Bhinneka News Online: Tuesday Morning Briefing: EU clinches ‘truly historic’ rescue deal

What you need to know about the coronavirus today

EU clinches ‘truly historic’ rescue deal
European Union leaders clinched a “truly historic” deal on a massive stimulus plan for their coronavirus-throttled economies in the early hours of Tuesday, after a fractious summit lasting almost five days.

The agreement paves the way for the European Commission, the EU’s executive, to raise billions of euros on capital markets on behalf of all 27 states, an unprecedented act of solidarity in almost seven decades of European integration.

Many had warned that a failed summit amid the coronavirus pandemic would have put the bloc’s viability in serious doubt after years of economic crisis and Britain’s recent departure.

The recovery plan now faces a potentially difficult passage through the European Parliament and it must be ratified by all EU states. The first money will likely not reach the real economy before the middle of next year, economists say.

U.S. considers $1 trillion relief bill
Advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats were set to discuss the next steps in responding to the coronavirus crisis on Tuesday, with congressional Republicans saying they were working on a $1 trillion relief bill.

In a meeting on Monday at the White House, Republican lawmakers and administration officials said they were making progress toward fresh legislation aimed at cushioning the heavy economic toll of the pandemic.

Congress has so far committed $3 trillion to the crisis. In the more than 12 weeks since Trump signed the last bill into law, the number of U.S. coronavirus cases has more than tripled to over 3.8 million. The virus has killed more than 140,000 people in the United States. Both figures lead the world.

Biden to unveil caregiving proposal
As part of his program to revive the coronavirus-battered U.S. economy, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will unveil a sweeping child- and elder-care plan on Tuesday designed to help struggling Americans re-enter the workforce.

The plan, which Biden will detail at a campaign event in New Castle, Delaware, seeks to make childcare more affordable and accessible for families and to make it easier for aging relatives and loved ones with disabilities to receive home or community-based care.

The plan would cost $775 billion over a decade and be paid for by rolling back tax breaks for real estate investors and tightening enforcement of the existing U.S. tax code.

Vaccine hopes
The University of Oxford’s possible COVID-19 vaccine could be rolled out by the end of the year but there is no certainty that will happen, the lead developer of the vaccine said on Tuesday.

The experimental vaccine, which has been licensed to AstraZeneca, produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials, data showed on Monday, preserving hopes it could be in use by the end of the year.

“The end of the year target for getting vaccine rollout, it’s a possibility but there’s absolutely no certainty about that because we need three things to happen,” Sarah Gilbert told BBC Radio.

So far, there have been no approved vaccines for COVID-19.

LinkedIn cuts 960 jobs
Microsoft Corp’s professional networking site LinkedIn said on Tuesday it would cut about 960 jobs, or 6% of its global workforce, as the coronavirus pandemic hits demand for its recruitment products.

Jobs will be cut across sales and hiring divisions of the group globally. Announcing the plan in a message posted on LinkedIn’s website, Chief Executive Ryan Roslansky said the company would provide at least 10 weeks of severance pay as well as health insurance for a year for U.S. employees, and will hire for newly created roles from laid-off staff.

Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Cognac and candy, EU banks, India. Read concise views on the pandemic’s financial fallout from Breakingviews columnists across the globe.

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U.S.

California reported a record increase of more than 11,800 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, according to a Reuters tally of county data, as the Trump administration pushes for schools to reopen to help businesses return to normal. If California were a country, it would be ranked fifth in the world for total cases at nearly 400,000, behind the United States, Brazil, India and Russia.

President Donald Trump on Monday said he would send law enforcement to more U.S. cities, as a federal crackdown on anti-racism protests in Oregon with unmarked cars and unidentified forces angered people across the country. Trump, a Republican, cited New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland, California, as places to send federal agents, noting the cities’ mayors were “liberal Democrats.” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot frequently blasts Trump on Twitter.

The Democratic Party in Georgia said on Monday it had chosen state senator Nikema Williams to be its nominee to run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat that is vacant following the death of civil rights icon John Lewis. Lewis, 80, died on Friday after being diagnosed late last year with pancreatic cancer.

COVID Science

Early tests of COVID-19 vaccines yield promising results
Results from trials of two potential COVID-19 vaccines yielded initial signs of efficacy with no serious adverse side effects, according to early data released. One was a UK study of the candidate being developed by Oxford University and British drugmaker AstraZeneca. The other was a Chinese study of a vaccine from CanSino Biologics. Both vaccines use a modified, harmless common cold virus known as an adenovirus to deliver genetic instructions to cells for inducing an immune response against the novel coronavirus.

Inhaled interferon may help hospitalized COVID-19 patients Treatment with an inhaled form of interferon significantly reduced the risk of worsening illness in hospitalized COVID-19 patients and improved their odds of recovery, according to preliminary data from a mid-stage trial released by Synairgen Plc. In the trial not yet available for peer review, 101 patients received the experimental treatment, called SG001, or a placebo. Patients who got SNG001 had a 79% lower risk of developing severe disease requiring ventilation.

Follow the money

Global presence an advantage as U.S. companies brace for second-half slump

Smaller U.S. companies will bear the brunt of the economic downturn triggered by a prolonged coronavirus crisis as they struggle to cut costs as much as bigger multinational peers, analysts’ estimates compiled by Reuters showed.

3 min read

How remote work divides America

The shock of the pandemic has spared no one, but the costs have not been evenly distributed. Office workers who can telecommute have generally been able to retain their income, while many blue-collar workers who have to be on site to work are among the tens of millions of Americans who lost their jobs as the country went into lockdown.

1 min read