A woman has hatched three ducklings called Beep, Peep and Meep from eggs she bought in Waitrose. Charli Lello, 29, from Hertfordshire, put the Clarence Court eggs in an incubator as an experiment to pass the time after being furloughed. She said the ducklings would live “a very happy life” with her pet chickens. A Waitrose spokesman said fertilised eggs were safe to eat and “entirely indistinguishable” from normal eggs, unless incubated. 

Ms Lello, who normally works as an assistant manager in a shop, got the idea after seeing a video on Facebook of someone hatching quail eggs from a supermarket. “While I was in Waitrose, I saw the duck eggs and thought maybe they would work as well. I was so excited for them to hatch but I still had in the back of my mind that these are supermarket eggs. “They have been collected, bashed around on a delivery truck, then rattled around on a trolley onto a shelf, picked up and put down by who knows how many people, so they still might not go all the way.”(BBC)…[+]

India is to convert another 500 railway carriages to create 8,000 more beds for coronavirus patients in Delhi, amid a surge in infections. Home Minister Amit Shah announced a package of new emergency measures for the capital, including a rapid increase in testing for Covid-19. Nursing homes will also be requisitioned.

He met Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to address the crisis. India’s daily number of confirmed new cases has reached almost 12,000. The total number of 320,922 officially confirmed cases puts India fourth in the world – after the US, Brazil and Russia – in the pandemic. The death toll in India stands at 9,195, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University from official sources. The Hindustan Times reports that Delhi is the third worst-hit state in India after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. It reports that Delhi’s bed capacity across private and government hospitals for Covid-19 patients stands at 9,698, of which 4,248 beds are vacant.(BBC)…[+]

Hundreds of people have taken to the streets in cities across Lebanon amid escalating protests as the country faces a collapse in its currency. Anger has surged as the Lebanese pound tumbled to record lows, having lost 70% of its value since October when protests began. The prime minister has called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the economic crisis.

The protests paused during coronavirus lockdown, but recently resumed. The depreciation of the Lebanese pound has plunged the country into its worst economic crisis in decades. Many Lebanese citizens who rely on hard currency savings have fallen into poverty, their plight worsened by the pandemic.(BBC)…[+]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made his first public appearance in weeks of coronavirus lockdown to celebrate the country’s national day. He used the Russia Day holiday to promote a controversial reform of the constitution which could keep him in office until 2036. Mr Putin, 67, has dominated Russia for the past 20 years whether as president or prime minister. Moscow lifted lockdown curbs this week despite a huge number of infections. 

But there was confusion as the mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, urged people to stay at home during Friday’s holiday and another on 24 June, which marks victory in World War Two. About 510,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Russia, the third-highest number of cases in the world after the US and Brazil. Russia has recorded 6,705 deaths amid accusations of under-reporting by the authorities.(BBC)…[+]

One of Uganda’s best known mountain gorillas, Rafiki, has been killed. Four men have been arrested, and they face a life sentence or a fine of $5.4m (£4.3m) if found guilty of killing an endangered species. Investigations showed that Rafiki was killed by a sharp object that penetrated his internal organs. There are just over 1,000 mountain gorillas in existence and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) described Rafiki’s death as a “very big blow”. The silverback, believed to be around 25-years-old when he died in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, was the leader of a group of 17 mountain gorillas. 

This group was described as habituated, meaning that its members were used to human contact. “The death of Rafiki leaves the group unstable and there is the possibility that it could disintegrate,” Bashir Hangi from the UWA told the BBC. “It has no leadership at this time and it could be taken over by a wild silverback.” If that happened, the group would not want to come into contact with humans, which ultimately could affect tourism.(BBC)…[+]

British Airways is selling some of its multi-million-pound art collection to raise cash to help it through the coronavirus pandemic. The collection includes art by Damien Hirst, Bridget Riley and Peter Doig, with one work believed to have been valued at more than £1m. It is understood at least 10 pieces have been identified for sale, although exactly which ones is unclear.

BA has seen a collapse in air travel and is set to cut thousands of jobs. Last week, BA boss Alex Cruz warned that the cash-strapped airline’s survival was at stake unless there was a drastic restructuring of the business. London’s Evening Standard newspaper, which first reported news of the art sell-off, said auction house Sotheby’s had been brought in to arrange sales as soon as possible. Other works in BA’s collection are pieces by Tracey Emin, Anish Kapoor and Chris Ofili. The airline would not comment on the sale, nor identify which works would go under the hammer. However, the most valuable piece is believed to be by Bridget Riley and worth, according to one source, “at least seven figures”. It has been in BA’s possession for more than 30 years, with the value increasing significantly since purchase.(BBC)…[+]

Statues of Confederate leaders and the explorer Christopher Columbus have been torn down in the US, as pressure grows on authorities to remove monuments connected to slavery and colonialism. A statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was toppled in Richmond, Virginia, on Wednesday night. Statues of Columbus in Boston, Miami and Virginia have been vandalised. The movement has been sparked by the death in police custody of African American George Floyd. His death in Minneapolis has led to protests in the US and internationally against police brutality and racial inequality.

Memorials to the Confederacy, a group of southern states that fought to keep black people as slaves in the American Civil War of 1861-65, have been among those targeted. A number of Confederate statues on Monument Avenue in Richmond have been marked with graffiti during the protests. Richmond also saw a statue of Italian explorer Columbus pulled down, set alight and thrown into a lake earlier this week,. A three-metre tall (10ft) bronze statue of Columbus was toppled in Saint Paul,  Minnesota, on Wednesday. The Columbus statue in Boston, which stands on a plinth at the heart of town, was beheaded.(BBC)…[+]

US President Donald Trump is to hold his first re-election campaign rally for several months in Tulsa, Oklahoma on the date that African Americans celebrate the end of slavery. The rally will take place on 19 June, known as “Juneteenth”. The Trump campaign said his Republican Party was proud of its role in winning the Civil War and ending slavery.

The news follows weeks of anti-racism protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man, in police custody.

In 1921 the city of Tulsa was the site of one of the worst massacres of black people in US history. Mr Trump’s rallies, seen as vital for energising his base, were suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak in March. He faces re-election in November but is lagging behind his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, in the polls. Correspondents say that while the virus remains a threat, Mr Trump’s campaign considers that large crowds at the recent protests will make it harder for his opponents to criticise his rallies.(BBC)…[+]

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticised banking giant HSBC for supporting China’s move to impose new security legislation in Hong Kong. Mr Pompeo also said the US stood with its allies against China’s “coercive bully tactics”.

The Trump administration has repeatedly attacked Beijing for what it says is an attempt to end Hong Kong’s autonomy. HSBC, which is UK-based but was formed in Hong Kong in 1865, declined to comment on Mr Pompeo’s remarks. US-China ties have deteriorated rapidly since the start of the year over Hong Kong and the coronavirus pandemic. The statement on Tuesday by America’s top diplomat came after both HSBC and Standard Chartered expressed support for China’s national security legislation in Hong Kong. Mr Pompeo said the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “browbeating” of HSBC “should serve as a cautionary tale“.(BBC)…[+]

An artwork by British graffiti artist Banksy that was stolen last year from the Bataclan music hall in Paris has been found by police in central Italy. The work, which depicted a young female figure with a mournful expression, was painted as a tribute to the victims of the 2015 terror attack at the venue.

It was cut out and removed from one of the venue’s emergency doors by a group of hooded people using angle grinders. According to La Repubblica it was found in a farmhouse in the Abruzzo region. The district attorney of the Italian city of L’Aquila, Michele Renzo, said: “The finding was possible following investigations conducted by the district prosecutor in collaboration with the police and the French judiciary.” 

After it was taken, the Bataclan posted on Twitter: “Today we are deeply indignant. Banksy’s work, a symbol of memory and belonging for everyone – locals, Parisians, citizens of the world – was stolen from us.” A press conference is set to be scheduled with further details about how it was found. Ninety people were killed in November 2015 when armed militants targeted the Bataclan during a concert by rock band Eagles Of Death Metal. The stencilled mural, described by the venue as “a symbol of recollection”, was one of a series of artworks attributed to Banksy that appeared around Paris in June 2018.(BBC)…[+]