Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has made a televised address to his people ending more than two months of silence as the central African nation dealt with a burgeoning coronavirus crisis.

Biya’s long silence was for supporters a sign of gravitas but for critics one of failure.

Biya on state channel CRTV, Tuesday night said like most countries in the world Cameroon is suffering from COVID-19

Biya urged people to respect “measures taken by the government, such as the obligatory wearing of masks”.

He also asked them not to give in to panic and not to believe false information put out on social networks.

Aircraft leasing company BOC Aviation, controlled by the Chinese state, has become a major shareholder in Norwegian Air Shuttle as part of the ailing airline’s rescue plan.

The low-cost airline ended up in dire financial straits when the new coronavirus pandemic paralysed global air traffic.

Norwegian had earlier adopted a rescue plan, which included a deal with creditors to convert some of the company’s financial liabilities into equity.

The plan enabled the company to strengthen its capital position and meet conditions by the Norwegian state to provide guarantees for 2.7 billion Norwegian kroner ($270 million or 247 million euros) in loans, in addition 300 million kroner in loan guarantees already provided.

Ireland’s AerCap Holdings will become the largest shareholder with 15.9 percent of the shares, as well as convertible bonds representing a further 7.2 percent.

The Federal Government has evacuated 292 Nigerians who were stranded in Saudi Arabia due to the lockdown necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The flight conveying the evacuees arrived late on Tuesday night at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja.

Their arrival was announced on Wednesday morning by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama via his official Twitter handle.

The Federal Government, as part of its efforts to evacuate Nigerians who are stranded abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic evacuated no fewer than 300 Nigerians from the UK about two weeks ago.

Disney's head of streaming Kevin Mayer is stepping down to become the boss of social media platform TikTok.

He has been named the chief executive officer of TikTok and chief operating officer of ByteDance, the platform's Chinese parent company.

TikTok, an app where users post short videos, has seen an explosion of growth since its US launch but it led to scrutiny by the US government over its ties to China.

Mr. Mayer in the release said he is excited to help lead the next phase of ByteDance's journey as the company continues to expand its breadth of products across every region of the world.

According to the Treasury and the Bank of England, Large firms who borrow from the UK taxpayer will be banned from paying bonuses and dividends.

The limit on the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme has been lifted from £50m to £200m.

Firms who want more than £50m will face restrictions until the loan is repaid.

The Bank of England will implement the restrictions on the scheme it runs as well as seeking a letter from firms who wish to borrow for more than a year.

It said big companies who require loans from the Bank's Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) for a term beyond 19 May 2021 "will be expected to provide a letter addressed to HM Treasury that commits to showing restraint on the payment of dividends and other capital distributions and on senior pay".

The Treasury and the Bank of England also announced that from 4 June they will publish a weekly list of the companies who have accessed the Covid Corporate Financing Facility and how much they have borrowed.

Uber has announced a drastic action plan to scale back its business as its losses balloon amid pandemic lockdowns.

The firm said it would cut 3,000 more jobs, bringing the total reductions in recent weeks to a quarter of the workforce.

It is also closing or consolidating more than 40 offices and winding down units such as its artificial intelligence lab.

The head of the firm said the moves were necessary to secure the future of the company.

Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi in a letter to staff said they must establish themselves as a self-sustaining enterprise that no longer relies on new capital or investors to keep growing, expanding and innovating.

Thai Airways has been allowed to restructure its debts to keep its planes in the sky. The struggling airline had previously asked for a government bail-out via a 58.1bn baht ($1.81bn, £1.48bn) loan.

Thai officials however told the airline to come up with a restructuring plan to avoid going bankrupt.

The global airline industry is facing a severe financial crisis due to coronavirus travel restrictions with a growing list of casualties.

Thai Airways was under financial pressure even before the coronavirus outbreak caused passenger numbers to plummet. In 2019, it reported losses of 12bn baht.

Thai Airways said it has no intention to file for bankruptcy, responding to rumours appeared in the news and online.

Tesla is raising the price of its self-driving option on its electric vehicles worldwide starting with a $1,000 (£820) hike.

Founder Elon Musk tweeted that the price will continue to rise as its technology improves however the entrepreneur said the technology it's adding will be worth more than $100,000.

Mr. Musk has been in a battle with officials in California over the restarting of Tesla's US car assembly.

Tesla's "full self-driving" (FSD) option is called Autopilot, although it isn't fully autonomous. Autopilot has a number of features including automatic lane changes, parallel parking and a summon feature, which automatically parks and retrieves the car. Its upcoming features include automatic traffic light and stop sign control.

The self-driving option will cost $8,000 when the price rise kicks in on 1 July.

The number of people claiming unemployment benefit in the UK soared last month, the first full month of the coronavirus lockdown.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the claimant count in April went up by 856,500 to 2.1 million.

Separate ONS figures showed UK unemployment rose by 50,000 to 1.35 million in the three months to March.

The ONS said the unemployment rate was estimated at 3.9%, slightly down on the previous quarter.

Before the lockdown began, employment had hit a record high.

The state-owned company ACSA on Monday said it needs treasury support to finance up to 11 billion rand ($594 million) of new debt by 2025.

Since late March when South Africa declared a state of disaster to contain the new coronavirus, major domestic airports such as the continent’s busiest OR Tambo in Johannesburg have closed, knocking revenue at Airports Company SA (ACSA).

The International Air Transport Association last month said African airlines could lose $6 billion in passenger revenue in 2020.

ACSA in a presentation to lawmakers said New debt of 10 billion to 11 billion rand is required in the next five years and this will require shareholder support in the form of government guarantees.

The operator, which also holds concessions at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport and Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, said about 3 billion rand in guarantees would be required over the next three years.