The number of US deaths attributed to Covid-19 surpassed 45,000 on Friday, while the rate of new cases remained flat

British fatalities rise by 813 with almost 150,000 infected; Spain prepares to ease restrictions slightly as daily deaths remain below 400

In today’s news: UK warns it would be ‘irresponsible’ to discuss easing lockdown. Spain sets out plan to lift its own tough measures. Donald Trump signals a halt to his daily media briefings as US death toll accelerates.

New daily cases of Covid-19 around the globe rose by the lowest amount in 12 days as 73,858 diagnoses were confirmed on Sunday, bringing the total to 2.93m

Deaths in England and Wales are highest on record in mid-April while cases in the US surpass 1m

The worldwide Covid-19 death toll rose by 6,365 on Tuesday, pushing the total through 200,000

Eurozone GDP in historic fall, millions more Americans file for unemployment, Shell cuts dividend for first time since second world war and UK's AstraZeneca combines with Oxford on a potential vaccine

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Spain allows outside exercise for the first time in weeks while Russia’s daily case count rises by a fifth

The FT's live blog on the Covid-19 pandemic

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez says no other option remains but to maintain the state of alert

Russia's coronavirus outbreak worsens and Federal Reserve research finds a correlation between deaths from the influenza pandemic in 1918-1920 and extremist voting in Germany in 1932 and 1933

The US private sector shed a record 20m jobs in April as coronavirus lockdowns and the resulting closure of non-essential businesses led to historic joblessness

BT halts dividend for first time since dot com bubble two decades ago, BA parent IAG warns of further cuts as recovery set to take three years and shoemaker Puma warns worse to come as profits halve in first quarter

Germany's dominant export sector in record decline, South Korea may be forced to close bars and nightclubs after partygoer is found to have infected at least 14 people

Thousands attend military parade in Belarus even as virus spreads rapidly in neighbouring Russia, UK airline industry warns of huge blow if travel quarantine is launched and Seoul closes down bars and clubs in wake of new cluster

Swiss company announces ‘challenging’ results a day after its chief executive quit

Concerns over climate change led the chemicals veteran to dramatically transform Syngenta

Pharma and chemicals group says it will ‘defend itself vigorously’ amid mounting cases

The Nobel laureate talks to Anjana Ahuja

With the disastrous purchase of Monsanto and plummeting shares, some question if it is time to break up the German group

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Jim Ratcliffe-led chemicals group adds top-flight team to growing sports portfolio

Concern over use of chemicals drives research into alternatives

New Novozymes chief will need fresher ideas to achieve success

German chemicals group faces surge in plaintiffs alleging cancer link to Roundup

Deal to create one of world’s biggest chemicals groups beset by management clashes

Welcome to Due Diligence, the FT’s daily deals briefing

New York company wins bidding against Kerry for nutrition and biosciences unit

Projections suggest $300m in annual cost savings and $400m of revenue benefits

US flavouring group seeks first-mover advantage with purchase of nutrition venture

Move boosts chemicals group’s growing sports investment portfolio

Cheap shale gas has fed an investment boom in products that often end up as waste. Has the petrochemicals industry miscalculated?

Mark Cutifani says polyhalite a ‘very differentiated’ product to potash

Rise in plaintiffs comes as German chemicals group reports 19% jump in sales

German chemicals group blames Brexit and trade tensions for earnings fall

Iodine producer rejects Brexiter’s coronavirus play as ‘probably not very educated’

Amid charges of greenwashing from activists, the private company is investing in football, cycling and other ventures

Products vital to combat coronavirus could become more expensive and scarce

Demand surges as hospitals require more medical oxygen for coronavirus patients on ventilators

Zeitgold has raised a Series B round of $29.2 million (€27 million). Overall, the company has raised more than $54 million (€50 million). The company is building a software platform for small companies to automate bookkeeping as much as possible. Vintage Investment Partners is leading today’s round with existing investors Battery Ventures, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, […]

At the start of the year, it looked like Europe would be in for a “Summer E-Scooters / E-Bike War,” as both regional startups and U.S.-backed unicorns vied for the pockets of city commuters. Consolidation came when German startup Circ was taken over by U.S. competitor Bird at the start of the year. Still on […]

Like other accelerators, Techstars, a network of more than 40 corporate and geographically targeted startup bootcamps, has had to bring its marquee demo day events online. Over the last two weeks of April, industry-focused accelerators working with startups building businesses around mobility technologies (broadly) and the future of the home joined programs in Abu Dhabi, […]

AskRobin, an Estonia-founded fintech that operates a financial services marketplace for “underbanked” customers in Latin America, has picked up $1.7 million in funding. The seed round is backed by VC funds Change Ventures, Vereeni Early Stage Fund, BENE Asia Capital, and Lemonade Stand. In addition, a number of tech entrepreneurs from Estonia participated, such as […]

Banked, a London-based fintech using open banking to enable account-to-account payments at checkout (and beyond), has raised £2.35 million in further seed funding. The round was led by Force Over Mass, with participation from previous investors Backed and Acrew Capital, along with a number of high-net-worth individuals, such as Paul Forster (co-founder of Indeed.com). It […]

A number of UK entrepreneurs have banded together to survey Angels about their investment strategy. The initiative comes in the wake of the UK government’s “Future Fund” for startups, which has been criticized as being inadequate for the needs of Angel and Seed-stage startups. The group hopes the survey will give the UK early-stage investment […]

The Europas Awards — which have been recognising the hottest European tech startups in since 2009 — are now open for the public voting stage, prior to the formal judging process. The entries have been sorted and sifted by journalists to compile an editorially-driven ‘long list’ of some of Europe’s most exciting startups and investors. […]

Meet Kairn, a new startup coming out of stealth today with a sneak peek of what the company has been working on. As Wunderlist shuts down, Kairn wants to prove that there’s still room for an innovative task-management service. “We’re building a task manager that is smart and focused on capturing tasks,” co-founder and CEO […]

VC fund Runa Capital was launched with $135 million in 2010, and is perhaps best known for its investment into NGINX, which powers many web sites today. In more recent years it has participated or led investments into startups such as Zipdrug ($10.8 million); Rollbar this year ($11 million); and Monedo (for €20 million). HQ’d […]