The coronavirus epidemic sent US jobless totals soaring to historic highs Friday, increasing pressure on authorities to follow Europe in phasing out lockdown measures despite still climbing American death tolls.
Germany, meanwhile, marked the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe with a call for global cooperation to beat the virus, as Washington and Beijing continue to wrangle over the blame for its spread.
The US Labor Department reported that the lockdown, which at its peak froze business and social life for half the planet, has wiped out 20.5 million jobs leaving the world’s largest economy with a historic 14.7 per cent unemployment rate.
Neighbouring Canada also shed three million jobs, bringing its rate up to 13.1 per cent, and this follows a warning earlier in the week from Brussels that Europe has plunged into a massive recession.
US President Donald Trump played down the fall, telling Fox News in an interview moments after the numbers were published: “It’s fully expected, there’s no surprise … I’ll bring it back.”
But the United States has already seen protests against the lockdown, which public health experts see as vital to halt the coronavirus’ spread, despite the country now having a confirmed death toll of 75,543 from at least 1,254,750 cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
– ‘Never alone’ –
The devastating US figures were published as much of Europe slowed down to mark 75 years to the end since the end of World War II on the continent under the cloud of the virus, which forced the cancellation of traditional victory parades in many cities.
In Germany, where the memorial is a sombre reflection on the country’s rescue from Nazi rule, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier drew a parallel between the war and the new scourge that has already killed nearly 270,000 people around the world.
“For us Germans, ‘never again’ means ‘never again alone’,” Steinmeier said at a Berlin ceremony. “If we don’t hold Europe together, including during and after this pandemic, then we are not living up to May 8.
“We want more, not less cooperation in the world — also in the fight against the pandemic.”
Far from bringing the world together, the epidemic that has infected 3.8 million has triggered a war of words between China, where the epidemic began, and the United States, where it is at its worst.
Trump has dubbed the outbreak the “worst attack we’ve ever had” and blamed China for failing to stop its spread, suggesting that it may have escaped from a Chinese laboratory.
China rejects the charge, and America’s allies are not convinced.
According to German news weekly Der Spiegel, citing a leaked internal memo, Germany’s defence ministry and spy agency see Trump’s claim as a “calculated attempt to distract” from Washington’s own failings.
- AFP