While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, March 27

Inspecting an experimental sandwich in his backyard in Flushing, Queens, chef Brian Tsao, 36, knows a thing or two about prejudice and racist stereotypes.

Half-Korean and half-Taiwanese, he was born in Flushing, home to New York City's largest Chinatown. And he has faced prejudice and stereotyping from almost every demographic - even in Beijing, where he was seen as American.

When he was a boy going to a Korean church, he was called a "Chinese kid".

And at home in the United States, he remembers his father cautioning him that at the end of the day, he would always be "the Chinaman" in America.

Britain and the EU have narrowly avoided a major clash over trade in scarce Covid-19 vaccines.

At the end of a summit on Thursday, EU leaders approved new regulations which give its executive body, the European Commission, powers to ban exports of vaccines manufactured within the bloc, should this become necessary.

Yet, at the same time, EU leaders shied away from using these powers, preferring instead to just send a message to the British that a clash could be averted if the Europeans can keep some of the vaccines produced on their soil.

US President Joe Biden has invited his counterparts Xi Jinping of China and Russia's Vladimir Putin to a virtual climate summit he is hosting in April, the White House announced on Friday.

In all, 40 world leaders have been asked to attend the two-day meeting meant to mark Washington's return to the front lines of the fight against man-made climate change, after former president Donald Trump disengaged from the process.

"They know they're invited," Biden said of Xi and Putin. "But I haven't spoken to either one of them yet."

The United States said Friday it was prepared to help Egypt try and dislodge the massive container ship that has blocked the Suez Canal since Tuesday, with a team of US Navy experts which could be deployed quickly if requested.

"As part of our active diplomatic dialogue with Egypt, we've offered US assistance to Egyptian authorities to help reopen the canal," said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

"We are consulting with our Egyptian partners about how we can best support their efforts," she said, calling those consultations "ongoing."

The Louvre museum in Paris said Friday it has put nearly half a million items from its collection online for the public to visit free of charge.

As part of a major revamp of its online presence, the world's most-visited museum has created a new database of 482,000 items with more than three-quarters already labelled with information and pictures.

It comes after a year of pandemic-related shutdowns that has seen an explosion in visits to its main website, which has also been given a major makeover.