The world in brief, March 9th 20

Stockmarkets and bond yields【债券收益率】 plunged on Monday after Saudia Arabia started an oil-price war on rival producers. With the spread of the new coronavirus depressing oil demand, big crude exporters had been expected to agree production cuts. But Russia refused, prompting Saudi Arabia to offer price discounts and announce an increase in output. The drama spooked 【惊吓；(因受惊吓而)逃窜】investors, resulting in a 30% collapse in the oil price, a broad drop in equities, and a fall in American bond yields to a new record low.

Italy placed nearly 16m people in its northern and central provinces under quarantine due to covid-19. On Sunday the total number of infections jumped 25% to 7,375. Schools, museums, nightclubs and other venues【场地；(体育)场馆；会场；集合地点】 will close across the whole country. The number of worldwide cases of the coronavirus responsible for covid-19 surpassed 110,000, with more than 3,800 deaths.

North Korea launched three more short-range missiles into the sea. South Korea called it a “large-scale” military drill in which projectiles fired from the country’s east coast flew 200km before landing in the sea between North Korea and Japan. A three-month break in missile testing by the North ended on March 2nd.

California senator Kamala Harris endorsed Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. It is a boost for Mr Biden, who completed a stunning political comeback【卷土重来；东山再起；回归】 in the Super Tuesday primaries last week. Ms Harris herself dropped out of the race last December. It is now a straight fight between the moderate Mr Biden and left-winger Bernie Sanders.

Twitter tagged a video retweeted by Donald Trump as “manipulated media”, applying a new rule for the first time. The clip, which seems to show Democrat Joe Biden endorsing the Republican president, was cut from a longer speech. On March 5th Twitter unveiled its new policy of highlighting posts it thinks have been doctored【〈口〉窜改(文件,账目等)】 to be deliberately misleading.

The European Union will hold a meeting with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the migrant crisis. Under a deal struck in 2016, the EU promised to provide €6bn ($6.8bn) to Turkey to help keep millions of refugees, mainly from Syria, within its borders. But under the pressure of renewed fighting in Syria, Turkey says that it will no longer respect the deal as it stands.

Marches and protests took place across the world to mark the UN-designated International Women’s Day. In Pakistan women took to the streets in defiance of threats of violence and legal challenges. In Mexico women stencilled the names of some of the 3,000 victims of femicide in the country since 2016 on the pavement in front of the National Palace in the capital.