International goods and services trade surplus in China stood at 424 billion yuan (about 60 billion U.S. dollars) in May, according to official data.

Trade income amounted to 1.59 trillion yuan while expenditure stood at 1.17 trillion yuan, according to data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

In breakdown, China's goods trade income stood at 1.46 trillion yuan with an expenditure of 965 billion yuan, leading to a 494.2-billion-yuan surplus, the data showed.

Meanwhile, services trade saw a 70.2-billion-yuan deficit, as services income and expenditure stood at 130.2 billion yuan and 200.4 billion yuan, respectively.

Germany lawmakers of the lower house of parliament on Friday voted to finalise the country’s long-awaited phase-out of coal as an energy source by 2038.

Two bills, which are expected to get approval from the upper house later Friday, to shut down the last coal-fired power plant and spending some 40 billion euros ($45 billion) to help affected regions cope with the transition.

According to Germany’s ‘energy transition’ plan - an effort to stop Europe’s biggest economy off planet-warming fossil fuels and generate all of the country’s considerable energy from renewable sources.

As Germany has an existing commitment to also phase out nuclear power by the end of 2022, it’s harder in achieving that goal than in comparable countries such as France and Britain.

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Greenpeace and other environmental groups have staged protests against the government’s plan, arguing that it won’t reduce Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to meet the targets set out in the Paris climate accord.

“Germany, the country that burns the greatest amount of lignite coal worldwide, will burden the next generation with 18 more years of carbon dioxide,” said Martin Kaiser, executive director, Greenpeace Germany.

Kaiser, who was part of a government-appointed expert commission, accused Chancellor Angela Merkel of making a “historic mistake.”

The end date for coal of 2030 would have sent a strong signal for European and global climate policy, he said.

Environmentalists have also criticised the large sums being offered to coal companies to shut down their plants, a complaint shared by libertarians such as Germany’s opposition Free Democratic Party.

Read Also: Coal-fired power plants only to invite disasters: Activists

Katja Suding, a FDP lawmaker, said the government should have opted to expand existing emissions trading systems that put a price on carbon, thereby encouraging operators to shut down unprofitable coal plants.

However, Germany’s main miners’ union, Michael Vassiliadis, welcomed the decision, calling it a “historic milestone.”

He urged the government to focus next on an expansion of renewable energy generation and the use of hydrogen as a clean alternative for storing and transporting energy in the future.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday named Jean Castex as the country's new prime minister.

Castex, who coordinated France's virus reopening strategy, will replace Edouard Philippe, who resigned earlier in the day.

Macron has been reshuffling the government to focus on restarting the economy after months of lockdown. Many government members are expected to be replaced in the reshuffle, reports AP.

Castex, 55, is a public servant who has worked with multiple governments.

In an interview on Thursday, Macron said he is seeking a "new path" to rebuild the country for the two remaining years of his term.

Read Also: French PM resigns, country to name new one soon

He praised Philippe's "outstanding work" in the past three years.

"I will need to make choices to lead (the country) down the path," he said.

The reshuffle comes days after a green wave swept over France in local elections. Macron saw his young centrist party defeated in France's biggest cities and failing to plant local roots across the country.

It was planned even before Sunday's voting, as Macron's government faced obstacles and criticism before and during the virus crisis.

As the pandemic was peaking in the country in March and April, authorities came under fire for the lack of masks, tests and medical equipment.

Before that, Macron's pro-business policies, widely seen as favouring the wealthier, had been hampered by the yellow vest economic movement against perceived social injustice. This winter, weeks of strikes and street demonstrations against a planned pension overhaul disrupted the country.

In addition, Macron's efforts to boost job creation have been swept away by the economic and social consequences of the country's lockdown.

The government issued a 460 billion-euro emergency package through a state-funded partial activity scheme, tax cuts and other financial aids for businesses, and Macron needs to adapt his policies as France's economy is expected to shrink by 11 percent this year.

The unemployment rate that fell from 9.2 percent at the beginning of Macron's term in 2017 to 7.6 percent earlier this year — its lowest level since 2008 — is now expected to increase steadily.

"Our first priority will be to rebuild an economy that is strong, ecological, sovereign and united," Macron said in a televised address to the nation on June 14.

He ruled out any tax rise and instead said "working and producing more" is the response amid bankruptcies and layoffs caused by the crisis.

He put an emphasis on creating new jobs with climate-oriented policies including renovation of old buildings and greener transport and industries.

Philippe, 49, is expected to become the mayor of his hometown of Le Havre, in western France, after he won a large victory in Sunday's voting.

A conservative, former member of The Republicans' party, he had joined Macron's government in May 2017.

He had seen his popularity sharply increase in recent weeks, according to French poll institutes that show many French consider he did good job in gradually easing virus-related restrictions in the country and enforcing an emergency package to support the French economy.

Altogether 1,000 scientists and researchers from all over the world agreed on the need for more trials to test antivirals, immunomodulatory drugs and anti-thrombotic agents, as well as combination therapies, at different stages of Covid-19 disease.

They came to this agreement at two half-day virtual summit on July 1 and 2, organised by the World Health Organization (WHO), said a press release.

The researchers and scientists came together on a global platform to track the progress of Covid-19 Research and Development (R&D).

The virtual meeting analysed 15 vaccine trial designs from different developers, and criteria for conducting robust trials to assess safety and efficacy of vaccine candidates.

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Participants discussed the use of a global, multi country, adaptive trial design, with a common DSMB, and clear criteria to advance candidates through the various stages of trials.

The researchers, developers and funders from all over the world also shared approaches and raw data freely, in a show of solidarity from the global science community.

All major research institutes carrying out trials shared their data with a view to speeding up scientific discovery and implementation of solutions.

The group reviewed the latest data from the WHO Solidarity Trial and other completed and ongoing trials for potential therapeutics: hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir, remdesivir and dexamethasone.

The attendants noted that most internationally funded research projects have so far favoured high-income countries, with very few funded in low- and middle-income countries.

The also highlighted the importance of the ACT-Accelerator Initiative to speed up the development and equitable deployment of COVID-19 tools.

They said more evidence has been emerging that transmission from humans to animals is occurring, namely to felines (including tigers), dogs and minks.

Read Also: Covid-19 global death toll now 520,634

WHO has been gathering the latest international multilingual scientific findings and knowledge on a COVID-19 data base, and is running an international therapeutics trial – the solidarity trial.

As of July 1, nearly 5,500 patients in 39 countries had been recruited into the trial.

Overall, over 100 countries in all six WHO regions have joined or expressed an interest in joining the trial, and WHO is actively supporting them with ethical and regulatory approvals of the WHO core protocol.

They have been supported in identification of hospitals participating in the trial, training of hospital clinicians on the web-based randomisation and data system as well as shipping the trial drugs as requested by each participating country.

Shortly after announcing the resignation of France Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Friday, the country is set to name a new Prime Minister soon.

In an interview with several local newspapers on Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron said he is seeking a “new path” to rebuild the country.

Macron is seeking to open a new chapter for the two remaining years of his term that will focus on efforts to relaunch the French economy deeply hit by the coronavirus crisis.

He praised Philippe’s “outstanding work” in the past three years.

“I will need to make choices to lead (the country) down the path,” he said.

The reshuffle comes days after a green wave swept over France in local elections. Macron saw his young centrist party being defeated in France’s biggest cities and failing to plant local roots across the country.

The reshuffle was planned even before the voting, as Macron’s government faced obstacles and criticism before Sunday’s election and during the virus crisis.

As the pandemic was peaking in the country in March and April, authorities came under fire for the lack of masks, tests and medical equipment.

Before that, Macron’s pro-business policies, widely seen as favoring the wealthier, had been hampered by the yellow vest economic movement against perceived social injustice. This winter, weeks of strikes and street demonstrations against a planned pension overhaul disrupted the country.