Global trade surged in June as governments started to reopen their economies from strict lockdowns earlier in the year. There was growth in almost all countries, according to CPB World Trade Monitor, after huge declines in the previous three months. Even after the 7.6% jump in June, trade was down 12.5% in the second quarter, with the headline index at the lowest since 2014.

The Hangzhou-based company will issue no less than 10% in new shares of its total capital, according to its filing with the Shanghai exchange. Ant generated 72.5 billion yuan ($10.5 billion) in revenue in the first half, after full-year sales of 120.6 billion yuan in 2019, it said. The firm posted a profit of 21.2 billion yuan in the first half.

"It wasn't bad."

That's what 102-year-old Mildred Geraldine "Gerri" Schappals had to say about getting sick with Covid-19 at her assisted living facility in Nashua, New Hampshire, according to local news site WMUR.

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) will allow employees to work from home until July 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak and will give them $1,000 for home office needs, a spokeswoman for the social media giant said on Thursday.

The company joins other big technology firms that have taken similar steps recently.

Late in July, Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google said it would allow employees who do not need to be in the office to work from home until the end of June 2021, while Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) had proposed remote work indefinitely for some of its employees.

“Based on guidance from health and government experts, as well as decisions drawn from our internal discussions about these matters, we are allowing employees to continue voluntarily working from home until July 2021”, a Facebook spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

“In addition, we are giving employees...

The U.S. State Department has lifted its advisory on avoiding international travel. 

The agency said Thursday in a press release that lifting the global health advisory, issued at the highest alert level – level 4 – March 19, was done in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

"With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the Department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice ... in order to give travelers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions," the release says, adding that the customary level 1 through 4 advisories for specific countries on Travel.State.gov provide more detailed information about specific conditions in individual countries.

"This will also provide U.S. citizens more detailed information about the current status in each country," it continued. "We...