand. The only part of the country infected at above 20 per 1000 is New York City. And that is only 2% of the population. Of those confirmed infected about 1 in 10 are hospitalized. And of those hospitalized, about 1 in 10 again end up dying.

There are reports and a fair amount of anecdotal evidence suggesting for every confirmed positive case there are ten more cases who show no symptoms meaning a lot more people have been infected and are hopefully immune. But the is little hard data in the form of random “anti-body” testing on significant parts of the population.

This has been promised for a couple of weeks now by the CDC and has been suggested as a requirement for opening up the economy, yet not much has come of that talk. It is an obvious failure of our corporate-commercial-university-big-pharma system.

Going forward we would do well to converting at least a quarter of our $1 Trillion-plus annual military/national-security budget to actual “defense.” The institution is called the Defense Department or the Department of Defense. In recent years it has  focused on rather vague threats like terrorism an global warming.

Maybe we should consider drafting everybody after high-school into a national medical service along the lines of the National Guard, but without guns. Train everybody to be an army medic, how to take blood, administer tests, setup quarantine/isolation units. Set up regional supply depots of N95 masks, gloves, and PPE equipment, along with respirators, ventilators, drugs, and anything else certain hotspots might need in the next pandemic.

And if you don’t want to do that, you can try out for the Navy SeALs or Delta Force. Why isn’t Joe Biden suggesting something like this? Why do I have to bring it up?

 

Sunday, Apr. 19th, 2020

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announces that the state will begin testing residents for COVID-19 antibodies as the state plans to reopen the economy. (Politico)

China revises the coronavirus death toll upward in Wuhan, where the virus originated, adding 1,290 more fatalities to bring the country’s reported deaths from COVID-19 to 4,632. (BBC)

Over 2,000 Israelis protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of endangering democracy in the country and using the coronavirus crisis to escape prosecution on corruption charges. (ABC News)

Trump says protesters demanding end to coronavirus lockdowns have ‘cabin fever’ President Trump on Sunday said that people who are calling on state governments to lift coronavirus stay-at-home orders have “cabin fever” and “want their life back.” There have been protests in some cities, with demonstrators shouting that they should be able to go back to work despite coronavirus continuing to spread across the country. Trump was asked by a reporter about a series of tweets he wrote on Friday, including one stating, “LIBERATE Virginia, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!” Trump denied that he was inciting violence. He instead praised the protesters, saying he had “never seen so many American flags at a rally as I’ve seen at these rallies. These people love our country. They want to get back to work.” Source: The Guardian

Pelosi says lawmakers are ‘close’ on more coronavirus aid House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday during an appearance on ABC’s This Week that lawmakers are “very close to an agreement” on more coronavirus aid, echoing earlier reports that Republicans and Democrats are closing in on a solution. Pressure has been mounting for Congress to end its stalemate and pass the next phase of funding quickly; the small business relief fund has been depleted and 22 million Americans have lost their jobs over the last month. But Republicans and Democrats have clashed over the latter’s preference to include more money for state and local governments, as well as hospitals. Source: Politico

U.S. coronavirus death toll surpasses 40,000 As of Sunday evening, more than 40,000 people have died of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more coronavirus cases than any other country, with over 755,500 confirmed cases reported. On Sunday, President Trump said he will use the Defense Production Act to compel a company to make more swabs for coronavirus testing. Two people with knowledge of the matter told CNN the company is Maine-based Puritan Medical Products, which makes flocked swabs. Source: CNN

Hong Kong police arrest at least 14 pro-democracy activists in raid Police in Hong Kong arrested at least 14 pro-democracy activists Saturday in connection with the city’s mass demonstrations throughout last year. Media tycoon Jimmy Lai and former legislators Martin Lee, Albert Ho, Leung Kwok-hung, and Au Nok-Hin were among those arrested. Lee is reportedly considered the founding father of Hong Kong’s democratic movement and helped write the city’s Basic Law when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Per Al Jazeera, the raids were the biggest crackdown on the movement since the anti-government protests began last June. Because of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, tensions between Beijing and Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement had eased slightly in recent months as the focus shifted to the virus. Source:  Deutsche Welle

A killing spree occurs in the small coastal town of Portapique, near Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada. At least 17 people are dead, including the perpetrator and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, thus making it the deadliest rampage in Canadian history. (CBC News)

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards announces it has increased patrols of the Persian Gulf following a confrontation between its Navy and the U.S.’s on Wednesday, and warns that “any error in calculation on [a foreign vessel’s] part will receive a decisive response”. (Reuters)

Mario Matthew Gatti of Pennsylvania, wanted for murder, is arrested at Jacksonville Beach, Florida. (Daily Beast)

South Korea, Spain, Israel continue coronavirus progress as Russia sees spike in cases The trajectory of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic continues to vary around the world. South Korea, which has garnered praise for its handling of the crisis, reported only eight new coronavirus cases Sunday, the first time the number has fallen into single digits since mid-February. Seoul extended its social distancing policy for 16 more days, but has begun to ease some restrictions. Elsewhere, Spain recorded its lowest daily death toll since March 22. Madrid is expected to extend its lockdown through early May, but is also likely to loosen some components, including allowing children to go outside. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday his country has “succeeded in [its] mission so far” as infection rates have declined over the past two weeks. Consequently, some businesses will be allowed to reopen. Russia, meanwhile, added 6,060 new cases Sunday, the country’s largest one day jump.  Source: CNBC

 

Saturday,  Sat 18th, 2020

Trump announces $19 billion plan to help agriculture sector during pandemic President Trump announced Friday that the United States Department of Agriculture will offer $16 billion in direct grants to farmers and ranchers who are struggling amid the novel COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, the department will purchase $3 billion in fresh produce, dairy, and meat to distribute to food banks, community organizations, and charities. The money will come from the $2.2 trillion congressional coronavirus economic relief bill, as well as separate USDA funds. The payments, which are expected to go out at the end of May, will reportedly account for 85 percent of farmers’ and ranchers’ losses between Jan. 1 and April 15. The plan also seeks to address disruptions in the supply chain by using commercial distributors like Cisco to package bulk products into pre-approved boxes of dairy, meat, and produce products. Source: ABC News

Some Florida beaches reopen amid pandemic Beaches and parks reopened in and around Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday afternoon with the permission of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) amid the novel COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. People are supposed to continue to practice social distancing in the recreation, most of which will only be accessible between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. each day. Chairs, coolers, sunbathing, towels, and blankets are not allowed, as exercise — not lounging — is meant to serve as the primary reason for people to head to the beach, but that reportedly wasn’t the case Friday when people, many without masks, were reportedly seen lounging on a crowded Jacksonville Beach. Officials have said they aren’t afraid to close beaches again if people don’t abide by the restrictions. Source:  CNBC

Bonanno crime family mobster Vincent Asaro is granted compassionate release and released from the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri due to the coronavirus pandemic. (CNN)

The Department of Health and Social Care reports 5,526 new confirmed cases and 888 more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the United Kingdom’s death toll to 15,464 and 114,217 total cases. (RTÉ)

 

The End

 

First – the global summary. For the last five days, the virus has killed about 7,000 people each day globally. This number has plateaued. Three weeks ago when it was at about 4,000 per day and increasing by 500 a day I was sure it would hit 10,000 deaths/day within 10 days. That didn’t happen. I’m glad I was wrong.

Cumulatively, the virus has killed about 140,000 people. Only 3,000 of those in China, if you can believe the numbers.

2,100,000 people have been officially reported as testing positive. Ten days ago this number peaked by adding 90,000 cases a day. It has since gradually dropped to about 70,000/day. There is no way to tell if this trend will continue. Especially if countries with very large populations but so-far low reported numbers of cases like Mexico, Brazil, and India start to do or report more testing. There hasn’t been a healthcare crisis talked about in any of these countries, so one has to wonder why exactly that is the case. Because if everything we are being told is true there should be a lot of excess deaths in these countries. The little I’ve read about Mexico suggests the country is consciously ignoring the problem.

Mexico, with a population of 130 million or 30% that of the US, is currently reporting 6,000 cases and 450 deaths, while the US is reporting 600 times that many cases.

Mexico Is Frighteningly Unprepared for the Coronavirus
As the virus spreads, the government is still downplaying the danger.

 

The United States has 640,000 confirmed cases with 25,000 new cases every day. This number of new cases is gradually dropping every day and represents only 4% of existing cases. A week ago this number was 30,000 and 7%, so that is good. There have been 31,000 deaths in the US with 11,000 in New York City. Deaths may have peaked at about 2000/day in the last week. Hopefully.

Thursday, April 16th, 2020 – Day 31 of the half-measures stay-at-home/social-distancing/lockdown regime in Boston and a lot of the United States, although dates may vary by as much as a week or more in different states.

In most places in the western world as well as the United States, it appears from the reported numbers of new cases and new deaths from the virus that we may have passed a peak in the last week or, at least, reached a plateau in new infections so that the goal of “flattening the curve” has been achieved and hospitals and the healthcare system have not been overrun or even reached their maximum capacity.

However this has lead to some predicted outcomes and leaves us with a distinct lack of data necessary to make decisions about when and how to start to lift the lockdown order. The situation is somewhat of a Catch-22 bound tightly into a Gordian Knot. I know, I know, super-lame double metaphor. But I think more than a few of us feel like this right now.

I thought when a bomb went off a hundred yards away from me at the Marathon I had seen everything. Then when Donald Trump when was elected I thought I had really seen everything. Then this winter when Trump was still President I thought I had really, really seen everything. Now I have given up. What’s next? How wacky can things possibly get?

What we actually know about the virus from a medical/scientific standpoint is not much more than we knew 30 days ago which is almost nothing useful to start with. Adding to this problem is the fact that the most heavily tested regions have only managed to test a maximum of 2-3% of the population, with on average only 1% of the entire population of the United States having been tested in the last 30 days, suggesting it would take 3 years at this rate to test everybody.

Why random-testing has not been implemented in certain places to get a sample of overall population is unforgivable of our nations’ leaders. This type of “anti-body” testing has been done in the hardest hit region of Germany showing that as much as 15% of the population has been infected. If we draw inferences from this data for the United States, it means that with only half of one percent of our population testing positive, for every one of those people there are as many as 30 who have been infected yet shown no noteworthy symptoms.

Why universities, healthcare corporations, Homeland Security and other agencies with the man-power and organization of the National Guard have not been mobilized to tackle this necessity is mind-boggling.

It would be nice if the politicians would cease the ridiculous attacks and criticisms of past behaviors of rivals and concentrate on future solution-oriented action – today.

But even this anti-bodies testing doesn’t necessarily tell us how what percent of the population has already been infected at some point because it would not register those infections that were not strong enough to provoke an immune response. there are some who believe more than 50% of the population has come into contact with the virus and been infection and thereby the country has achieved what is called “herd-immunity.” On the other hand, there is no definite answer to whether infection by the virus translates to immunity from the virus for at least a year as there are reports from other countries like South Korea of hundreds who have been re-infected.

New York City has an infection rate of 13.7 per 1000 people. This is the highest of any region in the United States. The number of confirmed cases has a doubling rate of about 10 days. The has been very slowly, but steadily dropping. New York City has a population of 8.7 million people. It has so far suffered a death rate of 0.8 per 1000 people.

New York State has an infection rate of 11.0 per 1000 residents, followed by New Jersey (8.0), Louisiana (4.7), Massachusetts (4.3), Connecticut (4.1), The District of Columbia (3.1), Rhode Island (3.1), Michigan (2.8), Pennsylvania (2.1), and Delaware (2.1).

These states and Washington D.C. have a combined population of 69 million residents. This is approximately 20 percent of the United States. It has an average infection rate of 4.5 people out of 1000.

The rest of the states and Puerto Rico which  account for about 80% of the US population all currently have infection rates under 2.0 per 1000 for an average of 0.8 per thousand. Five times less than the top 20%.

The point here is that what is observed in the most heavily hit regions of the country after over a month of stay-at-home/social-distancing/lockdown is that only 1 out of 200 people has been confirmed infected.

Another problem is that it isn’t clear exactly why the numbers of new cases are not increasing as much as they were 2 weeks ago. It may in fact be because we have reached the limit of how many people we can test every day. We may get around 25-33% positive tests for people who have already passed a triage-symptom screening as we do in Massachusetts every day whether we test 5,000 or 50,000 people a day.

The agencies conducting these tests and tabulating the results don’t have much to say on this topic. This is not encouraging news. If the amount of new cases reported is actually a function of the amount of test we are able to process it means we have no real understanding of the current rate of reproduction of the virus.

We may in fact be completely blind as to whether 1% of the population has been infected and may be immune or 80%. Without ever seeing this topic even addressed in the mainstream media, one can hardly be optimistic that we have any inkling as to an answer. All decisions may be being made simply to avoid any deaths whatsoever. Trading tomorrow for today. Trading life as we know it any any hope of a better future for most people to avoid what has so far been an average couple of months of deaths.

Of course, no matter what, there will be those who say whether it is a month from now or 18 months from now that the measures we took saved a million lives. Or millions of lives. But neither side in the argument will be able to prove anything and nobody’s mind will be changed.

On average, with a population of 330 million, 660,000 infections -which is where we are currently at – translates to about 2 in 1000 people or 1 in 500. So the nation doesn’t see or observe people dropping left and right from a plague and the numbers even at 35,000 deaths so far still don’t translate to more than a bad flu season.

Necessarily there will be more and more of a cognitive dissonance between what people actually observe and the crisis they are being told is happening at the expense literally destroying the economy. Creating a 35% unemployment rate overnight and adding between 6 and 20 Trillion Dollars to the National Debt.

As time goes on pressure to both lift the lockdown to save the economy from falling into the apocalyptic and pressure to keep the lockdown in place until we have conducted the right tests and enough of them to have more data will mount.

This is all unknown territory. More and more awkward questions that won’t go away surface the longer the lockdown remains in effect. It is scary to think that at some point, if there is too much of a rift between what people observe and what they are being told is the case by the government, that factors other than government orders might come to dictate events.

Currently, the biggest political issue seems to be those who have always been hostile to Donald Trump attempting to show that the administration ignored the CDC and Dr. Fauci’s warnings for 6 weeks about locking down. But what happens if and when a sizable chunk of population starts to believe that the lockdown when it did happen wasn’t even necessary? What if the problem is largely the iatrogenic effects of the lockdown itself? Learned a new word today. “Iatrogenic” – relating to illness caused by medical examination or treatment.

I end with a quote by one of my favorite anonymous commenters on the internet:

While I would never go so far as to assert that this novel coronavirus is not a real virus, I am beginning to seriously think that the pandemic is not a real pandemic. Much of it is being manufactured out of statistical noise and the iatrogenic effects of the lockdown itself.

Why is there not a continued outbreak within China, not all of which was ever locked down? How did the virus manage to spread from Wuhan to the rest of the world but not to the rest of China? Why is Sweden doing just fine without any lockdowns? What ever happened to Iran? What about the teeming, disgusting, unsanitary cities of India and Africa, where people are too poor to buy food let alone to wear masks and social distance? What’s going on in the places that are totally off the radar screen like Turkey, Syria, Central America? How do three US aircraft carriers become floating petri dishes? Why does this virus seem to spread so easily just where it’s convenient to the propaganda machine, but merits a yawn everywhere else?

– Intelligent Dasein

 

Wednesday,  April 15th, 2020

The death toll from COVID-19 in the United States rises by 2,228 in a single day, the highest number of COVID-19 linked deaths reported in any country in a single day, as total cases rise to over 600,000. (Reuters)

Apple announces a new iPhone SE. (CNBC)

Retail sales plunge a record 8.7 percent in March The Commerce Department said Wednesday that retail sales in March dropped 8.7 percent. This is the biggest decline since the data started being tracked in 1992. In February, retail sales fell a revised 0.4 percent. Though a big decline was expected in a month in which businesses around the country were forced to close down to the coronavirus pandemic, the number was even worse than the 8.0 percent that economists were anticipating. Previously, the biggest monthly decline in retail sales was in the fall of 2008, when there was a drop of almost 4 percent. CNN’s Julia Chatterley warned that since most non-essential businesses didn’t start shutting down until halfway through the month, “as bad as this March number is, April is going to be worse.” Source: Reuters

Cinemark aims to start reopening movie theaters in July Cinemark CFO Sean Gamble in a call with investors on Wednesday said the theater chain, which like AMC and Regal closed its U.S. locations last month amid the coronavirus pandemic, has been “modeling an approximate four month ramp up, anticipating a July 1 reopen.” At the same time, Gamble noted that “we would not be in a scenario where we would be inclined to bring back everything day one.” Instead, he said, reopening movie theaters would be “more a dip-our-toe type of approach.” Theaters could, for example, sell half as many seats to ensure customers would be spaced out. Capacity may be reduced to 50 percent, and openings may need to happen on a “state by state, county by county” basis, Gamble said. Source:  Bloomberg

 

Tuesday,  April 14th, 2020

Airbnb secures a US$1 billion loan to stay afloat as the pandemic causes worldwide demand for its services to drop. This follows a separate bond deal, also worth US$1 billion, it negotiated last week for similar reasons. (Reuters)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi extends India’s nationwide lockdown until May 3. (Al Jazeera)

U.S. President Donald Trump announces the United States is suspending funding of the World Health Organization (WHO) pending an investigation. (CNN)

 

Monday,  April 13th, 2020

The Walt Disney Company reports it is entering a US$5 billion unsecured credit agreement, possibly to make up for shortfalls in its theme park division. Citibank, N.A. is the main broker of the deal. (Reuters)

The Department of Health and Social Care reports 4,342 new confirmed cases and 717 more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the UK’s death toll to 11,329 and 88,621 total cases. (Reuters)

The United States Navy confirms the first death of a sailor serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. Over 500 sailors on the ship have tested positive for the virus. (BBC)

 

Sunday, Apr 12th, 2020

OPEC and allies strike a deal to cut oil production by 9.7 million barrels per day, the largest such cut agreed upon, starting May 1. (BBC)

The death toll from coronavirus in Italy has reached 19,889 people. Italy has the second highest number of deaths in the world, after the United States. (Corriere della Sera)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is released from hospital after days in intensive care. (Orlando Sentinel)

The End