New Delhi: The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate countries across the world — the latest count is more than 17 million cases and more than 6.77 lakh deaths.
The pandemic has led to record economic contraction in the US, even as the world’s four largest technology firms have been relatively unaffected by the pandemic and posted large revenues. Meanwhile, Hong Kong faces its third coronavirus wave plus a look inside the UK’s hotels for the homeless.
ThePrint brings you the most important global stories on the coronavirus pandemic and why they matter.
Pandemic wipes out 5 years of economic growth in US
As quarterly economic results poured in, the pandemic’s toll on the US economy became clearer as the country saw its “most devastating three-month collapse in history”, reports the New York Times.
“Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced, fell 9.5 percent in the second quarter of the year as consumers cut back spending, businesses pared investments and global trade dried up, the Commerce Department said,” notes the report.
When annualised, the GDP drop amounts to 32.9 per cent, and is the sharpest on record. Meanwhile, the number of people seeking unemployment benefits went up by 9 lakh and has taken the total to 1.7 crore.
Big Tech defies pandemic to post record earnings
World’s four largest technology giants posted their quarterly results, which showed how the companies have reported record revenues at a time when the global economy has been devastated by the pandemic, reports the Financial Times.
Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook all managed to post record increases in revenues. The four companies reported a combined profit of $28 billion during the second quarter of the year.
Amazon’s sales went up 40 percent and profit doubles, as compared to the same period last year. Facebook’s profit increased by 98 per cent. Apple managed to increase sales of all its products across all parts of the world, and posted a profit of $11.25 billion. Meanwhile, Google has been the worst performer among the big four, and saw its revenue fall by 2 per cent as pandemic affected its ads business. But even then, Alphabet performed better than Wall Street had expected.
“Their success drew a stunning juxtaposition with an American economy that has shrunk by 9.5 percent compared with the preceding three months,” notes the report.
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European markets have a moment
For years, investors preferred US stocks over European ones, but the pandemic has begun to change some of that, reports the New York Times.
“Europe has a bad rep with investors. For years, asset managers and bank strategists have characterized the region by its anemic growth rate and shaky political union, and steered investors away. Now, a crisis has turned into an unlikely investment opportunity as the region appears to have handled the pandemic better than some other parts of the world. In the past few months, European assets have staged a comeback,” explains the report.
“The euro rose to its highest level in more than two years against the U.S. dollar this week, and the region’s benchmark index, the Stoxx 600, is set for a second straight month of gains greater than those of the S&P 500 index, in dollar terms, according to data from FactSet,” it adds.
Trump’s distorted view of keeping America safe
Throughout the pandemic, and especially over the past couple of weeks, US President Donald Trump ha displayed an extremely distorted view of how to keep America and its citizens safe, argues an opinion piece in The New Yorker.
“Is there any sense in Donald Trump promoting, in the same week, the idea that there is so little to fear from the coronavirus that masks aren’t really necessary and also that there might be so much to fear that the November election might need to be postponed?” it notes.
“Trump clearly believes that his reelection depends on an economic revival. His thinking on the subject, though, is so shallow that he is not seeking out ways to restore broad confidence,” it continues.
Trudeau rebuffs charges of conflict in rare parliament testimony
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the parliament that there was no corruption, no conflict of interest and just a will to protect Canadians from the pandemic, as he tried to defend his government against charges that it had awarded a heft contract to a charity closely linked to his family, reports the Washington Post.
“Trudeau first announced the program, which would help students having trouble finding summer jobs during the coronavirus outbreak by paying them to volunteer in their communities, in April,” notes the report.
The report continues, “In his testimony Thursday, Trudeau said he did not learn that public servants were recommending that the Toronto-based WE Charity administer the program until a briefing before a cabinet meeting on May 8. He said he had “expected” that the Canada Service Corps, an existing government youth initiative, would manage the program, but was told it could not scale up to deliver it.”
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Hong Kong’s third Covid wave
Until recently, Hong Kong’s case was being cited as one of the models to emulate when it came to dealing with the pandemic, but the region is now seeing its third wave of coronavirus infections, reports the BBC.
Hong Kong saw its first infections in January, but the numbers remained low. Then in March, a second wave was noticed, which was followed by government enforcing border controls and quarantine rules. “That, combined with the widespread use of masks and social distancing measures, worked – Hong Kong went for weeks without a locally transmitted case, and life seemed to be heading back to normal,” notes the report.
But now there is a third wave, which has led to more than 100 cases over the past nine days. Experts contend that government’s decision to allow about 200,000 people returning from abroad to avoid quarantine, has led to the third wave.
Life inside a ‘homeless hotel’
Since the pandemic struck, more than 14,500 people in the UK who were on the risk of living on the streets were placed in hotel rooms. A feature in the BBC looks at what their lives have been like inside these hotels.
While many are glad to have a house during a pandemic, there are many issues being faced by the homeless now living in hotels.
People with mental health and addiction issues have struggled to live in these rooms. In some cases, when the private guests objected to their presence, separate entrances were made. Several of the hotel administrations have had to quarrel with the private guests regarding the very presence of the homeless.
What else we are reading:
A coronavirus vaccine could split America: Financial Times
The ones they couldn’t save: BBC
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