Elmo, Cookie Monster and Muppets from Asia and the Middle East are joining forces for a special episode of “Sesame Street” aimed at helping kids cope with a world turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reports.

“Elmo’s World News,” airing over the next few weeks in 13 languages across Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, will share activities, play, and advice on how to manage “big feelings” like frustration and sadness.

In the 25-minute special, Elmo hosts a news show from his bedroom, with Cookie Monster playing a special correspondent showing his “Things That Make Me Happy” activity box.

Grover plays a weather reporter who learns how to play inside, while Basma and Jad, the stars of the “Ahlan Simsim” Arabic version of “Sesame Street,” show how to manage feelings with dance.

The hospitalisation of Honduras president with Covid-19 and pneumonia Wednesday has drawn attention to another country struggling under the pandemics strain as cases rise sharply in the capital, AP reports.

President Juan Orlando Hernández announced late Tuesday that he and his wife had tested positive for the virus. Just hours later he was hospitalised after doctors determined he had pneumonia.

From March to 7 June, Honduras confirmed 6,327 coronavirus infections. In the 10 days since, it added 3,329 more, a surge that has come after the government began a gradual reactivation of the economy.

In the currency market, the safe-haven yen rose about 0.3% to 106.72 per dollar while the US dollar also firmed against risk-sensitive currencies, Reuters reports.

The euro dipped 0.1% to $1.1235 while the Australian dollar lost 0.4% to $0.6852, also hit by worse than expected employment data.

Australia’s unemployment rate jumped to the highest in about two decades in May as nearly a quarter of a million people lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic-driven shutdowns.

Oil prices also dropped with US crude futures falling 1.9% to $37.49 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent lost 1.4% to $40.14 a barrel.

Asian stocks and Wall Street futures fell on Thursday as spiking coronavirus cases in some US states and China crushed hopes of a quick global economic comeback from the pandemic, Reuters reports.

S&P 500 mini futures fell 1.2% in early Asian trade while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost as much as 1%.

Japan’s Nikkei lost 1.3% while in mainland China, bluechip CSI300 shares shed 0.1% in early trade.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 lost 0.36% on Wednesday but tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.15% due to hopes of increased demand for various online services due to the epidemic.

Several US states including Oklahoma, where President Donald Trump plans a campaign rally on Saturday, reported a surge in new coronavirus infections.

The daily count of infections also hit a new benchmark in California and Texas, while Florida and Arizona also recorded the second-highest daily increases.

China’s capital cancelled scores of flights, shut schools and blocked off some neighbourhoods as it ramped up efforts to contain a coronavirus outbreak that has fanned fears of wider contagion.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 580 to 187,764, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Thursday.

The reported death toll rose by 26 to 8,856, the tally showed.

The Bank of England, confronted by Britain’s collapsing coronavirus-ravaged economy, will later Thursday reveal the outcome of its latest monetary policy meeting, with analysts predicting more stimulus.

The British central bank has been at the forefront of economic fire-fighting over this year’s deadly Covid-19 emergency – and could expand its quantitative easing stimulus in an attempt to kickstart growth.

The pandemic has so far killed more than 41,000 people in Britain, making it the third worst hit country in the world, while the nationwide lockdown shrank the size of the UK economy by more than a fifth in April alone.

In response to the crisis, the BoE in March slashed interest rates to a record-low 0.1 percent and pumped an extra £200 billion ($247bn, 220bn euros) in a bid to get retail banks lending to fragile businesses. That took the bank’s QE total to £645bn.

Australia’s unemployment rate has jumped to 7.1% after another 227,700 people lost their jobs thanks to coronavirus, AAP reports.

The jobless rate had already climbed from 5.2% in March to a revised 6.4 per cent in April, as the deadly global pandemic gripped the country.

May’s monthly drop in the number of people employed is the second largest on record after nearly 600,000 got sacked in April. Another poor set of figures had been expected as a result of nationwide lockdowns.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed full-time employment had decreased by 89,100 while part-time employment dropped by 138,600. The participation rate of people either in or seeking work fell by a further 0.7% to 62.9%.

Monthly hours worked fell 0.7% in May, to be down 10.2% since March.

“Children interrupting Zoom meetings could be the reboot corporate culture needed,” writes Catharine Lumby:

The other day I was in a Zoom meeting with colleagues I don’t know that well. The tone was serious and formal when suddenly everything changed. The door behind the man chairing the meeting burst open and his toddler ran in, jumped on his lap and smeared Vegemite all over his computer screen.

It reminded me of the video that went viral in 2017. Prof Robert Kelly was being interviewed live by the BBC when his small daughter strutted into the room behind him. His toddler spotted the open door and followed his sister in with great delight. The clip ends with a frantic mother removing the kids.

We may not be seeing each other at work these days but in some ways we’re seeing a lot more of each other than we anticipated. That revelation is making me think that screens might be perversely better at connecting us than face-to-face workplace life.

China’s Vice Premier Liu He said the country’s economic situation has gradually improved, and that various indicators have shown marginal progress, in prepared remarks delivered on Thursday by the chief securities regulator.

Liu also said in the remarks that China and the United States should create the conditions and atmosphere to implement the Phase 1 trade deal reached earlier this year.