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Group of former diplomats and ministers says shifting rules on medical trade could save hundreds of thousands of lives

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A group of 24 senior diplomats and defence officials, including four former Nato secretary generals, have urged Donald Trump to save “potentially hundreds of thousands of lives” across the Middle East by easing medical and humanitarian sanctions on Iran.

Related: US ignores calls to suspend Venezuela and Iran sanctions amid coronavirus pandemic

In lawsuit, Michael Sanchez has accused AMI of plot to ‘scapegoat’ him, and has cast doubt on claim that he was the ‘sole source’

A top executive at the tabloid publisher behind the National Enquirer said in a private email that he was “saving for my tombstone” the untold story of how the tabloid uncovered a 2019 exclusive about Jeff Bezos’s extramarital relationship, according to a lawsuit against the publisher.

The claim raises new questions about how American Media Inc (AMI) discovered the Amazon CEO’s relationship, and how it obtained knowledge of explicit sexual photographs that Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, has alleged were used against him by the publisher for “extortion and blackmail”.

Watchdog to release first report blaming president for attacks during the conflict

The UN’s chemical weapons watchdog is expected to release its first report explicitly blaming Bashar al-Assad for sarin and chlorine gas attacks on civilians in Syria as efforts to establish accountability for the use of chemical agents in the nine-year-old conflict gain momentum.

Observers anticipate that the report by a new unit at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will be published on Wednesday, the second anniversary of a major chlorine attack on the then rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma that killed at least 85 people. The report focuses on the Douma incident as well as sarin attacks on the villages of al-Lataminah and Khan Sheikhun in 2017, the latter of which also caused dozens of casualties.

Actor also known for role in Avengers praised as ‘hugely prolific creative talent’ by family

•Peter Bradshaw on Honor Blackman: an elegant and witty star who never took herself too seriously
• Honor Blackman: a life in pictures

Honor Blackman, the actor best-known for playing Bond girl Pussy Galore, has died aged 94.

The actor, who became a household name in the 1960s as Cathy Gale in The Avengers and enjoyed a career spanning eight decades, died of natural causes unrelated to coronavirus.

There’s a kind of hush all over the world as the reduction in human activity stops the Earth buzzing so much

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The dramatic quietening of towns and cities in lockdown Britain has changed the way the Earth moves beneath our feet, scientists say.

Seismologists at the British Geological Survey have found that their sensors are twitching less now that human activity has been curtailed, leading to a drop in the anthropogenic din that vibrates through the planet.

The killings of the investigative reporter and his fiancée led to protests that eventually saw the Slovakian prime minister resign

A court in Slovakia has sentenced a former soldier to 23 years in prison for the murder of the investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová in February 2018.

The double murder of the recently engaged couple, both of whom were 27 at the time, shocked Slovakia and led to protests that eventually saw the prime minister resign.

Industry body assures people in open letter there is no link between 5G and pandemic

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At least 20 mobile phone masts across the UK are believed to have been torched or otherwise vandalised since Thursday, according to government and industry sources who are increasingly concerned about the impact of baseless theories linking coronavirus to 5G networks.

There have been noticeable clusters of attacks on masts around Liverpool and the West Midlands. Owing to the slow rollout of 5G in the UK, many of the masts that have been vandalised did not contain the technology and the attacks merely damaged 3G and 4G equipment.

Most new electricity globally was green and coronavirus bailouts must boost this further, says agency

Almost three-quarters of new electricity generation capacity built in 2019 uses renewable energy, representing an all-time record. New data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) shows solar, wind and other green technologies now provide more than one-third of the world’s power, marking another record.

Fossil fuel power plants are in decline in Europe and the US, with more decommissioned than built in 2019. But the number of coal and gas plants grew in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. In the Middle East, which owns half the world’s oil reserves, just 26% of new electricity generation capacity built in 2019 was renewable.

Account of kidnap and rape will help to stop others suffering in silence, says charity

A national rape charity has praised the bravery of the pop singer Duffy for going public with harrowing details of how she was drugged, held captive and raped early in her career.

On Sunday Duffy posted details of an ordeal which she kept secret for a decade, hoping that it might bring comfort to others that it is possible to “come out of the darkness”.

System of sensors and cameras would turn loo into ‘daily clinic’ and detect problems early

A smart toilet boasting pressure sensors, artificial intelligence and a camera has been unveiled by researchers who say it could provide a valuable way to keep tabs on our health.

The model is the latest version of an idea that has been around for several years: a system that examines our daily movements in an effort to spot the emergence of diseases. Such an approach, experts say, has an advantage over wearable devices, since individuals do not need to remember to use the system.

The Senakw development aims to ease the city’s chronic housing crisis – and to challenge the mindset that indigeneity and urbanity are incompatible

The scrubby, vacant patch beneath the Burrard Street Bridge in Vancouver looks at first glance like a typical example of the type of derelict nook common to all cities: 11.7 acres of former railway lands, over which tens of thousands of people drive every day.

This is not any old swath of underused space, however. It’s one of Canada’s smallest First Nations reserves, where dozens of Squamish families once lived. The village was destroyed by provincial authorities more than a century ago.

Amazon have arrived in force in rapidly expanding Hyderabad, with designs on the currently almost non-existent Indian e-commence market

The futuristic lobby of the new Amazon building in Hyderabad feels as though it should have a permanent orchestra blasting out Also Sprach Zarathustra. The scale is intended to awe. A large slogan on a wall suggests the company is “Delivering smiles”. The only sound that rises above the hush is a synthesised beep, coming from a giant screen playing a video of the campus at various stages of its construction.

Built on nine acres in this Indian city’s financial district, it is Amazon’s single largest building globally and the only Amazon-owned campus outside the US. It can house over 15,000 employees, but its size is its main architectural feature: it resembles the same cube of glass steel and chrome seen in corporate offices across Hyderabad, though a flash of magenta reflected in one of the top floor windows, from a billowing sari across the road, is a nice Indian touch.

Minibuses that run on Friday evenings and Saturdays buck state’s religious restrictions

Tel Aviv is one of Israel’s most dynamic cities, but the latest local craze could appear fairly humdrum to outsiders – a bus service that runs at weekends.

Packed 19-seat minibuses fill up fast with passengers, who excitedly gossip about the new routes. People patiently queue at bus stops, knowing they might have to wait for two or three buses to pass before there is a space. Still, they are upbeat. “It’s a pleasure,” said Ben Uzan, a 30-year-old electronic engineer. “It’s a blessed initiative.”

The Garbage Cafe in Ambikapur, India, is helping to tackle the country’s plastic waste problem – and their novel idea is catching on

On bad days, when his employer made some excuse for not paying him his paltry daily wage, Ram Yadav’s main meal used to be dry chapatis, with salt and raw onion for flavour. Sometimes he just went hungry. For a ragpicker like him, one of the thousands of Indians who make a living bringing in plastic waste for recycling, eating in a cafe or restaurant was the stuff of fairytales.

But last week, Yadav was sitting at a table at the Garbage Cafe in Ambikapur, in the state of Chhattisgarh, over a piping hot meal of dal, aloo gobi, poppadoms and rice. He earned the food in exchange for bringing in 1kg of plastic waste. “The hot meal I get here lasts me all day. And it feels good to sit at a table like everyone else,” he said.

On lockdown and feeling the urge to bake, but missing something apparently vital? Then pinch some ideas from great bakers past and present

Cake has taken on a new significance now that most of us are stuck at home all day, every day. We’re comfort-eating and baking like there’s no tomorrow. But what do you do when you fancy a sponge, but can’t find eggs or your oven is broken and no one will fix it? Here are some recipes to get you through every ingredient shortfall.

If we suggest you replace one missing ingredient with another that you don’t have, or that you would normally never dream of buying, bear in mind that no two kitchen cupboards are the same and you may find that grocers can still supply “fancy” alternatives such as ricotta or flaxseeds while the staples are but a memory.

Scottish care worker pleads for them to be treated as key workers as she shopped for elderly woman

Aldi has apologised after a care worker in Scotland was turned away from priority access at the supermarket when trying to buy food for an elderly client.

Marion Kilmurray posted a plea on Facebook for care workers to be treated as frontline workers after the incident on Sunday in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, which quickly went viral and has been shared over 100,000 times.

Spain deaths lower for fourth day in a row; Germany sees further case drop; Japan prepares for state of emergency; US faces ‘hardest and saddest week’

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6.20pm BST

Two hospitals each with a capacity of up to 1,000 beds are to be build in Istanbul, Turkey, to treat coronavirus patients, the country’s president has said, according to AFP.

In a televised speech, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had mobilised all its resources to fight the pandemic, which has so far claimed 649 lives in the country. Announcing the hospitals, he said:

We will complete them within 45 days and will open them to public service

With the measures we have taken, and the additional ones, we will overcome this pandemic together with Europe and the world.

6.11pm BST

Cox’s Bazaar, the district of Bangladesh that is home to more than 3million people - including a million Rohingya refugees - has no ventilators to treat people who fall ill with Covid-19, according to Save the Children.

The NGO is calling for urgent international help to help Bangladesh meet a potential surge in demand for critical care beds as the coronavirus spreads in the region. Hospitals in Bangladesh currently have 1,169 beds in intensive care units, the Dhaka Tribune reports. However most are concentrated in urban centres.

Without access to intensive care facilities in Cox’s Bazar, patients in critical condition may have to be transported to neighbouring Chittagong district more than 90 miles away, further increasing the risk to them and others.

Ventilators and people trained to operate them are urgently needed to protect the host communities and Rohingya refugees to avert a humanitarian disaster. Children are at serious risk of not only contracting the virus, but also of being orphaned or neglected if family members become infected or die.

At present, it is difficult for Bangladesh to meet the expected surge in demand for ventilators to help respond to the Covid-19 outbreak. We are in this together - no single country can confront Covid-19 alone, even the richest and most powerful among us.

… It is therefore essential that world leaders – in particular the G20 countries – commit to a coordinated global plan underpinned by debt relief. We also urge the Bangladesh government to engage the public and private sectors urgently to secure ventilators for COVID-19 patients.

In the slums of Delhi or Lagos, social distancing is a dream while social exclusion is all too real and pernicious

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‘The virus does not discriminate,” suggested Michael Gove after both Boris Johnson and the health secretary, Matt Hancock, were struck down by Covid-19. But societies do. And in so doing, they ensure that the devastation wreaked by the virus is not equally shared.

We can see this in the way that the low paid both disproportionately have to continue to work and are more likely to be laid off; in the sacking of an Amazon worker for leading a protest against unsafe conditions; in the rich having access to coronavirus tests denied to even most NHS workers.

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6.16pm BST

Here’s where the day stands so far:

6.06pm BST

House speaker Nancy Pelosi announced new guidelines to “reduce the physical presence of Members and staff in the Capitol.”

“Beginning Tuesday, staff must electronically submit all Floor documents – including bills, resolutions, co-sponsors and extensions of remarks – to a dedicated and secure email system, rather than deliver these materials by hand to staff in the Speaker’s Lobby or Cloakrooms,” Pelosi said in a “Dear Colleague” letter.

Guayaquil, where mortuaries have been overwhelmed, creates helpline for removal of coronavirus victims

Authorities in Ecuador’s biggest city are distributing thousands of cardboard coffins and have created a helpline for families who need corpses to be removed from their homes.

Guayaquil has emerged as a regional hotspot for coronavirus, and hospitals and mortuaries have been overwhelmed, forcing some families to store bodies at home.

Shortages creating ‘catastrophic’ situation among vulnerable Indigenous groups with some services on brink of closing doors

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A number of Aboriginal health groups in Victoria have been forced to cease Covid-19 testing and consider shutting their doors due to a lack of personal protective equipment.

The Guardian revealed last week that Aboriginal medical services in New South Wales, particularly in regional areas, were struggling to access the PPE needed to safely treat and test for the virus.

Up to 100,000 women could be left unable to support families as brothels are closed amid fears of Covid-19 outbreak

The government of Bangladesh has started sending emergency food and aid to the tens of thousands of women working in the country’s commercial sex industry as brothels across the country close.

To try to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus, the authorities have ordered the lockdown of the sex industry, closing the country’s biggest brothel in Goalanda in the Rajbari District of Dhaka until 5 April along with many others across the country.

Home Office urged to ‘act urgently’ to rescue vulnerable minors and reunite them with family while flights still available

After seven months of waiting, Ahmed* had everything ready for his younger brother. Finally, 18-year-old Wahid was due to arrive from the Greek island of Samos under family reunion laws.

But on 19 March, as Covid-19 took hold across Europe, the Greek authorities called to tell him the transfer had been cancelled because of the growing restrictions on flights. Greece had suspended direct flights to the UK but indirect routes are still available.

Lack of testing and failure to report on cases means scale of outbreak could be far greater than thought, doctors warn

Brazil is bracing for a surge in coronavirus cases as doctors and researchers warn that underreporting and a lack of testing mean nobody knows the real scale of Covid-19’s spread.

“What’s happening is enormous underreporting,” said Isabella Rêllo, a doctor working in emergency and intensive care in Rio de Janeiro hospitals, in a widely shared Facebook post challenging official numbers. “There are MANY more,” she wrote.

As the coronavirus crisis deepens, the plight of people crossing the Mediterranean to escape conflict has been all but forgotten. A crew of German rescuers is intent on bucking that trend

After a two-month break, the Alan Kurdi migrant rescue boat is heading back out into the central Mediterranean, as asylum seekers continue to attempt the desperate journey to reach Europe despite coronavirus fears.

The boat, operated by the German NGO Sea-Eye, left the Spanish port of Castellón de la Plana on Tuesday and is expected to reach waters off the coast of Libya this weekend.

Unable to access state benefits, food and even running water as the country shuts up shop, people in Harare fear the worst

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Nelson Mahunde, 70, trudges along the deserted streets of Harare’s central business district to collect his monthly pension.

In one hand, he clutches a pension letter; with the other, he hold on firmly to his walking stick.

My home town took pride in hard work and enterprise. But a reluctance to go into lockdown might have been disastrous

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Lombardy is one of the richest and most productive regions in Italy and Bergamo is its beating heart. It is also my home town: the city where I spent my childhood and adolescence. The province’s million inhabitants are characterised by a strong sense of belonging: to region and to family. They take pride too in a no-nonsense, practical approach to life and a powerful work ethic.

Today, Bergamo holds the European record that no town wants: it is the place where the coronavirus pandemic has cast its darkest shadow. Bergamo is a lazaretto of pain, where the priority of hospital managers is to select only the patients they think will survive. Its undertakers are so overwhelmed they have to ask neighbouring communes to take their corpses for cremation.

Doctors will assess how PM is responding to coronavirus, including breathing issues

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Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital for tests on Sunday night with persistent coronavirus symptoms, 10 days after testing positive. Some estimates suggest that about 5-10% of people with Covid-19 require hospital treatment.

His admission to hospital indicates doctors want to check how his body is responding to the virus, which will probably involve carrying out the following tests:

It is unlikely the prime minister will have been admitted unless doctors have real concerns

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Most people recover from Covid-19 within a week and cannot even be certain they had it, as they probably won’t be tested. The advice is to stay home, rest and take paracetamol. In 80% of cases, that is the end of it.

But NHS advice is that if the symptoms – mainly the dry cough, temperature and fatigue – have not gone by the end of a week, or they get worse, people should seek medical help.

With the PM in hospital for his coronavirus symptoms, we look at who will fill the void at the head of the UK government

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In his role as first secretary of state, the prime minister’s de facto deputy, Dominic Raab will be expected to stand in for Boris Johnson if he is unable to work because of coronavirus.

While other ministers, including the health secretary Matt Hancock and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, have been more visible during the Covid-19 outbreak, that position means he takes up the prime minister’s responsibilities if Johnson were unable to perform them himself.

Warning: contains strong language

A care worker has vented her anger after being turned away from priority access at an Aldi supermarket while trying to buy food for an elderly client.'We're frontline workers just as much as the NHS, the police, the fire brigade,' said Marion Kilmurray in a video posted to Facebook. 'Who's going to do our job if we don't?' Aldi has apologised for the incident

• UK ministers accused of prioritising careers over lives of coronavirus victims
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Covid-19 is the subject of topical, colourful and attention-grabbing street art, whether it is for artistic, educational or political ends

The Queen has praised Britain’s 'national spirit' in facing the challenge of coronavirus as she evoked wartime memories to reassure those 'feeling a painful sense of separation from their loved ones' to take comfort in the fact: 'We will meet again.'

• 'We will meet again': Queen urges Britons to stay strong

Scotland’s chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, has apologised after she visited her second home in Fife in breach of her own advice to avoid travel. Calderwood was pictured on Saturday with her family taking a walk with their dog in the East Neuk, a picturesque area on the Firth of Forth about 45 miles from her main home in Edinburgh

• Scotland's chief medical officer steps back from public briefings

As warm weekend weather arrived in the UK, Matt Hancock said people needed to follow the rules on coronavirus or the government would be forced to ban all exercise outside

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Donald Trump has warned Americans that the toll from coronavirus in the US will be 'the toughest' during the next two weeks, saying there will be 'a lot of death'. According to the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, by Saturday evening more than 305,000 cases of Covid-19 had been confirmed in the US, resulting in more than 8,000 deaths

• Global cases pass 1.2m as Trump warns US of worse to come

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The health secretary has said people should not go outside to sunbathe, even if they practise social distancing. 

Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sky News, Matt Hancock said: 'We are absolutely clear that you should not leave your home unless it is for one of four reasons: for medical reasons, to buy food, to go to work if you can't work at home, or for exercise. We're crystal in the guidance on what people should do – that guidance is backed up by law. It is not a request, it is a requirement in law'

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