Brazil has registered another 758 coronavirus deaths over the last 24 hours and 41,350 new cases, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The nation has now registered 120,262 coronavirus deaths and 3,846,153 confirmed cases.

In terms of total deaths, Brazil is the second-hardest hit country in the world after the United States.

However, daily new cases and deaths have begun to stabilise in recent weeks.

Far-right extremists tried to storm the German parliament building Saturday following a protest against the country’s pandemic restrictions, but were intercepted by police and forcibly removed.

The incident occurred after a daylong demonstration by tens of thousands of people opposed to the wearing of masks and other government measures intended to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Police ordered the protesters to disband halfway through their march around Berlin after participants refused to observe social distancing rules, but a rally near the capital’s iconic Brandenburg Gate took place as planned.

Footage of the incident showed hundreds of people, some waving the flag of the German Reich of 1871-1918 and other far-right banners, running toward the Reichstag building and up the stairs.

Police confirmed on Twitter that several people had broken through a cordon in front of Parliament and entered the staircase of the Reichstag building, but not the building itself.

“Stones and bottles were thrown at our colleagues,” police said. “Force had to be used to push them back.”

Germany’s top security official condemned the incident.

“The Reichstag building is the workplace of our Parliament and therefore the symbolic center of our liberal democracy,” interior minister Horst Seehofer said in a statement.

“It’s unbearable that vandals and extremists should misuse it,” he said, calling on authorities to show “zero tolerance.”

Earlier, thousands of far-right extremists had thrown bottles and stones at police outside the Russian Embassy, AP reports.

Costa Rica’s government said on Saturday it has requested $1.75bn (£1.31bn) in financial assistance over three years from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the Central American nation’s economy has been reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

On 12 July, Costa Rican president Carlos Alvarado said his administration would begin negotiations with the IMF to access a financial aid package to help offset the economic blow from Covid-19.

Details about the size of the aid package were not disclosed at the time.

In a letter dated 29 August and addressed to IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva, Costa Rica’s central bank president Rodrigo Cubero and finance minister Elian Villegas requested financial aid “in the form of a 3-year arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility,” equivalent to $1.75bn.

“Despite our proactive policy efforts, the combined impact of the global shock and domestic containment measures on our country’s balance of payments and fiscal account is proving much sharper and protracted than expected, amid a resurgence in Covid-19 cases and a deeper contraction than initially envisaged,” the letter said, according to Reuters.

The financial aid aims to offset diminishing government revenue as the 2020 fiscal deficit looks set to exceed 9% of the gross domestic product, and the central bank’s debt is predicted to reach nearly 70% of GDP, according to the letter.

The central bank forecasts Costa Rica’s economy to contract by 5% in 2020, with only a gradual recovery over the medium term.

Thousands of Israelis demonstrated again on Saturday in Jerusalem, in a continuation of summer-long weekend rallies demanding the resignation of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces a corruption trial and accusations of mishandling the coronavirus crisis.

Smaller protests also took place in other parts of Israel, including overpasses and outside Netanyahu’s private house in the upscale town of Caesaria, the Associated Press reports.

Netanyahu’s governing coalition temporarily survived collapse this week after an agreement with alternate prime minister Benny Gantz, his rival and main coalition partner, to delay a budget vote until December.

If the two coalition partners had failed to agree on delaying the budget’s approval, the government would have collapsed and Israel would have gone to its fourth general elections in less than two years.

The coronavirus crisis is fuelling the protest movement.

After controlling the virus in its first stages in the spring, Israel rushed to reopen the economy in May, leading to a spike in infections.

Israel’s confirmed cases now exceed 113,000 and the death toll is approaching 1,000.

Business owners, day-to-day workers and smaller, vulnerable entrepreneurs who were hard hit by lockdown measures built a core group of protesters taking part in anti-Netanyahu demonstrations, as the unemployment rate hovers above 20%.

Almost 3,000 Formula One fans will be allowed to attend next month’s Tuscany Grand Prix at Mugello, the Italian circuit said Saturday, ending a succession of races behind closed doors this season.

The race, on the weekend of 11-13 September, will also be the 1,000th in the sport for Ferrari.

However, the Italian Grand Prix, slated for Monza the week before Mugello, will remain behind closed doors, a legacy of the strict health protocols introduced in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reports.

Countries across the world have been “selfish” in their handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Pascal Lamy, former head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said at a conference in the Tyrolean mountain village Alpbach.

Many countries did not cooperate with each other despite medical necessity, the former EU commissioner said, according to the Standard newspaper.

Lamy pondered the question of how the international community will act if a reliable vaccine becomes available, and expressed fears that poorer countries would lose out.

Lamy emphasised that the pandemic had triggered the biggest economic crisis since the Second World War, and warned that problems of unequal distribution would be exacerbated by Covid in the future.

“We have to expect that the world will be more unequal and more divided,” he said.

“The world will be the same again, but worse.”

The European Forum Alpbach is an interdisciplinary platform for science, politics, business and culture and hosts an annual conference aiming to discuss the relevant socio-political questions of our time.

Authorities in Istanbul announced curbs on weddings and other ceremonies in Turkey’s largest city on Saturday as the number of daily coronavirus cases and deaths hit their highest level nationwide in more than two months.

From Monday indoor weddings, engagement parties and circumcision ceremonies will be banned, Istanbul’s governor’s office said, according to Reuters.

Children and people aged over 60 will be barred from outdoor ceremonies which still go ahead, it said.

The restrictions were published a few hours before health minister Fahrettin Koca said 1,549 new cases of coronavirus had been diagnosed in Turkey, the highest daily number since mid-June.

Thirty-nine people died, the most since mid-May, he said.

“The number of patients in serious condition continues to increase,” Koca said in a tweet.

“We cannot be relaxed about following the measures to curb the outbreak,” he added.

Berlin police broke up a mass protest against coronavirus curbs on Saturday and arrested 300 in the German capital after demonstrators failed to keep their distance and wear masks as instructed.

Around 38,000 protesters gathered for events across the city and police reported pockets of unrest.

Similar events took place in Paris, London and elsewhere on Saturday.

Members of the public took to social media to criticise that it took police several hours to properly disband the rally, and claimed police push-back had been more aggressive during previous demonstrations from left-wing campaign groups.

Participants on the other hand decried the use of pepper spray against protesters.

The “anti-corona” rally came after chancellor Angela Merkel announced tougher coronavirus measures amid rising infections since April.

On Friday, Germany announced a minimum €50 fine for people caught not wearing face masks where it is compulsory.

Shiite Muslims are observing the solemn holy day of Ashoura that they typically mark with large, mournful gatherings, in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ashoura commemorates the seventh-century killing of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, in the Battle of Karbala in present-day Iraq with the army of then caliph Yazid, to whom Hussein had refused to pledge allegiance.

The Day of Ashoura falls on the 10th of the Islamic month of Muharram and is preceded by days of commemorations and remembrance.

The public expressions of communal mourning are generally associated with Shiites.

For many Sunnis, Ashoura is a remembrance of more than one event, including the Moses-led exodus from Egypt.

In Iraq, pilgrims ordinarily converge on the holy city of Karbala, site of the battle and home to a shrine to Imam Hussein.

But with the pandemic, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, grand ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, encouraged people to observe the mourning in other ways such as watching online or televised commemorations from home, the Associated Press reports.

Those attending public commemorations must adhere to health guidelines, including social distancing and wearing masks, with caps on the number of participants in accordance with the local regulations of different countries, a statement from his office said.

India will reopen underground train networks and allow sports and religious events in a limited manner from next month as part of the government’s efforts to revive the economy, despite soaring coronavirus infections.

The country reported 76,472 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, slightly lower than the numbers seen in the last couple of days, but extending a run that has made the country’s outbreak currently the world’s worst, Reuters reports.

The underground train network, a lifeline for millions in the capital city of New Delhi, will be reopened in a phased manner from 7 September, the federal home ministry said.

Social, academic, sports and religious events will be allowed with a maximum of 100 people from 21 September, it said.

Schools and colleges will remain closed until the end of September.

In all of the containment zones across the country – areas where the spread of infections is most severe – strict lockdown restrictions will remain in place, the government said.

India has reported a total of 3.46m coronavirus cases, behind the United States and Brazil in terms of total caseload.

But it has reported higher single-day case rises than both those countries for almost two weeks.

India’s Covid-19 death toll rose by 1,021 to 62,550, data from the federal health ministry showed.

France reported 5,453 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, and the health ministry described the situation as “worrying” following a spike the previous day when the country registered its highest number of cases since mid-March.

Friday’s “exponential” rise in the number of new cases to 7,379 marked the biggest daily figure reported since France imposed a lockdown at the height of the pandemic.

“In mainland France, the progression of the Covid-19 epidemic is exponential. The strong growth dynamics of transmission is very worrying,” the health ministry said on its website.

Despite the persistently high number of new cases, however, a doctor in Paris said the current situation was different from February and March when the virus spread uncontrollably.

“We have learned from our mistakes,” Karine Lacombe, head of the infectious diseases unit at the Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris, said in an interview on BFM TV.

“We have made a lot of progress in terms of treatment. For example, we know that dexamethasone … works and has a positive effect on mortality”.

France has made compulsory the wearing of masks in Paris and other cites, as the government seeks to avoid another lockdown that could push the economy into a deeper recession.

Finance minister Bruno Le Maire reiterated on Saturday that the government would do its best to “save everyone” and prevent bankruptcies.

A rebound in consumption in May and June gives reasons to be optimistic about the economy, he said in an interview with France Inter radio, Reuters reports.

Care bosses have accused the British government of failing to deliver its promise of regular coronavirus testing for staff and residents of all care homes, nearly six months after the UK entered lockdown.

Prof Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, said he had repeatedly asked ministers and senior officials to enact a pledge by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, on 8 June that “every care home” in England would receive regular testing for the virus.

Green said there were many parts of the UK where testing was not happening, preventing homes from allowing visits by relatives.

My colleage James Tapper has the full story.

Berlin police said on Twitter that an increasing number of demonstrators are leaving the area of the mass rally we reported on earlier, after large swathes of the crowd initially refused to break up.

“This also ensures that the [distancing rules] are now better adhered to. That is very gratifying,” the force said in a tweet, adding that “numerous” further arrests had been made.

“Among those arrested is an author of vegan cookbooks,” the force said.