Global Trends

Scotland’s tourism businesses have been told to prepare to reopen on 15 July. Making the announcement, Scotland’s Tourism Secretary Fergus Ewing said firms needed clarity to plan for reopening. However, he warned that “absolutely nothing can be guaranteed” and the date is conditional on continued progress in tackling the coronavirus.

India’s financial capital, Mumbai, has recorded 51,000 cases of Covid, taking it past the peak in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged. The news comes amid a surge of infections in India, which has 266,598 confirmed cases. Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, has 90,000 of them. Infections …

As Africa braces itself for a surge of coronavirus infections, both China and the US are claiming to be Africa’s greatest supporter, but there is more at stake in this escalating rivalry than simply tackling the virus, writes BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was …

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has declared the country “coronavirus-free” thanks to prayers by citizens. “The corona disease has been eliminated thanks to God,” Mr Magufuli told worshippers in a church in the capital, Dodoma. The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern over the government’s strategy on Covid-19. The government …

A Ugandan broadcaster has been forced to apologise after its employees wore T-shirts emblazoned with All Lives Matter slogan in one of its shows. Privately-owned NBS television said it did not intend to rub its viewers the wrong way with the T-shirts, adding “we shall do better”. The phrase All …

Islamist jihadists have killed six Nigerian soldiers in an attack on a military base in the north-east, the AFP news agency reports. Army sources told the French news agency that they used trucks fitted with machine guns to attack the facility near Maiduguri on Saturday. One source said the jihadists …

The governor of Nigeria’s Abia State has tested positive for coronavirus and has gone into isolation. Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s sample returned a positive test on 4 June, according to an official quoted by local media. The governor is reported to have directed his deputy to act on his behalf as …

South Sudan’s First Vice-President Riek Machar and his wife, Defence Minister Angelina Teny, have recovered from Covid-19, local media report.The two tested positive for coronavirus three weeks ago.The Sudan Tribune newspaper quoted a statement from Mr Machar’s office as saying that he had been discharged on Saturday “having fully recovered”.The statement …

The row between the US and China over the coronavirus outbreak has flared again with a US senator accusing Beijing of trying to block the development of a vaccine in the West.Rick Scott said evidence had come via “our intelligence community” but provided no details to back it up.China meanwhile …

For those not directly affected, the ability to breathe more easily and see further has perhaps been the greatest consolation amid the trauma of the coronavirus pandemic. As city after city begins to emerge from lockdown, urban planners and environmental campaigners are grappling with how to keep the clean air …