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There's anxiety and confusion among people living in a bustling coastal village in India's southern state of Kerala these days. The 4,000-odd families of Poonthura, a hamlet of fishermen next door to the capital city of Trivandrum, have been served with strict stay-at-home orders. Nobody can enter or leave the place. Businesses are shut and transport suspended. Commandos and policemen have patrolled the streets to enforce a stringent lockdown. Earlier this month, more than 100 people in Poonthura's densely packed villages hugging the Arabian Sea contracted Covid-19 after some of them visited a fish market. This contributed to a sharp spike in infections in a state which, in May, appeared to have tamed the virus. "People are confused, isolated and tense," Father Bebinson, the vicar of the local church, told me. "They can't make out what has suddenly hit them." He's right. Barely two months ago, Kerala was looking like a striking outlier in the battle against coronavirus in India. But cases have surged in the last few weeks, and the state government is now saying the virus is locally transmitting through coastal communities, the first such admission by officials in any state since the beginning of the pandemic in India. "The real surge in Kerala is happening now. The virus had earlier been curbed in a controlled situation when the state's borders were closed," Dr Lal Sadasivan, a Washington-based infectious disease specialist, told me. In January, Kerala reported India's first Covid-19 case, a medical student who returned from Wuhan in China, where the pandemic began. The number of cases rose steadily, and it became a hotspot. But in March, half a dozen states were reporting more cases than the picturesque southern state. By May, sticking faithfully to the contagion control playbook of test, trace and isolate and involving grassroots networks, Kerala brought down its case count drastically - there were days when it reported no new cases. "The mark of zero", The Hindu newspaper rhapsodized in an editorial about the containment effort. There were breathless stories about the state flattening the curve. "I remember saying that Kerala had achieved a viral miracle," says Jayaprakash Muliyil, a leading epidemiologist. The celebrations were clearly premature. Kerala took 110 days to report its first thousand cases. In mid-July, it was reporting around 800 infections a day. As of 20 July, Kerala's caseload had crossed 12,000, with 43 reported deaths. More than 170,000 people were in quarantine, at home and in hospitals. One reason, say experts, for this sharp uptick is that nearly half a million workers returned to the state from the Gulf countries and others parts of India after the grinding countrywide lockdown, which shut businesses and threw people out of their jobs. Some 17% of Kerala's working-age po[CENSORED]tion works outside the state. Unsurprisingly, more than 7,000 of the reported cases so far have a history of travel. "But when the lockdown travel restrictions were lifted, people came flocking back to the state, and it became impossible to curb the re-entry of infected cases," says Shashi Tharoor, a senior Indian opposition politician and member of parliament from Trivandrum. Mr Tharoor remembers a conversation he had with Chief Minister Pinayari Vijayan soon after the first repatriation flights carrying Keralites working in the Gulf countries landed in Kerala. "He lamented that not only the virus was coming in, but infected people were transmitting the contagion to fellow passengers on the plane." "I think this was unavoidable, since every citizen has a constitutional right to come home to India, even if they are ill. But that made a major difference," Mr Tharoor told me. The influx has possibly sparked a surge in local community transmission - since early May, reported cases without any travel history have gone up. More than 640 of the 821 new cases reported on Sunday, for example, were contracted locally, officials said. The source of 43 of them is untraceable. The easing of the lockdown led to many people moving out of their homes and not taking enough precautions. "Some amount of laxity was expected as people have begun going out to work in most areas. We are trying to motivate them to be safe," B Ekbal, head of an expert panel advising the government on prevention of the virus, told me. Some critics say testing slowed after the caseload fell in what they believe was a sign of complacency. These days Kerala is testing more than 9,000 samples a day, up from 663 in April. Its testing rate per million of the po[CENSORED]tion is lower than in states such as Andhra Pradesh, where cases are rising quickly as well, or Tamil Nadu, which has long been a hotspot. But it's ahead of Maharashtra, the country's biggest hotspot so far. Kerala is doing a bouquet of tests - diagnostic, pooled, rapid antigen and antibody among others - but it is not clear how many cases are being detected by each of these tests. This is pushing up testing numbers, but possibly not reflecting the correct picture. "Testing has been ramped up. But it's never enough. No state is being able to test as widely as needed," says Dr A Fathahudeen, who heads the critical care department at Ernakulam Medical College. Most epidemiologists believe Kerala has done a good job on the whole. The case fatality rate - the proportion of people who die among those who have tested positive for the disease - is one of the lowest in India. The hospitals are not yet overwhelmed by a surge of patients. The state boasts India's most robust public health system. The government has begun rolling out first line Covid-19 treatment centres with oxygen-equipped beds in hundreds of villages. Kerala is also a cautionary tale against premature media declarations about the flattening of the curve, which involves reducing the number of new cases from one day to the next. Experts say flattening the curve is a long and tortuous journey. Gabriel Leung, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, says "the restrictions must be lifted and reapplied, and lifted and reapplied, as long as it takes for the po[CENSORED]tion at large to build up enough immunity to the virus". T Jacob John, a retired professor of virology at Christian Medical College, Vellore, offers an interesting analogy. "Combating Covid-19 is like running on a treadmill whose speed is being cranked up. As the virus spreads you have to run faster to tame it. It's exhausting, but there is no other choice," he says. "It's a test of endurance".

When a young black man was murdered on the idyllic Danish island of Bornholm, it emerged one of the suspects had swastika tattoos. The killing of the 28-year-old, who had a Danish father and a Tanzanian mother, coincided with a vigorous debate about racism in Denmark. But police are adamant there was no racial motive. Rights groups have reacted by questioning whether potential hate crimes are being seriously investigated.The man's body was found last month at a woodland campground in Bornholm, a po[CENSORED]r holiday getaway destination in the Baltic Sea. Two white men, brothers aged 23 and 25, have been charged with the killing. The pair, who cannot be named, both admit to violence, but pleaded not guilty to manslaughter. According to court documents the victim was struck by wooden beams and a bottle. He suffered multiple knife wounds, burns and a possible skull fracture. A knee was also pressed against his throat. The circumstances have driven speculation that the crime was racially motivated, and prompted parallels to be drawn to George Floyd, the African-American who died in Minneapolis when a police officer held a knee against his neck for several minutes. A video clip purportedly showing the older brother, with his lower leg tattooed with two swastikas and the words "white power" has also been shared on social media. Black Lives Matter Denmark labelled it a "racist copycat honour killing" on Facebook. Various other rights groups, politicians and commentators have also pointed to racism. However local authorities took the exceptional step of publicly ruling it out. "I have been out saying that they have a personal thing, and it hasn't in my opinion anything to do with racism," Benthe Pedersen Lund, the prosecutor handling the case, tells the BBC. The charges were read out at a custody hearing on 24 June, at the courthouse in Bornholm's main town of Roenne, but the rest of the proceedings are being heard behind closed doors. No further details have been made public, including what this "personal" motive might be.The victim grew up on Bornholm. He was visiting his family, after recently completing his engineering studies. Friends described him as well liked, and his social media posts revealed a love of motivational messages and an interest in science and the environment.The accused also come from Bornholm. Locals have told Danish media the older brother and victim were even friends, and doubted that racism was involved. Besides the swastika there are other indications the older brother allegedly held far-right views. His Facebook page carries the slogan "White Lives Matter". In another photo, he's wearing a flat cap and holding his hand in a V-sign, a gesture associated with supporters of Stram Kurs (Hard Line), a Danish far-right group.Local media revealed the brother had attended a Stram Kurs event in June, but was thrown out. Several people told Danish media he had previously made racist remarks. The younger brother has no known far-right affiliations.

Brazil's coronavirus outbreak is one of the world's most severe, with more than 2m cases recorded since March. In fact, it is the second worst affected country behind the US. More than 74,000 people have died with the virus there and, owing to a lack of testing, the true figures are believed to be even higher. Here, we illustrate how the pandemic has played out in the South American country. The outbreak took some time to reach Brazil and it was the Amazonas region which was badly hit by the first wave of cases. In the state capital Manaus, a man can be seen arranging coffins at a funeral parlour.Officials warned that the stock of coffins in the region was likely to run out. They were forced to dig large burial sites as deaths spiked, and poverty and malnutrition made tackling the virus in the heart of the Amazon rainforest a major challenge. Indigenous communities have been among the worst affected by the virus and Manaus is home to a large proportion of them. Many of their homes are situated far away from health facilities. On the outskirts of the city, nurse Vanderlecia Ortega dos Santos, responded to the crisis by volunteering to care for her indigenous community of 700 families.And here, people can be seen moving a coffin in a rural community in the northern state of Pará. It was later buried in a cemetery at the mouth of the Amazon river . But it was not long before the virus spread to major cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Cases then began to rise sharply. In May, São Paulo's mayor warned that its underfunded health system was on the verge of collapse as it became a new hotspot for Covid-19. He said demand for hospital beds had skyrocketed. This hospital, built inside a sports gym in the city, is one of many makeshift facilities that opened up. But despite the rise in cases there was still no national lockdown. States and cities adopted their own measures, but these were met by protests and data later showed that compliance lessened as time went on. Stay-at-home orders and other restrictions were criticised by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who denounced them as "dictatorial". He even joined anti-lockdown protests in the capital, Brasilia. This image shows supporters of the president at a separate demonstration in Rio de Janeiro.Mr Bolsonaro has repeatedly played down the risks of what he calls "little flu" and his response to the pandemic has been heavily criticised. He has argued that regional lockdowns are having a more damaging effect than the virus itself, and accused the media of spreading panic and paranoia. The president has also been spotted meeting supporters while not wearing a mask, such as here in Brasilia.And while many people share his concerns about the economic impact of lockdowns, health officials have disagreed with his approach. In fact, two doctors have left their posts as health minister since the pandemic began, one was sacked, one resigned. Mr Bolsonaro also said he would not be seriously affected by the virus. "I'm not going to be brought down by a little flu," he said in March. That's been put to the test, as earlier this month he tested positive for Covid-19. This image shows the president meeting the US ambassador Todd Chapman the day before he said he started to feel symptoms. The pair were seen shaking hands, and Mr Chapman later went into quarantine. Image copyright AFP On 20 June, Brazil became only the second country to pass one million cases and that number has continued to rise steadily. Experts say it is likely much higher due to a lack of testing. But lockdowns were lifted even as cases surged. In Rio and São Paulo, restaurants and bars were reopened despite the continued increase in transmissions. Image copyright Getty Images The rise in cases and the relaxation of lockdown measures left some Brazilians feeling as though they needed to take matters into their own hands. And one couple took extreme measures to keep safe. A chronic lung disease means that accountant Tercio Galdino, 66, is at high risk from Covid-19. He and his wife wear special outfits when out and about in Rio de Janeiro. And, as an added bonus, the outfit lets him celebrate his love of space.There is some hope, however, two major vaccine tests, in partnership with the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Sinovac, will soon begin final phase testing on thousands of Brazilian volunteers. The hope is that a breakthrough on this front could help Brazil reverse its worrying rise in cases and deaths. This striking image shows a cemetery in Manaus where new graves have been dug during the pandemic.

EU leaders are meeting in their first face-to-face summit since the coronavirus crisis, with low expectations of a deal on a €750bn (£670bn) post-Covid stimulus package. The mask-wearing leaders, who met with elbow bumps not handshakes, must also agree a seven-year, €1.07tn budget. French President Emmanuel Macron said it was a "moment of truth" for Europe. There are splits between leaders over whether the post-Covid package should be given as grants or loans. Mr Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel want grants to mostly finance the fund. Four northern nations insist on loans. Arriving for the talks in Brussels, Mrs Merkel said "the differences are very very big and I cannot say if we will find a solution this time". It would be desirable, she said, but people had to remain realistic. Other leaders gave her and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa birthday gifts - however, the good-natured scenes inside the summit come after weeks of squabbling over the rescue package. The meeting is due to continue on Saturday but EU leaders may need longer to reach a deal. "The stakes couldn't be higher," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said ahead of the meeting. "The whole world is watching us." Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said nobody should lose sight of the big picture - "we're faced with the biggest economic depression since the Second World War". But Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country is part of the so-called "Frugal Four" northern states, said he "put the chances of getting a deal this weekend at less than 50%". Southern states including Italy and Spain want an urgent decision "not weakened by a lesser compromise", in the words of Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. They need to revive economies battered by a devastating pandemic that claimed 35,000 lives in Italy and a further 28,400 in Spain. The Frankfurt-based European Central Bank has already forecast an 8.7% slump in the eurozone economy this year because of the pandemic. But economies that only recently pulled out of a financial crisis want grants rather than taking on further debt he recovery plan, backed by France and Germany, for €500bn in grants and subsidies and €250bn in loans, is being resisted by several "frugal" Northern European countries, led by the Netherlands. The EU recovery fund is already controversial as the money would be borrowed on the financial markets, to be paid back some time after 2027. It's made up of a number of different instruments, but the biggest part of it would be geared to supporting green and digital investment, and reform. Some 30% of the funding could be tied to climate projects.The frugal states, which include Austria, Sweden, Denmark and to some degree Finland, want some control over how the money is handed out. The Southern states say that will hold the process back. There is also pressure to whittle down the size of the €750bn fund, so the solvency instrument devised to revive companies after lockdown could be under threat. But Italian Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri told the Corriere website that Rome "will fight hard not to modify" the structure of the recovery fund. Some of the Central European leaders wanted rebates to be on the table too - the money paid back to wealthier EU states that pay more into the budget than they get out.Leaders have been criss-crossing Europe ahead of the summit in a bid to find a solution. Visiting Sweden, Spain's Pedro Sánchez warned: "If we delay the response, we delay the recovery and the crisis could get worse."The head of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, has also urged the EU27 to move quickly on an "ambitious package", warning that uncertainty remains high on the speed and scale of the economic rebound. If the package of grants or loans is agreed, then France would be able to put €39bn of EU funding towards its own €100bn national recovery plan. Prime Minister Jean Castex said this week that €20bn of that would go towards insulating buildings, and converting cities to using bicycles. A group of 150 scientists and celebrities joined climate activist Greta Thunberg on Thursday in signing an open letter urging EU leaders to end "all investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction". As eurozone economic activity picks up and lockdowns are lifted, there are fears of a second surge. The ECB has confirmed its emergency €1.35tn bond-buying programme is on track to last until June next year, to help governments, banks and businesses.One of the main issues for EU leaders is whether any country can have a veto over money being handed out to a member state for recovery purposes. Ahead of the summit, a French official said the Netherlands was the only one of the so-called frugal states seeking strict control of conditions for paying out funds. Certainly Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte insists on reforms to pensions, welfare and tax services in return for funding and he wants assurances that the money goes to modernising infrastructure and green investment. "I'm only going to go along with subsidies if the reforms are nailed down," he said in an interview with public broadcaster NOS. But Finland too wants conditions attached to EU funding, both from the recovery pot and from the wider 2021-27 EU budget.The task facing EU leaders is to agree not only on the size and terms of the recovery fund, but the overall EU budget too. And Hungary's Viktor Orban has threatened to derail both the fund and the budget if any payments are linked to a member state's rule of law. His ruling Fidesz party has been suspended by the big European People's Party bloc for clamping down on media and civil society. "We could veto it because it needs a unanimous decision. Hungary could say no," Mr Orban said last week.

Shamima Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to fight the decision to remove her British citizenship, the Court of Appeal has ruled. Ms Begum, now 20, was one of three schoolgirls who left London to join the Islamic State group in Syria in 2015. Her citizenship was revoked by the Home Office on security grounds after she was found in a refugee camp in 2019. The Court of Appeal said she had been denied a fair hearing because she could not make her case from the Syrian camp. The Home Office said the decision was "very disappointing" and it would "apply for permission to appeal".The ruling means the government must now find a way to allow the 20-year-old, who is currently in Camp Roj in northern Syria, to appear in court in London despite repeatedly saying it would not assist removing her from Syria. Lord Justice Flaux - sitting with Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Singh - said: "Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns, so that the leave to enter appeals should be allowed." The judge also said that the national security concerns about her "could be addressed and managed if she returns to the United Kingdom". Daniel Furner, Ms Begum's solicitor, said: "Ms Begum has never had a fair opportunity to give her side of the story. "She is not afraid of facing British justice, she welcomes it. But the stripping of her citizenship without a chance to clear her name is not justice, it is the opposite." Her father Ahmed Ali told the BBC he was "delighted" by the ruling, adding that he hoped his daughter would get "justice".Shamima Begum is not yet packing her bags to return to the UK - there's no government plane warming up the engines at a military airfield in northern Syria to bring her home. But the Court of Appeal could not have been clearer in its wording - she needs to be allowed back to make her case in the interests of a fair hearing. So if the government wants to avoid the enormous embarrassment of sending a jet to pick her up, it has a matter of weeks to convince the Supreme Court to review the case. That is by no means an automatic process. Ministers will have to show to the Supreme Court that there is a fundamental point of law that needs to be argued over because the Court of Appeal has got it totally wrong. Whatever happens, the case will drag on because the Court of Appeal also ruled that the ongoing risk to Ms Begum's life has not yet been properly considered. Former Home Secretary Sajid Javid made the decision to strip Ms Begum of her citizenship in February 2019. Ms Begum's legal team challenged the move on three grounds - that it was unlawful because it left her stateless; it exposed her to a real risk of death or inhuman and degrading treatment; and she could not effectively challenge the decision while she was barred from returning to the UK. Under international law, it is only legal to revoke someone's citizenship if an individual is entitled to citizenship of another country. In February, a specialist tribunal - the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) - ruled that the decision to remove Ms Begum's citizenship was lawful because she was "a citizen of Bangladesh by descent". She is understood to have a claim to Bangladeshi nationality through her mother. SIAC, a semi-secret court which hears national security cases, also said that although there were concerns about how Ms Begum could take part in the proceedings in London, those difficulties did not mean the home secretary's decision should be overturned. In his ruling on Thursday, Lord Justice Flaux said: "It is difficult to conceive of any case where a court or tribunal has said we cannot hold a fair trial, but we are going to go on anyway."Human rights organisation Liberty, which intervened in Ms Begum's appeal, welcomed the ruling, saying the right to a fair trial was "a fundamental part of our justice system and equal access to justice must apply to everyone". Liberty lawyer Katie Lines added: "Banishing someone is the act of a government shirking its responsibilities and it is critical that cruel and irresponsible government decisions can be properly challenged and overturned." Ms Begum left Bethnal Green, in east London, aged 15 for Syria in February 2015, with two school friends. Within days she had crossed the Turkish border and eventually reached the IS headquarters at Raqqa, where she married a Dutch convert recruit. They had three children - all of whom have since died.

US President Donald Trump has signed an order to end preferential economic treatment for Hong Kong, after China enacted a new security law there. Hong Kong would be treated "the same as mainland China", Mr Trump said. He also signed a law to impose sanctions on officials who cracked down on rights. China has strongly criticised the move, vowing to take retaliatory action. The US sees the security law as a threat to the freedoms Hong Kong has enjoyed under a 1984 agreement. That special status was agreed between China and Hong Kong's former colonial power, the UK, before sovereignty was returned to Beijing in 1997. The new security law - which outlaws criticism of China's government - is the most sweeping change to the political landscape of Hong Kong since then. Speaking in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, Mr Trump said his executive order would end preferential treatment for Hong Kong. "No special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies," said the president, who first announced in May that his administration would begin paring back the territory's special status. He also told reporters he had signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which passed unanimously in Congress earlier this month. "This law gives my administration powerful new tools to hold responsible the individuals and the entities involved in extinguishing Hong Kong's freedom," Mr Trump told the news conference. After being questioned by a journalist, the president said he had no plans to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping. He also told reporters that "we hold China fully responsible for concealing the [coronavirus] and unleashing it upon the world". Mr Trump's own administration is under scrutiny for its response to the pandemic. The US has 3.4 million recorded cases, the highest in the world, and more than 136,000 deaths. The president's policy address digressed into a lengthy political attack on his Democratic presidential challenger, Joe Biden, ranging from trade and immigration to policing and climate change. China's foreign ministry condemned the latest US moves, saying they were a "gross interference" in its domestic affairs. In a strongly-worded statement, it said the country would also impose retaliatory sanctions against US individuals and entities to "safeguard China's legitimate interests". "The US attempt to obstruct the implementation of the national security law for Hong Kong will never succeed," the statement said. "We urge the US side to correct its mistakes, refrain from implementing the act and stop interfering in China's internal affairs in any way. China will firmly respond if the US goes ahead."

Dr Anthony Fauci has emerged as the face of America's fight against coronavirus. But he is also battling the dangerous spread of misinformation, sometimes from within his own government. Over his five decades as a medical researcher, Anthony Fauci has seen his effigy burnt, heard the cries of protesters calling him a "murderer", and had smoke bombs thrown outside his office window. But he has also been praised as the most famous doctor in America, and the man whose compassion and calm helped the US make otherwise impossible strides in confronting a public health crisis. As head of immunology at the National Institutes of Health during the 1980s HIV/Aids epidemic, Dr Fauci, 79, has seen conflict before. Now, as the US struggles to contain the pandemic six months after its first known case, the White House is targeting Dr Fauci by briefing reporters about his alleged mistakes.Born on Christmas Eve, 1940 to a family of immigrant Italian pharmacists in Brooklyn, Anthony was "delivering prescriptions from the time I was old enough to ride a bike," he told the Holy Cross college alumni magazine in 2002. In 1966, he graduated first in his class at Cornell medical school, whose library he had helped build as an undergraduate working construction to earn money over the summers. Following a medical residency, he joined the NIH in 1968 as part of the US war effort, instead of being drafted to fight in Vietnam. "Yellow Berets", the researchers were called - a play on military division Green Berets. A turning point in his career came decades later, he said, when a report landed on his desk on June 5, 1981, describing the death of an otherwise healthy patient from a strange pneumonia normally seen in people with cancer. Another report soon followed describing 26 deaths, all gay men. "I remember reading it very clearly," he later said. "It was the first time in my medical career I actually got goose pimples. I no longer dismissed it as a curiosity. There was something very wrong here. This was really a new microbe of some sort, acting like a sexually transmitted disease."s a clinician, Dr Fauci's work on the regulation of the human immune system was credited with helping to reveal how the HIV virus destroys the body's defences. He led clinical trials for zidovudine, the first antiretroviral drug to treat Aids. As the epidemic swept through the US in the 1980s, however, he became the target of activists angry at the Reagan administration's muted response and lack of access to novel drugs. Protesters held signs outside government offices that said: "Dr Fauci, you are killing us" and he was denounced on television by activists. The playwright and gay rights advocate Larry Kramer even modelled the antagonist of a play after him. "I remember looking out a window and people on the lawn of the NIH were throwing smoke bombs," Dr Fauci recalled in a 2011 interview. "Police were ready to arrest them and I said, 'Don't. Bring them up to my office so I can talk with them'." His compassion for Aids sufferers was lauded, and he was credited with convincing regulators to loosen restrictions on clinical trials for patients to test new drugs.he New York Times called him "the government's leading Aids celebrity" - but noted that he still actually did all his research work himself, not like "a lot of people you see quoted on TV [who have] assistants don white coats and do all that tedious work". He was awarded the highest US civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2008. In 1984, he was appointed director of the NIH's Allergy and Infectious Diseases division, a title he still holds.he New York Times called him "the government's leading Aids celebrity" - but noted that he still actually did all his research work himself, not like "a lot of people you see quoted on TV [who have] assistants don white coats and do all that tedious work". He was awarded the highest US civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2008. In 1984, he was appointed director of the NIH's Allergy and Infectious Diseases division, a title he still holds.The research division he leads has overseen studies on everything from Aids to Ebola to asthma. He has advised six presidents, helping to found George W Bush's US government Aids initiative in Africa and now, serving as explainer-in-chief to the public amid the Covid-19 outbreak of the Trump era.For Americans, he has become a trusted presence behind the podium at White House Covid-19 briefings, where he has dispensed facts about the US response, explaining the science and sometimes correcting President Trump's pronouncements. A vaccine will take at least a year and a half, he has said, dampening Mr Trump's optimistic claim one would be ready very soon. The current US leader, who is known to dislike being challenged, has even begrudgingly given Dr Fauci a high compliment. The researcher, Mr Trump has said, is "a major television star". However, observers say his contradictions of the president's claims has laid bare the frictions of working with the White House. When Dr Fauci told CNN in an interview that the US "could have saved lives" if it had introduced measures to stop Covid-19, Mr Trump shared a tweet on firing him. Dr Fauci told Science magazine that when it comes to giving the public correct information, "I'm trying my best. I cannot do the impossible". "I can't jump in front of the microphone and push him [President Trump] down. OK, he said it. Let's try and get it corrected for the next time." But he will try and stay the course, he said, adding: "To my knowledge, I haven't been fired." In early May, Dr Fauci was blocked from testifying to a panel in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives that was investigating the country's response to the pandemic. The White House said that as Dr Fauci is part of the government response to Covid-19, "it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at congressional hearings". He instead appeared in front of the Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee of the Republican-controlled Senate on 12 May.

The coronavirus took hold slowly in India, but six months after its first confirmed infection it has overtaken Russia to record the world's third largest caseload. With the world's second-largest po[CENSORED]tion, much of which lives packed into cities, the country was perhaps always destined to become a global hotspot. But the data behind its case numbers is questionable, because India is not testing enough, and an unusually low death rate has baffled scientists. Here's five things we know about the spread of coronavirus in India. 1. India's cases are rising fast India has seen a series of record spikes recently, adding tens of thousands of cases daily. It recorded most of its confirmed cases in June, within weeks of reopening after a rigid lockdown. As of 8 July, India had 742,417 confirmed cases.But the true scale of infection rates in the po[CENSORED]tion is unclear, according to virologist Shahid Jameel. The government conducted a random sample of 26,000 Indians in May, which showed that 0.73% had the virus. Some experts have reservations about the sample size, but others, such as Dr Jameel, say it's the only country-wide indicator they have to work with. "If we extrapolate that to the whole po[CENSORED]tion, we would have had 10 million infections in mid-May," Dr Jameel said. Given that confirmed cases in India have been doubling every 20 days, that would put the current total between 30 and 40 million. The gap between confirmed cases and actual infections exists in every country, but to different degrees. Testing is the only way to bridge it. "If you test more, you will find more," Dr Jameel said. That's what has happened in India in recent weeks - as the government ramped up testing, case numbers suddenly increased. India has done more than 10 million tests since 13 March, but more than half of those happened after 1 June. India's official caseload is high in absolute numbers, but it's relatively low in per capita terms. The world, on average, has three times as many cases as India per capita - a fact pointed out by the government recently. But, according to Dr Jameel, India's per capita caseload is low simply because it tests so little. Compare India to countries that have a high per capita caseload and you will find those countries are testing far more. India's caseload is nearly invisible on this scale because its testing rate is so low. But it's not just about how much you test, it's also about who you test. India's emphasis on test and trace early on limited the pool of people it was testing to high-risk cases and their contacts - and kept it from expanding to the wider po[CENSORED]tion. Test and trace is insufficient once the infection starts to spread rapidly, said Himanshu Tyagi and Aditya Gopalan, mathematicians who have studied Covid-19 testing strategies. It helps with containment, but it does not discover new cases that have emerged undetected in the community, Mr Tyagi and Mr Gopalan said. India has to test a broad swathe of people for that to happen. But how do we know who India is testing? Comparing testing numbers across countries is tricky because some count how many people they test, while others count how many tests they do. India does the latter and this number is slightly exaggerated because most people get tested more than once. So instead, scientists prefer to calculate how many tests it takes to find a single confirmed case. The more tests it takes, the wider you are casting your net. Here, India fares poorly compared to countries that have managed to control the spread of the virus.And the more widely you test, the lower your positive rate - that's why New Zealand and Taiwan have rates well below 1%. India's positive rate is now up from 3.8% in April to 6.4% in July. If it keeps rising, it's because testing is still limited to a narrow pool of high-risk people and their contacts. 3. India's recovery numbers are promising The data suggests that those in India who have been diagnosed with the virus are recovering from it faster than they are dying from it. This is crucial, Dr Jameel said, because it determines the strain on the health system. Currently, deaths are rising more slowly than confirmed cases or recoveries - but if that rate quickens, it would increase the pressure on hospitals, possibly driving up deaths. The caveat is that low testing rates means fewer new cases are recorded, and at a slower pace. That will quicken the recovery rate in comparison to that of confirmed cases. Globally, India's recovery curve appears steeper than other badly hit countries - in this instance, a steeper curve is a good thing. It means Covid-19 patients in India are recovering faster than those in the US or Brazil. India's share of recoveries - that is, the % of total confirmed cases in a given country that have made a full recovery - is also higher. At nearly 60%, it's far ahead of the US, where it is 27%. When it comes to recovery though, data is patchy and the definition varies. India defines as recovered anyone who tests positive for the virus and then, weeks later, tests negative. Some countries only count hospitalised cases that make a full recovery. What's important is that, irrespective of how many people are recovering within each of these countries, India's share of recoveries is higher. And that's because India's reported deaths are lower. 4. India's death rate is very low India has so far recorded about 20,160 deaths from Covid-19. In absolute numbers, that is the eighth highest tally in the world. But per million of the po[CENSORED]tion, it is low. "It's a fraction of what you are seeing in Western Europe," said Shamika Ravi, an economist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.There have been a lot of questions around India's Covid-19 death figures, and most experts agree that they are likely being underreported. But Dr Ravi said that did not explain the significant gap in death rates between India and Europe. "If we were indeed having high death rates, no amount of data could have hidden that - that's 20-40 times as many deaths," she said. India's low death rate is also similar to other countries in the region, such as Pakistan or Indonesia. Theories range from a higher prevalence of infections in the region to a less virulent strain of the virus circulating in these countries to younger po[CENSORED]tions on average than badly hit Western nations, given that Covid-19 predominantly kills the elderly. "Every country cannot be fudging its data," Dr Jameel said. "Maybe innate immunity in these po[CENSORED]tions is higher due to a high load of other infections. But we really do not know yet why their deaths rates are so low. 5. Each Indian state tells us a different story Much like the US or the European Union, coronavirus statistics vary widely across India's states. Three states - Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu - account currently for about 60% of the country's caseload. And as case numbers have waned in some areas, they have surged in others. The latest surge is in Karnataka and Telangana, in the south. Another southern state, Andhra Pradesh, is also seeing consistent and intense spikes.India's response to the virus has so far been centralised, and that is part of what needs to change, experts said. India would have to be "broken down into districts" to implement a successful strategy against coronavirus, Dr Jameel said, "because another national lockdown could be even less effective than the last one." And rather than state-level snapshots, the authorities would need granular, localised data, according to Dr Ravi. "Every block, we must know if you have symptoms," she said.

Police in India have arrested a man in connection with the killings of eight policemen earlier this month. Vikas Dubey, who was on the run for nearly a week after the incident, was held in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The policemen were fired upon during a raid in search of the notorious local gangster in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh last week. Mr Dubey has 60 criminal cases against him for various offences, including attempted murder. Media reports say that he was spotted near a temple in the city of Ujjain early on Thursday by a local shop owner, who alerted the police. The gangster was arrested when he emerged from the temple. "He produced a fake ID card and then there was a fight. The guards got him to the police," a police officer was quoted as saying by the NDTV news network.Local news networks have been closely following the case, ever since the shootout last Friday killed eight police officers. Pressure has also been mounting on local law enforcement to arrest him. Two of the gangster's aides have been killed in clashes with the police since then. A police inspector belonging to a police station near Mr Dubey's village was also arrested over allegations that he helped him. Officers had been looking for Mr Dubey in connection with a case that had registered against him earlier in the week when they were fired upon. Police said that although they had returned fire, they suffered heavy casualties as the gang members had been firing on them from a height.

Many lives have been ruined because officials failed to hear the concerns of women given drugs and procedures that caused them or their babies considerable harm, says a review. More than 700 women and their families shared "harrowing" details about vaginal mesh, Primodos and an epilepsy drug called sodium valproate. Too often worries and complaints were dismissed as "women's problems". It says arrogant attitudes left women traumatised, intimidated and confused. June Wray, 73 and from Newcastle, experienced chronic pain after having a vaginal mesh procedure in 2009. "Sometimes the pain is so severe, I feel like I will pass out. "But when I told GPs and surgeons, they didn't believe me. They just looked at me like I was mad." The chairwoman of the highly critical review, Baroness Julia Cumberlege, said the families affected deserved a fulsome apology from the government. She said: "I have conducted many reviews and inquiries over the years, but I have never encountered anything like this; the intensity of suffering experienced by so many families, and the fact that they have endured it for decades. Much of this suffering was entirely avoidable, caused and compounded by failings in the health system itself." Health Minister Nadine Dorries said she was determined to make the changes needed to protect women in the future. "Our health system must learn from those it has failed. We will now give this independent review the full and careful consideration it deserves before setting out our full response." The patients who fought for answers The cases span decades and are thought to affect hundreds of thousands of women and babies. The review looked at three treatments: Primodos - a hormonal pregnancy test, withdrawn from the market in the 1978, which is thought to be associated with birth defects and miscarriages. The manufacturer, Schering, now part of Bayer, has always denied a link between the drug and deformities in babies. Sodium valproate - an epilepsy drug which, while effective for preventing seizures, can be harmful if taken during pregnancy, causing physical abnormalities to the baby in the womb as well as developmental delay and autism in children whose mothers took it. Pelvic mesh implants - used as a surgical option to treat prolapse and incontinence, some women say they have been left with internal damage and agonising chronic pain "like razors inside the body". In the last few years, the procedure has only been offered on the NHS under exceptional circumstances and high vigilance. The review talks of missed opportunities when something could or should have been done to prevent harm. It says there was a culture of denial by a disjointed and defensive healthcare system that failed to listen to patients' concerns. "The system, and those that oversee it, need to acknowledge what has gone so badly wrong." Hundreds of babies are being born each year to mothers "unaware" of the risks that sodium valproate can pose in pregnancy, says the review. While some women have benefited from mesh implants, others have been left in agony. The review warns against pushing innovative treatments without enough long-term monitoring, and criticises manufacturers for being motivated by sales ahead of safety. And it recommends: appointing an independent patient safety commissioner to talk and act from the perspective of the patient and hold the health system to account setting up discretionary payment schemes to meet the financial care costs of those already affected creating a redress agency to help resolve future disputes transparency of payments made to doctors by pharmaceutical and medical device companies Kath Sansom, founder of Sling the Mesh campaign and a mother of two, said: "The report is hard hitting and recognises the total failure in patient safety, regulation and oversight in the UK. "It also makes it very clear that our medical establishment is deeply entrenched in institutional denial and misogyny. "While we welcome all of the recommendations, there is no glory in knowing thousands of women have been maimed by mesh since the late 1990s then ignored when they asked for help suffering debilitating, life altering and irreversible pain." Epilepsy Action deputy chief executive Simon Wigglesworth said: "Nothing can undo the avoidable harm and distress that has been caused by the decades of government silence and inaction. However, with the publication of the report and these recommendations, we can now start to move forward. "As well as providing support to those families already affected, it is important to ensure that all women and girls taking this medication are aware of the risks, and able to make an informed choice about whether or not to take valproate."

Vanilla Ice has indefinitely postponed a Texas concert that had drawn fierce criticism due to the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: AP Stop, contaminate and listen. Rapper Vanilla Ice called off a Friday performance in Austin, Texas, where Covid-19 cases have been surging at record rates. The 52-year-old performer defended his decision to go ahead with the show on Twitter Thursday morning, but pulled out soon after. "Due to the increase in Covid-19 numbers in Austin we're gonna move the concert to a better date," he wrote on Twitter. "We were hoping for better coronavirus numbers by July but unfortunately the numbers have increased quite a bit so for the safety and health of everyone we're going to stay home." More than 175,000 Texans have tested positive for coronavirus, which has killed 2,518 people there. Covid-19 hospitalisations in Texas more than tripled in June as the state pushed to reopen businesses. Protests in the state capital continue to attract right-wing anti-maskers. The Lone Star State's governor ordered all bars closed two weeks ago, but the Emerald Point Bar & Grill, the venue where the Ice Ice Baby rapper was booked, is exempt from that shutdown because it's technically a restaurant, according to the Austin Chronicle. More than half of the sprawling, multi-level venue's sales are food rather than booze. Emerald Point can reportedly accommodate 5,000 people when it opens its beachfront area. The event's promoter told the Chronicle he only intended to sell half that many tickets. Vanilla Ice, a Texas native born Rob Van Winkle, had earlier told his followers on Twitter that everything would be cool. "I take the coronavirus serious. But we can't live in a bubble. I think at this point we all understand the severity of it," he wrote. "Practice social distancing and wear a mask. This is an outside venue, Fourth of July on the lake with fireworks. Plenty of room for distancing." That announcement was met with both support and criticism. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service Related stories: HK singer Eason Chan to hold online charity show on Saturday BTS' 'Bang Bang Con' was world's biggest paid online concert

Officials in Spain's north-western region of Galicia have re-imposed restrictions on an area of 70,000 people following a Covid-19 outbreak. Only those travelling for work will be allowed to leave or enter the coastal district of A Marina from midnight on Sunday to Friday. The move comes a day after the north-eastern region of Catalonia imposed a similar local lockdown. Nationally, Spain's outbreak has been essentially brought under control. The country has recorded more than a quarter of a million cases and at least 28,385 deaths. But daily fatalities have been in the single figures for most of the past three weeks. Spain has been reopening its borders to other EU states, as well as the UK, in anticipation of summer holiday traffic.Regional health officials announced on Sunday that travel in and out of A Marina would be severely restricted for five days - although people would remain free to move around the area. Gatherings will be limited to 10 people. Face masks will be mandatory outdoors. Officials linked local outbreaks to bars in the area. Capacity in bars and restaurants will be limited to 50%. There are now 258 cases of Covid-19 in Galicia, including 117 in Lugo province where A Marina is located, authorities say.On Saturday the autonomous government of Catalonia re-imposed controls on an area of 210,000 residents after a sharp rise in infections there. Catalan President Quim Torra said no-one would be allowed to enter or leave Segrià, a district west of Barcelona that includes the city of Lleida. Non-residents were told to leave and residents were advised not to travel between towns within Segrià. Catalonia is one of the Spanish regions worst affected by coronavirus. As of Friday, the region of 7.5 million people had recorded 72,860 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 12,586 deaths, accoding to an official news agency.The lockdown is being enforced using police checkpoints Sara Canals, a journalist in the region, told the BBC: "Some might consider [this] maybe too drastic, but there's a willingness here to find a right balance between reopening the economy but also to ensure safety."

The Indian state of Nagaland has banned the import, trading and sale of dog meat, in a move celebrated by animal rights activists. The north-east state's government announced the ban following a sustained campaign by animal welfare groups. They hailed the decision as a "major turning point" in ending cruelty to dogs in India. But some civil society groups criticised the ban, calling it an attack on food customs in the state. Eating dog meat is illegal in parts of India, but some communities in north-eastern areas consider it a delicacy. "The State Government has decided to ban commercial import and trading of dogs and dog markets and also the sale of dog meat, both cooked and uncooked. Appreciate the wise decision taken by the State's Cabinet," Nagaland's Chief Secretary Temjen Toy tweeted on Friday. The government shared no further details about how it planned to enforce the ban. Indian media said the ban came after a picture of dogs bound in sacks at a wet market was circulated widely on social media, provoking outrage. The countries where people still eat cats and dogs On Thursday, the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisation (FIAPO) said it was "hit by shock and horror at recent images" of dogs in "terrifying conditions, tied up in sacks, waiting at a wet market, for their illegal slaughter, trade, and consumption as meat". The group urged Nagaland's government to enforce an immediate ban on selling dog meat. The FIAPO was among several animal rights organisations, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), to spearhead campaigns against the sale of dog meat in Nagaland. The Humane Society International (HSI), which has campaigned for years to end India's dog-meat trade, welcomed the decision by Nagaland's government. "The suffering of dogs in Nagaland has long cast a dark shadow over India, and so this news marks a major turning point in ending the cruelty of India's hidden dog meat trade," managing director of HSI, Alokparna Sengupta said.An estimated 30,000 dogs a year are smuggled into Nagaland, where they are sold in live markets and "beaten to death with wooden clubs", according to the HSI. Earlier this year, the state of Mizoram took the first step towards ending the sale of dogs, by amending legislation to remove them from the list of animals suitable for slaughter. While not widespread, the eating of dogs does take place in other countries, including China, South Korea and Thailand.

Saroj Khan, one of India's most prominent choreographers, has died at the age of 71. Khan had an illustrious career that stretched four decades, and choreographed some of Bollywood's most iconic and po[CENSORED]r songs. Her career took off in the late 1980s, when she worked on a slew of hit numbers with leading stars like Madhuri Dixit and Sridevi. Khan died of cardiac arrest in hospital in Mumbai city, local media reported. She was admitted to hospital last month after she complained of breathlessness, Indian media reports said. She tested negative for Covid-19. Her nephew, Manish Jagwani, confirmed to PTI news agency that Khan died of cardiac arrest. Born in 1948, her introduction into the film industry was as a child artist. In the 1950s, Khan became a back-up dancer, appearing in films like Bimal Roy's Madhumati, where she was choreographed by dance director B Sohanlal, who she later married. From here on, Khan's career evolved into that of an assistant choreographer until 1974, when she got her break in the movie Geeta Mera Naam. In the 1980s, Khan became a recognisable name in the industry after she started working with Bollywood stars like Sridevi Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit, both of whom have danced to iconic Hindi film songs. Khan choreographed Sridevi in the song Hawa Hawai from the 1987 blockbuster hit Mr India, kicking off her career as a dance director to be reckoned with. Bollywood took to Twitter to mourn Khan's death, with many, such as superstar Akshay Kumar and director Kunal Kohli, thanking her for her work.Her funeral was held on Friday morning in Mumbai, news agency PTI reported. She is survived by her son and daughter, Raju and Sukaina Khan. 'She made dance look easy': Saroj Khan, po[CENSORED]rly called Masterji (the teacher), got her first big hit in 1987 with the iconic Hawa Hawai song from Mr India. When Bollywood superstar Sridevi shimmied onto the stage in a shiny gold dress with blood red lips and a gold crown perched over her dark curls, she conquered the hearts of audiences. And with that, Khan became the most sought-after choreographer in Bollywood for several decades. In the years thereafter, she turned Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit, two of Bollywood's biggest stars, into India's dancing queens. In later years, she continued to work with several female stars such as Aishwarya Rai, Kajol and Urmila Matondkar. She choreographed thousands of songs, created innumerable hits, won a dozen prestigious awards and had millions of fans in India and globally. She appeared as a judge on some of the most po[CENSORED]r reality TV dance shows and can be largely credited for the po[CENSORED]rity of Bollywood-style of dancing in the West too. Generations of Indians have grown up practicing Khan's steps in front of their television sets and mirrors. In his tribute, Bollywood star Akshay Kumar said Saroj Khan made dance look easy. She did. She could make anyone dance even if they had two left feet.

US prosecutors will try to seize a further $96m (£77m) in assets from the fugitive financier known as Jho Low. The assets sought by the the Department of Justice include an apartment in Paris and artworks by Claude Monet, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Officials say they were bought with money stolen from Malaysia's 1MDB state investment fund. Prosecutors allege the assets are linked to cash raised for the fund dating back to 2012 and 2013. The money was meant to finance environmentally-friendly energy and tourism projects. It is alleged that more than $4.5bn of the funds raised was siphoned out of Malaysia in a money laundering and bribery scandal that rocked the country. 1MDB scandal: The playboys, PMs and partygoers US to recover $700m from fugitive financier Malaysia drops charges against ex-PM's stepson Wednesday's filing indicates that prosecutors have so far identified $1.8bn of assets that they say were purchased with stolen money. US officials have so far recovered or helped Malaysia recover more than $1bn in assets related to the alleged embezzlement. In October, it was announced that Mr Low, whose real name is Low Taek Jho, had agreed to hand over assets worth a total of $700m. The deal with the Department of Justice did not include any admission of wrongdoing. The claims have led to the criminal prosecution of Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak as well as embroiling Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs, which raised money for 1MDB. In February, Andrea Vella, who was formerly co-head of Goldman’s Asia investment banking division ex-Japan, was banned for life from the banking industry by the US Federal Reserve over his role in the multi-billion dollar scandal. Former Goldman Sachs partner, Tim Leissner, has pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme and agreed to forfeit up to $43.7m. Mr Low, who remains at large although his whereabouts is unknown, has denied any wrongdoing.

Up to three million Hong Kong residents are to be offered the chance to settle in the UK and ultimately apply for citizenship, Boris Johnson has said. The PM said Hong Kong's freedoms were being violated by a new security law and those affected would be offered a "route" out of the former UK colony. About 350,000 UK passport holders, and 2.6 million others eligible, will be able to come to the UK for five years. And after a further year, they will be able to apply for citizenship. At the moment, British National Overseas Passport holders have restricted rights and are only entitled to visa-free access to the UK for six months. Under the government's plans, all British Overseas Nationals and their dependents will be given right to remain in the UK, including the right to work, for five years. At this point, they will be able to apply for settled status, and after a further year, seek citizenship. HK arrests dozens as 'anti-protest' law kicks in UK to offer citizenship 'route' to HK residents Political battle looming over UK China relations Speaking in the Commons, the PM said Tuesday's passing of a new security law was a "clear and serious breach" of the 1985 Sino-British joint declaration - a legally binding agreement which set out how certain freedoms would be protected for the 50 years after China assumed sovereignty in 1997. 'New route' "It violates Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and threatens the freedoms and rights protected by the joint declaration," he said. "We made clear that if China continued down this path we would introduce a new route for those with British National (Overseas) status to enter the UK, granting them limited leave to remain with the ability to live and work in the UK and thereafter to apply for citizenship.And that is precisely what we will do now." Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said there would be no limit on numbers or quotas, telling MPs that the UK would "not duck" its international obligations when it came to Hong Kong. Hong Kong's new national security law, which targets secession, subversion and terrorism with punishments up to life in prison, came into effect on Tuesday.Critics say it effectively puts an end to the "one country, two systems" principle enshrined in the 1985 Joint Declaration. The UK government is under pressure to take a firm line with Beijing from MPs on all sides of the Commons, who are worried about China's increasingly assertive role regionally and the security implications of Chinese firm Huawei's involvement in the UK's 5G network. Labour said it welcomed the government's action and said there must be no discrimination on the basis of income or other factors. China rejects criticism of its actions, on what it says are internal matters. On Wednesday, several people were arrested in Hong Kong, including a man carrying a pro-independence flag as police used pepper spray to disperse some protesters gathered to mark 23 years since British rule ended. The annual pro-democracy march to mark the anniversary had been banned for the first time by authorities, who cited a bar on gatherings of more than 50 people because of Covid-19.