Belgian authorities are investigating the death of a man after footage shared on social media appeared to show a police officer kneeling on his back. Police said a 29-year-old man of Algerian origin was arrested outside a café in Antwerp on Sunday after he allegedly tried to attack people. The man died in hospital hours later. His death drew parallels with the case of George Floyd, who died in May after a police officer knelt on his neck during his arrest in the US.  A police spokesman told the AFP news agency that officers were called after the “very agitated” man tried to attack people, adding that the man had already been injured and appeared intoxicated. Antwerp police said in a tweet that they would not comment on the case pending a judicial investigation. The man has been named in local media as Akram, and the hashtags #JusticeForAkram and #MurderInAntwerp have been trending in Belgium. Floyd’s death led to an outpouring of anger in cities across the world against police brutality and racism. (BBC)…[+]

More than 100 wild animals, including at least eight rare rhinos, have died in recent flooding at a national park in north-eastern India, officials say. The Kaziranga park in Assam state is home to the world’s largest population of one-horned rhinos, which faced extinction at the turn of the century. But this year’s monsoon rains have almost 85% of the park under water. The floods have killed at least 190 people and displaced millions in Assam as well as in Nepal. Kaziranga park, which is a Unesco World Heritage site, is home to at least 2,400 one-horned rhinos.

Park officials told the Hindustan Times eight one-horned rhinos had drowned in the recent rains, while another died of natural causes last month.  Dozens of other animals, including deer, buffalo and porcupines, have also been died – many due to drowning, although others were hit by vehicles as they attempted to escape the floodwaters. Across Assam, heavy rain has submerged thousands of villages. Hundreds of relief camps have been set up to shelter those displaced. (BBC)…[+]

US presidents and foreign leaders have joined the tributes to civil rights icon John Lewis, who has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 80. Lewis was one of the “Big Six” civil rights leaders, which included Martin Luther King Jr, and helped organise the historic 1963 March on Washington. Barack Obama is among those who have praised Lewis’s legacy. President Donald Trump later said in a tweet that he was “saddened” to hear of the former congressman’s death. A petition to rename a bridge in Alabama that played a pivotal role in Lewis’s life has drawn more than 400,000 signatures.

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, described Lewis as “truly one-of-a-kind, a moral compass”. Mr Biden said he had spoken to Lewis in the days before his death. “His voice still commanded respect and his laugh was still full of joy. Instead of answering our concerns for him, he asked about us. He asked us to stay focused on the work left undone to heal this nation.”(BBC)…[+]

EU leaders trying to hammer out a huge post-coronavirus economic recovery plan are now in an unscheduled third day of a testy summit in Brussels. Some member states believe the proposed €750bn ($857bn; £680bn) package is too large and should come as loans, rather than grants.

Austria said there was still a “way to go”, while Hungary’s PM lashed out at his Dutch counterpart. Germany’s Angela Merkel said a deal might not be reached on Sunday. The third day of talks comes after a record one-day rise in new infections worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that new cases rose by almost 260,000 in 24 hours. Officials said this was the largest single-day increase since the pandemic began, and the first time the number of new daily infections has surpassed a quarter of a million. The previous record rise in new confirmed cases was recorded by the WHO just one day earlier. The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus passed 14 million on Saturday, with over 600,000 recorded deaths, according to the tally kept by US-based Johns Hopkins University. (BBC)…[+]

A major agreement governing the transfer of EU citizens’ data to the United States has been struck down by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The EU-US Privacy Shield let companies sign up to higher privacy standards, before transferring data to the US.

But a privacy advocate challenged the agreement, arguing that US national security laws did not protect EU citizens from government snooping. Max Schrems, the Austrian behind the case, called it a win for privacy. “It is clear that the US will have to seriously change their surveillance laws, if US companies want to continue to play a role in the EU market,” he said. The EU-US Privacy Shield system “underpins transatlantic digital trade” for more than 5,000 companies. About 65% of them are small-medium enterprises (SMEs) or start-ups, according to UCL’s European Institute. Affected companies will now have to sign standard contractual clauses, non-negotiable legal contracts drawn up by Europe, which are used in other countries besides the US. Mr Schrems had also challenged these, but the ECJ chose not to abolish them. But it also warned that those contracts should be suspended by data protection watchdogs, if the guarantees in them are not upheld. US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said his department was “deeply disappointed” by the decision.(BBC)…[+]

Sudan says River Nile water levels have dropped as a reservoir behind Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance dam has filled up, hitting out at “any unilateral actions taken by any party”. Egypt has also demanded “quick official clarification” from Ethiopia. Both Sudan and Egypt are downstream, and fear the large dam will greatly reduce their access to water.

Ethiopia sees the hydroelectric project as crucial for its economic growth and improving electricity supplies. “If Ethiopia doesn’t fill the dam, it means Ethiopia has agreed to demolish the dam,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told parliament earlier this month. But state media have backtracked after reports on Wednesday that suggested the dam was being filled deliberately, though without making it clear whether the dam’s gates had been closed.(BBC)…[+]

US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has described recent efforts by the Trump administration to discredit him as “bizarre” and “nonsense”. “Ultimately, it hurts the president to do that,” Dr Fauci said in an interview with The Atlantic. “It doesn’t do anything but reflect poorly on them.” On Sunday, a White House official shared a list detailing past apparent erroneous comments by Dr Fauci. But on Wednesday Mr Trump insisted he had a “good relationship” with him. “We’re all in the same team including Dr Fauci,” he said. “We want to get rid of this mess that China sent us, so everybody’s working on the same line and we’re doing very well.” 

The White House statement attacking Dr Fauci criticised him for what it said was conflicting advice on face coverings and remarks on Covid-19’s severity. Responding to the criticism, Dr Fauci told The Atlantic that targeting him was “completely wrong”. “I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that,” he said. “I think they realise now that that was not a prudent thing to do, because it’s only reflecting negatively on them,” he added.(BBC)…[+]

An American woman lured to Nigeria by a promise of marriage from a man she met on Facebook has been rescued after being held captive for more than a year, police say. The 46-year-old was held against her will in a hotel room in Lagos. The suspect Chukwuebuka Obiaku, 34, “took control” of the unnamed victim’s credit and debit cards, and retirement benefits, according to the police. Over a period of 15 months she was forced to part with $48,000 (£38,000). The victim is a retired civil servant from Washington DC. Police say Mr Obiaku “also used the victim as a front to defraud her associates and other foreign personalities and companies”. 

The victim arrived from the US in February 2019, according to Nigerian police. In May 2019 she married Mr Obiaku.

In total, the woman is said to have been held against her will for 16 months in a hotel room. The police say they received a tip off from a “civic minded” individual and they used the information to rescue her. Mr Obiaku has been arrested and police say he faces a charge of cybercrime.(BBC)…[+]

As Fifi the llama munches on grass on a pasture in Reading, her immune system has provided the template for a coronavirus treatment breakthrough. Scientists from the UK’s Rosalind Franklin Institute have used Fifi’s specially evolved antibodies to make an immune-boosting therapy. The resulting llama-based, Covid-specific “antibody cocktail” could enter clinical trials within months. The development is published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. It involves “engineering” llama antibodies, which are relatively small, and much more simply structured than the antibodies in our own blood. That size and structure means they can be “redesigned” in the lab. Professor James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute – and the lead researcher – described the technique as akin to cutting a key that fits the coronavirus lock. “With the llama’s antibodies, we have keys that don’t quite fit – they’ll go into the lock but won’t turn all the way round,” he said.(BBC)…[+]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he “made a mistake” by joining in talks for giving a government contract to a charity that paid his family. We Charity was tapped by his government to oversee a C$900m ($664m, £533m) youth volunteer programme in June.

It later emerged that We previously paid Mr Trudeau’s relatives over C$280,000 to speak at events. Mr Trudeau now faces his third ethics commission inquiry in office over the scandal. “I made a mistake for not recusing myself from the discussions immediately, given my family’s history,” Mr Trudeau said Monday. “I should not have been a part of the discussion.” Mr Trudeau has not been paid by the organisation himself, although he has spoken at We events for free. The prime minister said he should have known his family has been paid, since they are frequently hired for professional speaking engagements.(BBC)…[+]