World News Roundup: Severe bread shortages loom for Syria; WHO sets up panel to review handling of COVID-19 pandemic and more

UK expected to set out next stage of lockdown easing later on Thursday British culture minister Oliver Dowden will hold a news conference, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday, when the government is expected to set out the next stages in its easing of the coronavirus lockdown.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

U.N. rights investigator calls on Saudi Arabia to free women activists

An investigator for the U.N. Human Rights Council urged member states on Thursday to pressure Saudi Arabia to free women activists before a G20 nations summit which Riyadh will be hosting in November. At least a dozen prominent women's rights activists were arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2018 as it lifted a ban on women driving cars, a step that many of the detainees had long campaigned for. The women were rounded up as part of a broader crackdown on dissent that extended to clerics and intellectuals.

Palestinians hope Biden would roll back Trump's embrace of Israel

Palestinian leaders hope Democrat Joe Biden will tone down Washington's pro-Israel policies if he becomes U.S. president, and Palestinian-Americans have been pressing his campaign for a change, sources familiar with the efforts said.

So far, their efforts have had little impact, the sources said. In echo of Mao era, China's schools in book-cleansing drive

As schools reopened in China after the COVID-19 outbreak, they have thrown themselves into a nationwide exercise to remove books deemed politically incorrect, deepening Chinese President Xi Jinping's push to instil patriotism and ideological purity in the education system. A directive from the Ministry of Education last October called on elementary and middle schools to clear out books from their libraries including "illegal" and "inappropriate" works. Now teachers have removed books from schools in at least 30 of mainland China's 33 provinces and municipalities, according to a Reuters review of social media posts, publicly available school and local government documents, and interviews with teachers.

UK expected to set out next stage of lockdown easing later on Thursday

British culture minister Oliver Dowden will hold a news conference, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday, when the government is expected to set out the next stages in its easing of the coronavirus lockdown. Johnson had said the government would outline the next steps in its plan to reopen the economy this week, with new guidelines for nail bars and gyms expected to be set out.

Severe bread shortages loom for Syria as fresh U.S. sanctions grip

Syria could face severe bread shortages for the first time since the start of the war, another challenge for President Bashar al-Assad as he grapples with an economic meltdown and fresh U.S. sanctions, a U.N. official, activists and farmers said. Any major disruptions to Syria's bread subsidy system could undermine the government and threaten a population highly dependent on wheat as rampant inflation drives up food prices.

Angering China, Australia suspends extradition treaty with Hong Kong, extends visas

Australia said on Thursday it was suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in response to a new security law imposed there and announced measures to attract businesses from the Asian financial hub, provoking an angry response from Beijing. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the law introduced last week in Hong Kong was a fundamental change of circumstances and Australia would suspend the extradition agreement.

Graduate teaches children in Delhi slum without access to online learning

In a squalid slum below a partially built flyover in eastern Delhi, Satyendra Pal stands by a whiteboard propped against a straw hut, with half a dozen children wearing masks and sitting on the floor looking up at him. This is Pal's open air classroom, where he teaches children in their early teens, giving them their only lessons at present after India's schools shut four months ago as part of a lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus.

WHO sets up panel to review handling of COVID-19 pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that it was setting up an independent panel to review its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the response by governments. The announcement follows strong criticism by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, which accused the WHO of being "China-centric", and U.S. formal notification on Tuesday that it was withdrawing from the U.N. agency in a year's time.

Protests over economy in Israel may turn violent, opposition leader says

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Thursday protests over the economic slowdown could soon turn violent as restrictions to contain the coronavirus are reimposed and state assistance for the jobless lags. Alarmed by a new spike in COVID-19 cases, conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week ordered a slew of businesses to shut back down and disbanded some children's summer camps, dashing hopes for relief from record 21% unemployment.

Special Report: Bolsonaro bets 'miraculous cure' for COVID-19 can save Brazil - and his life

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has gone all in on hydroxychloroquine to help his coronavirus-ravaged country beat COVID-19. He has pushed his government to make the malaria drug widely available and encouraged Brazilians to take it, both to prevent the disease and to treat it. Now the far-right populist is putting his convictions to the ultimate test: Bolsonaro on Tuesday announced that he had tested positive for the disease and was taking hydroxychloroquine.