Americans have flocked to beaches and lakes for Memorial Day weekend, often flouting restrictions imposed to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. In Florida, state police dispersed an unauthorised gathering of hundreds of people in Daytona Beach on Saturday. In Missouri, bars at the Lake of the Ozarks were packed with revellers, who violated social-distancing rules. US coronavirus task force chief Dr Deborah Birx said she was “very concerned” after seeing such scenes. “We really want to be clear all the time that social distancing is absolutely critical. And if you can’t social distance and you’re outside, you must wear a mask,” Dr Birx said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.

Lyda Krewson, the mayor of St Louis, Missouri, said: “It’s irresponsible and dangerous to engage in such high risk behaviour just to have some fun over the extended holiday weekend. “Now, these folks will be going home to S. Louis and counties across Missouri and the Midwest, raising concerns about the potential of more positive cases, hospitalisations, and tragically, deaths. Deeply disturbing.“(BBC)…[+]

Foreign visitors to Spain will no longer have to undergo a two-week quarantine from 1 July, the government has announced. It said the measure had been finalised in a cabinet meeting on Monday. Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya had previously said the requirement would be lifted in July, without giving a date. The news comes as the UK government prepares to bring in its own 14-day quarantine policy from 8 June.

Travel firms and other industry bodies say the UK should relax the measure for visitors arriving from countries where people are at a lower risk of contracting the coronavirus. Spain normally attracts 80 million tourists a year, with the sector providing more than 12% of the country’s GDP. Opening up the holiday market again before the summer season is over is seen as crucial to the Spanish economy. But under the UK’s new policy, any tourists returning home after taking holidays in Spain and most other foreign destinations would have to spend two weeks in self-isolation.(BBC)…[+]

A surge in visitors to beaches in northern Europe after coronavirus lockdowns were eased and temperatures rose has alarmed officials and experts. Three towns in north-western France shut their beaches on Wednesday because of the “unacceptable” failure of people to observe social-distancing rules.

Municipalities in the Netherlands urged German tourists not to visit. And in England, the town council in Southend said it might take action after sunseekers flocked there. The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 around the world has now passed five million, but the number of new infections has been falling across most of Europe.

European countries had reported 1.74 million cases and 164,349 deaths as of Wednesday, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Those with the most fatalities are the UK, Italy, France, Spain and Belgium. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that there is “still a long way to go in this pandemic”, and called on people in countries where restrictions are being eased to continue to adapt their behaviour to minimise transmission of Covid-19.(BBC)…[+]

An Indian doctor who was suspended after raising concerns about a shortage of masks is again in the spotlight after officials committed him to a mental hospital. BBC Telugu’s V Shankar reports.

Dr Sudhakar Rao, an anaesthetist with 20 years of experience, made national headlines over the weekend for the second time in two months. A series of videos that went viral show him and police facing off on a highway in the southern city of Visakhapatnam, where Dr Rao lives and works. Authorities say he was sent to a mental hospital after. The news follows reports of Indian doctors facing a backlash after speaking out about shortages of protective gear or lack of preparation in hospitals.

The videos, which have been shared widely on social media and WhatsApp, show a confusing chain of events from Saturday. Dr Rao is first seen shirtless, sitting inside his car by the side of the road, and screaming at police. In another video, he is lying on the road with his hands tied behind his back as a constable hits him with a baton. Police said the constable has been suspended, pending an inquiry.(BBC)…[+]

US actress Lori Loughlin, of the sitcom Full House, and her husband, designer Mossimo Giuannulli, will plead guilty to college admissions scam charges. They are among 50 people charged in an alleged criminal enterprise to get their children into top US schools.

The couple had initially pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges. Officials say they have agreed to a plea deal of prison time, a fine, and community service under supervised release. According to the District Attorneys office in Massachusetts, Ms Loughlin will plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud “on a date to be specified by the Court”. Mr Giannulli will plead guilty to the same, plus one count of honest services wire and mail fraud.

Prosecutors had said Ms Loughlin and Mr Giannulli paid $500,000 (£408,000) in bribes to have their two daughters admitted into the University of Southern California (USC) as fake rowing-team recruits.(BBC)…[+]

The owner of a pizza restaurant in the US has discovered the DoorDash delivery app has been selling his food cheaper than he does – while still paying him full price for orders. A pizza for which he charged $24 (£20) was being advertised for $16 on DoorDash – and when he secretly ordered it himself, the app paid his restaurant the full $24 while charging him $16.

He had not asked to be put on the app. He later found out it was part of a trial to gauge customer demand. Content strategist Ranjan Roy blogged about the anonymous restaurateur, who is his friend. Mr Roy said he first heard about the situation in March 2019, when his friend started receiving complaints about deliveries, even though his outlets did not deliver. At that point , he discovered he had been added to DoorDash – and noticed it was charging a lower price for one of his premium pizzas.(BBC)…[+]

President Donald Trump has argued it is “a badge of honour” that the US has the world’s highest number of confirmed Covid-19 infections. “I look at that as, in a certain respect, as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better,” he said at the White House. The US has 1.5 million coronavirus cases and nearly 92,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. In second place is Russia, with nearly 300,000 confirmed cases. 

On Monday, Mr Trump was hosting his first cabinet meeting since the US outbreak began. “By the way,” he told reporters, “you know when you say that we lead in cases, that’s because we have more testing than anybody else.” “So when we have a lot of cases,” he continued, “I don’t look at that as a bad thing, I look at that as, in a certain respect, as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better.” He added: “So I view it as a badge of honour. Really, it’s a badge of honour.

“It’s a great tribute to the testing and all of the work that a lot of professionals have done.” According to the Centers for Disease Control, a federal agency, the US had conducted 12.6m coronavirus tests by Tuesday.(BBC)…[+]

About 10,000 residents have been evacuated in the US state of Michigan after two dams collapsed following days of heavy rain, officials say. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency for areas near the Tittabawassee River after the Edenville and Sanford dams burst.

Parts of Midland, a city some 140 miles (209 km) of Detroit, could be under 9ft (2.7m) of water, authorities said. Dow chemical company, which is based in the city, has set up emergency steps. Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for Midland County in mid-Michigan after the dams collapsed on Tuesday, and said the city of Midland – of population of more than 40,000 – could see a “historic high water level”. “This is unlike anything we’ve seen in Midland County,” Ms Whitmer said at a news conference. “To go through this in the midst of a global pandemic is almost unthinkable.”(NU)…[+]

EasyJet has admitted that a “highly sophisticated cyber-attack” has affected approximately nine million customers.

It said email addresses and travel details had been stolen and that 2,208 customers had also had their credit card details “accessed”. The firm has informed the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office while it investigates the breach. EasyJet first became aware of the attack in January. It told the BBC that it was only able to notify customers whose credit card details were stolen in early April. “This was a highly sophisticated attacker. It took time to understand the scope of the attack and to identify who had been impacted,” the airline told the BBC. “We could only inform people once the investigation had progressed enough that we were able to identify whether any individuals have been affected, then who had been impacted and what information had been accessed.”(BBC)…[+]

World Health Organization (WHO) member states have agreed to set up an independent inquiry into the global response to the coronavirus pandemic. The resolution, approved without objection by the WHO’s 194-member annual assembly meeting virtually in Geneva, also allows for the inquiry to look into the health body’s own role.

The United States in particular has been highly critical of its response. The EU presented the resolution on behalf of 100 nations. It calls for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the international response.

This will also focus on the WHO’s “timelines pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic”. The body has faced criticism that it was late to declare a health emergency. The resolution also calls for the world to ensure “transparent, equitable and timely access” to any treatments or vaccines, and pushes for the WHO to investigate the “source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population”. “As I see no requests for the floor, I take it that there is no objection and the resolution is therefore adopted,” declared the assembly’s president, Keva Bain, the Bahamas ambassador.(BBC)…[+]