Two of Europe’s worst affected countries begin careful process of opening up societies again

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Spain and Italy, two of the European countries hardest hit by coronavirus, are beginning to emerge from lengthy and strict lockdowns as Russia and Afghanistan reported their biggest one-day rises in new infections.

In Spain, where 217,466 cases of Covid-19 and 25,264 deaths have been confirmed, adults were allowed back on to the street to exercise for the first time in seven weeks this weekend.

Epidemics of infectious diseases behave in different ways but the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people is regarded as a key example of a pandemic that occurred in multiple waves, with the latter more severe than the first. It has been replicated – albeit more mildly – in subsequent flu pandemics.

US president again criticises Beijing as European countries prepare to ease lockdown

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Donald Trump has said he is “very confident” there will be a vaccine for coronavirus by the end of the year, revising up his estimate of the final US death toll as several European countries prepare for a cautious easing of lockdowns.

The president used a Fox News “virtual town hall” on Sunday night to repeat his regular virus talking points, including that a vaccine was not far away, Covid-19 was China’s fault and the economy would not only recover but “grow like crazy”.

Related: Mike Pompeo: 'enormous evidence' coronavirus came from Chinese lab

Global coronavirus cases have surpassed 3.5 million with more than 247,000 deaths.

In New York, the centre of the US outbreak, an emergency field hospital erected in Central Park is set to close. Dozens of New Yorkers were fined for violating social distancing guidelines as they flocked to beaches and parks in balmy weekend weather.

China reported three new coronavirus cases, versus two the day before.

Japan’s state of emergency is expected to be extended until the end of the month.

France will not quarantine anyone arriving from the EU, the Schengen area or Britain due to the coronavirus.

New Zealand has reported no new coronavirus cases for the first time.

South Korea plans to ease a ban on some gatherings and events as long as they “follow disinfection measures”.

Brazil has become the first country in Latin America to report more than 100,000 cases.

The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, announced mosques will reopen across large parts of the Islamic republic after they were closed in early March.

Man found to have had virus a month before government confirmed first cases

A French hospital that retested old samples from pneumonia patients has discovered that it treated a man with the coronavirus as early as 27 December, nearly a month before the French government confirmed its first cases.

Dr Yves Cohen, head of resuscitation at the Avicenne and Jean Verdier hospitals in the northern suburbs of Paris, told BFM TV that scientists had retested samples from 24 patients treated in December and January who tested negative for flu.

German journalist alleges VGE repeatedly touched her bottom during interview

The former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing has been accused of sexual harassment in a legal complaint lodged by a German journalist.

Ann-Kathrin Stracke claims VGE, as he is known, repeatedly touched her bottom during an interview at his office on Boulevard Saint-Germain, in Paris, at the end of 2018. She lodged a complaint on 10 March with the Paris public prosecutor’s office.

Campuses have become ‘ghost towns’ as staffers depart – but many contractors still have to show up

• How to protect yourself against coronavirus
  
• What are the symptoms and should I see a doctor?

When Josh Borden arrived for work at the Google offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday morning, it felt like arriving in a “ghost town”. The parking lot was deserted, there was no breakfast being served in the cafeteria, and the nap rooms were tagged with signs announcing their closure “as a precaution given the Covid-19 situation”. “The office is so empty,” he told me. “Even more so than when the Googlers have their ski trip.”

The day before, Google had asked all its North American employees to begin working from home due to the coronavirus – a policy that has since been expanded to the rest of its global workforce. But Borden, a triage analyst who has worked for Google for about four years, is one of the approximately 135,000 people who make up Google’s “extended workforce”: temps and subcontractors who perform work for, but are not technically employed by, the $830bn company. And though Borden and his co-workers perform computer-based tasks that could just as easily be completed from home as those of other technical workers, Google does not allow them to access their work from home.

Related: Mike Bloomberg’s campaign is polluting the internet | Julia Carrie Wong

Tech firms will benefit, but some companies could find employees don’t want to return to the office

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Covid-19 could permanently shift working patterns as companies forced to embrace remote working by the pandemic find that their employees do not want to return to the office once the closures are lifted.

The sudden increase in working from home is presenting problems as well as opportunities: on the one hand, startups such as Slack and Zoom and established giants including Google and Microsoft are offering their tools for free, in the hope that people who start using them in a crisis may carry on once normality returns.

Related: The art of Skype set-dressing: how to video-call the office when in quarantine | Imogen West-Knights

From FaceTime to Houseparty, there is no shortage of platforms for work and play as you shelter in place

With offices and schools around the world temporarily shut amid the coronavirus crisis, the video platform Zoom has seen overnight success. But growing concerns over security across the platform have many consumers wondering about tech alternatives.

Privacy-minded consumers should consider video chat options carefully, said Arvind Narayanan, an associate computer science professor at Princeton University who has been outspoken about the security concerns surrounding Zoom.

Related: ‘Zoom is malware’: why experts worry about the video conferencing platform

From being a goose on the loose to controlling whole galaxies, here’s a world of experiences for all the family

• Modern Toss on video games ...

The cinemas may be shut, the gig venues closed, but there is one place you can still meet your friends and be entertained without leaving your house: the world of gaming. For many of us, it has been years since we could really justify spending all day in our pyjamas slaying virtual dragons – now that way of life, for some at least, is a little less frowned-upon. But if you’re returning to serious gaming after a few years away, where exactly should you be spending your valuable money and time? Here are no less than 100 highly recommended titles, from family favourites to epic sci-fi sagas – all available on current platforms, be it PC, smartphones or consoles. Whether you want to be moved, terrified, relaxed or intellectually challenged, alone or with pals, we’ve got more than enough here to keep you occupied until you’re out and about again …

Gains from the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Microsoft boosted the index as it turned positive

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The technology-heavy Nasdaq index turned positive for 2020 on Thursday, boosted by gains in the share prices of companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix, which have fared well during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The US index caught up all this year’s losses, taking it back to its level at the beginning of January, after rising 1.4% on Thursday to 8,979.66. It ended last year at 8,972.

Kevin Warren, Big Ten commissioner, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss the future of college sports and what will weigh into the decision on allowing college sports to return.

Rob Lynch, Papa John's CEO and president, joins CNBC's Kate Rogers to discuss the company's quarterly earnings, how the company was able to lessen the blow from the coronavirus and its supply chain management.

Even though you may have seen a drop in income this year due to Covid-19, you could face a tax bill next year if you're receiving unemployment benefits. CNBC's Sharon Epperson reports on how to avoid the hit.

Todd Gordon, Ascent Wealth Partners and John Petrides, Toqueville Asset Management, discuss the stay-at-home stocks they're watching with Seema Mody.

The FDA has approved Moderna's coronavirus vaccine candidate for a phase 2 trial, something the company calls a crucial step in its timeline. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel joins "Squawk Box" to discuss.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, member of the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina and former FDA commissioner, tells "Squawk Box" that a Covid-19 vaccine could be made available for use in "selected circumstances" before it receives official approval for wider distribution.

Joe Berchtold, president of Live Nation, joins "Squawk Alley" to discuss the company's outlook amid the coronavirus shutdown.

Art Cashin of UBS joins "Squawk Alley" to discuss the state of the markets and the economy.

CNBC's Tyler Mathisen is joined by Vital Connect CEO Peter Van Haur to talk about how the company's VitalPatch product just got FDA approval to monitor coronavirus patients.

David Deno, Bloomin' Brands CEO, joins 'Closing Bell' to discuss what their reopened restaurants look like, the company's first quarterly earnings, what customers are ordering and the April jobs loss number.

As the novel coronavirus began to take hold on the United States, the Federal Reserve made a number of quick policy actions. The Fed slashed rates to nearly zero, announced a slew of asset purchases, and more, in an effort to stave of economic devastation as businesses shuttered and millions of Americans lost their jobs. Here's what the Federal Reserve has done to preserve a financial system rocked by a global pandemic.

Airbnb is one of the many businesses in the travel industry that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. In March of 2017, Airbnb was valued at $31 billion. By the end of April 2020 that value dropped to $18 billion. With the threat of more cancelations as the pandemic halts the travel industry, guests, hosts and investors alike are left asking what Airbnb will look like after the novel coronavirus pandemic, or whether the company will survive at all.

More than a decade on, fact and fiction remain entangled in the tale of former teammates turned enemies. The human core of the entire episode, though, is not a footballer

Officially, nothing happened. This is, by the way, no minor detail: to this day Vanessa Perroncel fervently denies that any affair took place between her and John Terry in late 2009, and she has the printed apologies and legal documents to back it up. Normally this bit is begrudgingly buried at the bottom of the piece. But it’s worth dwelling on, if only because it forces us to confront the vast, incalculable gulf between what we definitively know and what, over the years, we’ve simply assumed.

A decade on, fact and fiction remain knottily entangled. Over time, the story of how Terry and his former friend and Chelsea teammate Wayne Bridge found themselves at the centre of one of English football’s most hysterical scandals begins to feel surreal, perhaps even a touch unreal: a bad memory that most would prefer to pretend never happened.

Charity match for victims of Covid-19 promises to be a wonderful wallow in nostalgia for Boro fans

Anthems are invariably repetitive but the paean celebrating Middlesbrough’s journey to the 2006 Uefa Cup final took things to extremes. “Small town in Europe, we’re just a small town in Europe,” Teessiders chorused on the road to Eindhoven and defeat against Sevilla.

The limited lyrics failed to prevent those seven words becoming an evocative, now rather poignant, soundtrack to the season when Gareth Southgate, Stewart Downing and the rest of Steve McClaren’s team annotated the town’s place on football’s European map.

Our cartoonist on the plans to resume the 2019-20 Premier League season and possible options to complete it

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• President calls for resumption of football despite crisis
• Brazil has more than 5,900 deaths due to the coronavirus

Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro wants to see football competitions restart soon despite the country’s high number of coronavirus cases, arguing that players are less likely to die from Covid-19 because of their physical fitness.

Bolsonaro is one of the few world leaders that still downplays the risks brought by the coronavirus, which he has likened to “a little flu”.

• Claims of abuse by Yves Jean-Bart at national centre
• Jean-Bart denies all allegations made against him

The president of the Haitian football federation has been accused of sexually abusing young female footballers at the country’s national training centre.

Yves Jean-Bart, known as “Dadou”, the president of the Fédération Haïtienne De Football (FHF) since 2000, denies accusations that he coerced several players at the Centre Technique National in Croix-des-Bouquets into having sex. The alleged incidents are understood to have taken place within the last five years.

Des Buckingham followed Under-20 World Cup success by qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics but lost his job last week

There is a word that Des Buckingham, during almost six years working in New Zealand, has used as a mantra to live by. In the Maori language, Mana represents a spiritual essence that almost defies translation but in everyday use it broadly applies thus: a way of holding oneself through dignity, respect, humanity and authority.

It has been invaluable over the past five days because Buckingham is navigating one of the biggest disappointments of a young coaching career that, since he moved to the other side of the world after leaving Oxford United in 2014, had rarely let up.

With the sporting calendar on hold during the coronavirus pandemic, football stars around the world are challenging each other to perform tricks with loo roll as part of the #stayathomechallenge to encourage fans to practise social distancing

Made in Senegal takes an in-depth look at the rise of Liverpool forward Sadio Mané, who is the current African player of the year. The documentary will be exclusively available across Europe on Rakuten TV’s free Rakuten Stories channel from 8 April.

With football on hold during the coronavirus pandemic, one of the world’s leading freestylers is helping fans remain active under lockdown. Every day, Liv Cooke a four-time world record holder, posts footage of herself performing a freestyle trick with instructions on how to follow suit at home

• A trick a day: how freestyler Liv Cooke is bringing light to the lockdown

Alphonso Davies was born in a refugee camp after his parents fled civil war in Liberia. He has since become the youngest footballer to play for Canada and won a Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich. The 19-year-old talks to Gary Lineker about his incredible journey

Barcelona icon Andrés Iniesta has video-called the children born because of his famous goal against Chelsea in 2009. The late winner at Stamford Bridge led to a spike in pregnancies. 'Has your mum shown you the goal?' Iniesta asks Ignacio, born on 18 January. Of course she had, Ignacio says: 'You were a star.'

• Happy conception day: Andrés Iniesta calls children born because of his goal

As the Premier League weighs up a possible return in June, many questions remain unanswered. From testing regimes to where games will be played, Paul MacInnes takes a look at the key hurdles

• Project Restart: the hurdles Premier League football must clear to resume

Using the Fifa archive we rewatch a series of memorable games in search of answers we didn’t find at the time

“It was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness” – Albert Camus, the Outsider

The World Cup final, France v Italy in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. It’s still humid under the lights. The score is 1-1, the players wide-eyed but still running.

• Manchester City defender admits visiting sister and parents
• Club will not discipline him due to extenuating circumstances

Kyle Walker believes he is being harassed by the media after contravening lockdown rules again when visiting his parents and sister, with Manchester City deciding against disciplinary action due to extenuating circumstances.

The Sun reported that Walker travelled to Sheffield on Wednesday to visit his sister and parents. This came after the defender apologised following a report he held a party at his house with two sex workers present last month, breaking lockdown rules.

• Heel fracture discovered on striker’s return to training centre
• Injury adds to difficult first season in Spain for €65m signing

The Real Madrid forward Luka Jovic has suffered a foot injury while training at home and is unlikely to be fit for the potential restart of the La Liga season in mid-June.

The Spanish club have confirmed that their medical team discovered a fracture in the Serbian striker’s heel bone during routine tests carried out prior to the resumption of individual training on Monday.

Club’s charity has adjusted swiftly amid Covid-19 and faces challenges with youngsters previously involved in crime

Like most workers in the charity sector, George Henry knew he had a problem when the UK entered lockdown on 23 March. As the targeted interventions manager at the Palace for Life Foundation – Crystal Palace’s charity – Henry uses football to help disadvantaged young people in south London and organises a team of mentors who try to keep them on the straight and narrow.

“Most of them have been arrested or been in gangs and we try to get them into positive outcomes,” he says. “We’re based in schools and a custody suite for our Divert programme, which aims to get them back into employment and training. Around this time of year we usually help with the transition from year six to year seven but because of the lockdown that couldn’t happen.”

Figures from across the men’s professional game including managers, players and a scout, discuss how football will alter

When life has finally returned to normal, I think football will change for the better. We should see the reversal of a power balance that has swung the wrong way for too long, switching it back in favour of the clubs. I would certainly expect that to happen in the divisions below the Premier League, where the financial implications of Covid-19 are hitting particularly hard. Players and agents will have to lower their expectations, and we will see fewer instances of football clubs being held to ransom over deals and contracts.

Co-founder of the pioneering German electronic band Kraftwerk

As one of the chief architects of the electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk, Florian Schneider, who has died of cancer aged 73, helped revolutionise popular music. Where guitars, bass and drums had long been considered its essential building blocks, Kraftwerk paved the way for synth-pop, techno, hip-hop and electronica, in the process proving that microchips and machines could have not only soul, but a sense of humour too. The list of artists whose work is indebted to Kraftwerk, even if they did not always know it, is endless, but includes David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Simple Minds, New Order, The Orb, Madonna, Neil Young, Jay-Z, Afrika Bambaataa, Coldplay and Daft Punk. In 1997 the New York Times described Kraftwerk as “the Beatles of electronic dance music”.

With Schneider and Ralf Hütter proving the main creative impetus, Kraftwerk (German for “power station”) reached their pivotal moment with the release of their fourth album, Autobahn (1974), whose 23-minute title track – a euphoric electronic ode to the joys of driving on Germany’s high-speed motorways, delivered with a light and whimsical touch – became emblematic of the group’s sound and approach. The album reached No 4 in Britain, while the single version of Autobahn reached the the UK Top 20 and the German Top 10. This revolution in synthetic music earned Kraftwerk a spot on BBC television’s science programme Tomorrow’s World in 1975. They subsequently scored a UK chart-topping single, The Model, released with Computer Love (1981), but Kraftwerk’s influence was much further-reaching than mere chart positions would suggest.