The coronavirus pandemic continues to lead the newsfeed today, as it has for the entirety of 2020. There are now 11.8 million Covid-19 cases in the world, of which over 3 million are in the United States, 1.6 million in Brazil, and around 700,000 in India and Russia each.
The United States continues to experience the worst outbreak in the world. Yesterday the country declared another 50,000 new coronavirus infections. According to US health experts, the country is still in the throes of the first wave of the pandemic, which never managed to end properly due to easing out of lockdown too early. It may well take weeks before the peak is reached in the most-heavily affected states, and a second wave remains possible later on in 2020.
The Federal Reserve has also issued warnings that the economic recovery of the United States is not likely to happen in the fashion predicted earlier, especially if the affected areas need further lockdowns.
Stock indices are also down today, after last week’s rally. Recall that US indices had one of the best quarters in Q2 of 2020, despite the pandemic.
Things were also not great in Europe, where the GDP projections for this year have dropped from a loss of 7.7% to one of 8.7%, courtesy of the pandemic.
Social networks are taking a stance on Hong Kong and China’s new security law there. Based on this law, Hong Kong authorities previously asked tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter to assist its work by providing user data. All three companies declined to comply, insisting instead that the privacy and rights to free speech of its users are more important.
Meanwhile, TikTok, which is perhaps the fastest growing social outlet in the world right now, decided to stop operating in Hong Kong, pulling its app from stores there. Note that TikTok is a Chinese-owned company. Though it is separate from the government, the decision to stop providing its services to Hong Kong plays into the Communist Party’s plans because many protesters used the app to help spread pro-democracy messaging.
