|  | | | | | | | | | What you need to know about the coronavirus today | | Italy's lockdown exit: It's a family affair
Italy, Spain, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Malaysia and Lebanon are among the countries easing social distancing restrictions, including reopening factories, construction sites, hairdressers and libraries. But in Italy, which is the hardest hit country in Europe and has had the longest lockdown, confusion reigns. Guidelines issued by the government over the weekend noted that visits to distant relatives will be allowed, including the children of cousins, or the cousins of spouses, as well as visits to anyone with whom one has "a stable bond of affection". But they did not say whether friendship counted as a stable bond of affection, until an off-the-record message to media outlets from the prime minister's office explained that visits to friends are still not permitted.
| | |  | | | | | | | | A warning from Agra
Amid the easings, a warning from India. Best known for its 17th-century marble-domed tomb, the Taj Mahal, Agra was lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government as a template for India's battle against COVID-19. After confirming its first cases in early March, the city of 1.6 million people set up containment zones based on detailed household-level plans developed for polio control by the World Health Organization, screened hundreds of thousands of residents and conducted widespread contact tracing. By early April, the northern city thought it had the virus beat. But it turns out a resurgence was already in the works, fueled by attendees to a gathering of the Islamic missionary group Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi in late March: Agra now has around 600 coronavirus cases and 14 deaths.
Trans-Tasman travel bubble?
New Zealand and Australia are discussing the potential creation of a "travel bubble" between the two countries. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will take part in a meeting of Australia's emergency coronavirus cabinet on Tuesday, the Australian government said, stoking speculation that two-way travel could be permitted.
Back shopping with a vengeance
In South Korea, shoppers and travelers crowded malls and beaches on the first long weekend since the country began easing coronavirus curbs last month. With early-summer weather helping retail therapy return with a vengeance, the term "bobok sobi" - revenge shopping - has trended on the nation's social media, as people rush to make purchases delayed by social-distancing rules.
#ditchyourstuff minimalism
In marked contrast to the euphoric spending seen in South Korea, for a growing number of Chinese hit by job losses, furloughs and salary cuts, the consumer economy has begun to spin in reverse. They are no longer buying - they are selling. Instead of emerging from the coronavirus epidemic and returning to the shopping habits that helped drive the world's second-largest economy, many young people are offloading possessions and embracing a new-found ethic for hard times: less is more.
The goat and the pawpaw
Tanzania has pulled from circulation coronavirus test kits that have returned positive results on samples taken from ... a goat and a pawpaw. The discovery came after local security forces were asked to check the quality of the kits. They randomly obtained several non-human samples, including from a pawpaw, a goat and a sheep. The kits themselves were imported from abroad - where exactly has yet to be disclosed. | | | | | | | | From Breakingviews: Corona Capital - Elevator buyout, Anbang and Samsonite. Thyssenkrupp’s elevator buyout faces a tough search for new investors, and a South Korean buyer walks away from Anbang’s hotels. Catch up with the latest pandemic-related insights. | | | | | | | | Reuters reporters and editors around the world are investigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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We prefer tips from named sources, but if you’d rather remain anonymous, you can submit a confidential news tip. Here’s how. | | | | | | | | | | | | | Life under lockdown | | Exclusive: An internal Chinese report, presented last month to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, sources tell Reuters. | | | | David Elliot first thought of shooting an elk to help feed family and friends back in January when the United States reported its first novel coronavirus case. Elliot, emergency manager at Holy Cross Hospital in Taos, New Mexico, had always wanted to go big-game hunting and, with the pandemic spreading, there seemed no better time to try to fill his freezer with free-range, super-lean meat. So for the first time in his life, despite not owning a rifle or ever having hunted large animals, he put his name in for New Mexico’s annual elk permit draw. | | | | | | | | U.S. weapons makers have teamed up with medical device companies to increase the supply of ventilators that can be used to combat the coronavirus pandemic, people working on the project said. The two groups do not regularly partner on projects, but when a defense industry consultant with an engineering background realized weapons makers could help solve supply-chain problems within the U.S. ventilator industry, the creation of Vent Connect was set in motion and is set to be announced, the people said. | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow the money | | The Trump administration is “turbocharging” an initiative to remove global industrial supply chains from China as it weighs new tariffs to punish Beijing for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, according to officials familiar with U.S. planning. 7 min read | | | | Factory activity was ravaged across the world in April, business surveys showed, and the outlook looked bleak as government lockdowns to contain the new coronavirus pandemic froze global production and slashed demand. In a bid to combat the impact of the lockdowns, central banks and governments have unleashed unprecedented levels of fiscal and monetary policy, suggesting that without this conditions could have been even worse. 5 min read | | | | J. Crew filed for bankruptcy protection with a plan to hand over control to lenders, adding to a list of brick-and-mortar retailers pushed to the brink by widespread store closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 4 min read | | | | Sad piano chords, somber shots of empty streets and close-ups of people staring out their windows. So prevalent were coronavirus-themed ads that followed a similar template just a few weeks ago, they were parodied in a YouTube compilation video: “Every COVID-19 Commercial is Exactly the Same.” 6 min read | | | | | | | | | | | | | Top Stories on Reuters TV | | | | | | | |
