South Africa’s rand firmed early on Monday, as the government partially lifted a lockdown that has battered an economy which was already in recession before the coronavirus crisis.

At 0635 GMT, the rand traded at 17.3650 to the dollar, 0.94% firmer than its previous close.

South Africa is letting more people outside for work, worship, exercise or shopping from Monday, and allowing mines and factories to run at full capacity to try to revive the economy.

The rand gained from a general improvement in sentiment towards riskier currencies, as investors looked to positive signs from China’s post-coronavirus economic recovery and wagered on an easing in Chinese-U.S. tensions.

China on Monday said that U.S. attempts to harm Chinese interests will be met with firm countermeasures, criticising Washington’s decision to end special treatment of Hong Kong as well as actions against Chinese students and companies.

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters during a briefing that both countries stand to benefit from bilateral cooperation but said Beijing will resolutely defend its security and development interests.

Russia State financial backer told Reuters that it will start administering its first approved antiviral drug to treat coronavirus patients next week, a move it described as a game changer that should speed a return to normal economic life.

The head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund told Reuters in an interview that Russian hospitals can begin giving the drug to patients from June 11, with enough to treat around 60,000 people per month,

The drug registered as Avifavir is the first potential coronavirus treatment to be approved by Russia’s health ministry. It however appeared on a government list of approved drugs on Saturday after clinical trials.

RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev said clinical trials involved 330 people and showed that the drug successfully treated the virus in most cases within four days.

Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has picked British startup Beacon, a digital freight forwarder, for his latest investment.

Beacon said it raised over $15 million in Series A fundraising, from investors including Bezos and venture capital firm 8VC.

The startup, formed by two former Uber Technologies Inc executives two years ago, is already backed by Uber founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, along with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Beacon is also a supply chain finance firm that provides real-time data of cargo delivery and a marketplace view of global shipping costs and prices.

Delta Air Lines Inc and its pilots union said they are working to avoid absences of roughly 2,300 pilots following a reshuffling process meant to match staffing to summer 2021 flying.

Delta said this month that it would have more pilots than needed as it reduces its network and fleet due to a drop in demand from the COVID-19 pandemic, but is working to avoid involuntary furloughs.

Delta confirmed the release of the results of the bid to better align our staffing with our future flying demand” and said it is looking at all options to mitigate or minimize furloughs and will continue working with ALPA in the coming weeks to explore those options.

World stocks were just shy of three-month highs and the dollar weakened further on Monday as optimism on economies opening up boosted risk appetite, shrugging off worries over riots in the U.S. and unease over Washington’s power struggle with Beijing.

Stocks were set to kick off June with more gains after having risen a whopping 35% from a late March trough. The MSCI all country world stocks index has covered two-thirds of the losses it incurred in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak.

Monday’s gains were also lifted by relief that while President Donald Trump began the process of ending special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong to punish China, he left their trade deal intact.

Buyout funds KKR, Cinven and Providence have mounted a friendly bid to pay up to 2.96 billion euros ($3.30 billion) for Spain’s MasMovil MAS.MC, sending shares in the telecom operator soaring more than 20%.

It is the first attempt by heavyweight private equity investors to buy a publicly listed company in Europe in a so-called take-private deal since the coronavirus crisis brought most transactions in the region to a halt.

The funds offered 22.50 euros per MasMovil share and said shareholders with 29.56% had already committed to sell at a price that represents a 20% premium over its price at the end of trading on Friday.

A group of 200 travel companies has written to Home Secretary Priti Patel asking for current quarantine plans for people entering the UK to be scrapped.

It follows calls last week from MPs and travel bosses to reconsider the rules.

From 8 June, people entering the UK from abroad will be told to isolate for 14 days.

The letter suggests travel should be possible for people without quarantine between destinations deemed safe from coronavirus.

The lead author of the letter, George Morgan-Grenville, boss of tour operator Red Savannah, said this is not just a group of company bosses complaining, but employees from bottom to top calling for the quarantine plans to be quashed.

Global stock markets fell while bonds and the Japanese yen gained on Friday, as investors awaited Washington’s response to China tightening control over the city of Hong Kong.

China’s parliament on Thursday pressed ahead with national security legislation for the city, raising fears over the future of its freedoms and its function as a finance hub.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he would hold a news conference on China later on Friday. Trepidation about a further deterioration in Sino-U.S. relations put investors on edge.

European stocks opened lower, with the pan-European STOXX 600 index down 0.86%. Germany's DAX fell 1.2%, Britain's FTSE 100 by 7% and France's CAC 40 by 1%. Futures for the S&P 500 ESc1 slipped 0.4%.

Twitter has hidden one of President Donald Trump's tweets from his profile, saying it violates rules about glorifying violence.

It has however not been deleted but replaced with a warning and can be viewed by clicking on it.

The warning says Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.

It is the latest in an escalating row between Twitter and the White House.

Mr. Trump was tweeting about the US city of Minneapolis, which has seen consecutive nights of protests following the death of a black man in police custody.

The president said he would send in the National Guard and followed that up with a warning that when the looting starts, the shooting starts.

Twitter's policy of adding a warning to, rather than deleting, tweets that break its rules when it comes to major public figures was announced in mid-2019. But the social network has never used it on Mr. Trump - nor deleted any of his tweets before.