Buyer beware of Covid-19 ‘cures’

Criminal groups are offering unproven treatments for Covid-19 on the dark web, including vials of blood from recovered patients and samples of vaccines that are still under clinical testing. Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) found 645 listings for medical products, supplies and treatments related to the virus during a survey of 20 online market places on Tor, highly encrypted the browser used to access dark net sites. Read More

Oil price rally belies hard Covid-19 realities

While global oil prices rise after a historic collapse, there is little if any supply or demand indication that the speculative spike is sustainable. As Big Oil companies’ first quarter (Q1) results start to stream in, it’s just as likely the bad earnings news leads to an even more profound drop into the single digits. Read More

China faces triple whammy amid Covid-19 crisis

China faces a triple whammy as it cranks up the economy amid the Covid-19 crisis. Factory activity is proving sluggish, international trade is facing “greater challenges” and consumer spending is shrinking because of unemployment fears. With vast regions of the planet still in lockdown, the omens are ominous. On Thursday, crucial Chinese data about manufacturing activity illustrated the bumpy road to recovery. Read More

Guessing game signals end game for Kim Jong Un

Two reports from the Seoul-based news organization Daily NK on Thursday suggest that earlier claims that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was dead, close to death or in critical condition may have validity. The guessing game may be coming down to the end game. Read More

Japan Inc delays earnings update amid virus carnage

In a nation that celebrates its salaryman as modern-day samurai and is home to globally famed brands, it takes something pretty catastrophic to delay the release of corporate earnings. It happened in 2011 the year a giant earthquake and nuclear crisis shook Fukushima, just 240 kilometers from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It happened after a January 1995 trembler killed more than 6,000 people in Kobe, 33 kilometers from the Osaka Stock Exchange. Read More

Work from home revolution takes hold in India

Percy Master was a worried man when India declared a countrywide lockdown on March 24 to contain the spread of Covid-19. Today, the 51-year-old general manager at Godrej Security Solutions, part of a Mumbai-based conglomerate with a US$5 billion turnover during normal business times, now sees a coronavirus upside – one that may outlive the pandemic. Read More

Virus crisis will open doors to Huawei 5G in Europe

Since the outbreak in China of of the virus that causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease, experts around the world have been looking into how the pandemic will end up impacting the country, and how it will reshape its influence on the global scene. In particular, many have argued that the Belt and Road Initiative will be negatively impacted because of the urgency of focusing energies and allocating resources into the domestic domain. Read More

From the archives

Wolf warriors, Twitter trolls and China’s virus ‘lies’: Beijing is reported to have forced the EU to change a damning white paper about a "misinformation" campaign.

China lends US gas producers a big helping hand: China is boosting imports of US-produced LNG to build stockpiles while prices are low and to fulfill Phase 1 trade deal obligations.

Don’t overlook this possible Kim Jong Un successor: Is Jong Un in vegetative state? The fire in uncle Kim Pyong Il's belly may never have been extinguished.

What Asia Times staff are reading

China’s coronavirus cover-up shows it can’t be trusted: It’s time for countries committed to liberal democracy, free trade and free markets to accept the reality that China is not a partner but a strategic competitor.

Here’s why companies won’t move their supply chains out of China: Morgan Stanley says cash-starved companies lack the funds to invest in new operations and tinker with existing supply chains.

Domestic flights begin returning to the skies in Asia: China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia are among the countries set to resume or increase domestic flights as the virus wanes.