What you need to know about the coronavirus

G20 leaders to discuss response to coronavirus
Leaders of the world's largest 20 economies will hold a videoconference chaired by Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Thursday to discuss how best to coordinate their response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has thrown the global economy into a tailspin, with output crashing and unemployment set to soar.
$2 trillion to fight "strange and evil disease"
After bitter negotiations, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday unanimously backed a $2 trillion bill intended to flood the economy with cash to stem the impact of an intensifying epidemic that Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called "a strange and evil disease". The massive rescue package, which would be the largest ever passed by Congress, goes to the House of Representatives for a vote on Friday.

Time-out in U.S.-China blame game ahead of G20 summit
China and the United States have agreed to set aside their differences ahead of the G20 summit to discuss the coronavirus, the South China Morning Post reported, citing a diplomatic source familiar with preparatory talks.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's accusations that China is delaying the sharing of information, and his reference to the coronavirus as a "Chinese virus" - a term President Donald Trump has used - have angered Beijing.
But the message may not have reached the U.S. ambassador to Britain. In an interview with the London Times, he doubled down on criticism of China, accusing it of trying to cover up the epidemic and putting millions at risk.
The spread
There are more than 470,000 cases in 200 countries and territories, Reuters figures tallied at 0200 GMT on Thursday showed. Ninety of these places have 100 cases or more.
Deaths linked to the virus rose by 2,400 to more than 21,000 worldwide. Italy recorded the most in the latest daily figures, with over 680 deaths. The death rate in Spain is also very high.
The United States has taken over from Italy as the country reporting the most new cases. It now accounts for roughly a third of all new cases reported in the past day, with almost 15,000 infections, and over 260 new deaths.
The disease has killed more than 900 people in the United States.
Leave now, Australia tells cruise ships
Australia ordered two cruise ships to leave its waters on Thursday, after a liner that docked in Sydney Harbour last week became the primary source of infection. Cruise ships have become a flashpoint after 147 of 2,700 passengers who were allowed to disembark from Carnival Corp's Ruby Princess later tested positive for COVID-19.
Coronavirus leaves Paris street in 1940s time warp
A Parisian neighbourhood has been left stuck in a World War Two time-warp after the makers of a 1940s-era film had to abandon their set before France went into a lockdown.
War propaganda and Socialist posters are plastered on walls along the cobbled Rue Androuet, in the Montmartre district, now lined by a mock jeweller's store, tailor and off-licence in war-time decor. German road signs point towards medical facilities.
"Just in case quarantined Paris wasn't disorienting enough: my neighbourhood was being used as a film set when the lockdown hit. Now the whole block has been frozen in 1941," resident Tim McInerney wrote on Twitter.
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Breakingviews: Corona Capital - Chinese bears, Bond liquidity
Read concise views on the pandemic’s financial fallout from Breakingviews columnists across the globe.

World

An Australian man accused of killing 51 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand’s worst mass shooting changed his plea to guilty in a surprise move on Thursday. Brenton Tarrant’s guilty plea makes a six-week trial that was due to begin in June redundant. The court will instead move directly to sentencing him on all 92 charges.

An international group of nearly 400 volunteers with expertise in cybersecurity formed on Wednesday to fight hacking related to the novel coronavirus. Called the COVID-19 CTI League, for cyber threat intelligence, the group spans more than 40 countries and includes professionals in senior positions at such major companies as Microsoft and Amazon.com.

Israel’s Supreme Court arranged for a vote for a parliamentary speaker to be held on Thursday in a showdown with an ally of Benjamin Netanyahu, a move that could threaten the prime minister’s long hold on power. In what the court called an unprecedented challenge of its authority by a public official, current speaker Yuli Edelstein had disobeyed its order to hold an election for the post - a vote he was set to lose. Instead, he quit on Wednesday.

Britain on Thursday said heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, who has coronavirus, did not jump the queue for a test because his symptoms and condition met the criteria. Charles, 71, tested positive for coronavirus earlier this week but is in good health and is now self-isolating at his residence in Scotland with mild symptoms along with his wife Camilla, who tested negative, his office said.