Blogroll

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin decided to pull out of negotiations on digital services taxes with European Union officials after they failed to make any progress, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Wednesday.

The U.S. government proposed a pause in Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development talks about international taxation while governments work to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury said.

Brazil recorded 1,269 additional COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, bringing its official death toll from the novel coronavirus to 46,510, the most in the world outside the United States.

Several U.S. civil rights groups called upon some of the world's largest companies to pause advertising on Facebook Inc in July, saying the social network is not doing enough to stop hate speech on its platforms.

Search startup Onna Technologies Inc, which helps companies find information buried within emails, chats and storage services, announced on Wednesday $27 million in new funding from venture capital firm Atomico and past investors such as Slack Technologies Inc .

Turkey on Thursday made it compulsory for people to wear face masks when outside in the country's largest cities of Istanbul and Ankara, as well as the northwestern city of Bursa, in a bid to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Alphabet Inc's Google on Wednesday announced a new hiring goal and security policy to address racial issues at its offices, as protests over police brutality against African Americans have carried into discussions about corporate culture.

Roche Holding AG's Actemra did not improve symptoms in patients with early-stage COVID-19 pneumonia, scientists conducting a study of the drug in Italy said on Wednesday, raising questions about the potential of the Swiss drugmakers' rheumatoid arthritis drug to treat the novel coronavirus.

Twitter Inc said on Wednesday it is testing a new feature that will allow users to tweet using their voice, capturing up to 140 seconds of audio in a single tweet.

Drugmaker Gilead Sciences said on Wednesday it will soon begin enrollment of pediatric patients with moderate-to-severe COVID-19 in a late-stage study testing its experimental drug, remdesivir.

Signs of hope are starting to show in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, but it added that countries must continue to work on prevention measures to limit the spread of the new coronavirus.

The U.S. Justice Department proposed on Wednesday that Congress take up legislation to curb protections big tech platforms like Alphabet's Google and Facebook have had for decades, a senior official said, following through on U.S. President Donald Trump's bid to crack down on tech giants.

The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

Zoom Video Communications Inc is planning to offer all its free and paying users end-to-end encryption for video calls and will launch a trial version in July, the video conferencing provider said on Wednesday.

The number of people who died from coronavirus infection in France rose by 28 to 29,575 on Wednesday, a figure more in line with the current trend after a spike in deaths on Tuesday due to the inclusion of weekly data for nursing homes.

The number of people who died from coronavirus infection in France rose by 28 to 29,575 on Wednesday, down sharply versus Tuesday when the weekly data for nursing homes were included.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday reported 2,132,321 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 27,975 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 722 to 116,862.

In Brazil, home to the world's second worst coronavirus outbreak, one thing seems to be spreading faster than the virus: the suspect, and sometimes strange, strategies to treat it.

An intense season of fires in the Amazon rainforest this year could overwhelm health systems and lead to unnecessary deaths, including of coronavirus, as pollution worsens respiratory conditions, public health experts said on Wednesday.

A cheap steroid that can help save the lives of patients with severe COVID-19 should be reserved for serious cases in which it has been shown to provide benefits, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.