HYUNDAI MOTOR’S NET PROFIT FOR Q1 ROSE TO $1.36 BILLION

Highlights –

• Hyundai Motor’s net profit for Q1 rose to $1.36 billion.
• The result is said to have exceeded the median forecast of 1.32 trillion won.
• Hyundai plans to focus on promoting the IONIQ 5 all-electric model.
• I...

JAPAN’S CURRENT ACCOUNT SURPLUS FELL IN FEBRUARY OVER IMPORTS

Highlights –

• Japan’s current account surplus fell in February over imports.
• The current account balance logged a surplus of $27 billion.
• Japan’s goods trade surplus has been more than halved to 524.2 billion yen.

SOUTH KOREA GOVT. PLANS TO PROVIDE EMERGENCY HANDOUTS TO SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

Highlights –

• South Korea govt. plans to provide emergency handouts to small business owners.
• The government plans to do so by early February, around the Lunar New Year holiday.
• The government will provide US$8.6 billion in relief fund...

S. KOREA GOVT. TO GIVE SECOND CHANCE TO SUDENTS TO TAKE MEDICAL LICENSING EXAM

Highlights –

• S. Korea Govt. to give second chance to students to take medical licensing exam.
• Around 2,700 fourth-year medical students had boycotted the exams last year in September.
• The govt. was asked to withdraw its plan to increa...

ELECTRIC VEHICLES DOWN WITH A THUD AMIDST FIRES AND UNSAFE BATTERIES

• New technology and startups always have hitches with electric vehicles also not being spared.
• Random fires in China this year related to electric cars has raised fresh public outcry about the safety of such vehicles.

On August 11, a vehicle from Chinese electr...

RESEARCHERS SAY NEW YORK WAS THE EPICENTER OF COVID-19 IN THE U.S.

Highlights

• State and federal government officials were late to impose travel bans and social distancing measures

• At present, the New York state has reported more than 327,000 cases of coronavirus out of which 178,000 are from New York City

• In the...

LA COUNTY: DISPARATE TESTING ACCESS WITH POOR MORE PRONE TO COVID-19

• The coronavirus is killing and infecting L.A. County’s lower income slab residents and families of color at high rates.
• The county’s public health director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said on Wednesday.

Rates of confirmed COVID-19 deaths and cases in L.A. C...

BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR HAIR SALON IN CORONA

• Lather Studio, hair cutting salon in Corona has reopened its doors after being closed down for nearly six weeks.
• The hair salon is defying state and Riverside County Public Health stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Their line of thinking i...

RANDOMLY ASSEMBLED TAIWANESE KIT TO RESCUE OF COVID-19 PATIENTS

• A creative answer in response to health care provider needs who stand a high risk of contracting the novel coronavirus.
• A global shortage of personal protective equipment, is attracting interest throughout the world, including in Japan.

The Aerosol Box, create...

FACEMASKS TO GET OBLIGATORY IN BONN BEGINNING MONDAY

• From Monday April 29, it is obligatory to wear a mask in many places in Bonn.
• Facemasks were assumed to be in paucity some time back but now are sought in good numbers thanks to plenty makeshift masks available.

Beginning Monday in Bonn, face masks must be wor...

SUN-DRENCHED TURF SPELL ENDS AS RAINS PLAY SPOILSPORT

• Britain all face-to-face with a heatwave that risks pushing all the Englanders back indoors.
• With this the Brits are again back to square 1. They have been flouting norms of social distancing enforced during lockdown.

Britain’s fun-loving and splendid lo...

PACHINKO PARLORS DEFY CLOSURE REQUESTS DESPITE EMERGENCY ORDERS

• The Osaka Prefectural Government held six pinball parlors guilty of non-adherence to Governments directives to shut parlor doors.
• The Osaka prefectural government on Friday disclosed the names of six pachinko pinball parlors that have not heeded to its request to shut down in t...

‘WUHAN DIARY' AUTHOR FANG FANG FACES BACKLASH AND DEATH THREATS

One of the most renowned and acclaimed writers of Chinese origin, Fang Fang started writing a blog or what she calls it an online diary about the rise of dreadful coronavirus in her hometown after the city of Wuhan, which is also termed as epicentre of the virus was sealed.
Her journal was...

KOREA HITS MARKEDLY LOWEST BUSINESS EBB SINCE 2008

• The Korean economy dipped 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, registering the lowest growth rate since the 2008 global financial meltdown.
• Private consumption, in particular, recorded a sharp decline. Experts say the economic impact...

JAPAN TO COUNT ON HOTEL ROOMS FOR REIGNING MILD CORONAVIRUS

• Japan's health ministry ramped up its support measures Friday for prefectures to consolidate accommodations
• Patients were with asymptomatic  or mild cases of the novel coronavirus amid a growing number of confirmed infections nationwide

The move, whic...

WILL COVID-19 BRING INDIAN SCIENCE OUT OF ITS SHELL

• Covid-19 has brought India to a standstill.
• But for Anita Gupta, it has kicked off frenzy in a hectic race against time.

For the bureaucrat — the associate head of innovation and entrepreneurship, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of...

FIVE-POINT AGENDA TO BROACH OPEN COVID-19 TO CHILDREN

• Information can’t get any scarier than this. COVID-19 has got such explosive and scary material onto our porch, that our children could easily get easily flustered by the information.
• How to discuss the nerve-wracking problem of COVID-19 with your children is the crux.

PACIFIC PRINCESS CRUISE PULLED INTO LA PORT AFTER AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE

• The Pacific Princess Cruise Liner finally docked at the port of Los Angeles on the last leg of its journey.
• The Princess Cruise liner had been on high seas since January 5 and was one of the last three ships still in the waterways with passengers aboard.

The P...

SHANGHAI: FOREMOST SOPHISTICATED INVESTMENT DESTINATION

• Shanghai did a volte face with its tech-driven manufacturing services not buckling down under the severe consequences of coronavirus that had most of the economy reeling under its impact.
• The high-end manufacturing units helped counter the stagnancy in economy wrought by corona...

CORONAVIRUS MYTHS ON ITS WAY OUT; BETTER REASON PREVAILS

• As coronavirus goes from strength to strength, one comes across many rumors from local grapevines doing the rounds.
• Some may rise to the occasion while others just fall flat on its face.

The novel coronavirus now known as SARS-COV-2 has spread into every conti...