CHINA REJECTS UIGHURS GENOCIDE CHARGE, INVITES UN’S RIGHTS CHIEF

China on Monday rejected "slanderous attacks" about conditions for Muslim Uighurs living in Xinjiang, as European powers and Turkey voiced concerns and called for U.N. access to the remote western region.

Activists and U.N. rights experts have said that at least 1 million Muslims are detained in camps in Xinjiang. China denies abuses and says its camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the U.N. Human Rights Council that it was taking counter-terrorism measures in accordance with the law and that Xinjiang enjoyed "social stability and sound development" after four years without any "terrorist case".

There were 24,000 mosques in Xinjiang, where people of all ethnic groups also enjoyed labour rights, he said.

"These basic facts show that there has never been so-called genocide, forced labour, or religious oppression in Xinjiang," Wang said. "Such inflammatory accusations are fabricated out of ignorance and prejudice, they are simply malicious and politically driven hype and couldn't be further from the truth."

The Biden administration has endorsed a last-minute determination by the Trump administration that China has committed genocide in Xinjiang and has said the United States must be prepared to impose costs on China.

Earlier, British foreign secretary Dominic Raab denounced torture, forced labour and sterilisations that he said were taking place against Uighurs on an "industrial scale" in Xinjiang.

Germany's foreign minister Heiko Maas said that "the arbitrary detention of ethnic minorities like the Uighurs in Xinjiang or China's crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong" required attention.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, said it expected transparency from China on the issue and called for protecting the rights of Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang.

Wang invited U.N. scrutiny but gave no timetable.

"The door to Xinjiang is always open. People from many countries who have visited Xinjiang have learned the facts and the truth on the ground. China also welcomes the High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Xinjiang," he said, referring to U.N. rights chief Michelle Bachelet, whose office has been negotiating terms of access to the country.

TRUMP TAXES, LONG GUARDED, WILL SOON BE IN PROSECUTOR’S HANDS

Former US President Donald Trump, who managed to keep his tax returns a secret the entire time he was in the White House, is about to see them fall into the hands of a New York prosecutor looking into possible criminal charges against him.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. subpoenaed Trump’s accounting firm for eight years of records in 2019, but the then-president took the case to the US Supreme Court, twice. On Monday, the justices abruptly rejected Trump’s final bid to block Vance, a Democrat.

Many details of Trump’s taxes have emerged, notably in the New York Times last fall, but Vance will be receiving the returns as part of a criminal probe that looms as one of the biggest legal threats facing the former president and his company, the Trump Organization Inc.

COVID: BIDEN CALLS 500,000 DEATH TOLL A 'HEARTBREAKING MILESTONE'

President Joe Biden has addressed the nation as the US marks 500,000 deaths from Covid-19, the highest toll of any country in the world.

"As a nation, we can't accept such a cruel fate. We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow," he said.

The president and vice-president, and their spouses, then observed a moment of silence outside the White House during a candle-lighting ceremony.

More than 28.1 million Americans have been infected - another global record.

"Today I ask all Americans to remember. Remember those we lost and remember those we left behind," President Biden said, calling for Americans to fight Covid together.

Mr Biden ordered all flags on federal property to be lowered to half mast for the next five days.

At the White House, he opened his speech by noting that the number of American deaths from Covid was higher than the death toll from World War One, World War Two, and the Vietnam War combined.

"We often hear people described as ordinary Americans," he went on to say. "There's no such thing, there's nothing ordinary about them. The people we lost were extraordinary. They span generations. Born in America, emigrated to America."

"So many of them took their final breath alone in America," he continued.

He drew on his own experience with grief - his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash in 1972 and one of his sons died from brain cancer in 2015.

"For me, the way through sorrow and grief is to find purpose," he said.

EU TO SANCTION MYANMAR MILITARY OVER COUP: JOSEP BORRELL

European Union ministers agreed on Monday to sanction the Myanmar military over its seizure of power and to withhold some development aid, the bloc's top envoy said.

"We took the political agreement to apply sanctions targeting the military responsible for the coup and their economic interests," foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

"All direct financial support from our development system to the government reform programmes is withheld," he added.

SUPREME COURT FORMALLY REJECTS TRUMP ELECTION CHALLENGE CASES

The Supreme Court on Monday formally rejected a handful of cases related to the 2020 election, including disputes from Pennsylvania that had divided the justices just before the election.

The cases the justices rejected involved election challenges filed by former President Donald Trump and his allies in five states President Joe Biden won: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Other than the disputes from Pennsylvania, the justices’ decision not to hear the cases was unsurprising. The court had previously taken no action in those cases and in January had turned away pleas that the cases be fast-tracked, again suggesting the justices were not interested in hearing them.

At the same time, the justices’ decision not to hear Pennsylvania disputes involving a Republican challenge to state courts’ power over federal elections continued to provoke strong feelings from some of the justices. On Monday, three of the nine justices said the court should have taken up the issue.

“A decision in these cases would not have any implications regarding the 2020 election...But a decision would provide invaluable guidance for future elections,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote. Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch also would have taken up the issue.

Thomas wrote that the court was inviting “further confusion and erosion of voter confidence” by not taking up the issue.

VIDEO SHOWS PERSEVERANCE ROVER'S DRAMATIC MARS LANDING

Nasa has released stunning videos of its Perseverance rover landing on Mars.

The movies cover the final minutes of last week's hair-raising descent, up to the point where the robot's wheels make contact with the ground.

The sequences show a whirl of dust and grit being kicked up as the vehicle is lowered by its rocket backpack to the floor of Jezero Crater.

Perseverance was sent to Mars festooned with cameras, seven of which were dedicated to recording the landing.

Their imagery represents vital feedback for engineers as they look to improve still further the technologies used to put probes on the surface of the Red planet.

Mike Watkins, the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, which is home to Nasa's Mars mission control, said the spectacular videos were an example of the agency at its best.

"We have taken everyone along with us on our journeys across the Solar System, through the rings of Saturn, looking back at the 'Pale Blue Dot' and incredible panoramas on the surface of Mars. This is the first time we've been able to actually capture an event like the landing of a spacecraft on Mars," he told reporters.

"We will learn something by looking at the performance of the vehicle in these videos. But a lot of it is also to bring you along on our journey."

All the cameras employed in the descent and landing were off-the-shelf, ruggedised sports cameras, with next-to-no modifications.

STOP SUPPORTING ‘SEPARATIST FORCES’ IN TIBET, HONG KONG, XINJIANG: CHINA TO US

China on Monday urged the US to stop "smearing" the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and it's one-party political system, lift sanctions on trade and halt Washington's backing of "separatist forces” in Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

In his annual speech at the Lanting Forum, focusing on China-US ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the Biden administration should “adjust” the hardline policy pursued by former President Donald Trump towards Beijing to check its growing influence.

“We have no intention to challenge or replace the United States. We are ready to have peaceful coexistence and seek common development with the United States,” Wang said. “Likewise, we hope the United States will respect China's core interests, national dignity and rights to development. We urge the United States to stop smearing the CPC and China's political system, stop conniving at or even supporting the erroneous words and actions of separatist forces for 'Taiwan independence’, and stop undermining China's sovereignty and security on internal affairs concerning Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet,” he said. “We hope that the US side will adjust its policies as soon as possible, among others, remove unreasonable tariffs on Chinese goods, lift its unilateral sanctions on Chinese companies and research and educational institutes, and abandon irrational suppression of China,” he said.

U.S. HOUSE BUDGET PANEL APPROVES $1.9 TRILLION COVID-19 AID BILL

The U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee on Monday approved legislation with $1.9 trillion in new coronavirus relief, advancing a top priority of President Joe Biden.

The measure passed the panel on a largely party-line vote of 19-16. The full House, which has a slim Democratic majority, hopes to pass the bill later this week. It would stimulate the U.S. economy and carry out Mr. Biden’s proposals to provide additional money for COVID-19 vaccines and other medical equipment.

Last week, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer predicted his deeply divided chamber would approve the bill before March 14, when the latest round of federal unemployment benefits expires.

Mr. Biden and his fellow Democrats want to pass the plan quickly to speed a new round of direct payments to U.S. households as well as extend federal unemployment benefits and assist state and local governments.

The Democrats are using a procedural strategy called reconciliation to advance the bill, which will allow them to pass it in the Senate without Republican support.

"We are in a race against time. Aggressive, bold action is needed before our nation is more deeply and permanently scarred by the human and economic costs of inaction," Representative John Yarmuth, chairman of the Budget Committee, said before the vote.

LOCKDOWN: BORIS JOHNSON UNVEILS PLAN TO END ENGLAND RESTRICTIONS BY 21 JUNE

A new four-step plan to ease England's lockdown could see all legal limits on social contact lifted by 21 June, if strict conditions are met.

Shops, hairdressers, gyms and outdoor hospitality could reopen on 12 April in England under plans set out by the PM.

From 17 May, two households might be allowed to mix in homes, while the rule of six could apply in places like pubs.

It requires four tests on vaccines, infection rates and new coronavirus variants to be met at each stage.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs the plan aimed to be "cautious but irreversible" and at every stage decisions would be led by "data not dates".

There was "no credible route to a zero-Covid Britain nor indeed a zero-Covid world", he said.

Mr Johnson later told a Downing Street news conference the coming spring and summer would be "seasons of hope, looking and feeling incomparably better for us all".

He described the plan as a "one-way road to freedom" but said he could not guarantee it would be irreversible "but the intention is that it should be".

It comes as the first data on the UK's coronavirus vaccine rollout suggested it was having a "spectacular" impact on stopping serious illness.

PANDEMIC USED AS ‘PRETEXT’ TO CRUSH DISSENT: UNITED NATIONS CHIEF

The UN on Monday slammed countries that are using the pandemic to justify cracking down on dissent and suppressing criticism.

Speaking at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s main annual session, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres charged that authorities in a number of nations were using restrictions meant to halt the spread of COVID-19 to weaken opposition.

“Using the pandemic as a pretext, authorities in some countries have deployed heavy-handed security responses and emergency measures to crush dissent, criminalise basic freedoms, silence independent reporting and curtail the activities of non-governmental organisations,” he said, without naming the countries.

Speaking in a pre-recorded video message to the largely virtual meeting of the Geneva-based body, the UN chief lamented that “pandemic-related restrictions are being used to subvert electoral processes, weaken opposition voices and suppress criticism” in some countries.

At the same time, he said, “human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, political activists, and even medical professionals are being detained, prosecuted and subjected to intimidation and surveillance for criticising government pandemic responses — or the lack thereof.”

HAMAS-RULED GAZA LAUNCHES CORONAVIRUS VACCINATION DRIVE

The Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip began its coronavirus vaccination drive on Monday following the arrival of the first vaccines to the blockaded coastal area.

Former health ministers and several medical workers were inoculated with Russia's Sputnik V jabs in front of dozens of cameras. More medical workers and patients with chronic diseases are to start receiving injections on Tuesday.

The inoculation drive “will result in more immunity among the people and further curb the spread of the pandemic,” said Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra.

The area has received just 22,000 doses of vaccines, a tiny fraction of what is needed to immunize the strip's 2 million people, including some 1.4 million people over age 18.

The shortage of vaccines in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank stands in stark contrast to Israel, which is on pace to immunise almost all of its adult population in the coming weeks.

Already, roughly one-third of Israel's 9.3 million people have received two doses of the Pfizer/BionTech vaccine. The disparity has drawn attention to the worldwide inequity in vaccine distribution between rich and poor nations.

ANGRY YOUTHS RATTLE SPAIN IN SUPPORT OF JAILED RAP ARTIST

The imprisonment of a rap artist for his music praising terrorist violence and insulting the Spanish monarchy has set off a powder keg of pent-up rage this week in the southern European country.

The arrest of Pablo Hasél has brought thousands to the streets for different reasons.

Under the banner of freedom of expression, many Spaniards strongly object to putting an artist behind bars for his lyrics and tweets.

They are clamoring for Spain's left-wing government to fulfil its promise and roll back the Public Security Law passed by the previous conservative administration that was used to prosecute Hasél and other artists.

Hasél's imprisonment to serve a nine-month sentence on Tuesday has also tapped into a well of frustration among Spain's youths, who have the highest unemployment rate in the European Union.

Four in every 10 eligible workers under 25 years old are without a job.

Hasél's lyrics that strike at King Felipe VI and his father, King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, have connected with a growing public debate on the future of Spain's parliamentary monarchy.