World Coronavirus Dispatch: Company insiders make $1 bn in rush for vaccine

UK to quarantine those returning from Spain, Aussi cops win halt to Black Lives Matter stir, Africa's Development Bank approves grants and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Corporate insiders pocket $1 billion in rush for coronavirus vaccine: Well-timed stock bets have generated big profits for senior executives and board members at companies developing vaccines and treatments. Company insiders, who weeks earlier had received stock options worth a few million dollars, saw the value of those awards increase six-fold. And a hedge fund that partly controlled the company walked away with more than $200 million in instant profits. Read more here

Let’s look at the global statistics

Total Confirmed Cases: 16,055,909


Change Over Yesterday: 309,457


Total Deaths: 644,661


Total Recovered: 9,267,601

Nations hit with most cases: US (4,178,730), Brazil (2,394,513), India (1,385,635), Russia (811,073) and South Africa (434,200)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center 

North Korea declares emergency in border town over first Covid-19 case: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency and a lockdown in a border town after a person suspected of being infected with the novel coronavirus returned from South Korea after illegally crossing the border, state media said on Sunday. Read more here

UK to quarantine people returning from Spain: Britain acted swiftly to quarantine travellers returning from Spain after seeing data on Friday recording a large jump in coronavirus cases, foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday. Read more here

Australia police win halt to Black Lives Matter protest amid Covid-19: An Australian court on Sunday ordered a halt to a Black Lives Matter protest for this week, accepting police concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic, but the organiser vowed to appeal.
 

Several thousand people had been expected at the protest in Sydney on Tuesday against the deaths of Aboriginal people in custody. Read more here

Africa’s Development Bank approves loans, grants for various nations: The lender will provide loans to several small African nations like Ghana, Rwanda, Djibouti, Gambia, Liberia and Sierra Leone to support efforts against Covid-19. More details here

Chinese listings surge on Wall Street despite tensions: The number of initial public offerings by Chinese businesses on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq have more than doubled since the start of this year, according to Dealogic data. The companies that have listed have raised $2.9 billion, a nearly 30 per cent rise compared with the same period last year. Read more here

Specials

Covid-19 is adding to the despair of many war-weary young people across the Arab world: For millions of young people in the Middle East region whose pursuit of jobs or plans for higher education and marriage have been upended by the pandemic, plunging them into the kind of deep uncertainty and despair they had hoped to leave behind. Such turmoil is universal in the wake of the pandemic, but the despair is particularly pronounced in the Middle East, where wave after wave of war, displacement and disease have left this generation feeling bitter and hopeless. While in the West, many who have become unemployed believe they will eventually get their jobs back or somehow recover from the recession, the pandemic in some Arab countries was the final blow to economies now on the cusp of complete collapse. Read more here

Oh, so we are doing random video chats?
 

First there was the Zoom boom, followed quickly by Zoom fatigue. Then everyone became a gamer, inviting visitors to their virtual islands and sending friends digital gifts. There were raves, meetings, meditations and movie nights, all of which took place on the internet. Now, months later and with no sign of the virus’ end in sight, it seems we’ve reached the taking-to-strangers online stage of boredom and isolation. Omegle, a website that pairs random visitors through video and text chat, has spiked in popularity over the last four months. Read more about this trend 

5 New Yorkers escaped the city for fresh air and space. Was it worth it?
 

Getting out, New Yorkers are learning, is not always as pretty and as stress-free as the fantasy. But many who can afford to are doing it anyway, renting cars and booking homes and hotels, somewhere, anywhere, in nature. Some are braving the trains; others the jitney. They are podding or going solo for a change of scenery, some taking day trips, others staying a week or even longer, mostly within New York state. Here, five New Yorkers talk about their first trips post-quarantine. Would they do it again? It depends. Read their accounts here