Paris, Oct 30 (AFP/APP):France headed into a second lockdown on Friday as the resurgent coronavirus pandemic hit new heights in the United States with a daily record of more than 90,000 cases, just five days before the presidential election. From midnight, France’s 65 million population were largely confined to their homes, needing written statements to leave, in the latest drastic measure to curb a disease that has infected more than 44.5 million worldwide and killed nearly 1.2 million. As lockdowns return, oil prices dropped on fears of a slowdown in demand but tech giants Facebook, Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet reported strong quarterly earnings, reflecting the economic shifts caused by the global outbreak. And in the latest bleak warning, the United Nations’ biodiversity panel said future pandemics will be more frequent, deadly and economically damaging, without a fundamental change in the way humans treat nature. The United States, where President Donald Trump will seek re-election on November 3, announced 91,295 new cases in 24 hours, surging past the 90,000-mark for the first time. Trump’s handling of the pandemic in America, the world’s worst-hit county with 8.94 million cases, has been a key theme in the election campaign, where he trails Democrat … Continue reading France back in coronavirus lockdown as US surges to daily record