Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, 66, may need emergency surgery after suffering persistent hiccups for 10 days, his office says.

He is being transferred to a hospital in São Paulo to undergo tests for an obstructed intestine.

In a tweet, Mr Bolsonaro said he would be “back soon, God willing”.

There have been concerns about the far-right leader’s health since he was stabbed in the intestines while campaigning in 2018.

Mr Bolsonaro was seriously wounded in the attack and lost 40% of his blood. He has had several operations since the stabbing.

The president went to the military hospital in Brasilia early on Wednesday, and medics said then that he would be under observation for 24 to 48 hours.

But later the same day, the president’s office said Antonio Luiz Macedo, the surgeon who operated on Mr Bolsonaro in 2018, had recommended the president be transferred to São Paulo for additional tests and possible surgery.

Fabio Faria, Brazil’s communication’s manager, told reporters Mr Bolsonaro had been sedated in the morning ahead of being taken to São Paulo.

The president’s son Flavio told CNN Brasil that his father had undergone a procedure to remove liquid from his stomach as a precaution.

Flavio added that his father had had trouble speaking, but that if surgery were needed it should not be a serious procedure.

Mr Bolsonaro earlier tweeted a photo of himself lying in a hospital bed, fitted with sensors and cables, with someone who appears to be a priest standing by his bedside.

After two-and-a-half years of a controversial presidency, Mr Bolsonaro is under growing pressure over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the beginning of the month, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest over allegations of corruption involving the purchase of vaccines.

The Brazilian leader has been heavily criticised for a lack of a national response to the crisis and his scepticism toward vaccines, lockdowns and mask-wearing requirements.

Last month, deaths with the virus in Brazil passed 500,000 – the second-highest in the world after the US.

Mr Bolsonaro himself caught Covid-19 a year ago but has fully recovered.

BBC-  Cuba has temporarily lifted import duties on food, medicine and other essentials following recent unrest. As of next Monday, there will be no limit on such goods brought in by travellers until the end of the year.

Thousands took to the streets on Sunday in protests over food and medicine shortages, price increases and the government’s handling of Covid-19.

One demand they had was for people arriving in Cuba to bring in supplies without paying customs duties.

Dozens have been arrested nationwide since the unrest began on Sunday. Authorities confirmed on Tuesday that one man had died.

Unauthorised demonstrations are illegal in the country, and anti-government protests are rare.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz announced the change on Wednesday at a meeting broadcast on state television.

“It was a demand made by many travellers and it was necessary to take this decision,” the prime minister said. The government “will assess things” after 31 December, he added.

Currently travellers to Cuba can bring up to 10kg of medicine into the country tax-free. However, they must pay customs duties on the limited amount of food and personal hygiene supplies they are allowed to bring in.

It is unclear the effect such a customs change will have. Few people are travelling to Cuba currently amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“No, we don’t want crumbs. We want freedom,” government critic and journalist Yoani Sanchez tweeted shortly after the announcement. “Blood wasn’t spilled on Cuban streets in order to import a few extra suitcases.”

AFP news agency journalists reported that Cuban authorities had restored access to the internet on Wednesday after three days of disruption. Some messaging and social media platforms reportedly remained blocked on 3G and 4G however, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

Mobile internet was only introduced in Cuba in the last few years and allowed people to organise and spread word of the recent demonstrations.

Andrea Lopez, a resident of the capital Havana, told Reuters news agency she has not been able to get online for days, unable to speak to her husband in Mexico.

“On the first days they cut the calls, they cut everything,” she said. “All of this is how [the government] want it.”

Streets in Havana were reportedly calmer on Wednesday, although there was a heavy security presence.

Arrests seem to have continued in the country in recent days. Cuban YouTuber Dina Stars was conducting an interview for a Spanish broadcaster on Tuesday when she told the channel that security forces had come to take her away. She later posted about it on Instagram.

And Reuters obtained footage from Tuesday which it said was of a young man in the southeastern town of Gibara being arrested.

The anti-government protests began on Sunday with a demonstration in the city of San Antonio de los Baños, south-west of Havana, but soon spread throughout the country.

Many were broadcast live on social networks. Posts on social media showed people overturning police cars and looting some state-owned shops which price their goods in foreign currencies. For many Cubans, these shops are the only way they can buy basic necessities but prices are high.

Cuba’s economy is struggling. Tourism, one of the most important sectors, has been devastated by the restrictions on travel during the Covid pandemic.

Sugar, which is mostly exported, is another key earner for Cuba. But this year’s harvest has been much worse than expected.

As a result, the government’s reserves of foreign currency are depleted, meaning it cannot buy in imported goods to supplement shortages, as it would normally do.

Cuba has blamed the US and its economic sanctions for the protests and Cuba’s wider problems. On Wednesday the US called for the release of all peaceful protesters detained in Cuba during recent unrest.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to ban people guilty of sending racist abuse to footballers from attending matches.

The prime minister said he would ensure the “football banning order regime is changed” to crack down on racism.

Labour has been calling for the law to be changed after England players were subject to abuse on social media.

But Sir Keir Starmer said the PM’s promise to take action “rings hollow” after his previous refusal to condemn fans who booed players taking the knee.

An online petition calling for the FA and the government to ban those who have carried out racist abuse to be banned for life has reached over a million signatures.

The prime minister said: “What we are doing is taking practical steps…so that if you are guilty of racist abuse online on football, then you will not be going to the match. No ifs, no buts, no exemptions, no excuses.”

A football banning order is used to ban someone from attending matches for a set period of time, and can be imposed for offences such as throwing missiles onto the playing area or into the crowd, and racist or indecent chanting at a match.

Downing Street says there will be a 12 week consultation on changing banning orders to include online abuse offences. The government wants the changes to happen “as swiftly as possible” but has not given a precise timetable.

It comes as a 37-year-old man was arrested by Greater Manchester Police over social media posts directed at England football players after the Euro 2020 final.

At a stormy Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “We could all see what’s happened here – the government has been trying to stoke a culture war and they’ve realised they’re on the wrong side, and now they’re hoping nobody has noticed.

“Why else would a Conservative MP boast that he’s not watching his own team?

“Why else would another Conservative MP say that Marcus Rashford spends too much time playing politics when he’s actually trying to feed children that the government won’t? And why will the prime minister refuse time and time again – even now – to condemn those who boo our players for standing up against racism?”

The prime minister said: “Nobody defends booing the England side.”

Sir Keir accused the PM of not showing racism the red card, but instead giving it the “green light” and of indulging in the “worst kind of gesture politics”, by “putting on an England shirt over a shirt and tie whilst not condemning those booing”.

Ahead of the Euro 2020 tournament, Mr Johnson declined to condemn England fans who booed players taking the knee, saying fans should “cheer them on, not boo”.

Home Secretary Priti Patel described the act as “gesture politics”. Asked in June if she would criticise fans who booed England players taking the knee, Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “That’s a choice for them, quite frankly.”

On Monday, the home secretary tweeted that she was “disgusted” by the online abuse directed at some England players, after the team lost to Italy on penalties in Sunday’s Euro 2020 final.

England footballer Tyrone Mings replied that she had “stoked the fire” through her stance on taking the knee.

Sir Keir challenged the prime minister on the home secretary’s stance, saying: “He (Mings) is right, isn’t he?”

Mr Johnson defended the home secretary and said Ms Patel had “faced racism and prejudice all her career of a kind that he can never imagine”.