Europe

French economy shrinks 6% in Q1: Bank of France

8 April 2020; AFP: In its worst performance since 1945, the French economy shrank around six percent in the first quarter of this year as the coronavirus pandemic decimated business activity, the Bank of France said Wednesday.

Official figures showed previously that the economy shrank 0.1 percent in the last three months of 2019, meaning that with two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the country is now technically in recession.

EU rescue talks fail as Netherlands blocks virus compromise

8 April 2020; AFP: EU finance ministers failed on Wednesday to agree on a rescue plan to help hard hit member states face the coronavirus outbreak, after the Netherlands blocked the deal over bailout conditions.

"After 16 hours of discussions, we came close to a deal but we are not there yet. I suspended the Eurogroup and (we will) continue tomorrow Thursday," said Eurogroup chief Mario Centeno.

Obesity is major COVID-19 risk factor, says French chief epidemiologist

PARIS (Reuters) - Being overweight is a major risk for people infected with the new coronavirus and the United States is particularly vulnerable because of high obesity levels there, France’s chief epidemiologist said on Wednesday.

Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, who heads the scientific council that advises the government on the epidemic, said as many as 17 million of France’s 67 million citizens were seriously at risk from the coronavirus because of age, pre-existing illness or obesity.

Deprived of customers, British farmers throw away milk

LONDON, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Deprived of customers such as supermarkets, restaurants and schools due to the coronavirus outbreak and resulting lockdown, British farmers are throwing away thousands of litres of milk.

Coffee shops and office blocks, also shut because of COVID-19, are no longer receiving their early morning deliveries, although there has been a hike in the amount of milk being dropped off at people’s homes in time for breakfast, according to the publication FarmingUK.

France's Le Maire: European countries must rise to meet challenge of exceptional times

PARIS (Reuters) - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Wednesday, that European countries must rise to meet the challenge of the current exceptional climate, after an initial failure at the Eurogroup meeting to agree on funding measures.

“Along with (German finance minister) @OlafScholz, we call on all European states to be up to the challenge posed by these exceptional times so that we can arrive at reaching an ambitious agreement,” Le Maire wrote on Twitter.

Germany fallen victim in mask fraud scheme

BERLIN, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Authorities in Germany have fallen victim to a multi-million-euro fraud involving masks much needed in the coronavirus pandemic, prosecutors said.

North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state and one of the hardest hit, paid 14.7 million euros for some 10 million masks in March only to discover they did not exist, according to prosecutors in Traunstein, Bavaria.

The German managing director of two distribution companies based in Zurich and Hamburg raised the alarm after realising he had been tricked.

WHO denies being 'China-centric' after Trump comment

GENEVA (Reuters) - World Health Organization officials on Wednesday denied that the body was “China-centric” and said that the acute phase of a pandemic was not the time to cut funding, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would put contributions on hold.

The United States is the top donor to the Geneva-based body which Trump said had issued bad advice during the new coronavirus outbreak.

U.S. contributions to WHO in 2019 exceeded $400 million, almost double the 2nd largest member state contribution. China, in contrast, contributed $44 million.

Fire under control at building site of Berlin palace

BERLIN (Reuters) - Firefighters in Berlin on Wednesday quickly brought under control a blaze at a royal palace being rebuilt at great expense in the centre of the capital.

The fire service said in a Tweet that a propane gas canister had exploded and building materials and two bitumen boilers had caught fire. One person was injured and about 80 emergency services staff were on the scene.

Black smoke was seen billowing across the city centre but the fire service said it had the blaze at the Berlin Palace under control within 30 minutes.

Switzerland drafts in army to fight corona virus

ZURICH, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — In the Swiss Army’s biggest call-up since World War II, thousands of soldiers have been sent to support health workers in the fight against the coronavirus, but the mobilisation has not been without problems.

Hundreds of soldiers and officers have been confined to barracks after potential exposure to the infection.

While around 80-90 per cent of those who got their marching orders on March 16 answered the call of duty, more than 200 could face military justice for failing to report to their units, said army Brigadier Raymond Droz.

Austria: OPEC daily basket price drops to 22.67 USD per barrel

VIENNA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) daily basket price dropped to 22.67 U.S. dollars a barrel on Tuesday, compared with 23.48 dollars on Monday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

Also known as the OPEC reference basket of crude oil, the OPEC basket is a weighted average of oil prices from different OPEC members around the world, and is used as an important benchmark for crude oil prices.

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