As the UK is in lockdown over the COVID-19 pandemic, with many businesses shut down and millions of workers furloughed, concerns have been sparked as Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority warns many companies will not be eligible for insurance payouts.

On 14 April, US President Donald Trump announced that he would withhold US funds from WHO, accusing the organization of poor management in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and of conspiring with China to hide crucial information about the spread of the virus during the early stages of the outbreak.

In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, beaches in Australia were closed to the public; however, mere days after restrictions were lifted, they became off-limits once again after beachgoers failed to adhere to social distancing orders.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has prompted travel restrictions and the cancellation of public gatherings across the globe as governments fight to curb the spread of the deadly disease. UFC events were also cancelled.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - London Mayor Sadiq Khan has allotted additional funding worth 4 million pounds ($5 million) to community groups tackling the coronavirus outbreak in the UK capital city, including ethnic and sexual minorities, his press service said on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The COVID-19 situation is much worse than the 2009 outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, also known as swine flu, and the economic consequences of the coronavirus crisis on countries could be even more significant than the virus itself, leaving millions of people facing hunger, Abeer Etefa said.

LONDON (Sputnik) - The lawyers of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will ask the court next week to postpone the activist's extradition hearing, a statement by the campaign against Assange's extradition to the United States said Friday.

US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo previously supported the idea of probing China over allegations that the novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory studying viruses, despite Beijing and many in the scientific community debunking a theory.

On Friday, Boris Johnson won kudos from US President Donald Trump who said that he was “actually surprised” about the UK prime minister’s swift recovery from the coronavirus.

Several institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), previously urged London to extend the transition period before for the "economic Brexit" due to the health crisis that has affected both Britain and the bloc, but the conservative government of Boris Johnson refused to do so.

BEIJING (Sputnik) - Doctors of China's Wuhan city that had become an initial epicenter of the coronavirus infection have cured the last patient, who was in critical condition, and thus there are currently only patients with mild symptoms of the disease in the city, Mi Feng, the spokesman for the Chinese National Health Commission, said on Friday.

Last week, President Donald Trump confirmed that the US is investigating whether the COVID-19 pandemic began in a Chinese laboratory, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging Beijing to come clean about the outbreak.

For the fifth Thursday night in a row, my wife, daughter and I stood in our front garden and joined the hundreds of others on our street and the millions across Scotland and the UK to applaud, bang pots and pans and compress car horns for the frontline health and care workers who face the dangerous battle against COVID-19 daily.

While Sweden's Public Health Authority has estimated that up to one-fourth of Stockholmers may be infected with COVID-19 by 1 May, Professor Björn Olsen has argued that this won't be the case.

The death toll from the coronavirus has surpassed 190,000 worldwide and continues to grow. Most nations have introduced severe quarantine and social distancing measures, also tightening border controls in order to curb the pandemic.

Forced to make substantial military budget cuts, Bangkok is moving to suspend a number of arms deals, including the Royal Thai Navy’s (RTN) anticipated procurement of two additional S26T submarines from Beijing.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump told reporters that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson stunned him with his tremendous energy during their phone call, as the British leader has reportedly made a swift recovery from the coronavirus.

At a White House news conference on Thursday, a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said government scientists studying what conditions will kill the COVID-19 coronavirus had found the virus dies quickly when exposed to sunlight, heat, humidity and cleaning chemicals like bleach and isopropyl alcohol.

With the US House Representatives' vote of 388-5, Congress has passed the “Phase 3.5” relief bill, which dedicates federal funding to hospitals for ramped up COVID-19 novel coronavirus testing and more than $300 billion in bailouts for small businesses.

On Thursday, the number of US deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic surpassed 47,000, with over 850,000 cases registered throughout the country, according to data posted by the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Centre.