[ad_1] Brazil heads for recession after fall in first-quarter GDP Andres Schipani in São Paulo Brazil’s economy shrank in the first quarter of this year, paving the way for a recession as the country became a global coronavirus hotspot in the wake of a botched response to the pandemic from right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. Gross domestic product in Latin America’s largest economy plunged by 1.5 per cent in January to March versus the last quarter of 2019, official data showed. “The same thing happened in Brazil that happened in other countries affected by the pandemic, which was a drop in services to families due to the closure of establishments,” said…

[ad_1] McLaren to cut 1,200 jobs as Covid-19 prompts restructuring Peter Campbell McLaren will cut 1,200 jobs in a major restructuring after coronavirus shut down the company’s showrooms and prevented it from racing. The group, which operates an automotive business making supercars as well as a racing division and a unit selling engineering technology, employs around 4,000, mainly based in the UK. Up to three-quarters of its staff are based within the automotive division, which makes around 4,000 supercars a year. The rest are split between its technology and racing units and back office functions. “Like many other businesses, McLaren has been severely affected by the current pandemic,” the group…

[ad_1] News you might have missed The worldwide number of Covid-19 cases surged through 5m yesterday, as a further 106,122 confirmed infections were reported, which represents the highest daily increase since the pandemic began. A further 4,755 people died of the disease caused by coronavirus yesterday. This figure is in line with the weekday average of the past seven days. The global death toll now stands at 326,844. An early trial for a vaccine co-developed by CanSino Biologics has found it is safe and effective at producing an immune response in humans, according to a paper published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday. The study of 108 patients between…

[ad_1] EU ties recovery plan to national budget reviews Jim Brunsden in Brussels Brussels said its coronavirus recovery plan would be closely linked to annual recommendations the EU makes to member states to underpin the bloc’s growth strategy. Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission executive vice-president for economic policy, said there would be “a clear link” between “country-specific recommendations” the EU publishes each year and the “recovery and resilience facility” Brussels will unveil next week as part of its pandemic response. The annual recommendations, part of Brussels’ broader programme of reviewing national budgets, would “provide guidance to member states” in preparing their recovery plans, which would be used by governments to support…

[ad_1] News you might have missed The US has not made a “final decision” on whether to permanently withdraw World Health Organization funding, after freezing support for the global health body last month. The president, Donald Trump, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that funds were “frozen” but “numerous concepts” were being considered, including “partial” funding for the WHO. Mr Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, offered a rare public rebuke of the current administration on Saturday, telling graduating students that the coronavirus crisis has “fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they are doing”. He added: “A lot of them…

[ad_1] Wall Street followed European and Asian bourses lower as hopes for a quick economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis faded and figures showed that almost 3m more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. The S&P 500 dropped almost 1 per cent when Wall Street opened, a day after Jay Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve, warned that a US “recovery may take some time to gather momentum”. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.7 per cent. New figures released by the US labour department on Thursday showed 2.98m Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the first time last week, taking the total to 36m in eight weeks. “Hard…

[ad_1] Sarah Provan 5/11/2020, 1:40:26 PM Londoners must ‘reimagine’ their way to travel round the capital Bethan Staton in London Transport for London plans to run a full capacity network for 13-15 per cent of passengers as the government gradually eases coronavirus restrictions. The capital’s network on Monday announced its plan for socially distant public transport, which included asking Londoners to walk or cycle where possible and employers to help their staff avoid travel at peak times. TfL plans to “progressively build up service levels to as close to pre-pandemic levels as possible”, said Mike Brown, London’s transport commissioner, but added that all Londoners would have to “reimagine the way…

[ad_1] Migrant workers in India crushed to death as they try to return home Amy Kazmin in New Delhi A group of 15 Indian migrant workers, who were making an arduous trek from an industrial zone back to their native villages in Madhya Pradesh, was crushed to death by a goods train early Friday morning, after they fell asleep on the tracks. The fatal accident highlights the continuing plight of millions of desperate Indian labourers, who have been left stranded without work or wages in India’s big cities and industrial areas for the duration of the country’s on-going lockdown. In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described himself as “extremely…

[ad_1] Turkey’s death toll from coronavirus could be as much as 25 per cent higher than the government’s official figure, adding the country of 83m people to the raft of nations that have struggled to accurately capture the impact of the pandemic. Ankara has previously rejected suggestions that municipal data from Istanbul, the epicentre of country’s Covid-19 outbreak, showed that there were more deaths from the disease than officially reported. But an analysis of individual death records by the Financial Times raises questions about the Turkish government’s explanation for a spike in all-cause mortality in the city of almost 16m people. The FT findings show 3,377 more deaths in Istanbul…

[ad_1] Coronavirus latest: Spain to make masks on public transport compulsory