World Coronavirus Dispatch: Iran sees Covid-19 scare lasting 1-2 years

From a prisoners’ riot in Thailand to Iran’s fears and China’s comfort – here’s a digest of international reports on Covid-19 to bring you up to speed with what’s happening around the world

Europe is botched up, with deaths and new coronavirus cases continuing to rise. Spain on Sunday recorded 838 fatalities, bringing its toll to 6,528 – second only to Italy, which had on Friday confirmed a one-day record of 969. The US, too, seems far from recovery. The number of cases in that country climbed to 8,238 overnight. President Donald Trump has said he is considering putting the New York region under quarantine, along with New Jersey and Connecticut. Meanwhile, South Africa, the epicentre of the virus spread in the continent, is now under a lockdown. Most of the 59 million people in the country will self-isolate for the coming three weeks. Also, New Zealand has reported its first coronavirus death.

Let’s take a look at the global statistics (at 10 pm IST on March 29):

Total confirmed cases: 685,623

Change over the previous day: 39,266

Total deaths: 32,137

Total recovered: 149,215

Nations with most cases: US (125,313), Italy (92,472), China (82,122), Spain (78,797), and Germany (58,247)

Prisoners’ riot in Thailand: On Sunday, prisoners at a facility in northern Thailand rioted and set on fire parts of the complex over concerns that they might catch the coronavirus due to proximity with inmates. The prison houses 2,000. Read more here. Outbreak could last 1-2 years: Iran, which has seen its death toll rise sharply to 2,640, might not see complete recovery from the coronavirus anytime soon. President Hassan Rouhani said the spread of coronavirus had slowed in some provinces, “but the country may have to learn to live with the disease for one or two years”. Read more here. No domestic transmission in China: The national health ministry of China, where the coronavirus originated, has said that “domestic transmission has basically been stopped”. There were only 45 new cases reported on Saturday, down from 54 the previous day. Parts of Wuhan, where the virus originated, have also been opened for travel. Read more here

Tesla CEO Elon Musk to testify in defamation case over ‘pedo guy’ tweet

In his opening statement, Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro told the jurors that his client meant no harm when he hit out at Unsworth and that his words were spoken in anger.

Tesla co-founder Elon Musk went on trial in Los Angeles in a defamation case involving a British caver he allegedly called a pedophile during a spat on Twitter. A jury of six women and two men were selected to hear the case with the tech billionnaire set to testify early on in the trial, possibly Tuesday afternoon.

Musk will likely be asked about his state of mind when he called British diver Vernon Unsworth — who helped rescue youth soccer players trapped in a cave in Thailand in July 2018 — “pedo guy” in a tweet. The 48-year-old entrepreneur had lashed out at Unsworth in a series of tweets after the latter dismissed Musk’s proposal to build a mini-submarine to rescue the youths as a “PR stunt.”

Unsworth said the custom-built device would never have fit in the cave and suggested that Elon Musk could “stick his submarine where it hurts.” In his opening statement, Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro told the jurors that his client meant no harm when he hit out at Unsworth and that his words were spoken in anger. “The tweets are not allegations of crimes, they are joking, taunting tweets in a fight between two men,” Spiro told the court.

He noted that Musk had apologized for the ‘pedo guy’ tweet and removed it from his feed, repeating his clients’ claim that the term was a common insult in South Africa, where Musk grew up. “Pedo guy (means) creepy old guy,” in South Africa, Spiro said. He added that Musk felt compelled to write the tweets as he was hurt by the suggestion that he was seeking publicity when he offered to help in the cave rescue...