Cuba calls off workers' May Day parade

Cuba's communist government has suspended the annual Day of the Worker parade to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The event, scheduled for 1 May, is a key date in the island's political calendar.

BBC Cuba correspondent Will Grant said the move was "the last thing Cuba’s government would have wanted to do".

President Miguel Diaz-Canel has suggested that organisers might hold an alternative in keeping with social distancing, such as hanging Cuban flags outside homes or some form of “virtual parade”.

It comes after Cuba suspended all commercial aviation in and out of the island and an entire community was placed into isolation in the province of Pinar del Rio.

There are about 200 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Cuba and six people have died.

Wimbledon cancelled for first time since WW2

Wimbledon has been cancelled for the first time since World War Two because of the coronavirus pandemic, the All England Club confirms.

The two-week tournament, one of the highlights of the sporting calendar, was due to start on 29 June.

The entire UK grass court season has also been abandoned, including tournaments at Queen’s, Eastbourne, Nottingham and Birmingham.

There will be no professional tennis anywhere in the UK until at least 13 July.



Uefa competitions 'postponed until further notice'

This season's Champions League and Europa League competitions have been "postponed until further notice", says Uefa.

European football's governing body has also postponed all national team fixtures due to be played in June, including play-off and qualifying matches for the men's and women's European Championships.

Trump's pivot from positivity to 'up to 240,000 dead'

Americans are waking up to the latest White House estimate that 100,000 to 240,000 Americans are expected to die in the next few weeks.

That forecast depends on people strictly following social distancing and isolation guidelines, US health officials warn, and could climb even higher if people do not heed federal guidelines, which have been extended to 30 April.

"This is going to be a very, very painful two weeks," President Trump warned at a briefing on Tuesday night, where the latest death toll projection was announced.

For Mr Trump, the dire message was a change in tack for a leader who had been downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic even as it rampaged across the world.

Only last week, Mr Trump was comparing the virus to the seasonal flu, the BBC's Anthony Zurcher reports.


Serbian government minister dies from virus

A member of Serbia’s government has died after contracting Covid-19. Branislav Brazic was a state secretary in the environment ministry. He is the first senior Serbian official to die from the virus.

A prominent right-wing politician, Mr Brazic was the co-founder of the governing Progressive Party. He served as environment minister in the late 1990s – and had returned to that field in recent years, most recently as state secretary.

It comes after a significant rise in the number of infections in the country. Serbia has reported 1,060 coronavirus cases and almost 30 deaths so far. A state of emergency is in force.

Zoom app under fresh scrutiny

You may not have heard about it until you were told to work from home, but the videoconferencing app Zoom has soared in popularity during the pandemic.

Millions have flocked to it as governments around the world have ordered large parts of their populations to stay at home. It is now ranked as the number two and number one app in the UK and US, respectively.

In fact, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently shared a picture of himself chairing a Cabinet meeting using it.

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But that sharp increase in use has come with fresh, high-level, scrutiny. Many are now questioning how secure the app is.

New York's attorney general has even written to the firm to raise concerns over its ability to cope with the sudden rise in users.

It's also understood that Nato’s policy on Zoom is not to use the app for any meetings, briefings or conversations between ambassadors if classified or sensitive information is shared.

So how secure is it?

Loss to Africa

Hassan Hussein Adde (83) died from Covid-19 in London on 1 April 2020.

Nur Hassan Hussein February 1937 – 1 April 2020), popularly known as Nur Adde, was a Somali politician, who served as Prime Minister of Somalia from November 2007 to February 2009.

Hussein was appointed as Somalia's ambassador to Italy in June 2009.

He was from Mogadishu and part of the Celi Cumar Abgaal sub-clan of the Hawiye.


Premier League footballers 'living in moral vacuum'
Premier League footballers are living in a "moral vacuum" as clubs furlough staff during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Julian Knight, chair of the UK's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan added that he thinks top-flight players should "carry the burden".

Tottenham, owned by billionaire Joe Lewis, who has a net worth of £4.3bn, came under fire after saying the club would use a government scheme to "protect jobs".

The north London club announced that 550 non-playing staff would take a 20% pay cut, including chairman Daniel Levy who earned £7m last year.

Brighton chief executive Paul Barber defended the football industry, saying costs have continued while income has "literally stopped pretty much overnight".

"I can fully understand why people think that the football industry and particularly the Premier League has got a lot of cash. In many cases that’s not the case, it’s a bit of a myth," he said.

Prince Charles makes first appearance since diagnosis
The Prince of Wales has called on people to "look forward to better times" in his first appearance since being diagnosed with coronavirus.

In a video posted on Twitter, he said his self-isolation period had now ended but warned that social-distancing could be a "strange, frustrating and often distressing experience".

The current coronavirus outbreak is the biggest challenge for the world since World War Two, UN Secretary General António Guterres has warned.

He said it could bring a recession "that probably has no parallel in the recent past".

His warning comes amid dire predictions about the possible economic impact of measures imposed to fight the virus.

The number of confirmed cases around the world is now nearing 860,000, with more than 42,000 deaths.

The death toll in the US is now more than 4,000 - higher than the declared number of fatalities in China, where the outbreak began late last year.

Johns Hopkins University said 865 people had died in the past 24 hours in the US and in all more than 189,000 people in the country had been infected.

Spain has recorded another 864 deaths related to coronavirus, the highest in one day, as the total number of deaths across Europe has gone beyond 30,000.

More than 9,000 people have died in Spain, which is second only to Italy in fatalities caused by the virus.

Confirmed cases in the country have passed 100,000, but numbers show the infection rate continues to fall.

What's happened so far today?

If you are just joining us, here are some of today's main headlines...

Spain has recorded a record daily death toll of 864, meaning more than 9,000 people have died in the country as a result of coronavirus
Iran's death toll has passed 3,000, after 138 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours
There are now more than 800,000 confirmed cases around the world
The lack of tests for coronavirus in the UK has become a political problem, says BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg
And this year’s Edinburgh Festival and Fringe Festival has been cancelled



Which countries don't have cases?

The Cook Islands are yet to report any cases
According to Google Trends, a lot of users on the search engine are trying to find out which countries do not currently have any cases of coronavirus. Perhaps people are plotting a daring escape to one of them...

Some of the results that come up include the Marshall Islands, Samoa and Malawi.

But beware: there's a major caveat to all of this.

Some countries that have not reported any cases are believed to not be testing for the virus or reporting their figures accurately. So it's best to follow updates closely and perhaps put those holiday dreams on hold for now.


Tributes paid to world-renowned scientist
Tributes are being paid to the South African scientist Gita Ramjee, who died on Tuesday of Covid-19 complications.

Prof Ramjee had recently returned home from a trip to London and was admitted with pneumonia to a hospital in KwaZulu-Natal province, the Daily Maverick news website reports.

Her research, which focused on ways to prevent HIV transmissions in women in South Africa, earned her recognition around the world.

Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAids, tweeted that she was deeply saddened by the news:

Elsewhere in Africa:

Pape Diouf, the former president of the French football club, Marseille, has died after contracting coronavirus. He was in his home country, Senegal, and is its first recorded coronavirus-related death

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has apologised after reports of police brutality as officers implemented a curfew to curb the spread of the virus

Burundi and Sierra Leone, which were among a handful of African countries yet to confirm cases, have recorded their first positive test results

Several members of Uganda’s famous Watoto Children’s Choir have tested positive for coronavirus after returning from a trip to the UK

The governor of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has appealed for information about a woman and young girl who were pictured using cut-out plastic bottles to cover their faces, amid concerns for families who can't afford protection

Prince Charles makes first appearance since diagnosis
The Prince of Wales has called on people to "look forward to better times" in his first appearance since being diagnosed with coronavirus.

In a video posted on Twitter, he said his self-isolation period had now ended but warned that social-distancing could be a "strange, frustrating and often distressing experience

What does a two-metre social distance look like?
The UK government is advising people to stay home and only go out if they need to fetch food or medicine, to go to work if it's essential, or to exercise.

Even when you leave your home, you need to practise social distancing and keep at least two metres away from other people to protect yourself from catching coronavirus. But what does this distance actually look like? The BBC's Laura Foster demonstrates