Jonathan Head
BBC South East Asia Correspondent

Videos of black-tip reef sharks swimming right next to a beach, pictures of turtles, dugongs and dolphins swimming in empty, turquoise seas, and news of the first nests of giant leatherback turtles in years - these have raised hopes of a silver lining in the collapse of Thailand’s tourist industry.

Environmentalists have for years campaigned for restrictions on tourism in sensitive marine environments.

“With tourists around, there were thousands of daily boat trips all over the country,” says Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine scientist advising the department of national parks. “But once they stopped coming, the boats stopped and now marine animals can come closer to the shore.” These boats are the principal threat to marine life, damaging the coral, injuring larger animals and sometimes polluting the water.

Worapot Lomlim, the chief of the national park covering Maya Bay, said while there were no statistics to prove the correlation between Covid-19 and the recovery of marine life, the animals were appearing near the islands more often and "the colour of the sea has definitely become clearer and more vivid".

However, in the case of the leatherback turtles, they began nesting again last November, well before the outbreak. They are so rare that national park officials removed the eggs to a safer location to hatch. The remarkable recovery of the environment around islands which have been closed for three years already has demonstrated clearly that fewer tourists are better for marine life.

But tourism contributes around one fifth of Thailand’s GDP, and the government is keen to revive the industry as soon as possible. The reprieve being enjoyed by wildlife may not last long.

Image source, get

The coronavirus pandemic may have emerged in China, but the country now has fewer cases than the US, Italy and Spain.

The Chinese government has used tools such as phone tracking to control the outbreak. Other countries are starting to look at similar technological solutions.

But how does China's controversial surveillance system work and can state intervention on this scale be justified? We take a look.

For those in countries under lockdown, we've been advised not to go out and stay at home. But why is it so important? We break down the numbers for you, and what the rules are like in the UK.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is extremely cautious about removing the UK lockdown. He met Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary who has been replacing the prime minister as he recovers from coronavirus, at Chequers on Friday. And the overarching message emerging from that was to avoid a second peak of the virus by easing the lockdown too early.

All the language now appears at the cautious end of the spectrum, talking not of easing but of modifications to the lockdown and referencing Boris Johnson's initial assertion that it would take three months to turn the tide.

That would push us towards June. The fear is not just the obvious health risk but also the fear of damage to the economy and that it would be that much greater if you had to reimpose the lockdown.

Rebecca Morelle
Science correspondent, BBC News

The UK is gearing up to use the blood of coronavirus survivors to treat hospital patients ill with the disease.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) wants people who recovered from Covid-19 to donate blood so they can potentially assess the therapy in trials.

It is hoped that the antibodies they have built up will help to clear the virus in others.

A major project to study the treatment, involving more than 1,500 hospitals, has already begun in the US.

Read more here.

For those of you just waking up in the UK and wondering what you've missed, here are some of the latest overnight developments:

• Several European countries including Germany, Poland, Norway, the Czech Republic and Albania are beginning to ease their lockdowns
• France and Spain have both decided against a relaxation of measures at this stage
• India is also relaxing some lockdown rules in non-virus hotspots - with agricultural businesses, public works programmes, banks, and trucks, trains and planes carrying cargo, allowed to resume
• In China, 73 major tourist sites in Beijing, including areas along the Great Wall have reopened
• The US death toll has passed 40,000 people, which is nearly a quarter of all deaths from Covid-19 across the globe
• New York’s state governor says they appear to have passed the peak of the outbreak as their infections slow
• US oil prices have now dropped to a 21-year low as demand dries up

Image source, Getty Images

Pharma company Novartis has reached a deal with the US to go ahead with a trial of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19 in 440 hospitalised patients, the Swiss drugmaker says.

The drug has been used to treat malaria for decades and has been promoted by US President Donald Trump after some anecdotal evidence suggested it might help against coronavirus.

But there is no scientific proof that it actually helps.

"We recognise the importance of answering the scientific question of whether hydroxychloroquine will be beneficial for patients with Covid-19 disease,” the company said.

Labs around the globe are rushing to develop a cure or a vaccine against the new coronavirus.

Read more about what the evidence shows us here.

Owen Amos
BBC News

Image source, Getty

The three last cruise ships still sailing will dock today - and one of them has had an odyssey like no other.

The MSC Magnifica left Europe in January, and was in the other corner of the world when ports began to close.

With nowhere to go, the Swiss-owned ship started the long journey home. Its passengers, used to a new port every few days, last felt land six weeks ago.

On Monday those passengers will finally get off in Marseille, having last disembarked in Wellington.

Their voyage has included political storms, presidential pleas, one death, and - despite it all - plenty of fun.

• Read more here

Police have registered a case against a private hospital in India's Meerut city for putting out a newspaper ad saying it will not treat Muslims, external, unless they have proof of negative Covid-19 test results.

The ad spurred backlash on social media over the weekend, prompting the hospital to put out another apologetic one on Sunday.

In its first advert, the Valentis Cancer Hospital blamed the Tablighi Jamaat - an Islamic preaching group - for the rising number of infections in the city. Nearly 30% of India's total cases, which is more than 15,000, have been linked to a religious event organised by the group in March.

“All but two cases in Meerut are connections of the Tablighi Jamaat,” Dr Amit Jain, who is part of the hospital’s management, told The Wire, external news site.

The incident has led to many Indians associating the spread of the virus with Muslims.

After a wave of Islamphobic posts on social media, the government called for an end to divisive tweets and posts.

You may have seen the ravers and the drummer, but what about the violinist, rock guitarist, and the Irish dancer? All over the world people have been jamming to the BBC News theme tune while under lockdown - we put together the mother of all mash-ups of their performances. Have a watch:

Image source, Reuters

A Japanese virus expert has warned the Tokyo Olympics might not be able to go ahead even by 2021. The Games were postponed to next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Holding the Olympics needs two condition: controlling Covid-19 in Japan and controlling Covid-19 everywhere, because you have to invite the athletes and the audience from all over the world," Kentaro Iwata, a professor of infectious diseases at Kobe University, told journalists.

"Japan might be able to control this disease by next summer, I wish we could, but I don't think that would happen everywhere on earth, so in this regard I'm very pessimistic about holding the Olympics Games next summer."

The decision to postpone the event to next year was controversial and Japan for a long time insisted they would be able to go ahead this summer. Only when several countries' athletics bodies warned they wouldn't participate, Tokyo and the IOC postponed the games.

One silver lining for Thailand's locked-down beaches is the record number of baby leatherback sea turtles that have hatched in the country.The director of the Phuket Marine Biological Center, Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong, told the Reuters news agency that since November they have found 11 nests, the highest number in the past 20 years. In late March, staff at a Phang Nga national park found 84 hatchlings after monitoring eggs for two months.

Here's a glimpse of some of Thailand's newest turtle babies heading for the ocean:

Aparna Alluri and Krutika Pathi
BBC News, Delhi

Thyrocare, a private diagnostic laboratory in India, had just started testing for Covid-19, when the Supreme Court ordered all tests to be carried out free.

At 4,500 rupees ($59; £47), it’s not a cheap test. But the court did not clarify if and how private labs would be reimbursed. Panic stricken, some, including Thyrocare, put testing on hold, external.

An anxious federal government petitioned the court to reconsider - which it did.

According to the new order, issued on 13 April, the government will reimburse private labs for testing the 500 million people covered by a flagship public health insurance scheme. The rest would have to pay.

But the volte-face sparked a bigger question: can India scale up testing for Covid-19 if it’s not free?

You can read the full story here.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Several European countries are starting off the new week with tentative steps to ease the strict lockdowns in place.

On Monday, in Germany small shops will be allowed to open and schools will resume for those classes that have graduation exams coming up.

Last week Berlin said the infection rate had slowed and that the outbreak was under control - while warning that people had to remain vigilant to avoid a second wave of infections.

Also from Monday, Poland will re-open parks and forests and in Norway, nursery schools will reopen their doors to children. The Czech Republic will allow open-air markets to trade and in Albania, the mining and oil industries can operate again.

However, Spain, which has one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns, and France have both decided to hold off on relaxation of measures for a few more weeks. In Spain though, children will be allowed some time outside from next week.

here's a quick glance at what you need to know:

• Some parts of India are easing lockdown rules, starting from today. Agricultural businesses, public works programmes and banks will be allowed to re-open and some forms of transport carrying cargo will also be allowed to operate.
• Good news also coming in from New Zealand - which will from next week move down one level of lockdown from the highest level 4 to 3. Businesses will be gradually allowed to send in staff and schools can start getting ready to receive students.
• The trend continues over in the Chinese capital of Beijing, which has now re-opened 73 major tourist sites, including several areas along the Great Wall
• But its a less positive tale when it comes to US oil prices, which have now fallen to a 21-year low as demand dries up with factories and manufacturing plants closed

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has extended the country's lockdown for another week, it was due to end on Wednesday.

She started her daily press conference by paying tribute to "the many people who have lost someone to Covid-19 and the many more who had the terror of almost losing someone".

New Zealand's death toll stands at 12, and Ardern said she had received a phone call about each person. "We may be among the few countries where that’s still able to happen," she said.

She also said New Zealand had done something few other countries have been able to do, and almost totally contained the spread of Covid-19. Officials are confident, she said, that there was no widespread community transmission in the country, with each person now infecting, on average, less than one other person.

"Compared to the rest of the world we have done something that is incredible," she said.

As of next Tuesday, 28 April, New Zealand will move down one level of lockdown, she said. Businesses will be gradually allowed to send in staff to re-stock or clean, and schools can start getting ready to receive students again, but social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines remain.

The date is slightly further away than some had been forecasting, but Ardern said that "the sacrifice made to date has been huge - cabinet wanted to make sure we lock in our gains".

"The longer we are in lockdown, the less likely it is that we will need to go back," she said.

Image source, AFP

With the start of Ramadan only days away, the Muslim world is facing the dilemma of how to observe the holy month during the virus lockdown and under guidelines of social distancing.

Ramadan involves fasting during the day to then break that fast in the evening with a shared meal amid family and the larger community. Many attend long nightly congregations at mosques for prayers called Taraweeh.

This year will be different. In most countries, religious authorities have ruled that prayers during Ramadan should be performed at home and urged people to adhere to the guidelines on social distancing.

For weeks already, the site around the sacred Kaaba in Mecca has been almost empty.

"Our hearts are crying," said Ali Mulla, the muezzin at the Grand Mosque in Mecca. "We are used to seeing the holy mosque crowded with people during the day, night, all the time... I feel pain deep inside."

From US President Donald Trump's claims that medical supplies may have been stolen from New York hospitals, to Chinese officials' assertions that the virus didn't start in China, our latest Reality Check video takes a closer look and debunks some claims made by politicians and governments. Have a watch:

Starting today, India is relaxing some lockdown rules. But this won’t apply to every state - some have already made it clear that they won’t ease because of rising infections.

What will change?

• Agricultural businesses will be able to open. This includes dairy, aquaculture, tea, coffee and rubber plantations, as well as shops selling farming products - such as fertilisers or machinery.
• Public works programmes, which are a crucial source of employment for daily-wage earners, will also re-open, but under strict instructions to follow social distancing.
• Trucks, trains and planes carrying cargo will also be allowed to operate.
• Banks will also re-open, as will government centres distributing social security benefits and pensions.

But none of these new rules will apply in virus hotspots, which will be marked by state governments.

Along with restrictions on both international and domestic travel, schools, colleges, malls, cinema halls and most businesses - except those providing essential services - will remain shut.

We're seeing more and more signs that life is slowly but surely starting to go back to normal in China after more than two months in lockdown.

Beijing on Sunday reopened 73 major tourist sites in the city, including several areas along the Great Wall, said state media outlet Xinhua

All of these sites are outdoor areas - and account for around 30% of the city's tourist attractions.

An official with the Beijing bureau for tourism said visitation at the sites would be kept at a 30% capacity.

And it's not just Beijing that's trying to encourage people to get up and out. In Shanghai, a late night shopping campaign is set to be launched from May to June, which will see shops extend their opening hours till midnight.

Image source, Get