The Mediterranean city of Oran was the setting for a famous fictional outbreak of bubonic plague in Algeria under French colonial rule. The BBC’s Lucy Ash finds parallels between Albert Camus’ novel The Plague and how the country is coping with the coronavirus pandemic amid political upheaval.Although it was published […]
Tech
Chinese video app TikTok is taking legal action to challenge a ban imposed by US President Donald Trump. Mr Trump’s executive order prohibits transactions with TikTok’s owner ByteDance from mid-September. Officials in Washington are concerned that the company could pass data on American users to the Chinese government, something ByteDance […]
Tens of thousands of opponents of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko have gathered in Minsk to protest against disputed elections. The “March for Freedom” in the centre of the capital comes amid growing anger over alleged poll-rigging and police violence at subsequent protests. Meanwhile, in an address to a smaller crowd […]
President Donald Trump has paid tribute to his “best friend” and youngest brother following his death at 71. “It is with [a] heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight,” he said in a statement on Saturday. The president had visited his brother in hospital […]
Thousands of holidaymakers have seen their plans thrown into chaos after UK quarantine measures were imposed on France from Saturday. The 14-day isolation requirement begins at 04:00 BST and also applies to people arriving from the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks and Caicos, and Aruba. It comes after France’s prime minister […]
President Donald Trump says he has heard Democratic running mate Kamala Harris “doesn’t qualify” to serve as US vice-president, amplifying a fringe legal theory critics decry as racist. Ms Harris was born to a Jamaican father and Indian mother in Oakland, California, on 20 October 1964. But a conservative law […]
The Hong Kong government has postponed September’s parliamentary elections by a year, saying it is necessary amid a rise in coronavirus infections. Hong Kong is currently experiencing a spike in Covid-19 infections, and reported 121 new cases on Friday. However, the opposition has accused the government of using the pandemic […]
Emails between UK socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been revealed in a trove of unsealed court documents. Epstein tells Ms Maxwell she has done “nothing wrong” in the 2015 exchange, which appears to contradict her earlier claims of not having contacted him. And […]
Small and medium-sized businesses have been at the center of the Narendra Modi government’s plans to revive the Indian economy from the Covid-19-triggered slump. Yet, experts believe, not much has changed for such firms and the pandemic could prove to be a “mass-extinction event” for them. Only a third of […]
FROM OUR OBSESSION Future of Work Preparing for a labor force that doesn’t yet exist. Teleworking is widening income inequality all over the world, according to a new study from the International Monetary Fund. The ability to work remotely has become a make-or-break factor for many workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Unless […]