"Close to 90 million people are likely to fall [into] extreme poverty." 

That's the flip side of the IMF's prediction that China and the U.S. will quickly recover from the economic effects of the pandemic over the next two years. Although the prediction is a good sign for the global economy, it won't be much help to those 90 million individuals. 

We bring you the latest moves in Washington, where the Biden administration is settling in and getting its nominees appointed by Congress. 

There's an update on the Danish mink industry (don't worry, it's not as gruesome as the last one I brought to your inboxes), and we look into the future of work with the help of a pair of VR goggles. 

Do click below to watch a demonstration of how the system, which could lead your next team meeting, works. 

Until next time, 

Patrick Atack

Digital business correspondent 

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The International Monetary Fund has predicted the sharpest economic recoveries post-pandemic will be in China and the U.S. By 2022, the fund said it expects the world's largest economies to be no more than 1.5 percent smaller than expected before the outbreak. 

In the U.S., the first week in office for the Biden administration is nearly over, but the action is coming thick and fast. Discussing his landmark COVID-19 relief bill, President Biden showed his willingness to compromise, suggesting the cut-off for $1,400 stimulus checks could be lower than first thought.

Biden also nominated Janet Yellen as the first woman to be Treasury Secretary – the highest financial office in the country. Yellen was chair of the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, between 2014 and 2018. She has now been confirmed in her latest role by the Senate and said the government should not be afraid to "act big" to turn around the economy. 

Some of the largest commercial firms, unions and the World Economic Forum have signed a declaration asking governments to designate commercial sailors as "key workers" to let them return home and crews to swap. At least 200,000 shipping workers are stranded by the pandemic. 

Playing sports "behind closed doors" since the pandemic began was always expected to have a significant detrimental effect on clubs, and an annual survey of football clubs' finances has confirmed what many feared. The top 20 richest clubs have lost a combined $2 billion according to Deloitte. 

The Danish mink industry isn't one of Europe's best-known sectors, but this winter it hit headlines as 17 million animals were culled following an outbreak of COVID-19 in the farms. But after many dark days, there could be light at the end of the tunnel after the Copenhagen government agreed to compensate the industry to the tune of $3.1 billion. 

Republic of Korea car maker Hyundai said it hopes to increase the electric vehicle slice of its sales by 60 percent in the coming year. Sales grew by 60,000 in 2020 and the Seoul-based firm hopes a new project with tech giant Apple will produce even higher sales in 2021. 

In Scotland, the 183-year-old department store Jenners is to shut after failing to come to an agreement with its landlord, Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, who is also among the small group of people who own the most land in the UK. Jenners was taken over by Mike Ashley's Frasers Group in 2005. 

Chip maker Intel has admitted that instead of a "hack" leading to the leak of its sensitive financial information, it was actually a security slip by the firm that allowed outsiders to see the online documents before their official release. Intel said it uses very similar URLs for its releases and this allowed a third party to guess it – and therefore access the materials. 

Finally, the Biden administration (quite possibly with input from incomer Yellen) has restarted the plan to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, where controversial President Andrew Jackson can currently be seen. Jackson is most well-remembered for the Trail of Tears, when he forcibly removed Native Americans from their land. Tubman is remembered for saving enslaved people on the so-called Underground Railroad. 

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Conte's future hangs in the balance

What the world has learned from lockdown

Meet Barry... he's part of a virtual reality training simulation and it's your job to fire him – again and again and again. 

The market for VR technology in the workplace is expected to increase five-fold by 2023 and it's training exercises like these that are going to drive that. 

Yesterday, another famous department store in the UK, Debenhams, was bought out in name only, so will likely disappear from the high street. CGTN Europe spoke to Oxford University's Jonathan Reynolds, who explained why that's big news. 

Has the pandemic led to the fall of Debenhams? 

It was already in some difficulty, so as far as the future of retail is concerned, I'm not sure Debenhams had a part in its future as a store-based retailer. And we've seen the growth of online fashion retailers that are looking to acquire the brand reputation of a business like Debenhams.

Is there anything that could have been done to save it?

It's a matter of luck, because it depended on the nature of the lockdown imposed by different governments and whether that affects your retailing. So, for example, the UK home improvement retailers have been trading over the last few periods of lockdown. They've turned in quite good results, whereas clothing retailers have not.

So is Main Street dead?

I think to say that store-based retailing is dead is definitely an exaggeration. We can already see online retailers like Amazon looking to open stores in different towns and cities around the world. Its acquisition of Whole Foods, for example, was a great instance of that.