
The governor of Sao Paulo, the Brazilian state at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in Latin America, said on Friday he was extending stay-at-home measures until May 31, ignoring opposition from far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

The COVID-19 lockdown wiped out 20.5 million jobs in the United States in April, destroying nearly all the positions created in the prior decade in the world's largest economy, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a new high in the first four months of the year, according to data released on Friday, a worrying trend after the devastation caused by record fires last year.

Falkland Islands schools in Stanley are making final preparations for reopening on Monday, May 11. Camp Education, an integral part of the schooling system also re-opens on the same day.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a newspaper interview on Saturday there was a growing risk of a hard Brexit in the midst of the coronavirus crisis as negotiations between Britain and the European Union so far on the future trade relationship had yielded hardly any progress.

The biggest threat to Brazil's ability to successfully combat the spread of the coronavirus and tackle the unfolding public health crisis is the country's president, Jair Bolsonaro, according to the British medical journal The Lancet.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday spoke on the phone to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Queen Elizabeth led tributes to veterans of World War Two recalling the “never give up, never despair” message of Victory in Europe Day 75 years ago as the coronavirus damped commemorations for the end of the war on the continent.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro effectively ruled out raising gasoline taxes on Thursday, a blow to the ethanol industry which had asked for a gasoline tax hike to boost its competitiveness amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The United States issued a new rule on Friday tightening visa guidelines for Chinese journalists, saying it was in response to the treatment of US journalists in China, a shift that comes amid tensions between the two nations over the coronavirus global pandemic.