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Robert O’Brien, US president Donald Trump’s national security adviser, has tested positive for coronavirus, making him the highest ranking official in the White House to contract the disease. “He has mild symptoms and has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off-site. There is no risk of exposure to the president or the vice president,” the White House said in a statement.
Belgium has announced new limits on social contact as the country reports a surge in new Covid-19 cases. Prime minister Sophie Wilmès announced a restriction in the “social bubble” of contact to five people per household from Wednesday for the next four weeks. This is a reduction of 15 new people a week that has been in place since late June as the country had gradually lifted its confinement measures.
Kenya has extended a nationwide dusk-to-dawn curfew for another 30 days as coronavirus cases in the east African country have rocketed. President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Monday that police will continue to enforce anti-coronavirus orders as he further decried the aggressive surge of infections among Kenya’s young population. His remarks come amid complaints of police brutality in enforcing coronavirus restrictions.
Greece is poised to ban traditional August festivals around the country because of fears that overcrowding in village streets and squares could cause a rapid upsurge in coronavirus cases. New coronavirus cases have edged up this month with more infections recorded in Athens as well as in Thessaloniki, where protests have been held against Turkey converting the Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque, pictured.
Wall Street advanced on Monday driven by tech stocks and expectations for further stimulus as Republicans’ readied to reveal their proposals. The S&P 500 rose 0.7 per cent led by technology and materials sectors. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.7 per cent. Gold climbed more than 2 per cent in intraday trading on Monday to a record high of $1,945.16 a troy ounce before slightly trimming its gains as the US dollar dropped.
A coronavirus outbreak among one of its teams forced US Major League Baseball to postpone two games on Monday, leaving the future of the sport’s season in the balance less than a week after beginning play. MLB said it is postponing two games scheduled for Monday, between the Baltimore Orioles and Miami Marlins, and between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies, amid reports of an outbreak among the Florida team.
Google has told its workers around the world that most will not need to come back to the office until at least next July. The biggest US tech companies were the first to send workers home when the pandemic struck earlier this year and were also among the first to delay their return-to-work dates until next year. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has also said that he expects half of his company’s employees to work remotely a decade from now.
LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury group, slashed spending on store leases, hiring, and advertising to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic yet saw operating profit dive by 68 per cent in the first half of the year. The group controlled by billionaire Bernard Arnault delivered a weaker-than-expected operating profit of €1.67bn and an operating margin of 9 per cent as store closures and travel restrictions gored its business.