Wall Street stocks jumped on Friday with the Nasdaq racing to yet another record as progress on a coronavirus vaccine offset worries about spiking US case levels. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index finished at 10,617.44, up 0.7%, notching its sixth record close in seven sessions.
The Trump administration on Friday announced additional duties of 25per cent on French cosmetics, handbags and other imports valued at US$1.3 billion in response to France's digital services tax, but would hold off on implementing the move for up to 180 days.
Italy on Thursday banned travelers from Brazil and 12 other countries it considers to pose a high risk of Covid-19 transmission. The full list comprises Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Kuwait, North Macedonia, Moldova, Oman, Panama and Peru.
The illegal global trade in ivory has shrunk while the trafficking of pangolins has soared, a UN report on wildlife crime based on four years' data said on Friday. National bans on selling ivory, particularly China's in 2017, appear to have helped further erode ivory trafficking after it peaked around 2011-2013, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its World Wildlife Crime Report, which was last published in 2016.
The United States welcomes the World Health Organization's W(HO) probe into the origins of the novel coronavirus in China, its ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva said on Friday.
The Galician Nodosa shipyard launched this week a trawler-freezer, Montelourido which according to the Vigo media was ordered by Rampesca and their Falklands' partners RBC.
Ireland's finance minister Paschal Donohoe has been elected as the new president of the eurozone's finance group. Donohoe succeeds former president Mário Centeno from Portugal who said in June he would not run for another term as Eurogroup president.
Welsh Government has amended its coronavirus regulations to allow people to travel to dozens of countries and overseas territories without having to quarantine on their return. The steps by the Government also means residents from those countries can now travel to Wales for summer holidays without having to self isolate.
WHO announced on Thursday the initiation of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) to evaluate the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beset by the second industry downturn in five years, global awards for floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels will likely number just one in 2020 as exploration and production firms cut budgets and activity, Rystad Energy predicted. However in 2021 should be a recovery year mainly in Brazil and Guyana and probably in the Falkland Islands.