Reuters World News Summary

Brazil's COVID-19 deaths surge past UK, WHO says hospital system coping Brazil's COVID-19 death toll overtook Britain's on Friday to become the second highest in the world with 41,828 dead, but the World Health Organization said the nation's health system was standing up to the pressure.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. One-fifth of Britain's coronavirus patients were infected in hospitals: Telegraph

About one in five of Britain's patients with COVID-19 caught the disease while in hospital, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported, citing papers by government scientists. At the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain, transmission within hospitals was believed to account for up to 22% of cases in hospitalised patients, and up to 11% of deaths, the report added. Refusing to be silenced, some Myanmar journalists work from shadows

Hiding from Myanmar's police, journalist Aung Marm Oo refuses to conceal his anger with the civilian government led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as his country prepares for an election later this year. "Democracy is already dead," the 37-year-old editor-in-chief of Development Media Group (DMG) told Reuters from a location he asked to keep secret. Churchill statue boarded up ahead of expected UK protests on Saturday

Statues of historical figures including Winston Churchill have been boarded up ahead of more expected protests on Saturday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was "shameful" that the monument to Britain's wartime leader was at risk of attack. Anti-racism protesters, who have taken to the streets following the death of African American George Floyd, have put statues at the forefront of their challenge to Britain's imperialist past. Brazil's COVID-19 deaths surge past UK, WHO says hospital system coping

Brazil's COVID-19 death toll overtook Britain's on Friday to become the second highest in the world with 41,828 dead, but the World Health Organization said the nation's health system was standing up to the pressure. "The system as such from the data we see is not overwhelmed," the WHO's top emergencies expert Dr. Mike Ryan said, with few areas of Brazil using more than 80% of their hospitals' intensive care bed capacity. Risk of new lockdowns rises with fear of second COVID-19 wave

Fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infections shut six major food markets in Beijing on Friday, while India, which opened up this week, recorded a record daily increase and half a dozen U.S. states said their hospital beds were filling up fast. Health officials worldwide have expressed concerns in recent days that some countries grappling with the devastating economic impact of lockdowns may lift restrictions too swiftly, and that the coronavirus could spread during mass anti-racism protests. 'Stop buying social peace at our expense', French police tell government

French police marched in protest along Paris' Champs Elysees boulevard to the interior ministry on Friday, accusing the government of scapegoating law enforcement agencies as public anger over race discrimination swells. There were other protests late on Thursday in numerous towns and cities across France and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner sought on Friday to allay discontent among police following a meeting with police unions. Brazil drops police from human rights report amid global protests against racism and abuse

Brazil has excluded complaints of police violence from an annual human rights report, sparking allegations on Friday of a cover-up amid global outrage over racial injustice and use of excessive force by law enforcement. Alleged incidents of police abuse are collected from a hotline in Brazil, with the data previously going into a broad report compiled by the federal government. But unlike 2017 or 2018, the information was absent from the 2019 edition - the first year of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's term in office. France to lift border controls for EU travellers on June 15

France will lift restrictions at its borders for EU travellers on June 15, the French Interior and Foreign ministries said in a statement on Friday. "Given a favourable development of the health situation in France and Europe and in accordance with the recommendations of the European Commission...France will lift on June 15 (0h00) all traffic restrictions at its European internal borders (land, air and sea), implemented to fight the COVID-19 pandemic," the statement said. Coronavirus hitting the Americas hardest says World Health Organization

The Americas are bearing the brunt of the global coronavirus pandemic at present, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, with North and South America currently having four of the 10 worst hit countries in the world. The disease was "highly active" in Central and South America, the WHO's top emergency expert Mike Ryan said, highlighting problems in Brazil and Mexico. Chile's military moves through shadows to spot coronavirus curfew breakers

The armored vehicle rumbles through the near-empty, darkened streets of a scruffy neighborhood in the Chilean capital Santiago, bristling with heavily-armed troops. A youth in a hoodie and critically, without a mask, emerges from a house and, spotting the soldiers, darts down an alleyway.