New daily cases record in US: The US reported more than 55,000 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, a new daily global record for the coronavirus pandemic, as infections rose in a majority of states. Coronavirus cases are rising in 37 out of 50 US states including Florida, which confirmed more than 10,000 new cases on Thursday. California, another epicentre, saw positive tests climb 37 per cent with hospitalisations up 56 per cent over the past two weeks. Read more here
Let’s look at the global statistics:
Total Confirmed Cases: 10,873,186
Change Over Yesterday: 178,898
Total Deaths: 521,337
Total Recovered: 5,755,684
Nations hit with most cases: US (2,739,879), Brazil (1,496,858), Russia (660,231), India (625,544) and Peru (292,004)
Singapore retail sales at historic low: Singapore’s retail sales plunged in May by the most since records began in 1986,. Overall sales plummeted by 52.1 per cent in May from a year earlier. Purchases fell 21.5 per cent from the previous month. Read more here
Piles on Lebanon as IMF warns implosion accelerating: The IMF warned Lebanon that its economic implosion is accelerating and told authorities to act urgently to pull the country back from crisis. The government led by Prime Minister Hassan Diab has come under mounting pressure to take steps that could unlock billions of dollars in donor funds. Read more here
Jobs return to Spain: An average of 178,000 workers have been exiting Spain’s furlough program every week to return to their jobs, a sign that the economic recovery is slowly gathering pace. There were around 1.75 million workers in the furlough scheme as of July 1, a decline of almost 50 per cent from the 3.4 million enrolled in April. Read more here
US jobless rate dropped to 11 per cent in June before virus spike: US employers added 4.8 million new jobs in June and the unemployment rate dropped to 11.1 per cent, as the economic rebound from the initial coronavirus shock. The fall in jobless rate from 13.3 per cent in May was better than expected. Read more here
Specials
EU is struggling to firm up a unified coronavirus response:
Talks on the EU’s coronavirus recovery plan are going down to the wire. Council President Charles Michel is expected to present a compromise next week to try to bridge differences between richer member states and those counting on support from the 750 billion euros that Brussels plans to borrow. Under Michel’s proposal, wealthier states led by the Netherlands will be offered rebates on their contributions to the EU budget. But a deal at this month’s in-person summit still looks uncertain, continues to push for an agreement this summer. The German Chancellor pledged yesterday to work "very hard" to achieve one and urged EU partners to quickly come together to authorize a “massive” response to the economic fallout from the pandemic. Read more here
Virus infects remote tribes in Amazon. What happens now?
In Brazil, soldiers handed out masks to barefooted Yanomami indigenous people including body-painted warriors carrying spears and bows and arrows as part of a military operation to protect isolated tribes from Covid-19. The Yanomami are the last major isolated people in the Amazon rainforest where dozens of indigenous communities have been infected with the latest disease to come from the outside to threaten their existence. Read more here
Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants
African nation Botswana is investigating "completely unprecedented" deaths of hundreds of elephants since May. The government said three laboratories in Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe would be asked to "process the samples taken from the dead elephants". More than 350 elephant carcasses have been spotted in Botswana's Okavango Delta in the past two months. No-one knows why the animals are dying in Botswana - home to a third of Africa's declining elephant population. Read more here