Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. U.N. chief urges peaceful U.S. protests, calls on leaders to listen, show restraint

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres urges Americans protesting racial inequities and excessive police force to do so peacefully and calls on U.S. leaders and authorities to listen to them and show restraint, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Monday. Dujarric was responding to a wave of U.S. demonstrations over the death of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis a week ago. Some of the largely peaceful protests have spiraled into civil unrest in many cities. Canada's Trudeau, opposition leaders vow to fight racism at home

Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his rivals in the opposition vowed on Monday to fight racism at home as violent protests continued in the United States following the death of a black man in police custody in Minneapolis last week. Thousands staged a peaceful protest on Saturday in Toronto to demand answers in the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old black woman who fell from her 24th-floor apartment balcony last week while police were present. WHO pushes to keep ties with 'generous' U.S. despite Trump's exit move

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday praised the United States' "immense" and "generous" contribution to global health in a push to salvage relations after President Donald Trump said he was severing ties with the U.N. agency. Accusing it of pandering to China and overlooking an initially secretive response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Trump said on Friday he was ending Washington's relationship with the WHO. Pompeo says U.S. considers welcoming Hong Kong people, entrepreneurs

The United States is considering the option of welcoming people from Hong Kong in response to China's push to impose national security legislation in the former British colony, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in remarks released on Monday. Influential Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell told that chamber on Monday he hoped the Trump administration would soon identify specific ways to "impose costs on Beijing" for curbing freedoms in Hong Kong, and said the United States should mirror the response of other democracies and open its doors to people from the territory. Brazil registers 11,598 additional cases of coronavirus, 623 new deaths on Monday

Brazil registered 11,598 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 623 additional deaths in the last 24 hours, the nation's Health Ministry said on Monday evening. Brazil now has registered 526,447 confirmed cases and 29,937 deaths attributed to the virus. Polish Senate passes election bill, setting stage for June vote

Poland's upper house of parliament, the Senate, approved legislation late on Monday allowing a presidential election to be held using a mix of postal and traditional voting, potentially paving the way for the vote to take place in June. Although the final date of the election has not yet been announced, the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has said June 28 is the last date the European Union's largest post-communist state could hold the vote in order to have a head of state in place before the current president's term ends. WHO and other experts say no evidence of coronavirus losing potency

World Health Organization experts and a range of other scientists said on Monday there was no evidence to support an assertion by a high-profile Italian doctor that the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic has been losing potency. Professor Alberto Zangrillo, head of intensive care at Italy's San Raffaele Hospital in Lombardy, which bore the brunt of Italy's epidemic, on Sunday told state television that the new coronavirus "clinically no longer exists". Dozens protest at U.S. embassy in Paris in solidarity with George Floyd

A few dozen protesters knelt in silence and held signs in front of the U.S. embassy in Paris on Monday in solidarity with George Floyd, an African-American whose death in police custody last week has sparked unrest in the United States. Most dressed in black and wearing face masks due to the coronavirus crisis, the demonstrators held signs saying: "Racism is choking us," "Justice for Floyd" and "I can't breathe" - the last words Floyd gasped as a white officer knelt on his neck. Khalilzad sounds upbeat note on chances for intra-Afghan peace talks

The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan sounded upbeat on Monday about the chances for peace talks starting between the Kabul government and the Taliban militant group but suggested further prisoner releases were needed first. Speaking to reporters, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad also sought to play down an independent U.N. experts report that ties between the Taliban and al Qaeda remain close despite the Taliban's pledge to cut such links. Please queue here: UK parliament votes on ending special coronavirus measures

British lawmakers will form a long queue snaking through parliament on Tuesday to decide whether to ditch the system of remote voting and parliament-by-videoconference that has allowed scrutiny of the government's coronavirus response. In April, the House of Commons announced changes that allowed its 650 lawmakers to question ministers by video link, and in May the house held its first remote vote - casting aside centuries of tradition in a building known worldwide for adversarial debates and arcane procedures.

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