Western Europe surpassed the US in its new daily Covid-19 infections, re-emerging as a global hotspot for the virus having seemingly brought it under control before the summer. France recorded nearly 10,000 new cases on Thursday, the most since its lockdown ended four months ago. A government meeting is due to take place on Friday to discuss measures to curb the spread. Read more here
Let’s look at the global statistics:
Total Confirmed Cases: 28,171,109
Change Over Yesterday: 299,838
Total Deaths: 909,679
Total Recovered: 18,994,237
Nations hit with most cases: US (6,397,227), India (4,562,414), Brazil (4,238,446), Russia (1,042,836) and Peru (710,067)
Virus can be deadly for young adults, too, study finds: A research from Harvard, published in JAMA Internal Medicine journal, found that among 3,222 young adults hospitalized with Covid-19, 88 died — about 2.7 percent. One in five required intensive care. The study “establishes that Covid-19 is a life-threatening disease in people of all ages.” Read more here
US stocks continue to decline in second week: US stocks are headed for a second week of declines after the selloff in megacap tech names resumed, highlighting the lingering concerns over lofty valuations in certain pockets. Thin liquidity is still is leaving stocks vulnerable to exaggerated moves around big options trades and stock buyers. Read more here
Popular French bakery chain’s US offshoot files for bankruptcy: The owner of French bakery chain Maison Kayser’s US locations filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday. Cosmoledo, which operates 16 Maison Kayser locations in New York, said it had agreed to a sale of assets to restaurant investor Aurify Brands. Read more here
UK may continue wage support programme for hard-hit sectors: Rishi Sunak should extend wage support for UK workers in the hardest-hit sectors, lawmakers said on Friday amid warnings from economists, labour unions and opposition parties. The chancellor must also devise a plan to help companies that plunged into debt as a result of the pandemic, they said. Read more here
Coronavirus disrupting US-Mexico action against meth labs: The novel coronavirus pandemic has disrupted joint US-Mexico actions against methamphetamine labs operated by Mexican cartels, US Attorney General William Barr said on Thursday. Barr said the coronavirus pandemic had acted as a brake on some operations against Mexican cartels. Read more here
Turkey considers allowing phase-3 testing of Russia's Covid-19 vaccine: Turkey is considering a request from Russia to conduct phase-3 trials of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine, its Health Minister said. Russia announced the development of the “Sputnik-V” vaccine, the world’s first registered coronavirus vaccine as proof of its scientific prowess. Read more here
Specials
English Premier League, the world’s richest soccer competition, is clouded by financial uncertainty
As teams take to the field this weekend, they’ll do so without fans in attendance, as happened in the restart to last season. League chief executive officer Richard Masters hopes that by October a trickle will be allowed into stadiums, socially distanced and with their temperatures checked on entry. But without fans, he estimates the league’s revenue will be hit by about 700 million pounds ($896 million). When spectators will be allowed back remains a mystery. The UK government’s mixed messaging on how to combat the coronavirus has baffled most of the country, including the all-important leisure industry. The pandemic-elongated 2019-2020 season, with its empty stadiums and rebates to broadcasters for re-arranged games, triggered the first drop in revenues in Premier League history, according to Deloitte, which produces an annual review of football’s finances. Read more here
Suicides among US kids and young adults have been soaring
Increasing numbers of American children and young adults died by suicide in recent years, and the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to continue the trend. Suicide rates among youth ages 10 to 24 increased by 57 percent between 2007 and 2018, new data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows, rising from almost 7 per 100,000 population to nearly 11. Comparing three-year averages from 2007 to 2009 to the time period between 2016 and 2018 brought the increase down to 47 percent. The US suicide rate among all age groups was 14 per 100,000 in 2018. “There are many reasons to suspect that suicide rates will increase this year too, not just because of Covid-19 but because stress and anxiety seem to be permeating every aspect of our lives,” said Shannon Monnat, co-director of the Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab at Syracuse University. Read more here
Sitting in silence with 5,000 fans: the new sound of Japanese sports: In normal times, Japanese fans are not only loud, they are also extremely orchestrated and utterly disciplined. Nonstop through a match, they sing, cheer, chant, bang drums and wave enormous team flags — a boisterous spectacle that often rivals the actual play on the field for entertainment value. Now, most of those activities are banned for fear that people might be roused into a frenzy of shouting, with any spray becoming a vector for spreading the virus. So when this NYT reporter attended a home match on a recent Sunday surrounded by nearly 4,600 fans of FC Tokyo, one of 18 teams in the top tier of the Japan Professional Football League, or J-League, the spectators were scrupulously quiet — except for an occasional crinkle of a food wrapper or a spontaneous burst of applause. Read more here