Washington DC

LONDON, April 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Oil plunged below $5 a barrel as the coronavirus pandemic ravages global economies, threatening to erase an entire decade of demand growth, slashing thousands of jobs and wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars from company valuations.

Industrial and economic activity is grinding to a halt as governments around the globe extend shutdowns due to the swift spread of the coronavirus.

WASHINGTON, April 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump said the United States would take advantage of the historic drop in oil prices to replenish its national strategic stockpile, pending approval by Congress.

“We are filling up our national petroleum reserves… You know, the strategic reserves,” Trump told reporters at his daily coronavirus press conference.

“And we are looking to put as much as 75 million barrels into the reserves themselves,” he added.

Washington, Apr 19 (AFP/PTI) President Donald Trump has said he hopes US Muslims will be held to the same social distancing standards during Ramzan as Christians at Easter, when a number of faithful chafed against coronavirus-related restrictions on large gatherings.

The US president made the comments after being asked to defend a retweet of a conservative commentator who seemed to question whether Muslims would be treated with the same severity as Christians who broke social distancing rules.

WASHINGTON, Apr 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) – U.S. Department of Defence extended its freeze order on the movement of U.S. troops through June 30, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, a Pentagon official announced on Saturday.

Undersecretary of Defence for Personnel and Readiness, Matthew Donovan, said, the new order, which comes into force on Monday, would include eased restrictions and more exemptions allowed, compared to the previous order.

Washington, Apr 18 (PTI) The world economy, already "sluggish" before the coronavirus outbreak, is now bound to suffer a "severe recession" in 2020, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva has warned and said the current crisis posed "daunting challenges" for policymakers in many emerging markets and developing economies.

Addressing the Development Committee Meeting during the annual Spring Meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the IMF Managing Director said a large global contraction in the first half of this year was inevitable.

(AP) --- As a clearer picture emerges of COVID-19’s decidedly deadly toll on black Americans, leaders are demanding a reckoning of the systemic policies they say have made many African Americans far more vulnerable to the virus, including inequity in access to health care and economic opportunity.

17 April 2020; MEMO: Global ecommerce company Amazon has donated $300,000 to a non-profit US organisation which is supplying medical equipment to healthcare professionals and patients in Israel during the coronavirus pandemic.

16 April 2020; MEMO: The US navy has claimed that 11 Iranian navy vessels came within ten yards of six of its warships, describing the close encounters as “dangerous and harassing approaches”.

The incident took place yesterday with footage released by the US Fifth Fleet showing boats belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy.

PARIS, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US decision to freeze funding to the World Health Organization over what President Donald Trump said was its “mismanaging” of the global coronavirus pandemic triggered anger and concern.

Trump announced that the United States would halt payments to the UN body that amounted to $400 million last year.

WASHINGTON, April 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump says the US has “passed the peak” of new COVID-19 cases and predicted some states would reopen this month.

At the daily White House virus briefing, Trump said new reopening guidelines would be announced on Thursday after he speaks to governors.

“We’ll be the comeback kids, all of us,” the president said. “We want to get our country back.”