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Protest

Washington, July 5, 2020 (dpa/NAN) Protesters in Baltimore, near the U.S. capital Washington, pulled down a statue of explorer Christopher Columbus, dragged it to the city’s Inner Harbor and rolled it into the water amid Fourth of July fireworks on Saturday, the Baltimore Sun reported.

The torn-down Columbus statue was part of a “re-examination taking place nationally and globally around some of these monuments and statues that may represent different things to different people,” The Baltimore Sun quoted Lester Davis, a spokesman for Democratic Mayor Bernard Young as saying.

Columbus was one of the first Europeans in the New World and is often referred to as the discoverer of America. Historians and civil rights activists, however, criticize Columbus for enslaving Native Americans.

In a speech  in Washington over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would fight to protect the American “way of life” that started when Columbus “discovered America.”

“Together we will fight for the American dream and we will defend, to protect and preserve American way of life, which began in 1492 when Columbus discovered America.

“We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children or trample on our freedoms,” Trump added.

Protesters across the U.S. have been toppling statues of Columbus and other historical figures as calls increase to end the public glorification of historical figures with racist legacies.

The death of George Floyd, a black man who died while being pinned down by a white police officer in Minnesota in May, has sparked an intense national conversation about race and discrimination in the U.S.(dpa/NAN)

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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola

Investigation
Potsdam, Germany, June 15, 2020 (dpa/NAN) German prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into a hospital near Berlin that suffered from a severe coronavirus outbreak in March.
The prosecutor’s office in the city of Potsdam said that the top doctors and then-executive leadership of the Ernst von Bergmann hospital were being investigated for negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm.
The hospital was linked to a coronavirus outbreak in March in which several dozen people died of COVID-19.
While local flare-ups have occurred, Germany has mostly kept the number of new infections in check even out of lockdown.
Health authorities on Monday morning announced 192 new cases of coronavirus had been recorded since the day before.
It brings the total number of infections in Germany since the outbreak’s beginning to 186,461 according to Germany’s infectious disease body, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
The death toll rose by 4 during the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 8,791.

A further 400 patients had recovered, bringing the total number of patients who have overcome the virus to 172,600, according to the RKI.
The RKI noted that daily figures may be amended after quality checks.
The reproduction rate, which measures the disease’s ability to spread, sat above the critical value of 1, to 1.05 on Monday, meaning each infected person is spreading the virus to around one other. The day before, it was at 1.02. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola

Virus

Stockholm, May 9, 2020 (dpa/NAN) The Faroe Islands – an autonomous territory that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark – have “no active” novel coronavirus cases, the government said on Saturday.

All 187 confirmed coronavirus cases have recovered, and no fatalities due to COVID-19 have been recorded, it said.

The first Faroese case was recorded on March 3, the last confirmed active case was on April 22.

In all 8,403 tests have been conducted since the end of February, over one tenth of the population.

“As a nation, we have achieved what few other countries have managed to do.

“This has been possible because people, families and organisations have been willing to transform their daily lives and take responsibility under very difficult circumstances,” Prime Minister Bardur a Steig Nielsen said.

“Our tough battle has paid off,” he said, adding “we will soon be able to get back to normal daily life as much as we can under these abnormal circumstances.”

According to him, people have respected guidelines on hygiene and personal distancing that remain in place.

In recent weeks, authorities have gradually reopened schools and kindergartens, and allowed among others hairdressers, dentists and physiotherapists to resume their activities.

Travellers to the Faroe Islands were still advised to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.

The Faroese domestic football league expected to resume Saturday. Several matches were to be broadcast in Scandinavia.

The Faroe Islands – located in the North Atlantic – comprise about 50,000 people and 18 main islands. (dpa/NAN)

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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola

Price

Washington/Tokyo, April 20, 2020 (dpa/NAN) United States crude oil prices fell sharply, plummeting to their lowest levels since 1986, as a collapse in demand because of the coronavirus and the resulting economic shutdowns comes atop shortages in storage capacity.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, dropped to nearly 10 dollars a barrel, a 45-per-cent decline, before ticking up a couple of percentage points.

However, longer term contracts were faring somewhat better, while still down on the day, signalling optimism that economic production will improve by the end of 2020.

June contracts were at just over 22 dollars per barrel and deliveries for later in the year are prices even higher.

Brent crude was lower by 5.7 per cent, and was trading at 26 dollars a barrel.

Oil prices have been hit by both the coronavirus bringing major economic sectors to a near standstill, and a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia that kicked off at about the same time the pandemic was spreading.

Earlier this month, OPEC+ countries – an expanded format of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) – agreed on a deal to cut production by 9.7 million barrels per day for May and June, but failed to support prices back to previous levels.

Despite the agreement on cuts, which may not be coming quickly enough, storage capacity is being tested, helping to bring prices on short-term contracts lower.

The energy sector was leading U.S. stocks lower on Monday, with the S&P 500 down about 0.3 per cent at noon, with the index off its session lows.

There are growing concerns about how the low prices will hurt the U.S. energy sector and have significant consequences for jobs, at a time when unemployment has surged, with more than 22 million people being laid off since the middle of March.

As the falling oil prices hit energy stocks in Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 134.5 points, or 2.45 per cent, to end at 5,353 and the broader All Ordinaries index was down 130 points, or 2.34 per cent, at 5,414.7.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 228.14 points, or 1.15 per cent, to close at 19,669.12 as investors locked in profits after recent gains. (dpa/NAN)

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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola