The US justice department is investigating alleged insider trading by lawmakers who sold stocks just before the coronavirus pandemic sparked a major market downturn, according to US media. Republican Senator Richard Burr is said to be among those to have been contacted by the FBI.

Mr Burr, 64, has denied wrongdoing. It is illegal for Congress members to trade based on non-public information gathered during their official duties. He has said he relied solely on publicly available news reports. Earlier this month various senators came under fire over alleged “insider trading”. Mr Burr, of North Carolina, reportedly dumped up to $1.7m (£1.45m) of stocks last month, which has led to calls for his resignation. Trump extends US virus guidelines to end of April. What this crisis reveals about US – and its president. His lawyer, Alice Fisher, said the senator welcomed the investigation, saying it will “establish that his actions were appropriate”.(BBC)…[+]

Elon Musk has promised to provide New York with hundreds of ventilators to help meet demand from the growing coronavirus outbreak. The Tesla chief executive said the first batch of donated machines would be delivered later on Friday.

The ventilators were purchased from US government-approved manufacturers in China. The mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio thanked Mr Musk on Twitter writing “We’re deeply grateful.” “We need every ventilator we can get our hands on these next few weeks to save lives,” he tweeted.

The ventilators will be donated to hospitals in New York City and across New York state. New York has the highest number of cases of Covid-19 in the US. As of Friday the governor said 519 people in the state had died from the disease. On Thursday, the US officially became the country with the most confirmed cases of Covid-19 globally.(BBC)…[+]

Madonna has paid tribute to Mark Blum, a co-star in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan, after his death from coronavirus complications. The US singer and actress remembered Blum, who played Gary Glass and died this week at the age of 69, as “funny, warm, loving and professional”. “My heart goes out to him, his family and his loved ones,” she wrote.

Blum also appeared in the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee, playing Paul Hogan’s love rival Richard. His other credits included the 2003 film Shattered Glass and a role in The Good Wife that he reprised in its spin-off The Good Fight.

In recent years he had a recurring role in the Netflix series You. Blum’s death was announced by Rebecca Damon, executive vice-president of the actors’ union Sag-Aftra. She remembered him as “a gifted actor, a master teacher, a loyal friend and a beautiful human”. The Playwright Horizons theatre group also paid tribute, calling Blum “a dear longtime friend and a consummate artist“.(BBC)…[+]

The future starts now for self-isolating Dua Lipa fans, after the star put out her new album a week early. Future Nostalgia, which features writing contributions from Tove Lo and Madonna’s producer Stuart Price, was brought forward after it leaked online. Early reviews have been glowing, with critics calling the record “viscerally brilliant” and “pop perfection”. It is now the top-rated album of 2020 on review aggregation site Metacritic, with an average score of 92.

With perhaps the best review headline of the year, The Independent called Future Nostalgia, “pure sonic spandex”.

“Dua Lipa delivers hard truths to a soundtrack that’s ridiculously leotard and leg warmers – and there isn’t a duff track on the whole record,” wrote Helen Brown, awarding five stars. The NME gave the same top score, calling the album “powerful pop perfection from a star unafraid to speak her mind”. “The artist’s stunning second record tackles sex, inequality and empowerment. And all with a little disco shimmy,” reported Rhian Daly.(BBC)…[+]

A fundamentalist Iraqi cleric has been extradited to Italy from Norway, despite concerns about the coronavirus. Mullah Krekar, real name Najmaddin Faraj Ahmad, is considered a terrorist by the UN and the US.

In July 2019 he was convicted by an Italian court of leading a jihadist group. His lawyers challenged his extradition, citing the coronavirus pandemic. Italy is the country worst affected by the outbreak. It has reported more than 7,500 deaths. Norway has recorded 3,250 confirmed cases and 14 deaths. The 63-year-old Iraqi Kurdish preacher came to Norway as a refugee in 1991.

He was the founder of the defunct Islamic group Ansar al-Islam, although has since distanced himself from the group. Norway has been trying to extradite him for years, judging him to be a threat to national security since 2007. But under Norwegian law it would be illegal to extradite him to Iraq – despite repeated requests by Kurdish authorities – because he could face the death penalty.(BBC)…[+]

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has suffered another mass bleaching event – the third in just five years. Warmer sea temperatures – particularly in February – are feared to have caused huge coral loss across the world’s largest reef system.

Scientists say they have detected widespread bleaching, including extensive patches of severe damage. But they have also found healthy pockets. Two-thirds of the reef was damaged by similar events in 2016 and 2017. The reef system, which covers over 2,300km (1,400 miles), is a World Heritage site recognised for its “enormous scientific and intrinsic importance”.

Last year, Australia was forced to downgrade its five-year reef outlook from poor to very poor due to the impact of human-induced climate change. On Thursday, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said its latest aerial surveys had shown that the severity of bleaching varied across the reef. But it said more areas had been damaged than in previous events.(BBC)…[+]

Mexican protesters have shut a US southern border crossing amid fears that untested American travellers will spread coronavirus. Residents in Sonora, south of the US state of Arizona, have promised to block traffic into Mexico for a second day after closing a checkpoint for hours on Wednesday.

They wore face masks and held signs telling Americans to “stay at home”. Mexico has fewer than 500 confirmed Covid-19 cases and the US over 65,000. The border is supposed to be closed to all except “essential” business, but protesters said there has been little enforcement and no testing by authorities. The blockade was led by members of the group Sonorans for Health and Life, who called for medical testing to be done on anyone who crosses from the US into Mexico.(BBC)…[+]

As US states ramp up restrictions to contain the coronavirus, Texas has joined Ohio in deeming nearly all abortions as non-essential procedures that must be delayed. The order against elective procedures is meant to keep valuable medical resources for those treating Covid-19 only.

In Texas, providers can be fined or jailed for violating the order. Abortion rights groups have criticised the move.

They say abortion should be considered an essential service. It comes as states across the country grapple with shortages of critical medical necessities, including masks, hospital space and ventilators. Medical professionals have pleaded for more supplies as many are falling ill or having to quarantine themselves after exposure.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday issued the clarification of Governor Greg Abbot’s earlier mandate on non-essential medical procedures. A statement from Mr Paxton’s office said “no one is exempt from the governor’s executive order on medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including abortion providers”, according to the Texas Tribune. It noted any providers in violation of the order – which expires 21 April – could be fined $1,000 (£853) or jailed for a maximum of 180 days.(BBC)…[+]

The transatlantic slave trade might seem like something from a distant and barbaric era – but a historian has found evidence its last survivor was alive in living memory. Hannah Durkin, at Newcastle University, had previously identified the last surviving slave captured in Africa in the 19th Century and brought to United States as a woman called Redoshi Smith, who died in 1937. But she has now discovered that another former slave, Matilda McCrear, had lived three years later. Matilda died in Selma, Alabama, in January 1940, at the age 83 – and her rebellious life story was the last living link with slaves abducted from Africa.(BBC)…[+]

“Trace, test and treat” has been the mantra of global health bodies in tackling the spread of Covid-19. But innumerable cases around the country show it is a model the United States has failed to recreate.

“I’m still sick, it hasn’t improved. I’m coughing, I’ve been feverish and my left lung hurts. There have been times the wheezing and the gurgling in my chest have been so bad at night that it’s woken me up. There’s no doubt I have all the symptoms.” Claudia Bahorik – who is 69 and lives in Bernville, Pennsylvania – does not say this lightly. As a retired physician herself, she has done her research.

But this is the story of Dr Bahorik’s determined, though so far unsuccessful plight – involving clinics, hospitals and even a senator’s office – to find out if she has the coronavirus. It all started as far back as the last week of February. Dr Bahorik had recently been on a trip to New York with her great niece, and soon after developed a cough and a fever, though it appeared to subside.(BBC)…[+]