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Moscow has denied there is anything "strange" with Russia's official coronavirus death figures.

"No," was all President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov had to say when asked by reporters.

Peskov earlier said the low mortality rate was due to a highly efficient Russian healthcare system rather than statistical manipulation as some experts in Russia and abroad have suggested.

Russia has so far reported more than 500,000 cases, the world's third-largest number, and 6,532 deaths - a tally that is significantly lower than in many other countries with serious outbreaks.

The World Health Organization said this week that Russia's low death rate was "difficult to understand".

Last month, Moscow's authorities more than doubled the official death toll from Covid-19 in the Russian capital for April.

They said the new tally included even the most "controversial, debatable" cases.

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Finland's government says restrictions on leisure travelling to and from neighbouring Baltic and Nordic countries will be lifted from Monday, but Sweden is not included.

Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo said the situation in Sweden, which has adopted fewer restriction measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, did not "enable giving up the restrictions yet".

The country's borders will be reopened for people travelling to and from Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania but restrictions will remain on the western border with Sweden as well as on the eastern border with Russia.

The government says public gatherings of more than 500 people will be allowed from the beginning of July if social distancing can be enforced.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

Image source, Reuters

Thousands of Chinese social media users are mocking and criticising US President Donald Trump for his leadership during the fight against coronavirus, as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US passed two million.

Users of the popular Sina Weibo microblog are making sarcastic comments, noting how this is a “historic breakthrough” for the US and repeating Trump’s original campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”.

Many are saying “congratulations” to the US “superpower”. “Trump has not tweeted yet to celebrate,” one user quips.

Chinese users have repeatedly criticised the US president’s responses to the number of those infected with the virus - which is higher by hundreds of thousands than anywhere else in the world.

Despite all the mockery, however, some also say it’s “depressing” that the “American people are suffering”. “Does the United States want to perish?” one asks.

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The coronavirus pandemic continues to take its toll on the UK economy, with two major employers announcing substantial job cuts.

Up to 1,800 jobs are under threat at the Macdonald Hotels chain, which has 31 properties across the UK.

The company, which employs about 2,300 people, said it had hoped to avoid this "very unwelcome step", but was "simply left with no choice".

Deputy chairman Gordon Fraser said there was "no realistic prospect" of returning to normal trading in the foreseeable future as the tourism and leisure industry continues to lobby for a greater easing of lockdown measures.

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In Northern Ireland, Canadian firm Bombardier Aerospace said it would be cutting 600 jobs - as part of 2,500 redundancies across its global operation.

Bombadier cited the "unprecedented circumstances" and said it "deeply regretted the impact on our workforce and their families".

It is the second big round of redundancies in the Northern Ireland aerospace sector in a matter of days.

Last week Thompson Aero Seating in Portadown said it was cutting as many as 500 jobs as the sector battles to survive the impact of coronavirus.

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Pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants in England may soon be able to reopen their doors for the first time since lockdown began in March.

But a trip to a local bar or restaurant is likely to be a very different experience from how it was before coronavirus.

The government has previously said the hospitality sector could start to reopen "no earlier than 4 July" - provided it adheres to safety guidelines. Those guidelines have yet to be clarified.

The chief worry for many people in England's hospitality industry is the issue of social distancing, with many arguing that the government's current 2m rule makes it impossible for venues to turn a profit.

Many other countries around the world, such as France and Italy, have successfully reopened restaurants, bars and cafes - but lower social distancing recommendations means customers are only required to sit 1m or 1.5m apart.

So what's next for England's much-loved pubs and tea shops?

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China's government has strongly rejected a preliminary study by US researchers suggesting the coronavirus may have been circulating in the city of Wuhan, where the first cases where reported, since August 2019.

The new paper by experts at Boston University and Harvard, which has not been peer-reviewed, is based on photos of parking lots at Wuhan hospitals and search trends on Baidu, the Chinese search engine.

It says that while they cannot definitively affirm the data found was linked to the virus, it supports conclusions by other studies suggesting that the virus began circulating earlier than the first reported cases, which were late last year.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying dismissed the study as "full of holes" and "crudely manufactured", saying it was evidence of coordinated efforts in the US to "deliberately create and disseminate disinformation against China".

"Some US politicians and media acted like they found buried treasure and wantonly spread [the study], treating it like new proof that China concealed the epidemic," Hua was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

The US and others have repeatedly accused China of a lack of transparency about the outbreak and its origins.

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Scrums could be banned temporarily when rugby league makes its expected return in the UK in August.

Super League clubs have been advised that stopping scrums for the rest of 2020 may help dramatically reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus in games.

Medical experts told the Rugby Football League's Laws Committee, external that scrums were responsible for a large proportion of face-to-face interactions in matches.

How a game would restart in their absence has not yet been resolved.

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A boat carrying up to 300 Rohingya refugees tried to land in Malaysia this week but turned back after spotting patrol vessels seeking to prevent migrants entering over virus fears, an official says.

The boat is believed to have been at sea for three to four months and tried several times to enter the country's waters on Monday before giving up, said Malaysian coastguard chief Zubil Mat Som.

The vessel was originally part of another group of Rohingya refugees which was allowed to land in northwest Malaysia on Monday after officials discovered their boat was too badly damaged to be turned back. All 269 who had been aboard were then detained.

Malaysia has long been a favoured destination for the persecuted Muslim minority from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, with thousands undertaking perilous sea crossings each year.

They usually travel from Myanmar or Bangladesh, where many live in squalid refugee camps, but Malaysia has strengthened maritime patrols in recent months.

• Read more: 'The bodies were thrown out of the boat'

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German airline Lufthansa has said it will cut 22,000 jobs as it struggles to deal with the slump in air travel caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The carrier predicted a slow recovery in demand and expected to have about 100 fewer aircraft after the crisis.

Lufthansa said half the job cuts would be in Germany. It hopes to agree the measures with unions by 22 June.

It added that it hoped to minimise redundancies through short-time working and crisis agreements.

"The aim is to pave the way for the preservation of as many jobs as possible in the Lufthansa Group," the company said.

The airline employs more than 135,000 people worldwide. About half of them are in Germany.

Read more here

House of Commons
Parliament

Amid concerns that black and Asian communities have suffered disproportionate numbers of deaths from coronavirus in the UK, Labour MP Afzal Khan challenged the government in the House of Commons over why it chose the Isle of Wight to try out the NHS contact tracing mobile phone app.

Mr Khan says the island has an "overwhelmingly white population", while black and Asian people may be less likely to trust the app due to their experiences of discrimination and profiling.

But Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said the Isle of Wight was the right place to conduct the trial because it was "geographically secure", so the government could learn lessons "rapidly" about the uptake of the app and its operation in a controlled setting.

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Pakistan has reported its highest daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases so far, as infections rise sharply following its controversial decision to lift lockdown.

Another 5,834 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours. Total cases now stand at nearly 120,000, with the most populous provinces, Sindh and Punjab, reporting the biggest numbers. The mortality rate in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the north-west is highest at 4.9%.

The World Health Organization has recommended a strict, intermittent lockdown be reimposed but Pakistan's government says it is trying "to strike a balance between lives and livelihoods". Elsewhere in Asia:

• India says the number of cured or discharged Covid-19 patients (135,205) is higher than active cases (133,632) for the first time. But testing is in the spotlight as infections rise, and there are fears they could surge after lockdown was lifted this week
• Nepal's coronavirus lockdown has delayed repatriating the bodies of more than 200 migrant workers, who lost their lives abroad. Their families want the government to help them bring their loved ones home
• Thailand says it had no new virus infections or deaths over the past day - the first time in almost three weeks there were no new cases

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Activists have accused foreign mining companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo of abusing the rights of workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Rights groups say workers have been told to stay on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week or lose their jobs.

In six mines, they have been confined for the past two months. Photos show crowded dormitories where it is impossible for workers to keep at a safe distance from each other. Poor sanitation also raises the risk of coronavirus infection.

The abuse of the Congolese by foreigners stretches far back in history; they were sold as slaves by the Europeans, then rounded up to work in slave-like conditions in the mines and rubber plantations during the brutal colonial rule of the Belgian king, Leopold II.

The DR Congo is a major source of minerals, supplying about 70% of the world's cobalt, which is critical for rechargeable batteries.

In Ukraine efforts are continuing to unite newborn babies born to surrogate mothers with their biological parents.

Last month, officials said that more than 100 babies had been left stranded in a hotel in Kyiv after coronavirus restrictions prevented parents from travelling from around the world to Ukraine.

But now some of the red tape has been cut and special flights laid on.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher spoke to one happy Argentine couple who have finally made it to the Ukrainian capital to meet their son - 10 weeks after he was born.

Image source, Getty Images

There have been big drops in the number of patients in England seen by cancer doctors after urgent referrals from their GP during the pandemic, new figures show.

In April, the numbers being assessed by a cancer specialist within two weeks of referral fell by 60%.

And the number of patients who started treatment that month fell by 20% compared with the previous year.

One cancer charity said it is "extremely concerning" and they have been flooded with calls from worried patients, but NHS England said it was using innovative approaches such as home chemotherapy to keep cancer care going during the pandemic.

Read the full story

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As one of the first countries to face a major outbreak of coronavirus, Iran saw infections decline in mid-April and began to relax its lockdown restrictions.

In recent weeks, cases have begun to surge. So is it paying the price with a second wave of infections?

New infections have been averaging more than 3,000 a day in the first week of June - a 50% increase on the previous week.

Iran says the rise is due to increased testing, which is picking up mild cases and those with no symptoms at all.

But the percentage of tests which prove positive began to rise in late May, which could be an indicator that the number of virus cases in the community is also growing.

Read the full analysis

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the spread of the coronavirus pandemic is "accelerating" in Africa, which has so far been the least affected continent.

The outbreak is being driven by 10 countries, which accounted for two thirds of about 200,000 confirmed cases on the continent, WHO Africa head Dr Matshidiso Moeti said.

South Africa was the worst hit, with the situation in the Western Cape looking similar to Europe.

Most of the continent's Covid-19 cases are concentrated in and around capital cities, but infections are now also spreading outside major urban areas, Dr Moeti added.

She warned that the availability of key supplies, particularly test kits, remained one of the biggest challenges for the region.

• Coronavirus in Africa: Live tracker
• Lack of Covid-19 testing undermines Africa's 'success'

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A new coronavirus case has been confirmed in Beijing - the first in the Chinese capital in nearly two months.

A 52-year-old man checked into a clinic on Wednesday suffering from a fever, according to the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party.

The patient said he had not left Beijing or been in contact with anyone who travelled from overseas in the last two weeks, the report said.

Image source, AFP

A minute's silence to remember those who have died with coronavirus is likely to take place before the first games after the Premier League restart.

The acknowledgement of the impact of the pandemic and the efforts of frontline workers is expected at the opening two games on 17 June and the first full round of fixtures.

Heart-shaped badges in tribute to the NHS are also set to be worn on kits.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has told BBC Radio London that the government's proposal for pupils returning to school is “completely in tatters”.

Starmer said ministers should have built a consensus and listened to the "common sense" concerns of headteachers. He accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of making an announcement about the reopening without consulting schools.

Now, after the government abandoned plans for all primary schools to return before the summer break, Starmer says many children face a six-month absence from school, meaning "inequality will go up".

Taking questions from listeners, he said “we want to support the government where we can” but Labour does “have to challenge” it on issues such as the lack of protective equipment in care homes.

Image source, Reuters

Two Brazilian state governors have been accused of corruption related to spending on medical equipment in the fight against Covid-19.

In Rio de Janeiro the legislative assembly voted to open impeachment proceedings against the governor, Wilson Witzel, for alleged corruption. In the northern state of Pará, federal police raided offices and the home of the governor, Helder Barbalho.

Both governors deny any wrongdoing and both have clashed with President Jair Bolsonaro over his handling of the pandemic and his opposition to introducing lockdowns.

Brazil is the epicentre of the pandemic in Latin America with more than 770,000 confirmed cases and almost 40,000 fatalities.