Tropical rainforests disappeared across the globe at a rate of one football pitch every six seconds in 2019. Brazil was responsible for more than a third of the total.

The conflict between Libya’s UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and Khalifa Haftar’s so-called Libyan National Army (LNA) is drawing increasing involvement from foreign powers.

Protests have erupted in cities across the U.S. sparked by the death in police custody of African-American George Floyd. Curfews have been enforced in Minneapolis as well as Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

Sony has announced that video game fans will finally be allowed to see what its hotly anticipated new PlayStation 5 is capable of via an online presentation on Thursday, June 4, at 20:00GMT.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Minneapolis to protest the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died while in police custody. The number of police killings has hovered around 1,100 every year since 2013, according to Mapping Police Violence.

The European Union is under intense pressure to pick sides between its two biggest trading partners -- the U.S. and China -- over Beijing’s decision to force national security laws on Hong Kong.

Swarms of desert locusts are devastating crops in India’s heartland, threatening an already vulnerable region that is struggling with the economic cost of the coronavirus lockdown.

The UN World Food Programme is warning that around 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America and the Caribbean this year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The European Commission plans to borrow €750 billion on capital markets to issue grants and low-interest loans to EU countries to kick-start a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The United States has reached the grim milestone of 100,000 Covid-19 deaths – almost as many Americans as were killed in World War One, with the White House projecting that as many 240,000 may die by the time the pandemic runs its course.

The U.S. military has accused Russia of deploying fighter aircraft to Libya “repainted to camouflage” their origin in support of mercenaries fighting for eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar's forces.

A U.S. Navy warship has successfully tested a new high-energy laser weapon that can destroy aircraft and drones in mid-flight, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet said. USS Portland locked onto and disabled an unmanned aerial vehicle.

An annular solar eclipse will awe sky watchers with a “ring of fire” visible from sunrise in Africa to sunset over the Pacific.

The fungal disease fusarium wilt is ravaging the $25 billion banana industry. A strain known as Tropical Race 4 is now spreading among the banana heartlands of Latin America.

Sales of the Nintendo Switch video games console have soared during lockdown, mostly thanks to a game called Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Nintendo released Animal Crossing on March 20, just as the world was locking down to try and prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

U.S. President Trump is to pull out of the Open Skies arms control treaty -- after quitting the Iran nuclear deal and Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty -- the fate of New START now hangs in the balance.

China’s 2020 defence spending will rise 6.6 percent to 1.3 trillion yuan ($180 billion), the lowest growth rate in years as it battles an economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus outbreak.

Russia’s state-run energy giant Gazprom says it has begun design work for a new pipeline project, dubbed Power of Siberia 2, that would more than double the volumes of natural gas it could deliver to China

The people of Argentina remember all too well the 2001-02 debt crisis. Now, almost two decades later, a deadline to pay a $503 million bond payment looms as the government struggles with $65 billion of sovereign debt.

Events in June include Italy and other European countries easing border restrictions in a bid to welcome back visitors. G7 and EU leaders hold crucial summits by video conference, Africa and Asia witness an annular eclipse.

Samsung Electronics is sponsoring the development of a window-shaped lighting device that produces artificial sunlight.

Britain has set out a new post-Brexit global tariff regime which will ensure that 60% of trade will come into the UK tariff-free -- compared to 47% currently -- from January 2021.

More countries are advising people to wear a mask when they go out in public, as growing evidence suggests that even a simple cloth face covering could help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

As air travel returns for the summer, social distancing on aircraft has become a topic of debate. Airlines could reduce capacity by leaving middle seats empty, but most would struggle to make a profit without increasing fares.

President Trump says he is taking a malaria drug to protect against the coronavirus, despite warnings of potentially fatal side effects. Trials have suggested that the drug hydroxychloroquine can cause serious heart problems.

Swiss drugmaker Roche has launched its new SARS-CoV-2 antibody test. Known as Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2, the test determines whether a person may have gained immunity against the virus with 99.8% accuracy.

Norwegian archaeologists are excavating the largest longship found in more than a century, dating from the dawn of the Viking age.

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be more active than average, with 16 named tropical storms. Of those, researchers expect eight to become hurricanes and four to reach major hurricane strength.

Economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic has hit the European Union’s eastern member hard in the first quarter as they face the worst recession since the fall of the Iron Curtain.

A treatment which involves antibodies donated by people who have recovered from a coronavirus infection is helping thousands of patients worldwide who are severely ill with Covid-19.

Facebook reports a big jump in the number of posts removed for promoting hate speech, which the company attributes to better detection by automated sniffers developed by its AI experts.

The U.S. has more confirmed cases of COVID-19 than any other country according to daily updates from the Johns Hopkins University, at around a quarter of the global total, with fatalities expected to reach between 100,000- 240,000.

International tourism plunged 22 percent in the first quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus, and the crisis could lead to a decline of up to 78 percent over the whole year, according to the UN World Tourism Organization.

Global working hours in the second quarter of 2020 are expected to be 10.5 percent lower than before the coronavirus crisis started -- equivalent to more than 300 million full-time jobs, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Clinicians have traced the brutal rampage wrought by the SAR-CoV-2 coronavirus through the body, from the lungs -- ground zero -- to the heart and blood vessels, kidneys, gut, and brain.

Global energy demand is on course to fall by six percent in 2020 – the steepest decline in 70 years – according to an International Energy Agency (IEA) report that assesses the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Denmark’s political parties have given the green light to the construction of the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link, a planned 18km immersed tunnel which will reduce travel time between the country and Germany to just a few minutes.

Higher than usual demand for a niche sythetic fibre is contributing to a global shortfall in protective masks and gowns for healthcare workers.

Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist, is a defining figure in the history of Western music, whose work marks the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras.

Up to 135 million people were living in food crises in 2019 – up from 112 million a year earlier, according to the World Food Programme.

More than 70 coronavirus vaccines are in development around the world -- with four drugmakers already running clinical trials -- Oxford University’s Jenner Institute began trials on April 16.

More countries are advising people to wear a mask when they go out in public, as growing evidence suggests that even a simple cloth face covering could help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

More countries are advising people to wear a mask when they go out in public, as growing evidence suggests that even a simple cloth face covering could help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Viruses are a package of nucleic acid bundled inside a collection of lipids and proteins which can include a fat-based viral envelope -- soap can destroy a virus from your hands before it can lead to infection.

The recent recovery of whales, seals and other marine species have allowed scientists to formulate a plan showing how the glory of the world’s oceans could be restored within a generation.

Germany is set to become the first major European football league to resume play –albeit behind closed doors – despite the coronavirus pandemic.

World governing body FIFA is proposing to allow up to five substitutions per match when play eventually resumes to protect players from injury and fatigue amid the fixture congestion generated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The UEFA European Championships, set to take place in 12 cities across Europe, has been delayed by one year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The showpiece is now scheduled for June and July 2021 after an emergency video conference involving major stakeholders on Tuesday.

The 2020 Formula One World Championship - expected to be the longest in history with 22 races but so far marking the sports’s 70th anniversary in lockdown - is tentatively set for a return to the grid in Austria .

The draw for the second Nations League tournament pits inaugural champions Portugal against France, Sweden and Croatia, while 2019 runners-up Netherlands face Italy, Bosnia and Poland in their quest to go one better this time.

Eleven teams will be lining up on the grid for the opening MotoGP of the season - currently hoped to be the Catalunya GP in Barcelona - with smaller teams, a skeleton crew and races held behind closed doors

The rescheduled 2020 Tour de France starts in the south and takes in all five of the country’s mountain ranges, three of which, the Alps, Massif Central and Pyrenees, are tackled in the first eight days.