France has cautiously begun to lift its lockdown, with millions back in work after eight weeks of restrictions.

Shops are reopening, many pupils are returning to primary schools, and people will not need travel certificates when they leave home. But some parts of the country – including the capital Paris – remain under tighter controls, with the country split into green and red zones. The government has faced criticism for howit has handled the crisis.

French President Emmanuel Macron won broad support for imposing restrictions on 17 March. But many have attacked the response since then. More than 26,000 people have died from Covid-19 in France since 1 March – one of the highest tolls in Europe.(BBC)…[+]

Sioux tribes in the US state of South Dakota are refusing to remove coronavirus checkpoints they set up on roads which pass through their land. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem wrote to several tribal leaders last week saying the checkpoints were illegal.

But the Sioux say they are the only way of making sure the virus does not enter their reservations. Their limited healthcare facilities would not be able to cope with an outbreak, they say. At present, people are only allowed to enter the reservations for essential business if they have not travelled from a Covid-19 hotspot. They must also complete a health questionnaire before doing so.(BBC)…[+]

Nineteen sailors have been killed and 15 others injured in an accident involving Iranian naval vessels in the Gulf of Oman, Iran’s navy has said. Iranian media reported that the support ship Konarak was hit by a new anti-ship missile being tested by the frigate Jamaran during an exercise on Sunday.

The Konarak had been putting targets out in the water and remained too close to one, according to the reports. The navy said the ship was towed ashore and that an investigation had begun. The incident took place near the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically important waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes.

“On Sunday evening… during naval exercises performed by a number of the naval force’s vessels in the waters of Jask and Chabahar, an accident happened involving the Konarak light support ship vessel, causing the martyrdom of a number of brave members of the naval forces,” the navy said in a statement on Monday. The statement added that the Konarak had been taken to a port for “technical inspection”, but it made no reference to the circumstances of the accident.(BBC)…[+]

Berliners have been given an unprecedented public holiday, to mark the end of World War Two in Europe but also liberation from Nazi rule. Not since reunification has a German city acknowledged 8 May as a day of liberation in this way; some Berliners are unaware of its significance.

A street party and several events have been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The holiday is one-off and is not being held outside Berlin. But there are growing calls for a public holiday to be held across Germany.

For some, particularly in areas of the old West Germany, 8 May has long been associated with defeat in World War Two. Many families preferred to draw a veil over the period, both those who had suffered persecution as well as those who hadn’t. In the areas of the old communist East Germany, 8 May was taught as a “Day of Liberation” from the Nazi regime by the victorious Red Army. Post-war Berlin itself was divided into four sectors – the Soviets in the east and the US, French and British in the west.

In the latter years of the West German state, the date was also seen as marking liberation from the Nazi regime.

In 1985 President Richard von Weizsäcker made clear the day should be seen as a day of liberation and not defeat. Ten years later, on the 50th anniversary of liberation, a reunified Berlin was at the centre of a state ceremony.

Nowadays the date is viewed more significantly as the rebirth of democracy. But the only national public holiday currently marking German history is 3 October, which celebrates the date of reunification in 1990.(BBC)…[+]

Coronavirus shutdowns around the world have pushed countries into crisis-mode, prompting a massive rescue spending in an effort to soften the blow from what is expected to be the worst economic contraction since the 1930s.

As of 7 April, countries around the world had approved more than $4.5tn worth of emergency measures, according to the IMF. That figure has only grown in the weeks since. So how do the responses compare?

Columbia economics professor Ceyhun Elgin has been working with colleagues around the world to track the responses in 166 countries. By his calculations, Japan’s response has been among the most aggressive, with a spending package estimated at roughly 20% of the country’s economy. (It is topped only by Malta, which benefits from European Union funds.) That compares to rescue spending estimated at roughly 14% of GDP in the US, 11% in Australia, 8.4% in Canada, 5% in the UK, 1.5% in Colombia and 0.6% in Gambia.(BBC)…[+]

Women in Italy have demanded a greater role in the country’s official response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Italy has one of the highest coronavirus death tolls in Europe, with almost 30,000 fatalities. Yet the Civil Defence’s daily briefings on the crisis are chaired by men, and the group of experts advising the government does not include any women. In response, Italian women have taken to social media to call for better representation. “We want to be able to exercise our right to be fairly represented,” the Dateci Voce (“give us voice”) Facebook page said. “Reconstruction of the country must be a project shared by women and together.”

A petition started by the group has been signed more than 4,500 times, including by MPs, scientist and researchers.

The page also encouraged Italians to post pictures of themselves wearing face masks with the hashtag Dateci Voce, which was soon trending in Italy. No women were included in Italy’s 20-member technical scientific committee (CTS) – a group of experts advising the government during the coronavirus outbreak.

In contrast, at least 17 of the approximately 55 members of the UK’s equivalent body, Sage, are women. The US only has two women in its 22-strong White House Coronavirus Task Force, although its high-profile response co-ordinator is Dr Deborah Birx. Italy’s taskforce charged with the post-Covid construction of the country fares somewhat better, with four women and 13 men.(BBC)…[+]

Mexico has welcomed a planeload of medical ventilators from the US to help treat Covid-19 patients, says Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard. The 211 machines were purchased from a US firm following an informal agreement between the neighbouring nations’ leaders in mid-April.

Last week, several hospitals in Mexico City said they were turning patients away because of a lack of equipment. President Trump has previously called the US “the king of ventilators”. In early April, President Trump said that the US would have 110,000 ventilators by the end of June. Why Mexico’s factories have not shut down

• Americans not welcome due to virus, say Mexicans. He also said at the time that some of the machines could go to countries that were “desperate” for the machines.(BBC)…[+]

US President Donald Trump has said the coronavirus task force will shift its focus to reopening the economy, a day after suggesting it would be disbanded. Mr Trump said the group would “continue on indefinitely” and “focus on safety [and] opening up our country”. It is not clear how exactly the task force will change but Mr Trump said “we may add or subtract people to it”.

New confirmed infections per day in the US currently top 20,000, and daily deaths exceed 1,000. US health officials have warned that the virus may spread as businesses begin to reopen. The US currently has 1.2 million confirmed coronavirus infections and more than 71,000 related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University which is tracking the pandemic.(BBC)…[+]

Astronomers have a new candidate in their search for the nearest black hole to Earth. It’s about 1,000 light-years away, or roughly 9.5 thousand, million, million km, in the Constellation Telescopium. That might not sound very close, but on the scale of the Universe, it’s actually right next door.

Scientists discovered the black hole from the way it interacts with two stars – one that orbits the hole, and the other that orbits this inner pair. Normally, black holes are discovered from the way they interact violently with an accreting disc of gas and dust. As they shred this material, copious X-rays are emitted. It’s this high-energy signal that telescopes detect, not the black hole itself. So this is an unusual case, in that it’s the motions of the stars, together known as HR 6819, that have given the game away. “This is what you might call a ‘dark black hole’; it’s truly black in that sense,” said Dietrich Baade, emeritus astronomer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) organisation in Garching, Germany.(BBC)…[+]

While the Trump administration has publicly pushed the line that the coronavirus outbreak originated in a laboratory accident in China, some of its close allies are more cautious. UK officials believe it is not possible to be absolutely sure about the origins but point to scientific opinion suggesting the most likely scenario is that it was from a live animal market. However, they add that it is impossible to rule out the theory of an accidental release from a lab without a full investigation.

Their view echoes comments on Tuesday by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who said: “We can’t rule out any of these arrangements… but the most likely has been in a wildlife wet market.” In the US, the intelligence community has also been more cautious in its public position than its political leaders and, last week, it issued a carefully worded statement.(BBC)…[+]