Trump vows immigration ban as US protestors demand lockdown end

Drastic measures never before seen in peacetime have shredded the global economy, resulting in the extraordinary spectacle of oil prices turning negative as demand evaporates.

World leaders are agonising over when to loosen restrictions, terrified of a second wave but aware their citizens need to work and live amid growing signs of social tension.

US President Trump, who has encouraged anti-lockdown protests roiling parts of the country, said Monday he would halt immigration -- a theme long popular with his supporters.

"In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" he tweeted.

At least 22 million jobs have been lost in the US since sweeping lockdowns were implemented to slow the spread of the virus, and exasperation is growing in some parts of the country.

"People will starve, they'll commit suicide, they'll lose everything over this. The cure -- like Trump said -- the cure cannot be worse than the disease," she said.

While such demos have captured much attention, more than four in five Americans would approve of a national stay-at-home order, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll.

But isolated protests are also springing up elsewhere from Russia to France, where demonstrators in a run-down northern Paris suburb clashed with police they accuse of enforcing lockdown rules too harshly.

- 'Like a war situation' -

In hard-hit Europe, several countries are cautiously creeping out from confinement measures, buoyed by mounting signs the worst of the virus may be behind them.

Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Germany was "still a long way from being out of the woods," as she allowed smaller shops from florists to fashion stores to reopen.

"It is a huge reprieve. We have a listening government," hawker Jemima Adwoa Anim told AFP.

"It was like a war situation. We had no money and at the same time couldn't step out to work to earn some cash," she added.

But others were furious the restrictions had been lifted so early.

"This is totally ridiculous. How is it possible?" asked 20-year-old student Francis Collison.

- 'Extraordinary' trading day -

The coronavirus fallout has sparked fears of a second Great Depression with millions of job losses around the world as economies shudder to a halt.

But with sharply reduced demand for oil due to the economic slowdown, there is little storage to be found, meaning traders preferred to effectively pay someone to take it off their hands.

Futures prices rebounded back above zero in Asian trade Tuesday after what Trifecta Consultants analyst Sukrit Vijayakar described as "one of the most extraordinary trading days in the history of any commodity."

However, the oil market movements weighed heavily on US and Asian stocks, with Japan's Nikkei closing down nearly two percent and European equity markets opening in the red.

The virus has sent the aviation sector into a tailspin with cash-strapped Virgin Australia announcing Tuesday it had entered voluntary administration -- the largest airline so far to collapse.

"I am so proud of you and everything we have achieved together," said British tycoon Richard Branson in support of Virgin Australia, in which he owns a 10-percent stake.

After cutting a swathe through the global sporting schedule, another high-profile annual event fell victim to the coronavirus as authorities in Germany cancelled this year's Oktoberfest -- a beer-swilling festival in southern Bavaria.

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