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Coronavirus

Trump cites “Invisible Enemy” to freeze immigration

President Donald Trump effectively achieved one of his long-term policy goals by announcing on Twitter that as a response to the pandemic, he would suspend all immigration into the United States temporarily through an executive order.

"In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States," Trump said in a tweet.

The White House has thus far declined to offer further details about the reasoning behind the decision, its timing, or its legal basis. Opponents were quick to step in with accusations that he was scapegoating immigrants.

Assertive China

As the coronavirus crisis eases in China and rages elsewhere around the world, it is becoming increasingly assertive in the region.

In a significant strike against democracy activists in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, police in the city arrested 15 people on Saturday, just days after a senior Beijing official called for the local government to introduce national security legislation “as soon as possible.”

China has also been flying regular fighter patrols near Chinese-claimed Taiwan and has sent a survey ship flanked by coast guard and other vessels into the South China Sea.

Not adding up? UK death toll

Criticism has been growing in the UK for a while that the daily death tolls released by the government under-estimate the true extent of fatalities. That was borne out by data released by the national statistics agency on Tuesday that included deaths in the community to produce a tally more than 40% higher.

The Office for National Statistics said it recorded 13,121 deaths by April 10 in England and Wales, which account for the vast majority of Britain's population, compared with 9,288 in the government's daily toll for those who died in hospital.

If the United Kingdom's figures are still underestimating the death toll by a similar figure, then the true toll could be above 23,000 based on the latest data - making it already the second worst hit in Europe after Italy.

Not tennis

Tennis’s top stars have sponsors and other income streams to help them get through the shutdowns - not so the lower-level players who are the game’s future but depend solely on tournament winnings for their livelihoods.

Twelve-times Grand Slam singles champion Billie Jean King has called on top players to lead the cause for change as the sport's governing bodies discuss plans to provide relief. King said the sport had the chance to emerge stronger from the health crisis.

At the other end of the scale, a 24-second video of two up-and-coming tennis players conducting a rally from the rooftops of their neighboring apartment buildings in Italy has gone viral.

The girls in the Ligurian town of Finale Ligure coolly managed a 12-shot rally featuring forehands and backhands during a 24-second video posted on Facebook last Friday by a local tennis club where the two are members.

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LIVING UNDER LOCKDOWN

Special Report: India's migrant workers fall through cracks in coronavirus lockdown. In one of the biggest mass movements of people in the country since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, after the shutdown, the cities themselves began to empty. Dayaram Kushwaha and his family were among the first to move. As the days went on, and the situation became more desperate, hundreds of thousands of migrants emerged from factories and workplaces in search of a way home.

As the coronavirus pandemic forced lockdowns in many parts of the world, cities from Amsterdam to Singapore are unveiling measures to improve sustainability, food security and living standards that urban experts said would soon become the norm. Reported cases of the coronavirus crossed 2.4 million globally and about 170,000 people have died, according to a Reuters tally.

The sound of prayer flowed around the centuries-old abbey atop the Mont Saint-Michel, a tidal islet amidst vast sandbanks off France’s northwest coast, drifting down towards its deserted alleyways and past empty restaurants. In normal times, the mount draws more than 2 million visitors a year. Now it lies empty except for 30 local residents whose restaurants, souvenir shops and cafes depend on the influx of tourists.

Race for a cure

The head of the World Health Organization said that nothing in its coronavirus response had been “hidden” from the United States, as senior officials said U.S. technical experts had been an important part of the WHO’s effort. The comments appeared to be a rejoinder to President Trump, who has criticised WHO’s handling of the pandemic, accusing it of promoting Chinese “disinformation”, and suspended U.S. funding last week.

Exclusive: A black market has developed in Russia for an antiviral HIV drug explored as a possible treatment for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, according to sellers, HIV activists and the head of the drug’s main Russian producer. More than 20 trials around the world are testing Kaletra as a COVID-19 treatment or post-exposure prophylaxis.

Influenza, which each year kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, all but vanished in Europe last month as coronavirus lockdowns slowed transmission, according to EU data and scientists. The northern hemisphere’s winter flu outbreak normally runs from October until mid-May and in some seasons has claimed lives on the scale of COVID-19, despite the existence of a vaccine.