New Delhi: The novel coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 1,84,000 lives and over 26,39,000 people have been infected by it across the world. Several countries continue strict lockdowns and restrictions to arrest the spread of the infection.
ThePrint brings you eight important global stories linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
Oil prices rebound as Trump says US will destroy Iranian gunboats
In an apparent escalation, the US President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that he had asked his navy to “shoot down and destroy” Iranian gunboats if they harass US ships around the Gulf of Hormuz in the Iranian peninsula, according to Al Jazeera.
“We’re not going to stand for it. If they do that, that’s putting our ships in danger and our great crews and sailors in danger — I’m not going to let that happen. And we will — they’ll shoot them out of the water,” Trump later remarked during his daily press briefing.
In response, Iranian officials remarked that instead of bullying other countries, the US should focus its energies on saving the members of its forces that have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Additionally, the renewed tensions in the Middle East has helped a further rebound in oil prices, reports the Financial Times. The oil prices in US had tanked to negative Monday . However, according to analysts, such geopolitical tensions are only going to provide a temporary support to oil prices.
After pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping returns focus on political opponents
After spending close to four months responding to the coronavirus outbreak in China, President Xi Jinping is now returning to stifling political opponents, according to a report in Nikkei Asian Review. It notes that Sun Lijun, vice minister at the Ministry of Public Security, “which oversees China’s police organizations, is being investigated by the country’s main anti-corruption bodies, the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission”.
Very few departmental stores in US likely to survive pandemic: NYT
One of the worst victims of the coronavirus lockdown and social distancing have been the all-powerful departmental stores across the US, reports The New York Times. These retail giants have seen their sales plummet and it remains unclear when such departmental stores would be able to reopen their doors to customers. “At a time when retailers should be putting in orders for the all-important holiday shopping season, stores are furloughing tens of thousands of corporate and store employees, hoarding cash and desperately planning how to survive this crisis,” reports NYT.
How coronavirus helped Israel’s Netanyahu secure his political survival
In a report, the Financial Times provides a blow-by-blow overview of how the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his key opponent Benny Gantz managed to form an emergency national unity government, amid the raging coronavirus pandemic. A deal was signed between Netanyahu and Gantz to form a unity government Monday evening, the former will remain as prime minister till October 2021, and then Gantz will take over.
The report also tries to answer how Netanyahu used this crisis to secure his political survival in the face of major corruption accusations and possible conviction.
Peruvian coca farmers to Paris pushers, coronavirus upends global narcotics trade
From Peruvian farmers growing coca, which is used to produce cocaine, to street-level pushers of narcotics across the world, the entire global chain of drug trade has been severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by Reuters. Much like other industries, the people involved in these narcotics trades are also seeking help from their respective governments.
Chinese agents spread messages that sowed coronavirus panic in US, officials say
In March, Chinese agents pushed messages on various social media platforms, that aimed to create panic in the US, according to a report by Strait Times. “Since that wave of panic, US intelligence agencies have assessed that Chinese operatives helped push the messages across platforms, according to six US officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to publicly discuss intelligence matters,” notes the report.
Poland and Hungary using Covid-19 to punish Opposition
The governing political parties in both Poland and Hungary have used the coronavirus crisis to punish their respective opposition parties, reports The New York Times. Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban is using emergency powers to deny opposition mayors’ tax receipts. In Poland, the Law and Justice party is going ahead with presidential elections on 10 May, despite the lockdown that prevents opposition parties from campaigning.
In New York’s largest hospital system, 88 per cent of coronavirus patients on ventilators did not make it
Since the coronavirus outbreak, several countries have scrambled to procure as many ventilators are possible. Eventually, the effectiveness of these ventilators against Covid-19 came into question. Now, five weeks into the crisis, a new study on New York’s largest healthcare system shows that 88 per cent of patients on ventilators did not survive, reports the Washington Post.