Zoom’s Eric Yuan, Guyana’s good fortune and Trump’s hack attacks

Image of the week: Essential laundry

On a clothesline in Rome, face masks are hung out to dry as the Italian lockdown continues with only minor modifications that have seen the opening in some areas of bookshops, stationery outlets and stores selling children’s clothes. Around the world, the public wearing of masks has become a common sight (and is mandated in some countries), though so underprepared were many governments for a virus such as Covid-19, that workers in hospitals and care homes are struggling to access the proper masks designed for healthcare settings.

Single-use personal protective equipment (PPE) items have been redefined as multiple-use in some cases as "the front line" is forced to compromise, to the potential detriment of their own health and the health of others. Amid the scramble to control the spread of the virus and save lives, global procurement battles continue. As one NHS supply executive put it, "It's a competitive market out there."

In numbers: Economic outlier

1
Only one country in the Americas will record any economic growth in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund's latest world outlook. Yes, they're all partying in Guyana. (Well, not quite.)

53
Percentage economic expansion that the South American country is expected to see in 2020 while the pandemic plunges much of the rest of the globe into deep recession.

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8 billion
Estimated barrels of oil Guyana has untapped in its offshore fields. There are hopes that tapping it might put a dent in the high rates of Guyanese poverty.

Getting to know: Eric Yuan

What a pandemic Eric Yuan (50), founder of video-conferencing app Zoom, is having. Just last week the Chinese-American businessman became one of 178 new entrants on the Forbes billionaires list with an estimated fortune of $5.5 billion. This week, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index calculated it at $7.4 billion. The San José company's share price has more than doubled since working from home became less of a lifestyle choice, more of a government instruction, and Zoom's stock has rocketed despite a slew of criticism about its cybersecurity. ("Is Zoom being mistreated by the media?" was the title of a LinkedIn post recently shared by Yuan.) He says he first envisioned Zoom as a student in China when tedious 10-hour train journeys prompted him "to imagine the ways I could visit my girlfriend without travelling". Hmm, it's not quite the same when you're not there, though, is it?

The list: Trump’s media attacks

You don't have to be a hotshot investigative reporter hanging out in underground car parks and corridors of power to know that Donald Trump doesn't like journalists very much. Here are some of his recent responses to their inquiries.

"You're so disgraceful."
Trump wasn't best pleased with CBS's Paula Reid asking him what exactly he had been doing about coronavirus in February. "You know you're fake, you know that, your whole network."

"Enough, please."
Trump had no real comeback when CNN's Kaitlan Collins told him his claim to total authority wasn't true. "Who told you that the president has total authority?" He couldn't answer.

"I call it Con-cast."
When NBC News's Peter Alexander asked Trump what he would say to Americans who are scared, Trump replied: "I say that you are a terrible reporter", before coming up with another name for NBC parent company Comcast.

"Nasty question."
Trump's fallback is to brand the question a "nasty" one, as he did to PBS's Yamiche Alcindor when she wondered why exactly he had scrapped the White House National Security Council pandemic team two years ago.

"Nasty, snarky question."
Trump went one better on the adjective front in reply to long-term thorn-in-his-side Jim Acosta from CNN after he asked him what he had to say to Americans who believed he had got his handling of the coronavirus crisis wrong.