Reuters is reporting Catalonia’s regional authorities announced today they will restrict restrict some activities in Barcelona, including asking people not to gather in groups of more than 10, to fight an increase in coronavirus cases. They have stopped short of imposing a lockdown and said the measures were meant to avoid having to do so.
A couple wearing protective face masks take a stroll along downtown in Lleida, Catalonia, Spain, 16 July 2020. Regional authorities announced special movement restriction measures in the area of Segria in Lleida due to a coronavirus outbreak. EPA/Susanna Saez Photograph: Susanna Saez/EPA
Good morning. I’m Gregory Robinson, taking over from Amelia Hill. If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter to share insight or tips, I’m on @Gregoryjourno or you can send me an email at gregory.robinson@guardian.co.uk
And that’s Goodbye from me, Amelia Hill – and Hello to him, Gregory Robinson. I wish you a very fine rest-of-day and an even finer weekend.
One final story before I sign off: Reuters is reporting the positive news that the euro zone economy may contract less this year than the European Central Bank had forecast and its recovery could also be quicker.
According to the bank’s Survey of Professional Forecasters, the quarterly survey sees the economy shrinking by 8.3% this year, a downgrade from its May projection for a 5.5% drop but a more benign outcome than the ECB staff’s own estimate for an 8.7% drop. For next year, growth is seen at 5.7%, above the ECB’s staff’s 5.2% estimate in June.
Although the euro zone suffered its biggest recession in generations, recent data suggest the economy bottomed out in April or May and a recovery is now underway, even if it is bound to be choppy, uneven and prone to setbacks.
The survey was also more optimistic about inflation as it sees 2020 price growth at 0.4% against the ECB’s 0.3% projection while inflation in 2021 is seen at 1% as against the ECB’s 0.8% prediction.
The meeting between EU leaders continues. It’s their first face-to-face summit since the coronavirus crisis but there are low expectations of a deal as the leaders acknowledged that they are about as far apart from reaching a deal on an unprecedented 1.85 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) EU budget and virus recovery fund as the seating distance imposed upon them for health reasons at their summit centre.
“The differences are still very, very big and so I can’t predict whether we will achieve a result this time”, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Reuters, as she arrived at the Europa summit site. “I expect very, very difficult negotiations”.
The challenges facing the 27 EU leaders some of whom arrived masked, some unmasked are formidable, Reuters reports. Their bloc is suffering through the worst recession in its history and member states are fighting over who should pay the most to help other countries and which nations should get the most to turn around their battered economies.
The BBC is reporting that French President Emmanuel Macron said it was a “moment of truth” for Europe and the next hours would be decisive.
The main issue is how much of the recovery fund will be handed out in grants and how much in loans.
They also need to agree on a seven-year budget worth another €1.07 trillion.
European Council President Charles Michel acknowledged that the talks would be “very difficult”, but Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said nobody should lose sight of the big picture – “we’re faced with the biggest economic depression since the Second World War”.
Despite the allegations that Russian hackers tried to steal UK coronavirus vaccine research, Russia says it expects a deal for it to make a Covid-19 vaccine that is being developed by Astrazeneca and Oxford University to go ahead.
Reuters is reporting that Russia sees western allegations that it tried to steal others’ vaccine data as an attempt to “unfairly undermine credibility” of its own vaccine.
Updated
at 5.41am EDT
The Trump administration is considering banning travel to the US by all members of the Chinese Communist party and their families, Reuters is reporting.
Quoting “a person familiar with the matter”, the move would almost certainly prompt retaliation against Americans seeking to enter or remain in China and exacerbate tensions between the two nations.
Senior officials discussing the matter have begun circulating a draft of a possible presidential order but deliberations are at an early stage and the issue has not yet been brought to President Donald Trump, the anonymous source is reported as having said.
First reported by the New York Times, discussions centre on whether to deny visas to tens of millions of Chinese in what would be one of Washington’s toughest actions yet in a widening feud with Beijing that some have likened to a new Cold War.
Such a ban, if implemented, could hit the ruling Communist party from the highest levels down to its rank-and-file and would be certain to draw retaliation against Americans who travel to China. This could include not only diplomats but also business executives, potentially harming US interests in China.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said earlier such action by the US, if true, would be “pathetic”.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo stopped short of confirming it was under consideration but said: “We’re working our way through, under the president’s guidance, about how to think about pushing back against the Chinese Communist party.”
The New York Times reports that the presidential proclamation, still in draft form, could also authorise the US government to revoke the visas of party members and their families who are already in the country, leading to their expulsion. Some proposed language is also aimed at limiting travel to the US by members of the People’s Liberation Army and executives at state-owned enterprises, though many of them are likely to also be party members.
Updated
at 5.11am EDT
Still on the race to develop a vaccine, the South China Morning Post is reporting that researchers in Australia have devised a test that can determine novel coronavirus infection in about 20 minutes.
Using blood samples in what they say is a world-first breakthrough, the researchers at Monash University said their test can determine both if someone is currently infected and if they have been infected in the past.
“Short-term applications include rapid case identification and contact tracing to limit viral spread, while population screening to determine the extent of viral infection across communities is a longer-term need,” the researchers said in a paper published in the journal ACS Sensors on Friday.
Hundreds of samples can be tested every hour, the researchers said, and they hope it can also be used to detect antibodies raised in response to vaccination to aid clinical trials.
A patent for the innovation has been filed and the researchers are seeking commercial and government support to scale up production.
In (potentially) positive news, Reuters is reporting that India’s Zydus Cadila plans to complete late-stage trials for its potential coronavirus vaccine in March 2021 and could produce up to 100 million doses a year if trials are successful.
Cadila’s vaccine candidate, dubbed ZyCov-D, is one of dozens being developed around the world to fight the coronavirus.
The Times of India reported on Covaxin, another Indian vaccine, which has been approved for clinical testing. Produced by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, Covaxin is also underway to start testing. Participants across regions have been identified and more updates regarding the same are awaited.
The paper reports that the work on Zydus Cadila’s novel vaccine was accelerated after authorities found promising results in pre-clinical trials, which were conducted on animals like mice, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats who developed necessary antibodies to fight the infection. It was also found that the vaccine candidate was by far safe and “well-tolerated” in early studies.
Interestingly, the paper notes, Zydus Cadila is also involved in the production of experimental anti-viral medication to treat COVID-19, the much-debated Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ).
The South China Morning Post is reporting that African leaders are ‘turning on’ their citizens as efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus fall short and already fragile health care systems struggle to cope with an influx of patients.
The message from governments in several nations that initially praised their citizens for supporting efforts to contain the pandemic has shifted, with some officials now chastising them for not doing enough.
The paper reports that the change in tone marks an attempt by the continent’s leaders to absolve themselves of some of the responsibility for the escalating number of infections, and head off potential social unrest, quoting Amaka Anku, head of the Eurasia Group’s Africa practice.
Infections took off relatively slowly in the world’s poorest continent after many nations imposed stringent lockdowns, but confirmed cases soared as economies reopened, breaching the 600,000 mark this week. Maintaining physical distancing has proved difficult in many crowded slums, and appeals to wear masks have often gone unheeded, with some questioning the seriousness of the disease.
In South Africa, which has almost half the continent’s confirmed virus cases, the government has faced criticism for imposing some seemingly arbitrary lockdown rules that caused undue economic hardship. While the authorities initially conceded they had made mistakes and pledged to rectify them, President Cyril Ramaphosa went on the offensive this week and railed against those who went on drinking sprees, organised parties and failed to wear masks in public.
