BitGou: Monday Morning Briefing: Coronavirus relief bill slows in U.S. Senate, talks continue

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Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus today:

Relief bill stymied in U.S. Senate
The U.S. Senate's drive to pass a $1-trillion-plus coronavirus response bill was stymied late on Sunday, as Democrats held out for more money to help state and local governments and hospitals, while Republicans urged quick action to give financial markets a sign of encouragement. Following two successful emergency aid bills, this latest effort includes financial aid for regular Americans, small businesses and critically affected industries, including airlines.

Olympics in the balance
After Canada and Australia confirmed they would not send athletes to the Tokyo Olympics if it went ahead this year, other nations are now going public with calls for a delay. Poland said it was impossible in the current situation for athletes to train properly, and Ireland's Olympics chief has suggested next year is now a more viable time slot. That came as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged for the first time the Games may need to be postponed if they could not be held in their "complete form".

Three's a crowd, Merkel says before going into quarantine
Germany has banned public meetings of more than two people unless they live together in the same household or the gathering is work-related, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday, one of a bundle of stricter curbs on social interaction.

The spread
Globally, there are now more than 337,500 cases of coronavirus and more than 14,650 deaths related to it, according to a recent Reuters tally.

Follow the latest news updates on the coronavirus outbreak.

U.S. axed CDC expert job in China months before virus outbreak. Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned. The American disease expert, a medical epidemiologist embedded in China’s disease control agency, left her post in July, according sources with knowledge of the issue.

Nearly one in three Americans was under orders on Sunday to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic as Ohio, Louisiana and Delaware became the latest states to enact broad restrictions, along with the city of Philadelphia. The three states join New York, California, Illinois, Connecticut and New Jersey, home to 101 million Americans combined, as cases nationwide topped 32,000, with more than 415 dead, according to a Reuters tally.

From Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Global crises can provide good cover for embarrassing corporate announcements. Plus: why Royal Dutch Shell and Total have left their dividends intact. Breakingviews columnists across the globe tackle the latest financial fallout from Covid-19.

World

Communist-run Cuba said it dispatched a brigade of doctors and nurses to Italy for the first time this weekend to help in the fight against the novel coronavirus at the request of the worst-affected region Lombardy. Cuba has sent its “armies of white robes” to disaster sites around the world largely in poor countries since its 1959 revolution. Its doctors were in the front lines in the fight against cholera in Haiti and against ebola in West Africa in the 2010s.

Britain sent in the army to deliver protective equipment to hospitals and told people to stay at home and heed warnings over social distancing or the government would bring in more extreme measures to stop the coronavirus spread. Greece on Monday suspended flights from Britain and Turkey to curb the spread of coronavirus, as a lockdown took effect in the country.

The United States should lift sanctions if Washington wants to help Iran to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said, adding that Iran had no intention of accepting Washington’s offer of humanitarian assistance. Iran is the Middle Eastern nation worst hit by coronavirus, with around 1,700 deaths, over 21,000 infected people and one person dying from the virus every 10 minutes, according to the health ministry.

Mainland China saw a drop in its daily tally of new coronavirus cases, reversing four straight days of gains, as the capital Beijing ramped up measures to contain the number of infections arriving from abroad. The city of Beijing expanded measures to contain imported infections, diverting all international flights arriving from Monday to other airports in other cities, including Shanghai and as far west as Xian, where passengers will undergo virus screening.

Business

SoftBank to raise $41 billion to expand share buyback, cut debt

SoftBank Group said it is selling or monetizing up to 4.5 trillion yen ($41 billion) in assets to buy back 2 trillion yen of its shares and reduce debt, sending its stock soaring to its biggest daily gain in nearly 12 years.

3 min read

Skies clear as more flights grounded by growing coronavirus curbs

Widening curbs on travel to contain the spread of the coronavirus led airlines to ramp up flight cancellations, with new restrictions spanning Australia, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

5 min read

Central banks deploy record sums to break financial logjam, but may need more

Central banks have offered trillions of dollars of support to markets in recent days to keep them from freezing up, as investors worried about the economic damage from the coronavirus and made a chaotic dash for the exits.

8 min read