Japan has approved a plan to release more than one million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.

The water will be treated and diluted so radiation levels are below those set for drinking water.

But some locals, those in the fishing industry, as well as China and South Korea, have opposed the plan.

Tokyo says work to release water used to cool nuclear fuel will begin in about two years.

The final approval comes after years of debate and is expected to take decades to complete.

Currently, the radioactive water is treated in a complex filtration process that removes most of the radioactive elements, but some remain, including tritium.

It is then kept in huge tanks, but the plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TepCo) is running out of space, with these tanks expected to fill up by 2022.

Around 1.3 million tonnes of radioactive water – or enough to fill about 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools – are currently stored in these tanks, according to a Reuters report.

The fatal shooting of a black man by a police officer in the US city of Brooklyn Center in Minnesota was an accident, the police chief has said.

Daunte Wright, 20, was shot after the officer meant to use a Taser, but mistakenly drew her gun instead, Chief Tim Gannon told reporters.

The officer was later named as Kim Potter who has worked for Brooklyn Center Police for 26 years.

Mr Wright’s death has sparked protests and a curfew has been declared.

Late on Monday, crowds defied the curfew to gather for a second night outside Brooklyn Center Police headquarters. Witnesses said some threw fireworks and bottles at officers who responded with tear gas and stun grenades.

Tensions in nearby Minneapolis are high as the trial of an ex-officer accused of killing George Floyd continues.

Daunte Wright was pulled over on Sunday for a traffic violation, but there was a struggle when he tried to get back into his car.

At a news conference on Monday morning, Chief Gannon played a short video from the body camera worn by a policewoman, which shows Mr Wright trying to get back into his car as officers attempt to handcuff him on the side of the road.

An officer can then be heard saying “Taser, Taser, Taser” – normal police procedure before firing one of the stun guns. Mr Wright is seen to get into his car and drive away, while the same officer says “I just shot him”.

Fatally wounded, Mr Wright crashed a few streets away.

“It is my belief the officer meant to deploy their Taser but shot him with a single bullet,” Chief Gannon said, adding: “There’s nothing I can say to lessen the pain.”

The officer has been placed on administrative leave.

At the same news conference, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott said he would do everything in his power to “ensure justice is done for Daunte Wright”.

“Our hearts are aching right now, we are in pain right now. We recognise this couldn’t have happened at a worse time. This is happening at a time that all of our community, all of America, indeed all of the world is watching,” he said.

US authorities have arrested a man who allegedly plotted to bomb an Amazon data centre, which he believed would “kill off about 70% of the internet”.

Seth Aaron Pendley, 28, was arrested after receiving a dud explosive device from an undercover FBI agent, and was charged with a malicious attempt to destroy a building with an explosive,

He came to the FBI’s attention after somebody reported his online posts.

If convicted, Mr Pendley could face up to 20 years in prison.

According to investigators, Mr Pendley’s main goal was to damage Amazon’s web server network.

He believed that there were 24 buildings that “run 70% of the internet”, including services used by the CIA and FBI, according to a conversation detailed in the criminal complaint against him.

Damaging them would frustrate the “oligarchy” – or small group of elites – in power in the United States, he believed.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) does play a hugely important role in the modern internet, hosting and processing the information behind many popular online services and websites.

Outages caused by a problem at one centre tend to knock services offline for several hours at most, and often for a limited number of people or for specific sites.

For example, in 2017, a major fault at one US AWS centre knocked sites such as Quora and Trello offline for several hours. And even the total loss by fire of a European data centre earlier this year – which disrupted an estimated 3.6 million websites including government portals across Europe – went unnoticed by many internet users.

From Capitol Riot to C-4

Mr Pendley attended the Capitol Riots of 6 January, investigators found, having driven from Texas to Washington DC. Investigators said he told friends he had brought an assault rifle with him, but left it in his car – and also that although he reached the windows of the Capitol building, he did not enter it.

Two days after that event, a “concerned citizen” reported Mr Pendley’s posts on a militia website – where he went by the name of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine – to the FBI.

“We are indebted to the concerned citizen who came forward to report the defendant’s alarming online rhetoric. In flagging his posts to the FBI, this individual may have saved the lives of a number of tech workers,” acting US attorney Prerak Shah said in a statement.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned people to continue to take steps to “suppress Covid” as the latest stage of lockdown easing comes into effect.

Pub gardens, indoor gyms and hairdressers are among the businesses that can now reopen in England.

Northern Ireland’s “stay-at-home” order is ending and some rules are also being relaxed in Scotland and Wales.

Mr Johnson welcomed the “major” step towards normality, but urged everyone to “behave responsibly”.

The PM had planned to have a celebratory pint to mark the measures easing, but that has been postponed following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh on Friday.

The rule changes in England from Monday include:

• All shops can reopen
• Hairdressers, beauty salons and other close-contact services can open
• Restaurants and pubs are allowed to serve food and alcohol to customers sitting outdoors
• Gyms, spas, zoos, theme parks, libraries and community centres can all open
• Members of the same household can take a holiday in England in self-contained accommodation
• Up to 15 people can attend weddings and 30 can attend funerals
• Children can attend any indoor children’s activity
• Care home visitors will increase to two per resident
• Driving lessons can resume, with tests restarting on 22 April.

In Northern Ireland, the remaining school year groups 8-11 will return to the classroom. The stay-at-home message is being relaxed and up to 10 people from two households can meet in a private garden.

In Scotland, all school pupils are returning to full-time education. However, not everyone is returning on Monday because differing term times mean some schools are still closed for the Easter holidays.

After a drop in Covid cases prompted the Welsh Government to bring forward some dates for reopening, all students will return to face-to-face teaching on Monday.

Non-essential shops can also reopen, close-contact services can resume, driving lessons can restart and travel in and out of Wales from the rest of the UK is allowed.

A conservative former banker, Guillermo Lasso, has won Ecuador’s presidential election following a run-off vote.

His opponent, the left-wing economist Andrés Arauz, conceded defeat hours after polls closed on Sunday.

With almost all the ballots counted, Mr Lasso had won 52.5% of the vote compared to Mr Arauz’s 47.5%.

Mr Lasso, a 65-year-old three-time presidential candidate, told supporters he accepted the “challenge of changing our country’s destiny”.

“It’s a day in which all Ecuadoreans have decided their future,” he said. “They have used their vote to express the need for change and the desire for better days.”

Mr Arauz, meanwhile, congratulated his rival. “I will show him our democratic convictions,” he said at a rally.

Mr Lasso will assume office on 24 May.

The former banker, who has twice finished second in presidential votes, represents the country’s business sector. He has vowed to break away from the leftist policies of past administrations that he says have dragged Ecuador down.

He has pledged to attract increased foreign investment, create two million new jobs and increase oil production.

On the economy, he has proposed an increase in the minimum monthly wage as well as tax cuts for small businesses and the creation of a fund to stimulate entrepreneurship.

However, Mr Lasso has been accused by critics of offering a continuation of the unpopular Lenin Moreno government which has been badly battered by intertwined health and economic crises.

According to Ecuador’s central bank, the country’s economy shrunk by 7.8% in 2020 and data from the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) showed that some half a million people remained unemployed as of January 2021.

In addition to the economic turmoil, corruption accusations inside the health ministry led to an almost two-month delay in designing a national Covid-19 vaccination plan.

Mr Lasso has vowed to vaccinate nine million Ecuadoreans in the first 100 days of his administration, and promised to lead “better” direct negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies producing the jabs.

A new statue of Christ being built in Brazil will be taller than the famous Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

Christ the Protector in the southern city of Encantado will be 43m (140 ft) high with its pedestal, making it the world’s third tallest Jesus statue.

A head and outstretched arms were added to the structure last week, which was begun in 2019.

The idea came from local politician Adroaldo Conzatti, who died in March with Covid-19.

The $350,000 (£255,000) project is expected to be completed later in the year, the Association of the Friends of Christ group which is organising it says.

It is being funded by donations from individuals and companies, the association adds.

The statue is 36m from hand to hand. An internal lift will take tourists to a viewpoint in the chest region, 40m up.

Only the Jesus Buntu Burake statue in Sulawesi, Indonesia, at 52.55m including its pedestal, and Christ the King in Swiebodzin, Poland, which is 52.5m high including its mound, are taller.

They would tower over Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer, at 38m.

There are, however, dozens of other statues worldwide that are taller, including several of the Virgin Mary and numerous Buddhas.

People diagnosed with Covid-19 in the previous six months were more likely to develop depression, dementia, psychosis and stroke, researchers have found.

A third of those with a previous Covid infection went on to develop or have a relapse of a psychological or neurological condition.

But those admitted to hospital or in intensive care had an even higher risk.

This is likely to be down to both the effects of stress, and the virus having a direct impact on the brain.

UK scientists looked at the electronic medical records of more than half a million patients in the US, and their chances of developing one of 14 common psychological or neurological conditions, including:

• brain haemorrhage
• stroke
• Parkinson’s
• Guillain-Barré syndrome
• dementia
• psychosis
• mood disorders
• anxiety disorders

Anxiety and mood disorders were the most common diagnosis among those with Covid, and these were more likely to be down to the stress of the experience of being very ill or taken to hospital, the researchers explained.

Conditions like stroke and dementia were more likely to be down to the biological impacts of the virus itself, or of the body’s reaction to infection in general.

Covid-19 was not associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s or Guillain-Barré syndrome (a risk from flu).

Cause and effect

The study was observational, so the researchers couldn’t say whether Covid had caused any of the diagnoses – and some people would have had a stroke or depression in the next six months regardless.

But by comparing a group of people who had had Covid-19 with two groups – with flu and with other respiratory infections respectively – the researchers at the University of Oxford concluded Covid was associated with more subsequent brain conditions than other respiratory illnesses.

The participants were matched by age, sex, ethnicity and health conditions, to make them as comparable as possible.

Sufferers were 16% more likely to develop a psychological or neurological disorder after Covid than after other respiratory infections, and 44% more likely than people recovering from flu.

On top of this, the more severely ill with Covid the patient had been, the more likely they were to receive a subsequent mental health or brain disorder diagnosis

Mood, anxiety or psychotic disorders affected 24% of all patients but this rose to 25% in those admitted to hospital, 28% in people who were in intensive care and 36% in people who experienced delirium while ill.

Strokes affected 2% of all Covid patients, rising to 7% of those admitted to ICU and 9% of those who had delirium.

And dementia was diagnosed in 0.7% of all Covid patients, but 5% of those who’d experienced delirium as a symptom.

Dr Sara Imarisio, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Previous studies have highlighted that people with dementia are at higher risk of developing severe Covid-19. This new study investigates whether this relationship may also hold in the other direction.

“The study doesn’t focus on the cause of this relationship and it is important that researchers get to the bottom of what underlies these findings.”

There is evidence the virus does enter the brain and cause direct damage, neurology professor Masud Husain at the University of Oxford, explained.

It can have other indirect effects, for example by affecting blood clotting which can lead to strokes. And the general inflammation which happens in the body as it responds to infection can affect the brain.

For just over a third of people developing one or more of these conditions, it was their first diagnosis.

But even where it was a recurrence of a pre-existing problem, researchers said this did not rule out the possibility that Covid had caused the episode of illness.

Prof Dame Til Wykes, at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, said: “The study confirms our suspicions that a Covid-19 diagnosis is not just related to respiratory symptoms, it is also related to psychiatric and neurological problems.

“Looking over six months after diagnosis has demonstrated that the “after-effects” can appear much later than expected – something that is no surprise to those suffering from Long Covid.

“Although as expected, the outcomes are more serious in those admitted to hospital, the study does point out that serious effects are also evident in those who had not been admitted to hospital.”