World News

NEW YORK — Stocks shot to a 3.4% gain on Wall Street Wednesday as investors chose to focus on the optimistic side of data about the coronavirus outbreak’s trajectory. It’s the latest about-face in this brutally volatile stretch for the U.S.

NEW YORK — Some people, the songs just come out of them. For nearly half a century, they tumbled out of John Prine like nothing.

LONDON — European planemaker Airbus said Wednesday it is reducing production by about a third as demand for aircraft and travel plummets due to the coronavirus pandemic.

BRUSSELS — European governments remained at loggerheads Wednesday over measures to help the economy weather the coronavirus outbreak, breaking off a meeting of finance officials who clashed over aid conditions and proposals to borrow together to pay

LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in intensive care with the coronavirus but is improving and sitting up in bed, a senior government minister said Wednesday, as the U.K. recorded its biggest spike in COVID-19 deaths to date.

John Prine, the ingenious singer-songwriter who explored the heartbreaks, indignities and absurdities of everyday life in “Angel from Montgomery,” “Sam Stone,” “Hello in There” and scores of other indelible tunes, died Tuesday at the age of 73.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The global chemical weapons watchdog issued a report Wednesday blaming the Syrian air force for a series of chemical attacks using sarin and chlorine in late March 2017 on the central town of Latamneh.

NASHVILLE — The wife of celebrated singer-songwriter John Prine said she was able to sit with her husband in the last hours of his life. Prine died Tuesday at 73 from complications of COVID-19.

WASHINGTON — Sen.

LONDON — A truck driver accused in the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants whose bodies were found inside a refrigerated container that had been hauled to England pleaded guilty to manslaughter Wednesday.