Image source, Getty Images

The daily White House coronavirus briefing is due to begin in the next hour.

Here are some of the latest updates from the US:

• Trump has sparked a feud with state governors after he claimed "total" authority to lift state lockdowns in yesterday's briefing, despite legal experts saying that the US Constitution gives policing power to the states
• Some Americans have begun to receive their taxpayer-funded bailout cheques
• Conservative groups opposed to Michigan lockdown orders are staging a protest at the capitol from within their cars in order to adhere to the social-distancing mandate
• Black-Americans continue to be disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. TV host Oprah Winfrey warned the black community on Tuesday: "This is serious. It's taking us out."

Image source, EPA

Wilson Witzel, the governor of Rio de Janeiro has announced he has tested positive for coronavirus.

The 52-year-old told his followers on Twitter that he hadn’t been feeling well for a few days and had a fever and a sore throat. He said he was told on Tuesday that he had tested positive.

He said: “I will continue working. I request once again that you stay at home. This sickness, as you can all perceive, does not choose and contagion is rapid.”

This week he extended the lockdown in Rio until the end of the month.

On Monday a study by a number of Brazilian universities and institutes found that the country is likely to have 12 times more cases of coronavirus than the number being reported by the government.

It estimated that only 8% of cases are being officially reported.

Image source, Getty Images

• In the UK, one in five deaths are coronavirus related, according to new statistics
• France recorded more than 762 deaths in hospitals and care homes on Tuesday bringing the death toll to 15,729
• Russia has recorded its biggest rise in new infections in 24 hours with 2,774 cases. Over half of those were in Moscow. It has also emerged that 34 members of the Bolshoi Ballet theatre tested positive
• The International Monetary Fund has warned that the world faces the greatest recession since the Great Depression
• India's prime minister warned of tougher measures over the next week, as he extended the country's lockdown until 3 May
• China, where the coronavirus outbreak began late last year, reported 89 new cases - part of a recent spike driven by a surge of people returning from Russia
• Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the country is still weeks away from easing restrictions there, if not longer.
• Austria has allowed thousands of shops such as DIY stores to reopen
• South Africa says it is succeeding in fighting the pandemic. The lockdown there is showing signs of slowing Covid-19. The country currently has more than 2,000 cases

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A judge in Broward County, Florida, has complained that lawyers are not dressing or grooming appropriately before video-conference legal hearings.

“It is remarkable how many ATTORNEYS appear inappropriately on camera,” Circuit Judge Dennis Bailey wrote in a letter posted on the Weston Bar Association website, external.

“We’ve seen many lawyers in casual shirts and blouses, with no concern for ill-grooming," he wrote adding that one male lawyer appeared shirtless and another lawyer appeared to still be in bed.

“And putting on a beach cover-up won’t cover up you’re poolside in a bathing suit. So, please, if you don’t mind, let’s treat court hearings as court hearings, whether Zooming or not.”

Judge Bailey told the Miami Herald he wrote the memo just to provide an update on how the court was dealing with the move to online hearings.

Rebecca Morelle
Global science correspondent, BBC News

It’s the pandemic’s big mystery - why coronavirus affects people in so many ways, from those with no symptoms to others who need intensive care.

Now scientists are turning to UK Biobank to find the answer.

The project, which has collected genetic material from half a million people and followed their health for more than a decade, will also track those with Covid-19.

Scientists will be searching for variations in people’s genetic code. They want to see if there are differences that make it easier for the virus to enter cells and to examine how genes affect the immune response.

The hope is this work could identify those most at risk of coronavirus - and help in the hunt for new treatments.

Image source, Science Photo Library

The UK government is advising people to stay at 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 (or about 6ft 6in) away from other people to protect yourself from catching coronavirus.

But it can be hard to know exactly what that looks like.

The BBC's health correspondent Laura Foster helps explain the best ways to keep safe and keep the correct distance away from other people.

Anna Holligan
BBC News Hague correspondent

Image source, BBC/Anna Holligan

Rotterdam's Ahoy concert venue was supposed to host the glitz and glamour of the Eurovision song contest in May, but instead has been converted into an emergency hospital to help the Netherlands battle its coronavirus outbreak.

Eighty-two beds have been installed so far and the rapidly erected temporary hospital has the capacity to scale up to 688.

A number of Covid-19 patients have already been transferred from the Netherlands across the border to Germany to free up intensive care beds and the emergency hospital is designed to alleviate pressure on Dutch hospitals.

So far the Netherlands has seen at least 2,945 deaths in the outbreak and almost 9,000 people have needed hospital treatment.

Four halls have been kitted out with beds for coronavirus patients while another separate room will accommodate patients who have other types of illnesses. The temporary hospital has a recovery zone and palliative care rooms so families in protective clothing can spend a few precious final moments with their loved ones.

The first patients are expected to be admitted into the emergency wards this week.

Police have foiled a plot to sell non-existent face masks that nearly cost German authorities €15m (£13m), Europol has announced., external

At least two people have been detained in the case, which involved investigations across Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, countries around the world are facing shortages in protective gear — prompting governments to look outside their normal supply channels to secure the life-saving supplies.

But when it emerged the masks ordered by Germany did not exist, police and law enforcement agencies including Europol and Interpol had to scramble to recover the money.

Image source, Getty Images

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has resumed airing live matches after being deemed an "essential service" in Florida.

Matches were held on Monday night, but with no live ringside audience present.

It comes after Governor Ron DeSantis exempted "professional sports and media production with a national audience" from a statewide stay-at-home order.

Professional basketball, baseball and American football have all been suspended in the US, and international tennis, football and Olympics events are delayed or cancelled.

But for WWE entertainers... the show must go on!

The US has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic with 554,684 confirmed cases and 23,608 deaths. In Florida, over 20,000 cases and more than 460 deaths have been reported.

Read more here:

WWE resumes live fights after being deemed 'essential'

Earlier we reported on 99-year-old World War Two veteran Tom Moore's efforts to raise money for the NHS in the UK.

Well, his total has now passed £3m, after £1m was pledged in just the last few hours.

He aimed to complete 100 laps of his Bedfordshire garden by Thursday, walking with the aid of a frame, but has said he will not stop and hopes to do another 100.

His original fundraising target was £1,000, but his effort has captured the public's imagination, with 150,000 individual donations.

NHS Charities Together, which will benefit from the funds, has said it was "truly inspired and humbled".

Image source, Reuters

In Iran, the daily number of deaths related to Covid-19 has dropped below three figures for the first time in a month. A health ministry spokesman reported that 98 people had died in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 4,683. “We hope that this path will continue with your ongoing co-operation [in complying with ministry guidelines],” he told Iranians. At least 74,800 people have been infected there.

The authorities in Bahrain have turned a military hospital's car park into a temporary intensive care unit with 130 beds to treat Covid-19 patients. An official said the unit was “a precautionary step”. Bahrain has reported more than 1,500 cases of Covid-19 and seven deaths.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former political rival, Benny Gantz, are holding a fresh talks on forming a national unity government to tackle its coronavirus outbreak, which has infected 11,800 people and claimed 117 lives. The president has extended the deadline for Mr Gantz to try to form a government until Wednesday night on the understanding that they are close to a deal.

In Saudi Arabia, the football league is planning to cut the pay of players and coaching staff by half in response to the coronavirus outbreak. They will receive a minimum of $5,300 (£4,200) a month while the league remains suspended. The kingdom has reported 4,900 Covid-19 cases and 65 deaths.

Apple has launched a tool that reveals changes in the travel behaviour of people who use its Maps app.

The Mobility Trends Report produces three daily percentage figures, showing how many fewer people are driving, walking and using public transport compared with on 13 January, before the coronavirus lockdowns came into effect.

The tool covers major cities and national figures for 63 countries. Hong Kong is included but not mainland China.

It follows a similar effort by Google.

Read more on this story here.

Image source, Apple

Image source, Reuters

Wildlife are reclaiming Yosemite National Park in California amid the lockdown.

The park closed to visitors on 20 March and only about 100 - 200 employees remain, according to the Los Angeles Times, external.

Yosemite National Park said on its Instagram account that while there hasn't been an increase in the black bear population since the closure, bears have been seen more frequently, “likely due to the absence of visitors in Yosemite Valley".

Last year more than 308,000 people visited Yosemite in April. A total of 4.6 million tourists visited last year.

Ranger Katie, a biologist working at Yosemite, said in a livestream: "Now that there are no people, the bears are literally just walking down the road to get to where they need to go, which is kind of cool to see.”

France reported a further 762 Covid-19 deaths in hospitals and care homes on Tuesday.

The new figures brings the death toll in the country to 15,729.

Jerome Salomon, head of the public health authority, said the number of confirmed cases in the country is now more than 100,000.

He added that the number of people in intensive care had fallen for the sixth consecutive day.

On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced an extension of the lockdown in France to 11 May.

He said schools would gradually reopen after the new extension but restaurants would stay closed and there could be no festivals until mid-July. He said the most vulnerable people should remain in isolation even after the rules were eased.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

A man in Adelaide, Australia has won a lottery prize of A$4.8m ($3m; £2.4m) after losing his job due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The man, in his 20s, wishes to remain anonymous. He will receive A$20,000 a month for the next 20 years in a lottery draw called Set For Life.

In a statement he said: “We are a young family and we have a baby, so this will set us up for the rest of our lives.

“I recently lost my job because of Covid-19, and so this just gives me complete relief. I have been so stressed lately, but now I am so happy.

He said he needed time to think about how he would spend the money but his wife had already made plans from shopping trips to holidays and a new house.

Image source, Reuters

Amazon has terminated the contracts of two US employees who criticised working conditions inside its warehouses.

The employees were fired for “repeatedly violating internal policies,” Amazon said.

The Seattle based company has faced scrutiny after cases of Covid-19 were reported at more than 50 Amazon facilities across the US. Some have involved multiple infected workers.

The Washington Post , externalsaid the pair were both user experience designers.

The two have been vocal in their support for warehouse staff and working conditions. They are also members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group that campaigns about the company's environmental impact.

In a statement, Amazon said: “We support every employee’s right to criticise their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies.”

In France the company has been ordered only to deliver essentials amid questions it was failing to protect workers from coronavirus.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the country is weeks away from easing pandemic restrictions, if not longer.

"Right now we're still very much in this phase and have to remain in this phase for a good while," he said during his daily press briefing Tuesday.

Trudeau's caution seems well supported by Canadians. A Leger poll, external found that 21% of Canadians wanted to wait until there is a vaccine to ease restrictions, which could be more than a year away. Only 6% said they wanted the economy opened now, compared to 13% of American survey respondents.

The province of Ontario, which accounts for 41% of Canada's population, extended emergency orders by four weeks on Monday.

Trudeau also fielded questions about his plan to support long-term care homes, where more than half of Canada's Covid-19 deaths have taken case, and promised to better fund elderly support workers.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Journalist Dany Mitzman lives in Pianoro, a village in the hills near Bologna. She writes:

My six-year-old daughter said something which perfectly sums up the current mood here: “Mummy, I didn't realise how much I like school.”

We're in our sixth week of lockdown, but for schoolchildren it's been two months. They miss their friends, classrooms, text books.

Teachers have been wonderful, sending fun activities interspersed with worksheets and videos. But the novelty of e-learning has well and truly worn off. They miss the reality of school. Not to mention birthday parties. Singing Happy Birthday on the class WhatsApp group just doesn't compare.

It's the same for us adults. A few weeks ago we were organising tea parties on Skype, aperitivi on Zoom... but virtual meetings are more awkward and our enthusiasm has petered out. We grown-ups can't wait for the day we’ll be able to greet each other again with the traditional Italian kiss on both cheeks. Our kids can't wait for the day they’ll be able to moan about having to get up early for school.

With four supermarkets for 17,000 residents we are one of the few communities that never has long queues outside. And Italian supermarkets have never run out of toilet paper, though yeast is hard to get hold of!

Jonathan Blake
BBC political correspondent

The chancellor tackled head-on the Office for Budget Responsibility's report that the UK economy may shrink by more than a third in the short term due to the impact of coronavirus.

He said he was troubled by the figures, acknowledging these were tough times and there would be more to come.

But he tried at least to sound hopeful about the future.

Things would be far worse if the government had not acted, he said, and the plan put in place was the right one and the time would come to “right the ship.” He said the economy would "bounce back."

Righting the ship will involve paying for the huge amount of borrowing that the government has undertaken to fund its unprecedented support measures.

It’s not surprising that Mr Sunak did not get into detail about any future tax rises - but notably he did not commit to keeping the so-called triple lock policy protecting state pensions.

And perhaps an insight into the chancellor's thinking came from his comment that there was no choice between protecting the economy and saving lives.

That may be a sign that he is not in as much of a hurry as some reports have suggested to lift lockdown restrictions sooner rather than later and allow the economy to recover sooner.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has responded to President Trump's accusation that governors are staging a "mutiny" by making their own decisions about when to re-open, rather than the federal government that he leads.

He dismissed Trump's morning tweets which, he said, show that "he's clearly unhappy".

"The president will have no fight with me. I will not engage with him," said Cuomo, who had earlier criticised him for behaving like a king on CNN.

In a brief civics lesson, he said: "The colonies formed the federal government, the federal government did not form the states... It's the colonies that ceded some of their authorities to the federal government."