UK PM Johnson faces growing rebellion over aide's lockdown trip

Yahoo – AFP, David HARDING, Joe JACKSON, May 26, 2020

Dominic Cummings defended his travel during lockdown despite mounting
calls for his resignation (AFP Photo/Jonathan Brady)

London (AFP) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday faced a mounting internal rebellion, including a ministerial resignation, over a scandal around his top aide Dominic Cummings taking a cross-country trip during the coronavirus lockdown.

Dozens of Conservative lawmakers have now demanded the controversial adviser quit or be sacked while Douglas Ross, a minister for Scotland, resigned in protest, as a political crisis that has dominated the headlines for days continued unabated.

"I have constituents who didn't get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn't visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government," Ross said in a statement.

"I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior advisor to the government was right."

The government said it regretted his decision, but the resignation piled more pressure on it and Cummings.

He held a press conference Monday to justify driving his wife and young son on a 264-mile (425-kilometre) trip from London to Durham in northeast England in late March during the height of the coronavirus crisis.

Earlier that week Johnson had introduced a stringent lockdown requiring people to stay at home -- barring exceptional circumstances -- or face fines.

Cummings, who had virus symptoms around the time of the trip while his wife was also suffering from COVID-19, has claimed he complied with the guidance because childcare needs were one such exception.

There has been widespread outrage at Cummings' alleged lockdown breach, 

such as the graffiti in north London (AFP Photo/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS)

The Brexit campaign mastermind, a divisive figure within British politics, said he wanted to leave his four-year-old son at his parents' house in case both he and his wife became incapacitated.

'Furore'

Health Secretary Matt Hancock was the latest minister to defend Cummings at the daily Downing Street briefing, saying "what he did was within the guidelines".

But following a question from a priest during the briefing -- members of the public are allowed to ask a question each day -- over whether anybody fined for being outside their homes due to childcare issues would now be reimbursed, he pledged the government would review the matter.

"Especially coming from a man of the cloth, I think that is a perfectly reasonable to take away that question," Hancock said.

The priest, Martin Poole, later told Sky News he would like to see those in government "treated in the same way as everybody else".

The prime minister has called Cummings' actions "plausible".

But Jackson Carlaw, the leader of the Conservatives in Scotland, said his most trusted adviser should consider quitting.

"Given the furore, given the distraction this is... if I were Mr Cummings I would be considering my position," he told STV News.

Carlaw's comments followed a rising tide of calls from fellow Tories for the adviser to go, with MP Mark Pawsey saying he had acted "against the spirit of the lockdown".

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's top aide Dominic Cummings defies calls 

to resign (AFP Photo)

Meanwhile, a host of smaller opposition parties wrote to Johnson to call for Cummings' ousting.

"There cannot be one rule for those involved in formulating public health advice and another for the rest of us," the Scottish National Party, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and others said in the letter.

The main opposition Labour party has stopped short of backing that call but demanded an internal government inquiry.

'Reasonably and legally'

Britain has been one of the worst-hit countries by the pandemic, with more than 46,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 by mid-May, according to official statistics released Tuesday.

Johnson's government, whose less comprehensive tally updated daily has counted 37,048 fatalities, has been heavily criticised for its response.

The Cummings controversy appears to have further damaged its reputation, with the latest YouGov poll showing 59 percent of respondents thought he should resign, up from 52 percent.

Much of the fury in Britain has focused on Cummings' decision not to apologise for his actions, and claims he was being misunderstood because elements of the media reports about his travels were false.

Cummings has also resisted calls to resign, telling reporters on Monday that he acted "reasonably and legally".

"I don't regret what I did," he added.

Wuhan lab had three live bat coronaviruses: Chinese state media

Yahoo – AFP, May 24, 2020

The director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology told a Chinese state broadcaster
that the lab has three live strains of bat coronavirus on-site, but that claims the
coronavirus could have leaked from the facility were 'pure fabrication' (AFP Photo/
Hector RETAMAL)

The Chinese virology institute at the centre of US allegations it may have been the source of the COVID-19 pandemic has three live strains of bat coronavirus on-site, but none match the new global contagion, its director has said.

Scientists think COVID-19 -- which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and has killed more than 340,000 people worldwide -- originated in bats and could have been transmitted to people via another mammal.

But the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology told state broadcaster CGTN that claims made by US President Donald Trump and others the virus could have leaked from the facility were "pure fabrication".

In the interview filmed on May 13 but broadcast Saturday night, Wang Yanyi said the centre has "isolated and obtained some coronaviruses from bats".

"Now we have three strains of live viruses... But their highest similarity to SARS-CoV-2 only reaches 79.8 percent," she said, referring to the coronavirus strain that causes COVID-19.

One of their research teams, led by Professor Shi Zhengli, has been researching bat coronaviruses since 2004 and focused on the "source tracing of SARS", the strain behind another virus outbreak nearly two decades ago.

"We know that the whole genome of SARS-CoV-2 is only 80 percent similar to that of SARS. It's an obvious difference," she said.

"So, in Professor Shi's past research, they didn't pay attention to such viruses which are less similar to the SARS virus."

Plans for more labs

Conspiracy rumours that the biosafety lab was involved in the outbreak swirled online for months before Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the theory into the mainstream by claiming that there is evidence the pathogen came from the institute.

The United States and Australia have called in recent weeks for an investigation into the origins of the pandemic.

Chinese scientists have said that the virus first emerged at a market selling live animals in Wuhan, though officials in Beijing more recently cast doubt about its origins.

Chinese Foreign minister Wang Yi on Sunday blasted what he called efforts by US politicians to "fabricate rumours" about the pathogen's origins and "stigmatise China".

He said China would be "open" to international cooperation to identify the source of the novel coronavirus, as long as any investigation is "free of political interference".

The World Health Organization has said Washington offered no evidence to support the "speculative" claims about the Wuhan lab.

The Wuhan lab has said it received samples of the then-unknown virus on December 30, determined the viral genome sequence on January 2 and submitted information on the pathogen to the WHO on January 11.

Wang Yanyi said in the interview that before it received samples in December, their team had never "encountered, researched or kept the virus".

"In fact, like everyone else, we didn't even know the virus existed," she said. "How could it have leaked from our lab when we never had it?"

At a press conference Sunday, Zhao Chenxin, deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said every Chinese prefecture must have its own P3 laboratory to ramp up preparations against infectious diseases.

Apart from the P3 lab plans -- the second-highest biosafety classification for labs handling pathogens -- Zhao said each city should also have a lower-level P2 laboratory so they could "quickly respond in a major epidemic".

The Wuhan institute has both P3 and P4 labs.

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Senate Intel panel head steps aside amid COVID-19 insider-trading probe

Yahoo – AFP, May 14, 2020

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr is suspected of selling stocks
on non-public information on the threat of the coronavirus pandemic (AFP Photo/
Andrew Harnik)

Washington (AFP) - The Republican chairman of the powerful US Senate Intelligence committee stepped down from his position Thursday after the FBI seized his cellphone in a probe of alleged insider stock trading tied to the coronavirus pandemic.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Richard Burr would be stepping aside temporarily while the FBI investigation is ongoing.

"We agreed that this decision would be in the best interests of the committee and will be effective at the end of the day tomorrow," McConnell said in a statement.

Burr is under investigation over whether he used his insider access to highly classified intelligence to sell stocks in February -- before the coronavirus pandemic struck, and while Americans were being told the virus's threat was low.

The Los Angeles Times said federal agents wielding a warrant seized his cellphone late Wednesday at his Washington home.

Earlier they accessed Burr's personal files on his iCloud account, and information from that led them to the phone, the newspaper reported, quoting law enforcement officials.

NBC News also reported on the cellphone seizure, citing an unnamed senior law enforcement official.

Dumped stocks, warned donors

One of the most respected and relatively non-partisan Republican senators, the North Carolina lawmaker came under investigation after reports showed he had dumped stocks and warned donors of the looming COVID-19 pandemic in February -- as the White House played down the danger.

Burr, who receives almost daily briefings from the US intelligence community on threats to the country, himself wrote on the Fox News website on February 7 that the US government was "better prepared than ever" for the COVID-19 virus, assuring Americans that they were well-protected.

But on February 13 the North Carolina senator and his wife suddenly sold off between $628,000 and $1.7 million in stocks, the ProPublica media group revealed in March, citing financial filings.

On the same day, Burr's brother-in-law sold as much as $280,000 worth of shares, ProPublica reported last week.

Since then stock markets have plunged as the disease swept the world. Nearly 1.4 million Americans have been confirmed infected and over 84,000 died, more than any other country.

Burr, who receives much of the same intelligence that the White House does, clearly had a different private view of the threat than the government's public stance.

Two weeks after his share sales, Trump assured the public that the 15 US coronavirus cases so far reported could be the peak.

The same day Burr told a private gathering of wealthy donors that coronavirus was a threat akin the 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed tens of millions.

"There's one thing that I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history," he said.

Police sack more officers but number disciplined is stable

Dutchnews, May 14, 2020

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Last year 150 police officers in the Netherlands were sacked for dereliction of duty, up 30 on previous years, according to new police figures. 

In total, 309 police officers faced disciplinary measures, ranging from a formal reprimand to being sacked. 

Of them, 68 officers were disciplined for wrongful use of the police files, including both withholding and leaking information. ‘Although there were only a few cases, we need to keep focused on making sure information is used carefully,’ police integrity chief Lonneke Soudant said. 

In total, police started 530 disciplinary investigations into 499 officers last year, roughly in line with previous years. 

The police did not give further details about why officers were fired but in previous years the offences ranged from leaking information to theft and drunk driving and taking hard drugs. 

The police force, with a current workforce of some 60,000, is the biggest employer in the Netherlands.

US police shooting of medical worker revives protest anger

Yahoo – AFP, May 13, 2020

Breonna Taylor, shown at a graduation ceremony, was shot dead by police
on March 13 (AFP Photo)

Washington (AFP) - The police killing of a 26-year-old emergency health worker in her apartment in Kentucky has triggered a fresh wave of anger in the United States over officers shooting black civilians.

Protests under the slogan "Black Lives Matter" have erupted regularly since 2012 over the shootings of unarmed African-Americans, with many accusing police of racially-biased brutality.

Breonna Taylor, an emergency medical technician (EMT) worker, and her boyfriend were asleep when police burst in and shot her eight times on March 13, her lawyer Ben Crump said.

Officers had the wrong address and used a battering ram to enter the Louisville apartment without warning and were searching for a suspect who was already in custody, Crump said.

Taylor's boyfriend is still being held after the raid, while no police officer has been charged over her death.

The police department "has not provided any answers regarding the facts and circumstances of how this tragedy occurred, nor have they taken responsibility for her senseless killing," Crump said in a statement.

A lawsuit was filed last month accusing officers of wrongful death, excessive force and gross negligence, according to The Washington Post.

"My priority is that the truth comes out, and for justice to follow," Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said Tuesday.

"The Breonna Taylor case is currently under investigation... Police work can involve incredibly difficult situations. Additionally, residents have rights."

Cases of US police brutality against people of color, and particularly black people, have become increasingly high-profile in recent years, sparking national protests.

In one of the most well-known cases, a white police officer killed Michael Brown -- an 18-year-old black man -- in Missouri in 2014.

Along with the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012 by a neighborhood watchman, the case inspired the Black Lives Matter movement.

And in recent days, although it was not a police killing, Americans have been outraged by the shooting death of a young black jogger named Ahmaud Arbery by two white men in Georgia.

Taylor "was one of the healthcare professionals helping us through this pandemic. But even as she helped to save lives, police violence took hers," said the verified Black Lives Matter twitter account.

Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for action, saying that Taylor "was killed two months ago, and nothing has happened since."

Australian charged over 80s alleged hate crime murder of gay American

Yahoo - AFP, May 12, 2020

More than 30 years after the murder of Scott Johnson in a gay hate crime, police
in Australia say they have arrested and charged a suspect (AFP Photo/Handout)

More than 30 years after American Scott Johnson was killed in a suspected gay hate crime in Australia, police said Tuesday they had arrested and charged a man with his murder.

Detectives arrested the 49-year-old in the leafy Sydney suburb of Lane Cove on Tuesday and laid murder charges the same day.

The suspect's name was not released.

The breakthrough in the cold case came two months after the victim's family doubled a police reward in the case to Aus$2 million (US$1.3 million).

The 27-year-old mathematician Johnson's naked body was found at the base of a cliff in the Sydney suburb of Manly in December 1988, and police at the time ruled his death a suicide.

But a coroner found in 2017 that it was likely Johnson had been killed in a hate crime, suggesting he was either pushed over the cliff or fell while trying to escape unidentified assailants.

The inquest found that gangs roamed Sydney at the time searching for gay men to attack, and had been known to rob or assault men at the "gay beat" where Johnson's folded clothing was discovered.

In 2018, police announced an Aus$1 million reward for information leading to an arrest in the case, which was doubled when Johnson's brother, Steve, matched the amount in March.

Steve Johnson, who had long pushed police to investigate his brother's death, said it was "remarkable" the alleged killer had been apprehended almost 32 years later.

"This is a very emotional day. Emotional for me, emotional for my family who... love Scott dearly," he said in a video statement.

"It's emotional, I'm sure, for the gay community for whom Scott had come to symbolise the many dozens of other gay men who lost their lives in the 1980s and '90s in a world full of anti-gay prejudice and hatred."

In 2018, New South Wales police acknowledged that at least 27 murders between the 1970s and 2000 were homophobic hate crimes, admitting the force had played a part in marginalising the LGBT community and enabling society's "acceptance of shocking violence directed at gay men" during the period.

"It is clear and beyond question that levels of violence inflicted upon gay men in particular were elevated, extreme and often brutal," police said at the time.

The suspect in Johnson's murder is due to appear in a local Sydney court on Wednesday.

Global arrest call issued for US diplomat's wife wanted for UK car crash

NST – AFP, May 12, 2020

Charlotte Charles (left), the mother of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn who was
killed in a collision with a car by US citizen Anne Sacoolas, stands beside her husband
Bruce Charles. – AFP

LONDON: Interpol has issued a red notice for the provisional arrest of a US diplomat's wife charged over a car crash in Britain that killed a teenager, his family has said.

Harry Dunn, 19, died in August last year when his motorcycle collided with a car driving on the wrong side of the road near an air force base in Croughton, central England, used by the US military as a communications hub.

The car was driven by Anne Sacoolas, who then returned to the United States despite a police investigation, which saw her charged with causing death by dangerous driving.

Sacoolas, 42, whose husband was an intelligence official and has herself been reported to have been a CIA operative, has since claimed she had diplomatic immunity from prosecution.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has rejected Britain's extradition request and strained the two countries' normally close relations.

Radd Seiger, spokesman for Dunn's family, said late Monday on Twitter: "I can confirm that Interpol have circulated a Red Notice in respect of #AnneSacoolas.

"Police forces around the world are requested to locate her and provisionally arrest her with a view to her extradition to the UK," he added.

British police issued the request to Interpol that she be apprehended if she tries to leave the United States, with a view to her eventual extradition.

A red notice is not an international arrest warrant, but is issued for those wanted for prosecution or sentencing.

Dunn's mother Charlotte told ITV's Good Morning Britain show on Tuesday that the news gave her "confidence that... the UK authorities are clearly on the same page as us.

"It was a very emotional afternoon yesterday. We didn't really expect it. Many, many tears.

"The elation is always short lived, we shouldn't have to be going through this," she added.

Dunn's parents visited the White House in October to meet US President Donald Trump.

They said he was warm and welcoming but criticised the White House's attempts to engineer a snap meeting with Sacoolas, who was in a room next door with photographers.

The US State Department confirmed it had rejected the request, saying Sacoolas had immunity from criminal jurisdiction during her stay in the UK.

"If the United States were to grant the UK's extradition request, it would render the invocation of diplomatic immunity a practical nullity and would set an extraordinarily troubling precedent," it said in a statement.

The case has been a political headache for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he tries to secure a US trade deal after Britain's departure from the European Union.

Trump has called the crash a "terrible accident", saying it was common for Americans in Britain to have difficulty driving on the left side of the road. -- AFP.

Canada bans assault weapons in wake of worst-ever mass shooting

Yahoo – AFP, May 1, 2020

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ordered a sweeping ban on many
assault weapons after a deadly mass shooting (AFP Photo/Dave Chan)

Ottawa (AFP) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced an immediate ban on military-grade assault weapons, responding to a mass shooting and arson spree that left 22 people dead earlier this month.

"These weapons were designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time," Trudeau told a news briefing.

He said his government has approved a decree banning the sale, purchase, use, transport and import of 1,500 models of military-grade assault weapons and variants of them.

"There is no use, and no place for such weapons in Canada," Trudeau said.

The killing spree, the worst in Canadian history, began on the night of April 18 in Nova Scotia and led to a 13-hour manhunt for the shooter, who was eventually shot dead by police.

Authorities have said the assailant -- identified as 51-year-old denturist Gabriel Wortman -- was wearing a police uniform, driving a mock police car, and had several guns with him including at least one assault-style weapon.

Trudeau said there will be a two-year amnesty for people who currently own assault-style weapons to protect them from liability, and parliament will eventually pass legislation to compensate them for turning in their guns.

"For many families, including indigenous people, firearms are part of traditions passed down through generations, and the vast majority of gun owners use them safely, responsibly, and in accordance with the law, whether it be for work, sports shooting for collecting or for hunting," Trudeau said.

"But you don't need an AR-15 to bring down a deer," he added.

Mass shootings are less common in Canada than in the US "but the heartbreaking truth is, they're happening more often than they once did," the prime minister said.

He mentioned for instance a shooting at a mosque in Quebec City in 2017 that left six dead and 19 wounded.

Trudeau made banning assault weapons part of his campaign for elections that brought him to power in 2015. He repeated it in the campaign for the October 2019 elections in which he won another term.

Nearly four of five Canadians back such a ban, according to an Angus Reid poll released Friday.

US, China block UN resolution in spat over WHO handling of pandemic

Yahoo –AFP, April 30, 2020

The UN General Assembly in New York (AFP Photo/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)

The United States and China remained at loggerheads Thursday over a UN Security Council draft resolution calling for a 90-day humanitarian pause in conflicts worldwide in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

The stalemate -- over a mention of the World Health Organization -- leaves little hope of a quick vote as the Security Council struggles to find a response to the global crisis, remaining largely mute since the once-in-a-century pandemic began killing tens of thousands of people and shutting down economies across the world.

"It's a major stalemate, nobody's moving," one diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We're treading water," said another.

At a news conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres deplored the impasse.

"It's absolutely essential that countries come together and that the big powers are able to overcome their difficulties in order to allow for the Security Council to be more active and more effective," he said.

"We need unity and strength from the international community. All our efforts depend on strong political backing."

The text, authored by France and Tunisia and obtained by AFP, has been under discussion for weeks.

It calls for a 90-day humanitarian pause to bring aid to the most vulnerable populations caught in conflicts around the globe, including in places such as Afghanistan and Yemen.

The draft also supports a March 23 plea by Guterres for a worldwide ceasefire to facilitate the fight against the coronavirus.

But Washington and Beijing remain at loggerheads over how to refer to the World Health Organization (WHO) in the text.

The UN General Assembly in New York (AFP Photo/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)

The WHO's role in dealing with the pandemic has been vilified by US President Donald Trump, who complained it had not been transparent about the coronavirus and suspended US funding to it. China responded by offering additional funding.

China "insists on a mention of the World Health Organization" in the text, while the United States does not want it, several diplomats explained, asking for anonymity.

"We don't comment on ongoing negotiations" at the Security Council, the US State Department said when asked about the stalemate.

No reaction could be obtained from the Chinese mission to the UN.

The co-authors of the text, like the rest of the Security Council, are reduced to waiting for a compromise between the two permanent members, each of which has a right of veto.

There has been no progress since the beginning of the week, other diplomats added.

Blank paragraph

A vote had been expected this week, and Guterres has been pressing for one for more than a month. But this seems less and less likely over the short term because of the disagreement between the US and China.

"I am particularly worried about the lack of sufficient solidarity with developing countries -- both in equipping them to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, which risks spreading like wildfire, and to address the dramatic economic and social impacts," Guterres said.

One diplomat said there will probably not be a vote this week."Let's see if next week will bring something new," this diplomat said.

The stalemate could end quickly if the US and China find a compromise, one Western ambassador said. The WHO mention is just a side issue in a draft centered on support for a ceasefire in some 20 war or conflict zones around the world, this ambassador said.

As it stands, the resolution now has a blank space where the WHO mention is supposed to go and how to fashion it will be decided at the end of the negotiations. France and Tunisia could simply decide to scrap such a mention altogether, although this idea might be vetoed by China, with support from Russia.

Except for a virtual meeting on April 9, the Security Council has remained silent on the biggest global crisis since World War II.

KLM withdraws plan to boost CEO bonus to 100% of salary

DutchNews, April 18, 2020

Photo: DutchNews.nl

 Airline KLM has dropped plans to increase the bonus of chief executive Pieter Elbers to 100% of his salary following widespread opposition, Dutch media reported on Saturday. 

The move, aimed at drawing Elbers’ salary more into line with that of Air France’s CEO, was also criticised by the Dutch government, which has a 14% stake in the Air France-KLM combine. 

According to broadcaster NOS, the plan has now been withdrawn from the agenda from next week’s AGM, a move supported by both Elbers and KLM’s supervisory board. 

Maximum 

Elbers earns €525,000 a year plus a maximum bonus of up to 75% of that. KLM wants to increase that to 100%, in line with the situation at the French arm of the country and set the process in motion last year. 

KLM has already said no bonuses will be paid this year and there will be no profit sharing or dividends until after the crisis is over.

KLM, which has asked for support to pay its permanent staff, has already let 2,000 people on flexible contracts go, despite the government’s call to keep them on. 

Conditions 

A finance ministry spokesman told broadcaster NOS earlier on Saturday that any eventual state support for the airline, which has seen ticket sales collapse because of coronavirus, would involve conditions about wages and bonuses. 

The Dutch and French finance ministries are thought to be supportive of a bail-out for the airline so that it can meet its fixed costs, now almost the entire fleet has been grounded.

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China revises up Wuhan toll as Germany declares outbreak 'under control'

Yahoo – AFP, Jing Xuan Teng, with AFP bureaus, April 17, 2020

A worker disinfects the floor of a supermarket in Kosovo (AFP Photo/Armend NIMANI)

Wuhan (China) (AFP) - The Chinese city at the origin of the coronavirus outbreak revised up its death toll by 50 percent Friday, as global criticism mounted over China's handling of the deadly pandemic.

Since emerging from Wuhan late last year, the coronavirus has embarked on a deadly march across the planet, killing more than 145,000 people and wrecking the global economy with more than half of humanity -- 4.5 billion people -- trapped indoors.

But some countries across Europe are starting to slowly ease back weeks-old restrictions after deaths and infections showed signs of stabilising, and the German health minister said Friday his country's outbreak was "under control".

While President Donald Trump announced a phased reopening of the United States, the economic devastation was clear to see in China, where gross domestic product slammed into reverse for the first time since records began.

Wuhan's city government added 1,290 deaths to its toll, bringing the total to 3,869 after many dead were "mistakenly reported" or missed entirely, adding to growing global doubts over China's transparency.

Leaders in France and Britain joined Trump's broadsides against China, as two US media outlets reported suspicions the virus accidentally slipped out of a sensitive Wuhan laboratory that studied bats.

President Emmanuel Macron told the Financial Times it would be "naive" to think China had handled the pandemic well, adding: "There are clearly things that have happened that we don't know about."

Beijing hit back on Friday, insisting there had been no cover-up.

"There has never been any concealment, and we'll never allow any concealment," a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Life-and-death balance

World leaders are grappling with the question of when -- and how -- to reopen society, seeking a life-and-death balance between unfreezing stalled economies and preventing a deadly second coronavirus wave.

While Trump declared Thursday that the time had come for the "next front in our war" with a phased reboot of the US economy, others took the opposite path -- Japan, Britain and Mexico all expanded current restrictions.

Despite the United States suffering a staggering 4,500 deaths in the last 24 hours -- taking the national toll to almost 33,000 -- Trump proclaimed: "We're opening up our country."

The president's approach was a step back from previous hopes for a sudden reopening however, and state governors were given the freedom to set their own plans to resume business.

Lightly affected states can open "literally tomorrow", said Trump, while others would receive White House "freedom and guidance" to achieve that at their own pace.

In New York state for example -- where more than 11,500 have died -- Governor Andrew Cuomo extended a shutdown order until May 15.

In some of the world's most vulnerable economies, lockdown measures were starting to pinch.

Tobacco farmers in Zimbabwe feared a delayed start to normally busy auction season, the lifeblood for thousands of growers in impoverished rural regions.

"This year our harvest hasn't been good at all... just average," farmer Shaw Mutalepo told AFP, as workers in face masks crunched cured leaves into large bales.

"We might have a delay (in selling) just because of the lockdown," he added. "It will affect our preparations for the next season."

'Lost decade'

Meanwhile, there were more signs the global economy is imploding.

China reported Friday its GDP shrank 6.8 percent in the first quarter, the first contraction since quarterly growth data started in the early 1990s.

In the US, another 5.2 million workers lost their jobs, bringing the total number of newly unemployed to a staggering 22 million since mid-March.

John Williams, a top Federal Reserve official, predicted it would take "a year or two" if not longer for the US to recover from what the International Monetary Fund has termed the "Great Lockdown" battering the global economy.

The virus could spark another "lost decade" in Latin America, the IMF warned, while experts cautioned that freezing debt for poor countries will not save many developing world economies.

And in Europe, automobile sales shrank 55 percent in March, according to the industry's trade association.

'It's awful'

Some European countries -- such as hard-hit Spain and Italy -- were embarking on a long road back to normality, with Venice residents strolling around quiet canals stripped of their usual throngs of tourists.

Switzerland, Denmark and Finland were among those gradually re-opening shops and schools.

In Germany, select small shops will be allowed to reopen Monday and some children could soon return to school within weeks.

Infection rates there "have sunk significantly" and the outbreak is "under control", Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday.

Germany's coronavirus deaths and infections have stood firmly below some of their worst-hit European neighbours, which experts say is in part thanks to widespread testing.

Spahn said Germany would produce up to 50 million masks a week starting in August, to fill a yawning gap in supplies prompted by the pandemic.

But Britain, which shut down later than continental Europe, extended its lockdown for at least three more weeks.

It announced close to 850 new deaths on Friday, a slight spike from previous days that saw fatalities start to draw down.

And in Russia, recorded infections topped 32,000 as President Vladmir Putin warned that "the risks surrounding the epidemic's spread are still very high, not just in Moscow but in many other Russian regions".

Around the world, people have come up with ingenious ways to bring back some semblance of normality -- and social connection -- to their upended lives.

In Rome an 18-year-old guitarist takes to his balcony every evening at sunset to play covers of Italian classics.

"We decided to lend a hand to Italians: a message of hope," Jacopo Mastrangelo told AFP from his patio.

"We are accustomed to always seeing Rome full, teeming with people. Now the grass is growing between the cobblestones, everything has been left abandoned, and we decided to help."

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