Timeline 2020 April - June
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2020        Apr 1, US Pres. Donald Trump warned Iran that it would pay a "heavy price" in the event of further attacks on US troops.
    (AP, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 1, Pres. Donald Trump’s average job approval rating hit an all-time high at 47.7%, according to RealClearPolitics. This was 3.6-point jump from 10 days ago and surpassed the previous record set in his first week in office.
    (Bloomberg, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 1, A US government classified report, received by the White House last week, said China has concealed the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in its country, under-reporting both total cases and deaths it’s suffered from the disease. In China there were 82,361 confirmed cases reported, with 3,316 fatalities. The number of dead in Hubei stood at 3,193.
    (Bloomberg, 4/1/20)(Benzinga, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, US Navy officials said nearly 3,000 sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier now docked in Guam, where the coronavirus has spread, will be taken off the ship by April 3.
    (AP, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, The US government and Florida worked on a plan to allow thousands of passengers on the MS Zaandam cruise ship, exposed to an onboard coronavirus outbreak, to disembark. Pres. Donald Trump a day earlier urged Gov. Ron DeSantis to drop his opposition to their docking. Florida has reported 6,490 cases of coronavirus, including 251 non-residents, and 85 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis listed religious activities as "essential services" that could continue (without crowds) despite a lockdown.
    (Econ, 4/11/20, p.45)
2020        Apr 1, In Indiana a boy (8) died overnight after he was struck by stray gunfire when shots were fired into a house in Indianapolis.
    (AP, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, The US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) confirmed that a second inmate at the federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana has died from the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Federal prisons began ordering inmates confined to their cells for the next two weeks in order to fight spread of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)(Politico, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, In Louisiana jazz legend Ellis Marsalis Jr. (b.1934), died from COVID-19-related pneumonia.
    (Good Morning America, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 1, In Maryland, Baltimore's Board of Estimates voted to approve a privately funded contract with an Ohio firm for an eyes-in-the-sky program that uses surveillance planes to create a visual record of everything that can be seen in the streets below.
    (https://tinyurl.com/sechk5u)(SFC, 4/3/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 1, In New Jersey 267 have died from the coronavirus.
    (ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, A delivery of Russian medical supplies arrived at JFK. The US purchased 60 tons of ventilators, masks, and respirators in a shipment from the Russian government in a public relations coup for Vladimir Putin.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 1, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said over 83,000 people have tested positive in his state. Of those, 12,000 patients are in hospital, including 3,000 in intensive care units. The state reported 83, 712 coronavirus infections with deaths rising to 1,941.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)(ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, In NYC 1,400 members of the police department have tested positive for the coronavirus.
    (ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, In Oklahoma three people were killed and one was wounded early today in a shooting at a convenience store in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.
    (AP, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, US federal prosecutors said West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice's coal companies have agreed to pay more than $5 million for thousands of mine safety violations. Justice is reportedly the richest man in West Virginia.
    (SFC, 4/2/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 1, T-Mobile US Inc said it has officially completed the $23 billion merger with Sprint Corp, solidifying its position as the No.3 wireless providers in the United States.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, In Afghanistan a roadside bombing killed at least eight civilians, including six children, in Helmand province.
    (SFC, 4/2/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 1, Albania's Health Ministry reported 16 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total in the small Balkan nation of 2.8 million people to 259. The health ministry said all schools, cafes, restaurants and other public venues will remain shut and restrictions on social and economic activity will stay in place till the end of the coronavirus outbreak.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Brazil reported that an indigenous woman in a village deep in the Amazon rainforest has contracted the novel coronavirus, the first case reported among Brazil's more than 300 tribes.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, The United Kingdom's death toll climbed to a total of 2,352 -- an increase of 563 in the past 24 hours. Some 29,474 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the U.K.
    (ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Cambodia's labor ministry said at least 91 garment factories in Cambodia have suspended work due to coronavirus, with 61,500 workers affected. The ministry said the government would provide salary replacement of about $38 per month for about 61,500 workers.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Cuban authorities said they are cancelling their May Day parade because of the coronavirus. Cuba has confirmed 186 cases and six deaths.
    (SFC, 4/2/20, p.A6)
2020        Apr 1, Ethiopia said it will postpone general elections that were scheduled for the end of August because of the coronavirus outbreak. The country has 26 confirmed cases of the virus.
    (Bloomberg, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, The EU launched a naval operation dubbed Irini, the Greek word for “peace,” in the Mediterranean as its tries to enforce a UN arms embargo on conflict-torn Libya. Turkey was not entirely helpful to the EU operation. Irini had only two ships and three planes and needs more.
    (AP, 6/17/20)
2020        Apr 1, The European Commission said laboratories across Europe can now access control material to enable them to avoid mistakenly telling people they are free of the coronavirus when in fact they are infected.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, In France Jacques Joaquim Yhombi-Opango, the former president of the Republic of Congo, died in Paris from complications related to the novel coronavirus. Yhombi-Opango was an army officer who rose to power as Congo-Brazzaville's head of state in 1977, following the assassination of the previous president. He was ousted in 1979 by the country's current leader, Denis Sassou Nguesso. Yhombi-Opango served as prime minister between 1994 and 1996 during Pascal Lissouba's presidency. He fled to France in 1997.
    (ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Germany's confirmed cases of coronavirus passed 71,000. The death toll was 775. The country was now capable of conducting up to 500,000 tests a week.
    (AP, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Iran's health ministry said the country's coronavirus death toll now stood at 3,036 following 138 new fatalities in the past 24 hours. 2,987 new cases had been confirmed, bringing the total to 47,593.
    (AFP, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu restricted movement into and out of the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, the country's 9th largest city, due to its high number of coronavirus cases.
    (Economist, 4/4/20, p.38)
2020        Apr 1, Italy reported almost 110,574 coronavirus infections. The death toll climbed by 727 to 13,155. Italy has registered more deaths than anywhere else in the world and accounts for around 30% of all global fatalities from the virus.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Computer hackers attacked Italy's social security website, forcing it to shut down just as people were starting to apply for coronavirus benefits. Several hacker attacks were reported over the last few days.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Japan reported 65 new cases of coronavirus. Nationwide Japan has about 2,300 confirmed cases and 67 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/2/20, p.A6)
2020        Apr 1, Lebanon has recorded nearly 480 cases of coronavirus and 12 deaths. Hezbollah said it is turning the organizational might it once deployed to fight Israel or in the civil war in neighboring Syria to battle the spread of the virus pandemic in Lebanon.
    (AP, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Philippines' Pres. Rodrigo Duterte in a televized speech urged the police and armed forces to shoot down anyone in Manila breaking down coronavirus lockdown rules.
    (Econ., 12/12/20, p.42)
2020        Apr 1, Russia has so far registered 2,777 cases of the coronavirus and 24 deaths, mostly in Moscow. The Kremlin said Pres. Vladimir Putin has decided to handle his duties remotely, after the head of the country's main coronavirus hospital tested positive following a meeting last week with the president. Putin signed legislation to allow the government to declare a state of national emergency in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus.
    (AFP, 4/1/20)(Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Saudi Arabia started the month by boosting its oil supply to more than 12 million barrels a day, the most ever. Riyadh has insisted that it will only back away from a decision to flood the global market if all the world’s leading producers, including the US, agree to cut output.
    (Bloomberg, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Serbia has so far reported 1,060 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 28 deaths, in a total population of 7 million. Branislav Blazic (63), a state secretary with the Ministry for Environmental Protection, died days after being hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Singapore reported 74 new coronavirus cases in its biggest intraday jump, bringing the total tally to 1,000. Twenty of the new cases were imported while 54 were locally transmitted.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, It was reported that the 1.2 million Chinese antibody tests that the Slovak government bought from local middlemen for 15 million euros ($16 million) are inaccurate and unable to detect Covid-19 in its early stages. China said Slovakia used them incorrectly, and cautioned against politicizing instances where equipment isn’t up to scratch.
    (AP, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, In Somalia two girls aged just three and four were abducted and raped. Several arrests had been made following the attack. A doctor in charge of the hospital where they were being treated said they need major surgery.
    (BBC, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 1, Somalia has confirmed three cases of Covid-19, but there were fears that if the virus spreads it could quickly overwhelm the country's poor health system.
    (BBC, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, In South Korea US Gen. Robert B. Abrams announced the furlough of 9,000 South Koreans who worked for the local American military forces.
    (Economist, 4/4/20, p.29)
2020        Apr 1, The Spanish Ministry of Health recorded 7,719 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 102,136 with over 9,000 deaths. Spain hit a record of 864 deaths in one day.
    (ABC News, 4/1/20)(AP, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Swedish airline BRA said it was pausing all traffic as demand had ground to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic. Privately held BRA said it was cancelling all flights between April 6 and May 31.
    (Reuters, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, The independent NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Turkmenistan, which was ranked at the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index in 2019, has removed the word ‘coronavirus’ from the national vocabulary. To date, no cases of COVID-19 have been reported by the authorities.
    (ABC News, 4/1/20)
2020        Apr 1, Ukraine asked Elon Musk via Twitter to send it ventilators after the billionaire chief executive of Tesla Inc offered to ship them across the world during the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)

2020        Apr 2, President Donald Trump issued an order under the Defense Production Act to speed production of ventilators after state officials raised alarm that supplies are inadequate. Trump slammed 3M in a tweet late today after earlier announcing he was invoking the Defense Production Act to get the company to produce face masks.
    (Bloomberg, 4/2/20)(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 2, US Pres. Donald Trump in a phone call told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that unless the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started cutting oil production, he would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw US troops from the kingdom. Production cuts were announced ten days later.
    (Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 2, The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits more than doubled to a second straight record. A total of 6.65 million people filed jobless claims in the week ended March 28. The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 5,148 people in the United States. Global coronavirus cases topped 962,000 with more than 48,000 dead.
    (Bloomberg, 4/2/20)(ABC News, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 2, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will form a bipartisan select committee on the coronavirus crisis to oversee the spending of $2 trillion Congress has approved to respond to the pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Capt. Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier was fired by Navy leaders who said he created a panic by sending his memo pleading for help to too many people. Crozier had raised warnings the ship was facing a growing outbreak of the coronavirus and asked for permission to isolate the bulk of his crew members on shore in Guam. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said commander “demonstrated extremely poor judgment” in the middle of a crisis. The decision to remove Crozier was immediately condemned by members of the House Armed Services Committee. On April 5 it was reported that Crozier had tested positive for the coronavirus. By this date 155 people aboard the ship had tested positive.
    (AP, 4/3/20)(SFC, 4/6/20, p.A10)
2020        Apr 2, The Democratic National Committee postponed the presidential nominating convention from July to Aug. 17 due to concerns about the coronavirus.
    (AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 2, The US Coast Guard and the Florida Department of Health reached a conditional agreement with Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise line, on an entry plan for two ships carrying dozens of people with flu-like symptoms. Carnival's plan was still subject to approval from Broward County, where the ships would dock. Until then, the pair of vessels will remain outside US waters.
    (AP, 4/2/20)(ABC News, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, An Illinois man who suspected his girlfriend had contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, shot and killed her and then himself. Both tested negative for the disease.
    (NBC News, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 2, The US Bureau of Prisons said the death toll from COVID-19 at a federal prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, has continued climbing, with a fourth inmate now dead.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, New York's statewide death toll went over 1,900. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state has 92,000 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and has lost 2,373 lives. Cuomo said the outbreak shows no signs of abating, with almost 8,700 new infections, 1,200 new hospitalizations, 400 new ICU admissions and more than 400 new deaths in the state.
    (AP, 4/2/20)(ABC News, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 2, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee issued orders requiring citizens to remain at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, ending one of the last holdouts by US states.
    (Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Wall Street bounced up as hints of a deal between Russia and Saudi Arabia drove a record 30% surge in oil prices, outweighing the shock of a jump in US jobless claims past 6 million.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine said initial tests in mice of a potential COVID-19 vaccine delivered via a fingertip-sized patch have shown it can induce an immune response against the new coronavirus at levels that might prevent infection.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Twitter said it has deleted 20,000 fake accounts linked to the governments of Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Honduras and Indonesia, saying they violated company policy and were a “targeted attempt to undermine the public conversation”.
    (The Guardian, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Health officials projected that some African countries will have more than 10,000 coronavirus cases by the end of April.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Bangladesh has reported six deaths and 54 cases of COVID-19 amid concerns that the virus could spread in the country through Bangladeshis who have returned from Italy and other places struggling with the disease.
    (AP, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Brazil is Latin America's worst affected nation by the coronavirus so far, with nearly 7,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 240 deaths. President Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed the virus as "a little flu" and told Brazilians to get back to work.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, China locked down a county again after a flare-up in cases and rejected US claims that Beijing concealed infections. The mainland logged fewer new infections, but measures restricting movement were tightened in some areas due to a fear of more imported cases.
    (Bloomberg, 4/2/20)(Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Ecuador confirmed 3,160 cases of coronavirus and 120 deaths, likely a vast underestimate. Untold numbers of Ecuadorians were dying of unrelated diseases that can’t be treated because hospitals are overwhelmed.
    (AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 2, The US Embassy in Talinn, Estonia, said the US has delivered 128 anti-tank javelin missiles as part of a larger contract with the NATO member.
    (SFC, 4/3/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 2, France's Labor Ministry said French companies have asked to put nearly four million workers on state-subsidized furlough to cope with the collapse in business triggered by the coronavirus outbreak.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Deaths from coronavirus in Germany climbed to 1,074, a day after the government extended a nationwide lockdown beyond Easter.
    (Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Greece quarantined a migrant camp after 20 asylum seekers tested positive, its first such facility hit since the coronavirus outbreak. Greece reported at least 53 people dead and at least 1,544 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Police said they had imposed fines for 15,741 violations for breaking lockdown rules since March 23.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 2, Hong Kong ordered bars and pubs to close for 14 days from April 3. The city earlier reported 37 new cases, taking its total to 802.
    (Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Indonesia's coronavirus cases neared 1,800 as the death toll rose to 170, passing South Korea as the country with the highest number of recorded fatalities in Asia after China.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)(SFC, 4/3/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 2, Iran reported 124 new deaths from the coronavirus, raising its total to 3,160, as Pres. Rouhani warned that the country may still battle the pandemic for another year. The health ministry confirmed 3,111 new infections over the past 24 hours, bringing Iran's total to 50,468. State television reported that Parliament speaker Ali Larijani (62) has tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the latest official to contract the disease in the hard hit country.
    (AFP, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Iraq's health ministry said in its latest daily statement that the total recorded confirmed cases for coronavirus were 772, with 54 deaths. Three doctors closely involved in the testing process said confirmed cases were much higher with numbers of 3,000 to 9,000.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Israel's Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, a powerful ultra-Orthodox politician meant to lead the battle against the virus, was confirmed to be infected. Ultra-Orthodox residents of Bnei Brak, obeying their religious leaders, have ignored pleas to stay home in the face of the coronavirus threat. Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, home to large ultra-Orthodox communities, have the largest concentrations.
    (AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 2, Italy reported 4,668 new cases of the coronavirus compared with 4,782 a day earlier. The nation reported 760 deaths as the number of fatalities rose again after three weeks of nationwide lockdown.
    (Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Italy's La Stamp newspaper said that the 104-strong contingent of doctors and experts, sent by Russia to the country's coronavirus epicenter near Milan, almost certainly included officers from Russia's GRU military intelligence agency.
    (AFP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 2, Japan has more than 3,000 cases of coronavirus and 71 deaths. Tokyo reported 97 new cases.
    (SFC, 4/3/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 2, Human Rights Watch said Lebanese authorities have introduced "discriminatory restrictions" exclusively targeting Syrian refugees as part of their response to the coronavirus. Lebanon has recorded 494 confirmed infections and 16 deaths from the coronavirus, prompting the government last month to introduce a daily curfew from 7 pm to 5 am.
    (AFP, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Malawi reported its first cases of the coronavirus.
    (BBC, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 2, Mexico has registered 1,378 coronavirus cases and 37 deaths. It was reported that Mexican farmworkers on both sides of the US-Mexico border are working in unsanitary conditions despite the rapid rise in coronavirus cases.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Mexico's Grupo Modelo, producer of the Corona, Modelo and Pacifico brands, announced measures to suspend production and distribution of beer in response to the government's decision to halt non-essential economic activity to contain the new coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 2, Niger's army clashed with jihadists on motorcycles in the Tillaberi region near the border with Mali. Four soldiers and 63 jihadists were reported killed.
    (SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 2, A Pakistani court overturned the murder and terrorism convictions against Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (46) for killing the American journalist Daniel Pearl. His death sentence was commuted to seven years in prison for kidnapping the Wall Street Journal reporter in 2002. The convictions of three other men in the case were also overturned. A day later the Sindh provincial government ordered Sheikh to remain in custody for three months.
    (SFC, 4/3/20, p.A2)(SFC, 4/4/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 2, The Philippines issued an order to stop doctors, nurses, medics and other healthcare workers from going abroad while it needs their skills to meet the threat of the coronavirus spreading at home. The order was made public on April 10.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 2, Portugal's parliament approved the suspension of rents for vulnerable households and cash-strapped small firms during the coronavirus outbreak, but rights groups warned that the measure might only delay a looming housing crisis.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, President Vladimir Putin extended his order keeping Russians at home until April 30, warning that the spread of coronavirus has yet to reach its peak. Russia reported a 28% increase in infections overnight, bringing the total number of infected to 3,548.
    (Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2 Russian police detained Anastasia Vasilyeva, the leader of an independent doctors' union, as she tried to deliver masks and gloves to a small hospital outside Moscow.
    (Econ, 4/11/20, p.43)
2020        Apr 2, Singapore suffered its fourth death, a day after it reported a record number of new cases that took its total to 1,000.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, South African police wearing riot gear forced their way into a church in central Cape Town to remove hundreds of foreign migrants who had been sheltering there for months. South Africa is in the midst of a 21-day lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, Spain reported 950 more coronavirus deaths, the most in a single day, taking total fatalities in the country to more than 10,000. Spain said jobless claims rose by a record 302,265 in March.
    (Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, In Syria a man died from COVID-19 in the Kurdish-administered northeast. This was not made public until April 17. Syria has so far reported only two deaths from the coronavirus.
    (AP, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 2, It was reported that one-third of Thailand’s population has registered for government cash handouts designed to soften the blow of the novel coronavirus outbreak, far exceeding the funds available for the policy.
    (Bloomberg, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, The UN General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution recognizing “the unprecedented effects” of the coronavirus pandemic and calling for “intensified international cooperation to contain, mitigate and defeat” the COVID-19 disease.
    (AP, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations is facing a cash crisis because of non-payment of dues by member states, which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Guterres said the UN ended 2019 with arrears of $711 million.
    (AP, 4/2/20)
2020        Apr 2, The Vatican recorded its seventh coronavirus case and extended its partial lockdown until May 4.
    (SFC, 4/3/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 2, Zambia recorded its first death due to the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/2/20)

2020        Apr 3, President Donald Trump fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who informed Congress about the whistleblower complaint regarding Trump's communications with Ukraine that eventually led to his impeachment.
    (The Week, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 3, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, said Americans should cover their face if they have to go in public, but they should still stay isolated as much as possible The announcement marked a reversal for health officials, who’d previously said that those without symptoms didn’t need to wear face coverings.
    (Reuters, 4/3/20)(Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 3, The US Food and Drug Administration announced an "expanded access" program for convalescent plasma, coordinated by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, aimed at making it easier for hospitals across the country to collect and use plasma. Convalescent plasma was successfully used during the 1918 flu pandemic. In one trial in China, levels of the virus in five seriously ill COVID-19 patients were undetectable after plasma transfusions.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 3, The US Postal Service announced a new series of stamps in honor of San Francisco sculptor and arts education advocate Ruth Asawa (1926-2013).
    (SFC, 4/8/20, p.E1)
2020        Apr 3, California issued 24 hydraulic fracturing permits to Aera Energy for wells in Kern County following a review by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
    (SFC, 4/6/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 3, California to date had 11,187 cases of coronavirus with 246 deaths. Nationwide there were 245,658, with 6,069 deaths. In the SF Bay Area the confirmed cases of coronavirus as of this morning rose to 2,968 with 78 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, In Florida passengers aboard the cruise ship Zaandam were freed following the removal of 14 critically ill people who were taken to local hospitals. All the passengers were instructed to wear masks when traveling and to immediately go into 14 days of self-quarantine to prevent any possible spread of the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 4/4/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 3, The Coast Guard suspended its search for Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean and her 8-year-old son Gideon after the two were reported missing in the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Maryland, a day earlier.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 3, The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the US economy lost 701,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate rose from 3.5 percent to 4.4 percent amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
    (The Week, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 3, New York reported 562 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the state's total death toll to 2,935.
    (The Week, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 3, Utah's Zion National Park was closed to the public to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 4/6/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 3, 3M Corp. said it has secured China's approval to export to the US 10 million N-95 respirators manufactured by the company in China.
    (Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Canada recorded almost 12,000 cases of the new coronavirus and the death toll jumped by almost 20%. Cases rose to 11,747 and deaths climbed to 152.
    (Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, China reported 64 new asymptomatic cases, 26 of which were imported. The nation reported 19 new virus cases in total, and four deaths, all of which were in Hubei.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 3, It was reported that the coronavirus pandemic has brought a reversal of fortune for Cuban medical diplomacy, as doctors have flown off on new missions to battle COVID-19 in at least 14 countries including Italy and the tiny principality of Andorra on the Spanish-French border, burnishing the island’s international image in the middle of a global crisis. Cuba has recorded 212 cases of the virus.
    (AP, 4/3/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020        Apr 3, In the Czech Republic a district in Prague went ahead with a plan to remove the statue of Soviet Marshall Ivan Stepanovic Konev, who led forces that liberated Prague in 1945. Konev had also played a role in crushing the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising in Hungary and in preparing the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.
    (SFC, 4/4/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 3, In France the coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of 5,307. Almost 60,000 people there been diagnosed with the illness, including almost 6,400 on life-support machines. Police ramped up checks at train stations and motorways to stop people breaking a national lockdown ahead of school holidays this weekend.
    (Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Gabon’s President Ali Bongo announced a social and economic plan to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, including emergency financing to respond to the “urgent cash needs” facing companies.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 3, Guatemala said a man deported from the US has tested positive for the coronavirus. Guatemala has 49 confirmed cases and one death.
    (SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A7)
2020        Apr 3, Iran state TV reported the coronavirus has killed another 134 people, pushing the country's death toll to nearly 3,300 amid more than 53,000 confirmed cases.
    (AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Israeli police arrested Fadi al-Hidmi, the Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs early today, for allegedly violating an Israeli ban on Palestinian political activities in east Jerusalem. Palestinian officials said al-Hidmi was working to assist residents as part of their response to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Israel has reported more than 7,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and at least 36 deaths. Officials said Israel is working with foreign governments and Orthodox Christian leaders in the Holy Land to make sure that the April 18 Holy Fire ceremony is not extinguished by the coronavirus outbreak.
    (AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Kuwait said it will ramp up oil output in April until it reaches about 3.15 million barrels per day. The increase in output will come from the Neutral Zone, an area Kuwait shares on the border with Saudi Arabia.
    (Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Libya recorded its first death from the novel coronavirus. The UN-recognized, Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), which controls the west of the country, has officially recorded 10 cases of the virus. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees warned that the health system in Libya was already on the verge of collapse.
    (AFP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, In Mexico a shootout between rival gangs in the northern state of Chihuahua killed 19 people. Groups aligned with the Sinaloa cartel have been fighting with those aligned with the Juarez cartel.
    (SFC, 4/6/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 3, Dutch brewer Heineken said that it will suspend production and distribution from its seven plants in Mexico, in response to the government's decision to halt non-essential economic activity to contain the new coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, In Pakistan mosques were allowed to remain open for Muslims to gather for weekly prayers, even as the coronavirus pandemic spread and much of the country had shut down. Pakistan has reported 2,450 confirmed cases and 36 deaths. PM Imran Khan said he would not consider possible easing of restrictions on movement before April 14.
    (AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Peruvian lawmakers approved a law late today that allows citizens to withdraw up to 25% of their holdings in private pension funds to provide an extra source of liquidity during a nationwide shutdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 3, Poland’s government called for extending President Andrzej Duda’s term by two years to avoid having to hold a May 10 election during the coronavirus crisis. Opposition parties immediately rejected the proposal, rendering it dead on arrival because their support would be needed to change the constitution.
    (AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he supports cutting oil production by about 10 million barrels a day to shore up falling prices.
    (AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Russian officials reported 4,149 cases of coronavirus in the country, four times more than a week ago.
    (AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong said the government would no longer discourage the use of face masks, and would distribute reusable ones to every household to help stem the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Econ, 4/11/20, p.27)
2020        Apr 3, Slovenia said it will introduce a mandatory 14-day quarantine for most people entering the country from April 4 in an attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The country has confirmed 934 coronavirus cases, with 20 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, In the Solomon Islands the MV Taimareho ferry lost dozens of passengers while crossing Iron Bottom Bay in rough seas caused by Cyclone Harold.
    (SFC, 4/4/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 3, South Africa has reported only five confirmed deaths from the coronavirus. About 1,400 people have tested positive for Covid-19 as South Africans mark their first week under one of the strictest lockdowns introduced anywhere in the world.
    (BBC, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, It was reported that Tunisia has deployed a police robot to patrol areas of Tunis, to ensure that people are observing a coronavirus lockdown. The country has reported 436 cases of COVID-19 and 14 deaths.
    (BBC, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, In Turkey singer Helin Bolek (28), a member of the Grup Yorum folk music group, died on the 288th day of a hunger strike at a home in Istanbul. The group has been prohibited from performing in Turkey since 2016.
    (SFC, 4/4/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 3, Ukraine's government imposed a series of new restrictions designed to prevent the coronavirus outbreak spreading widely but said it hoped to soften the measures again in late April. Ukraine reported 138 new cases of the coronavirus over the past day, taking the total number of infected people to 942 with 23 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Venezuela said it was formulating a “special fuel supply plan” to restore stockpiles of oil in the “shortest possible time,” allowing the nation to combat the coronavirus. In recent days, gas lines have popped up across Caracas, which is typically immune from days' long waits common in the rest of the country. Most stations had closed as supplies ran out.
    (AP, 4/3/20)
2020        Apr 3, Zimbabwe's police began using water cannon to disinfect markets and bus ranks, turning instruments associated with repression into weapons against the new coronavirus. The country has recorded one death from nine cases of the COVID-19 disease.
    (Reuters, 4/3/20)

2020        Apr 4, In the US, fatalities from COVID-19 rose to more than 7,000, with more than 275,000 infections. More than 60,000 people have died globally from the virus. Global cases top 1.1 million. Jaap Goudsmit, adjunct professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases at Harvard, said herd immunity against the coronavirus may take years to develop.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, Alabama issued Stay-at-Home Orders due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, California cases of coronavirus to date were 12,503 with 275 deaths. The SF Bay Area confirmed 3,156 cases and 85 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, Rafael Callejas (76), the former president of Honduras (1990-1994), died at a US prison in Atlanta. He was known for soliciting thousands of dollars in bribes in a scandal over lucrative broadcasting rights.
    (SFC, 4/6/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 4, Missouri Governor Mike Parson said his Stay-at-Home Order will begin April 6 and last through April 24 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, New York state got 1,000 ventilators after the Chinese government facilitated a donation from billionaires Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai, the co-founders of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the state of Oregon had volunteered to send 140 more breathing machines. New York had 113,700 confirmed cases as of this morning. At least 3,565 have died in New York and more than 115,000 have tested positive.
    (ABC News, 4/5/20)(AP, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, Oklahoma acquired 1.2 million pills of hydroxychloroquine, or about 100,000 doses, from FFF Enterprises, a California-based medical supply wholesaler. Gov. Kevin Stitt later defended the state’s $2 million purchase, saying the drug was showing some promise.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 4, Washington DC reported 145 new positive infections from COVID-19, bringing tis total to 902. Six new deaths brought that total to 15.
    (SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A9)
2020        Apr 4, Walmart announced that starting today it would limit the number of patrons in its stores to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus after too many of its customers ignored social distancing guidelines.
    (ABC News, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, Australia's confirmed cases rose by 198 over the last 24-hours, bringing the national total to 5,548. The death toll from COVID-19 rose to 30.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, In Austria the number of confirmed cases increased to 11,781 with 186 deaths. The growth of COVID-19 infections decreased to a single digit percentage range. The health ministry issued a decree stipulating that not more than five people are allowed to meet in one room, even at people's homes, unless they live together.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, in Bangladesh positive cases surged to 70 with eight people dead. The World Bank approved $100 million in funds to help the country respond to the pandemic and strengthen the South Asian nation’s public health system.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, In Brazil a member of the Guajajara indigenous tribe was found shot in the head and hospitalized.This and five recent killings in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory prompted the state of Maranhao to seek federal help. Attacks have targeted members of the tribe known for their fight against illegal deforestation.
    (SFC, 4/7/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 4, Brazil counted 2,369 hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients over the last four weeks. The health ministry counted 18,000 more admissions for respiratory cases than during the same period last year.
    (Econ, 4/11/20, p.24)
2020        Apr 4, Britain's main opposition labor Party elected lawyer and lawmaker Keir Starmer (57) as party leader.
    (SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 4, In Britain cases of coronavirus rose to 47,806 from 41,903. Total deaths rose by 708 to 4,934.
    (Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 4, China reported that it had 30 new infections, including 25 imported cases. It also said there had been three more deaths. China also reported 47 new asymptomatic cases, including 16 cases from abroad.
    (Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 4, The Dominican Republic has reported 1,284 cases of the coronavirus.
    (Economist, 4/4/20, p.26)
2020        Apr 4, Egyptian officials said at least 17 medics at the main cancer hospital in Cairo have been quarantined after testing positive for the coronavirus. Egypt has reported around 1,000 confirmed cases and 66 fatalities from the global pandemic.
    (AP, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, The European Commission over the last 24 hours approved a series of multi-billion-euro state support packages for Greece, Poland and Portugal to help soften the economic impact of the coronavirus through grants and loan guarantees.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, In France a man wielding a knife attacked residents venturing out to shop in Romans-sur-Isere, a town under lockdown south of Lyon, killing two people and wounding others. The alleged attacker was arrested by police. Prosecutors said he had no documents but claimed to be Sudanese and to have been born in 1987. Two more Sudanese suspects were soon arrested.
    (AP, 4/4/20)(SFC, 4/7/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 4, Deaths in Germany due to the coronavirus rose by 168 to 1,275. Some 91,159 people were infected and 6,365 more than a day earlier.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, India banned exports of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that US President Donald Trump has touted as a “game changer” in the fight against Covid-19.
    (Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 4, Indonesia said that coronavirus cases had topped 2,000 and deaths risen to 191. An official said there were 106 new confirmed infections, taking the total number of cases in the country to 2,092, with 10 new deaths. Doubts have been raised over official figures.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)   
2020        Apr 4, Iran’s coronavirus fatalities jumped to 3,452 with 158 deaths. Total cases rose to 55,743 as 2,560 tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, In Italy, total coronavirus cases stood at 119,827.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, Japan reported that some 118 people were newly infected with the novel coronavirus in Tokyo bringing the number of confirmed cases there to 891.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, In southern Lebanon unknown gunmen fatally shot and stabbed Ali Mohammed Younes, a member of the militant Hezbollah group. A suspect was detained shortly afterward.
    (AP, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 4, Malaysia reported 150 new coronavirus cases, including four deaths. That took the country's total to 3,483 confirmed infections and 57 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, In the Netherlands the number of deaths rose by 164, or 11%, to 1,651. The tally of confirmed virus cases increased by 6% to 16,627, slightly below the growth rate seen in the beginning of the week. The amount of people hospitalized with the virus rose by 336 to 6,622.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, The Philippines recorded 8 new coronavirus deaths and 76 more infections. The health ministry said a total of 144 people have died in the Philippines while 3,094 were infected.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, In Portugal confirmed coronavirus cases pushed past the 10,000 mark. Portugal has confirmed 10,524 coronavirus cases and 266 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, Puerto Rico has reported 450 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 18 deaths.
    (SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A9)
2020        Apr 4, Russia reported the second straight day of declines in new coronavirus cases. The latest figures showed 582 additional infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 4,731, with 43 deaths.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, Singapore’s Ministry of Health confirmed an additional 75 cases of Covid-19 infection, of which six were imported and 69 local cases with no recent travel history abroad. The city-state reported a sixth death from the virus.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, South Korea reported 94 more cases of coronavirus in 24 hours, bringing the total to 10,156.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced plans to extend the country’s lockdown by two weeks until April 25. Spain said the number of confirmed cases increased to 124,736. The number of new deaths in Spain declined for a second day, with an additional 809 fatalities in the past 24 hours for a total of 11,744.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, Sweden said it has had more than 330 deaths after confirmed cases topped 6,000 this week.
    (Bloomberg, 4/4/20)
2020        Apr 4, In Thailand cases of coronavirus rose to 2,067 after 89 new reports. The Southeast Asian nation also reported one new death, bringing total to 20. A security official was removed after he allowed more than 100 returning citizens to proceed home. The errant travelers were ordered to report to authorities.
    (Reuters, 4/4/20)(SSFC, 4/5/20, p.A7)

2020        Apr 5, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper defended the US Navy's controversial decision to remove the commander of a coronavirus-stricken US aircraft carrier, saying it was a "tough call" but that ultimately it was "a chain of command issue".
    (Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, E. Margaret Burbidge (100), an astrophysicist who made pathbreaking findings about the state of the cosmos, died at her home in San Francisco.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Burbidge)(NY Times, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 5, Hawaii reported 351 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and four deaths.
    (SFC, 4/6/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 5, In Louisiana Tommie McGlothen Jr. (44), a mentally ill Black man, died after being tazed, punched and beaten by police. On Sept. 18 four Shreveport officers were indicted on charges of negligent homicide and malfeasance.
    (SSFC, 9/20/20, p.A7)
2020        Apr 5, The death toll in New Jersey has so far reached 846 with 34,124 positive cases of the coronavirus. Ravinder Bhalla, the mayor of Hoboken, announced in a statement that all employees of essential businesses still operating in the city are now required to wear face covers or masks while working.
    (ABC News, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, New York state reported 594 deaths from the coronavirus and 8,327 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, increasing the numbers to 4,159 dead and 122,000 cases since the outbreak began. As of this morning more than 8,500 people in the United States have died from COVID-19. Global cases of the coronavirus pass 1.2 million and deaths top 66,000.
    (Reuters, 4/5/20)(Bloomberg, 4/5/20)(ABC News, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, US federal and local zoo officials said a tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the US or a tiger anywhere.
    (AP, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, Nine Wisconsin mayors, including those representing the state's five largest cities, urged the state's top public health official to postpone the April 7 primary election due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/6/20)(NY Times, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 5, Albania reported 28 new cases of the new coronavirus and said a failure to respect social distancing had led to the highest numbers of infections over the last three days. The COVID-19 disease has killed 20 and infected 361.
    (Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, Austria reported that the number of new coronavirus infections rose to 11,897. The country also reported more newly recovered than newly diagnosed patients and a declining number of people in intensive care. Some 204 people in Austria have died of the pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, Britain's PM Boris Johnson, infected with the coronavirus, went to St. Thomas’s hospital in central London as a precaution.
    (Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 5, Leading Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang (44) was released from prison after almost five years behind bars. Wang's initial detention in 2015 came as part of the so-called "709" crackdown, nicknamed as such because it began on July 9 that year.
    (AFP, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, Denmark's confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose to 4,369, with 179 deaths.
    (Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, Ethiopia reported its first death from the virus and announced five more cases bringing its total to 43, most of them imported by travelers. A number of regional states have implemented bans on movement of people and vehicles, but not yet in the capital Addis Ababa.
    (AP, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, In France the coronavirus that killed 7,560. France, like other countries, has confined its residents to home since March 17 to curb the spread of the virus. The measures have been extended until April 15, and are likely to be extended again.
    (Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, Germany's confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 5,936 in the past 24 hours to 91,714, the third straight drop in the daily rate of new cases.
    (Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, In Hungary the number of coronavirus infections climbed to 733, with 34 people dead. Officials said the figure of 313 registered infections in Budapest could rise fast as some were losing patience with restrictions, gathering in parks and using the almost empty streets for illegal drag racing.
    (Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, Indian soldiers killed five suspected militants in the Keran sector of Kashmir. Three Indian soldiers were also killed. Another clash a day earlier in Kulgam town killed 4 rebels.
    (SFC, 4/6/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 5, In Indonesia commuters in Jakarta are now barred from using public transit if they aren’t wearing face masks. The country's numbers of coronavirus infections rose to 2,273.
    (Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, In Indonesia a transgender woman (43) died from burns sustained in the incident a day earlier. Police identified six suspects, three of whom were arrested. On April 8 police said they would not bring murder charges against suspects because they believed the suspects who set the fire had not burned her intentionally.
    (NBC News, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 5, Iran’s fatalities from coronavirus rose to 3,603 after 151 deaths and 2,483 new cases in the past 24 hours. Total infections reached 58,226.
    (Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, In Israel a small group of Franciscan monks and Roman Catholic faithful took to the streets of Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter in the Old City to distribute olive branches after the traditional Palm Sunday procession was cancelled due to restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus. More than 8,000 people in Israel have contracted the coronavirus and 46 have died. In the West Bank, nearly 200 cases have been reported, including a large outbreak in the biblical town of Bethlehem.
    (AP, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, Tokyo reported more than 130 new coronavirus infections, bringing the number of cases in the Japanese capital to more than 1,000.
    (Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, In Lebanon a government decree limited car travel six days a week and forbade it on Sundays. Lebanon has reported 520 cases of coronavirus and 18 deaths since the first case was reported in late February.
    (AP, 4/5/20)(Econ, 4/11/20, p.38)
2020        Apr 5, Malawi's President Peter Mutharika announced that he and all government ministers are taking a 10% wage cut for three months to raise money to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. Malawi has reported four confirmed cases of the coronavirus so far. All have all been linked to people travelling from the UK.
    (BBC, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, Malaysia reported 179 new coronavirus cases, raising the cumulative total to 3,662. The new cases included 4 deaths, raising the tally to 61 people as of noon.
    (Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, In the Netherlands the number of deaths caused by the new coronavirus increased by 115 to 1,766. Confirmed infections increased by 1,224 to 17,851.
    (Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, The Philippine health ministry reported 8 additional coronavirus deaths and 152 newly confirmed cases. Positive cases rose to 3,246, while the death toll rose to 152.
    (Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, Rwanda authorities reported that a valley dam has been discovered that could contain about 30,000 bodies, more than a quarter-century after the country’s genocide.
    (AP, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, Singapore reported 120 new cases of the coronavirus, the most in a day, bringing the total to 1,309. Of the new cases, only four involved patients with recent travel history.
    (Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, In South Africa all 50 wedding guests, the pastor who conducted the ceremony, and the newlyweds themselves were promptly arrested and taken to a police station outside Richards Bay due to a country-wide ban on all public gatherings because of coronavirus.
    (BBC, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 5, Officials in South Sudan said the country has its first case of COVID-19, making it the 51st of Africa's 54 countries to have the disease. President Salva Kiir last week imposed a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. for six weeks and closed borders, airports, schools, churches and mosques.
    (AP, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, In Spain deaths from the coronavirus fell for a third day. The Health Ministry reported 674 fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 12,418. The number of confirmed cases rose to 130,759.
    (Bloomberg, 4/5/20)
2020        Apr 5, The Global Witness watchdog published a study showing how Sudan's semi-official Rapid Support Forces (RSF) bought more than 1,000 Toyota Hiluxes and Land Cruisers to convert into technicals (a pickup truck with a mcahine gun mounted on the back).
    (Econ., 5/2/20, p.35)
2020        Apr 5, The United Nations urged governments around the world to fight the rise in domestic violence as abuse soared since stay-at-home orders have been imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
    (The Week, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 5, Yemeni government officials said shelling by Houthi rebels hit a prison for women in a southwestern province, killing at least six prisoners.
    (AP, 4/6/20)

2020        Apr 6, President Trump agreed to allow treatment of coronavirus patients on the Navy hospital ship Comfort, which is docked in New York City.
    (AP, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 6, President Trump’s acting Navy secretary Thomas B. Modly, in a profanity-laced reprimand, criticized sailors aboard the stricken aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt for cheering their captain, who was removed after he appealed for help as coronavirus spread throughout the warship. Congressional calls for his resignation prompted Modly to apologize.
    (NY Times, 4/7/20)(SFC, 4/7/20, p.A1)
2020        Apr 6, The US inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services reported that a shortage of tests and long waits for results were at the root of mounting problems faced by hospitals. Pres. Trump called the report, based on a late March survey of 323 hospitals nationwide, "just wrong” and suggested that its conclusions were skewed by politics.
    (AP, 5/26/20)
2020        Apr 6, The US State Department designated a white supremacist group as a foreign terrorist organization, assigning the label to the Russian Imperial Movement. It also named three of the group's leaders as terrorists.
    (The Week, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 6, The US coronavirus death toll passed 10,000 with 10,993 cases. The total number of cases in the United States rose to 368,449. Hospital officials, doctors, public health experts and medical examiners said that official counts have failed to capture the true number of Americans dying in this pandemic. Global cases of the coronavirus neared 1.3 million; deaths topped 70,000.
    (Bloomberg, 4/6/20)(The Week, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 6, The US Pentagon said there were a total of 1,132 cases of COVID-19 in the active duty military and 303 cases in the national Guard.
    (SFC, 4/7/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 6, California reported 15,824 cases of the coronavirus and 372 deaths. SF Bay Area confirmed cases numbered 3,753 and 95 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Idaho has reported 1,170 cases of coronavirus and 13 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/8/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 6, In Louisiana Corrie Wallace (37) was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of 25-year-old Ja’Riel Sam. He turned himself after police said he had kidnapped and killed a woman a day earlier, shooting her in the head when she escaped.
    (AP, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Maryland authorities said they had found the body of Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean (40), daughter of former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and granddaughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, after a four-day search.
    (The Week, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 6, New York state had its deadliest day in the coronavirus pandemic, with 731 new deaths in the state to a total of 5,489 fatalities.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 6, South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem issued a limited stay-at-home mandate that applies only to people in the two hardest-hit counties who are older than 65 or who have chronic health conditions. North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas were the only US states where no one is under a stay-at-home order.
    (AP, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 6, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court overruled Gov. Tony Evers' (D) last-minute order to stop in-person voting for April 7. The US Supreme Court ruled against an attempt by Wisconsin Democrats to extend the deadline for absentee voting.
    (Econ, 4/11/20, p.8)
2020        Apr 6, The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 7.7 percent, the S&P 500 rose by 7 percent, and the Nasdaq rose by 7.3 percent as the spread of the coronavirus outbreak in the US appeared to slow.
    (AP, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 6, US insurer Allstate Corp said that it would return more than $600 million in auto insurance premiums to customers as many Americans stay home and drive less due to "shelter-in-place" orders to curb the coronavirus outbreak. American Family Insurance in Madison, Wisconsin, also said that it would return a total of $200 million to auto insurance customers beginning in mid-April.
    (Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, CVS Health Corp launched two new drive-through COVID-19 testing sites in Georgia and Rhode Island using testing equipment made by Abbott Laboratories, with up to four more locations to follow.
    (AP, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. began a phase 1 human trial of its Covid-19 vaccine, INO-4800. The company said animal studies show promising immune responses.
    (Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, RedHill Biopharma said the first patient with a confirmed coronavirus diagnosis was dosed with opaganib in Israel, and additional patients are expected to be treated in the coming days. The company said pre-clinical data demonstrated anti-viral effects in other viruses, anti-inflammatory activities and the potential to reduce lung inflammation.
    (Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, It was reported that ResearchGate, a social network site for scientists and researchers, has launched a new forum to facilitate collaboration between COVID-19 experts on research into beating the flu-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The site was developed in 10 days and launched late last week.
    (https://www.researchgate.net/community/COVID-19/discussions)(Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Tyson Foods Inc said it has closed a pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, after more than 24 cases of COVID-19 involving employees at the facility.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 6, Australia's High Court overturned the convictions of Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic leader ever found guilty of sexually abusing children. It found that the jury "ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant's guilt with respect to each of the offenses for which he was convicted".
    (The Week, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 6, Bangladesh vowed to provide emergency food supplies for "as long as needed" to thousands of sex workers left destitute by the sudden closure of brothels due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, British PM Boris Johnson was transferred to intensive care as his COVID-19 symptoms worsened significantly after he was admitted to a London hospital for tests. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was designated as his replacement if he becomes incapacitated.
    (The Week, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 6, British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc said it will invest $250 million in Vir Biotechnology Inc and collaborate to develop potential treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
    (AP, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, China's National Health Commission (NHC) said that 78 new asymptomatic cases had been identified as of the end of April 5, compared with 47 the day before.
    (AP, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele warned that security forces had been ordered to enforce quarantine orders more rigorously to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, confining offenders to "containment centers" and confiscating their cars.
    (Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, France's coronavirus figures showed that the rate of increase in fatalities sped up again after several days of slowing.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 6, Germany reported lower numbers of new coronavirus cases. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government announced a new “limitless” aid program for small- and medium-sized companies.
    (Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Hungary's populist PM Viktor Orban presented a massive action plan to mitigate the economic fall-out from the highly contagious disease, focusing on bolstering investment and employment but bypassing the very poor.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 6, Iran reported 136 new deaths due to the coronavirus, compared with 151 a day earlier. The nation also reported 2,274 new infections, taking the total to 60,500. Total deaths stood at 3,739.
    (AFP, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced a complete lockdown over the upcoming Passover holiday to control the country's coronavirus outbreak.
    (AP, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, The Bank of Israel shifted course by cutting interest rates and adding new market-based tools. The bank's monetary committee reduced the key rate back down to the all-time low of 0.1% from 0.25%.
    (Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Ivory Coast police clashed with protesters who had begun dismantling a half-built coronavirus testing center, afraid that people using the facility would spread the epidemic through their district.
    (Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe moved to declare a state of emergency in seven prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, and announced a record economic stimulus package as the country braces for a surge in coronavirus infections. At least 3,654 people in Japan have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 85 of them have died.
    (Bloomberg, 4/6/20)(ABC News, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Kenya increased its restrictions to combat the coronavirus, announcing travel bans into and out of Nairobi, Mombasa and the counties of Kilifi and Kwale.
    (SFC, 4/7/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 6, In Mali a “terrorist attack” on an army post in the northern town of Bamba killed at least 25 soldiers and wounded six others.
    (AP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 6, Malta said it would allow hunters to hunt quail from April 10 until the end of the month, despite health authorities urging everyone to stay indoors to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Malta has so far reported 227 COVID-19 cases but no deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, The Netherlands reported 101 new fatalities, the smallest increase since March 30. Total reported cases rose 5% to 18,803.
    (Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Norway's health minister said the COVID-19 epidemic is under control in the country, pointing to the low rate of transmission of the disease.
    (AP, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Pakistan said it would reopen its border for four days so that Afghans wishing to return home can go back. On the other side of the border, which closed nearly a month ago, the Afghan government has set up a coronavirus quarantine camp for the returnees. Pakistani nationals stranded in Afghanistan will also be allowed to go back. Some 200,000 Afghans and counting have been flowing home across its border with Iran, one of the world’s biggest epicenters of the pandemic, for weeks. Pakistan opened its first drive-thru COVID-19 test facility in Karachi.
    (AP, 4/6/20)(SFC, 4/7/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 6, Peace activists in the Gaza Strip took part in a web conference with Israeli activists. Within days Hamas-run security forces arrested several of the activists on treason charges.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 6, Russia's government announced a 150 billion-ruble program under which banks will offer interest-free loans to small businesses to pay salaries as the coronavirus lockdown continued.
    (Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, South Korea reported fewer than 50 new coronavirus cases for the first time since its peak in late February.
    (AP, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Spain reported lower numbers of new coronavirus cases. New infections were 4,273, taking the total to 135,032. The death toll rose by 637 to 13,055 in the past 24 hours.
    (Bloomberg, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Sweden's government said it will act to keep vital domestic airline routes open, despite the impact on travel caused by the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Switzerland reported 21,652 positive COVID-19 cases and 584 deaths. A Boeing 747 landed in Geneva with 92 tons of protective medical equipment including masks made in China for distribution to 13 Swiss hospitals and pharmaceutical associations as they battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Another delivery had arrived in Zurich the previous evening on a chartered Swiss airline flight from Shanghai carrying protective gowns for dozens of health care facilities. Further flights with additional equipment were planned.
    (Reuters, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Emergency teams in Ukraine continued battling a forest fire in the contaminated area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A man (27) said he burned grass “for fun” and then failed to extinguish the fire when the wind caused it to expand quickly.
    (AP, 4/6/20)
2020        Apr 6, Cyclone Harold made landfall on the largest island in Vanuatu, Espiritu Santo before hitting the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tonga. The storm left more than two dozen people dead, and destroyed homes, buildings and crops in the four countries.
    (AP, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 6, The Vatican said Pope Francis has started an emergency fund to help areas affected by the coronavirus in developing countries.
    (AP, 4/6/20)

2020        Apr 7, US Pres. Donald Trump acknowledged that the coronavirus is infecting and killing black people in the US at disproportionately high rates, and said that the authorities were working to provide more information. Trump also threatened to freeze US funding to the World Health Organization, saying the international group had “missed the call” on the coronavirus pandemic.
    (NY Times, 4/8/20)(AP, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, The Trump administration granted a license to General Electric Co to supply engines for China's new COMAC C919 passenger jet.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, The US Navy said at least 230 crew members of the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned over fallout from his ouster of Capt. Brett Crozier.
    (AP, 4/8/20)(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A7)
2020        Apr 7, Deaths in the US due to the coronavirus reached about 11,000, with about 370,000 confirmed infections. The number of confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus exceeded 1.34 million globally and the death toll crossed 76,000.
    (AP, 4/7/20)(Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, A US appeals court handed a win to the Trump administration in its efforts to resume federal executions by tossing a district judge's injunction that blocked four death penalty sentences from being carried out.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, California reported 14,475 cases of the coronavirus and 400 deaths. SF Bay Area confirmed cases numbered 3,880 and 107 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said over 138,000 people in the state have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Cuomo announced the state’s highest one-day total of virus-related deaths: 731. New York City had at least 3,202 deaths. New Jersey and Connecticut also reported one-day highs.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)(NY Times, 4/8/20)(SFC, 4/8/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 7, Hal Willner, American music producer, died with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 at his home in Manhattan.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Willner)(Econ, 4/18/20, p.74)
2020        Apr 7, John Prine (73), the country-folk singer and songwriter whose lyrics made him a favorite of Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and others, died in Nashville of complications due to the coronavirus.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prine)(NY Times, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 7, In Tennessee Idris Abdus-Salaam (33), a truck driver from North Carolina, fatally stabbed three female emplyees at a Pilot travel center before he was killed by a deputy.
    (SFC, 4/9/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 7, A federal appeals court sided with Texas in allowing it to ban most abortions while the state is under an emergency order that limits non-essential surgeries during the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, Washington DC reported 114 new cases of the coronavirus bringing its total to 1,211 and 22 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/8/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 7, Wisconsin voters lined up to cast ballots across the state, ignoring a stay-at-home order in the midst of a pandemic to participate in the state's presidential primary election. Voters in the state's Democratic primary endorsed Joe Biden. Voters also elected Democrat Judge Jill Karofsky to the state's Supreme Court.
    (AP, 4/7/20)(SFC, 4/15/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 7, Exxon Mobil Corp throttled back investment in shale, natural gas and deep water production, cutting planned capital spending by 30% this year as the coronavirus pandemic saps energy demand and oil prices tumble.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, World stock markets posted sharp gains as signs of progress in curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus in both Europe and the United States fueled investors' appetite for risk.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, Armenia reported 853 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of today with 87 people having recovered from the infection and eight deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh confirmed its first case of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, Bangladesh police arrested Abdul Majed, a former military captain and fugitive in the 1975 killing of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. A trial in 1998 had sentenced a dozen defendents including Majed for the killing of Rahman and most of his family members.
    (SFC, 4/8/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 7, Benin has ordered people in a dozen cities to wear face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Benmin has 22 confirmed cases.
    (SFC, 4/8/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 7, Glencore, a British multinational trading and mining company, said it would stop operations at its Mopani mine in Zambia due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Econ., 5/2/20, p.35)
2020        Apr 7, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry said a senior official at the Bulgarian embassy in The Hague has been recalled for illegally collecting what he called a coronavirus tax from visitors seeking consular assistance.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, Mainland China reported no coronavirus deaths for the first time since the pandemic began and a drop in new cases.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, In China a one-sentence notice issued by the party-government joint disciplinary watchdog body in Beijing’s western district said Ren Zhiqiang, prominent Communist party member, was undergoing a “review and monitoring investigation.” Ren dropped from sight in mid-March after publishing an online essay that criticized the leadership’s handling of the virus outbreak that originated in December in central China.
    (AP, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, Colombia extended a nationwide quarantine due to the coronavirus until April 27.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, An Ecuadoran court found former Pres. Rafael Correa (57) guilty of corruption and sentenced him in absentia to eight years in prison. Correa has been living in his wife's native Belgium since 2017.
    (SFC, 4/8/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 7, It was reported that sales of sex toys in Denmark have more than doubled after Danes were told to stay at home to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, European Union countries adopted new rules for truck drivers' working conditions, despite several countries calling for the reforms to be halted to help support vulnerable transport firms amid the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, The European Commission imposed provisional anti-dumping duties on some stainless steel products from China, Indonesia and Taiwan, nearly eight months after launching a probe into low-price imports.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 7, Finland said it will start tracking the spread of the coronavirus in its population with randomized antibody tests.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, In France almost 99,000 people across the country have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and nearly 9,000 of them have died.
    (ABC News, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, In Germany a man (29) in Celle fatally stabbed a teenage refugee (15) from Iraq. The man later claimed to have been under the influence of drugs.
    (SFC, 4/27/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 7, Hong Kong reported 21 new cases of the coronavirus for a total of 936.
    (https://tinyurl.com/sdefuk6)
2020        Apr 7, Leaders of Hungary's Roma people said the coronavirus pandemic posed a grave threat to the already precarious status of the marginalized minority, with many Roma feeling abandoned by the nationalist government.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, India said it will allow limited exports of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, that US President Donald Trump has touted as a potential weapon in the fight against the virus.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, Iran's parliament convened for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak forced its doors to close, as the country reported a drop in new infections for the seventh straight day. The health ministry reported 133 new coronavirus deaths, saying the overall fatalities had reached 3,872. Another 2,089 infections were recorded nationwide, bringing the total to 62,589.
    (AFP, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, Israel's domestic security agency said it arrested an Israeli citizen last month alleged to have spied for Iran. The man was indicted today for “serious security-related offenses”.
    (AP, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe moved to declare a state of emergency in seven prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, and announced a record economic stimulus package as the country braces for a surge in coronavirus infections.
    (Bloomberg, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, The Latvian government said it was extending until May 12 the state of emergency that has allowed it to implement a string of measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in the Baltic country. Latvia has reported 548 confirmed cases and 2 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, In Libya rockets rained down on Tripoli, the second day of heavy bombardment by eastern-based forces that struck one of the city’s largest hospitals. Libya has confirmed 20 cases of the coronavirus, all in the country’s west except for one in the eastern city of Benghazi.
    (AP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 7, Mali has recorded 46 positive cases of COVID-19 disease, including one member of the UN peacekeeping force, and five deaths.
    (AP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 7, Mexico has nearly 2,800 confirmed COVID-19 infections and 141 deaths. A plane arrived in Mexico with 10 tons of gloves and masks from China to help with the coronavirus outbreak.
    (AP, 4/7/20)(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 7, Morocco has so far reported 1,141 coronavirus cases and 83 deaths. As of today Moroccans who venture outside their homes without wearing face masks risk prison sentences of up to three months and a fine of up to $126 (£102). Since March 19 more than 8,600 people have been arrested and prosecuted for flouting lockdown rule.
    (BBC, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, In northern Mozambique Islamist militants killed around 52 people in the village of Xitaxi in Muidumbe district. The attack only came to light on April 21.
    (BBC, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 7, Pakistan has recorded 4,004 cases of the coronavirus and 54 deaths. Pakistan's military promised that dozens of doctors who were briefly jailed for protesting a lack of protective equipment will get the equipment they need.
    (AP, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, The west African island nation of Sao Tome e Principe confirmed its first case of the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 4/8/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 7, Saudi Arabia has so far reported 2,795 cases and 41 deaths due to the coronavirus, the highest in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Health Minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah said four studies by infectious disease experts indicated the number of cases was likely to reach between 10,000 and 200,000 in coming weeks. King Salman ordered the temporary release from prison of people serving sentences related to unpaid private debts, and ordered the suspension of all rulings related to such cases in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)(AP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 7, Singapore's government passed a new law in parliament banning all social gatherings in homes and public spaces to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). The Health Ministry confirmed 106 new cases of coronavirus infections, most of them locally transmitted, taking the city-state's total to 1,481.
    (https://tinyurl.com/yd7alwax)Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, South Africa with 1,686 positive cases now had the highest national total. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least 10,075 people across Africa have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. So far, 487 people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)(ABC News, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, In Spain the pace of coronavirus deaths ticked up for the first time in five days, with 743 people succumbing overnight. Spain moved to tackle a shortfall of farm workers due to the coronavirus crisis by authorizing the temporary hiring of tens of thousands of immigrants or jobless people.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, Turkmenistan gathered thousands of citizens for mass exercise events to mark World Health Day, ignoring the global trend for social distancing to fight the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Turkmenistan has yet to register a case of the novel coronavirus.
    (AFP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 7, The UN patent agency said China was the biggest source of applications for international patents in the world last year, pushing the United States out of the top spot it has held since the global system was set up more than 40 years ago.
    (Reuters, 4/7/20)
2020        Apr 7, In Venezuela to date the coronavirus has claimed only seven confirmed fatalities with at least 144 confirmed cases. A party by offspring of the ruling elite on March 11 on an island in the Los Roques archipelago led to a cluster of infections. On March 20 embattled leader Nicolás Maduro said on state TV that practically everyone at the party is testing positive.
    (AP, 4/7/20)(Economist, 4/4/20, p.24)
2020        Apr 7, Yemeni port official Saleh (60) tested positive for COVID-19. A 2nd test on April 10 also came back positive. This was Yemen's first case of the virus. Health officials then scrambled to identify more than 150 people in the southern Hadhramout region who had met and dealt with the man in the two weeks before he was diagnosed.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)

2020        Apr 8, President Donald Trump falsely asserted that travelers at US airports are being routinely tested for COVID-19, made groundless accusations against a government watchdog and wrongly claimed the Obama administration did nothing during a flu pandemic.
    (AP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, The US Navy said at least 286 sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 4/9/20, p.A7)
2020        Apr 8, A federal judge in Manhattan rejected an effort by US President Donald Trump and his adult children to send a lawsuit accusing them of exploiting their family name to promote a marketing scam into arbitration. US District Judge Lorna Schofield accused the Trumps of acting unfairly by seeking arbitration after first obtaining "the benefits of litigating in federal court," including the dismissal of a racketeering claim.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, California reported 17,806 cases of the coronavirus and 452 deaths to date. SF Bay Area confirmed cases numbered 4,201 and 115 deaths. California had one of its deadliest days, with 68 fatalities due to the coronavirus.
    (sfist.com, 4/8/20)(Bloomberg, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Illinois reported 82 deaths due to the coronavirus.
    (Bloomberg, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Maryland authorities said that divers had found the body of 8-year-old Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, Maryland-based Novavax Inc said it had identified a novel coronavirus vaccine candidate and would start human trials in mid-May. The late-stage biotechnology company said its Matrix-M adjuvant would be used with the vaccine candidate - NVX-CoV2373 - to enhance immune responses.
    (Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Michigan saw coronavirus cases increase 7% to surpass 20,000. Deaths rose by 114 to 959.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, In New Mexico the death toll from the coronavirus was 16. On the Navajo Nation's reservation in the state the death toll reached 20.
    (SFC, 4/10/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 8, Virus-related deaths reached new highs in New York and New Jersey for the second straight day, even as other figures suggested that the outbreak in those states was beginning to slow. The US saw a record 1,922 coronavirus deaths.
    (NY Times, 4/9/20)(The Week, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy reported 275 new fatalities due to the coronavirus. Cases rose by 7% to 47,437.
    (Bloomberg, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, New Jersey and Virginia joined at least 15 other states in delaying their primaries amid the coronavirus pandemic so election officials can make preparations to address public health concerns and deal with a poll worker shortage brought on by the outbreak.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, New York reported its highest 24-hour coronavirus death toll for the second straight day, with 779 deaths. US cases rose to 419,975. Global cases of the coronavirus topped 1.5 million and deaths passed 88,000.
    (Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, In Washington state inmates at the Monroe Correctional complex held a demonstration late today after six inmates tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 9,000 poepl in the state have tested postiive for COVID-19 and at least 421 people have died.
    (SFC, 4/10/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 8, Linda Tripp (70), the former White House aide who played a major role in former President Bill Clinton's impeachment, died.
    (The Week, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, The United States awarded automaker General Motors Co a contract worth $489.4 million to make ventilators needed to treat severely sick coronavirus patients.
    (Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a progressive standard-bearer whose campaigns for the Oval Office have helped usher in a left-leaning movement within segments of the Democratic party, ended his 2020 bid.
    (ABC News, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, An influential model by University of Washington on the US coronavirus pandemic scaled back its projected death toll by 26% to 60,000 but a federal health official warned of a second wave of infections if Americans relax "social distancing" practices.
    (Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, It was reported that some 100 American Airlines flight attendants have tested positive for COVID-19 and that one attendant has died from the virus.
    (SFC, 4/8/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 8, JetBlue Airways Corp said it is consolidating flights in five US metropolitan areas into just one or two airports and also asking the US Department of Transportation to exempt it from flying at other airports where current demand does not support its service.
    (Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, The Afghan government released 100 Taliban prisoners late today, as a first step in a peace process with the insurgent group.
    (Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Belarus health officials reported 205 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the total to 1,066 with 13 deaths. Last week Pres. Alexander Lukashenko dismissed concerns around the pandemic as "mass psychosis" and appeared more worried about the impact of a lockdown on the country's struggling economy.
    (SFC, 4/9/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 8, Brazil suffered 14,049 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 688 people dead.
    (Econ, 4/11/20, p.25)
2020        Apr 8, Britain's confirmed death toll from the coronavirus reached 7,097, an increase of 938 from 24 hours earlier. PM Boris Johnson remained in intensive care with the disease. Transit union s demanded more protection following the deaths of 14 London transport staff.
    (AP, 4/8/20)(SFC, 4/9/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 8, The Chinese city at the heart of the global pandemic, Wuhan, reopened after 76 days in lockdown. Mainland China reported 63 additional confirmed coronavirus cases, with 61 of them from abroad.
    (AP, 4/8/20)(Reuters, 4/8/20)(Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, In China scores of African students and businessmen were forced onto the streets of the southern city of Guangzhou following the mass eviction of African nationals from hotels and apartment blocks. Online rumors that the coronavirus was spreading among the thousands of Africans in the city led to door-to-door testing, evictions and accusations of forced quarantine.
    (BBC, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, In Congo DRC Vital Kamerhe, the chief of staff to President Tshisekedi, was arrested in Kinshasa, after hours of questioning into the alleged misappropriation of funds.
    (BBC, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, Ecuador's Energy Ministry said that it had placed barriers around an oil spill in an area home to several indigenous communities and near the source of drinking water for the city of El Coca, with some 45,000 residents. Two parallel pipelines broke when the Quijos River flooded. Oil exports were soon suspended.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)(SSFC, 4/12/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 8, Egypt extended its night-time curfew and other preventative measures for two more weeks, until April 23, though it scaled back curfew hours to 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. due to the coronavirus pandemic. Egypt has reported more than 1,400 confirmed virus cases, with at least 94 deaths.
    (AP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed declared a state of emergency to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus. Ethiopia has recorded 52 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and two deaths.
    (AP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, The European Court of Justice ordered Poland's government to immediately suspend a new body set up to discipline judges, saying the chamber did not guarantee independence of impartiality of its verdicts.
    (SFC, 4/9/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 8, France's Defense Ministry said its aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is heading back to port due to a possible virus on-board outbreak of the new coronavirus. Two-thirds of crew were later said to be infected, but only half were symptomatic.
    (AP, 4/8/20)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.51)
2020        Apr 8, It was reported that the German foreign ministry has restricted use of the video conferencing service Zoom, saying in an internal memo to employees that security and data protection weaknesses made it too risky to use.
    (Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, sealed off 15 of its districts worst affected by infections. The state has so far recorded 326 infections and three deaths. India has had total infections of 5,360 and 164 deaths.
    (Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, Iran reported 121 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing its overall number of fatalities to 3,993. In the past 24 hours, 1,997 new cases of COVID-19 infection were detected. That put the number of confirmed cases in Iran at 64,586.
    (AFP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Italy said that it recorded 3,836 new infections, the highest in three days.
    (Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, Rakuten, a Japananese technology company, launched the first full-scale 5G virtualized network. In October Rakuten Mobile launched the world's first 5G network based on Openran, a new technology seen as an alternative to products by Ericsson, Nokia and China's Huawei.
    (Econ, 4/11/20, p.47)(Econ., 11/7/20, p.16)
2020        Apr 8, Jordan has reported more than 350 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including six deaths. State news said Jordan has ordered traders to stop exporting food products to boost the Kingdom’s stockpile of food in the wake of the crisis.
    (AP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, In Mexico Minas de Oro Nacional, a subsidiary of Canadian firm Alamos Gold Inc., said an armed group stormed the Mulatos gold mine in Sonora state and stole bars of gold and silver alloy before fleeing in a light aircraft.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, In Mexico environmental activist Adán Vez Lira was shot to death while he rode his motorcycle in the township of Actopan, Veracruz state. He was at least the third environmentalist killed in Mexico this year.
    (AP, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 8, Rioting broke out in the Mozambican port city of Nacala after the authorities tried to ban motorcycle taxis due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (BBC, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 969 to 20,549, with 147 new deaths. The country's total death toll from the disease is now 2,248.
    (Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Banco Comercial Portugues (BCP) began legal action against Mozambique, becoming the latest bank to pursue the heavily indebted East African state, which has been embroiled in a long-running $2 billion debt scandal.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 8, Russia reported 1,175 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 8,672. The epicenter of the epidemic in Russia is Moscow, with 5,841 cases. President Vladimir Putin announced additional payouts to health professionals working on "the frontline" of the country's fight against the coronavirus.
    (AFP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Saudi state media said the Saudi king has suspended final rulings and judicial orders on visitation rights of children of separated parents in the latest effort to try and curb the spread of the novel coronavirus among households. Saudi Arabia has more than 2,900 confirmed cases of the virus, including 41 deaths.
    (AP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Saudi officials said a cease-fire in Yemen would last for two weeks and that it's in response to UN calls to halt hostilities amid the new coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, Singapore's Health Ministry confirmed 142 new coronavirus infections for a total of 1,623, the biggest daily increase yet, and said a seventh person had died after testing positive for the disease.
    (Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, South Africa has announced the death of five patients who were undergoing treatment for coronavirus, the highest to be reported in a day so far, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 18.
    (BBC, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, Spain's health ministry said 757 people died over the past 24 hours, up from 743 people the previous day, marking the second daily rise in a row and bringing the total death toll to 14,555. Spain's main business lobby warned the economy could slump up to 9% this year if lockdown restrictions remain beyond May.
    (Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Sudan has reported 14 cases, including two deaths for the virus.
    (AP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, The Swiss government said its economy could contract by as much 10.4% this year due to the impact of the new coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, In Geneva WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus vocally defended himself and the UN health agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. He accused Taiwan’s foreign ministry of being linked to a months-long campaign against him. Taiwan has reported just 379 cases and five deaths.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 8, The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) issued a report blaming the Syrian air force for a series of chemical attacks using sarin and chlorine in late March 2017 on the central town of Ltamenah.
    (AP, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, Turkey said it will monitor the mobile phones of those diagnosed with the new coronavirus to ensure they do not break quarantine, marking the latest measure to stem an outbreak that has surged over the last month.
    (Reuters, 4/8/20)
2020        Apr 8, A plane carrying 90 tons of UN health, water and sanitation aid arrived in Venezuela to help the cash-strapped country fight the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AFP, 4/8/20)

2020        Apr 9, President Donald Trump kicked off his general election advertising campaign late today with a xenophobic attack ad against Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, the opening shot in a messaging war that is expected to be exceptionally ugly.
    (NY Times, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 9, The US Federal Reserve announced a broad, $2.3 trillion effort to bolster local governments and small and mid-sized businesses, the latest in an expanding suite of programs meant to keep the US economy intact as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it was testing anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19, days after several US doctors said they were using the drug on infected patients without evidence that it worked.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended its "no sail order" for all cruise ships, as it looks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 9, US deaths due to coronavirus topped 15,700.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, The US Navy said 416 sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus, up from 286 a day earlier.
    (SFC, 4/9/20, p.A7)
2020        Apr 9, Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden joined a growing call for the release of comprehensive racial data on the coronavirus pandemic, which he says has put a spotlight on inequity and the impact of “structural racism".
    (AP, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 9, The United States agreed to make 250,000 barrels per day in additional cuts to oil output to help Mexico make its contribution to global reductions.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 9, A US judge ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to adequately protect endangered right whales from lobster fishing activities. Right whales currently number only about 400.
    (SFC, 4/11/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 9, Pantheon Resources PLC reported the discovery of an oil field in Alaska's North Slope region with a potential of 1.8 billion barrels of oil.
    (SFC, 4/10/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 9, California to date had 19,834 cases of coronavirus and 534 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,424 cases and 118 deaths.
    (sfist, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Georgia postponed primary elections for the second time this year because of the coronavirus, pushing back primaries scheduled for May to June.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Illinois' Cook county corrections officials said some 450 inmates and staff have tested positive for coronavirus at Chicago's largest jail.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 9, In Indiana an Indianapolis police officer was fatally shot during a domestic violence call. Detectives arrested Elliahs Dorsey (27) on preliminary charges of murder and attempted murder in the slaying of Officer Breann Leath (24).
    (AP, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 9, In Kansas inmates rampaged at a prison in Lansing where at least 28 people have been sickened by the coronavirus.
    (SSFC, 4/12/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 9, Louisiana has reported more than 17,000 cases of the coronavirus and 652 deaths. More than half of the cases were in the New Orleans area. New Orleans with a population below 400,000, has seen 171 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/9/20, p.A6)(Econ, 4/11/20, p.18)
2020        Apr 9, Maryland authorities arrested William Burgamy and charged him with running a website on the Internet black market called NeverPressed RX that sold hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of illicit drugs. Burgamy was getting his supply of drugs from a pharmacist in Nebraska. In November Burgamy (33) was sentenced to 14 years in prison and Nebraska pharmacist Hyrum Wilson (41) to 9 years for a convoluted plot to firebomb a competing pharmacy so they deliver more prescription narcotics to the black market.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y2swm62s)(SSFC, 11/22/20, p.A8)
2020        Apr 9, New York state's Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the daily death toll was at 799, bringing total fatalities to more than 7,000.
    (SFC, 4/10/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 9, Smithfield Foods Inc, the world's biggest pork processor, said it is temporarily closing a plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, because of the new coronavirus, the latest disruption to the US food supply chain from the outbreak. The outbreak infected more than 800 employees. The Sioux Falls plants began reopening on May 4.
    (AP, 4/9/20)(SFC, 5/5/20, p.A6)
2020        Apr 9, General Motors Co said it plans to keep its Brazilian factories shut down for at least 60 more days due to the coronavirus crisis, as the final batch of unionized workers voted on the automaker's proposal for the shutdown and for a plan to cut salaries by up to 25%.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, US drugmaker Pfizer Inc said that early data has helped it identify a drug candidate with the potential to help treat patients infected with the novel coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Top executives of Albania's central bank took a 50% pay cut in solidarity with citizens suffering amid the coronavirus pandemic, coming into line with reductions already accepted by government ministers and lawmakers. The coronavirus outbreak has killed 22 Albanians so far.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Botswana confirmed seven new coronavirus cases, including a health worker who was on duty during parliament's session a day earlier. Botswana now has a total of 13 confirmed coronavirus cases and was on a 28-day lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus. All Botswana's parliamentarians including President Mokgweetsi Masisi will be quarantined for 14 days and tested for the new coronavirus, after a health worker screening lawmakers for the virus herself tested positive.
    (AP, 4/9/20)(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, In Brazil a Yanomami youth (15) died after testing positive for coronavirus in Boa Vista, Roraima state. This raised fears that the epidemic will spread among the largest indigenous tribe in northern Brazil.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 9, Britain's PM Boris Johnson came out of three nights of intensive care at St Thomas' Hospital as he continued COVID-19 recovery.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 9, Home rental firm Airbnb blocked British bookings on its platform for the vast majority of customers, allowing only key workers to stay in properties for as long as emergency government coronavirus restrictions are in place. The move came after hosts using the site had been criticized for advertising "isolation retreats." Airbnb put pressure on other online booking platforms to follow suit.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, In Burkina Faso the bullet-riddled bodies of the men from the Fulani ethnic group were discovered in the northern town of Djibo, shortly after they had been arrested by security forces and taken away in a convoy.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 9, Burundi has so far confirmed three cases of coronavirus. The government has not restricted movement in and out of the country although arriving travelers must undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine. A spokesman for Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza has said the country needs no lockdown "because it is a country that has put God first."
    (BBC, 4/9/20)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.36)
2020        Apr 9, Chad's army said a further 52 soldiers had died in the 10-day counter-operation against Boko Haram. The army said had killed 1,000 of the militants and driven them from two island bases in the lake, which borders Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 9, China's border city of Suifenhe reported that it had a total of 123 imported coronavirus cases, nearly 97% of cases in northern Heilongjiang province. The city has seen an influx of Chinese people returning home, many infected with the virus, traveling by road from the Russian far eastern city of Vladivostok after flying there from Moscow.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 9, European Union finance ministers agreed on a 540 billion-euro ($590 billion) package of measures to combat the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, papering over differences that have thrown into question the EU’s future integrity.
    (Bloomberg, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 9, New coronavirus cases in Germany climbed the most in five days.
    (Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Officials in India said at least three private hospitals in Mumbai have shut their doors to new patients on concerns of health workers getting exposed to the coronavirus. India has so far recorded 5,865 cases of coronavirus, including 169 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Iraq's intelligence chief Mustafa al-Kadhimi (53) was appointed the country’s third prime minister-designate in just over a month, after the resignation of the most recent candidate amid political infighting, but the path to forming a government remained uncertain.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, In Israel, more than 10,000 people have contracted the coronavirus and 92 have died.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Italy's PM Giuseppe Conte prepared to prolong the national lockdown from a current expiration date of April 13 for another two weeks. Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 610, up from 542 the day before, and the number of new cases also came in higher at 4,204 from a previous 3,836. The number of confirmed cases climbed to 143,626.
    (Bloomberg, 4/9/20)(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Japan for the first time reported more than 500 new positive cases of the novel coronavirus. Over 100 people in Japan have died from the disease so far, including 11 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
    (ABC News, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Three astronauts flew to the International Space Station. NASA’s Chris Cassidy and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner arrived at the orbiting lab in their Soyuz capsule six hours after blasting off from Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, It was reported that Luxembourg will become the first EU country to start systematic mass tests on its population, regardless of whether they show coronavirus symptoms or not.
    (Bloomberg, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Mexico's Pres. Lopez Obrador spoke with US President Donald Trump and asked him to sell Mexico 10,000 ventilators and 10,000 monitors to care for coronavirus patients.
    (AP, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 9, It was reported that international health officials are warning that the Nicaraguan government’s perplexing weekslong refusal to take measures to control the spread of the new coronavirus is heightening the risk of an epidemic in Central America even as neighboring countries take tough action.
    (AP, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Pakistan's military said its troop have shot down a small Indian spy drone after it violated the country's airspace along the Line of Control in Kashmir.
    (SFC, 4/10/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 9, Portuguese hacker Rui Pinto has been transferred to house arrest after leaving the prison in Lisbon where he's been held for more than a year. Pinto had leaked documents which revealed how Africa's richest woman, Isabel dos Santos, made her fortune.
    (BBC, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Russia said it had over 10,000 novel coronavirus cases, two-thirds of them in Moscow, and all regions are in partial lockdown, their citizens advised to stay at home.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Russia and all but one member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reached an agreement late today to cut 10 million barrels a day in production, which amounts to a 23 percent reduction from the group’s baseline of about 44 million barrels a day. Mexico rejected OPEC’s proposal that it cut production by 400,000 barrels a day, proposing a cut of one-quarter of that amount instead.
    (NY Times, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 9, Saudi Arabia began a cease-fire in the war in Yemen, which could pave the way toward ending the five-year conflict. Separately, as many as 150 members of the Saudi royal family are believed to have contracted the virus.
    (NY Times, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Somalia announced the first death from Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus. Somalia has so far confirmed 12 coronavirus cases.
    (BBC, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez asked parliament for an extension to a state of emergency through April 25 as total cases of the coronavirus rose to more than 150,000 and deaths rose to 15,238.
    (Bloomberg, 4/9/20)(Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, Uganda has so far registered 53 cases of coronavirus. It was reported that four officials in the prime minister's office have been arrested for alleged corruption over the purchasing of food aid to be distributed during the coronavirus lockdown.
    (BBC, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, The coronavirus has killed at least 57 people in Ukraine and the authorities aim to contain the spread of the disease in the run-up to Easter. Kiev and its surrounding region have 430 out of a total of 1,892 cases. The coronavirus has infected 26 people at the thousand-year-old headquarters of Ukraine's Russian-backed Orthodox Christian denomination, which had urged worshippers to defy lockdown orders.
    (Reuters, 4/9/20)
2020        Apr 9, The UAE has reported 2,659 cases of the coronavirus with 12 deaths.
    (AP, 4/9/20)

2020        Apr 10, President Donald Trump said the decision on when it was safe to reopen the country would be the biggest he had ever had to make. Trump said that he thinks the United States will lose fewer than the initially projected 100,000 lives to COVID-19 and suggested that the United States is nearing its peak infection rate.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, The United States announced a 10 million-dollar reward for "any information on the activities, networks and associates" of Muhammad Kawtharani, a Lebanese Hezbollah commander accused of playing a key role in coordinating pro-Iran groups in Iraq.
    (AFP, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, The United States reported at least 2,074 deaths resulting from the novel COVID-19 coronavirus. Overall in the US, there have been nearly 19,000 deaths, and more than 500,000 confirmed cases.
    (CNN, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, COVID-19 cases worldwide climbed to more than 1.5 million, with over 90,000 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/10/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 10, New data released by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) showed that more than 15,000 Americans have reported alleged coronavirus-related frauds totaling nearly $12 million in losses.
    (ABC News, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, It was reported that drugs that go hand in hand with ventilators are running low in the US even as demand was surging. They included the opioid painkillers fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone; the sedatives midazolam and propofol; and the paralytics pancuronium, rocuronium, and succinylcholine.
    (AP, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed promising results after the antiviral drug remdesivir, produced by Gilead Sciences, was used in a "compassionate use" trial to treat a small group of novel COVID-19 coronavirus patients.
    (Washington Post, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, The Alabama Supreme Court overturned five of the ethics convictions against former House Speaker Mike Hubbard (58), while upholding six others. Hubbard was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 but remained free on appeal.
    (SFC, 4/11/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 10, In Alabama Kanisha Nicole Fuller was found fatally shot inside an unmarked police car assigned to Detective Mario Theodore White. Detective Alfreda Fluker (39) was soon arrested and charged with Fuller's murder. The three were involved in a "love triangle" dispute.
    (SFC, 4/16/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 10, California to date had 20,189 cases of coronavirus and 542 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,508 cases and 118 deaths. Nationwide deaths totaled 16,703.
    (sfist.com, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, San Francisco officials reported a major outbreak of the coronavirus at the Multi-Service Center South homeless shelter at 525 Bryant St. 68 residents and two employees have tested positive for the virus. The city had 857 confirmed cases and 13 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/11/20, p.A1)(sfist.com, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, Convicted celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti (49) was granted temporary freedom from a New York City jail by a California federal judge who said the spread of the novel coronavirus was a compelling reason to release him.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, A nursing home in Georgia announced that 70 of its residents have tested positive for COVID-19. Three of those residents have been hospitalized.
    (ABC News, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, Christopher Parris of Georgia was arrested for trying to defraud the Veterans Affairs Department out of millions of dollars, in one of the first big coronavirus related fraud cases brought by the Justice Department's new COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging task force.
    (CBS News, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, New York state added 777 COVID-19-related deaths, bringing total fatalities to 7,844.
    (SFC, 4/11/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 10, Bruce Bailey (b.1931), independent SF Bay Area filmmaker, died on Camano Island, Washington state. His films included "Mass" (1964), "Quixote" (1965) and "Castro Street" (1966).
    (SSFC, 4/12/20, p.C10)
2020        Apr 10, Apple and Google said they have teamed up to use smartphone technology to halp contain the COVID-19 pandemic. New contact tracing apps would gather and record users of other phones who might have been infected by known carriers. The designs would include user privacy and security measures.
    (SFC, 4/11/20, p.C1)
2020        Apr 10, Bangladesh's government extended the nationwide lockdown to April 25 as the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose to 424, with 27 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, Brazilian government data showed that deforestation in its Amazon rainforest rose in March, indicating that illegal loggers and land speculators have not stopped destroying the forest with the onset of the coronavirus outbreak.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, British hospitals reported 980 more deaths. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases surpassed 74,000 and the death toll neared 9,000.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, Bulgaria's PM Boyko Borissov said his country will apply to join the euro single currency zone's "waiting room" by the end of April. Borissov said he was convinced Bulgaria, along with Croatia, will be allowed to join.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, In Burkina Faso the coronavirus epidemic has so far infected over 440 people, including six government ministers. 24 deaths have been reported.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, Chad's President Idriss Deby said the country's army will no longer participate in military operations beyond its borders, a potential blow to international efforts to defeat Islamist militants in the conflict-hit Sahel and Lake Chad region.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, China tightened restrictions on exports of masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE), calling for shipments of the items to be subjected to a mandatory customs inspection, with immediate effect.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, The Democratic Republic of the Congo said that the first person to contract Ebola in more than 50 days, a 26-year-old man, has died. The disease has killed more than 2,200 people in the DRC.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, The European Union said it has approved a 527 million zloty (115 million euro) scheme by the Polish government to support its economy during the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, Indonesia reported more than 3,500 confirmed infections, more than 1,750 of those in the capital. Of the country’s 306 virus deaths, 154 have been in Jakarta.
    (AP, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano began spewing lava into the sky in the longest eruption since the explosive collapse of the island caused a deadly tsunami in 2018.
    (AP, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, Over 200,000 Irish workers are now in receipt of a new wage subsidy scheme, meaning the state is supporting nearly 30% of the labor force due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, In Kenya thousands of people surged for food aid in a brief stampede in Nairobi, desperate for help as coronavirus restrictions keep them from making a living. Witnesses said police fired tear gas and injured several people.
    (AP, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, Lebanese security forces said police last month seized about 25 tons of hashish that were set to be smuggled to an African state. This was the country's biggest drug bust.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, Mexico's health ministry said it has recorded its first two deaths of pregnant women from the coronavirus as the death toll reached 194.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, The Netherlands statistics office said there were around 2,000 more deaths in the Netherlands in the first week of April than would normally be expected, likely the result of the coronavirus outbreak.
    (AP, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, The OPEC oil cartel and other nations including Russia and Mexico agreed to boost oil prices by cutting as much as 10 million barrels a day in production until July, then 8 million barrels per day through the end of the year.
    (SFC, 4/11/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 10, Russia's PM Mikhail Mishustin said the government has decided to extend payment holidays to larger mortgage loans in a new measure to support its citizens from the coronavirus fallout.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, Russia's Prosecutor General's Office started blocking access to "fake news" social media posts criticizing quarantine measures taken by the city of Moscow to curb the new coronavirus. Russia last year passed legislation with tough new fines for people spreading misinformation or insulting the state.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, In Russia inmates clashed with guards at a maximum security prison in the Siberian city of Angarsk. A fire amid the unrest left one inmate dead.
    (SFC, 4/13/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 10, South Korea reported 27 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, the fewest in about seven weeks. Early voting began for all 300 National Assembly seats. South Korean officials reported 91 patients thought cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again.
    (Bloomberg, 4/10/20)(Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, The coronavirus death toll curve in Spain flattened further as the government discussed different strategies to start phasing out one of the world's strictest lockdowns. The death toll fell with 605 fatalities registered over the past 24 hours. Total fatalities rose to 16,353, from 15,843, while the number of confirmed cases climbed to 161,852 from 157,022.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned of an increasing number of new locust swarms forming in Kenya, southern Ethiopia and Somalia. The UN has raised its aid appeal from $76 million to $153 million, saying immediate action is needed before more rainfall fuels further growth in locust numbers.
    (AP, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, The UN special envoy for Yemen gave the warring parties in the Arab world’s poorest country revised proposals for a nationwide cease-fire and the urgent resumption of peace talks.
    (AP, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, Uruguay started to repatriate 112 Australians and New Zealanders from a cruise ship hit by coronavirus and stranded in the La Plata River near Montevideo since March 27.
    (AP, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 10, Vietnam said it will resume rice exports from this month, after the government last month announced a ban on rice exports to make sure the country has sufficient food to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/10/20)
2020        Apr 10, Yemen’s internationally recognized government announced the first confirmed case of the new coronavirus in the war-torn country. Provincial Gov. Farag al-Bouhsni announced a partial curfew and placed all workers at the al-Shahr port under a 14-day quarantine.
    (AP, 4/10/20)

2020        Apr 11, The US State Department announced that President Donald Trump has authorized an assistance package to help Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries amid the pandemic, as they continue to fight the virus.
    (AP, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, The US Navy said another 103 crew members on the US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases from the ship to 550.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 11, The two top Republicans in the US Congress vowed to oppose Democrats' demands to boost a proposed $250 billion bill to aid small businesses by adding money for hospitals and state and local governments.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, The number of coronavirus cases detected in the United States rose past half a million over the Easter weekend with more than 18,600 deaths. More than 1.6 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 103,664 have died.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Alaska held its presidential primary. Joe biden bet Bernie Sanders 55.3% to 44.7%. A total of 19,759 votes were cast.
    (SFC, 4/13/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 11, California to date had 21,505 cases of coronavirus and 597 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,864 cases and 131 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Chicago has reported 7,784 cases of COVID-19 and 249 deaths as of this afternoon. This was about 40% of statewide cases and 36% of deaths across Illinois.
    (AP, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 11, The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that a Republican-dominated legislative panel exceeded its authority when it tried to overturn Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s executive order banning religious and funeral services of more than 10 people during the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 11, New Jersey Gov. Philip D. Murphy announced that another 251 people had died due to the coronavirus. The statewide total of cases reached 58,151 with 2,183 deaths.
    (NY Times, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 11, John Horton Conway (b.1937), English mathematician, died of comp0lications from COVID-19 in New Jersey. He made contributions to many branches of recreational mathematics, most notably the invention of the cellular automaton called the Game of Life.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Horton_Conway)(Econ, 4/25/20, p.82)
2020        Apr 11, New York state reported 783 more coronavirus deaths for a total of 8,600.
    (SSFC, 4/12/20, p.A6)
2020        Apr 11, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said public schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year as the city battles the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Armenia extended by another 30 days the state of emergency that it declared last month to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The country has recorded 966 infections, with 13 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Britain's COVID-19 death toll neared 10,000 after health officials reported another 917 hospital deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, China reported a rise in infections, mostly in travelers arriving from abroad, as doctors in the central city of Wuhan, where the virus initially emerged, warned its behavior was still not well-understood. Mainland China reported 99 new confirmed coronavirus cases, including 97 involving travelers from overseas, up from a total of 46 new cases a day earlier. China's tally of infections now stands at 82,052, while the death toll stands at 3,339.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)(Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 11, Germany's number of confirmed infections rose by 4,133 to 117,658. The reported death toll rose by 171 to 2,544.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Guam reported 133 confirmed coronavirus cases and five deaths, not including the sailors of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. More than 580 sailors have been confirmed infected. More than 1,700 sailors who have tested negative were isolating in hotels, while the sick remain on base.
    (AP, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 11, Delhi state's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that Indian PM Narendra Modi has decided to extend a nationwide lockdown to tackle the spread of the coronavirus, without saying how long the extension would be for. The number of cases rose to 7,471.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Indonesia confirmed 330 new coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 3,842. It also confirmed 21 virus-related deaths, taking the total to 327.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, In Indonesia inmates set fire to the overcrowded Tuminting prison on Sulawesi Island late today. There were no reports of deaths.
    (SFC, 4/13/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 11, Iran began easing restrictions after a nationwide lockdown. The Health Ministry reported another 125 deaths, bringing the overall toll to 4,357. Iran reported 70,029 confirmed cases.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported the execution of one of the alleged ringleaders of a March 27 prison break. It said Mostafa Salimi had been on death row for killing two policemen during a prison riot in 2004.
    (AP, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Italian PM Giuseppe Conte extended his nationwide lockdown until May 3.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe called for citizens across Japan to avoid evening spots like bars and restaurants. SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son said he has secured a monthly supply of 300 million face masks for Japan from May after reaching a deal with Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD Co Ltd, which has also started producing masks.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Kazakh authorities said ten people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at one of the worker camps located next to the giant Tengiz oilfield. The camp has been locked down and workers can enter the Tengiz field itself only after being quarantined for 14 days.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, A coronavirus lockdown in Liberia's capital Monrovia got off to a chaotic start, as some police officers used truncheons against residents who had ventured out into the streets to buy food and withdraw money. Liberia has so far confirmed at least 48 cases of the coronavirus, including five deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 11, Malaysian health authorities reported 184 additional confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, raising the cumulative tally to 4,530. The latest data included 3 new deaths, raising total fatalities from the outbreak to 73.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported several cellular broadcasting towers have been damaged by arson or sabotage in the past week by opponents of a rollout of a new 5G telecommunications network. Major telecommunications providers in the Netherlands are in a testing phase and have not yet begun any nationwide rollout of 5G pending a spectrum auction due to conclude in June.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, New Zealand said there had been two new deaths due to the coronavirus - its biggest daily total to date despite the low number and bringing the total to four in a country that's halfway through a four-week nationwide lockdown.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un was last seen in public on April 11, when he presided over a meeting discussing coronavirus prevention and electing his sister as an alternate member of the political bureau of the ruling Workers’ Party. South Korean intelligence combined with North Korean state media reports later suggest that Kim could have suffered some sort of medical setback.
    (AFP, 4/11/20)    (AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 11, Pakistani troops raided a militant hideout in North Waziristan triggering a shootout that left seven insurgents and two soldiers dead. An explosion in Baluchistan province killed two soldiers.
    (SSFC, 4/12/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 11, The Philippines reported 26 new coronavirus-related deaths, taking the total to 247. It also confirmed 233 new infections for a tally of 4,428.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, The Kremlin said a "huge influx" of coronavirus patients was beginning to put a strain on hospitals in Moscow as Russia's death toll rose to more than 100.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, Spain's daily coronavirus death toll fell for the third day in a row after 510 fatalities were reported in the past 24 hours. Spain reported 4,830 new cases. The country has confirmed 161,852 infections and 16,353 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)(SSFC, 4/12/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 11, Thailand reported 45 new coronavirus infections and two more deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020        Apr 11, A court run by Yemen's Houthi rebels sentenced four journalists to death after their conviction on spying charges. The verdict can be appealed.
    (AP, 4/11/20)

2020        Apr 12, US President Donald Trump retweeted a call to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after the nation's top expert on infectious diseases said lives could have been saved if the country had shut down sooner during the novel coronavirus outbreak.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 12, More than 20,602 people in the US have died as a result of COVID-19. At least 530,000 people in the US have tested positive and over 2.6 million Americans have been tested for the disease. Worldwide, more than 1.79 million people have been diagnosed since the virus emerged in China in December and the death toll has passed 109,000.
    (ABC News, 4/12/20)(Yahoo News, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, California to date had 22,432 cases of coronavirus and 634 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 4,980 cases and 134 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, New York tallied 671 new deaths due to the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 4/14/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 12, In Pennsylvania Jucontee Thomas Woewiyu, a former lietenant for Liberian warlord Charles Taylor, died in Philadelphia of COVID-19 complications.
    (SFC, 4/15/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 12, The Taliban announced it will be releasing 20 Afghan government prisoners the group has been holding, in the first phase of its commitment under its historic peace deal with the United States. The deal calls for the government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 government officials held by the Taliban insurgents.
    (AP, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, Bangladesh announced a relief package worth about $1.7 billion to help farmers struggling because of restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, Bangladesh executed Abdul Majed, a former military captain, for the 1975 killing of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
    (SFC, 4/13/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 12, Brazil's Health Minister Henrique Mandetta criticized people for gathering in public without referring directly to Pres. Jair Bolsonaro, who hit the streets over the weekend, drawing crowds and greeting followers.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 12, Britain recorded 737 additional coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours,. PM Boris Johnson was discharged from a London hospital where he was treated in intensive care for the virus. The UK reported 84,279 positive test results for COVID-19 and 10,612 deaths.
    (ABC News, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, Britain said it was pledging 200 million pounds ($248 million) to the World Health Organization (WHO) and charities to help slow the spread of the coronavirus in vulnerable countries and so help prevent a second wave of infections.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, Bulgaria has reported 669 cases of the coronavirus and 28 deaths. Churches remained open over the Easter holidays, but most Bulgarians stayed home.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, Chinese cities near the border with Russia said they would tighten border controls and quarantine measures on arrivals from abroad after the number of imported cases of COVID-19 hit a one-month high.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, The World Health Organization said Democratic Republic of Congo has recorded a second Ebola death in days following more than seven weeks without a new case.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, Germany's number of confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 2,821 to 120,479. The reported death toll rose by 129 to 2,673.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, Indonesia reported 399 new cases of the coronavirus, its biggest daily jump so far, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 4,241. There were also 46 new coronavirus-related deaths, taking the total to 373. Indonesia said it has imposed curbs on public transport ahead of the annual exodus to home villages that marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the country had won a legal "victory" over $1.6 billion of its assets that had long been frozen on a US request in Luxembourg. The Luxembourg Court of Cassation had devoted an April 2 hearing to the case of Iranian assets frozen there on a US request, according the investigative news site Paperjam.
    (AFP, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, Iran announced 117 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the overall official toll to 4,474, even as it eased some restrictions that had been imposed to slow the spread of the illness. 1,657 new infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 71,686. Iran announced its first coronavirus cases on February 19.
    (AFP, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, The Israeli government approved a tight quarantine of several areas of Jerusalem, including the historic Old City, in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the city's most susceptible neighborhoods.
    (AP, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, In Japan Ssuzuki Naomichi, the mayor of Hokaido, reimposed a state of emergency that had been lifted on March 18.
    (Econ, 4/18/20, p.26)
2020        Apr 12, Malaysia's health ministry reported 153 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, raising the cumulative total to 4,683. The data included three new deaths, raising the total number of fatalities from the outbreak to 76.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, The Netherlands' National Institute for Health (RIVM) reported 1,188 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 25,587. The number of deaths rose by 94 to 2,737.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, OPEC, Russia and other oil producers agreed to reduce output by 9.7 million barrels a day in May and June, close to 10 percent of the world’s production. Demand for oil is down about 35 percent since the start of the crisis.
    (NY Times, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 12, The Philippines recorded 50 coronavirus deaths, its highest in a single day, taking the toll to 297. The health ministry said 220 new infections took the tally of cases to 4,648.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, In Portugal the coronavirus outbreak spread further into care homes over the Easter weekend, with 100 new cases of COVID-19 reported in a single residence and care homes accounting for around one in eight of the country's 504 deaths. Total cases reached 16,585.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, Puerto Rico’s Gov. Wanda Vazquez extended an island-wide curfew until May in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19 on the island. There have been about 7,700 people tested so far with more than 780 confirmed cases and 42 deaths.
    (ABC News, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, South Africa, which has banned the sale of all alcohol and cigarettes under a coronavirus lockdown that triggered a wave of lootings of liquor shops, said it had caught police officers who were complicit in illegal alcohol sales.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, In Spain the coronavirus death toll reached 16,972, with confirmed cases at 166,019. A total of 619 people died over the past 24 hours rising for the first time in three days, Some businesses prepared to reopen under an easing of the country's strict lockdown regime.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)
2020        Apr 12, Turkey called on private banks to do more to help customers hurt by the economic impact of the coronavirus, saying that state-owned banks had offered delays in repayments for loans. More than 1,000 people have been killed by the coronavirus in Turkey.
    (Reuters, 4/12/20)

2020        Apr 13, President Donald Trump claimed the “total” authority to decide how and when to reopen the economy after weeks of tough social distancing guidelines aimed at fighting the new coronavirus. But governors from both parties were quick to push back. Ten governors on the east and west coasts banded together in two regional pacts to coordinate gradual economic reopenings as the coronavirus crisis finally appeared to be ebbing.
    (AP, 4/14/20)(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 13, The US Supreme Court, changing its practices due to the coronavirus pandemic, announced that it will hear arguments by teleconference in May. It will hear arguments by teleconference in a high-profile dispute over whether President Donald Trump's tax and financial records should be disclosed and other cases due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, A member of the crew of the coronavirus-infected USS Theodore Roosevelt died of complications related to the disease, just weeks after the aircraft carrier's captain was fired for pressing his concern that the Navy had done too little to safeguard his crew.
    (AP, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, The US Dept. of Health awarded Swiss-based Hamilton Medical a $552 million contract to build 14,115 ventilators by July 3.
    (SFC, 4/15/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 13, Severe weather swept across the southern US overnight, killing more than 30 people and damaging hundreds of homes from Louisiana into the Appalachian Mountains. Eleven people were killed in Mississippi. Nine people died in South Carolina. Coroners said eight were killed in Georgia. Tennessee officials said three people were killed in and around Chattanooga, and others died under falling trees or inside collapsed buildings in Arkansas and North Carolina.
    (AP, 4/13/20)(AP, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, California to date had 24,029 cases of coronavirus and 721 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,242 cases and 146 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Chicago authorities discovered the bodies of Thomas Johnson (69) and Leslie Jones (67) at around 7:30 p.m. while conducting a welfare check at their Oak Park home. Police said that "preliminary information gathered at the scene indicates suspicious circumstances" and it does not appear that the deaths were self-inflicted.
    (NBC News, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 13, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state's death toll has topped 10,000 only about a month after recording its first fatality.
    (SFC, 4/14/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 13, Police in New Jersey discovered 17 bodies piled inside the nursing home in Andover in a small morgue intended to hold no more than four people. The 17 were among 68 recent deaths linked to the long-term care facility, Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II. Of those who died, 26 people had tested positive for the coronavirus.
    (NY Times, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 13, Wyoming reported its first death from the novel coronavirus, the final US state to report a fatality from the outbreak. Wyoming has 270 reported cases.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Blackstone Group Inc said it would invest $2 billion in Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc through an equity-and-debt deal, giving the drugmaker a financial boost without tapping into currently volatile stock markets for funds. Alnylam is the first drugmaker to win US approval for a treatment using the Nobel prize-winning RNA interference (RNAi) technology and is currently developing other RNAi drugs to treat a range of conditions, including rare bleeding disorders.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Grocery distributor Performance Food Group Co said it had furloughed about 3,000 employees and cut pay, while funneling 1,100 workers to help keep its retail clients' shelves stacked as it deals with the pressures exerted on supply chains and its business by the coronavirus crisis. Customers included Dollar Tree and Home Depot as well as theater chains AMC, Cinemark and Regal Cinemas, which have temporarily closed movie houses to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Bangladesh said it has recorded five new deaths and 182 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours. The death toll stood at 39 with 803 confirmed cases.
    (SFC, 4/14/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 13, Belarus Pres. Alexander Lukashenko said he believed nobody in Belarus would be killed by the virus. The health ministry, which encourages people to reduce contact to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, says 36 people in Belarus have died of it.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 13, In Britain confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose by 4,342 to a national tally of 88,621. The death toll in British hospitals rose to 12,107.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 13, Egypt reopened its border crossing with the Gaza Strip after nearly three weeks, allowing hundreds of Palestinians stranded by the coronavirus pandemic to return home.
    (AP, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, French President Emmanuel Macron extended a virtual lockdown to May 11.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 13, Iran's death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 4,585, with 111 deaths overnight. There were 1,617 new infected cases in the past 24 hours.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Iraq recorded 1,378 cases of COVID-19, including 78 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 13, In Ireland a senior Fine Gael lawmaker said an agreement between the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael parties aimed at attracting enough additional support to form a new government is "effectively complete".
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems said it had repurposed assembly lines to manufacture thousands of automatic ventilation machines as the country eyes local production to off-set global shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Japanese Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi warned that the Paris climate accord could face death if steps to fight global warming were put on the backburner to facilitate the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Libya's unity government said its forces had seized two coastal cities between Tripoli and the Tunisian border from troops backing military commander Khalifa Haftar.
    (AFP, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Malaysian health authorities reported 134 new coronavirus cases, raising the cumulative total to 4,817. One new death was also reported bringing total fatalities to 77.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, In Mozambique Gilberto Aparecido dos Santos (49), aka Fuminho, was arrested in Maputo after spending more than two decades on the run. He was one of Brazil's most wanted criminals and the alleged leader of the São Paulo-based First Capital Command (PCC) drug gang, accused of shipping tons of cocaine around the world.
    (BBC, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 13, Nepal has 9 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and one person has recovered. A lockdown, imposed on March 24, banned all flights and ground transport, and closed markets, schools and offices.
    (AP, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari announced a two-week extension of a lockdown in three states, including the capital Abuja, to curtail the spread of coronavirus.
    (BBC, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 13, Pakistan summoned an Indian official to protest over cross-border shelling from its neighbor that it said had killed a child and wounded four civilians in Kashmir.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, The Philippines reported a cumulative total of 4,932 coronavirus cases.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
 2020        Apr 13, Portugal's government reported the smallest daily increase in confirmed cases of the coronavirus since March 24.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 13, Russia’s total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 reached 18,328, double the level of five days earlier. The number of deaths stood at 148.
    (NY Times, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 13, The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) said it had signed an agreement worth more than 7 billion riyals ($1.9 billion) with Saudi Global Ports (SGP) to build and operate container terminals at a port in Dammam.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, It was reported that Saudi Arabia has deported nearly 3,000 Ethiopian migrants in recent days, despite concerns that such operations could hasten the spread of the coronavirus. Ethiopia has reported just 74 cases of COVID-19 and three deaths.
    (AFP, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Serbian police detained the director of a state-run center for the care of the elderly where there has been a coronavirus outbreak. He was charged with both "an aggravated crime against public health" and spreading diseases. 139 people were infected with the coronavirus at the center located in the southern city of Nis.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Singapore recorded a new high of 386 cases of the coronavirus, its largest single-day spike to date.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 13, South Korea reported that at least 116 people initially cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again. Officials suggested they would soon look at easing strict recommendations aimed at preventing new outbreaks. South Korea reported only 25 new cases overall.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Spain started to ease tough lockdown restrictions that have kept people confined to their homes for more than a month and put a brake on economic activity. Spain's cumulative death toll rose to 17,489, up 517 from a day earlier. Confirmed cases totaled 169,496, up from 166,019 the previous day.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Sudan inked a deal with the United Nations World Food Program to import wheat, state media reported, more than a year after the country was rocked by protests sparked by bread price hikes. 10 more cases of the coronavirus were discovered in Khartoum.
    (AFP, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Sweden has registered 899 COVID-19 deaths. So far, Sweden has banned gatherings larger than 50 people, closed high schools and universities, and urged those over 70 or otherwise at greater risk from the virus to self-isolate. After a sharp spike in deaths, PM Stefan Lofven proposed an emergency law allowing the quick closure of public venues and transportation if needed. Lofven also warned citizens to prepare for possibly up to thousands of deaths.
    (AP, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, Coronavirus infections in Turkey have jumped to more than 56,900 cases and almost 1,200 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/13/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 13, Ukraine's parliament approved a revised budget for 2020 drafted by the government to deal with the economic fallout of the coronavirus epidemic.
    (Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, The UN said swarms of locusts in Ethiopia have damaged 200,000 hectares (half a million acres) of cropland and driven around a million people to require emergency food aid. Billions of desert locusts have already chomped their way through much of East Africa, including Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.
    (AFP, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 13, The United Nations released $2.5 million from its emergency humanitarian fund to help thousands of people in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu affected by Cyclone Harold and offered support to other hard-hit countries.
    (AP, 4/14/20)

2020        Apr 14, President Donald Trump moved to halt funding to the World Health Organization pending a review. This was soon met with severe criticism at home and abroad. American taxpayers covered 15% of the WHO's $4.5bn annual budget.
    (NBC News, 4/15/20)(Econ, 4/18/20, p.61)
2020        Apr 14, President Donald Trump backed away from his claim that he has "total" authority over when states relax social-distancing orders and reopen their economies.
    (The Week, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 14, A US report from the Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan congressional body, found that a tax provision included in the congressional coronavirus relief package by GOP senators will overwhelmingly benefit people making over $1 million per year while costing taxpayers $90 billion in 2020 alone.
    (The Week, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 14, Former President Barack Obama endorsed Joe Biden, giving the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee a boost from the party’s biggest fundraiser and one of its most popular figures.
    (AP, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, California to date had 25,393 cases of coronavirus and 774 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,312 cases and 146 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/13/20)
2020        Apr 14, In Louisiana more than 21,000 people have confirmed coronavirus infections. 884 people have died. Gov. John Bel Edwards was concerned that too many people in the state were disobeying his stay-home order.
    (SFC, 4/15/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 14, Hank Steinbrenner (63), part-owner of the New York Yankees, died at his Florida home after several years of poor health. His father George Steinbrenner had bought the Yankees in 1973. Hank and his brother Hal inherited the team after the death of their father in 2010.
    (AP, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 14, New York City's health department released a revised COVID-19 death count that included 3,700 people who were not tested but were presumed to have died from the disease. The change increased the city's total deaths to well over 10,000, and pushed up the national COVID-19 coronavirus death toll to more than 26,000.
    (The Week, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 14, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo took to morning TV shows to push back against President Donald Trump's claim of “total” authority to reopen the nation's virus-stalled economy, noting that a president is not an absolute monarch.
    (AP, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, The US Transportation Department awarded nearly $10 billion to US airports struggling with a massive falloff in travel demand because of the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, The death toll from the tornado outbreak in the southeast US rose to at least 34 as Mississippi officials said a 12th person had died there.
    (AP, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, It was reported that 42 residents of a Virginia nursing home near Richmond have died from the COVID-19 disease pandemic in one of the worst clusters of the new coronavirus in the US. At least 127 elderly people out of the 163 residents of the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Henrico County have tested positive for the virus in recent weeks.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Boeing Co reported another 75 cancellations for its 737 MAX jetliner in March, as the coronavirus crisis worsened disruptions from the grounding of its best-selling jet.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Industry sources said Delta Air Lines has taken over an order worth roughly $3 billion at list prices for 10 Airbus A350 jetliners from Latam Airlines Group.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Sanofi said it will combine its experimental coronavirus vaccine with GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s adjuvant technology, which may allow more doses of a shot to be produced.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, It was reported that scientists have observed the biggest supernova - stellar explosion - ever detected, the violent death of a huge star up to 100 times more massive than our sun in a faraway galaxy. Scientists said the supernova, releasing twice as much energy as any other stellar explosion observed to date, occurred about 4.6 billion light years from Earth in a relatively small galaxy.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Group of Seven (G7) finance officials vowed to continue to act as needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic and stabilize the global economy, and threw their support behind temporary debt relief to the poorest countries. Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more than 119,200 have died.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, ASEAN leaders linked up by video to ploot a strategy to overcome the coronavirus crisis that has kept millions of people in their homes under lockdowns.
    (SFC, 4/15/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 14, It was reported that a team of scientists in Australia earlier this month found that a single dose of ivermectin, an anti-parasitic treatment dates back to the 1970s and 1980s, could essentially remove all viral RNA of the coronavirus by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it.
    (ABC News, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Austria allowed partial returns to work. Austria has reported 384 deaths in total. Hospitalizations have stabilized.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Bahrain said it has converted the multi-storey car park of a military hospital into a 130-bed intensive care unit for patients with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, and plans to set up four more field ICUs. The island state reported 161 new infections, taking its total of infections to 1,522 with seven deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, In Britain a further 778 people have died in hospitals from the coronavirus, up from 717 a day earlier. Confirmed cases rose to 93,873 from 88,621.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)(AP, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Chad's country's public prosecutor said 44 suspected Boko Haram militants in Chad have died in detention from apparent poisoning. They were part of a group of 58 suspects captured during a recent major army operation against the Islamist group around Lake Chad. An investigation later found that the 44 prisoners had died because they were all kept in the same cell in 46C in a prison on the outskirts of the capital N'Djamena.
    (BBC, 4/19/20)(BBC, 8/9/20)
2020        Apr 14, In China of 89 cases reported, all but three were detected in people arriving from abroad. It wasn’t immediately clear if any came from Russia. No new deaths were reported in the country. China recorded totals of 82,249 cases and 3,341 deaths.
    (AP, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Denmark said it will release its youngest citizens from a month-long coronavirus lockdown in a move that has fueled considerable controversy.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Egyptian security forces killed seven suspected militants in a shootout in Cairo, amid tight security as the country’s Coptic Christians start the Holy Week. A police officer was also killed during the hours-long firefight in the city's Amiriyah district.
    (AP, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, French trade union Sud said Amazon has been ordered to limit French deliveries to essential goods only within 24 hours to allow for a deeper assessment of coronavirus risks at its sites in the country.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Germany's public health chief said number of people infected with coronavirus in Germany has "stabilized." 125,098 people in the country had tested positive for the virus. New coronavirus cases in Germany fell for a sixth day. There were 2,138 new infections, the lowest increase this month, bringing the total to 132,210. Germany was set to agree on an extension of nationwide lockdown measures until at least May 3.
    (AFP, 4/14/20)(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 14, India extended a lockdown for its 1.3 billion people until at least May 3. It was reported that state-owned banks have barred employees from posting pictures, video clips or messages on social media on issues such as overcrowding at bank branches during the coronavirus crisis.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Indonesia reported 60 more coronavirus deaths for a total of 459.
    (SFC, 4/15/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 14, Iran had 98 deaths overnight, taking total fatalities to 4,683. Cases rose to 74,877 after 1,574 tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours. A parliament report said the death toll in Iran from the coronavirus pandemic is likely nearly double the officially reported figures, due to undercounting and because not everyone with breathing problems has been tested for the virus. The number of infections were estimated to be "eight to 10 times" higher.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)(AP, 4/15/20)(AFP, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 14, It was reported that Iraq has suspended the license of the Reuters news agency after it published a story on April 2 saying the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country was higher than officially reported.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his chief rival, former military chief Benny Gantz, met in an effort to finalize an agreement on an emergency government that would tackle the coronavirus threat and prevent another costly and divisive election.
    (AP, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, In Israel, more than 11,800 people have contracted the coronavirus with at least 117 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/15/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 14, Italy lightened its lockdown order and allowed some shops and organizations to open provided they maintain social distancing.
    (SFC, 4/15/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 14, The Kenyan parliament voted to lower the value-added tax rate to 14% from 16%, part of President Uhuru Kenyatta's attempts to cushion citizens from the impact of the coronavirus crisis. Kenya has reported 216 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, In Mexico the Coahuila state health department said nurses at a public hospital were told by their managers not to wear protective masks at the start of the coronavirus epidemic to avoid sowing panic among patients. Two doctors and a hospital administrator have died and at least 51 staff members have been infected since the new coronavirus was detected at the IMSS General Hospital in Monclova, Coahuila state in late March.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, In the Netherlands, confirmed cases rose 3% to 27,419, the slowest rate since the country reported its first case in late February. Deaths from the virus increased 4% to 2,945, but the figure may reflect an administrative processing backlog over the Easter weekend.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, North Korea fired a barrage of missiles from both the ground and fighter jets that splashed down on the waters off the country's east coast.
    (NBC News, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Portugal reported an increase in confirmed coronavirus cases and patients in intensive-care units as it plans to extend its state of emergency for two more weeks. There were 514 new cases in a day, taking the total to 17,448. Total deaths rose to 567 from 535.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Singapore recorded 334 new cases, the second day figures have exceeded 300, bringing the tally so far to 3,252.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, South Africa’s central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low. The repurchase rate was reduced to 4.25% from 5.25% after the May meeting of the monetary policy committee was moved earlier and took place today.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Spain reported the lowest number of new coronavirus cases in 3 1/2 weeks. There were 3,045 new infections in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 172,541. That was the smallest increase since March 20. The death toll rose by 567 to 18,056. Some Spanish businesses, including construction and manufacturing, were allowed to restart.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)(Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Sweden reported 1,033 deaths from Covid-19. The development adds to controversy surrounding the country’s decision not to impose a lockdown, and instead leave schools, bars, cafes and restaurants open. Sweden's government said it would increase the amount it would pay to companies to cover salaries of employees who had been put on reduced hours.
    (Bloomberg, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Switzerland indicted an Iraqi citizen, suspected of being a high-raniking member of the Islamic State, for violating a ban on extremist groups. The man has been in custody since his arrest in May 2017.
    (SFC, 4/15/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 14, Taiwan reported no new cases for the first time in more than a month, in the latest sign that its early prevention methods have paid off.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni extended its initial 14-day lockdown by an extra three weeks, until May 5, as part of efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Uganda has so far recorded a total of 54 coronavirus cases but no deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Ukraine said it had detained a security service general, Valery Shaitanov, on accusations of treason and working for Russia as a spy. The SBU security service said he had planned "terrorist acts" in Ukraine in exchange for $200,000 and a Russian passport.
    (Reuters, 4/14/20)
2020        Apr 14, Ukrainian emergency officials said they have extinguished forest fires in the radiation-contaminated area near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but acknowledged that grass was still smoldering in some areas.
    (AP, 4/14/20)

2020        Apr 15, US government officials warned about the threat of North Korean hackers, calling particular attention to banking and other finance.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, The Trump administration said it plans to buy milk and meat from US farmers as part of an initial $15.5 billion effort to help them weather the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, A top US health official said governors of about 20 US states, spared the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, may start reopening their economies by President Donald Trump's May 1 target date.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced that his state would give cash payments to immigrants living in the country illegally. He said the state will partner with philanthropists to provide $125 million to undocumented immigrants facing financial hardship during the coronavirus outbreak.
    (AP, 4/16/20)(SFC, 4/16/20, p.B1)
2020        Apr 15, California to date had 26,836 cases of coronavirus and 864 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,640 cases and 169 deaths. US cases totaled over 635,000 and rose by 30,000, the biggest increase in five days. Coronavirus cases worldwide reached 2 million with deaths topping 128,000.
    (sfist.com, 4/15/20)(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 15, In Maine a blast at the Androscoggin paper mill in Jay sent debris and a slurry of chemicals raining down on nearby cars and buildings.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 15, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) ordered everyone in the state to wear face coverings in public if there's any danger they won't be able to observe social distancing to help contain the coronavirus outbreak.
    (The Week, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 15, Abbott Laboratories said will start shipping a test on April 16 that can identify people who have recovered from a coronavirus infection even if they never developed symptoms.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Apple Inc released a smaller iPhone priced at $399, cutting the starting price for the company's smartphone line in a move to broaden its appeal to budget-conscious customers as the coronavirus hobbles the global economy.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Best Buy Co Inc said it would furlough about 51,000 hourly US store employees and that its sales dropped about 5% in the first two months of the current quarter, as the electronics retailer kept its stores shut due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, It was reported that a trial in China testing Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug, remdesivir, in those with mild symptoms of COVID-19 has been suspended due to a lack of eligible patients.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, G20 financial officials said they had agreed on a coordinated approach for a suspension of debt service payments for the world's poorest countries starting on May 1 until the end of the year. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva praised the move and said that the Fund was deploying all of its existing resources and was looking to triple its concessional financing for the poorest countries.
    (AP, 4/15/20)(Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Bangladesh coast guard officials brought a ship to shore late today with 382 survivors on board. Local media reported that 28 ethnic Rohingya had died on the ship that drifted for weeks as coronavirus lockdowns in Malaysia and Thailand prevented the vessel from finding refuge.
    (SFC, 4/17/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 15, Belgium reported 2,454 new coronavirus cases, taking the total to 33,573; fatalities rose by 283. Of these total fatalities, 46% were in nursing homes.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Britain's death toll from COVID-19 in hospitals rose 861 to 13,729, as of 1600 GMT. It was the biggest daily rise in five days. Deaths in English hospitals rose by 740 to 12,396.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 15, China denied hiding early warnings of the coronavirus outbreak after The Associated Press published a report saying Beijing delayed announcing the threat for six crucial days.
    (The Week, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 15, China criticized Trump’s move to temporarily halt funding to the WHO and pledged to support the global health body.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, China reported that among 6,764 people who tested positive for the coronavirus infection without showing symptoms, only one fifth of them have so far developed symptoms and been re-classified as confirmed cases.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Denmark re-opened nurseries and primary schools following a month-long coronavirus lockdown.
    (Econ, 4/18/20, p.45)
2020        Apr 15, The European Commission rushed out its road map for EU members to coordinate an exit from coronavirus lockdowns. A few months time and large-scale testing was expected.
    (SFC, 4/16/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 15, German authorities announced that police in the country had arrested four suspected Islamic State members, all from Tajikistan, for allegedly plotting to attack US military bases.
    (SFC, 4/16/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 15, Germany’s new coronavirus cases climbed for the first time in a week. There were 2,543 new infections, taking the total to 134,753. The number of fatalities rose by 309 to 3,804. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced tentative steps to begin returning the country to normal.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Greece said it is extending a temporary ban on all flights to and from Italy, Spain, Turkey, the U.K. and the Netherlands by a month to May 15 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Exceptions included cargo and humanitarian flights.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Indonesia expanded a partial lockdown to more areas near Jakarta, the epicenter of the country’s coronavirus cases, as authorities stepped up efforts to restrict movement of people ahead of the nation’s biggest festive season next month.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Indonesian security forces shot and killed two alleged members of the East Indonesia Mujahedeen, an Islamic militant group, in Poso, Central Sulawesi province.
    (SFC, 4/16/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 15, In Iran fatalities from the virus reached 4,777 as the country’s toll decreased for the fourth consecutive day with 94 deaths overnight. Total infections reached 76,389 after 1,512 tested positive over the last 24 hours.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 578, down from 602 the day before, while the number of new cases slowed to 2,667 from a previous 2,972, continuing the recent downward trend.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, The Jammu and Kashmir region has so far seen about 300 confirmed cases of the virus, and four deaths. It was reported that many Kashmir district authorities, have issued orders that all female poplars be cut within a week, arguing that allergies could be mistaken for coronavirus infection and create "unnecessary panic".
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Kenyan travelers say they are being held in a government quarantine center after the expiry of their mandatory 14 days of isolation following their return from abroad because they cannot pay hefty bills for their stay. Kenya has reported 225 COVID-19 infections and 10 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Libyan officials allowed 47 migrants to disembark in Tripoli after spending hours on a coast guard vessel off the coast. They had been rescued the previous evening. Five bodies were also retrieved and seven migrants were reported missing.
    (SFC, 4/16/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 15, Malawi's government announced a 21-day coronavirus lockdown, which was due to start three days later but campaigners complained that the government did this without providing help for those in need.
    (BBC, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 15, Nigerian doctor Emeka Chugbo (60) died following exposure to a coronavirus patient at his private clinic.
    (BBC, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 15, In Syria two missiles from an Israeli drone targeted a four-wheel-drive vehicle carrying two members of Lebanon's Hezbollah near the Syria-Lebanon border, but neither person was hurt.
    (AP, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, New coronavirus cases in the Netherlands dropped for the fifth consecutive day. Cases rose by 734, or 3%, to 28,153. Fatalities climbed 6%, a steeper rate than the previous days because of a reporting backlog over the Easter weekend.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Palau Pres. Tommy Remengesau said that his country of 20,000 people had not had a single case of the coronavirus and he was going to shut it off from the outside world to keep the virus out.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 15, Portugal reported the biggest increase in new confirmed cases in five days, while the number of hospitalized patients fell. There were 643 new infections, taking the total to 18,091. Deaths rose to 599 from 567.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Puerto Rico has reported 970 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and at least 51 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/16/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 15, Amnesty International said Qatar detained dozens of migrant workers and expelled them last month after telling them they were being taken to be tested for the new coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, In Russia confirmed cases rose by 3,388 in the past day. New daily cases exceeded 3,000 for first time and have almost tripled from last week. The death toll reached 198 with 28 people dying overnight.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, Singapore's health ministry confirmed 447 new coronavirus cases in the biggest daily jump, to bring the total number of cases in the city-state to 3,699. 404 of the new cases were linked to migrant workers' dormitories.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, South Korea held national elections. President Moon Jae-in’s ruling coalition scored the largest parliamentary election victory since the end of military-backed rule more than three decades ago, signaling to global leaders that a strong pandemic response can win votes. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea and its satellite group won 180 places in the 300-seat National Assembly. Defector Thae Yong Ho, a former senior North Korean diplomat, won a constituency seat in the elections.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)(Bloomberg, 4/16/20)(AP, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 15, Spain reported the biggest increase in the number of confirmed cases in six days, while the daily death toll declined. There were more than 5,000 new infections in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 177,633. The number of fatalities rose by 523 to 18,579, compared to the April 14 increase of 637.
    (Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, It was reported that Tajikistan has applied for the IMF's emergency financing, becoming the second Central Asian nation to do so amid the global crisis prompted by the novel coronavirus outbreak. Kyrgyzstan, which has already received $121 million from the fund.
    (Reuters, 4/15/20)
2020        Apr 15, The UN said some 74 million people in the water-scarce Arab region are at greater risk of catching the novel coronavirus because they lack a sink or soap at home.
    (AFP, 4/15/20)

2020        Apr 16, President Donald Trump issued nonbinding guidelines that recommend a patchwork reopening of the country, backing down from an earlier assertion that he would decide how and when to end widespread lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
    (NY Times, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 16, The Trump administration gutted an Obama-era rule that compelled coal plants to cut emissions of mercury and other human health hazards. EPA chief Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, said the rollback was reversing what he depicted as regulatory overreach. The (EPA) issued a final recommendation that it was no longer "appropriate and necessary" to regulate the emissions of mercury and other toxins from coal- and oil-fired power plants.
    (SFC, 4/17/20, p.A3)(Econ, 4/25/20, p.18)
2020        Apr 16, Governors in seven US Midwest states said they will work in close coordination to reopen the economy in their regions. The governors for Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky have formed a partnership to work together on restarting the economies in their states, they said in a statement.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 16, The US Navy said roughly 60 percent of the over 600 sailors who tested positive so far have not shown symptoms of COVID-19, the potentially lethal respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. The service did not speculate about how many might later develop symptoms or remain asymptomatic.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, The Hearst Foundations announced a special grant totaling $50 million to more thqn a hundred medical, humanitarian and cultural organizations impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic.
    (SFC, 4/17/20, p.B2)
2020        Apr 16, California to date had 27,634 cases of coronavirus and 951 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 5,799 cases and 185 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Connecticut fatalities due to the coronavirus rose 40% in the last week to over 970 overall.
    (AP, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, In New Jersey deaths due to the coronavirus have more than doubled in a week, to more than 3,500.
    (AP, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted the lack of major improvement as he announced another 606 deaths in the state due to the coronavirus and said current social isolation rules will stay in place through at least May 15.
    (AP, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum issued guidelines for reopening the state as soon as May 1, according to a statement from his office.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said some businesses could begin to reopen on May 1, after growing pressure from Republican lawmakers. Protesters in several states have urged governors to relax stay-at-home orders, reflecting both economic frustrations and political divides.
    (NY Times, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 16, Facebook said its planned cryptocurrency Libra will be linked to individual national currencies and overseen by global watchdogs in a scaled-back revamp it hopes will win regulatory approval.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Belgian medical authorities said the coronavirus death toll had risen to 4,857 people, of which 49% had been in care homes. Of these, only 6.5% were confirmed as having COVID-19. The vast majority were merely suspected cases.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro fired Health Minister Henrique Mandetta, who had garnered support for his handling of the pandemic that included promotion of broad isolation measures enacted by state governors. Nelson Teich, an oncologist, was named as the new health minister. Brazil has 29,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,760 deaths.
    (AP, 4/17/20)(SFC, 4/17/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 16, Britain's hospital death toll due to the coronavirus rose to 14,576. The government extended a nationwide lockdown for three more weeks.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)(SFC, 4/17/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 16, China reported fewer imported cases, but said locally transmitted infections rose, with the capital Beijing seeing new local cases for the first time in more than three weeks.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Ecuador reported about 8,225 positive cases, about 403 people dead and another 632 probable deaths from coronavirus in the country. The COVID-19 outbreak has overwhelmed the health system, in some cases leaving authorities unable to collect the bodies of the deceased and forcing the government to temporarily store corpses in refrigerated shipping containers.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 16, The Kingdom of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, recorded its first coronavirus death.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, France recorded the most new cases in a single day. President Emmanuel Macron has extended a lockdown to May 11 and said the country was under prepared for the outbreak.
    (Bloomberg, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 16, Iran announced 92 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, the third straight day that official fatalities remained in double digits in the Middle East's worst-hit country. The latest deaths brought the official total to 4,869. 1,606 new infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 77,995.
    (AFP, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Israel’s Pres. Reuven Rivlin asked the Knesset to choose a new prime minister after prime minister-designate, former military chief Benny Gantz, and PM Benjamin Netanyahu failed to reach a power-sharing deal by a midnight deadline. Rivlin gave parliament three weeks to agree upon a leader or plunge the country into an unprecedented fourth consecutive election in just over a year.
    (AP, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Israel's military said it has begun converting common home-use respirators into ventilators capable of providing potentially life-saving breathing support for COVID-19 patients. Israel has reported nearly 12,600 cases of the coronavirus and 140 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe expanded a state of emergency to include the entire country and said the government was considering cash payouts for all.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, In Kenya a Catholic priest was charged in court with spreading the novel coronavirus, the second person to face such charges. Authorities said he failed to adhere to coronavirus quarantine rules following a visit to Italy. Kenya has 234 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 11 deaths.
    (AP, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, In Libya a woman and a child were killed and another five children were wounded by artillery shelling in Tripoli from eastern forces seeking to capture the capital from the UN-backed government there.
    (AP, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Malaysian authorities turned back a boat carrying some 200 Rohingya refugees.
    (SFC, 4/18/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 16, Mexico's deputy health minister, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, said the country might have as many as 55,951 people infected, twice the estimated number reported last week.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 16, Nepal's top court ordered the government to bring back vulnerable migrant workers stranded abroad in the coronavirus crisis after the country barred its own citizens from returning.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 16, A study of Dutch blood donors found that around 3% have developed antibodies against the coronavirus, an indication of what percentage of the population may have already had the disease.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Nigeria's the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said the country's security forces have killed 18 people in two weeks while enforcing lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of the new coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Oman locked down a textile market in a town popular with tourists as the country reported more than 100 new infections to take its count above 1,000.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, The Philippine central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for the third time this year, bringing it to a record low of 2.75%.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would postpone its May 9 celebrations including a huge military parade across Red Square to mark 75 years since the Soviet victory in World War Two because of the deepening coronavirus crisis.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Saudi Arabia executed Emad Abdelqawi al-Mansouri (33), a Yemeni man found guilty of attacking a Spanish dance troupe and wounding three people on stage before a stunned audience in the capital last November 11.
    (AP, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Spain's national death toll exceeded 19,000, but figures from the region of Catalonia indicated the real total could be several thousand higher.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, The Swiss death toll from the novel coronavirus reached 1,017 people, rising from 973 a day earlier. Switzerland said it will fine shoppers who ignore coronavirus-related border restrictions in their hunt for good deals in neighboring countries.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, A Tajik court sentenced a local journalist to a year in prison over a dissertation in which he quoted the works of Muslim Brotherhood leaders. Reporter Daler Sharifov was convicted of hate speech, a charge to which he pleaded not guilty.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine began a prisoner exchange. Ukraine took back 20 prisoners and in exchange for 14 rebels.
    (AP, 4/16/20)(SFC, 4/17/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 16, The UN warned that hundreds of thousands of children could die this year due to the global economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and tens of millions more could fall into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis.
    (Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020        Apr 16, Yemen's Houthi rebels and rival Saudi border guards reportedly killed several dozen Ethiopian migrants at the border. On August 13 Human Rights Watch quoted Ethiopian migrants who said Houthi fighters had rounded up thousands of them from their unofficial settlement area in al-Ghar town in the country’s northwestern Saada province.
    (AP, 8/13/20)

2020        Apr 17, President Donald Trump announced a $19 billion relief program to help US farmers cope with the impact of the coronavirus, including $16 billion in direct payments to producers and mass purchases of meat, dairy, vegetables and other products.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 17, It was reported that President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and longtime fixer Michael Cohen will be released from federal prison to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic. 473 federal inmates and 279 Bureau of Prisons staff members had tested positive for the coronavirus at facilities across the US Eighteen inmates have died since late March.
    (AP, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, US coronavirus deaths topped 35,400, rising by more than 2,000 for the fourth day in a row. President Donald Trump said that individual states were responsible for developing testing capabilities.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 17, California to date had 28,903 cases of coronavirus and 1,021 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,006 cases and 196 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, San Francisco's Mayor London Breed announced rules requiring face masks for people in public. Marin, Alameda, San Mateo and Contra Costa counties released similar mandates as part of SF Bay Area regional effort to stem the coronavirus pandemic.
    (SFC, 4/18/20, p.A1)
2020        Apr 17, In Connecticut nursing home residents accounted for 375 of the state's 971 virus deaths.
    (AP, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Tyson Foods said four of its employees have died in southwest Georgia after becoming infected with the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 4/18/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 17, A New York survey reported that 19 of the state's nursing homes have reported 20 or more deaths in the past few weeks. Four homes were listed as having at least 40 deaths. Lack of coronavirus testing meant that COVID-19 was only a possible factor.
    (SFC, 4/18/20, p.A5)
020        Apr 17, Reported cases of the coronavirus crossed 2.18 million globally and 147,265 people have died.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, In Austria the Verbund utility company shut down the country's last coal-fired power plant as part of a plan to end the use of fossil fuels by 2030.
    (https://tinyurl.com/yc28ea3c)(SFC, 4/20/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 17, Oxford scientists said a million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by British scientists are already being manufactured and will be available by September, even before trials prove whether the shot is effective. The experimental product, called "ChAdOx1 nCoV-19", is a type known as a recombinant viral vector vaccine and is one of at least 70 potential COVID-19 candidate shots under development by biotech and research teams around the world.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, A new report said that cites modeling from Imperial College London said Africa could see 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus this year even under the best-case scenario.
    (AP, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, China said it will step up macroeconomic policies to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as its economy faces unprecedented challenges. China also acknowledged that the coronavirus death toll for epicenter of Wuhan was 50% higher than previously reported.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)(AP, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, In Congo DRC at least 25 people were killed when the Mulongwe River flooded in Uvira city, Sout Kivu province.
    (SFC, 4/20/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 17, The WHO said five new Ebola infections have been recorded in eastern Congo since last week in a new flare-up just as the government was about to declare an end to the deadly epidemic.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, The French navy said it is investigating how the coronavirus infected more than 1,000 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, amid growing pressure on government leaders to explain how it could have happened.
    (AP, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Germany’s coronavirus cases increased at a faster rate for a second day. The number of fatalities rose by 248, the smallest gain in three days, to more than 4,000.
    (Bloomberg, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said a large number of migrants on a deportation flight to Guatemala from the United States this week were infected with the coronavirus, adding that US authorities had confirmed a dozen cases.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 17, China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong said it was not bound by Article 22 of the 1990 Basic Law. The article banned Chinese government offices from interfering in Hong Kong's internal affairs.
    (Econ, 4/25/20, p.8)
2020        Apr 17, Indonesia reported 407 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number to 5,923.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Iran said 89 more people have died from the novel coronavirus. It was the sixth day that the official fatality rate has dropped. The latest deaths brought the overall toll to 4,958. 1,499 new infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 79,494.
    (AFP, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe urged the international community to rally around the World Health Organization and said the body’s problems should be addressed once the coronavirus outbreak is contained.
    (Bloomberg, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, In Kazakhstan a US-Russian crew landed safely following a stint on the International Space Station and was greeted with extra precautions due to the coronavirus.
    (AP, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Libya's east-based military forces fired into residential neighborhoods of the country's besieged capital with heavy weapons, killing four civilians, including an elderly man and a teenager.
    (AP, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Malawi's High Court took the unprecedented step of blocking the government's plans to impose a coronavirus lockdown until more had been done to help those worst affected. It ordered the lockdown be delayed for seven days, pending a judicial review. Following a judicial review, a High Court judge extended the ban for a further five days.
    (BBC, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 17, The Maldives locked down its capital due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Myanmar announced that it was releasing of 25,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty marking the New year Thingyan holiday. Myanmar has reported 85 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and four deaths.
    (SFC, 4/18/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 17, In the Netherlands confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 1,235 to 30,449. The death toll among people known to have been infected increased by 144 to 3,459.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari, died after contracting the coronavirus in Germany.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 17, Radio Free Asia reported that North Korean authorities told citizens in public lectures that there were confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country as early as the end of March.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 17, Worshippers around Pakistan defied a ban on gatherings, due to the coronavirus pandemic, by attending prayers at mosques.
    (SFC, 4/18/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 17, Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte threatened martial law style enforcement of a coronavirus lockdown in the northern region of the country. The country has reported 5,878 coronavirus infections and 387 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/18/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 17, In the Philippines state forces battled dozens of Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu province. 11 soldiers were reported killed as well as an undetermined number of militants.
    (SFC, 4/18/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 17, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin prodded top officials to move faster to prepare for a surge in coronavirus cases. The virus has penetrated more deeply into Moscow's population than official data show. Early results from the first commercial Russian tests suggest that a much higher proportion of people in Moscow are infected, and that the disease has spread among residents without symptoms. Moscow has recorded 18,105, equivalent to just over 0.1% of its population. Russia's space corporation Roscosmos said it had 42 coronavirus cases and reported two deaths. Russia has recorded 32,008 coronavirus cases and 273 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)(AP, 4/17/20)(SFC, 4/18/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 17, Spain's overnight death toll from coronavirus was 585, a rise from 551 the previous night as the country started to loosen the terms of its lockdown.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, In Tajikistan Rustam Emomali (32), the eldest son of President Emomali Rakhmon, was elected as speaker in the senate, cementing the family's grip on power in the Central Asian nation ahead of a presidential election. Rakhmon's daughter Ozoda Rakhmon is also a senator and serves as the president's chief of staff, while her husband holds the No.2 position at the central bank.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Thai PM Prayuth Chan-ocha called on the country's 20 richest people to help in addressing the damaging economic fall-out from the coronavirus epidemic. Thailand has reported 2,700 COVID-19 infections and 47 deaths, and the economic blow from losses of trade and tourism and restrictions on movement has been heavy.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Turkey's confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease increased by 4,353 in the past 24 hours, and 126 more people have died, taking the death toll to 1,769. The total number of cases in the country stood at 78,546.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)
2020        Apr 17, Venezuela said it has just 204 reported cases of the coronavirus and 9 deaths in a country of 29 million people.
    (Reuters, 4/17/20)

2020        Apr 18, US President Donald Trump said that China should face consequences if it was "knowingly responsible" for the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 690,714 cases of new coronavirus, an increase of 29,002 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 2,394 to 35,443. Over 2.3 million people worldwide have tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 160,000 people had died.
    (Reuters, 4/19/20)(Yahoo News, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 18, In Alabama Derrick Hightower (32) was arrested in Birmingham. He was suspected of killing as many as four people across the state and robbing seeral others.
    (SFC, 4/21/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 18, California to date had 29,839 cases of coronavirus and 1,072 deaths. California reported 87 new deaths, one of the highest daily counts so far. The SF Bay Area had 6,227 cases and 197 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/18/20)(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, In California Dr. Bill Kirby (72), the former mayor of Auburn, died in the crash near the Auburn Municipal Airport. Kirby had gained notoriety last week following social media posts criticizing Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and comparing the president’s supporters to KKK members.
    (AP, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Barbara Babcock (81), a pioneering legal voice in women's rights, died at her Stanford home. She became Stanford's first female law professor in 1972. Her books included "Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz" (2011), a biography of the first woman lawyer in the west, and the founder of the public defender movement.
    (https://tinyurl.com/yadpoywn)(SSFC, 5/31/20, p.C3)
2020        Apr 18, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said new coronavirus cases increased by less than 10% for a 12th straight day -- 3,026 for a total of 81,420. The 231 additional fatalities followed four straight days of more than 300 deaths. Deaths have passed 4,000.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, In New Hampshire a few hundred demonstrators outside the Statehouse called for an end to social restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus. New Hampshire has reported nearly 1,300 cases and more than three dozen deaths.
    (SSFC, 4/19/20, p.A7)
2020        Apr 18, New York state began mandating the wearing of masks or face coverings in public to contain the pathogen's spread. 507 people died today raising the death toll to 13,362.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)(AP, 4/19/20)(SFC, 4/20/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 18, Pennsylvania reported 80 new coronavirus deaths, the most on a single day, taking statewide fatalities to 836. The health department had 1,628 new cases, bringing the state’s total to 31,069.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Paul O'Neill (84), the blunt-spoken former head of Alcoa Corp who was fired after two rocky years as US President George W. Bush's Treasury secretary, died at his home in Pittsburgh.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Protesters in the US staged several demonstrations in several cities including Austin, Texas, to call for an end to social restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus. Gov. Greg Abbott had already announced that restrictions will be easing next week.
    (SSFC, 4/19/20, p.A7)
2020        Apr 18, In Texas Alfredo Perez de la Cruz (45) killed police Officer Justin Putnam (31) and wounded two others before killing himself at a home in San Marcos where officers responded to a domestic violence call.
    (SFC, 4/20/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 18, Afghan government sources said at least 20 officials working at President Ashraf Ghani's palace have tested positive for coronavirus, prompting the 70-year-old leader to limit most of his contact with staff to digital communication. Afghanistan has reported 933 coronavirus cases, including 30 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Africa now has more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 as the overall number of cases surpassed 20,000.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Algeria said it will extend a lockdown by 10 days until April 29 as it tries to limit the spread of the coronavirus amid increases in deaths and confirmed cases. Algeria has so far reported 2,418 infections and 364 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, In Bangladesh hundreds of workers poured onto the streets of the port city of Chittagong, flouting social distancing rules to demand work and wages during the coronavirus shutdown. The country reported 306 new cases of coronavirus and nine more deaths, taking the total to 2,144 cases and 84 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Bhutan has reported five coronavirus cases and no deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Brazil reported 2,917 new coronavirus cases and 211 deaths in 24 hours. Total deaths rose to 2,352 from 2,141.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Britain's daily deaths rose by 888 to 15,464. The number of cases reached more than 114,000. It was reported that Britain has paid $20 million for new coronavirus antibody test kits from two Chinese companies, AllTest Biotech and Wondfo Biotech. The testing kits in fact proven unsuccessful.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)(NY Times, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, PM Justin Trudeau said Canada and the United States have agreed to extend border restrictions for another 30 days to help control the spread of coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, In Canada Gabriel Wortman killed 13 people in Nova Scotia late today, and another nine the next day before police shot him dead.
    (Reuters, 11/25/21)
2020        Apr 18, China ordered that anyone in Wuhan working in certain service-related jobs must take a coronavirus test if they want to leave the city. China's National Health Commission reported 16 new confirmed coronavirus, the lowest number since March 17 and down from 27 a day earlier. No new deaths were reported. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country reached 82,735, while the total death toll from the virus stood at 4,632.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)(Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 18, Croatia said it is extending its coronavirus lockdown for another 15 days. Croatia has recorded 1,832 cases of COVID-19 and 39 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Denmark announced an extended aid package worth 100 billion Danish crowns ($14 billion). In an amendment to the aid measures, which now total close to 400 billion crowns, companies registered in tax haven countries will no longer be eligible for aid.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 18, Deaths in France rose by 642 to 19,323 fatalities, the smallest increase in five days. The number of coronavirus infections rose by 5,715 to 173,956.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Germany reported 3,699 new coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours, increasing at a quicker rate for a third day and taking the total to 141,397. The number of fatalities rose by 300 to 4,352.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, A German-operated cruise ship left Western Australia after three weeks. Three people died on board of the virus during that time. About 79 crew and passengers aboard the Artania had tested positive.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Hong Kong police arrested 15 veteran pro-democracy lawmakers and activists on charges of joining unlawful protests last year calling for reforms. They included and media tycoon Jimmy Lai and Martin Lee (81), a barrister and former legislator.
    (AP, 4/18/20)(Econ, 4/25/20, p.33)
2020        Apr 18, India reported 991 new cases and 42 new deaths from the virus, taking the total number of reported cases to 14,378 and deaths to 480.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Indonesia reported 325 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 6,248. The Health ministry also reported 15 new deaths, taking the total to 535.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Fatalities in Iran rose to 5,031. The daily death toll from the virus fell to the lowest in over a month with 73 deaths in the past 24 hours. Total known cases reached 80,868 with 1,374 new infections. Iran allowed some businesses in Tehran and nearby towns to re-open.
    (AFP, 4/18/20)(AP, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Italy reported the fewest deaths in six days as new cases remained stable. The country registered 482 fatalities down from 525 a day earlier, the lowest since April 12. Total deaths were 23,227. There were 3,491 new cases with the total now at 175,925.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, In Japan 181 new cases were found in Tokyo. Cases in Japan exceeded 10,000. It was reported that hospitals in Japan are increasingly turning away sick people as the country struggles with surging coronavirus infections and its emergency medical system collapses.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)(AP, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, In Kashmir rebels fighting Indian rule attacked a paramilitary post killing three soldiers and wounding two others in the northwestern Sopore area.
    (SFC, 4/20/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 18, Kazakhstan police said they have detained political activist and government critic Arman Shorayev in connection with the alleged spreading of "false information" during a state of emergency.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Lesotho's PM Thomas Thabane (80), who is accused of murdering his estranged wife in 2017, deployed the army on the streets to "restore order." He accused unnamed law enforcement elements of seeking to undermine democracy. The decision came a day after the constitutional court ruled against his decision to suspend parliament.
    (BBC, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Malaysia reported 54 new coronavirus cases, the lowest daily increase since the government imposed curbs on movement and business on March 18, taking the cumulative total to 5,305. The health ministry also reported 2 new deaths, bringing total fatalities to 88.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, The Maldives has reported 34 coronavirus cases and no deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Nepal has reported 30 coronavirus cases and no deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, The Netherlands reported 129 new hospital admissions, up just 1%, marking a record low since the daily statistic has been reported since late March. Total confirmed cases grew 4% to 31,589, in line with recent trends. Fatalities rose to 3,601, also in line.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Pakistan lifted restrictions on congregational prayers at mosques, but put in place a host of safety conditions to avert the further spread of the coronavirus in the country. Pakistan has registered 7,638 cases of the virus and 143 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Portugal reported a bigger number of new confirmed coronavirus cases, while the number of hospitalized patients fell. There were 663 new cases in a day, taking the total to 19,685.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, In Russia new infections jumped by 4,785 to 36,793. Forty people died in the past day, including 21 in Moscow, bringing the number of fatalities to 313.
    (AP, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Singapore's health ministry confirmed 942 more coronavirus infections.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, South Africa reported 251 new coronavirus infections, its biggest daily increase, bringing the total to 3,034.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, New cases in Spain rose by 4,499 in the last 24 hours, pushing the total to 191,726. Authorities reported a total of 20,043 deaths from the illness since the outbreak started, with 565 people dying in the last 24 hours.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Sri Lanka has reported 248 coronavirus cases, including seven deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Taiwan has only reported 398 coronavirus cases and six deaths. Taiwan said it will put 700 navy sailors into quarantine after three cases of the new coronavirus were confirmed among sailors who had been on a goodwill mission to the Pacific island state of Palau.
    (Reuters, 4/18/20)
2020        Apr 18, Turkey reported another 121 coronavirus deaths, raising the total to 1,890.
    (Bloomberg, 4/18/20)

2020        Apr 19, Protesters in the US held a second day of weekend rallies to call for reopening the economy despite the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
    (The Week, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 19, Suspected tornadoes killed at least two people in Alabama and Mississippi as severe weather blasted a wide area across the Deep South.
    (AP, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 19, California to date had 30,831 cases of coronavirus and 1,148 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,307 cases and 198 deaths. The US death toll from the COVID-19 coronavirus reached another grim milestone, rising above 40,000.
    (sfist.com, 4/19/20)(The Week, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 19, In Texas Ramon Thomas Villagomez opened fire on a Dallas-area public bus, hijacking it with two people aboard and leading officers on a chase that ended in a shootout in which Villagomez was killed and three officers were wounded. Villagomez was wanted for the April 7 death of his girlfriend.
    (AP, 4/19/20)(SFC, 4/20/20, p.A3)(SFC, 4/21/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 19, Wyoming's Democratic Party announced that former Vice President Joe Biden won the state Democratic presidential caucus with 72 percent of the vote.
    (AP, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 19, In Afghanistan a wave of Taliban attacks killed 29 members of the security forces. This included 7 in Balkh province, 19 in Takhar province and three in Badghis province.
    (SFC, 4/21/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 19, Thousands of Belarusians converged on churches across the country on Sunday to celebrate Easter, ignoring calls from health authorities and church leaders to stay at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, Belgium reported 230 deaths from coronavirus during the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 5,683. Fatalities fell for a fourth day in a row Total confirmed cases as reported a day earlier rose by 1,313 to 38,496.
    (Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, Pirates off the coast of Benin attacked the Tommi Ritscher container ship, a Portugal-flagged vessel, and kidnapped its Bulgarian captain and seven sailors. 11 other members of the crew were released.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 19, In Britain a further 596 deaths linked to the coronavirus were recorded in hospitals, the lowest daily number since April 6. Total fatalities climbed to 16,060.
    (Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, In Canada a gunman dressed in a police uniform went on a 12-hour killing spree in Nova Scotia province, killing 22 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in Canadian history. Suspect Gabriel Wortman (51) died in a standoff with police after a car chase. The mass shooting erupted from an argument between Wortman and his girlfriend, who survived.
    (AP, 4/21/20)(AP, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 19, Chile reported over 10,000 cases of coronavirus, the third-highest tally in Latin America. Chile has reported a total of 133 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, China reported 16 new coronavirus cases but no deaths. Authorities remained on guard against a major resurgence and monitored the spread of cases in Heilongjiang province.
    (Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, It was reported that dogs are no longer to be classified as livestock in China and are instead considered merely pets in new guidelines issued by Beijing because of the coronavirus crisis.
    (SSFC, 4/19/20, p.E4)
2020        Apr 19, In Germany there were 2,327 new coronavirus infections in the 24 hours, taking the total to 143,724. fatalities rose by 186, the fewest in five days, to 4,538.
    (Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, Guatemala said a total of 50 migrants deported by the United States to the country have tested positive for coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 19, India recorded its largest daily spike in coronavirus cases, adding 1,400 new infections to its tally of more than 16,000 amid a nationwide lockdown that’s about to enter its fourth week. Confirmed infections were up 78% to 16,365, from 9,200 on April 12.
    (Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, Indonesia reported 327 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 6,575. The health ministry reported 47 new deaths, taking the total to 582.
    (Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, Iran added a further 87 deaths and 1,343 new cases to its virus tally in the past 24 hours, raising total fatalities to 5,118 from over 82,000 known cases. Iran said will extend leave for prisoners for one more month.
    (Bloomberg, 4/19/20)(AFP, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, Malaysian media reported that Sabah, the largest palm oil producing state, has temporarily halted palm operations in one area after 11 coronavirus cases were found there. Malaysia reported a total of 5,305 positive coronavirus cases, 88 of whom have died.
    (Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, Mexico registered a total of 8,261 confirmed coronavirus cases and 686 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 19, Mozambique expelled a fugitive Brazilian cocaine trafficker following his arrest this week. Brazilian media reported that Gilberto Aparecido dos Santos left Mozambique early this morning in a Brazilian Air Force plane bound for Brazil.
    (Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, The Netherlands reported 83 coronavirus deaths. 110 patients were admitted to hospitals, the smallest increase since the daily reporting of the statistic started at the end of last month. Overall confirmed cases grew by 3% to 32,655.
    (Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, Peru reported over 15,000 cases of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 19, In northeastern Poland wildfires began ravaging the marshes of the Biebrza National Park, home to moose, beavers and unique wetland birds, as the country faced the severest drought in decades.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 19, Russia identified 6,060 new infections in 24 hours, setting another daily record with an increase of 27%. The total number of cases rose to 42,853, with 48 new deaths bringing the number of fatalities to 361. President Vladimir Putin said: “The situation is completely under control”.
    (Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, Singapore's health ministry confirmed 596 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of cases in the city-state to 6,588. The vast majority of the new cases were migrant workers living in dormitories.
    (Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it confirmed eight new coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period, the lowest since Feb. 20. This raised the total to 10,661 cases and 234 deaths.
    (Bloomberg, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, Spain reported the smallest increase in the number of deaths in four weeks, while new infections slowed compared with previous days. Coronavirus deaths rose by 410 to 20,453, the smallest one-day increase since March 22. In total 200,210 people have been infected in Spain, with 4,218 new cases detected in the past 24 hours.
    (Bloomberg, 4/19/20)(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 19, Taiwan reported 22 new coronavirus cases, almost all of them sailors who had been on a friendly visit of Taiwanese navy ships to the Pacific island state of Palau last month.
    (Reuters, 4/19/20)
2020        Apr 19, Turkey's confirmed coronavirus cases have risen to 86,306.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 19, Uganda's police detained lawmaker Francis Zaake for committing a "negligent act likely to spread an infection of disease", an apparent reference to the coronavirus. Zaake's supporters say he was arrested after he distributed food to people at his residence as relief to help them cope with the coronavirus lockdown.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 19, Yemen’s Houthi rebels detained former culture minister and writer Khalid al-Rwaishan (b.1962), a vocal critic of their rule. Al-Rwaishan was released the next day.
    (AP, 4/19/20)(AP, 4/20/20)

2020        Apr 20, US Pres. Donald Trump said that he intended to temporarily suspend immigration to the US, which he said would protect American workers once the economy began to recover.
    (NY Times, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 20, The US Supreme Court ruled that juries in state criminal trials must be unanimous to convict a defendant, settling a quirk of constitutional law that had allowed divided votes to result in convictions. The justices’ vote overturned the conviction of Evangelisto Ramos. He is serving a life sentence in Louisiana for killing a woman after a jury voted 10-2 to convict him in 2016. Now the same rules will apply in all 50 states and in the federal system.
    (AP, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, The US Supreme Court threw out a lower court ruling that had allowed litigation by Montana landowners to proceed against BP Plc unit Atlantic Richfield Co seeking a more extensive cleanup of a hazardous waste site than the federal government had ordered.
(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, The US FDA said it has approved Tukysa, a drug developed by Seattle Genetics, for the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer that has spread and resisted other medicines.
    (SFC, 4/21/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 20, California to date had 33,404 cases of coronavirus and 1,203 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,560 cases and 210 deaths. The US death toll from the COVID-19 coronavirus rose to 40,724. Worldwide the outbreak has killed more than 170,000 people and infected 2.5 million.
    (sfist.com, 4/20/20)(The Week, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 20, The governors of Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee said they would start relaxing restrictions intended to curb the spread of the virus.
    (NY Times, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 20, Massachusetts reported 103 new coronavirus deaths, bringing the state's death toll to more than 1,800. More than 1,500 new cases were reported, for a total of more than 39,500 across the state.
    (AP, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, A US federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt's attempt to ban abortions during the coronavirus pandemic.
    (SFC, 4/22/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 20, Starbucks Corp said it would roll out a plant-based food and beverage menu in China this week, launching Beyond Meat Inc and Oatly products in a country which is trying to recover from coronavirus shutdowns.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, The benchmark price for crude oil in the US fell below zero for the first time. It was the result of a quirk in the market.
    (NY Times, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 20, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc said it would start a late-stage study of its rare blood-disorder drug, Ultomiris, in COVID-19 patients hospitalized with severe pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, IDEXX Laboratories Inc said it would provide veterinarians a COVID-19 test for pets amid evidence that infected humans could transmit the virus to their pets.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, Researchers said that the comet called 2I/Borisov - only the second interstellar object ever detected passing through the solar system - is surprisingly different in its composition from comets hailing from our celestial neighborhood. Gas coming off 2I/Borisov contained high amounts of carbon monoxide. The comet was detected in August 2019 by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov and estimated to be about six-tenths of a mile (1-km) wide.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, More than 150 Australian economists warned the government against easing social distancing rules.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, Schools reopened in Belarus. The number of people infected with the coronavirus was now 6,264 and included 51 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/21/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 20, Police in Chile broke up a fresh round of anti-government protests in one of Santiago´s central squares late today, arresting 14 and citing rules against congregations intended to ward off the spread of coronavirus. Health authorities have banned gatherings of more than 50 people nationwide to thwart the spread of coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 20, In the Czech Republic farmers markets, craft shops, car dealerships and dog grooming salons opened. Strict hygiene rules remained in force. Around 5,300 coronavirus cases have been reported with 188 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, Students in Germany went back to class to take their final exams as schools that had been shut last month to stem the spread of the coronavirus epidemic began to reopen.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, A Haitian health ministry source said three migrants the United States deported two weeks ago to Haiti, on a flight that raised objections from human rights advocates, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus while in quarantine in the Caribbean country. Haiti now has 47 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, India recorded 1,553 cases of the coronavirus, its biggest single-day spike. At least 543 people have died. The government has eased one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to allow some manufacturing and agricultural activity to resume. India's government said farms and factories could resume activity in the hinterland, which has been less hard-hit by COVID-19.
    (AP, 4/20/20)(Reuters, 4/21/20)(SFC, 4/21/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 20, Iran's foreign minister used a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad to call on the US to lift sanctions imposed on both countries. The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Iran reached 5,209 with 91 deaths in the past twenty four hours. The total number of diagnosed cases reached 83,505 as shopping malls and bazaars reopened despite warnings by some health officials that a new wave of coronavirus infections could ripple through the country.
    (AP, 4/20/20)(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and centrist rival Benny Gantz announced a deal to form an emergency unity government.
    (The Week, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 20, An Israeli airstrike in central Syria killed nine fighters, including six who were not Syrians and some who were loyal to the militant Hezbollah group.
    (AP, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 20, The Kurdish Red Crescent said Kurds in Syria have set up a specialized hospital for coronavirus cases after the first COVID-19 death was reported in the northeastern region.
    (AFP, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, Luxembourg began easing coronavirus restrictions along with an order that the public cover their mouths when entering confined spaces such as public transport or shops.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, Mexico's Tamaulipas state said 16 migrants from several countries have tested positive for coronavirus in the northern border state. Migrants now make up about 10% of the state's 193 coronavirus cases.
    (AP, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, In Mexico Karla Baca, and Pat Landers were shot and killed by a flood of gunshots to their car in South Juarez while quarantining amidst the coronavirus pandemic. There have been more than 100 killings in Juarez this month, with 560 homicides so far this year.
    (The Independent, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 20, A Myanmar government health worker was injured and his driver killed when their UN-marked vehicle was ambushed as they carried COVID-19 test samples in conflict-ridden Rakhine state.
    (AFP, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 20, In Pakistan militants armed with assault rifles attacked an army security post in a former Taliban stronghold in the country's northwest early today, triggering a shootout that killed a soldier. Five insurgents were also killed.
    (AP, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, Panama registered 191 new cases and 10 deaths, bringing total cases to 4,658 and the death toll to 136.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 20, In Portugal a municipal official said the coronavirus has swept through a hostel in Lisbon, infecting 138 of the 175 asylum seekers housed there. Portugal has reported 20,863 coronavirus cases, with 735 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, In Russia the head of Rospotrebnadzor, a health and consumer protection agency at the forefront of Russia’s fight against the pandemic, said that medical institutions accounted for more than half of 74 infection “hot spots” so far identified across the country. It was reported that remote northern Russian region of Komi has become Russia’s third most infected area after Moscow and St. Petersburg. Russia has so far reported 47,121 cases of the coronavirus with a death toll of 405.
    (AP, 4/20/20)(Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, Hundreds of people protested against regional authorities in southern Russia over what they said were restrictive and unnecessary coronavirus measures. The Republic of North Ossetia, where the protest took place, has officially registered only 145 cases and two deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, The Serbian government said it would allow some businesses and markets to reopen in a cautious easing of a nationwide lockdown following signs of a fall in the rate of virus infections. Serbia has so far reported 6,630 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 125 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, In southern Spain a suspected Egyptian-born Islamic State fighter described by police investigators as a "dangerous extremist" and two other people who are being investigated for possible links to religious extremist groups were arrested in Almería.
    (AP, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 20, Swiss drugmaker said Novartis it has won the go-ahead from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct a randomized trial of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19 disease.
    (Reuters, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, Syria has reported only 39 cases of the coronavirus and two deaths.
    (AP, 4/20/20)
2020        Apr 20, Police in Uganda arrested Samson Kasumba, a prominent journalist and news anchor at one of the country's biggest TV stations for alleged subversive activities.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 20, UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, appealed for an additional $92.4 million to help fight the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa, a conflict-battered region with the highest number of children in need anywhere.
    (AP, 4/20/20)

2020        Apr 21, President Trump provided details on a tweet in which he vowed to "suspend immigration," saying that he would order a 60-day halt in issuing green cards to keep people seeking permanent residency from immigrating to the United States during the coronavirus crisis.
    (The Week, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 21, The Trump administration barred most international students and all students who entered the US illegally from receiving emergency college grants approved by Congress as part of nearly $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued the restriction in new guidelines telling colleges how to distribute more than $6 billion in grants meant to help students cover unexpected costs triggered by the pandemic.
    (AP, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 21, The Trump administration ordered Chevron Corp. to "wind down" operations in Venezuela by Dec. 1, barring the California-based oil giant in the meantime from drilling or exporting. Chevron's investments in Venezuela were estimated at $2.6 billion.
    (SFC, 4/22/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 21, The US Congress approved the spending of $25bn on testing for COVID-19.
    (Econ, 4/25/20, p.72)
2020        Apr 21, The US Senate Intelligence Committee released a bipartisan report confirming its conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election aiming to help Donald Trump win the presidency.
    (The Week, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 21, Deutsche Bank in a letter declined a request by prominent US senators to provide information about the German lender's recent business dealings with President Donald Trump and his family. Deutsche's counsel rejected the senators' request on privacy grounds.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 21, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield warned that a second coronavirus wave in winter could be "even more difficult than the one we just went through".
    (The Week, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 21, California to date had 35,450 cases of coronavirus and 1,280 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,715 cases and 211 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 788,920.
    (sfist.com, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, US federal prosecutors in Boston said Jorge Salcedo (47), a former UCLA men's soccer coach, has pleaded guilty to taking $200,000 in bribes as part of a college admissions cheating scheme.
    (SFC, 4/22/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 21, In Michigan a judge tossed the conviction of Kevin Harrington (37) and threw out his life sentence after prosecutors determined the lead detective coerced a key witness into implicating him and a second man. Harrington had spent 17 years behind bars for a murder he had always insisted he did not commit.
    (NBC News, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 21, Missouri's top state prosecutor announced a lawsuit, which alleges that Chinese officials are to blame for the pandemic that has sickened around 2.5 million worldwide, thrown tens of millions out of work and devastated local economies, including in China. US law generally prohibits such suits. The number of Missouri deaths from the coronavirus rose by 16 to 215.
    (AP, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 21, It was reported that spike in prison coronavirus infections sent Ohio's broader tally of cases to nearly 14,000, including more than 550 deaths and over 2,600 hospitalizations.
    (AP, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, Milwaukee's top public health officials said that at least seven people appear to have been infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus during activities associated with Wisconsin's April 7 election.
    (The Week, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 21, Hundreds of Amazon and Target workers started a nationwide wave of sickouts to call attention to what they described as inadequate efforts to protect employees from the coronavirus pandemic.
    (The Week, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 21, Microsoft joined a fledgling movement to liberate the world's data. Microsoft planned to launch 20 data-sharing groups by 2022 and give away some of its digital information, including data it has gathered on COVID-19.
    (Econ, 4/25/20, p.57)
2020        Apr 21, Global stocks fell, a day after US crude oil prices turned negative for the first time ever, as dismal corporate earnings underlined worries about economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic. Reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.46 million globally and 169,863 people have died.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, Police in Bosnia began moving hundreds of migrants and refugees off the streets of the northwestern city of Bihac and transferring them into a nearby emergency tent camp set up amid the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, Britain's health ministry data a total of 17,337 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospitals in Britain, an increase of 828 on the figure published 24 hours earlier. The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus has risen to 129,044.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, In Cameroon a statement broadcast on state radio said soldiers and vigilantes stormed the rebel base in February and then discovered "that three women and 10 children were killed" in the gun battle in Ntumbo. A tally by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said 21 civilians were killed, including 13 children and a pregnant woman, and blamed the attack on at least 10 troops from an elite army unit who were backed by "at least 30 armed Fulani" militiamen.
    (BBC, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 21, China's agriculture ministry said it had detected the deadly African swine fever virus in pigs transported to the southwestern province of Sichuan, the latest in a dozen such cases in the last two months.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, France expanded its list of drugs that face export restrictions through the coronavirus crisis despite repeated calls from the European Union to lift curbs that could cause shortages in other countries. The European Commission sent a letter on April 7 to the French government urging it to lift export restrictions on dozens of vital medicines to treat coronavirus patients. Manufacturers are exempted from the export curbs.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 21, Florian Schneider (b.1947), co-founder of the German electronic music group Kraftwork, died in Dusseldorf. The avant-garde music group emerged from Dusseldorf in 1970.
    (Econ., 5/16/20, p.43)
2020        Apr 21, In Greece dozens of migrants in a hostel tested positive for the novel coronavirus, hours after the government said it would open some public services on April 27 as part of a gradual easing of the nation's coronavirus lockdown. Greece has registered 2,245 infections since its first case surfaced in late February. The death toll is 116.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, Indian authorities said they have arrested 29 people who participated in an Islamic missionary meeting last month in New Delhi that resulted in a large cluster of coronavirus cases. India has 18,601 confirmed cases of the virus. More than 4,200 cases were linked to the meeting.
    (SFC, 4/22/20, p.A6)
2020        Apr 21, Indian government forces killed four rebels late today in a gun battle in the southern Shopian district of disputed Kashmir.
    (SFC, 4/23/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 21, Indonesia's Pres. Joko Widodo announced a national ban on mudik, the return home of vast numbers of migrants for the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. The ban went into effect three days later, by which time many were already on the move.
    (Econ., 5/2/20, p.29)
2020        Apr 21, Iran announced 88 new deaths from the novel coronavirus as the country said it had released more than 1,000 foreign prisoners over the outbreak. The latest fatalities brought the country's total to 5,297. An additional 1,297 cases of COVID-19 infection detected in the past 24 hours brought the overall total to 84,802.
    (AP, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, Kenya has confirmed almost 300 cases of COVID-19. It was reported that village chiefs in Kenya will make house-to-house checks after reports some rural communities were taking advantage of school closures due to the coronavirus to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, In Kenya as many as 50 people escaped a quarantine area as a meal was being served at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC). Kenya has recorded 296 cases of Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus, including 14 deaths.
    (BBC, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 21, In Lebanon the bodies of seven persons, including five Syrians, were found shot dead in three separate locations in the mountain village of Baakline.
    (AP, 4/21/20)(SFC, 4/22/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 21, Mexico registered a jump of more than 700 confirmed cases, to reach a total of 9,501.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 21, Montenegrin health authorities said they would shorten a curfew and allow shops to work longer hours. The country has reported 313 infections among a population of 630,000. Five people have died and 90 recovered so far.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, Moroccan prison authorities said 68 people, mostly staff, have come down with the coronavirus at a prison in the southern city of Ouarzazate. Morocco has confirmed 3,186 cases of the COVID-19 lung disease including 144 deaths.
    (AP, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, The Netherlands's Supreme Court ruled that doctors can carry out ehthanasia in patients with advanced dementia if the patient had earlier made a written directive. The ruling solidified a law already in practice.
    (SFC, 4/22/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 21, Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper reported the recent deaths of around 150 people in the northern commercial city of Kano, prompting investigations to determine if they were related to the coronavirus pandemic. The state government acknowledged the deaths but said they were caused by complications from hypertension, diabetes, meningitis and acute malaria and not the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria has 1,182 coronavirus cases and a national death toll of 35.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 21, Reports surfaced that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was in fragile condition following heart surgery.
    (SFC, 4/21/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 21, Singapore has reported 9,125 coronavirus cases, a tenfold increase in just three weeks, though it has reported just 11 fatalities.
    (Bloomberg, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, Spain unveiled a series of measures aimed at helping prostitutes and victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation survive the country's coronavirus lockdown. Under the new measures, victims will be able to access improved support services.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, Sri Lanka ordered all liquor stores to close indefinitely as part of its measures aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus. Liquor stores and bars were opened April 20 in some parts of the country, after the government partially lifted a monthlong curfew during which all liquor shops remained close.
    (https://tinyurl.com/ybz5wqp8)(SFC, 4/22/20, p.A6)
2020        Apr 21, Thailand stepped up efforts to tackle sexual harassment, pledging to protect victims who come forward and to investigate complaints of abuse experienced by one in five Thais.
    (Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020        Apr 21, Yemeni medical and security officials reported that rain and flooding killed more than 35 people in northern, central and western provinces over the last 10 days, and sent 10,000 people fleeing flooded refugee camps. Officials and tribal leaders said heavy fighting between pro-government forces and Houthi rebels has killed hundreds of people this month in several parts of the country.
    (AP, 4/21/20)

2020        Apr 22, US President Donald Trump ordered a temporary suspension of the issuance of green cards and permanent residence permits, in a move he said aimed at protecting American workers and jobs.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 22, President Donald Trump said that he has ordered the Navy to “shoot down and destroy” any Iranian gunboats that harass US ships, a directive that comes a week after the Navy reported a group of Iranian boats made “dangerous and harassing approaches” to American vessels in the Persian Gulf.
    (AP, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, President Trump said that he disagreed with Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, who is allowing some businesses to reopen this week. “I think it’s too soon,” Mr. Trump said.
    (NY Times, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 22, Dr. Rick Bright said he was abruptly dismissed this week from his federal post after pressing for rigorous testing of treatments embraced by Pres. Donald Trump. Bright led the federal agency involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine.
    (SFC, 4/23/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 22, US Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie expressed support for Pres. Trump's unverified claims about a malaria drug that can have serious side effects and may not work. Hydroxychloroquine has not been proven as a treatment for COVID-19.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 22, It was reported that some 1,900 VA health care workers have become sick with the coronavirus and that 20 have died.
    (AP, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, A US federal appeals court allowed Arkansas to ban most surgical abortions during the coronavirus pandemic.
    (SFC, 4/23/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 22, California to date had 37,602 cases of coronavirus and 1,432 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 6,831 cases and 238 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 839,675 with 46,485 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, Mississippi’s attorney general announced that she is preparing to file a lawsuit against the Chinese regime to hold it accountable for “malicious and dangerous acts” that she claims caused the CCP virus pandemic, which resulted in widespread human and economic devastation in the United States and internationally.
    (The Epoch Times, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 22, Oklahoma's energy regulator said that oil producers could close wells without losing their leases, the first victory for struggling US companies seeking relief from states after the market crash.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, At least three people were killed when apparent tornado touched down in southeast Texas.
    (AP, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, Vanessa Guillen (20), a soldier at Fort Hood, Texas, was last seen alive. On June 30, Aaron David Robinson, a soldier connected to the case, died by suicide. Service officials said human remains found 30 miles outside of Fort Hood were believed to be Pfc. Vanessa Guillen. Civilian Cecily Aguilar (22) was arrested on July 1 for assisting Robinson mutilate and hide Guillen's body.
    (ABC News, 7/1/20)(SSFC, 7/5/20, p.A7)
2020        Apr 22, Facebook agreed to buy a 9.9% stake of Jio, the telecoms arm of India-based conglomerate Reliance Industries, as it looked to roll out services for India's grocers and small businesses.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)(Econ, 4/25/20, p.56)
2020        Apr 22, Tyson Foods Inc said it plans to indefinitely suspend operations at its at Waterloo, Iowa plant, its largest pork plant in the US, to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus, in the latest disruption to the country's food supply chain.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, Zoom Video Communications Inc it was upgrading the encryption features on its video conferencing app to better safeguard meeting data and offer protection against tampering. The new version of the app, Zoom 5.0, will release within the week.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, It was reported that a review of mortality data in 11 countries showed that at least 25,000 more people have died during the coronavirus pandemic over the last month than the official COVID-19 death counts report. Reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.57 million globally and 178,574 people have died.
    (NY Times, 4/22/20)(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, In Australia a truck smashed into a police car that had stopped a speeding driver, killing four officers in Melbourne.
    (SFC, 4/24/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 22, Bosnia's top court ruled that a measure curtailing freedom of movement for people older than 65 and younger than 18 to try and halt the spread of the coronavirus is not in line with the constitution.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, In Britain the number of people who have died in hospitals after testing positive for the coronavirus rose by 616 to 18,738 in the last 24 hours. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose to 133,495.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 22, Mainland China reported 10 new cases as of the end of today, bringing the total to 82,798. The death toll was unchanged at 4,632.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 22, In Germany there were 1,388 new cases in the 24 hours through this morning, bringing the total to 148,453. Fatalities rose by 224, the most in four days, to 5,086.
    (Bloomberg, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. (PFE) announced that the German regulatory authority, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, has approved the Phase 1/2 clinical trial for BioNTech’s BNT162 vaccine program to prevent COVID-19 infection.
    (https://tinyurl.com/yclugzvt)(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, India ordered a pause in testing for antibodies to the coronavirus because of concern over the accuracy. India has detected 19,983 cases of the coronavirus. There have been 640 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, Iran said it has put its first military satellite into orbit. The satellite dubbed the Nour -- meaning "light" in Persian -- was launched from the Markazi desert, a vast expanse in Iran's central plateau.
    (AFP, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, Iran reported 93 more deaths from the coronavirus, with the death toll in the country now reaching 5,574, out of more than 88,000 confirmed cases.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 22, It was reported that more than 30 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan's Nagasaki prefecture have tested positive for the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, Lithuania's government said shops, open-air restaurants and many other services will be allowed to reopen in an easing of restrictions imposed last month to limit spread of the novel coronavirus. Lithuania has reported 1,370 coronavirus cases and 38 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 708 to 34,842 with 138 new deaths. The country's death toll now stands at 4,054.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, A Palestinian attacker was shot and killed after he rammed his vehicle into an Israeli checkpoint and stabbed a police officer near the settlement of Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem. A sweep of the area found a pipe bomb at the scene.
    (AP, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said a Palestinian woman from Syria has become the first refugee living in a camp in Lebanon to test positive for the coronavirus. Lebanon has recorded 22 deaths from among 682 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
    (AP, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, In Poland confirmed coronavirus infections surpassed 10,000.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, Singapore reported 1,016 new cases of the coronavirus pushing its total to 10,141. The death toll remained at 11.
    (SFC, 4/23/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 22, South Korean health authorities said patients who tested positive for novel coronavirus after recovering from their first bout of the illness appeared to be far less infectious the second time round.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, Sudan has reported 140 coronavirus cases, including 13 deaths. Almost all of the cases have been in Khartoum, now under a three-week lockdown.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg joined calls for a combined effort to tackle coronavirus and the climate crisis, saying the 50th anniversary of Earth Day was the time to choose a "new way forward".
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, The UN urged the world to fight climate change with the same determination as it is showing in the battle against COVID-19.
    (AFP, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, UN Women in a report said there was evidence of rising violence against women in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, and a doubling in the number of femicides in Argentina during the coronavirus-related quarantine.
    (NBC News, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 22, Vietnam arrested seven people, including three officials from the Hanoi Center for Disease Control and Prevention for "wrongdoings" linked to procurement during the coronavirus crisis.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, Yemeni authorities said 14 people, including at least five children, have been killed and dozens injured in flash floods in Aden. Seven other people were reported killed by flooding in the north.
    (AFP, 4/22/20)
2020        Apr 22, Zimbabwe's government agreed with bakers, millers and other businesses to cut the prices of basic goods, including bread and sugar, to levels before the country entered a coronavirus lockdown last month amid soaring inflation. Annual inflation in the nation has hit 676.39%, one of the highest rates in the world.
    (Reuters, 4/22/20)

2020        Apr 23, Pres. Donald Trump noted that researchers were looking at the effects of disinfectants on the virus and wondered aloud if they could be injected into people, saying the virus “does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 23, The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill, funding small businesses and hospitals and pushing the total spending response to the crisis to an unprecedented near $3 trillion.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 23, The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to make it easier for federal authorities to deport certain immigrants who have committed crimes in a victory for Pres. Trump's administration.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, The US Supreme Court rejected arguments by President Donald Trump's administration in a Hawaii case brought by environmentalists by saying that polluters are sometimes required to obtain permits under a landmark water pollution law for certain discharges that do not go directly into a waterway.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, A record 26 million Americans likely sought unemployment benefits over the last five weeks, meaning all the jobs created during the longest employment boom in US history were wiped out in about a month.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, US national railroad Amtrak, which received $1 billion in emergency funding this month from Congress, said it expects to lose at least $700 million in operating earnings in this budget year due to the effects of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, A US federal judge a preliminary injunction blocking a California law that required background checks for people buying ammunition, saying it violated the constitutional right to bear arms.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 23, California to date had 39,009 cases of coronavirus and 1,512 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,020 cases and 243 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 843,981 with 47,272 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, In Colorado Alexis Mendez-Perez (16) was fatally shot when he and four other high school friends were suspected of breaking into a vacant rental home in northeast Denver. The shooter Desmond Manning (46), an off-duty state Department of Corrections criminal investigator, was terminated from the department in July.
    (NBC News, 8/28/20)
2020        Apr 23, In the US state of Georgia the number of coronavirus cases rose past 21,000 with 847 deaths.
    (SFC, 4/24/20, p.A8)
2020        Apr 23, Severe weather moved through the South after killing at least seven people in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, including a worker at a factory hit by an apparent tornado.
    (AP, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, Amazon said its Indian arm will soon add small local shops as sellers on its platform as a way to provide them broader online exposure and offer consumers a greater selection of merchandise.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, Alphabet Inc's Google said all advertisers would have to complete a verification process before buying ad space on its platform, starting this summer, in a bid to make its ad practices more transparent.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, Reported cases of the coronavirus crossed 2.62 million globally and 183,761 people have died. World leaders pledged to accelerate work on tests, drugs and vaccines against COVID-19 and to share them around the globe, but the United States did not take part in the video conference launch of the World Health Organization (WHO) initiative.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 23, Researchers reported that the world has lost more than one quarter of its land-dwelling insects in the past 30 years.
    (AP, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, Britain's death toll from the new coronavirus in hospitals across the United Kingdom rose to 19,506, an increase of 684 in 24 hours.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 23, President Xi Jinping said China will step up investment in various sectors including 5G, artificial intelligence, transport and energy and boost employment. Beijing said it would contribute an additional $30m to the WHO as the UN organization battles the Covid-19 pandemic. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said the money would support those efforts as well as “the construction of public health systems in developing countries”.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)(The Independent, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 23, In Congo DRC self-styled prophet Ne Muanda Nsemi was arrested by police in Kinshasa after a shoot-out in a residential neighborhood. He is the leader of an outlawed group called Bundu Dia Kongo (BDK) that wants to revive the ancient Kongo kingdom. Eight people were killed, 35 injured and 203 arrested during the operation. At least 20 people are said to have died in recent deadly clashes between BDK members and police.
    (BBC, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 23, Cuba had 1,189 reported cases of the coronavirus and 40 deaths.
    (Econ, 4/25/20, p.26)
2020        Apr 23, Czechs flocked to screening centers in a project to test 27,000 people for coronavirus antibodies to gauge how far the infection has spread and help decide how rapidly to ease the country's lockdown.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, Germany’s ruling coalition agreed on a 10 billion-euro ($10.8 billion) package of further measures to dampen the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.
    (Bloomberg, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, West African regional bloc ECOWAS said it has recognized Umaro Sissoco Embalo as the winner of Guinea-Bissau's Dec. 29 presidential election in an attempt to draw a line under a four-month dispute over the results.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, Hungary's PM Viktor Orban used the coronavirus crisis to consolidate his power at home, but now he finds himself having to cede some leverage to foreign investors. Hungary announced a benchmark-size sale of six- and 12-year euro-denominated bonds.
    (Bloomberg, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, India froze inflation-linked increases in salaries and pensions for more than 11 million federal employees and pensioners to generate nearly $10 billion to help combat the COVID-19 outbreak.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, In India a man (21) raped and severely damaged the eyes of a six-year-old girl from his village. Police arrested the man the next day in the Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh state. Federal data has shown that rape occurs every 20 minutes, on average, in the country of 1.3 billion people.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 23, An Indian woman was allegedly gang raped in a school in the desert state of Rajasthan where she had been quarantined for a night by the police amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. Three local men were soon arrested.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 23, Iran called for the US to be held accountable for "cruel" sanctions that have hampered its efforts to fight a coronavirus outbreak that it said claimed another 90 lives. The latest fatalities for the past 24 hours took the overall death toll from the coronavirus to 5,481.
    (AFP, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, The northern Italian region of Lombardy began an antibody testing program as it prepared to start opening up its economy following weeks of lockdown. Positive cases for coronavirus across Italy rose 2,646 over the last 24 hours, bringing total cases to 189,973 and 25,549 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)(SFC, 4/24/20, p.A6)
2020        Apr 23, In Mali French Brigadier Dmytro Martynyouk, of the 1st foreign cavalry regiment, was wounded by the improvised explosive device. On May 1 Martynyouk died in Paris of his wounds.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        Apr 23, It was reported that the governors of Nigeria's 36 states have agreed to ban interstate movement for two weeks.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, Indigenous tribes in Peru's Amazon said, in a letter to the UN and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, that the government has left them to fend for themselves against the coronavirus, risking "ethnocide by inaction." Eight native leaders representing 1,800 communities in the Peruvian Amazon signed the letter which was published by indigenous group AIDESEP.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 23, Portuguese health officials said 40% of the country's 820 deaths attributed to the coronavirus have occurred in nursing homes. Portugal has reported just over 22,300 confirmed cases.
    (SFC, 4/24/20, p.A6)
2020        Apr 23, In South Korea Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don (71) resigned after admitting to sexual misconduct. A female public servant had accused him of sexual assault in his office.
    (SFC, 4/24/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 23, More than 1,100 people have died in Stockholm as a result of the new coronavirus, with 280 new confirmed cases. The capital has been the hardest-hit city in Sweden, accounting for more than half of Sweden's 2,021 fatalities from COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 23, In Venezuela the communications team of opposition leader Juan Guaido issued a statement denying a $5,000 “salary” had been approved. It said lawmakers, who have gone unpaid since Maduro cut off funding to the legislature after it fell to the opposition in 2015, will determine an appropriate amount and communicate it to the rest of the country in a transparent manner. Funding for the payout was contained in legislation passed last week by the National Assembly setting up an $80 million “Liberation Fund” made up of Venezuelan assets seized by the Trump administration.
    (AP, 4/23/20)
2020        Apr 23, In Venezuela a 2nd flight arrived from Iran delivering key chemical components for producing gasoline. 14 more flights were expected in the coming days.
    (SFC, 4/25/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 23, A two-week ceasefire in Yemen announced by a Saudi-led military coalition expired today without leading to a permanent truce, raising fears that the country's war will grind on and shatter its already weakened ability to combat coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/23/20)

2020        Apr 24, President Trump signed a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill after it was passed by both chambers of Congress this week. The bill aids employers and hospitals under stress from the coronavirus pandemic. The Congressional Budget Office predicted the US GDP will contract 39.6 percent year over year during the second fiscal quarter of the year.
    (The Week, 4/25/20)(AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, It was reported that Donald Trump owes tens of millions of dollars to China, through a real estate debt which falls due in 2022, offering “astonishing leverage” to Beijing. Politico reported that the debt derives from a 30% share the US president owns in a billion-dollar building on the Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, which was refinanced in 2012, with $211m of the funding coming from the state-owned Bank of China.
    (The Guardian, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, President Trump claimed he was being sarcastic when he suggested health officials look into treating COVID-19 with measures like injecting disinfectants or hitting lungs with a "tremendous" amount of ultraviolet or "very powerful light".
    (The Week, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, It was reported that the US Navy destroyer Kidd is believed to have a significant coronavirus outbreak on board as it carries out a counter-narcotics mission in the Caribbean. Over a dozen sailors had tested positive for the virus. The Pentagon confirmed the outbreak.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, The US Food and Drug Administration cautioned against the use of malaria drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, in COVID-19 patients outside of hospitals and clinical trials, citing risks of serious heart rhythm problems.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, The US Federal Reserve announced that banks can now allow account holders to make an unlimited number of withdrawals and transfers from their savings accounts. A six-per-month limit had previously existed for such accounts.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Adm. Mike Gilday, the Chief of Naval Operations, reportedly recommended to Defense Secretary Mark Esper that Capt. Brett Crozier be reinstated as commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, The parent company of Lysol and another disinfectant warned that its products should not be used as an internal treatment for the coronavirus after President Donald Trump wondered about the prospect during a White House briefing.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Alaska's Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy began allowing the limited reopening of restaurants, stores, hair and nail salons and other businesses. It was not until April 26 that Anchorage allowed those businesses to open.
    (AP, 4/25/20)(AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 24, Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt allowed non-elective surgeries to resume and hair and nail salons, barbershops, spas and pet groomers to reopen.
    (AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 24, The Ninth US circuit Court of Appeals resinstated a California law requiring background checks for people buying ammunition, reversing a San Diego judge's April 23 descision to stop the checks.
    (SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 24, California to date had 40,812 cases of coronavirus and 1,594 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,216 cases and 251 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 889,661 with 51,017 deaths. Worldwide reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.7 million globally and 189,970 people have died.
    (sfist.com, 4/24/20)(Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Los Angeles-based US District Court Judge Dolly Gee ruled that the Trump administration is violating the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, which generally requires children detained at the border to be released within 20 days.
    (AP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, In Georgia some businesses took the first steps toward reopening as the Republican governor eased a month-long shutdown amid experts’ warnings of a potential new surge in coronavirus infections and a potent objection from President Donald Trump.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer extended her stay-at-home order through May 15 as her state battled to control the coronavirus pandemic, but lifted restrictions so some businesses can open and the public can participate in outdoor activities such as golfing.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, In Massachusetts the number of people infected increased from 46,023 over the last 24 hours. The deaths climbed from 2,360 to 2,556. 55.9% of the deaths were reported in long-term care facilities. The data reflected a correction of a reporting error made by Quest, a national commercial laboratory.
    (Good Morning America, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pointed to research showing that strains of the novel coronavirus entered his state from Europe, not China, and said that travel bans enacted by US President Donald Trump were too late to halt its spread.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, A handful of Texas businesses reopened in defiance of state guidance in the fight against the coronavirus, which allows retailers to offer “to go” service but leaves other restrictions in place.
    (AP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, A rally outside Wisconsin's capitol building in Madison drew hundreds of protesters who demanded Democratic Governor Tony Evers reopen the state even as it reported its largest single day jump of new coronavirus cases.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, Muslims worldwide began Ramadan with dawn-to-dusk fasting.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, In Afghanistan more than 1,300 people have tested positive for the coronavirus, and 43 have died.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Armenia has recorded 1,596 coronavirus infections, with 27 deaths. Armenia began allowing certain business activities, including fishing, mining, financial and insurance services, agriculture and cigarette production.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Azerbaijan has reported a total of 1,592 coronavirus cases and 21 deaths. It announced plans to lift virus-related restrictions from April 27.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Belgium has recorded 42,797 coronavirus cases and 6,490 deaths. The government said has decided not to use apps to trace the path of infections, after initially pushing the idea.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro sacked the head of the federal police. Hours late justice minister Sergio Moro resigned and accused the president of political interference in the police to shield his family.
    (Econ., 5/2/20, p.23)
2020        Apr 24, Brazil's health ministry confirmed nearly 53,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 3,600 deaths. Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Britain now has 143,464 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Cambodian woman Ven Rachna (39) was sentenced to six months in prison after a court ruled that her Facebook live streams selling clothing and cosmetics while wearing skimpy outfits amounted to pornography. Arrested in February, Rachna will go free early next month with the remainder of her sentence suspended.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, China closed its border with my after fighting in Myanmar spilled into Yunnan province.
    (SFC, 4/25/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 24, In China five prominent labor activists were freed more than a year after they were arrested in coordinated raids in the southern city of Shenzhen. They still had to undergo a 14-day quarantine period before finally returning home on May 7.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        Apr 24, In Congo DRC at least 12 rangers were killed by suspected members of a Rwandan rebel group in the Virunga National Park. About 60 militiamen ambushed a convoy of civilians that was being protected by the rangers.
    (BBC, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Ecuador's health minister said the country's coronavirus case total was twice as high as previously confirmed, as authorities added 11,000 new infections that resulted from delayed testing.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele late today ordered a 24-hour lockdown of prisons containing gang members, and said their leaders would be sent into solitary confinement after a sudden spike in homicides during the day. Police investigated some 22 homicides.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, Mikheil Saakashvili, who served as Georgia’s president from 2004-2013, told reporters that he has accepted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's offer to become a deputy prime minister in charge of reforms. Zelenskiy had specifically asked him to conduct talks with the International Monetary Fund. The job offer to Saakashvili angered the government of Georgia led by his political foes.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Georgia has reported 431 confirmed coronavirus cases and five deaths. It announced plans to lift virus-related restrictions from April 27.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Germany’s new coronavirus cases and deaths rose the most in nearly a week. There were 2,481 new infections in the 24 hours through this morning, bringing the total to 153,129. Fatalities rose to 5,575.
    (Bloomberg, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, India announced the relaxation of some aspects of its strict coronavirus pandemic lockdown measures.
    (The Week, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, An Indonesian court convicted six activists of treason for organizing a protest demanding independence for the easternmost province of Papua, in a verdict slammed by rights groups. The activists were sentenced eight to nine months in prison.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, In eastern Lebanon authorities closed all entrances to a Palestinian refugee camp after four more people tested positive for the coronavirus, heightening concerns the virus could further spread among its overcrowded population. Lebanon has recorded 22 deaths from among nearly 700 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, In Libya intense shelling of Tripoli by the country's rival, east-based forces killed three civilians.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, In Mexico Jesus Memje, a human rights monitor, was shot and killed along with his son in Coyuca de Benitez, Guerrero state.
    (SFC, 4/27/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 24, Trade unions at Poland's biggest coal group, state-owned PGG, warned that the industry would collapse because of falling demand if the government did not help. Poland is heavily reliant on coal-fuelled power stations for its energy and is the only EU member state not to have pledged to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, The Saudi-led coalition said it would extend a unilateral a cease-fire with Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels through Ramadan.
    (AP, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Imprisoned Saudi activist Abdullah al-Hamid died in custody in a hospital in Saudi Arabia. He was a 2018 award recipient of Sweden's “Alternative Nobel".
    (AP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, In Somalia a police officer in Mogadishu shot and killed at least one civilian while enforcing coronavirus restrictions. The shooting sparked protests and the officer was soon arrested. Somalia had more than 325 cases.
    (AP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, With Spain still on almost-total lockdown, the number of fatalities rose by 367, the fewest since March 21. Total confirmed cases rose by 2,796 for a total of 22,524.
    (Bloomberg, 4/24/20)(SFC, 4/25/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 24, Turkey's confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased by 3,122 with the death toll rising to 2,600.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, In Turkey Ali Erbas, the country's top religious official, proclaimed that Islam condemned homosexuality because it brought illnesses and generational decay.
    (Econ., 5/9/20, p.42)
2020        Apr 24, The UN launched an international push for a vaccine to defeat the pandemic. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a virtual briefing asked for international organizations, world leaders and the private sector to join the effort. Notably absent were the leaders of China, where the virus first emerged late last year, and the United States.
    (AFP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 24, Venezuela has reported 311 cases of coronavirus and 10 deaths. Acute fuel shortages are forcing farmers to let crops rot in fields or feed them to livestock since they cannot transport food to market during the coronavirus quarantine.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Vietnam said the coronavirus outbreak has negatively affected 5 million workers and 84.8% of companies in the country. Vietnam reported two new coronavirus cases, one day after it lifted tough movement restrictions, bringing the total to 270 with no deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)
2020        Apr 24, Zambia's President Edgar Lungu said the nation's budget has been thrown into "disarray" due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the country's economy and the government needs to implement measures to support businesses. The number of coronavirus cases rose to 84.
    (Reuters, 4/24/20)

2020        Apr 25, President Donald Trump said the daily White House virus briefing is “not worth the time and effort,” two days after his comments on fighting Covid-19 with disinfectants or sunlight caused headaches for his health advisers.
    (Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 25, President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a symbolic joint statement calling for renewed cooperation.
    (WSJ, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, California to date had 42,351 cases of coronavirus and 1,686 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,340 cases and 259 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 936,293 with 53,511 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, In the SF Bay Area the Alameda County Sheriff's Office shut down a cockfighting ring in rural Pleasanton. Officers seized nearly 600 hens, chicks and razor-wielding roosters.
    (SFC, 4/28/20, p.B1)
2020        Apr 25, The Tyson plant in Logansport, Indiana, was closed after nearly 900 employees tested positive; it resumed limited operations on May 7.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        Apr 25, Hawaii Gov. David Ige announced he was extending the mandatory 14-day quarantine for travelers into the state until May 31. He is also extending the stay-at-home order until the same date. Hawaii has 604 cases and 14 deaths, including two in the past day.
    (ABC News, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 25, In Minnesota a Hormel Foods subsidiary said it is halting production at a pair of turkey processing facilities in Willmar after 14 employees tested positive for the coronavirus at the plants.
    (SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 25, Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's philanthropic operation announced a $40 million pledge to support efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 in low- and middle-income nations. Bloomberg also plans to spend $10.5 million to build a contact tracing program to help local officials the follow the spread of the virus in an effort to contain it.
    (SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A6)
2020        Apr 25, The World Health Organization warned countries against issuing so-called coronavirus "immunity passports" to recovered patients because there's "no evidence" they are protected from a second infection. The global coronavirus death toll approached 200,000.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)(AFP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Today marked World Malaria Day, a disease which the WHO said could kill around 770,000 this year, or "twice as much as in 2018".
    (AFP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Argentina said it is extending its nationwide lockdown by another two weeks until May 10 to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
    (Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 25, In Belarus hundreds of thousands of state employees, including doctors and nurses, took part in a government-decreed national day of civic labor despite worries about the country's sharply rising coronavirus infections. Belarus reported 817 new cases, the country's highest single-day increase. It has reported a total of 9,590 confirmed infections and 67 deaths.
    (AP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, The number of coronavirus fatalities in Belgium increased to 6,917.
    (AP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, The British government said that 20,319 people with COVID-19 have died in British hospitals, an increase of 813 from the death toll reported the day before. The figure does not include deaths in nursing homes, which are likely to number in the thousands.
    (AP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Burkina Faso, one of Africa's nations hardest hit by the coronavirus, has reported 41 deaths. The country's 629 cases included the US and Italian ambassadors as well as at least six government ministers. Last month Rose Marie Compaore (62), Burkina Faso's second Vice President of the parliament, became the first person in the country to die from COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Canada reported a total of 2,350 coronavirus deaths and 44,364 positive diagnoses.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 25, China reported 11 new coronavirus cases, compared to 12 on the previous day. This was its 10th straight day with no coronavirus fatalities. The northwestern province of Shaanxi reported seven new imported coronavirus cases, all in citizens returning home from Russia, even as domestic cases in the country were largely curbed.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)(Reuters, 4/26/20)(SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A6)
2020        Apr 25, In Germany deaths due to the coronavirus dropped to the lowest in five days. Deaths in Germany rose by 148 to 5,723 in the last 24 hours.
    (Bloomberg, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, The Indian government allowed a limited reopening of shops in neighborhoods and residential areas, more than a month after the nation went into a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Indonesia reported 396 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number to 8,607. Thirty one more people who had tested positive for the virus died, taking the total number of deaths to 720.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, In Iran another 76 fatalities were declared, raising the official death toll to 5,650. Iran has now recorded 89,328 cases of COVID-19, including 1,134 over the past 24 hours, since reporting two deaths on February 19.
    (AFP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Several thousand Israelis rallied to demonstrate against a unity government deal reached last week that leaves PM Benjamin Netanyahu in power as he prepares to go on trial for corruption charges.
    (AP, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Italian diagnostics group DiaSorin said it had received an Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration for a serological test kit for COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, In Russia the number of new coronavirus cases rose by 5,966 over the past 24 hours, bringing its nationwide tally to 74,588. The country's coronavirus crisis response center reported 66 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the total death toll in Russia to 681.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, An unmanned Russian cargo capsule docked at the Int'l. Space Station bringing more that 2 tons of supplies to the three-person crew.
    (SSFC, 4/26/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 25, Tokyo reported 103 new cases of coronavirus infections. The latest figures bring total coronavirus infections in the capital city to 3,836 cases. The total number of coronavirus infections in Japan reached nearly 13,000 cases, with 345 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Saudi Arabia said it has abolished flogging as a punishment in a reform program launched by the king and his powerful son.
    (The Telegraph, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Serbia sent four planes carrying medical equipment including gloves, masks and protective suits to Italy as a donation to help the EU member state tackle the spread of coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Singapore registered 618 new coronavirus infections, taking the city-state's total number of COVID-19 cases to 12,693.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Spain recorded fewer than 400 COVID-19 fatalities for the second day in row, a sign that the outbreak may be stabilizing in the country as it grapples with Europe’s worst outbreak. Fatalities in Spain increased by 378, for a total of 22,902.
    (Bloomberg, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Tajikistan said it is closing schools for two weeks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and temporarily banning exports of grains and pulses to ensure sufficient supplies at home. The country has reported no coronavirus cases.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020        Apr 25, Thailand reported 53 new coronavirus cases and the death of a 48-year-old Thai man who was infected with the virus along with four other family members. Thailand has reported a total of 2,907 cases and 51 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/25/20)

2020        Apr 26, The US granted Iraq a month-long sanctions waiver enabling the government to continue importing gas and electricity from Iran. A previous waiver expired on April 26.
    (https://tinyurl.com/ydgckckx)(SFC, 4/28/20, p.A2)
2020         Apr 26, California to date had 43,703 cases of coronavirus and 1,720 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,496 cases and 260 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 938,590 with 54,776 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Iowa, now has more than 5,000 confirmed cases. Latinos, who make up 6% of Iowa's population, have accounted for more than 22% of its confirmed COVID-19 cases.
    (AP, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Louisiana's state public health department reported that African Americans represent more than 56% of the state's 1,670 coronavirus deaths.
    (AP, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, In Louisiana one police officer was killed and another was wounded as officers responded to gunfire in Baton Rouge. Ronnie Kato (36) was detained after a 4-hour standoff.
    (SFC, 4/27/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 26, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said that his state received “hundreds” of calls after President Trump suggested at a press briefing that ingesting household disinfectants could be a treatment for the coronavirus.
    (Yahoo News, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 26, In Detroit, Michigan, more than 8,500 infections have been reported, with black people accounting for more than 64% of them. City leaders announced this month that the pandemic has created a projected $348 million budget deficit.
    (AP, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, In Montana churches resumed services and retailers closed for a month cautiously reopened the next day with social distancing and disinfecting guidelines under a plan announced earlier by Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock.
    (AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 26, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said 367 new deaths have been reported in the state. They included patients in hospitals and nursing homes.
    (SFC, 4/27/20, p.A6)
2020        Apr 26, JBS USA announced that the JBS packerland plant in Greenbay, Wisconsin, would be temporarily closed. At least 189 COVID-19 infections had been linked to the plant.
    (SFC, 4/28/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 26, John Tyson, the chairman of Tyson Foods Inc, said millions of pounds of beef, pork and chicken will vanish from US grocery stores as livestock and poultry processing plants have been shuttered by coronavirus outbreaks among workers.
    (AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 26, The group of 20 rich and emerging economies launched an international initiative to accelerate access to health tools needed to fight the new coronavirus. The finance minister of Saudi Arabia, the current G20 chair, said the group is still working to bridge an estimated $8 billion funding gap to combat the pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said more than 30,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,374 deaths have been reported in the 54 countries of Africa.
    (SFC, 4/27/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 26, Afghanistan reported 1,531 cases of COVID-19 and 50 deaths, but international observers and medics on the ground believe the real number of infections could be much higher.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, The Australian government launched a controversial coronavirus tracing app and promised to legislate privacy protections around it as authorities try to get the country and the economy back onto more normal footing. The app, based on Singapore's TraceTogether software, uses Bluetooth signals to log when people have been close to one another.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, In Bangladesh hundreds of textile workers in Dhaka took to the streets demanding wages, flouting social distancing norms amid a nationwide lockdown to control the coronavirus pandemic. Bangladesh was set to lose export revenue of about $6 billion this fiscal year as the sector has been hit by cancellations from some of the world's largest brands and retailers.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, In Belgium the number of newly reported coronavirus cases continued to decline with 809 added over the last 24 hours bringing the total to 46,134. The death toll reached 7,094 and 10,785 patients have recovered since March 15.
    (Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, In Canada the total number of people killed by the coronavirus rose by under 6% to 2,489.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, More than 200 Cuban doctors arrived in Johannesburg to help fight the coronavirus. Cuba, with 1,337 recorded cases of Covid-19 and 51 deaths, has the world's highest ratio of doctors to population and began preparing for the virus early.
    (BBC, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Egypt said it had asked the International Monitory Fund for financial assistance to deal with the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus.
    (AP, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, French energy major Total said that 14 workers including two of its staff have tested positive for the new coronavirus at its sites in Congo Republic, but output at the 190,000 barrels per day operations have not been affected.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, In Germany there were 1,968 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 156,513, the fourth-highest in Europe.
    (Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Hong Kong riot police armed with shields dispersed a crowd of 300 pro-democracy activists holding a singing protest in an upmarket shopping mall, despite a ban on public gatherings of more than four people.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Indian PM Narendra Modi appealed to citizens to strictly comply with a nationwide lockdown and maintain social distancing norms, as cases of coronavirus mounted steadily despite over a month-long curfew.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, In Iran the daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to the lowest in more than six weeks as the country reported 60 additional deaths and 1,153 new cases overnight. Total fatalities rose to 5,710 from 90,481 known cases.
    (Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Israel's Labor party voted on proposal to join a government headed by arch-rival Benjamin Netanyahu despite repeated campaign promises to never sit with a prime minister facing criminal indictments.
    (AP, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Israel permitted some businesses to reopen and said it would consider allowing children back to school as part of trial efforts to ease coronavirus restrictions and help the struggling economy.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Israel's Foreign Ministry condemned a new Egyptian TV drama set in the year 2120 that predicts Israel's destruction as well as the breakup of the United States. The Egyptian series “El-Nehaya” — Arabic for “The End” — is about a computer engineer living in a dystopian future dominated by cyborg clones.
    (AP, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Tokyo recorded 72 coronavirus cases, the first time in 13 days it was below 100.
    (Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Kenya's government announced that all long-distance lorry drivers will be tested before crossing the border after Uganda confirmed that eight Kenyan drivers had tested positive for the virus.
    (BBC, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 26, Malta said it has had no new case of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours for the first time since the crisis began, and will start rolling back some of the restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus in the coming days.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, The Netherlands' number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 655 to 37,845 with 66 new deaths. The country's death toll stands at 4,475.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Russia reported 6,361 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours and said 46% did not have symptoms. An additional 66 people have died.
    (Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Saudi Arabia eased curfews across the country, while keeping 24-hour curfews in the city of Mecca and in neighborhoods previously put in isolation.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, It was reported that Saudi Arabia's King Salman has ordered an end to the death penalty for crimes committed by minors.
    (AP, 4/26/20)0
2020        Apr 26, Singapore registered 931 new coronavirus infections, taking the city-state's total number of COVID-19 cases to 13,624. The country has one of the highest infection rates in Asia due to outbreaks in cramped dormitories housing over 300,000 mainly South Asian workers.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, South Korea's large churches reopened, requiring worshipers to keep their distance and wear masks.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Spain reported the smallest increase in coronavirus deaths in more than a month. Fatalities increased by 288. The daily death count peaked at 950 on April 2. Spanish children went outside at last, emerging from their homes for the first time after six long weeks.
    (Bloomberg, 4/26/20)(Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Thailand reported 15 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases since its outbreak in January to 2,922 cases and 51 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Turkish troops fired tear gas and live bullets at protesters blocking a major highway in northwest Syria early today, killing two people and wounding others. The protesters have been blocking part of the highway near the government-held village of Nairab in Idlib province for weeks to prevent joint Turkish-Russian patrols.
    (AP, 4/26/20)
2020        Apr 26, Yemeni separatists declared self-governance of the country's south, as a peace deal with the government crumbled. Authorities in five southern provinces in Yemen rejected the claim of the Southern Transitional Council to self rule, further heightening tensions among ostensible allies in the Saudi-led coalition battling Iran-aligned rebels elsewhere in the country.
    (AFP, 4/26/20)    (AP, 4/26/20)

2020        Apr 27, US President Donald Trump slammed US cities and states seeking billions more dollars in federal aid to offset huge losses from the coronavirus outbreak as members of Congress spar over the next round of potential economic relief.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 27, The White House released new guidelines aimed at answering criticism that America's coronavirus testing has been too slow, and President Donald Trump tried to pivot toward a focus on “reopening” the nation.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 27, America cut funding for a group conducting broader research into how bat coronaviruses jump to humans, seemingly because of its collaboration with scientists in Wuhan, China.
    (Econ., 5/2/20, p.10)
2020        Apr 27, The US Federal Reserve expanded eligibility for $500 billion in loans to 256 entities with sufficiently large populations that included states, counties and cities.
    (Econ., 5/2/20, p.9)
2020        Apr 27, The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of health insurers seeking $12 billion from the federal government under a program set up by the Obamacare law aimed at encouraging them to offer medical coverage to previously uninsured Americans.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, The Save Our Country Coalition was formed as an alliance of think tanks and political committees to end state lockdowns implemented in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The alliance included CNP Action, an affiliate of the GOP-aligned Council for National Policy, which soon began recruiting pro-Trump doctors to go on television to prescribe reviving the US economy as quickly as possible.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y9en5gwt)(SFC, 5/21/20, p.A6)
2020         Apr 27, California to date had 44,949 cases of coronavirus and 1,721 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,657 cases and 264 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 965,942 with 54,883 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, San Francisco Bay Area health officials said that orders to shelter in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus will be extended through the month of May.
    (SFC, 4/28/20, p.A1)
2020        Apr 27, Democratic Governor Jared Polis of Colorado began a partial reopening of the coronavirus shutdown to help ease the burden on state unemployment benefit filings.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        Apr 27, Georgia's Gov. Brian Kemp allowed dine-in restaurant service and movie screenings to resume, despite warnings that, without sufficient testing, the state could see a surge in infections.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 27, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced he is extending Louisiana’s stay-at-home order through May 15, saying some regions of the state have not shown enough progress to lessen widespread restrictions on businesses and public gatherings.
    (AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Nevada joined a western regional pact to help fight the virus outbreak while moving closer to reopening businesses and modifying stay-at-home orders. Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak has not given a date for easing restrictions. He said the Western States Pact including Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington has a shared vision that puts science ahead of politics.
    (AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced he would lift some restrictions on outdoor recreation. Not just because the virus was starting to be contained, but also because people simply needed it.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 27, In Tennessee many restaurants were allowed dine-in service again as part of Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s directive to begin reopening the economy.
    (AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Wisconsin police found five people shot to death inside a Milwaukee home and arrested the man (43) who dialed 911 to report the slayings.
    (AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Neurocrine Biosciences Inc said its add-on treatment for patients with Parkinson's disease received US approval, but the launch will be delayed until later this year because of disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A month's supply of the drug, Ongentys, would have a list price below $670.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA said they would test their arthritis drug, Kevzara, in critically ill COVID-19 patients after the drug showed no benefit for patients with a less severe form of the disease.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Oil prices slumped again on concerns over scarce storage capacity, especially in the United States, and global economic doldrums from the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Australia's government said more than two million Australians have downloaded an app to trace contacts of COVID-19 patients hours after its release.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, It was reported that 30 workers at an offshore oil platform in Equatorial Guinea have tested positive for the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, In Germany a total of 157,770 people have been infected with the coronavirus, an increase of 1,257 in the 24 hours through this morning. Deaths rose by 99 to 5,976.
    (Bloomberg, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, India's federal medical research agency asked state government to stop using testing equipment from China because of conflicting results.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Iran's death toll from the outbreak of new coronavirus rose by 96 in the past twenty four hours to 5,806. The total number of diagnosed cases reached 91,472.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Iran's national coroner’s authority said that alcohol poisoning killed 728 Iranians between Feb. 20 and April 7. Last year there were only 66 deaths from alcohol poisoning.
    (AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Irish poet Eavan Boland (75) died following a stroke in Dublin. She was the director of Stanford's creative writing program. Her work included two volumes of prose: "Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time" (1995) and "A Journey with Two Maps: Becoming a Woman Poet" (2011).
    (SFC, 5/5/20, p.B3)(Econ., 5/16/20, p.82)
2020        Apr 27, Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanon fired missiles toward areas near Damascus early today, killing three civilians. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missiles hit positions belonging to Iran and its regional proxies, killing four fighters and causing damage south of Damascus.
    (AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Israeli cancer immunotherapy firm Compugen said it had positive initial results from an ongoing early-stage study of its COM701 therapy in patients with advanced solid tumors who have exhausted all standard treatments.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Metropolitan Tokyo confirmed 39 more coronavirus cases, the fewest since March 30 and the second consecutive day of new cases below triple digits.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, In Lebanon Fawwaz Samman (27) was shot by soldiers in Tripoli during confrontations that began late today and died in a hospital hours later.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 27, Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar said he had "a popular mandate" to govern the country. Haftar declared the 2015 UN-mediated Skhirat Agreement, that created a post-Gaddafi government, a "thing of the past" and said he was placing eastern parts of the country under direct military rule.
    (AFP, 4/27/20)    (The Telegraph, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 27, In Libya a Turkish drone reportedly hit a food truck convoy in the country’s west, killing at least five civilians. Militia groups said they targeted trucks carrying equipment and ammunition for eastern forces trying to take the capital.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 27, The Netherlands' number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen by 400 to 38,245 with 43 new deaths. The country's death toll stands at 4,518.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said the coronavirus lockdowns, which had been due to end today, needed to continue until 4 May. He also ordered new nationwide measures against Covid-19, including a night-time curfew and mandatory face masks. Nigeria has reported 1,273 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 40 deaths. Buhari said a lockdown would be imposed in Kano for an additional two weeks, and that he was sending a government team to investigate a high number of unexplained deaths.
    (BBC, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 27, Norwegian children returned to school as hair salons and tattoo parlors reopened under easing coronavirus restrictions.
    (SFC, 4/28/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 27, In Peru nine inmates died following a prison riot over the demand for better sanitary measures and coronavirus medical care at the Miguel Castro Castro prison.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)(SFC, 4/29/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 27, Russia reported 87,147 confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 800 deaths. News reports from a dozen regions in the past two weeks suggest at least 450 medical workers have had COVID-19, with 11 doctors and five nurses dying.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)(AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, The Saudi-led military coalition in war-torn Yemen rejected a declaration of self-rule by separatists in the country's south and demanded "an end to any escalatory actions".
    (AFP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), disclosed a 5.7% passive stake in Live Nation Entertainment Inc., an entertainment company that promotes events including ticketing, sponsorship and advertising services.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, In Senegal the coronavirus has infected over 736 people and killed 9. The capital's 40,000 street children have become more vulnerable since the government declared a state of emergency over the epidemic in late March.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Switzerland eased coronavirus curbs. More than 1,350 people in Switzerland have died of COVID-19 as the number of people with positive tests neared 30,000.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threw his weight behind the country's top Muslim cleric, who caused a storm by claiming homosexuality “brings disease and causes this generation to decay”.
    (AP, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, Turkish officials said 402 people have been detained in the past 42 days for allegedly sharing "false and provocative" social media postings concerning the coronavirus outbreak.
    (SFC, 4/28/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 27, Ugandan opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine accused the police of torturing and blinding Francis Zaake, one of his allies, shortly before the lawmaker, detained over coronavirus social distancing rules, was brought to court on a stretcher.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020        Apr 27, The UN human rights office voiced concern on Monday about more than a dozen countries that have declared states of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic where police have arrested or detained hundreds of thousands of people and killed others.
    (Reuters, 4/27/20)

2020        Apr 28, President Donald Trump took executive action to order meat processing plants to stay open amid concerns over growing coronavirus cases and the impact on the nation's food supply. Unions fired back, saying the White House was jeopardizing lives and prioritizing cold cuts over workers' health.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, A letter from the American Chemistry Council’s director for international trade, Ed Brzytwa, urged the US and Kenya to prohibit the imposition of domestic limits on “production or consumption of chemicals and plastic” and on their cross-border trade. Kenya three years ago imposed what was praised as the world's strictest ban on the use, manufacturing and import of plastic bags, part of growing efforts around the world to limit a major source of plastic waste.
    (AP, 9/1/20)
2020         Apr 28, California to date had 45,471 cases of coronavirus and 1,805 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,823 cases and 277 deaths. The US coronavirus cases rose to 1,002,498 with 57,266 deaths.
    (sfist.com, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio lashed out at Hasidic residents of the Williamsburg section in Brooklyn late today after personally overseeing the dispersal of a crowd of hundreds of mourners who had gathered for the funeral of a rabbi who died of the coronavirus.
    (NY Times, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 28, Officials in Massachusetts said 68 veteran residents who tested positive for the virus have died at the state-run Holyoke Soldiers' Home. Another 82 residents and 81 employees have tested positive.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, The US extradited Alexander Mentol Zinnah (56), a member of former Liberian Pres. Charles Taylor's security forces, back to Liberia from Minnesota.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y8yxddwt)    (SFC, 4/30/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 28, Pastor Jim Bakker and Morningside USA, his ministry in Blue Eye, Missouri, received approval for an amount between $650,000 and $1.7 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds. Weeks before, the New York and Missouri attorneys general, as well as the FDA and FTC, filed complaints alleging Bakker engaged in deceptive practices by touting purported health benefits of a silver product on The Jim Bakker Show — including a suggestion it could be used to treat or prevent COVID-19 infection, something the FDA says is false. In June, the Arkansas attorney general's office followed with its own lawsuit.
    (AP, 8/24/20)
2020        Apr 28, In South Dakota federal inmate Andrea Circle Bear, who gave birth while on a ventilator four weeks ago, died from the coronavirus. She was serving a 26-month sentence for maintaining a drug-involved premises.
    (AP, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 28, In Utah a left-leaning nonprofit group filed a price gouging complaint with state regulators, arguing the $40 per pack drug was grossly overpriced. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert had defended the state’s $800,000 purchase of 20,000 packets of hydroxychloroquine compounded with zinc, but later ordered an investigation of a no-bid contract with a local company that had been promoting the drugs.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Dr Sirous Asgari (59), an Iranian scientist who has been pleading for weeks to be released from a US immigration jail due to his fragile health, has contracted Covid-19, according to his family and attorneys. Asgari was exonerated in a US sanctions trial last year, but Ice has refused to release him or allow him to return to Iran.
    (The Guardian, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Afghanistan has reported 1,703 coronavirus cases, including 57 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Bangladesh has reported 6,462 coronavirus cases, including 155 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Belarus reported 900 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the total to 12,208. The UN urged Belarussians to stay home amid the growing outbreak.
    (SFC, 4/29/20, p.A4)
020        Apr 28, Data released in Canada showed the total coronavirus national death toll had risen by more than 10% for the first time in nine days, climbing 11.1% to 2,766. There have been 49,025 confirmed cases in Canada.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Mainland China reported 22 new cases, against 6 a day earlier, bringing total infections to 82,858.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 28, French PM Edouard Philippe presented plans to unwind, from May 11, a nationwide lockdown that has been in place since mid-March.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Airline Icelandair said it would cut 2,000 jobs across its entire operation to stop the outflow of cash primarily going to salaries, as the firm struggles to keep going during the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, In India the number of people infected with the coronavirus stood at 29,434, a rise of 1,543 over the previous day. So far 934 people have died.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, India-based Serum, the world's largest maker of vaccines by volume, said it is mass-producing the vaccine candidate developed by the University of Oxford, which started testing it on humans last week. Trials of the Oxford vaccine are due to finish in about September.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Iran announced 71 deaths from the novel coronavirus, and said there were also more than 1,000 new cases of infection in the Islamic republic. The fatalities recorded in the past 24 hours brought to 5,877 the overall death toll. Total number of infections reached 92,584.
    (AFP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, In Iraq a militant wearing a suicide vest struck an intelligence bureau in northern Iraq, wounding at least three members of the security personnel in Kirkuk.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, In the Ivory Coast Guillaume Soro (47), a former prime minister and presidential candidate in upcoming elections, was convicted in absentia of embezzlement and money laundering. Soro was sentenced to 20 years in jail and fined $7.6m (£6.1m). His lawyers said the trial was politically motivated.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y8h3spuh)(BBC, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, In Lebanon hundreds of protesters in the northern city of Tripoli set fire to two banks and hurled stones at soldiers, who responded with tear gas and batons in renewed clashes triggered by an economic crisis spiraling out of control amid a weeks-long virus lockdown.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, It was reported that almost one thousand women were murdered in Mexico in the first three months of the year. The government said at least 720 women were murdered in the first quarter of the year and 244 women were victims of femicide.
    (The Independent, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, New Zealand began easing restrictions to allow parts of the economy to restart as coronavirus infections waned.
    (SFC, 4/29/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 28, Oman said it has allowed a limited number of commercial businesses to reopen, including money exchanges.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Pakistan reported 14,079 coronavirus cases including 301 deaths, 20 of them over the past day.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, A Palestinian teenager (19) stabbed an Israeli woman (62) before being shot and wounded by a bystander in Kfar Saba, a town near Tel Aviv.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Russia's President Vladimir Putin extended a non-working period aimed at containing the spread of the novel coronavirus until May 11. The head of Russia's state atomic corporation expressed concern about the spread of the new coronavirus to three 'nuclear cities', including one that houses a top-secret research institute that helped develop the Soviet atomic bomb. Russia now ranks eighth worldwide with 93,558 confirmed cases, though its death toll of 867 is still far below that of many other nations.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, In Serbia about 8,500 people have been confirmed to have the coronavirus and 168 people have died from it. The government has already allowed small businesses to open, shortened a night curfew and eased a 24-hour lockdown for people aged 65 and above.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Sri Lanka has reported 592 cases, including seven deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, In northern Syria at least 40 civilians were killed, including 11 children, when a bomb detonated on an oil tanker in the town of Afrin. The Turkish Defence Ministry blamed the attack on the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.
    (Reuters, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Radio Free Europe reported that doctors in Turkmenistan are not allowed to talk about the coronavirus. RFE said face masks are banned, and citizens are punished for talking about the global pandemic.
    (The Week, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 28, UAE reported it had seen over 11,300 confirmed cases of the virus with 89 deaths. Recent days have seen numbers rise around 500 daily. Even as confirmed coronavirus cases spike, the UAE was opening up its cavernous malls and restaurants in a gamble to stimulate its economy while still trying to fight off the pandemic.
    (AP, 4/28/20)
2020        Apr 28, Venezuela's Pres. Nicolas Maduro named Tareck El Aissami as oil minister and Asdrubal Chavez as head of state run oil giant PDVSA. In 2017 the US sanctioned El Aissami as allegedly being a major drug trafficker.
    (SFC, 4/29/20, p.A2)

2020         Apr 29, California to date had 48,565 cases of coronavirus and 1,939 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 7,965 cases and 281 deaths. The US coronavirus death toll reached 61,000.
    (sfist.com, 4/29/20)(The Week, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 29, A federal appeals court panel ruled that Kansas cannot require voters to show proof of citizenship when they register, dealing a blow to efforts by Republicans in several states who have pursued restrictive voting laws as a way of combating voter fraud.
    (AP, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, In Kentucky an Amish family riding a horse and buggy was swept away when their buggy overturned while trying cross a low water bridge in Bath County. One adult survived, four children died and one child was missing. Search crews recovered the last child on May 2.
    (https://tinyurl.com/ycmvkvgs)(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 29, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) unveiled a plan to provide tuition-free college or technical certification for essential workers who are serving during the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis.
    (The Week, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 29, In New York the aging Unit 2 nuclear reactor of the Indian Point Energy Center along the Huson River was closed down. Unit 3 wasscheduled to close in april 2021.
    (SFC, 4/30/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 29, It was reported that hospital admissions for the coronavirus in New York state remained at about 1,000 a day. Thousands of out of state nurses have come to help NY hospitals.
    (SFC, 4/29/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 29, In NYC police were called to a Brooklyn neighborhood after a funeral home overwhelmed by the coronavirus resorted to storing dozens of bodies on ice in rented trucks, and a passerby complained about the smell. Investigators found that the home had rented four trucks to hold about 50 corpses.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 29, Pfizer said it aims to make 10-20 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine it is developing with Germany's BioNtech by the end of 2020 for emergency use depending on trial results.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 29, Gilead Sciences announced that the company was “aware of positive data” from a federal study of its experimental coronavirus drug, remdesivir.
    (NY Times, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, It was reported that BP is donating 3 million gallons of jet fuel to FedEx and Alaska Airlines to help with the distribution of personal protective equipment in the battle against the new coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said massive fiscal stimulus measures adopted by governments around the world to combat the coronavirus pandemic must be tailored to tackle climate change at the same time.
    (AP, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeted an Afghan special forces base on the outskirts of Kabul killing at least three civilians and wounding 15.
    (SFC, 4/30/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 29, Austria and Switzerland pledged to help Lufthansa with state-backed loans as the German airline pursues talks with Berlin over a 9 billion euro ($9.8 billion) rescue package.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Bosnia reported its sharpest daily rise in coronavirus infections this month after its two autonomous regions had gradually begun to ease lockdowns. There were 93 new infections and two deaths in the previous 24 hours, compared with 20 new infections a day earlier and 49 the day before that.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Canadian hospitals had beds to spare as the country hit 50,373 confirmed coronavirus cases. Several provinces were relaxing public health measures. The virus has killed 2,904 in total and health experts worried about a future wave of infections.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, A Canadian military helicopter crashed in the Mediterranean off the coast of Greece The military helicopter was taking part in a NATO operation and crashed into the sea between Greece and Italy. Debris from the crash and one body were located, leaving the five others aboard the aircraft missing. On May 2 NATO search and rescue efforts turned to search and recovery as the five missing were presumed dead.
    (AP, 4/30/20)(Reuters, 4/30/20)(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 29, Czech environment Minister Richard Brabec said the Czech Republic is facing its worst drought in 500 years and some communities could see their supplies run dry.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, The European Commission approved a 5 billion euro ($5.4 billion) loan guarantee to carmaker Renault group to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus crisis.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, India has recorded its 1,000th novel coronavirus death, but the head of a government think-tank said that its 1.3 billion people, strained from weeks of lockdown, were not experiencing the feared exponential surge in infections. India has now reported 31,331 cases, including 1,007 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Indian artillery fire in the disputed Kashmir region hit Pakistani army posts and villages killing a soldier, a woman and a girl (16). India said Pakistani troops had attacked Inidan positions with small arms and mortar shells in at least four places.
    (SFC, 5/1/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 29, Indonesia confirmed 260 new infections, taking its total to 9,771, while deaths rose by 11 to 784.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Iran's health ministry announced that 80 new deaths from the novel coronavirus had taken the country's overall toll to 5,957. Another 1,073 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours. 93,657 people have contracted the illness since mid-February. The government has allowed many businesses to reopen since April 11 after shutting most down in mid-March to stem the spread of the disease.
    (AP, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, A Kenyan court refused to lift a ban on a locally-made acclaimed film portraying a lesbian romance. The film's producer said that she would continue to fight for freedom of expression in the East African nation. The film "Rafiki" - which means friend in Kiswahili - was banned by the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) in April 2018 on the grounds that it promotes homosexuality in a country where gay sex is a criminal offence.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Lebanese cities were rocked by a third night of unrest as small crowds took to the streets to protest a deepening economic crisis.
    (The Week, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 29, Libya's eastern-based forces said they will cease fire for Ramadan, after they suffered setbacks during weeks of intense fighting against the internationally recognized government.
    (The Telegraph, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 29, Researchers described an exquisitely preserved fossil of the plant-eating mammal named Adalatherium hui, which lived in Madagascar 66 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period and superficially resembled a badger with its long torso and stubby tail.
    (AP, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Malawi has recorded 36 cases of coronavirus confirmed. Of those, three people are recorded to have died. President Peter Mutharika announced an emergency cash transfer program for the poorest people in what is one of the world's poorest countries.
    (BBC, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Mexican Congresswoman Anel Bueno (38), a lawmaker from the western state of Colima, was snatched in Ixtlahuacán. Her body was found in June in a shallow grave following her abduction by armed men and one suspect was reported detained over the killing.
    (The Guardian, 6/3/20)
2020        Apr 29, A UN human rights expert said that Myanmar might be committing more war crimes against its ethnic minority populations.
    (The Week, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 29, It was reported that Niger has been struck by a new outbreak of polio, following the suspension of immunization activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across Africa, 14 other countries struggled to contain their polio epidemics, which have also been caused by a rare mutation of the virus in the oral vaccine.
    (AP, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Pakistan said it is preparing to loosen coronavirus lockdown restrictions as the number of infections and deaths are well below previous projections. Pakistan has registered 15,289 cases of COVID-19 including 335 deaths.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)(SFC, 4/30/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 29, The Philippines' tally of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to more than 8,000.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Russia reported 972 deaths in total for the coronavirus. A Remembrance List showed 74 medical staff who had died from the virus, this included 4 from Belarus. Confirmed cases neared 100,000 after 5,841 new cases were registered overnight along with a record daily rise in the death toll.
    (AFP, 4/29/20)(Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Serbia has reported 8,497 confirmed cases and 1,678 deaths from COVID-19. Citizens, stuck at home under curfew, vented their anger in a cacophony of tin pans, drums, whistles, and horns at the government and its tough containment measures to curb the new coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Rioting broke out at the central prison in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown following confirmation of a coronavirus case there.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, South Africa has reported most confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Africa, with more than 4,360, including 86 deaths. Disabled migrants faced hunger as a lockdown continued for a fifth week.
    (AP, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Veteran South African anti-apartheid activist Denis Goldberg (87), who was tried alongside Nelson Mandela, died at his hoke near Cape Town.
    (BBC, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 29, In South Korea a fire at the construction site of a 4-story warehouse in Icheon killed 38 people.
    (SFC, 4/30/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 29, Spain recorded 325 deaths overnight, against 301 the previous day. Health officials said the coronavirus epidemic was evolving favorably ahead of a gradual easing of its lockdown next week.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, In Sweden the total confirmed coronavirus cases topped 20,000.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Tanzania reported 509 coronavirus cases and 21 deaths. At this point the government stopped releasing data. The US embassy in Tanzania later warned that there is a risk of "exponential growth" of Covid-19 cases in the country.
    (BBC, 5/13/20)
2020        Apr 29, The UN said more than 40 cases of COVID-19 and at least three deaths have been reported in Syria.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 29, Authorities in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden announced a three-day, 24-hour curfew starting at midnight local time, after five confirmed cases of new coronavirus infection were announced.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)
2020        Apr 29, Authorities in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden announced a three-day, 24-hour curfew starting at midnight local time, after five confirmed cases of new coronavirus infection were announced. Yemen recorded its first two coronavirus deaths. The deaths come after aid organizations warned any coronavirus outbreak could have dire consequences after six years of civil war.
    (Reuters, 4/29/20)(AFP, 4/30/20)

2020        Apr 30, President Donald Trump vented outrage over the FBI’s treatment of Michael Flynn following the release of government records and recent media reports regarding the bureau’s 2017 investigation into his former national security adviser.
    (Politico, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, The Trump administration shelved a CDC document, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework.” It was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials to reopen communities during the coronavirus pandemic. After the AP reported on May 7 that the document had been buried, the Trump administration ordered key parts of it to be fast-tracked for approval.
    (AP, 5/8/20)
2020        Apr 30, US President Donald Trump said he was confident the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but declined to describe the evidence he said he had seen. The Chinese government said that any claims that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory are "unfounded and purely fabricated out of nothing."
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 30, The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the new coronavirus was "not man-made or genetically modified." They were still investigating if the coronavirus pandemic might have resulted from an accident at a Chinese lab.
    (SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 30, The United States said that cash-strapped Venezuela is paying Iran in gold to rebuild its troubled oil industry as it denounced what it saw as growing cooperation between its two adversaries.
    (AFP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, The US Army's top leaders defended their decision to bring 1,000 cadets back to the Military Academy at West Point for graduation, where President Donald Trump is slated to speak, saying that despite the coronavirus risk students would have had to return anyway to prepare for their next duty assignment.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, A man armed with an assault rifle was arrested after opening fire outside the Cuban Embassy in Washington early today, his bullets tearing holes into the walls and pillars near the front entrance in what authorities suspect was a hate crime. Police found Alexander Alazo (42) of Aubrey, Texas, armed with an assault rifle, and they and took him into custody.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, It was reported that the US economy contracted at an annual rate of 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020 as businesses lost customers or shut down entirely because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now killed more than 60,000 people in the United States. It was the first quarterly drop in six years, and the steepest since the Great Recession.
    (The Week, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, The US Federal Reserve said it would expand its "Main Street Lending Facility" into three separate programs to support businesses with up to 15,000 employees and $5 billion in revenue.
    (Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, Washington DC officials announced 217 new COVID-19 infections, bringing its total to 4,323. New deaths rose by 19 for a total of 224.
    (SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 30, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom temporarily closed the beaches of Orange County starting May 1 after people thronged the seashore during a sweltering weekend despite his social distancing order that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
    (AP, 4/30/20)(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A1)
2020          Apr 30, California to date had 50,129 cases of coronavirus and 2,029 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,130 cases and 293 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,068,696 with the death toll at 61,881.
    (sfist.com, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, Colorado police arrested Erlinda Villareal (42) after he allegedly killed his girlfriend and her two sons and left their bodies in California's San Bernadino County.
    (SFC, 5/2/20, p.A3)
2020        Apr 30, An armed militia’s involvement in an angry protest in the Michigan statehouse marked an escalation that drew condemnation and shone a spotlight on the practice of bringing weapons to protest. Rally organizer Ryan Kelley said the event was intended to pressure Republicans to reject Gov. Whitmer's plan to continue restrictions on work and travel.
    (AP, 5/2/20)
2020        Apr 30, New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo said NYC's subway system, long celebrated for its all-night service, will shut down each day from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. so trains and stations can be disinfected.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, Tyson Foods said it was temporarily suspending operations at a Nebraska beef processing plant following a surge of coronavirus cases in the area.
    (SFC, 5/1/20, p.A5)
2020        Apr 30, Federal prosecutors in New York charged charged former Honduran police chief Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares with helping to ship tons of cocaine into the US at the behest of Pres. Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado and his brother. Bonilla's whereabouts were unknown. In 2021 the US requested the Bonilla's extradition.
    (AP, 6/1/12)(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A3)(SFC, 5/17/21, p.A4)
2020        Apr 30, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said more than 1,000 city employees will be assigned to patrol parks and other public spaces to ensure people are adhering to social distancing guidelines as the city prepares to battle the coronavirus pandemic into the summer months. The USNS Comfort left NYC after treating just 182 people. New York City saw 2,637 confirmed new cases of the coronavirus, and 202 people in the city died.
    (AP, 4/30/20)(Good Morning America, 5/1/20)
2020        Apr 30, It was reported that the US Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of someone who is poisoning pets and wildlife in northern Wisconsin. Ongoing poisonings in Florence, Forest and Marinette counties have been investigated for about a year. 7 pet dogs have died so far along with coyotes, weasels and wolves.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, SF Bay Area-based Bio-Rad Laboratories said it has received FDA authorization for an antibody test with "limited use in authorized laboratories." Bio-Rad said its test had 98% sensitivity and 99% specificity in clinical evaluations.
    (SFC, 5/2/20, p.C2)
2020        Apr 30, Australia's Capital Territory declared itself free of all known cases of the coronavirus. Australia has recorded 6,746 cases, including 90 deaths.
    (SFC, 5/1/20, p.A4)
2020        Apr 30, Brazil’s virtually uncontrolled surge of COVID-19 cases spawned fear that construction workers, truck drivers and tourists from Latin America’s biggest nation will spread the disease to neighboring countries that are doing a better job of controlling the coronavirus. The official count of coronavirus cases rocketed past 85,000 and deaths surpassed 5,900 — more than the amount suffered by China. Experts considered both figures to be significant under-counts due to a lack of widespread testing.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, The Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros announced its first confirmed case of the coronavirus, making it the 53rd of Africa's 54 countries to report COVID-19.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, The International Monetary Fund approved $650 million in emergency financial assistance to help the Dominican Republic respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, In Egypt an explosion hit a military armored convoy in the Sinai peninsula, causing at least 10 casualties among soldiers who are participating in a campaign against an Islamic insurgency in the volatile region.
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        Apr 30, In Georgia a transgender woman set herself on fire in Tbilisi to highlight the plight of trans sex workers with no income during the coronavirus lockdown. She was taken to a hospital suffering from burns but her conditions were not critical. LGBT+ groups in response called for more state support.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        Apr 30, Germany said it has banned Iran-backed Hezbollah on its soil and designated it a terrorist organization. Security officials believed that up to 1,050 people in Germany are part of Hezbollah's extremist wing. Police have raided five sites linked to the Lebanese militant group.
    (Reuters, 4/30/20)(SFC, 5/1/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 30, Confirmed coronavirus cases in Ghana surged above 2,000, increasing 24% in a matter of days. The Ghana Health Service reported 403 new cases, bringing the total to 2,074. The spike was announced 10 days after President Nana Akufo-Addo eased a three-week lockdown in the capital of Accra and in the city of Kumasi.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, It was reported that India has shipped 50 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine to the United States. This followed a request by President Donald Trump for New Delhi to release supplies of the drug as a possible treatment for the respiratory disease. US regulators have warned the anti-malarial drug may have harmful side effects in the treatment of COVID-19.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, Indonesia confirmed 347 new coronavirus infections, taking its total to above 10,000.
    (Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, Iran's health ministry said that 71 new deaths from the novel coronavirus took the country's overall toll to 6,028. 983 people tested positive for the virus over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 94,640.
    (Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, Jordan's Foreign Ministry said that Israeli farmers will no longer be allowed to work their fields in an enclave of southern Jordan, ending a more than 25-year arrangement meant to shore up a historic peace agreement.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, Libya’s UN-supported government rejected a unilateral cease-fire declared by forces loyal to a rival, east-based administration that have been besieging the capital of Tripoli for the past year, citing the collapse of past agreements with the rivals.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, In Nepal an old explosive device, left over from a communist insurgency, killed four children in a mountain village in the Rolpa district.
    (SFC, 5/2/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 30, Paraguay has fewer than 250 confirmed coronavirus cases and its borders have been closed since March 24, with enforcement particularly focused on the largely open frontier with Brazil.
    (AP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, Philippine communist guerrilas of the New People's Army said that they have decided to end a 36-day ceasefire because of military attacks.
    (SFC, 5/1/20, p.A2)
2020        Apr 30, Russian television aired a video call between Mishustin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the call, Mishustin told Putin about his positive coronavirus diagnosis, and encouraged Russians to take the threat of COVID-19 seriously. There are now more than 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Russia, with the death toll at 1,073.
    (The Week, 5/1/20)
2020        Apr 30, South Korea reported that for the first time since the virus’s Feb. 29 peak, it had no new domestic cases and just four cases among people who came in from outside the country.
    (NY Times, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, It was reported that Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has donated a $100,000 prize she won from a Danish foundation to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) for use against the COVID-19 pandemic.
    (AFP, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, Syrian state media reported that Israeli helicopters flew over the occupied Golan Heights firing at unidentified targets and causing material damage.
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        Apr 30, In opposition-held northwest Syria militants of the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group shot at demonstrators and killed a protester.
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        Apr 30, Tajikistan has confirmed its first 15 coronavirus cases.
    (Reuters, 4/30/20)
2020        Apr 30, Ukraine reached 10,000 coronavirus cases and its health minister urged people not to violate lockdown measures. Cherkasy mayor Anatoliy Bondarenko decided to open shops, hairdressers and restaurants after appeals from businesses. His decision prompted police to launch criminal proceedings against the Cherkasy authorities and summon the mayor for questioning.
    (Reuters, 4/30/20)(AP, 5/5/20)
2020        Apr 30, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said 16 armed groups have responded positively to his appeal for a global cease-fire to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        Apr 30, It was reported that Uzbekistan is to allow tens of thousands of stateless people to become citizens. The new law came into effect this month and will enable an estimated 50,000 people to acquire citizenship. The United Nations hailed the new law and urged other countries to follow suit in ending the plight of some of the world's most invisible people.
    (Reuters, 4/30/20)

2020        Apr, A Trump app was launched. The smartphone app aimed to become a one-stop news, information and entertainment platform for supporters of Donald Trump and has since often placed among the Top 10 in Apple's rankings of news apps, sometimes above those of individual news organizations such as CNN, the New York Times and Reuters.
    (Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020        Apr, The US Department of Agriculture began the Farmers to Families Food Box program after many people were shocked to see farmers destroy crops because restaurant and institutions abruptly cancelled orders due to the virus even as food banks were crushed by demand from people suddenly out of work.
    (AP, 2/23/21)
2020        Apr, Operation Warp Speed (OWS), a US government effort to have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year, was begun as a partnership between Health and Human Services, The Dept. of Defense and an alphabet soup of health-related agencies. Pres. Trump announced OWS on May 15.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Warp_Speed)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.19)
2020        Apr, US diplomats and security officials privately warned the state of Nevada not to use Chinese-made coronavirus test kits donated by the United Arab Emirates over concerns about patient privacy, test accuracy and Chinese government involvement.
    (AP, 10/14/20)
2020        Apr, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, web designers at Amazon, were fired after they organized a virtual town hall for Seattle colleagues to hear from the company’s low-paid and largely uninsured warehouse staff. Costa and Cunningham later said Amazon is now so intent on keeping warehouse and corporate workers apart that human resources executives not only fired them, but removed the virtual town hall event from the calendars of several hundred employees who had planned to attend.
    (Yahoo News, 5/9/20)
2020        Apr, Scientists for the first time identified a fast radio burst inside the Milky Way coming from a magnetar. Magnetars are incredibly dense neutron stars, with 1.5 times the mass of our sun squeezed into a space the size of Manhattan They have known about them for about 13 years and have seen them coming from outside our galaxy.
    (AP, 11/4/20)
2020        Apr, Brazil's government created the "auxilio emergencial," a basic income to poor people to face the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In September the benefit was halved, but extended until the end of 2020.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y9r4fmep)(Econ., 12/19/20, p.51)
2020        Apr, China created two administrative districts covering the Spratlys and Paracels under Sansha, a notional city that was established in 2012 as the seas government.
    (Econ., 6/20/20, p.33)
2020        Apr, China-based Yangtze memory Technologies Co. (YMTC), founded in 2016, announced that it could now make memory chips as technologically advanced as the best Samsung has to offer, boasting 128 distinct layers of circuitry.
    (Econ., 8/15/20, p.20)
2020        Apr, French researchers reported late this month that habitual smokers were significantly underrepresented among those requiring hospital treatment for COVID-19. This suggested that something in tobacco smoke was having a protective effect.
    (Econ., 5/2/20, p.69)
2020        Apr, India imposed new rules requiring the central government to vet all direct investments by Chinese firms.
    (Econ., 7/4/20, p.31)
2020        Apr, In Nigeria residents of Lagos and neighboring Ogun state resorted to forming vigilante groups as reports spread that hundreds of gangsters belonging to One Million Boys and Awawa Boys were attacking some neighborhoods.
    (BBC, 6/2/20)
2020        Apr, Uganda exported its first batch of medical cannabis. The local Industrial Hemp company teamed with a subsidiary of Together Pharma, an Israeli firm, to ship 250kg of medical cannabis to Israel.
    (Econ., 5/9/20, p.35)

2020        May 1, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks to protect the US electricity system from cyber and other attacks. The move that could eventually put barriers on some imports from China and Russia.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, President Donald Trump seemingly increased his estimate of possible deaths in the US from the coronavirus, telling a White House event he hopes for less than 100,000 fatalities, a higher upper limit than the 60,000 to 70,000 deaths he discussed on April 27.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 1, Pres. Trump's new spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, promised not to lie to reporters from the podium as she made her debut at the first White House briefing by a press secretary in more than a year.
    (SFC, 5/2/20, p.A4)
2020        May 1, The Daily Beast reported that in an attempt to suppress a 'tell-all' book about the president., lawyers for the Trump Organization last week sent Michael Cohen, who is in prison, a cease and desist letter.
    (Business Insider, 5/3/20)
2020        May 1, The US tweeted its support for Taiwan’s participation in the UN, provoking a sharp response from China expressing “strong indignation and firm opposition.”
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, A survey from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said US manufacturing activity plunged to an 11-year low in April as the novel coronavirus wreaked havoc on supply chains, suggesting the economy was sinking deeper into recession.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, It was reported that the Trump administration has pulled funding for a group of scientists studying coronaviruses in bats and the risk of their spillover into humans -- the very kind of infection that started the COVID-19 pandemic.
    (Good Morning America, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Alaska Airlines and Southwest became the latest airlines to announce they will require passengers wear face coverings as of May 11. This means all major US airlines have made that a requirement for passengers.
    (Good Morning America, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, In Arkansas police shot and killed Brent Martin (32), who had taken his son, Jordan Roberts, hostage in Little Rock. Martin had shot the boy (11) who later died at a hospital.
    (SFC, 5/5/20, p.A4)
2020          May 1, California to date had 51,775 cases of coronavirus and 2,111 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,257 cases and 304 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,102,703 with the death toll at 64,789.
    (sfist.com, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, According to Florida's Department of Health, 34,728 people in the state have tested positive for COVID-19, and 1,337 people have died from it. Health officials halted the publication of up-to-the-minute death statistics related to the coronavirus pandemic that have, by law, been compiled by medical examiners in the state. The death count compiled by the Medical Examiners Commission was often found to be higher than the figures provided by Florida’s Department of Health, prompting a review of the data and a suspension of its publication.
    (Yahoo News, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, In Massachusetts a group of about 10 immigrants in US government custody clashed with officials at the Bristol County C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center in Dartmouth. The inmates had reported symptoms of COVID-19. This was at least the ninth instance since Pres. Trump declared a national emergency over the coronavirus.
    (CBS News, 5/2/20)(SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A5)
2020        May 1, In Michigan security guard Calvin Munerlyn (43) was fatally shot after he refused to let a woman's daughter enter a Family Dollar in Flint because she wasn't wearing a face mask to protect against transmission of the coronavirus.
    (AP, 5/4/20)
2020        May 1, In Michigan Cornelius Fredericks (16), a Black teenager, died after being restrained for throwing a sandwich. Three staff members were later charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree child abuse.
    (SFC, 7/3/20, p.A6)
2020        May 1, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said his state had just had its largest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases and its largest increase in deaths. Mississippi has more than 7,200 diagnosed coronavirus cases and at least 281 deaths.
    (Good Morning America, 5/2/20)
2020        May 1, In New Mexico COVID-19 infections in Gallup and surrounding McKinley County surpassed 1,060 confirmed cases and accounted for 30% of cases stateside, surpassing infections in much larger communities such as Albuquerque. In all, more than 3,500 cases have been reported in the state, with more than 130 deaths. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham invoked the state's Riot Control Act and ordered residents of Gallup to remain home except for emergencies and blocked roads leading in and out of town to nonessential travel and any vehicles carrying more than two people.
    (AP, 5/1/20)(SFC, 5/2/20, p.A7)
2020        May 1, In New York City the Isabella Geriatric Center in Manhattan reported the deaths of 98 residents believed to have had the coronavirus, a death toll that shocked public officials.
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Ohio and Texas pushed ahead with a phased relaxation of restrictions that U.S. states put in place weeks ago to curb the coronavirus pandemic, as Georgia took another step toward a full restart by allowing all businesses to reopen.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, In South Carolina deputies shot and killed an alligator that fatally attacked a woman at a pond on Kiawah Island. This was the 3rd fatal alligator attack in the state in the past four years. Before that South Carolina had never recorded a person killed by an alligator.
    (SFC, 5/4/20, p.A3)
2020        May 1, In Texas the Petra Nova plant, a $1 billion project to harness carbon dioxide emissions, shut down. The plant, a joint venture project between NRG Energy Inc and Japan's JX Nippon, had suffered chronic mechanical problems and routinely missed its targets. Before being mothballed, it was the only US project capturing carbon from a coal-fired power plant.
    (Reuters, 8/6/20)
2020        May 1, Gilead Science Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir was granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration for COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 1, JPMorgan Chase & Co said that the US Small Business Administration gave it the green light to make $15 billion in new loans to some 211,000 business customers hurt by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Supermarket chain Kroger Co said it has put purchase limits on ground beef and fresh pork at some of its stores following growing concerns over meat shortages due to coronavirus-induced supply disruptions.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, It was reported that the Taliban have mounted more than 4,500 attacks in Afghanistan in the 45 days since signing a deal on Feb. 29 with the United States that paves the way for a US troop drawdown.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Afghanistan has reported over 2,335 coronavirus cases and 68 deaths, but international observers believe numbers could be much higher.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Australian PM Scott Morrison, who has angered Beijing by calling for a global inquiry into the coronavirus outbreak, said he had no evidence to suggest the disease originated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Australian police fataly shot a man who stabbed and slashed seven people at and near a shopping mall in South Hedland, Western Australia state.
    (SFC, 5/2/20, p.A2)
2020        May 1, Bangladesh has confirmed 7,667 people infected with the coronavirus and 168 deaths. Garment factories began reopening this week after nearly a month of closures.
    (SFC, 5/2/20, p.A5)
2020        May 1, PM Justin Trudeau announced an immediate ban on the sale and use of assault-style weapons in Canada, two weeks after a gunman killed 22 people in Nova Scotia.
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, China's "Regulations on the Establishment of a Model Area for Ethnic Unity and Progress in the Tibet Autonomous Region" came into effect. The law was passed by the regional assembly in January.
    (Econ., 5/16/20, p.34)
2020        May 1, China reported 12 new cases of the coronavirus, six of them brough from overseas, and no new deaths for the 16th day. Total deaths stood at 4,633 from about 83,000 cases.
    (SFC, 5/2/20, p.A5)
2020        May 1, It was reported that Hangzhou-based startup Rokid has developed a pair of glasses to help screen for coronavirus symptoms. It is making wearable T1 glasses that measure temperatures on the move.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, The European Investment Bank (EIB) said it would boost its cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) as it seeks to fight the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, in particular in vulnerable African countries.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, It was reported that Guatemala's indigenous Maya towns are spurning migrants returned from the US. Local health officials have said that nearly one fifth of the 585 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Guatemala can be traced to people deported from the United States, most of them on two flights in a single day.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Hungarian budget carrier Wizz Air flew into London's Luton airport from Sofia, becoming one of the first European airlines to restart routes during the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, India's PM Narendra Modi extended the coronavirus lockdown for two weeks, but some restrictions were relaxed.
    (AP, 5/3/20)
2020        May 1, Iran rejected US claims it is helping Venezuela to rebuild its oil industry, saying the accusations are designed to increase pressure and disrupt the two countries' trade ties.
    (AFP, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Iran's death toll from the outbreak of the new coronavirus increased by 63 in the past 24 hours to 6,091. The outbreak has infected 95,646.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Kazakh airlines made their first regular domestic flights in more than a month, with rows of passengers seated alongside empty middle seats, after the vast Central Asian nation eased coronavirus lockdown rules.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Authorities in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan began evacuating tens of thousands of people from the Syr Darya river basin after the 3-year-old Sardoba dam on the Uzbek side burst, flooding large areas on both sides of the border. Six people were killed and over 100,000 displaced. Damages were estimated at $1 billion. Nine people were later arrested on charges that included embezzlement, fraud and negligence. Journalists looking into the collapse were harassed and fired.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.31)
2020        May 1, Lebanon's government signed a request for assistance from the International Monetary Fund.
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Libya’s eastern-based forces trying to capture the country's capital bombed civilian homes, killing at least two people.
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Malaysia detained hundreds of refugees and migrant workers for illegally living in the country. Malaysia has reported a total of 6,071 coronavirus cases and 103 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, PM Robert Abela said Malta plans to keep 57 rescued migrants aboard a private ship anchored just outside territorial waters until the EU finds a way to rehouse them.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, The Netherlands' number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 475 to 39,791, with 98 new deaths. The country's death toll stands at 4,893.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Newly released footage of Kim Jong UN glad-handing at a North Korean fertilizer production plant north of Pyongyang appeared to put an end to speculation about his health.
    (The Telegraph, 5/2/20)
2020        May 1, It was reported that a new wave of ravening locust swarms threaten to devastate crops in parts of Pakistan. Half a million acres in 22 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh provinces were under threat.
    (The Telegraph, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Poland's government will hike unemployment benefits, President Andrzej Duda said in an election broadcast, promising "an unbelievably high amount" of support for households and businesses struggling through the coronavirus crisis.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Russia reported a record daily rise in confirmed coronavirus cases that pushed the national tally to 114,431. The country has recorded 1,169 deaths from the virus.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Slovak PM Igor Matovic said authorities have lifted a quarantine on three Roma settlements locked down in early April to block the spread of the coronavirus, leaving one remaining village under restrictive orders. Slovakia had 1,403 confirmed coronavirus cases with 23 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, South Africa began easing one of the world's strictest lockdowns, with runners and dog-walkers returning eagerly to the streets but not all wearing the face masks that are now mandatory. South Africa has more than 5,600 cases of COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Spain's death toll from the coronavirus rose by 281 overnight, a small rise from the previous day but still one of the lowest daily tolls in weeks. The crisis has now claimed the lives of 24,824 people.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Explosions at a Syrian military base housing a weapons warehouse injured 10 civilians outside the base. the defense ministry said they were the result of “human error" while moving ammunition. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blasts near the central city of Homs were caused by a suspected Israeli rocket attack.
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, It was reported that Sudan has criminalized carrying out female genital mutilation (FGM), making it punishable by three years in jail. The law must still be ratified by a joint meeting of the Cabinet and the sovereign council.
    (BBC, 5/1/20)(AP, 5/2/20)
2020        May 1, Police in Istanbul detained at least 15 people, including trade union leaders who tried to stage a May Day march in defiance of a coronavirus lockdown and a ban on demonstrations at Taksim Square. Turkey ranks seventh in the world for the number of confirmed infections with 120,204 cases. The country's official death toll stands at 3,174.
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Uganda said Lake Victoria's water levels have surged to their highest level in more than half a century after about eight months of relentless downpours, posing a threat to the nation's hydropower plants.
    (Reuters, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, In central Venezuela a riot erupted at the Llanos Penitentiary Center in Guanare, killing at least 40 people and injuring 50 more. The was built to hold 750 inmates but is jammed beyond capacity with 2,500 inmates.
    (NBC News, 5/2/20)
2020        May 1, Explosions rocked Yemen's Socotra archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as an armed unit funded by the United Arab Emirates fought to wrest control of the provincial capital Hadebo. The unit is part of the UAE-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council, which declared self-rule earlier this week in the south.
    (AP, 5/1/20)
2020        May 1, Yemen reported the first case of the coronavirus in a third province late today, raising the number of diagnosed infections to seven with two deaths in one of the world's most vulnerable countries.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)

2020        May 2, President Trump tweeted that he is "glad" to see North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "is back, and well" after a three week absence from public.
    (The Week, 5/3/20)
2020          May 2, California to date had 52,237 cases of coronavirus and 2,134 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,319 cases and 305 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,107,815 with the death toll at 65,068. The United States suffered its largest daily fatality increase after recording 2,909 deaths in 24 hours.
    (sfist.com, 5/2/20)(The Week, 5/3/20)
2020        May 2, In Texas a Houston police department helicopter crashed into an apartment complex. One police officer was killed, and another was in critical condition.
    (Good Morning America, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, Washington state reported that Yakima County had 1,203 positive cases of the coronavirus, a rate of 455 cases per 100,000 residents, the highest in the state. The county has a large number of people in the agriculture and food processing industries. Many live and work in close quarters, which can spread the disease.
    (AP, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, It was reported that scientists have since embarked on a full-scale hunt for the Asian giant hornets, worried that the invaders could decimate bee populations in the United States and establish such a deep presence that all hope for eradication could be lost. Two of the predatory insects were discovered last fall in the northwest corner of Washington State.
    (NY Times, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, Australian health officials said a small coronavirus cluster has emerged at a meat factory in the state of Victoria, as parts of the country started easing social distancing restrictions after suppressing the infection rate to below 1 %. Victoria reported seven new cases, three of which were related to a meat-processing facility. A total of 8 employees have tested positive.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, In Brazil a Supreme Court judge issued an injunction suspending for 10 days a move by the right-wing government to expel Venezuela's 30 diplomats and consular staff.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, In Brazil there have been 4,970 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 421 deaths over the last 24 hours. The nation has now registered 95,559 confirmed cases of the virus and 6,750 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, It was reported that Inmates at a prison in Manaus, Brazil, a city deep in the Amazon that has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, have taken seven prison guards hostage. Local television stations cited a video allegedly recorded by an unidentified inmate, who complained of sweltering heat and a lack of electricity in the prison.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, It was reported that a top British hospital will use blood plasma treatment for COVID-19 patients as part of a trial that transfuses plasma from recovered people into sick people to give their immune systems a boost to fight the virus.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, The northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, struggling with the country's biggest coronavirus cluster, shut dine-in services, as the rest of China eases restrictions designed to hamper the spread of the disease. China reported two new coronavirus cases for today, up from one the day before. The number of confirmed cases in China has reached 82,877. With no new deaths reported, the death toll remained at 4,633. The Harbin cases outbreak was traced to a to a Chinese student who flew from America in March.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)(Reuters, 5/3/20)(Econ., 5/2/20, p.33)
2020        May 2, Egyptian authorities said they have relocated four ancient sphinxes to Tahrir Square, the congested traffic circle in the heart of Cairo. The sphinxes will remain inside wooden boxes until the official unveiling of renovations.
    (AP, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, Egyptian filmmaker Shady Habash (22), detained without trial for over two years for making a music video that mocked President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, died at Cairo’s maximum-security Tora Prison complex.
    (AP, 5/3/20)
2020        May 2, The French health ministry said travelers to France, including French citizens returning home, will face a compulsory two-week quarantine and possible isolation when they arrive in the country to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, It was reported that India has mandated that all public and private sector employees use a government-backed Bluetooth tracing app and maintain social distancing in offices as New Delhi begins easing some of its lockdown measures in lower-risk areas.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, Indian troops in Kashmir entered a house in the Handwara area late today and successfully extricated a number of hostages held by militants. Five Indian troops and two militants were killed in the fighting.
    (SFC, 5/4/20, p.A2)
2020        May 2, Indonesia recorded 292 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 10,843. 31 new deaths took the total number of fatalities to 831.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, Iran's death toll from the coronavirus increased by 65 in the past 24 hours to 6,156. Total diagnosed cases reached 96,448, up by 802 in the past 24 hours.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, In Iraq Islamic State militants killed at least 10 militiamen of Popular Mobilization Forces in a coordinated assault overnight near the central city of Samarra.
    (AP, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, Ireland said it will allow firms impacted by the coronavirus crisis to warehouse tax liabilities for 12 months, offering a "lifeline" as part of an additional package of business supports that could reach 6.5 billion euros.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, Several thousand Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv, demonstrating against PM Benjamin Netanyahu's new coalition deal with his chief rival a day before the country's Supreme Court is to begin debating a series of legal challenges to the agreement.
    (AP, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic jumped by 474, against 269 the day before. The daily tally of new infections was broadly stable for a third day running at 1,900 against 1,965 a day earlier. The total death toll now stands at 28,710. The total number of confirmed cases amounted to 209,328, the third highest global tally behind those of the US and Spain.
    (AP, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, Ivory Coast's PM Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who is the ruling party’s candidate in October’s presidential election, was evacuated to France for medical checks Ivory Coast has recorded more than 1,300 cases of the coronavirus, one of the highest totals in West Africa, and 15 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020        May 2, Lesotho lawmakers and South African mediators said that legislation awaiting assent from the king will see PM Thabane (80), suspected of killing his ex-wife, leave office soon.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, In Malaysia senior Minister Ismail Sabri defended the detention of more than 580 immigrants in an operation in Kuala Lumpur. He said all tested negative for the coronavirus and have been sent to detention camps. Malaysia has 6,176 virus cases and 103 deaths.
    (SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A5)
2020        May 2, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus infections increased by 445 to 40,236. 94 new deaths took the total COVID-19 fatalities to 4,987.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, New Zealand recorded one new coronavirus death, bringing the toll to 20. There were two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections, that raised the total to 1,134.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, Pakistan recorded its highest single-day increase in new coronavirus infections with 1,297 new cases, bringing the total to 18,114. The increase coincided with a growing number of daily tests.
    (SSFC, 5/3/20, p.A5)
2020        May 2, The Philippines said it has recorded 156 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 24 more deaths, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 8,928 and the fatalities to 603.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, Russia reported 9,623 new cases of coronavirus, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total to 124,054, mostly in the capital Moscow, where the mayor threatened to cut the number of travel permits.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, In South Africa thousands of people stood in line for hours in a South African township waiting for handouts of food. The scene has repeated for days.
    (AP, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, In South Korea a man (29) visited five nightclubs and bars in Seoul's Itaewon entertainment neighborhood in a single night before testing positive for the virus on Mas 6. More than 100 infections soon appeared linked to the nightspots.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 2, In Spain joggers, cyclists and surfers across the country emerged from their homes, with adults allowed out for exercise for the first time in seven weeks as the government began easing tough coronavirus restrictions.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)
2020        May 2, In northeastern Syria imprisoned members of the Islamic State group rioted and took control of a prison in Hassakeh for several hours. By the following day Kurdish-led authorities negotiated an end to the unrest.
    (AP, 5/3/20)
2020        May 2, Thailand reported six new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 2,966. Since Thailand first detected the coronavirus in January, a total of 54 patients have died.
    (Reuters, 5/2/20)

2020        May 3, President Trump predicted that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the country may reach as high as 100,000 in the United States, twice as many as he had forecast just two weeks ago, even as he pressed states to reopen the shuttered economy. Trump also struck a note of urgency to restart the nation's economy.
    (AP, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, It was reported that the US National Rifle Association has laid off dozens of employees, canceled its national convention and scuttled fundraising, membership and shooting events that normally would be key to rallying its base in an election year.
    (AP, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Longtime Alabama newspaper publisher H. Brandt Ayers (85) died. He had made The Anniston Star a voice for progressive politics during the civil rights era.
    (AP, 5/5/20)
2020          May 3, California to date had 54,923 cases of coronavirus and 2,25 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,560 cases and 308 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached 1,158,041 with the death toll at 67,682.
    (sfist.com, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, In Kansas police Officer Mike Mosher was off-duty but in uniform when he saw an apparent hit-and-run and pursued the suspect, which led to a shootout. The suspect died at the scene and Mosher died at a hospital.
    (AP, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said that a statewide order mandating face masks be worn in stores went "too far." Ohio has over 19,000 cases of coronavirus with over 1,000 deaths.
    (ABC News, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, It was reported that thousands of desperate migrants around the world are trapped in limbo and even at risk of death without food, water or shelter in scorching deserts and at sea, as governments close off borders and ports amid the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Afghan officials launched a hunt to retrieve bodies of Afghan migrants from a river in a western province after reports that Iranian border guards tortured and threw Afghans into the river to prevent their entry into Iran. Initial assessments suggested at least 70 Afghans who were trying to enter Iran from Herat province were beaten and pushed into the Harirud river.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Afghan health officials said one-third of 500 random coronavirus tests in Kabul have come back positive. The official death toll was at 85.
    (AP, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Brazil's President Bolsonaro, who has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum for dismissing the threat of the coronavirus, attacked Congress and the courts in a speech to hundreds of supporters as the number of cases blew past 100,000.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 3, In Canada the total number of people killed by the coronavirus rose by 4.6% to 3,606. The figure for those diagnosed with the coronavirus rose to 57,148.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Egypt's military said that 15 of its men had died or been wounded in operations in the Sinai Peninsula recently, and that 126 suspected militants had been killed.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Amnesty International said journalism in Egypt has effectively become a crime over the past four years, as authorities clamp down on media outlets and muzzle dissent.
    (AP, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, India recorded its largest single-day jump of 2,600 coronavirus infections. 83 new deaths raised the death toll to 1,301. Total confirmed cases neared 40,000.
    (SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020        May 3, Indonesia reported 349 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections in the country to 11,192. 14 new coronavirus-related deaths were confirmed, bringing the total to 845.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Iran said it would reopen schools and mosques in some locations, even though the nation has been the regional epicenter of the pandemic since mid-February. Authorities said that 47 people had died in the preceding 24-hour period raising the death total to 6,203. Total case number reached 97,424.
    (AP, 5/3/20)(Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Israel reopened some schools but the bid to edge back to normality as coronavirus concerns ease was boycotted by several municipalities and many parents who cited poor government preparation.
    (AP, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, The Lebanese military said it detained five Sudanese citizens near the border with Israel and was questioning them. This was hours after the Israeli military said it had detained the five on suspicion they were trying to infiltrate the heavily-guarded border. Israeli media said the five were job seekers who were returned to Lebanon.
    (AP, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus infections increased by 335 to 40,471. The National Institute for Public Health reported 69 new deaths taking the total COVID-19 fatalities to 5,056.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, North Korean gunfire hit a Southern guard post, prompting Seoul's soldiers to return fire a few minutes later and broadcast warnings. On May 26 the United Nations Command (UNC) said the shooting was a violation of the 1953 armistice agreement. The last time the two sides exchanged fire on the border was in 2014.
    (AFP, 5/26/20)
2020        May 3, Norwegian Air said it had secured support from enough bondholders for a $1.2 billion debt-for-equity swap, a vital step in helping it survive the coronavirus crisis.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, The number of coronavirus cases in the Philippines climbed to 9,223 after the Health Ministry reported 295 new infections. The Philippines barred incoming passenger flights from this morning for one week to contain the spread of the coronavirus and help reduce pressure on quarantine facilities housing thousands of Filipino repatriates.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Russia reported 10,633 new cases in the last 24 hours. More than half the cases were in Moscow
    (SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020        May 3, South Korea recorded just 13 new coronavirus cases and no deaths.
    (The Week, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Spain's coronavirus death toll rose by 164 to 25,264, marking the lowest one-day increase since March 18.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Swiss-based Roche said the US Food and Drug Administration has cleared a coronavirus antibody test produced by the company for emergency use. Roche said its test has proven 100 percent accurate at detecting antibodies in the blood and 99.8 percent accurate at ruling out the presence of those antibodies.
    (The Week, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, Sanctions-hit Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf said that security forces are arresting employees at his diversified companies in what he said were "mounting pressures" on him days after Syrian authorities asked him to repay hefty taxes. Makhlouf played a big role in financing Assad's war effort. The state was demanding at least $170 million in license fees.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)(Econ., 5/16/20, p.39)
2020        May 3, Tanzania's President John Magufuli said coronavirus test kits used in the country were faulty, because he said they had returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw. Tanzania had recorded 480 cases of COVID-19 and 17 deaths. Magufuli said he will send a plane to Madagascar to import a herbal tonic, produced from the artemisia plant, which has been touted as a cure for coronavirus by the country's president. The drink was launched as Covid-Organics and was being marketed after being tested on fewer than 20 people over a period of three weeks. Congo-Brazzaville's president has also promised to import the drink.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)(BBC, 5/3/20)
2020        May 3, The Tanzanian health ministry said there would be no more night burials and that from now on, family members would be fully involved in funeral preparations to ensure that the dignity of the deceased is preserved.
    (BBC, 5/4/20)
2020        May 3, Thailand reported three new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, as the country started lifting restrictions on some businesses and aspects of life. Thailand has seen a total of 2,969 coronavirus cases and 54 deaths since the outbreak began in January. Residents of Bangkok enjoyed their first day of eased coronavirus restrictions.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A4)
2020        May 3, In Turkey Dr. Murat Dilmener (78), a professor of infectious diseases, died of COVID-19. His charity and compassion inspired Newspapers to dub him the “Robin Hood of the medical profession” and earned the professor and practicing physician the admiration of thousands of patients and students.
    (AP, 7/16/20)
2020        May 3, Venezuela's government foiled a marine incursion by "terrorist mercenaries" who attempted to enter the country at La Guaira on speedboats from neighboring Colombia. Eight raiders were reported killed.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)(SFC, 5/4/20, p.A2)(Econ., 5/16/20, p.26)
2020        May 3, Vietnam reported its first new coronavirus infection in nine days. The country has registered a total of 271 coronavirus cases and no deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/3/20)

2020        May 4, The US National Institutes of Health said it has started enrolling participants in a study to find out the infection rate of COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus, in children and their families in the United States. Global coronavirus cases surpassed 3.5 million and deaths neared a quarter of a million.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, US Supreme Court justices began hearing arguments by telephone for the first time.
    (AP, 5/4/20)
2020          May 4, California to date had 55,657 cases of coronavirus and 2,254 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 8,763 cases and 312 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,180,000 with the death toll at 68,689.
    (sfist.com, 5/4/20)(Good Morning America, 5/5/20)
2020        May 4, In San Francisco Courtney Brousseau (22), a transit advocate and Twitter employee, died 3 days after being hit by a barrage of gunfire at the intersection of Rosa Parks Lane and Guerrero St.
    (SFC, 5/6/20, p.B1)
2020        May 4, Michael McClure (87), Beat poet, died at his home in the Oakland Hills. He put together the famed Six Gallery readings in 1955 that launched the San Francisco Rennaisance and the legend of the Beats.
    (SFC, 5/7/20, p.B1)
2020        May 4, Michigan has reported 43,754 confirmed COVID-19 virus cases and 4,049 deaths due to complications from the disease.
    (AP, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson lifted many of the state's coronavirus restrictions and its stay-at-home order.
    (AP, 5/23/20)
2020        May 4, New York state reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities. At least 4,813 people have died from COVID-19 in the state's nursing homes since March 1.
    (AP, 5/5/20)
2020        May 4, NYC health officials said 15 children, many of whom tested positive for or had previously been exposed to the novel coronavirus, have recently been admitted to city hospitals with a mysterious illness possibly linked to COVID-19. They showed various symptoms associated with toxic shock or Kawasaki disease, a rare inflammatory syndrome typically affecting children under the age of 5.
    (ABC News, 5/5/20)
2020        May 4, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine allowed construction and manufacturing to reopen, and let office workers return. He said businesses must meet state requirements that workers wear face coverings and stay at least six feet apart, and employers sanitize their workplaces.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Apple and Google shared more details about the technological tools they’ve been developing to help governments and public health authorities trace the spread of the coronavirus and notify citizens about exposure, including a set of privacy requirements for use of those tools. If countries want to adopt the technology, location services are forbidden.
    (Yahoo News, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, J. Crew, the mass-market clothing company whose preppy-with-a-twist products were worn by Michelle Obama and appeared at New York Fashion Week, filed for bankruptcy protection. J. Crew announced that its parent company, Chinos Holdings, had filed for Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
    (NY Times, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Argentina's biggest bondholders reiterated that they would not accept the government's offer to restructure $65 billion of its foreign debt. The standoff raised the risk Argentina will fall into a record ninth sovereign debt default on May 22, when a grace period on a missed interest payment runs out.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, The Australian government set aside A$300 million ($191 million) to jumpstart hydrogen projects with the help of low-cost financing as the country aims to build the industry by 2030.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Bangladesh reported more than 10,000 coronavirus cases.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Belgium began a cautious easing of its coronavirus lockdown, allowing some businesses to reopen while obliging all passengers on public transport to wear a mask under a new rule to minimize the risk of a new outbreak.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Britain as of today had recorded nearly 190,000 coronavirus cases and almost 28,500 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, In El Salvador at least 300 people held in two centers set up by the government protested, demanding to be released and given their test results.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 4, France reported 306 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the nationwide tally to 25,201.
    (AP, 5/5/20)
2020        May 4, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would contribute 525 million euros ($573.51 million) to a global fund-raising push to search for vaccines and for a treatment for the novel coronavirus. World leaders in a video conference launched a pledging "marathon" - without the United States - to raise at least $8.2 billion for research into a possible vaccine and treatments for the coronavirus, but warned that it is just the start of an effort that must be sustained over time to beat the disease.
    (AP, 5/4/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Hong Kong customs officials impounded 24 tons of shark fins from Ecuador with a retail value of $1.1 million.
    (Econ., 11/21/20, p.30)
2020        May 4, In Iceland high schools, hair salons, dentists and other businesses began reopening after six weeks of lockdown. Iceland has confirmed 1,799 cases of the coronavirus, but just 10 people have died.
    (AP, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Iran reopened mosques in parts of the country deemed at low risk from coronavirus, as it said almost 80,000 people hospitalized with the illness had recovered and been released. 74 new fatalities brought the total to 6,277. Another 1,223 cases of COVID-19 infections were recorded in the past 24 hours, raising that total to 98,647.
    (AFP, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Israeli airstrikes late today in eastern Syria killed 14 Iranian and Iraqi fighters and wounded others, some seriously. The strikes in eastern Deir el-Zour province targeted positions of Iranian and Iran-backed fighters.
    (AP, 5/5/20)
2020        May 4, In Israel former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, winner of the 2020 Genesis Prize, announced that he will donate the $1 million award to organizations fighting the coronavirus pandemic and assisting people most affected by the outbreak.
    (AP, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Millions of people were allowed to return to work in Italy as Europe’s longest lockdown started to ease. Italy's statistics bureau ISTAT said the coronavirus death toll is much higher than reported, in an analysis pointing to thousands of fatalities that have never been officially attributed to COVID-19.
    (AP, 5/4/20)(Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, A private Kenyan African Express aircraft with coronavirus medical supplies crashed in Somalia near the city of Baidoa, killing all six on board. A report from the African Union later said the plane may have been shot down by Ethiopian troops.
    (AP, 5/5/20)(SFC, 5/6/20, p.A2)(SFC, 5/12/20, p.A2)
2020        May 4, Kuwaiti said security officials have dispersed what they described as a riot by stranded Egyptians unable to return home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
    (https://tinyurl.com/yd8a8tee)(SFC, 5/5/20, p.A5)
2020        May 4, Lebanon entered a new phase of its coronavirus lockdown, allowing restaurants to open at 30% capacity during the day. But many business owners say they will not reopen because they would be losing more money if they operate under such restrictions during a faltering economy.
    (AP, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Thousands of Malaysians joined the morning rush hour as the government eased curbs on movement and businesses for the first time in six weeks.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Malaysia criticized the World Health Organization for advising adults to avoid palm oil in their diet during the COVID-19 outbreak and use alternatives such as olive oil.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, In Mexico Giovanni Lopez was detained by police in Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos and died under police custody. An autopsy found that he had died from a head injury. Protests against police brutality erupted on June 4 in Guadalajara, calling for authorities to be held accountable for the death of Lopez, allegedly arrested for not wearing a face mask. On June 5 three police officers were arrested in connection with the beating death.
    (AP, 6/5/20)(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A2)
2020        May 4, In the Netherlands the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 199 to 40,770, with 26 new deaths. Total deaths in the country rose to 5,082.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, In Nigeria businesses reopened on the first working day after the easing of a lockdown imposed on key urban areas in a bid to restart Africa's largest economy. The government said this is the first phase of easing the lockdown and that the situation will be assessed in the next two weeks. Nigeria has recorded 2,558 cases of coronavirus and 87 deaths.
    (AP, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, PM Erna Solberg said Norway will give $1 billion to support the distribution worldwide of any vaccine developed against COVID-19 as well as for vaccines against other diseases. The $1 billion will go to GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. Norway has financed GAVI since its inception in 2000.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Portugal began to slowly ease its lockdown measures imposed to fight the coronavirus. A three-phase plan began to open up different sectors every 15 days, starting with hairdressers, small neighborhood shops, car dealerships and bookshops. Portugal has so far reported 25,525 cases of the coronavirus and 1,063 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, In Russia the number of cases rose by 10,581 over the past 24 hours compared with a record of 10,633 the previous day.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Swiss environmental activists delivered a petition to a special session of the Swiss parliament demanding that a government aid package should promote a "green recovery" from the coronavirus crisis.
    (Reuters, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, In southern Syria unknown gunmen killed 9 policemen in the village of Muzayreeb, Daraa province, close to the border with Jordan.
    (AP, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, The UN migration agency said at least 78 migrants fleeing war-torn Libya for Europe remain stuck at sea without a designated port to dock.
    (AP, 5/4/20)
2020        May 4, Venezuelan authorities arrested two US citizens among a group of “mercenaries," a day after a beach raid purportedly aimed at capturing the socialist leader that authorities say they foiled. They were identified as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, both former US special forces soldiers.
    (AP, 5/4/20)

2020        May 5, President Donald Trump dismissed concerns that the number of deaths from the coronavirus could nearly double in the next three months. Trump said that the COVID-19 task force would be winding down and be replaced with a new group to focus more on rebooting the economy.
    (Yahoo News, 5/5/20)(AP, 5/6/20)
2020        May 5, The US Treasury Department said it will begin distributing $4.8 billion in pandemic-relief funds today to Native American tribal governments in all US states. A newly revised coronavirus mortality model predicts nearly 135,000 Americans will die from COVID-19 by early August, almost double previous projections.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, Rick Bright, former director of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, filed a whistle-blower complaint saying he was ousted from his position and reassigned to a lesser position after raising concerns that the Trump administration wanted to "flood" coronavirus hot spots with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.
    (SFC, 5/6/20, p.A6)
2020        May 5, A US district judge ruled that the New York Democratic presidential primary must take place June 23 because canceling it would be unconstitutional and deprive withdrawn presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang of proper representation at the Democratic convention.
    (AP, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, New York lost 232 residents to the coronavirus, including 25 people who died in nursing homes.
    (ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020        May 5, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said they have begun delivering doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccines for initial human testing in the United States.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, Afghanistan's government began distributing free bread to hundreds of thousands of people across the country as supplies have been disrupted and prices have soared.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, Argentina confirmed that coronavirus cases have topped 5,000.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 5, In Brazil the mayor of Manaus, the biggest city in the Amazon rainforest region, asked world leaders for help fighting the novel coronavirus, which has brought his city's health system to the brink of collapse. Brazil hit a record for daily coronavirus deaths, indicating that it is still in the thick of its battle even as some areas of the country begin to reopen.
    (AFP, 5/5/20)(Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 5, Britain and the United States agreed to conduct talks on a trade deal at an accelerated pace.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, Britain became the first country in Europe to confirm more than 32,000 coronavirus deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, China reported no new deaths from COVID-19, three weeks since the country recorded its last fatality from the disease. More than 3.59 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 250,386 have died.
    (Good Morning America, 5/5/20)(Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, China successfully launched its largest carrier rocket, which was carrying a new-generation spacecraft. This was the first mission carried out by the Long March-5B.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, Chinese troops took issue with an Indian patrol on the north bank of Pangong Lake in Ladakh, a region administered by India as a union territory. Soldiers from both nations engaged in fistfights and stone-pelting along the Line of Actual Control. Another clash had taken place on May 10. Both countries had signed agreements in 1996 and 2003 establishing protocols to deal with such incidents, including promises n ot to use weapons.
    (Econ., 5/16/20, p.30)
2020        May 5, In France deaths in care homes reached 9,471, nearly two-fifths of the country's official COVID-19 death toll.
    (Econ., 5/9/20, p.41)
2020        May 5, A study by French scientists suggested a man was infected with COVID-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before France confirmed its first cases.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, Hong Kong said it will relax restrictions on public gatherings and allow gyms, cinemas and beauty parlors to re-open this week as new cases dwindle.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in infections with 484 new cases, taking the total to 12,071.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, Iran announced that confirmed coronavirus infections had reached almost 100,000 in the country as fresh cases picked up again after a brief drop in recent days. Iran recorded 63 deaths in the past 24 hours, reaching a total of 6,340 from COVID-19 to date. Another 1,323 people tested positive for the virus, bringing the overall number to 99,970.
    (AFP, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, In Iran unknown gunmen killed three members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in a shootout near the Kurdish town of Divandarreh.
    (AP, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, It was reported that Italy plans to give work permits to thousands of irregular migrants to help farms deal with the Covid-19 epidemic that has cut the flow of cheap labor from abroad.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, In western Liberia two miners died in a mine collapse in Grand Cape Mount County. Around 50 people were reported missing following the incident.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, Mexico registered 26,025 coronavirus cases and 2,507 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 5, Pakistan said it raised concerns with the United Arab Emirates that workers are returning home with high infection rates and that crowded living conditions in the UAE may be helping the virus spread.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, The Philippines' National Telecommunications Commission ordered the country's leading broadcaster ABS-CBN Corp to cease operations, as a parliament dominated by President Rodrigo Duterte's loyalists dragged its feet over renewing its license.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)(SFC, 5/6/20, p.A2)
2020        May 5, Russia reported 10,102 new cases of COVID-19 for the third day in a row, with the country's overall caseload soaring past 150,000. Russia now has 155,370 diagnosed cases. However, the country's death toll remains relatively low with just 95 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 1,451.
    (ABC News, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, South Korea reported no new locally transmitted infections of the novel coronavirus and just three imported cases over the past 24 hours.
    (ABC News, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, Spain reported its third day in a row of under 200 deaths, as well as a record number of people claiming social security benefits for April. Spain reported 185 deaths over the last 24 hours. The overall coronavirus death toll in the country rose to 25,613. The overall number of diagnosed cases rose to 219,329.
    (Reuters, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, Ukraine has recorded 12,697 coronavirus cases, including 316 deaths.
    (AP, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, The UN children's agency said that an estimated 46 million people - 19 million of them children - fled violence and conflict last year but remained in their home country, and millions more were displaced by disasters.
    (AP, 5/5/20)
2020        May 5, In Yemen the Houthis, who control the north, reported their first case of COVID-19. By the end of May they claimed a total of four infections in Sana'a.
    (Econ., 7/6/20, p.35)

2020        May 6, Pres. Donald Trump said that the COVID-19 task force would continue indefinitely, but focus more on rebooting the economy.
    (AP, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, President Donald Trump vetoed legislation that limited a president’s ability to wage war against Iran without the approval of Congress. Trump said that he vetoed the Iran war powers resolution because it was “insulting” to the presidency.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 6, US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued new regulations on sexual assault at colleges and schools designed to increase protections for people accused of sexual harassment and assault on campus. The change rolls back Obama-era guidance for schools to step up investigations.
    (NY Times, 5/7/20)
2020          May 6, California to date had 58,724 cases of coronavirus and 2,379 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,032 cases and 328 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,206,886 with the death toll at 71,220.
    (sfist.com, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, The first immigrant in US detention died of the novel coronavirus at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020        May 6, In San Francisco a new UCSF Pandemic Workforce Training Academy opened with an $8.7 million state grant to train workers to follow the spread of the COVID-19 disease through widespread contact tracing and case investigation.
    (SFC, 5/13/20, p.A1)
2020        May 5, A federal appeals court blocked, for now, a judge’s order forcing Florida's Miami-Dade County to give masks, soap and cleaning supplies to inmates at Metro West Detention Center, a jail wracked by the novel coronavirus. Metro West is where 163 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. In all three Miami jails, about 340 inmates have tested positive in the cramped quarters where social distancing is challenging.
    (Miami Herald, 5/5/20)
2020        May 6, All of New York City's 472 subway stations closed early today for cleaning for the first overnight subway shutdown in at least 50 years. The subway trains will now stop running from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. local time each day.
    (ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said he would cover a fine owed by Dallas salon owner Shelley Luther, who is serving a seven-day jail sentence. Luther, owner of Salon A La Mode, was sentenced a day earlier after judge Eric Moye said she violated statewide stay-at-home orders when she reopened her business nearly two weeks ago.
    (CBS News, 5/7/20)
2020        May 6, Bristol Myers Squibb Co said the US FDA has decided to extend the approval timeline for the drugmaker's experimental blood cancer therapy that was acquired as part of the $74 billion buyout of Celgene.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Fitbit Inc launched a virtual study to test if its wearable devices can detect irregular heart rhythms, which could identify a condition called atrial fibrillation.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, The Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) said it will loan Argentina $4 billion to help finance projects to combat the growing coronavirus impact.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Brazil, one of the world's emerging hot spots, registered a record number of cases and deaths, prompting the health minister to flag the possibility of strict lockdowns in hard-hit areas.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020        May 6, Colombia's president said mandatory quarantine will be extended by a further two weeks.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele announced still tougher measures to fight the coronavirus pandemic, including shopping trips limited to twice a week.
    (AP, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said they will open their borders to each others' citizens from May 15, creating a Baltic "travel bubble" within the European Union.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, It was reported that European astronomers have found the closest black hole to Earth yet, so near that the two stars dancing with it can be seen by the naked eye. This black hole is about 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Telescopium in the Southern Hemisphere.
    (AP, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, The European Union predicted “a recession of historic proportions this year” due to the impact of the coronavirus as it released its first official estimates of the damage the pandemic is inflicting on the bloc’s economy.
    (AP, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, The German government and the 16 federal states agreed at a meeting to extend until June 5 social distancing measures designed to help fight the spread of the novel coronavirus. Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 947 to 164,807.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Greek police said about 150 protesters prevented buses carrying 57 asylum-seekers from Lesbos to the mainland from reaching a rented hotel in the northern region of Pella. Protesters set fire to a room on the ground floor of the hotel.
    (SFC, 5/7/20, p.A2)
2020        May 6, In India health authorities scrambled to contain an outbreak at a huge fruit and vegetable market in Chennai. Hundreds of Indian police tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days, raising alarm as it attempts to enforce the world's largest lockdown.
    (AP, 5/6/20)(Reuters, 5/6/20)(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A6)
2020        May 6, Indian southern state of Karnataka halted trains taking stranded migrant laborers home so that work on construction sites could restart, a move widely condemned as amounting to forced labor.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, It was reported that more than 60 workers at a factory run by the Indonesian unit of US tobacco giant Philip Morris have tested positive for the coronavirus after operations were suspended when two staff died from COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Iran warned of a "rising trend" in its coronavirus outbreak as it said 1,680 new infections brought the country's overall number of confirmed cases to 101,650. There were 78 new COVID-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours bringing that total to 6,418.
    (AFP, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, The Israeli military said it struck three Hamas militant posts in Gaza early today, in response to the first case of rocket fire from the territory in more than a month.
    (AP, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic climbed by 369. The total death toll now stands at 29,684. The number of confirmed cases amounted to 214,457.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Artillery shelling by Libya's eastern-based forces killed five civilians and wounded dozens in the capital, Tripoli. Children and paramedics were among the 46 civilians wounded in the shelling.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 6, Nigeria said it will extend a ban on all flights by four weeks as part of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Confirmed coronavirus cases in Peru have now exceeded 50,000.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Poland postponed its upcoming presidential election due to concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus. Nearly 15,000 people in Poland have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and at least 737 have died.
    (AP, 5/7/20)(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A2)
2020        May 6, Russia recorded more than 10,000 new cases for the fourth day in a row, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 165,929, with 1,537 deaths. President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting to discuss a gradual withdrawal from lockdown as Russia registered the world's sixth highest total number of coronavirus cases.
    (AP, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, South Korea reported no new locally transmitted infections of the novel coronavirus and just two imported cases over the past 24 hours -- its lowest daily tally in 78 days.
    (ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, South Korea’s spy agency that the coronavirus pandemic has likely taken a heavy toll on North Korea, forcing leader Kim Jong Un to avoid public activities and his people into panic buying for daily necessities.
    (AP, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced that his government will declare a national state of mourning for the more than 25,000 people in the country who have died from the novel coronavirus.
    (ABC News, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, In Sudan tribal clashes over the last 24 hours between Arabs and non-Arabs in South Darfur province left at least 30 people dead and a dozen wounded.
    (AP, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Taiwan's health minister Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan’s exclusion from the upcoming World Health Assembly would harm the global response to the coronavirus pandemic and cannot be excused by mere rules of procedure. The island of more than 23 million people has recorded just 438 cases of COVID-19 and six deaths.
    (AP, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, It was reported that Uganda's president has called on international creditors to cancel all of Africa's debts to ease the economic distress caused by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)
2020        May 6, Yemen reported the first three cases of the novel coronavirus in the southern province of Lahaj, one of whom has died, and another infection in the southern port of Aden.
    (Reuters, 5/6/20)

2020        May 7, The US Supreme Court threw out the convictions of two political insiders involved in New Jersey’s “Bridgegate” scandal, saying that “not every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime.” Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni were convicted of fraud and conspiracy for scheming in 2013 to change the traffic flow onto the George Washington Bridge between New York City and New Jersey to artificially create gridlock in New Jersey’s Fort Lee. The traffic change came after Fort Lee’s mayor declined to endorse Christie.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, The Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump's administration has shelved a CDC document containing step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the current pandemic.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, The US Justice Department said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the president and his supporters in attacking the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, An American official said the US is pulling two Patriot missile batteries and some fighter aircraft out of Saudi Arabia.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, The US Labor Department reported that 3.2 million Americans claimed unemployment benefits for the first time last week, bringing the total to about 33.5 million since March 21, roughly 22.1% of the working-age population.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid out the broad outlines of the next massive coronavirus-response. Major components included additional aid to state and local governments, more money for coronavirus testing and help for the financially troubled US Postal Service.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, Congress failed in its bid to block President Donald Trump from engaging in further military action against Iran without first seeking approval from the legislative branch.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, Eleven members of the US Secret Service tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to Department of Homeland Security documents.
    (Yahoo News, 5/8/20)
2020        May 7, California said it will face a budget deficit of $54.3 billion due to a huge drop in revenue combined with increased expenses linked to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a newly released projection by state financial advisers.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020          May 7, California to date had 60,635 cases of coronavirus and 2,462 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,247 cases and 335 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,231,992 with the death toll at 73,573.
    (sfist.com, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, The US Dept. of Health and Human Services awarded California $97.3 million to 179 state health centers to expand coronavirus testing in low income communities.
    (SFC, 5/8/20, p.A7)
2020        May 7, In Florida a more than 575-acre fire in Walton County prompted about 500 people to evacuate. Authorities there said multiple structures east of Pensacola were lost in the fire, which was 65% contained this morning.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, In Georgia (US) Gregory and Travis McMichael were booked into the Glynn County Jail in the Feb. 23 shooting of Ahmaud Arbery.
    (AP, 5/8/20)
2020        May 7, In Indiana protesters crowded the streets of Indianapolis to voice concerns about police treatment after officers shot and killed two men and fatally struck a pregnant pedestrian in three separate incidents just hours apart. Dreasjon Reed "21" was one of the two men killed.
    (AP, 5/7/20)(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A5)
2020        May 7, A federal judge ordered Massachusetts authorities to allow gun shops to reopen after the governor deemed them non-essential businesses that needed to close to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended a moratorium on evictions for non-payment of rent for another 60 days until August 20 to alleviate anxiety over the economic impact of the novel coronavirus. New York reported 952 new deaths from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours. 323,978 people across the state have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and at least 20,597 have died.
    (AP, 5/7/20)(ABC News, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott removed jail as a punishment for violating his coronavirus restrictions.
    (SFC, 5/8/20, p.A6)
2020        May 7, Police in Houston, Texas, arrested Joshua Kelsey (35) early today following his suspected fatal shooting of three people. At least one those killed was drug-related.
    (SFC, 5/8/20, p.A4)
2020        May 7, In Texas Junin Ko (22) was struck and killed late today on a landing strip at Austin-Bergstrom Int'l. Airport after being hit by Southwest Airlines Flight 1392.
    (SFC, 5/9/20, p.A3)(SFC, 5/13/20, p.A4)
2020        May 7, GlaxoSmithKline said it will start trials of an experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug on patients suffering from pneumonia related to COVID-19 at the end of the month.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, US luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus Group filed for bankruptcy protection, marking one of the highest-profile collapses yet among retailers forced to temporarily close stores in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, Afghan authorities said they had recovered 12 more bodies of migrants who were thrown into a river by Iranian border guards this month to stop them entering the country, bringing the death toll from the alleged incident to 17. Fifty Afghans were reportedly thrown into the river.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, In Belgium hundreds of chefs' jackets were laid down in the center of Brussels to highlight the plight of hotels, restaurants and cafes that have been shuttered for nearly two months during the coronavirus outbreak.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, Brazil's Pres. Jair Bolsonaro authorized the deployment of armed forces to combat deforestation and forest fires in the Amazon region. Environmental advocates say the measure may help in the short term but is not a lasting solution. Government data a day later showed that deforestation in the rainforest rose sharply in April.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 7, Brazil's Health Ministry registered 9,888 new cases, bringing its total to 135,106 with 9,146 deaths. Jair Bolsonaro went to the Supreme Court to ask that state be forced to roll back restrictive measures, despite the surge in the nation's coronavirus cases and deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A4)
2020        May 7, British physicians in The Lancet reported that a rare, life-threatening condition is developing in some children after exposure to the new coronavirus that researchers are calling "Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Potentially Associated with COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 7, It was reported that Liberty Global and Telefonica have agreed to merge their British businesses in a $38 billion deal that will create a powerhouse in mobile and broadband to take on market leader BT.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, The Islamic State group (IS) revealed that it is engaged in fierce clashes with al-Qaeda militants Burkina Faso and Mali.
    (BBC, 5/11/20)
2020        May 7, China's National Health Commission said that just two new cases of COVID-19 had been reported on the Chinese mainland -- both of which were imported from abroad.
    (ABC News, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, Chinese researchers said that a minority of men infected with COVID-19 had the new coronavirus in their semen, opening up a small chance the disease could be transmitted sexually.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, It was reported that a coronavirus outbreak has infected more than 30% of inmates at the prison in Villavicencio, in central Colombia. The prison currently has nearly double the 899 inmates it is meant to hold.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, El Salvador began a quarantine under orders from Pres. Nayib Bukele. Residents will be allowed to leave their homes only twice a week to buy food. The country has already spent a month under a mandatory shelter-in-place order. El Salvador has recorded 695 confirmed infections and 15 deaths.
    (SFC, 5/7/20, p.A6)(Econ., 5/9/20, p.23)
2020        May 7, Coronavirus cases in India rose past 50,000, with the pace of new infections showing no signs of abating despite a strict weeks-long lockdown.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, In eastern India 12 people died and hundreds were rushed to hospitals after a cloud of toxic styrene gas escaped from a polymer factory owned by the South Korean company LG Corp. and located near the city of Visakhapatnam. Charges of culpable homicide were soon filed against LG Polymers India.
    (SFC, 5/8/20, p.A2)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A2)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A2)
2020        May 7, Iraq's Parliament picked Mustafa al-Kadhimi (53), a former intelligence chief, to serve as the country's new prime minister. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed Iraq's formation of a government after months of instability, and extended a waiver on Iran sanctions to ease pressure on the new leader.
    (AFP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu formally received the support of a majority of lawmakers to lead a new government, paving the way for a controversial power-sharing deal with rival-turned-partner Benny Gantz.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, The Italian government and a bishops conference reached an agreement to resume Masses starting May 18, with strict protocols, after a two-month shutdown. Some conservative Catholics issued a petition, signed mostly by Italian clergy, academics and journalists, claiming the coronavirus is an overhyped “pretext" to deprive the faithful of Mass and impose a new world order. The petition called the pandemic a “pretext” by unnamed actors to manipulate and control people through panic and deprive them of their fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of worship.
    (AP, 5/8/20)
2020        May 7, It was reported that Georgian-Israeli billionaire Michael Mirilashvili sent a water-making machine, made by his company Watergen, to the Al-Rantisi Medical Center in Gaza City. The electric machine, installed last week, will soon be connected to solar panels and is capable of generating 200 gallons of water a day.
    (SFC, 5/7/20, p.A3)
2020        May 7, It was reported that flooding as a result of recent heavy rains has killed more than 275 people across East Africa. Kenya has recorded 194 deaths, Rwanda 65 and 16 in Somalia.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, Nigeria has recorded 3,145 cases of coronavirus and 103 deaths.
    (Econ., 5/9/20, p.34)
2020        May 7, Amnesty International censured Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for detaining critics and opponents for expressing their views.
    (AP, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, Portugal's flag carrier TAP resumed some of its international operations with a flight to London as lockdown measures imposed to combat the spread of the coronavirus are slowly being lifted in the tourism-dependent country.
    (Reuters, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, Russia saw a record daily rise in COVID-19 cases, with 11,231 new infections reported over the past 24 hours. Russia has reported 165,929 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,625 deaths.
    (ABC News, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, Tanzania stopped reporting on COVID-19 as its count reached 509 cases and 21 deaths.
    (Econ., 7/25/20, p.33)
2020        May 7, In Turkey the Grup Yorun, a left-wing folk music group formed in 1985, said band member Ibrahim Gokcek (45) has died of a hunger strike in protest of the government's crackdown on the band. Gokcek was the 2nd band member to die in the hunger strike.
    (SFC, 5/8/20, p.A2)
2020        May 7, A leaked UN report said hundreds of mercenaries from Russia's shadowy Wagner Group are operating in Libya.
    (BBC, 5/7/20)
2020        May 7, The United Nations issued a new appeal for £3.8 billion in funding to "protect millions of lives and stem the spread of coronavirus in fragile countries."
    (The Telegraph, 5/7/20)

2020        May 8, President Donald Trump broke with health experts, telling reporters that the coronavirus will “go away without a vaccine.”
    (Yahoo News, 5/9/20)
2020        May 8, Pres. Donald Trump spoke to Fox News and praised Attorney Gen'l. William Barr's decision to drop criminal charges against Michael Flynn, his former national security advisor.
    (SFC, 5/9/20, p.A3)
2020        May 8, Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an “absolute chaotic disaster” during a conversation with ex-members of his administration.
    (AP, 5/9/20)
2020        May 8, The US blocked a vote on a UN security council resolution calling for a global ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic, because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization.
    (The Guardian, 5/9/20)
2020        May 8, A US government report showed that the economy shed 20.5 million jobs in April, and the unemployment rate rose to 14.7%. in a note attached to its report the government said the true unemployment rate may be closer to 19.5%.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, The US Postal Service said it lost $4.5 billion in the quarter ending in March, more than double its loss over the same period last year, and warned COVID-19 could severely hurt its finances over the next 18 months.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, US regulators approved the first saliva-based coronavirus test, developed by Rutgers Univ., that allows people to collect their own sample at home. The sample must be shipped to a laboratory for processing.
    (SFC, 5/9/20, p.A5)
2020        May 8, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) awarded a $275.4 million contract to Alabama-based Caddell Construction Company to construct approximately 14 miles of contiguous new border wall system within US Border Patrol’s (USBP) Laredo Sector located in Webb County, Texas. Construction is anticipated to begin in January 2021, pending availability of real estate.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y7tug5ct)(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A5)
2020        May 8, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order requiring county officials to mail a ballot to everyone registered to vote in November.
    (SFC, 5/9/20, p.A7)
2020         May 8, California to date had 63,698 cases of coronavirus and 2,610 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,491 cases and 342 deaths. The United States recorded more than 22,000 new cases of COVID-19. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,283,829 with the death toll at 77,178.
    (sfist.com, 5/9/20)
2020        May 8, Hawaii reported no new cases of COVID-19. Positive cases remained at 629 with 17 deaths.
    (SFC, 5/8/20, p.A6)(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A7)
2020        May 8, In Nevada magician Roy Horn (75, who alongside Siegfried Fischbacher starred in a popular, long-running Las Vegas act built around rare tigers, died in las Vegas from of complications of COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, Abbott Laboratories said its antibody test for the new coronavirus is highly likely to correctly determine whether people have ever been infected with the fast-spreading virus. Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine found Abbott's test had a specificity rate of 99.9% and a sensitivity rate of 100%.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, Albanian prosecutors filed corruption charges against 20 former judges and prosecutors. A statement from the Special Prosecution Against Corruption, or SPAK, said the charges included abuse of post, deceit and hiding illegally owned property or income.
    (AP, 5/8/20)(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A4)
2020        May 8, Brazil's Supreme Court overturned rules that limit gay and bisexual men from donating blood in a decision considered a human rights victory for LGBT+ people in the country.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 8, Brazil's 5th largest city, Fortaleza, became the nation's third metropolis to enter lockdown for COVID-19.
    (SFC, 5/9/20, p.A4)
2020        May 8, Britain's COVID-19 death toll rose to 31,241.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 8, China said it is open to an independent investigation to determine the origins of the coronavirus now sweeping the world. China reported one new coronavirus case. The National Health Commission also reported 15 new asymptomatic cases, versus 16 the previous day. China’s total number of cases now stands at 82,887, while the death toll from COVID-19, the disease it causes, remained unchanged at 4,633.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, The World Health Organization said that although a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan selling live animals likely played a significant role in the emergence of the new coronavirus, it does not recommend that such markets be shut down globally.
    (AP, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, The World Bank approved $506 million in emergency loans and grants for Ecuador to help it grapple with one of the worst outbreaks in Latin America.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi approved amendments to the country's state of emergency that grant him and security agencies additional powers, which the government says are needed to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
    (AP, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, An Ethiopian court convicted Bereket Simon, a former minister of communication (1995-2012), on corruption charges and sentenced him to six years in prison. He was arrested last year on suspicion of mismanagement of public funds while he was heading the TIRET, the Amhara region's public investment fund, which he led until 2017. The court in Bahir Dar also convicted Tadesse Kassa, a former TIRET board member, on the same charges.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, In France a group of deputies quit Pres. Macron's LREM party to set up a new parliamentray group, "Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity." The 17-member faction is almost entirely composed of former Macron supporters.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology_Democracy_Solidarity)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.43)
2020        May 8, French Resistance member Cecile Rol-Tanguy (101), who risked her life during World War II by working to liberate Paris from Nazi occupation, died at her home in Monteaux.
    (AP, 5/9/20)
2020        May 8, In Germany local governments activated emergency measures in three districts that have seen flare-ups of the coronavirus. All the spikes were associated with local meatpacking centers in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein.
    (Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020        May 8, In Hong Kong scuffles broke out in the legislature when a pro-Beijing lawmaker inserted herself as chair of a committee meeting to try to end a months-long impasse that has resulted in a backlog of legislation.
    (SFC, 5/9/20, p.A2)
2020        May 8, An Indian train killed 16 migrant workers who had fallen asleep on the track while heading back to their home village after losing their jobs during the lockdown.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, In Kashmir anti-India protests and clasehs continued for a third day following the killing of a top rebel leader by government forces. At least one man has been killed and 50 others injured in the three days of clashes.
    (SFC, 5/9/20, p.A2)
2020        May 8, An Indonesian court jailed Emirsyah Satar, a former chief executive of Garuda Indonesia, for bribery and money laundering related to procurement of planes and engines from Airbus and Rolls-Royce.
    (AP, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, Iran allowed worshippers to attend Friday prayers for the first time in more than two months, but the capital remained under restrictions. Iran announced 1,556 new cases of coronavirus infection. 55 new virus fatalities in the past 24 hours took the overall death toll in the health crisis to 6,541. The country's caseload overall rose to 104,691.
    (AFP, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, In Iran a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck early today near Mount Damavand and jolted Tehran, killing at least one person and injuring more than 20 as people ran for their lives.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, In Kenya hundreds of protesters blocked one of Nairobi's major highways with burning tires to protest government demolitions of the homes of more than 7,000 people and the closure of an adjacent food market. Police used teargas and water cannons on the protesters, who then looted shops and parked cars.
    (AP, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, Mexican police said three nurses have been found strangled to death in Torreon, Coahuila state, amid an alarming increase of assaults on health care workers in the country, who are being wrongly accused of spreading the coronavirus. The country has recorded at least 44 attacks against medical personnel between mid-March and mid-April. Two men were soon arrested for the strangulation deaths of the three nurses. Police said they had planned to robe the women and rules out links the pandemic anxiety.
    (Business Insider, 5/10/20)(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A4)
2020        May 8, In Mexico Moises Escamilla May (45), a high-ranking member of the dangerous Los Zetas crime syndicate, died from the coronavirus at a maximum-security prison in Jalisco state. May was arrested shortly after he was alleged to have beheaded 12 people in Yucatan, Mexico, in August 2008.
    (The Independent, 5/12/20)
2020        May 8, Coronavirus cases in Pakistan surged past 25,000, just hours before the government was due to lift lockdown steps.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, In southwestern Pakistan a roadside bombing in a remote area, close to the border with Iran, struck a patrol vehicle, killing six soldiers, including an army major. The Baluch Liberation Army soon claimed responsibility for the attack.
    (AP, 5/8/20)(AP, 5/9/20)
2020        May 8, Palestinian officials said that Israel is forcing banks in the occupied West Bank to close accounts held by the families of prisoners in Israeli jails to prevent the Palestinian Authority from providing stipends to them.
    (AP, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, Russia's coronavirus cases rose by over 10,000 for the sixth straight day, bringing the nationwide tally to 187,859. Around 100 central bank employees have been diagnosed, most of them in Moscow.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, Saudi Arabia reported 1,701 new cases, taking the total to 35,432. The kingdom has recorded a daily average of around 1,500 new cases over the past week.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, Slovakia recorded no new cases of coronavirus for the first time since March 10. Cases totaled 1,455 while 26 people have died and 919 have already recovered.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 8, In Somalia an unspecified number of people were killed when floods washed away an entire small town in the semi-autonomous Puntland region.
    (AP, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that African countries needed a two-year debt standstill due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, longer than a moratorium agreed by G20 governments last month.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, Spanish police said they have arrested a Moroccan man in Barcelona with suspected links to Islamic State who they believed was planning a militant attack.
    (The Telegraph, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, In Uganda flooding washed away roads, bridges and a hospital after the River Nyamwamba burst its banks.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) launched an emergency coronavirus appeal, saying Palestinians across the Middle East were suffering a devastating socio-economic impact.
    (AFP, 5/8/20)
2020        May 8, Yemen reported nine new coronavirus cases in Aden, the interim headquarters of the government, including one death. This brought the total count to 34 infections with 7 deaths. The Houthi movement, which controls the capital Sanaa and most big urban centers, has so far reported one infection, a Somali national who was found dead in a hotel.
    (Reuters, 5/8/20)

2020        May 9, Three members of the White House coronavirus task force, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, placed themselves in quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
    (AP, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it would allow state health departments to distribute Gilead Sciences Inc's remdesivir drug to fight COVID-19, and the United States would receive about 40% of the drug maker's global donation.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved emergency use authorization (EUA) to Quidel Corp for the first COVID-19 antigen test. The emergency use authorization was issued late May 7 to Quidel for the Sofia 2 SARS Antigen FIA.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, In the SF Bay Area Tesla Inc sued Alameda County authorities as the electric carmaker pushed to re-open its factory there and Chief Executive Elon Musk threatened to move its Palo Alto headquarters and future programs from the state to Texas or Nevada.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A12)
2020         May 9, California to date had 65,810 cases of coronavirus and 2,683 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,659 cases and 346 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,305,554 with the death toll at 78,618.
    (sfist.com, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, In California a surfer was killed in a shark attack off a beach in Monterey Bay. Dozens of great white sharks have been seen swimming near the shoreline in recent days.
    (AP, 5/10/20)
2020        May 9, In Colorado Heather Perry (21) was fatally shot by parolee Cornelius Haney (40), who had been released three weeks earlier because of concerns over the coronavirus.
    (SSFC, 5/17/20, p.A4)
2020        May 9, In Georgia (US) a 5-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his brother after finding a gun while playing in the woods in Griffin.
    (CBS News, 5/13/20)
2020        May 9, Little Richard (87), the flashy wild man of rock ’n’ roll who drew deeply from gospel and the blues to create a thrilling new sound, died in Tennessee of bone cancer. His hits included "Tutti Frutti" (1956), "Lucille," "Keep a Knockin'," "Long Tall Sally" and "Good Golly Miss Molly."
    (NY Times, 5/10/20)(SSFC, 5/10/20, p.C9)(Econ., 5/23/20, p.78)
2020        May 9, In western Afghanistan seven people were killed when protesters angry over what they see as unfair food aid distribution during the coronavirus pandemic clashed with police in Ghor province.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, Algeria's government said it has approved increases in retirement pensions ranging from 2% to 7%, despite financial problems facing the oil exporting country.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, In Belarus some 4,000 troops paraded in Minsk before crowds of spectators, many not wearing face masks. President Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed the dangers of the coronavirus.
    (AFP, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, It was reported that the British government has told airlines it will introduce a 14-day quarantine period for most people arriving from abroad to try to avoid a second peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, It was reported that Jihadists in eastern Burkina Faso have seized control of at least 20 illicit gold mining sites. The government has estimated that this market is producing more than $400 million worth of gold a year.
    (AP, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, China said it will reform its disease prevention and control system to address weaknesses exposed by the coronavirus outbreak.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, China issued a lengthy rebuttal of what it said were 24 "preposterous allegations" by some leading US politicians over its handling of the new coronavirus outbreak.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020        May 9, China's National Health Commission reported 14 new confirmed coronavirus cases, the highest number since April 28 and up from only one case a day earlier.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, The number of people who have died from coronavirus infections in France rose by 80 to 26,310.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, In India hundreds of migrant workers in India's western state of Gujarat clashed for a second day with authorities, hurling stones at police trying to enforce a coronavirus lockdown.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, In India about 70 people fled a quarantine center in Bihar state's Nawada district, alleging poor facilities and lack of food. A district magistrate said some fled after one of the occupants tested positive for COVID-19.
    (SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A6)
2020        May 9, Indonesia reported 533 new coronavirus infections, the biggest daily increase, taking the total number to 13,645. 16 more have died from the disease, taking the total number of death to 959, while 2,607 have recovered.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, Iran reported 1,529 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the overall total to 106,220. 48 new deaths took the overall toll to 6,589. Experts at home and abroad said the actual number of cases could be much higher.
    (AFP, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 194, against 243 the day before, while the daily tally of new cases fell to 1,083.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, Tokyo reported 36 new cases of coronavirus infections, three less than a day earlier and the seventh consecutive day that new infections have remained below 100. This brought the total coronavirus infections in the capital city to 4,846 cases.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, In Libya fighting between forces loyal to rival governments over the capital intensified with heavy artillery shelling hitting the sole functioning airport in Tripoli, setting jet fuel tanks ablaze and damaging passenger planes.
    (AP, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, Mexico said the number of deaths from the coronavirus in the border city of Tijuana has soared and the COVID-19 mortality rate is twice the national average. It was reported that Mexico City officials have tabulated more than 2,500 deaths from the coronavirus and serious respiratory illnesses that doctors suspect are related to COVID-19, as opposed to 700 reported by the government in the area.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)(SFC, 5/9/20, p.A4)
2020        May 9, In Mexico coronavirus patients were being turned away from hospitals in Mexico City, as both public and private medical facilities quickly fill up and the number of new infections continues to rise. The health ministry confirmed 1,938 new cases of coronavirus infection, along with 193 additional deaths. Government models projected that infections could peak this weekend. Reported coronavirus cases in the country total 33,460, with 3,353 deaths attributed to the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the virus.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, In Niger at least 20 people were killed in attacks by gunmen on several villages in the Anzourou area. The unidentified group reportedly looted shops, stole cattle and ordered village inhabitants to flee.
    (BBC, 5/11/20)(SFC, 5/12/20, p.A2)
2020        May 9, Pakistani authorities reported a jump of 1,637 coronavirus cases with 24 new fatalities.
    (SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A6)
2020        May 9, The Philippines recorded eight new coronavirus deaths, bringing the total to 704. Infections increased by 147 to 10,610. Total deaths have reached 704.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, Russia reported that the number of confirmed coronavirus infections had risen by another 10,817 to reach a total of 198,676 and 1,827 deaths as President Vladimir Putin presided over a muted 75th anniversary celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. The regional branch of Russia's consumer health watchdog said 89 cases of the novel coronavirus have been recorded among employees of Polyus Krasnoyarsk, a unit of Russia's largest gold producer Polyus.
    (AFP, 5/9/20)(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, In South Korea the mayor of Seoul ordered all the capital’s bars and nightclubs shut down indefinitely after many of the 34 new coronavirus infections were traced to a single nightlife district. Cases had lingered at around ten or below for weeks.
    (NY Times, 5/10/20)(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020        May 9, Spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to its second lowest since mid-March, as half the country prepared to move to the next phase of an exit from one of Europe's strictest lockdowns. Spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to 179. Overall deaths rose to 26,478. The number of diagnosed cases rose to 223,578.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, Sweden has recorded 3,175 fatalities from COVID-19. That's more than 31 deaths per 100,000 population, compared with about 8 per 100,000 in neighboring Denmark.
    (AP, 5/8/20)
2020        May 9, In Switzerland more than 1,000 people queued up to get free food parcels in Geneva, underscoring the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the working poor and undocumented immigrants in the wealthy country.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, Swiss drugmaker Novartis said Chinese regulators have approved its drug Mayzent for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis in adults.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, Syria's oil and mineral resources ministry announced a reduction in automobile fuel subsidies, the latest government measure to tackle a deepening economic crisis.
    (AP, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, Thailand reported four new coronavirus cases and one more death, bringing the total to 3,004 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in January.
    (Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020        May 9, The World Health Organization (WHO) suspended staff activity late today at its hubs in Houthi-held areas of Yemen, in a move sources said aimed to pressure the group to be more transparent about suspected coronavirus cases.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)

2020         May 10, California to date had 67,055 cases of coronavirus and 2,695 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,817 cases and 347 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,321,223 with the death toll at 79,058.
    (sfist.com, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, In Los Angeles a speeding 2020 McLaren 600LT ran into a stop sign and a tree killing passenger Corey La Barrie (25). Tattoo artist Daniel Joseph Silva, who has been featured on the television reality show "Ink Master," was soon arrested in connection with the crash.
    (NBC News, 5/12/20)
2020        May 10, In Colorado the C&C Breakfast and Korean Kitchen in Castle Rock opened for Mothers' Day in defiance of state rules banning in-person dining. The following day the Tri-County Health Department issued an order for the restaurant to close. Gov. Jared Polis called it an immediate health hazard and suspended the restaurant's license.
    (https://tinyurl.com/cgn6qfp)(SFC, 5/13/20, p.A6)
2020        May 10, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the Senate’s top Democrat, called on the Department of Veterans Affairs to explain why it allowed the use of hydroxychloroquine, an unproven drug, on veterans for the coronavirus, saying patients may have been put at unnecessary risk.
    (AP, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, In eastern Afghanistan the Taliban attacked an army checkpoint in Laghman province, killing six soldiers and wounding five others.
    (SFC, 5/12/20, p.A2)
2020        May 10, Austria's finance ministry said some local companies are abusing state subsidies for staff on short-time working or using illegal workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Inspections of 5,119 people at 1,946 companies uncovered 460 violations of laws.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, Britain's PM Boris Johnson announced a modest easing of the country's coronavirus lockdown and outlined his government's roadmap for further lifting restrictions.
    (SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020        May 10, In Cameroon separatist gunmen killed Ashu Prisley Ojong, the mayor of Mamfe, in the restive Anglophone South West Region.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, Chinese authorities reported what could be the beginning of a new wave of coronavirus cases in the northeast, with one city in Jilin province being reclassified as high-risk. 11 cases were reported in Jilin and one in Hubei province. China has reported 4,633 deaths and 82, 901 cases.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020        May 10, It was reported that a French policeman tasked with protecting VIPs is among five charged with swindling a Champagne heir out of his bubbly and fortune by convincing him he had been recruited as a secret agent. Hughes B pressed for charges in 2012 when his champagne house went into liquidation.
    (The Telegraph, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, It was reported that new coronavirus infections are accelerating again in Germany just days after its leaders loosened social restrictions, raising concerns that the pandemic could once again slip out of control. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 667 to 169,218. The reported death toll rose by 13 to 7,395.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo said that one worker at a fish factory in the coastal city of Tema had infected 533 other employees last month. The factory, owned by Thai Union Group PCL, was closed on April 17 and partially reopened on May 11. As of May 12 Ghana has reported 5,127 cases, including 22 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020        May 10, Hong Kong police grappled with pro-democracy protesters who gathered in shopping malls after permission for a Mother's Day march was denied.
    (SFC, 5/11/20, p.A2)
2020        May 10, Indonesia's Health Ministry confirmed 387 new coronavirus cases. The country 14,032 confirmed cases, including 973 deaths. COVID-19 infections in Mimika Regency, where Freeport's gold and copper Grasberg mine is located on Papua island, reached 112 cases.
    (SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)(AP, 5/13/20)
2020        May 10, Iran warned of a resurgence of the novel coronavirus as it reported 51 new deaths, almost a month after it started to relax a nationwide lockdown. 1,383 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, raising total infections to 107,603. The new fatalities raised the overall confirmed death toll to 6,640. Authorities reimposed more stringent measures in the southwestern Khuzestan province, reversing a phased return to work meant to revitalize the battered economy.
    (AFP, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, Iran said it is ready for unconditional prisoner swap talks with the United States because of fears that the coronavirus could put the lives of the prisoners at risk.
    (AP, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, A missile fired during an Iranian training exercise mistakenly struck a naval vessel instead of its intended target in waters near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, killing 19 sailors and wounding 15 others.
    (AP, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, Iraq's judiciary ordered courts to release anti-government protesters, carrying out one of the first decisions of recently inaugurated PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi just as dozens of demonstrators burned tires in renewed protests against the new leadership.
    (AP, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, Israel partly reopened nurseries and kindergartens, increasing the number of children who have returned to daycare as part of efforts to revive the economy as coronavirus worries subside.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, In Japan about 5,000 people in Tokyo were confirmed to have been infected with the virus, representing nearly one-third of Japan's total infections of around 16,000.
    (AP, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, Lebanon's churches welcomed worshipers for the first time in nearly two months. Safety guidelines included social distancing and limited capacities.
    (SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020        May 10, It was reported that the Maldives has seen a rapid rise in coronavirus cases over the past few weeks. Three deaths have been reported so far.
    (SSFC, 5/10/20, p.A6)
2020        May 10, In Mali three UN peacekeepers from Chad were killed when their convoy hit a roadside bomb in the Kidal region.
    (BBC, 5/11/20)
2020        May 10, Authorities in Nigeria's oil-rich southern Rivers state demolished two hotels over an alleged breach of lockdown rules intended to contain the spread of coronavirus. The state currently has 15 active cases of the virus and has recorded two deaths. One owner said authorities were asking for a bribe and denied that the hotel was operating.
    (BBC, 5/11/20)
2020        May 10, Police in the Pakistan-ruled part of Kashmir said Indian troops across the disputed border opened fire with automatic rifles, shooting a women dead. Shauzia Akhtar was reportedly shot in the head as she prepared breakfast in her home along the border.
    (AP, 5/10/20)(SFC, 5/11/20, p.A2)
2020        May 10, Peru has about 65,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 1,800 deaths.
    (AP, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, Russia registered a total of 1,915 deaths from the new coronavirus. Cases of infection rose by 11,012 in the last 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 209,688.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, South Africa's Western Cape province has 5,621 coronavirus cases, and of the country's 206 deaths registered from COVID-19, 116 have occurred in the province. South Africa has eased its restrictions to allow an estimated 1.6 million people to return to work in selected mines, factories and businesses. Western Cape premier Alan Winde said South Africa is expected to reach its peak of cases in August.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        May 10, In Sudan tribal clashes killed three people and wounded at least 79 others in the country's east. The fighting in the city of Kassalla first erupted on May 7 between the Bani Amer tribe and the Nuba tribe.
    (AP, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, South Korea reported 34 new coronavirus cases. Of the new cases, 26 were domestically transmitted infections and eight were imported cases.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, Spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus fell to 143, down from 179 the previous day. Overall deaths rose to 26,621. The number of diagnosed cases rose to 224,390.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, In Syria al-Qaida-linked fighters attacked government positions in Hama province triggering intense clashes that killed nearly three dozen combatants across both sides.
    (AP, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, Thailand reported five new coronavirus cases but no deaths, bringing the total to 3,009 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in the country in January. These numbers did not include four more infected people from the resort island of Phuket.
    (Reuters, 5/10/20)
2020        May 10, In Turkey senior citizens were allowed to venture out for the first time in seven weeks. Turkey has recorded 137,115 coronavirus infections, including 3,739 deaths.
    (SFC, 5/11/20, p.A4)
2020        May 10, Zambia has confirmed 267 Covid-19 infections, with seven deaths. 76 of 85 reported new cases in the northern town of Nakonde were either sex workers or lorry drivers. Last week, President Edgar Lungu announced the reopening of restaurants, casinos and gyms after a month-long shutdown to enforce social distancing measures.
    (AP, 5/10/20)

2020        May 11, President Donald Trump accused Democrats of moving to reopen US states from coronavirus lockdown measures too slowly for political advantage, without providing evidence to support his claim.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, Vice President Mike Pence strongly recommended to governors that all residents and staff at such facilities be tested for the coronavirus in the next two weeks. More than 27,000 residents and staff have died from outbreaks of the virus at the nation's nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020         May 11, California to date had 68,944 cases of coronavirus and 2,776 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 9,936 cases and 352 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,346,723 with the death toll at 80,352.
    (sfist.com, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, Tesla told workers to return to its California electric-car factory in defiance of a local shelter-in-place order designed to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 11, Massachusetts reported 129 new coronavirus deaths, bringing the total to 5,108 with 78,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases. The state’s death toll is most likely higher because the count does not include people who have died but were never tested.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said his state had just 488 new confirmed COVID-19 cases statewide in the last 24 hours.
    (The Week, 5/12/20)
2020        May 11, In South Carolina Roman Catholic churches across the state reopened for services for the first time since a coronavirus-related shutdown began on March 17, allowing parishioners to attend Mass in person.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, The World Health Organization said that coronavirus cases had jumped in countries that eased their stay-at-home orders.
    (The Week, 5/12/20)
2020        May 11, The Afghan government said security forces have arrested three senior South Asia Islamic State members including Abu Omar Khorasani, the group's regional leader.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, Belgium allowed most of its shops to reopen with strict hygiene rules for customers, following in the footsteps of Spain in an easing of its eight-week lockdown as the number of COVID-19 cases fall. Belgium has reported 55,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and 8,707 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, Bolivian security forces tear-gassed protesters in Cochabamba who were blocking roads and burning tires. One sign read: "If there's no bread for the poor, there's no peace for the rich."
    (Econ., 5/16/20, p.26)
2020        May 11, Brazil's federal police arrested Gonzalo Sanchez (69), a former Argentine navy officer accused of dictatorship-era crimes against humanity and kidnapping. He had been on the run since 2005.
    (SFC, 5/14/20, p.A2)
2020        May 11, The British government published its plan for exiting the coronavirus lockdown. The 51-page document, entitled "Our Plan to Rebuild: The UK Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy", gives an outline of how the United Kingdom could return to normal life.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, In China Mickey Mouse welcomed thinned-out crowds in Shanghai, the first Disney theme park to reopen, with a strict limit on tickets.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, In China the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued an emergency notice announcing a "10 Day Battle" to ramp up its ability to conduct nucleic acid tests on the city's 11 million residents. Wuhan reported six new cases, breaking a 35-day streak of zero daily new cases.
    (AP, 5/12/20)(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020        May 11, Thirsty Czechs were allowed to return to beer gardens in one of the government's most eagerly anticipated measures to relax coronavirus restrictions. Authorities also eased travel restrictions, allowing residents from outside the EU to enter the country if they can show a negative COVID-19 test and are taking up certain kinds of work, such as in the healthcare sector.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, There are now 107 coronavirus cases in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, including about 50 crew members still aboard the Celebrity Flora, a luxury ship operated by a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises. The islands' first four cases were diagnosed in late March, all believed to have come from Guayaquil before travel was cut off. Tourism has ground to a halt and an economic crisis has left many of the 30,000 residents jobless.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, The International Monetary Fund said it has agreed to lend Egypt $2.77 billion in emergency assistance to deal with the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, Hungary's top court ruled that a school Gyongyospata unlawfully segregated minority Roma students for years, granting 100 million forints ($310,000) in compensation to the children's families.
    (Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020        May 11, Indonesia rowed back on plans to weaken rules for the timber products it exports, as green groups warned the proposed move would have undermined international efforts to combat illegal logging and deforestation.
    (Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020        May 11, Iran, which was one of the earliest coronavirus hotspots, imposed a new lockdown on the southwestern province of Khuzestan.
    (Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020        May 11, In Iraq a protester (20) was shot dead as thousands of young Iraqis took to the streets and resumed anti-government demonstrations. Protesters were demanding a radical transformation of the Iraqi political system to eliminate corruption, reduce unemployment and improve public services.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, The Israeli military demolished the home of a Palestinian accused of being behind a deadly blast in the West Bank last year. Israel says Qassem Barghouti (22) carried out the August 23 attack, which killed Israeli Rina Shnerb (17) and wounded her father and brother.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic rose by 179. The daily tally of new cases fell to 744. The total death toll now stands at 30,739 and the total number of confirmed cases amounted to 219,814.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, Lebanon's health ministry recorded 14 new infections today after recording 36 a day earlier, the highest one-shot uptick in at least a month.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, In Lesotho the coalition of PM Thomas Thabane fell apart in parliament, meaning he will have to leave office on May 22.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, In the Netherlands five experienced surfers drowned when they went out for a session in stormy weather off the coast of The Hague.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 11, In Nicaragua doctors and family members of apparent coronavirus victims say, the government has gone from denying the disease’s presence in the country to actively trying to conceal its spread. The government says the country has seen 16 coronavirus cases and five deaths since its first case was diagnosed.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, Nigerien and allied forces from neighboring states killed 75 Boko Haram insurgents in security operations in the region where the borders of Niger, Nigeria and Chad converge.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 11, Markets across Pakistan were teeming after opening up for the first time in over a month as the country began to lift its lockdown despite a rise in the rate of coronavirus infections. Of its 667 deaths from the coronavirus, around 200 have been registered over the past week, and there are almost 31,000 confirmed infections.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin declared an end to a nationwide partial economic shutdown but noted that some restrictions will remain. Putin said that it will be up to regional governors in the far-flung Russian Federation to determine what industrial plants could reopen starting May 12. The Financial Times reported that the real death toll could be 70% higher.
    (AP, 5/11/20)(Econ., 5/23/20, p.39)
2020        May 11, Saudi Arabia announced it was tripling taxes on basic goods, raising them to 15%, and cutting spending on major projects by around $26 billion as it grapples with blows from the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices on its economy.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, About half of Spain's 47 million population entered the second stage of a four-phase plan to lift a coronavirus lockdown and return to normal by the end of June. Spain reported the lowest number of infections in weeks. There were 123 deaths in the last 24 hours bringing that total to almost 27,000. 400 new cases brought the overall recorded infections to 268,000.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)(SFC, 5/12/20, p.A4)
2020        May 11, Thousands of Swiss children returned to school, many excited to be reunited with their classmates after a nearly two-month break due to the new coronavirus, although some parents had misgivings.
    (Reuters, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, Syrian President Bashar Assad replaced the internal trade minister as the country's economic crisis worsens with prices of consumer goods increasing and the local currency reaching record lows.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, Turkey was denounced by ministers of five countries for drilling in an offshore area where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights. Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, France and the UAE also protested a maritime border delineation and military cooperation agreement that Turkey signed last year with Libya's UN-backed government.
    (SFC, 5/13/20, p.A3)
2020        May 11, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó said that two US-based political advisers have resigned in the fallout from a failed incursion into the Caribbean nation led by a former-Green Beret aimed at capturing President Nicolás Maduro.
    (AP, 5/11/20)
2020        May 11, In Yemen southern separatist leader Aydarous al-Zubaidi called on supporters to “take up arms and defend dignity and independence” of the country's south.
    (AP, 5/12/20)

2020        May 12, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned senators in a videoconference hearing that the "consequences could be really serious" if states and localities reopen too soon.
    (Good Morning America, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, US District Judge Emmet Sullivan said that before he decides whether to dismiss charges against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, he will let third parties submit filings in the case.
    (The Week, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, It was reported that the US government is donating up to 1,000 ventilators to South Africa the help the country respond to COVID-19.
    (AP, 5/12/20, p.A5)(SFC, 5/13/20, p.A5)
2020        May 12, California's state university system cancelled classes for the fall semester, while Los Angeles County said its stay-at-home order was likely to be extended by three months.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020         May 12, California to date had 69,417 cases of coronavirus and 2,789 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,049 cases and 366 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,358,901 with the death toll at 81,805.
    (sfist.com, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, In the SF Bay Area Alameda County officials told Tesla to stop manufacturing at its Fremont plant until the county and Tesla agree on a plan to reopen in line with state and local rules.
    (SFC, 5/13/20, p.C1)
2020        May 12, In Florida Arya Gray (15), Miami Beach High freshman, was shot and killed during a late-night hangout of teenagers at a Shorecrest apartment. Thalys Oliveira (17) was later charged as an adult for the shooting. Arya was shot and killed in front of her sister, who was also at the hangout.
    (Miami Herald, 6/2/20)
2020        May 12, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called face masks a sign of respect for others on a day the state reported 195 new deaths, a jump from 161 the previous day.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, Mayor Bill de Blasio said New York City has 52 confirmed cases of what the state is calling Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Associated with COVID-19, an inflammatory syndrome which has features that overlap with Kawasaki disease. Out of the city's 52 cases, 25 tested positive for COVID-19 and 22 others had antibodies. New data showed that nine out of 10 people arrested for virus-related offenses in NYC have been black or Hispanic.
    (Good Morning America, 5/12/20)(AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, LabCorp said its $119 at-home sample collection kit for COVID-19 testing would now be available to all individuals with symptoms and possible exposure to the virus, after limiting delivery to healthcare workers during its launch last month. Customers can get the kit with no upfront out-of-pocket costs if they are found to be eligible after filling in a survey on the company's website.
    (Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, Moderna Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration granted "fast track" designation to its experimental coronavirus vaccine, a move that speeds up the regulatory review process. Moderna expects to start a late-stage study of the vaccine in early summer and says there is potential for a marketing application approval in 2021.
    (Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, In Afghanistan militants stormed a maternity hospital in Kabul, setting off an hours-long shootout with the police and killing 24 people, including two newborn babies, their mothers and an unspecified number of nurses. A suicide bomber targeted the funeral of a pro-government militia commander and former warlord in Nangarhhar's Khewa district, killing 32 people and wounding 133. In eastern Khost province, a bomb planted in a cart in a market killed a child and wounded 10 people. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he was ordering the military to move to 'offensive mode', away from a defensive stance it had taken as part of efforts to reduce violence in the war-ravaged nation as Washington tries to broker peace talks.
    (AP, 5/12/20)(Reuters, 5/12/20)(AP, 5/13/20)
2020        May 12, In southern Bangladesh a fire raced through a crowded camp housing Rohingya refugees, destroying nearly 400 shanties and shops. No casualties were immediately reported.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, In Burkina Faso 12 people arrested on suspicion of terror offences were found dead in their police cells. Most of the 12 dead men were ethnic Fulas, a group often accused of jihadist links.
    (BBC, 5/14/20)
2020        May 12, Canada's National Research Council said China's CanSino Biologics Inc , the company behind one of the few coronavirus vaccine candidates already in clinical trials, is collaborating with the NRC to "pave the way" for future trials in Canada.
    (Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, China reported seven new coronavirus cases on the mainland, versus one a day earlier. Jilin city in the country's northeast warned of a huge risk of COVID-19 spreading further.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 12, Estonia's parliament approved a new Electronics Communications Act, dubbed the "Huawei law," to ensure security reviews for telecom gear needed in the development of future networks.
    (Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, India's PM Narendra Modi pledged 20 lakh crore rupees, about $265 billion, to reignite growth.
    (Econ., 5/23/20, p.26)
2020        May 12, In Iran another 1,481 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 110,767 since the start of the crisis. Another 48 deaths from the virus took the overall toll to 6,733. A minister said Iran will reopen its mosques for three nights over the next week so that worshippers can pray during one of the holiest times of year.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, An Israeli soldier (21) was killed during a West Bank arrest raid in Jenin when a rock thrown off a rooftop struck him in the head. The raid was aimed at arresting four Palestinians wanted for stone-throwing at Israeli vehicles and other recent attacks.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, Israeli police arrested over 300 people as officers attempted to control crowds that had assembled at a religious site in northern Israel in violation of coronavirus restrictions. Jews observed the holiday of Lag B'Omer, on which ultra-Orthodox Jews customarily gather at the tomb of a prominent rabbi in antiquity on Mount Meron.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, In Italy deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic climbed by 172, against 179 the day before, but the daily tally of new cases doubled to 1,402. The Lombardy region said it had found 419 infections from previous weeks that it had not logged. The total death toll now stands at 30,911 with confirmed cases at 221,216.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, Madagascar has reported 193 Covid-19 cases and no deaths. President Andry Rajoelina has said criticism of Covid-Organics, an untested herbal tonic that he is touting as a treatment for Covid-19, shows the West's condescending attitude towards Africa.
    (BBC, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, In Montenegro hundreds of Serbian Orthodox pilgrims used hand sanitizer and wore face masks as they entered the Ostrog Monastery to mark the Day of St Vasilije Ostroski the Miracle Maker, a 17th century bishop after whom the monastery is named. Montenegro has reported 324 cases of the coronavirus and nine deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, Russia moved to ease a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. It was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman has been hospitalized for the coronavirus. He is the fifth senior government official in Russia to get the virus, and the second from within Putin's inner circle. Another 10,899 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the country's total number of confirmed infections to 232,243. At least 2,116 people have died.
    (AFP, 5/12/20)    (Business Insider, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, In Russia a fire broke out in a Saint Petersburg hospital early today and killed five coronavirus patients. Preliminary reports suggested an overheated ventilator had short-circuited and caught fire. On May 9 a fire caused by a faulty ventilator in the Spasokukotsky Hospital in Moscow killed one patient.
    (Good Morning America, 5/12/20)(SFC, 5/13/20, p.A2)
2020        May 12, In Sudan armed clashes in South Kordofan province killed more than two dozen people, including paramilitary troops, over the last 48 hours. The dispute was over an arms sale and escalated in the past two days in the market and in some villages in Kadugli.
    (AP, 5/13/20)
2020        May 12, The UN said COVID-19 has been confirmed in a crowded civilian protection camp in Juba, South Sudan's capital.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, The United Nations refugee agency said violence in northwest Nigeria has forced about 23,000 refugees to flee to Niger since April and raised concerns about the deteriorating security situation.
    (Reuters, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, In Uruguay the 86 crew members of the Greg Mortimer cruise ship, stranded in local waters since March 27, began their evacuation to Montevideo following an outbreak of the new coronavirus on board. At least 37 positive cases of coronavirus were detected in the last several days.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, In Yemen clashes in the southern province of Abyan between Saudi-backed government troops and separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates have left at least six fighters from both sides killed in the past 24 hours.
    (AP, 5/12/20)
2020        May 12, Yemen's Saudi-backed government reported the first outbreak of the new coronavirus in three more southern provinces, taking the total number of cases in areas under its control to 65, including 10 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/12/20)

2020        May 13, US President Donald Trump extended by another year an executive order that prohibits US companies from using telecommunications equipment made by firms deemed a national security threat " a prohibition that includes Chinese giant Huawei Technologies.
    (South China Morning Post, 5/14/20)
2020        May 13, The United States said it has added Cuba to a blacklist of countries that do not fully cooperate on counterterrorism, denouncing the presence of Colombian leftist guerrillas. Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela were already on the list.
    (AFP, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, Federal Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, overseeing the case against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, appointed John Gleeson, a hard-charging former prosecutor and judge, to oppose the Justice Department’s effort to drop the case and to explore a perjury charge against Mr. Flynn.
    (NY Times, 5/14/20)
2020        May 13, US federal agents seized a cellphone belonging to Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina late today as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into controversial stock trades he made as the novel coronavirus first struck the US.
    (New York, 5/14/20)
2020        May 13, US officials said China-linked hackers are breaking into American organizations carrying out research into COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned of an extended period of weak growth and stagnant incomes, while he also dismissed speculation over negative interest rates.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, Paul Manafort (71), Donald Trump's onetime presidential campaign chairman who was convicted as part of the special counsel's Russia investigation, was released from federal prison to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement due to concerns about the coronavirus.
    (AP, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, It was reported that the FBI inadvertently revealed one of the US government’s most sensitive secrets about the 2001 Sept. 11 terror attacks: the identity of a mysterious Saudi Embassy official in Washington who agents suspected had directed crucial support to two of the al-Qaida hijackers.
    (Yahoo News, 5/13/20)
2020         May 13, California to date had 72,749 cases of coronavirus and 2,958 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,213 cases and 372 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,389,935 with the death toll at 84,059. California's Gov. Gavin Newsom gave the go-ahead for 17 counties to reopen their local economies.
    (sfist.com, 5/13/20)(SFC, 5/14/20, p.A7)
2020        May 13, In Iowa deaths from the coronavirus surged for a 2nd straight day surpassing 300. Rep. Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will allow some businesses, including restaurants, salons, barber shops and gyms, to open on May 15.
    (SFC, 5/14/20, p.A5)
2020        May 13, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the launch of a public service campaign to inform parents of the Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Associated with COVID-19. Three children diagnosed with the syndrome have died in the state.
    (SFC, 5/14/20, p.A5)
2020        May 13, The Republican attorney general in Texas moved to stop five urban counties from issuing mail-in ballots. The state election code, he said, “does not permit an otherwise healthy person to vote by mail merely because going to the polls carries some risk to public health.”
    (NY Times, 5/14/20)
2020        May 13, The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers’ stay-at-home restrictions. The ruling means the state is essentially reopened ahead of the May 26 expiration date of Evers’ order, lifting caps on the size of gatherings, allowing people to travel as they please and allowing shuttered businesses to reopen.
    (AP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 13, Amazon.com Inc launched three new versions of its Fire tablets with more storage and faster performance.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, British PM Boris Johnson said that the deaths of 144 health care workers and 131 social care workers had been reported as involving COVID-19. The United Kingdom's total COVID-19 death toll now exceeds 40,000, by far the worst yet reported in Europe. England tentatively began easing its coronavirus lockdown, with some people who cannot do their jobs at home urged to return to work.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, Burundi has reported only 15 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
    (Econ., 5/16/20, p.38)
2020        May 13, Authorities in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus emerged, launched an ambitious campaign to test all of its 11 million residents, after a cluster of new cases raised fears of a second wave of infections.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, Germany prosecutors said they have charged an Indian man (Balvir S.) with spying on the Sikh community and Kashmir activists for his country's intelligence service for more than two years.
    (SFC, 5/14/20, p.A2)
2020        May 13, Hong Kong reported its first two coronavirus cases in three weeks not linked to anyone who travelled overseas, with authorities scrambling to trace the origin of the infections. Hundreds of protesters gathered in shopping malls across Hong Kong, flouting coronavirus-related social distancing rules to mock unpopular Chief Executive Carrie Lam on her birthday.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, Indian soldiers fatally shot a young man at a checkpoint in Kashmir, triggering anti-India protests and clashes in the disputed region.
    (SFC, 5/14/20, p.A2)
2020        May 13, Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in coronavirus infections, with 689 new cases, taking the total number to 15,438. Some 1,028 people have died from the virus.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, Israel-based CyberArk Software Ltd. reported first-quarter earnings of $2.4 million and net income of 6 cents per share. The company makes software that detects attacks on privileged accounts.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, Lebanese rushed to food stores to stock up on vegetables and basic items, hours before the government was to reinstate a four-day nationwide lockdown, following a spike in reported coronavirus cases. PM Hassan Diab blamed people who did not follow guidelines.
    (AP, 5/13/20)(Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020        May 13, Lesotho recorded its first case of COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, In Montenegro clashes erupted when protesters demanded the release of eight Serbian Orthodox Church priests jailed for leading a religious procession despite a ban on gatherings related to the coronavirus outbreak. At least 60 people were detained in Niksic and Pljevlja.
    (SFC, 5/15/20, p.A2)
2020        May 13, Puerto Rico officials said they are closing more than 30 public school cafeterias and several food warehouses after dozens of workers tested positive for the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 5/14/20, p.A5)
2020        May 13, Moscow said it had ascribed the deaths of more than 60% of coronavirus patients in April to other causes as it defended what it said was the superior way it and Russia counted the number of people killed by the novel virus.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund head, said 60% of the 40 coronavirus patients taking tablets of favipiravir, which was first developed in Japan under the name Avigan, tested negative for the virus within five days and said the treatment could cut coronavirus recovery times in half. Favipiravir is undergoing trials in India by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. In Japan Avigan was found to cause birth defects.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, Saudi Arabia said it will go into a full lockdown during the days of celebration that follow the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, May 23 – May 27.
    (AP, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, In Thailand professional chefs started cooking up around 40,000 lunches in Bangkok for communities affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Thailand reported no new daily cases for the first time in two months.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)
2020        May 13, The UN forecast that the COVID-19 pandemic will shrink the world economy by 3.2% this year, the sharpest contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
    (SFC, 5/14/20, p.C6)
2020        May 13, A World Health Organization report into Italy's coronavirus response was posted after it had received necessary approvals within the UN system. It was written by Francesco Zambon, WHO's chief field coordinator for Italy and its regions, and a team of WHO public health experts and consultants. The WHO later said it was withdrawn because of “factual inaccuracies” that it has not detailed and denied that it received any pressure from the Italian government to remove it.
    (AP, 12/18/20)
2020        May 13, Yemen's Saudi-backed government reported the first coronavirus case in Marib province and four other infections elsewhere, taking the tally of cases in areas under its control to 70, including 12 deaths. The Aden-based government's coronavirus committee said two cases including one death were reported in Aden, and two in Lahej, including one death.
    (Reuters, 5/13/20)

2020        May 14, President Donald Trump threatened to impose new taxes on American companies that produce goods outside the United States, another move his administration could make to push supply chains away from China and raise new trade barriers.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, The Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals handed President Donald Trump a setback, rejecting his bid to end a lawsuit that accused him of violating anti-corruption provisions of the US Constitution with his ownership of a hotel in Washington while in office.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, The US Labor Department said roughly 36 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the two months since the coronavirus first forced millions of businesses to close their doors and shrink their workforces.
    (AP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, The US Transportation Department published new rules revising hours of service requirements for truck drivers that will expand short-haul driving and save the industry $2.8 billion over 10 years. Changes included lengthening the short-haul drivers’ maximum on-duty period from 12 to 14 hours and extending the distance limit from 100 air miles to 150 air miles.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright warned a congressional panel that the US lacks a plan to produce and fairly distribute a coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available. The nation could face “the darkest winter in modern history” unless leaders act decisively. A federal watchdog agency has found “reasonable grounds” that Bright was removed from his post as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority after sounding the alarm at the Department of Health and Human Services.
    (AP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, The US Securities and Exchange Commission said it has charged two companies and a chief executive officer with making misleading claims related to COVID-19. Turbo Global Partners Inc. and its CEO Robert W. Singerman were charged with making false and misleading claims related to equipment to detect individuals with fevers. The SEC said Applied BioSciences Corp had begun offering and shipping finger-prick COVID-19 tests to the general public, when in fact the tests could only be administered in consultation with a medical professional.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced that the Senate Judiciary Committee he chairs will launch hearings in June to look into the origins of the FBI's investigation into Russian election meddling and contacts with President Trump's 2016 campaign.
    (The Week, 5/15/20)
2020        May 14, The US CDC released guidance documents on reopening schools, restaurants, and businesses after withholding the recommendations until it completed revisions demanded by the White House.
    (NBC News, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, A coalition of 20 groups, including Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission saying that the video app TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is collecting personal information of kids under 13 without their parents' consent.
    (AP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered everyone in the city to wear a mask when outside their homes as some restrictions eased to allow people to return to work and recreation under the coronavirus Panama.
    (SFC, 5/15/20, p.A8)
2020        May 14, US federal land managers said it will take two decades and cost more than $1 billion over the first six years alone to slash wild horse populations across 10 Western states to sustainable levels necessary to protect rangeland.
    (SFC, 5/15/20, p.A5)
2020        May 14, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered everyone in the city to wear a mask when outside their homes as some restrictions eased to allow people to return to work and recreation under the coronavirus Panama.
    (SFC, 5/15/20, p.A8)
2020         May 14, California to date had 74,564 cases of coronavirus and 3,042 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,352 cases and 381 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,415,894 with the death toll at 85,807.
    (sfist.com, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Florida police issued arrest warrants for two NFL cornerbacks accused of an armed robbery alleged to have occurred on May 13 at a party in Miramar. Deandre Baker of the New York Giants and Quinton Dunbar of the Seattle Seahawks were wanted on four counts each of armed robbery with a firearm. On July 10 the New York Daily News reported that detectives believe four victims recanted after being paid a total of $55,000 in cash at the office of Michael Grieco, a South Florida defense lawyer and state lawmaker.
    (AP, 5/15/20)(Miami Herald, 7/11/20)
2020        May 14, Michigan announced a settlement in a 2016 lawsuit that alleged the public schools in Detroit were incapable of delivering access to literacy.
    (SFC, 5/15/20, p.A5)
2020        May 14, New York City reported 100 cases of a rare inflammatory disease in children apparently tied to COVID-19.
    (The Week, 5/15/20)
2020        May 14, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr announced that he was temporarily stepping down as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He had received classified briefings before he sold up to $1.7 million in stocks.
    (The Week, 5/15/20)
2020        May 14, Texas recorded single day highs of 1,458 new cases of the coronavirus and 58 deaths.
    (SFC, 5/16/20, p.A6)
2020        May 14, Facebook and a team of African and global telecom majors said they have struck a deal to build one of the world's largest subsea cable networks, boosting internet availability across three continents. The 2Africa partners included South Africa's MTN GlobalConnect, Mauritius-based infrastructure provider WIOCC, China Mobile International, French telecoms major Orange SA, Saudi Arabia's stc, Telecom Egypt, and Vodafone.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Diagnostic services provider LabCorp said it would make its COVID-19 tests available at workplaces, as employers across the US look to bring people back to work safely.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide bombing in Paktia province killed five civilians and wounded at least 29 others. The bombing appeared to target a military compound but exploded before it reached it destination.
    (SFC, 5/15/20, p.A2)
2020        May 14, Bangladesh officials said the novel coronavirus has been detected in one of the southern camps that are home to more than one million Rohingya refugees.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, In Bulgaria some two thousand supporters of a fringe ultra-nationalist and pro-Russian party marched through central Sofia accusing the government of imposing confusing restrictions aimed at combating the coronavirus. The center-right government of PM Boyko Borissov has extended restrictions until June 14. Bulgaria has reported 2,100 registered cases, including 99 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, China’s UN Mission said its acting deputy ambassador, Yao Shaojun, called the United States “the largest debtor,” saying it owed about $1.16 billion to the regular UN budget and $1.3 billion to the peacekeeping budget.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 14, In citizen journalist China Zhang Zhan (37) went missing in Wuhan, the city where the novel coronavirus that spiraled into a pandemic was first recorded. She went missing the day after she shared a video which described empty streets and life in the city after Wuhan lifted its lockdown. Zhang's lawyer, Wen Yu, told Radio Free Asia in September that she was refusing food to protest her detention.
    (Insider, 12/6/20)
2020        May 14, It was reported that Egyptian security officers burst into the home of journalist Haisam Hasan Mahgoub in Cairo earlier this week, confiscating his phone and arresting him on terrorism charges.
    (AP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, The European Commission said it has suspended the delivery of 10 million Chinese masks it purchased for health workers after two countries complained about the poor quality of the batches they received.
    (AP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, France-based Renault said it is preparing to substantially reduce its vehicle range, withdrawing well-known but ailing models like the Espace minivans, as part of looming cost cutting plans.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Germany's unlisted CureVac said its experimental coronavirus vaccine was shown to trigger an immune response in animals when given a low dose and the biotech firm was looking at carrying out its first human trials in June.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Iran warned of a possible coronavirus cluster hitting another province as it announced 71 new deaths and more than 1,800 infections nationwide. the latest deaths brought the official toll to 6,854. The total number rose to 114,553 as 1,808 new cases of COVID-19 infection were detected.
    (AFP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival-turned-partner, Benny Gantz postponed the swearing-in of their controversial new government as the Israeli leader rushed to quell infighting within his Likud party. Like past leaders Netanyahu broke up existing ministries and created new ones to reward allies and buy off opponents.
    (AP, 5/15/20)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.36)
2020        May 14, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man who allegedly rammed his car into a soldier in the southern West Bank.
    (AP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Italy said will start testing a representative sample of 150,000 people in 2,000 cities next week to understand the extent of its COVID-19 epidemic. Italy has had more than 222,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and over 31,000 deaths since its outbreak came to light on February 21.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, The WHO pulled a report on Italy’s coronavirus response from its website, a day after it went up, and never republished it. UN epidemiologist Francesco Zambon publicly denounced the World Health Organization’s withdrawal of the report. Zambon resigned in 2021 saying it was “humanly and professionally” impossible for him to continue on his job.
    (AP, 3/11/21)
2020        May 14, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced the lifting of a coronavirus state of emergency ahead of schedule in most of the country except for eight high-risk areas. It remains in effect in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hokkaido.
    (AP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, It was reported that huge swathes of Nairobi, Kenya, are struggling with little to no supplies of water. Heavy rains swept away the main water pipes running through forests in the Aberdare mountain range north of the capital a week ago. Soon after that, the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company shut down a treatment plant feeding the city.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Lebanon arrested central bank director Mazen Hamdan for alleged exchange rate manipulation.
    (Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020        May 14, New Zealand began reopening malls, retail store and restaurants. Gatherings were limited to ten people and social distancing guidelines remained in place.
    (SFC, 5/15/20, p.A7)
2020        May 14, Pakistani sisters Jasima Bibi and Saeeda Bibi were killed in North Waziristan. Authorities soon arrested two men for their role in the murders. A video posted online had showed them being kissed by a man. One arrested man was the father of the first victim and the other was the brother of the second. Police later launched a manhunt for the murdered of the murder of the two teenage girls.
    (The Telegraph, 5/17/20)(Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 14, The government of Panama said 43 migrants have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and 119 others who came in contact with them are in quarantine at a relief station near the border with Colombia.
    (AP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Typhoon Vongfong slammed into the eastern Philippines, knocking out power and threatening food crops in a new emergency for a country already overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. At least one person was killed. More than 11,600 coronavirus infections, including 772 deaths, have been reported in the country.
    (AP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Russian health officials said they had registered 9,974 new infections in the last 24 hours, bringing Russia's tally to 252,245 with a total of 2,305 deaths.
    (AFP, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Saudi Arabia country recorded some 2,000 new coronavirus cases, its highest ever count. The country has so far seen more than 46,000 cases.
    (Business Insider, 5/17/20)
2020        May 14, Slovenia became the first European country to declare an official end to its coronavirus epidemic. The country has reported 1,466 coronavirus cases and 104 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 14, South Africa said it will assign levels of lockdown restrictions for each of the country's roughly 50 districts, depending on the number of active coronavirus infections there.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)
2020        May 14, Spain's government said it will extend the deadline for descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled more than 500 years ago, who have launched the process for acquiring Spanish citizenship but could not complete it due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (SFC, 5/15/20, p.A2)
2020        May 14, Yemen's Saudi-backed government reported the first cases of the novel coronavirus in the southern province of Al Dhalea, among 15 new infections that took the total in areas under its control to 85 with 12 deaths. Al Dhalea became the ninth province to record cases, with its first three infections.
    (Reuters, 5/14/20)

2020        May 15, President Donald Trump fired Steve Linick, the State Department’s inspector general. The Obama administration appointee's office was critical of alleged political bias in the agency’s management. The removal would take effect in 30 days. Linick will replaced by Stephen Akard, a former career foreign service officer who has close ties to Vice President Mike Pence. Representative Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, later said he had learned that inspector general Linick had opened an investigation into Mr. Pompeo.
    (AP, 5/16/20)(NY Times, 5/17/20)
2020        May 15, US Pres. Donald Trump introduced Moncef Slasoui, a former chairman of vaccines at GlaxoSmithKline as the new chief of what he called Operation Warp Speed, an effort to have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.
    (SFC, 5/16/20, p.A6)
2020        May 15, US Defense Department officials presented President Donald Trump with the Space Force flag during a short Oval Office event. The dark blue and white flag includes elements intended to evoke the vast recesses of outer space.
    (AP, 5/16/20)
2020        May 15, The Trumps administration issued new rules that will bar China-based Huawei and its suppliers from using US technology and software.
    (SFC, 5/16/20, p.C1)
2020        May 15, It was reported that five sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier sidelined in Guam due to a COVID-19 outbreak have tested positive for the virus for the second time and have been taken off the ship.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020         May 15, California to date had 76,618 cases of coronavirus and 3,136 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,515 cases and 388 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,441,172 with the death toll at 87,427.
    (sfist.com, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, In Idaho two people and more than a doen dogs were killed when a box truck transporting animals for a rescue group crashed near Shelley.
    (SSFC, 5/17/20, p.A4)
2020        May 15, Less populated areas of New York, Virginia and Maryland took their first steps towards lifting lockdowns, part of a patchwork approach to the coronavirus underscoring political divisions across the United States.
    (Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, In western Nevada a magnitude 6.5 earthquake was recorded early today in a remote area west of Tonopah.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Most of Louisiana eased coronavirus restrictions as many businesses and houses of worship were allowed to reopen at 25% capacity.
    (AP, 5/16/20)
2020        May 15, Drugmaker Blueprint Medicines said the US Food and Drug Administration declined to approve its therapy for previously treated patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), a type of cancer that affects the stomach and small intestine.
    (Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Hologic Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 diagnostic test that can provide initial results in about three hours and process more than 1,000 tests in 24 hours.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, J.C. Penney Co Inc filed for bankruptcy protection with plans to permanently close some stores and also explore a possible sale.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 15, In Belgium some children, many with face masks, returned to school as the country further eased a two-month coronavirus lockdown. Belgium has to date reported 54,644 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 8,959 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Brazil’s health minister Dr. Nelson Teich resigned after less than a month on the job in a sign of continuing upheaval over how the nation should battle the coronavirus pandemic, quitting a day after President Jair Bolsonaro stepped up pressure on him to expand use of the antimalarial drug chloroquine in treating patients. Officials say almost 15,000 people have died in Brazil from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, though some experts say the figure is significantly higher due to insufficient testing.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, In Britain government scientific advisers said the reproduction ('R') rate of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom is now somewhere between 0.7 and 1.0.
    (Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, London's Mayor Sadiq Khan said cars will be banished from miles of streets in central London to encourage more walking and cycling and help public transport cope with social distancing restrictions.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Britain's wildlife charity the RSPB said it has been "overrun" by reports of birds of prey being illegally killed since the lockdown started six weeks ago. All birds of prey are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981).
    (BBC, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Chile's government imposed a total lockdown of its capital, Santiago, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Econ., 7/18/20, p.25)
2020        May 15, Denmark Health authorities reported no coronavirus deaths for the first time since March 13.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 15, A regional health body said the new life-threatening inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19 has affected 230 children in Europe and killed two so far this year.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 15, Estonia, Latvia and li formally removed travel restrictions between them saying that the first wave of the coronavirus is under control in their region.
    (SFC, 5/16/20, p.A5)
2020        May 15, French nurses and doctors faced off with President Emmanuel Macron at a leading Paris hospital, demanding better pay and a rethink of a once-renowned public health system that found itself quickly overwhelmed by tens of thousands of virus patients.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, In Germany draft government proposal said Germany will order meatpacking plants to stop using subcontractors and to improve hygiene standards in the workplace and accommodations, after more than 600 cases of coronavirus among workers in the industry.
    (Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, An Indonesian tax official said the government will require big internet companies to pay value-added taxes (VAT) on sales of digital products and services from July as part of efforts to boost revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Iran reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections in more than a month as it warned of clusters hitting new regions. 2,102 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall total to 116,635. the virus had claimed another 48 lives over the same period, raising the overall death toll to 6,902.
    (AfP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Lebanon's central bank denied that it had played a role in exchange rate market manipulation and disclosed its foreign currency transactions to officials in response to an arrest warrant issued for one of its directors. The central bank said it would continue to inject dollars into the economy to maintain an exchange rate of 3,200 pounds for imports, with the aim of reducing food prices that have soared.
    (Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Mexico's health ministry confirmed 290 additional coronavirus deaths and 2,437 new infections in a fresh one-day record rise in cases since the start of the pandemic. This brought confirmed coronavirus cases to 45,032 and 4,767 deaths in total. Between 590 and 800 Cuban doctors have arrived in Mexico City in recent weeks.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)(Miami Herald, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Poland's main opposition party named Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski (48) as its new candidate in the country's trouble-ridden presidential election.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Moscow began testing thousands of randomly-chosen residents for coronavirus antibodies under a mass screening program authorities hope will help them determine when it is safe to lift the city's lockdown restrictions.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, It was reported that in northern Nigeria tens of thousands of Koranic school children were recently crammed into open vans and sent back home from cities and towns across 19 states in a controversial move by state governments to prevent the spread of coronavirus within their territories. Hundreds of the children already had coronavirus, so officials inadvertently contributed to spreading the virus rather than containing it.
    (BBC, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, In Singapore Punithan Genasan (37) received a death sentence via zoom for his role in a drug deal that took place in 2011. This marked the city's first case where such a ruling has been done remotely.
    (BBC, 5/20/20)
2020        May 15, Slovakia lifted a quarantine on the last of five Roma settlements that were closed off in April to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 15, South Africa's High Court ordered the suspension of soldiers and police officers who were at or near the home of a man who was killed on April 10, following allegations he was beaten to death by security forces. Collins Khosa died in the poor township of Alexandra.
    (Reuters, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Turkish authorities detained four more elected mayors from Turkey’s mainly Kurdish populated east and southeast regions, as the government pressed ahead with its crackdown on a pro-Kurdish party it accuses of links to Kurdish militants.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, It was reported that hundreds of people in Aden, southern Yemen’s main city, have died in the past week with symptoms of what appears to be the coronavirus.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, In Zimbabwe three young female opposition activists, who were reported missing following a May 13 protest over COVID-19 lockdown measures, were being treated at a hospital after asserting they were abducted and sexually abused by suspected state security agents.
    (AP, 5/15/20)
2020        May 15, Zimbabwe's second biggest city of Bulawayo limited access to tap water to just one day a week as reservoir levels fall to dangerously low levels amid the country's worst drought in years.
    (Reuters, 5/15/20)

2020         May 16, California to date had 77,515 cases of coronavirus and 3,166 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,682 cases and 390 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,456,941 with the death toll at 88,230.
    (sfist.com, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, A US federal judge issued an order that allows North Carolina religious leaders to reopen their doors to their congregations in spite of Gov. Roy Cooper's warning that they risk spreading coronavirus.
    (Good Morning America, 5/17/20)
2020        May 16, An at-home coronavirus testing project in Seattle backed in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it was working with US regulators to resume the program after being suspended by the Food and Drug Administration.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Gay rights organizations welcomed a decision by Albania's governing body of psychologists to scrap conversion therapy with regards to sexual orientation.
    (SSFC, 5/17/20, p.A3)
2020        May 16, Australia's Victoria state reported 11 new coronavirus cases, including some linked to known clusters at a meat factory and a McDonald's restaurant.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Bolivia's population was about 11 million.
    (Econ., 5/16/20, p.25)
2020        May 16, In Bosnia thousands marched through Sarajevo to commemorate victims of the Ustasa regime, a puppet state founded by Croat fascists and allied to Nazi Germany, and to oppose a Catholic Mass held in the city for Ustasa and their families, slain at the end of World War Two.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Brazil's Health Ministry registered 14,919 new confirmed cases in the prior 24 hours, taking the total to 233,142.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Cambodia's health ministry said the last patient with the new coronavirus has recovered and left hospital, leaving the Southeast Asian country with zero cases. Cambodia has reported 122 cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 and no deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)   
2020        May 16, Mainland China had five new confirmed COVID-19 cases, down from eight the previous day. The city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus outbreak originated in China, conducted 222,675 nucleic acid tests.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 16, In France Félicien Kabuga (84), one of the most wanted suspects in the Rwandan genocide, was arrested near Paris. The businessman from the Hutu ethnic group is alleged to have been the main financier of the Hutu extremists who slaughtered 800,000 people in 1994.
    (BBC, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, French health authorities reported 96 new coronavirus deaths, as the country eases from a two month lockdown. This brought France's total fatalities to 27,625.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Thousands of Germans across the country took to the streets to protest against restrictions imposed by the government to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 583 to 174,355. The reported death toll rose by 33 to 7,914.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Greeks flocked to the seaside when more than 500 beaches reopened, as the country sought to walk the fine line between protecting people from COVID-19 while reviving the tourism sector that many depend on for their livelihoods.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, India's total novel coronavirus cases rose to 85,940 with 2,752 fatalities.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, In northern India a truck crammed with migrant laborers trying to reach their distant homes amid a nationwide lockdown crashed, killing at least 23 and injuring 35.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Indonesia reported 529 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of cases to 17,025. Indonesia also reported 13 new deaths, taking the total number of COVID-19 deaths to 1,089.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Iran sentenced French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah (61) to five years in prison on national security charges.
    (AFP, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Iran reported 35 new deaths from the coronavirus, the lowest number since March 7 despite infections rising, and announced a further relaxation of COVID-19-related closures. The new deaths brought the overall toll to 6,937. However, 1,757 new coronavirus cases were confirmed across Iran in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall total to 118,392.
    (AFP, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered a cessation of movement between the country and neighboring Tanzania and Somalia to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. He exempted cargo trucks but said drivers would have to be tested for the disease.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, In Libya bombs hit a shelter for displaced people late today in Tripoli, killing at least seven people including a 5-year-old child from Bangladesh.
    (AP, 5/17/20)
2020        May 16, Malaysian reported 17 new coronavirus cases, bringing the cumulative total to 6,872. Health authorities there reported one new death, with total fatalities at 113.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Mexico registered 47,144 cases of coronavirus, with the country's death toll rising to 5,045.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, It was reported that Mozambique's armed forces killed 50 Islamic extremist fighters this week in battles in the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province.
    (SFC, 5/16/20, p.A2)
2020        May 16, In Myanmar at least 200 buildings were set on fire in the Rohingya village of Let Kar in Rakhine state’s Mrauk-U township. The burning of villages was a tactic used on a large scale by the military in Rakhine in 2017.
    (AP, 5/26/20)
2020        May 16, The Philippines' health ministry reported 11 more coronavirus deaths and 214 additional infections. Total confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus have risen to 12,305, most of which are in the capital, while deaths reached 817. The Philippines started loosening its lockdown in the capital and other major cities to slowly restart an economy.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Portugal said it has suspended imports of trash until the end of 2020 to protect domestic landfill capacity. The country usually attracts huge mounds of rubbish from other European states because of its low waste management fees.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Qatar reported another 1,547 cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the country's total number of confirmed infections to more than 30,000.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, Russia reported 9,200 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. The overall number of cases nationwide stood at 272,043. The official death toll rose to 2,537 after 119 people died over the last 24 hours.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, In Saudi Arabia the number of coronavirus cases topped 50,000. The health ministry reported 2,840 new cases, taking the cumulative total to 51,980. The death toll in the kingdom increased by 10 to 302.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, South Africa's Impala Platinum said it had detected 19 positive cases of the COVID-19 disease at its Marula operation in northern Limpopo province, and that it would close the plant until it had taken necessary health measures.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, In South Sudan an outbreak of violence between pastoralists and farm workers began in the north-eastern town of Pieri, forcing thousands of people to flee to the bush. Over the next days At least 300 people, including three aid workers, were killed in the fighting.
    (BBC, 5/21/20)
2020        May 16, Spain's overnight death toll from the coronavirus was 102, marking the lowest 24-hour rise since mid March. The cumulative death toll rose to 27,563, while the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 230,698.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020        May 16, In eastern Syria unknown warplanes attacked Iran-backed fighters late today, killing several of the Iraqi militiamen.
    (AP, 5/17/20)
2020        May 16, Thailand reported no new coronavirus cases or deaths as the country begins to reopen businesses and ease restrictions. Thailand extended a ban on international passenger flights until the end of June. A previous order was set to run until the end of May. Thailand has reported a total of 3,025 cases of the coronavirus and 56 fatalities.
    (Reuters, 5/16/20)

2020        May 17, The US military’s mystery space plane, the solar-powered X-37B, rocketed into orbit from Cape Canaveral, this time with an extra load of science experiments.
    (AP, 5/17/20)
2020         May 17, California to date had 78,859 cases of coronavirus and 3,208 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 10,821 cases and 390 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,478,241 with the death toll at 89,207.
    (sfist.com, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, The latest number of coronavirus cases in Texas jumped by 1,801 in a single day, the highest daily rate since the state started tracking data. The number of cases reported now stands at 46,999. Texas reported 1,305 total fatalities, an increase of 33.
    (Good Morning America, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and political rival Abdullah Abdullah signed a power-sharing agreement, two months after both declared themselves the winner of last September's presidential election.
    (AP, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Albanian authorities began demolishing the national theatre building early today after dragging away two dozen actors and activists protecting the site, drawing a large crowd chanting "shame" and "dictatorship".
    (AP, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, A Canadian aerobatic jet crashed into a British Columbia neighborhood during a flyover intended to boost morale during the pandemic, killing one crew member, seriously injuring another and setting a house on fire. Capt. Jennifer Casey, who served as a spokesperson for the Snowbirds, died in the crash.
    (AP, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, In northeastern Congo DRC an armed group of fighters from the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO) killed at least 20 civilians early today in a raid on the Hema village of Ndjala in Ituri province. The militia group is made up of fighters from the Lendu ethnic group.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Dagestan's health minister told a local blogger that the true number of coronavirus infections was four times that reported, and that outbreaks had killed 657 people, not the officially recorded 27.
    (SSFC, 6/7/20, p.40)
2020        May 17, Egyptian security forces detained Lina Attalah, the editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, one of a shrinking number of independent news websites, in the latest arrest amid a wider crackdown on dissent. Mada Masr is one of the hundreds of websites blocked by the Egyptian government in recent years. The outlet has continued to publish through mirror sites. Attalah was fined 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($125) and released from a Cairo police station.
    (AP, 5/17/20)(AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 17, Thousands of Greeks returned to church after weeks of staying away as a ban on mass gatherings was eased.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, India's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) requested that a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus be extended to May 31. The Health Ministry reported a record jump of nearly 5,000 cases in the past 24 hours.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)(SFC, 5/18/20, p.A5)
2020        May 17, It was reported that Indonesia is planning an $8.6 billion bailout for 12 state-owned firms, to reduce the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, mostly as cash compensation and working capital investments.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, It was reported that five Iranian tankers likely carrying at least $45.5 million worth of gasoline and similar products are now sailing to Venezuela, part of a wider deal between the two US-sanctioned nations amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 17, Iran said the COVID-19 illness has claimed a further 51 lives over the last 24 hours. 1,806 new cases were confirmed across in the past day, bringing the total to 120,198. The health ministry raised the overall death toll to 6,988.
    (AFP, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu swore in his new government. It was the most bloated in Israeli history with 36 Cabinet ministers and 16 deputies.
    (AP, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Du Wei (58), the Chinese ambassador to Israel, was found dead in his home north of Tel Aviv. Police said his death was believed to be from natural causes.
    (AP, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, In Italy the daily death toll from the COVID-19 epidemic fell to 145, the lowest since March 9. The total death toll now stands at 31,908. Confirmed cases amounted to 225,435. PM Giuseppe Conte outlined a further loosening of movement restrictions, including opening borders to travelers from Europe from next month.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Kuwait and Qatar both said they would start jailing people or fining them thousands of dollars for failing to wear a facemask to combat the novel coronavirus. Qatar, a nation of some 2.8 million, has the second highest infection count in the region at above 32,600, with 15 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Madagascar's national COVID-19 taskforce said it has registered its first coronavirus death. A medical worker (57), who suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure, had died the previous evening.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, The Philippine government called for vigilance against the coronavirus, a day after hordes of people trooped to shopping malls and ignored safety protocols, as authorities began loosening a two-month lockdown. The country has reported 12,513 cases of coronavirus infections and a death toll of 824.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, In Puntland, a semi-autonomous state Somalia, Ahmed Muse Nur, the governor of Mudug, was killed along with three of his bodyguards in a suicide car bombing that was claimed by Islamist group al Shabaab.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, South Africa reported 1,160 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily numbers yet. The country has the highest number of cases in Africa - 15,515, with 264 deaths.
    (BBC, 5/18/20)
2020        May 17, South Korea reported five new domestic cases of coronavirus, all linked to a cluster of cases centered around bars and nightclubs in the capital which has raised fears in the country of a fresh wave of contagion.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Spain reported 87 new deaths, bringing the total deaths in the country from the coronavirus pandemic to 27,650. The Health Ministry reported 652 new cases. Spain has had 231,350 confirmed COVID-19 cases. PM Pedro Sanchez said the government will seek to extend its coronavirus state of emergency one last time until late June.
    (Good Morning America, 5/17/20)(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Syria’s telecommunications authority said a deadline for a cellular company owned by the cousin of President Bashar Assad to pay back its debts to the state has ended, adding that legal measures will be taken against the company to recover the money. Rami Makhlouf, who is under American and European sanctions, vowed not to give up the company and apologized to his arrested employees.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 17, In northeastern Syria seven members of the Islamic State group escaped from a small prison. Four were recaptured and a search continued for the remaining three.
    (AP, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Tanzania's Pres. John Magufuli said there has been a "sharp decline" in the number of coronavirus patients in the country's hospitals. Tanzania has had 509 recorded coronavirus cases and 21 deaths according to data from the African Union's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    (BBC, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Thailand reported three additional cases of the new coronavirus, bringing its total cases to 3,028 as the country relaxes local restrictions and re-opens malls and department stores.
    (Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020        May 17, Venezuela reported 504 coronavirus illnesses raising the national total to 504 with 10 deaths.
    (SFC, 5/18/20, p.A5)

2020        May 18, US Pres. Donald Trump told reporters he has been taking the drug, hydroxychloroquine, and a zinc supplement daily “for about a week and a half now.”
    (AP, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, In a letter to the WHO, US Pres. Donald Trump threatened to permanently cut US funding to the agency unless it commits to “substantive improvements” in the next 30 days.
    (AP, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, Congressional Democrats said Steve Linick, the State Department watchdog fired by President Donald Trump last week, was investigating possible impropriety in a massive arms sale to Saudi Arabia last year, adding new questions to the watchdog’s abrupt dismissal.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, It was reported that the US has sent an 80,000-ton shipment of oil to Belarus, as the country seeks to diversify its supplies following a price dispute with Russia.
    (SFC, 5/18/20, p.A2)
2020        May 18, It was reported that the FBI has found links between al Qaeda and Saudi terrorist Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani (21), after cracking the military trainee's iPhones. Alshamrani killed three US sailors in Florida last December before he was killed.
    (The Independent, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, The US Supreme Court dealt a legal setback to Sudan, ruling that the African nation cannot avoid punitive damages it was ordered to pay in lawsuits accusing it of complicity in the 1998 al Qaeda bombings of two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, It was reported that SF-based Stripe is supporting a radical approach to fighting climate change. One beach project is taking coarse-milled olivine to the water’s edge so the waves can grind it up, allowing the ocean to absorb more carbon.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, California's Gov. Newsom said 53 of the state's 58 counties satisfied state requirements allowing them to move to at least the first stage of reopeningfor business amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Tulare County, one of the five not included, voted the following day to allow a number of commercial establishments to reopen, even though its number of infections exceeds the state's threshold for moving forward.
    (SFC, 5/21/20, p.A1)
2020         May 18, California to date had 81,373 cases of coronavirus and 3,278 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,104 cases and 390 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,506,84 with the death toll at 90,309.
    (sfist.com, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, The Detroit Three automakers and their suppliers began restarting assembly lines after a two-month coronavirus lockdown in a slow revival of a sector that employs nearly 1 million people in the United States.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, In Minnesota Usama Hamade (55), a Lebanese man, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to export drone parts and technology from the US to Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. His brother, Issam Hamade, pleaded guilty in March.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, The Navajo Nation, spanning across parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, reported 69 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 4,071.
    (Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called attention to the new name of a COVID-19-related illness in children. Now known as Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed that the illness does have a link to COVID-19.
    (Good Morning America, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, The Oregon Supreme Court halted a lower court's order that had invalidated the statewide restrictions imposed by Gov. Kate Brown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
    (AP, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, In Texas the first ever trial by jury to be held virtually in the US went ahead, with jurors hearing the case by Zoom and the trial being live-streamed on YouTube.
    (The Independent, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, The results of a global trial showed that injection of the drug cabotegravir is highly effective at blocking HIV.
    (SFC, 5/19/20, p.A1)
2020        May 18, It was reported that US medical diagnostic firm PerkinElmer Inc faces a federal investigation into its role in an alleged Medicare fraud involving tens of thousands of unnecessary genetic cancer tests.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, American biotechnology company Moderna announced that its experimental vaccine for the novel coronavirus has so far shown to be "generally safe and well tolerated" in the first phase of a clinical trial.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, It was reported that Uber is cutting 3,000 more jobs and shutting 45 offices due to the coronavirus crunch.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, In central Afghanistan Taliban fighters detonated a car bomb near a government intelligence agency installation in Ghazni province, killing at least 7 people and wounding 40.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Albanian police arrested 24 people involved in an alleged criminal organization that produced false documents to illegally smuggle people into Britain, Canada and the US.
    (SFC, 5/20/20, p.A2)
2020        May 18, Paleontologists from the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences said they have found the 70-million-year-old remains of a megaraptor, making it one of the last carnivorous dinosaurs to inhabit the earth. The discovery was made in the southern province of Santa Cruz in the middle of March this year.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, Australia's Minister for Trade Simon Birmingham said China's decision to impose a tariff of 80.5% on barley imports from Australia is deeply disappointing.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, In Brazil military and federal police officers burst into a home and shot João Pedro (14) in the stomach with a high-caliber rifle at close range. There was no sign of illegal activity at the house in the Salgueiro complex of favelas in Rio de Janeiro. His body was tracked down the next day, inside a police forensic institute. He was one of more than 600 people killed by police in the state of Rio de Janeiro in the first months of this year.
    (AP, 6/17/20)
2020        May 18, Brazil recorded 674 new deaths and announced a total of 254,220 confirmed cases.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, Britain expanded its testing scheme to allow anyone aged over five with COVID-19 symptoms to book a test to see if they have the virus. PM Boris Johnson announced that schools would close due to coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 5/18/20)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.46)
2020        May 18, Climate activists placed more than 2,000 pairs of children's shoes in neat rows across London's Trafalgar Square to demand the British government stop bailing out carbon intensive industries that pollute the environment.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Experts warned that the Oxford University vaccine tipped as a "front runner" in the race to develop a coronavirus jab does not stop the virus in monkeys and may only be partially effective.
    (The Telegraph, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, China's president called for an independent review of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic under the World Health Organization once the virus is under control, and defended Beijing's own handling of the pandemic. President Xi Jinping made a high-profile pledge of $2 billion to the WHO, plus more aid to countries in need.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)(Business Insider, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, It was reported that Chinese smartphone maker OPPO has suspended operations at a recently re-opened plant in India after workers tested positive for the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Croatia's lawmakers voted to dissolve parliament and pave the way for a general election amid an easing of the coronavirus outbreak.
    (SFC, 5/19/20, p.A2)
2020        May 18, Danes returned to cafes and restaurants, confident that the coronavirus outbreak is under control.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, France's highest administrative court ruled that Paris police could no longer use drones to surveil public compliance with coronavirus-related restrictions.
    (Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, The leaders of France and Germany unveiled a post-covid EU recovery plan.
    (Econ., 5/23/20, p.40)
2020        May 18, Clashes broke out in Hong Kong’s legislature for a second time this month as a pro-Beijing lawmaker was elected as chair of a key committee that scrutinizes bills, ending a prolonged struggle for control with the pro-democracy camp.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Iran said it was entering a new phase of trying to eliminate the novel coronavirus after bringing the Middle East's deadliest outbreak under control in many regions. 2,294 new infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 122,492. The virus death toll was raised to 7,057, with 69 fatalities in the past day.
    (AFP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Iraq said it will impose a complete lockdown on some areas of the capital, amid an uptick in coronavirus cases in recent weeks since curfew hours were relaxed. At least 123 people have died among 3,404 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, An Israeli district court convicted Jewish settler Amiram Ben-Uliel (25) of murder in a 2015 arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents. The case that had sent shock waves through Israel and helped fuel months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Italy registered 99 fatalities over the last 24-hour period, bringing the nationwide death toll to 32,007. More than 225,000 people in Italy have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
    (Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, Forces allied with Libya's UN-supported government said they have wrested control of the al-Waitya airbase, a key military base on the outskirts of Tripoli, from eastern-based forces under commander Khalifa Hifter.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Mexico issued guidelines for restarting operations in the automotive, mining and construction sectors, pushing ahead with reopening the economy despite a growing toll and concerns about unsafe work sites. Local governments across Mexico pushed back against President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's call to reopen the economy in some 300 townships that do not have active cases of coronavirus. Leaders said they preferred to wait until June before resuming normal activities. Mexico has reported 51,633 total cases and 5,332 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)(AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, It was reported that a registry of death certificates in Mexico City suggests there were 4,577 cases where doctors mentioned coronavirus or COVID-19 as a possible or probable cause of death, more than three times the official death toll in the city. The additional 3,245 deaths in Mexico City, if they are confirmed or added to official counts, would push the national death toll from the 5,332 reported by federal officials to 8,577.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Nigeria said it would impose precisely targeted lockdown measures in areas that report rapid increases in cases, while the phased reopening of the economy as a whole would go ahead more slowly than planned.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, In Pakistan 7 troops were killed when gunmen detonated a bomb to ambush a convoy in Baluchistan province. An 8th soldier was killed in a roadside bombing in the northwest.
    (SFC, 5/20/20, p.A2)
2020        May 18, Qatar Airways said its cabin crew will begin wearing protective suits and passengers will have to wear face masks on board.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin promised to send aid to Dagestan, and asked residents not to gather for the Eid celebration marking the end of Ramadan this weekend. 657 people had died of pneumonia in the region, including 40 medics.
    (AFP, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, Russia reported 8,926 new cases of COVID-19, a new low in a gradual declining trend. Total cases numbered 290,678. 91 new fatalities were reported over the past 24 hours, bringing that total to 2,722.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, It was reported that Russia's defence ministry is setting up a mobile field hospital at the largest Siberian mine of the country's top gold producer, Polyus, to treat miners who contract the new coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Slovenia said it plans to tighten border controls for some EU citizens to prevent a possible import of the new coronavirus, partially rowing back from a decision last week to let all EU nationals in. Slovenia has so far reported 1,466 coronavirus cases and 104 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, South Korea reported 15 new cases of the coronavirus and one more death, bringing its totals to 11,065 cases and 263 fatalities.
    (SFC, 5/19/20, p.A7)
2020        May 18, It was reported that the Vice-President of South Sudan, Riek Machar, who was part of a taskforce to fight coronavirus, is in self-isolation after testing positive for Covid-19. His wife, Defense Minister Angelina Teny, some bodyguards and other staff also have the virus. South Sudan so far has recorded 236 cases of Covid-19 and four deaths.
    (BBC, 5/19/20)
2020        May 18, Spain reported that its overnight death toll from the coronavirus was 59, the lowest figure in two months. The cumulative death toll rose to 27,709, while the number of confirmed cases rose to 231,606.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Sweden's Statistics Office said the coronavirus pandemic has caused around 3,700 deaths since the first reported fatality in March, but this has not been as deadly as some seasonal flu tolls over the last three decades. Deaths were higher in December 1993 and January 2000 as compared to April 2020.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Switzerland's Pres. Simonetta Sommaruga opened the World Health Organization's annual assembly in Geneva, pledging her country's "full support and cooperation" to its leader as it coordinates the global response to the coronavirus pandemic. A two-day, virtual World Health Assembly meeting began as more than 100 countries backed a resolution calling for a probe into the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The US said that the pandemic had "spun out of control" in great part due to a costly "failure" by the World Health Organization, and called for a more effective WHO.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)(The Week, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG's Genentech unit said the US Food and Drug Administration has approved Tecentriq as a standalone therapy for an advanced form of lung cancer.
    (Reuters, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, A Ugandan court ordered the release of 19 LGBT+ people jailed for almost 50 days for risking spreading the new coronavirus after public prosecutors withdrew the charges.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said narcotics police in Myanmar have seized a large amount of liquid fentanyl, providing the first evidence that the synthetic opioid is being produced in quantity in Southeast Asia’s infamous Golden Triangle region. The raids were carried out between Feb. 20 and April 9 in Kutkhai township of Shan state.
    (AP, 5/18/20)
2020        May 18, The UN said flooding in central Somalia has affected nearly 1 million people, displacing about 400,000 people. At least 24 people have died in the flash floods that hit Beledweyne and Jowhar, two agricultural centers in Somalia's central area.
    (AP, 5/18/20)

2020        May 19, The United States rejected language about reproductive healthcare and intellectual property rights in a World Health Organization resolution on the coronavirus pandemic, hours after President Donald Trump threatened to quit the body. Washington did not block the consensus adoption of the text, which calls for a review into the global response to the crisis and which diplomats had striven to pass without a vote.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, The US Department of Justice warned California's governor that his COVID-19 restrictions discriminated against places of worship by preventing them from meeting while businesses and film studios are allowed to carry on working.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Maryland reported 1,784 new COVID-19 cases, the state's highest one-day rise.
    (Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared an emergency for Midland county after two dams breached. Rapidly rising water overtook dams and forced the evacuation of about 10,000 people, where flooding struck communities along rain-swollen waterways. The Edenville Dam, built in 1924, and the Sanford Dam, built in 1925, were breached. Dow Chemical, headquartered in Midland, activated its emergency operations center.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)(AP, 5/20/20)
2020        May 19, In Missouri Walter Barton (64) was put to death for fatally stabbing an 81-year-old woman nearly three decades ago, the first US execution since the coronavirus pandemic took hold.Barton had long maintained that he was innocent.
    (AP, 5/20/20)(SFC, 5/20/20, p.A4)
2020        May 19, A US federal judge ordered Texas to allow any of the state's 16 million voters to cast a ballot by mail over fears of the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 5/21/20, p.A6)
2020        May 19, Charles Lippincott, film promoter, died in Vermont after having a heart attack. George Lucas called him “one of the founding pillars of the ‘Star Wars’ films and phenomenon” in a tribute on the official “Star Wars” website.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        May 19, In Afghanistan more than 200 doctors and medical staff took part in protests in the western city of Herat, saying they had not been paid for three months while risking their lives to treat coronavirus patients. Afghanistan has confirmed 7,653 COVID-19 infections and 178 deaths from the respiratory disease.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, In Afghanistan an unknown number of gunmen stormed a mosque late today, killing 11 worshipers and wounding several others in Parwan province. Gunmen in eastern Khost province attacked a family returning home from a nearby mosque, killing three brothers. In northeastern Takhar the Taliban targeted checkpoints belonging to a local pro-government militia province, killing nine militiamen.
    (AP, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Britain's EasyJet said that hackers had accessed the email and travel details of around nine million customers, as well as the credit card details of more than 2,000 of them, in a "highly sophisticated" attack. Hacking tools and techniques used to access the travel records of millions of customers of easyJet pointed to a group of suspected Chinese hackers thought to be behind multiple attacks on airlines in recent months.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Britain's COVID-19 death toll neared 43,000.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, World-leading British medical journal The Lancet challenged a key claim in US President Donald Trump's May 18 four-page diatribe against the World Health Organization (WHO), saying the US leader cited academic research that did not exist.
    (South China Morning Post, 5/20/20)
2020        May 19, Human Rights Watch said Democratic Republic of Congo police killed at least 55 people in a crackdown on a separatist religious sect in April, more than double the toll reported by the interior ministry at the time. In April, the interior ministry said police had killed 22 BDK members in two raids, one of which led to the arrest of BDK leader Ne Muanda Nsemi at his home in the capital Kinshasa.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, The Czech Republic reported its biggest daily rise in new coronavirus cases in four weeks, climbing by 111 to 8,594, partly due to an outbreak at a coal mine.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Ecuador said it is closing several embassies and state enterprises to save money amid an economic crisis provoked by the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 34,000 people in the country have been infected and at least 2,800 have died. Authorities have reported another 1,700 deaths probably caused by the virus but not included in the official death toll.
    (AFP, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Hungary's Parliament classified the details of the construction of a Chinese-backed railway link between Budapest and Belgrade, a giant project that was relaunched and pushed through with extra government aid despite mounting criticism. Some 85% of the financing comes from China. Hungary and China signed a 20-year, $1.9 billion loan deal for the project late last month, with a 2.5% interest rate.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, India's government said it will run more special trains and buses to allow millions of distressed migrant workers to leave big cities. Coronavirus cases in India reached 100,000, matching its number of intensive care beds, and the rate of increase of new infections showed little sign of slowing.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, In Iran a special anti-corruption court sentenced a couple to death on money laundering and other charges. Najva Lasheidaei and her husband Vahid Behzadi were said to have smuggled hard currency and laundered $200 million.
    (AP, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Thomas Thabane (80) formally stepped down as PM of Lesotho following months of pressure after he was named as a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife. Finance Minister Moeketsi Majoro was expected to be sworn in as Mr Thabane's replacement.
    (BBC, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Namibia said it has lifted restrictions that halted the trade and movement of cattle from Kabbe North Constituency in the north east of the country after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in August 2019.
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Nepal's PM Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli asserted that a new Indian-built road passes through its territory. The 50-mile road cuts through the Lipu Lekh Himalayan pass to connect India to Kailash-Mansarovar, a sacred area in Tibet.
    (SFC, 5/22/20, p.A2)
2020        May 19, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian Authority will no longer be committed to any signed agreements with Israel or the United States, following Israel's pledge to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank.
    (AP, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Russian health officials reported 9,263 new infections in Russia over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 299,941. PM Mikhail Mishustin returned to his duties on Tuesday after recovering from the coronavirus.
    (AP, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, It was reported that the Seychelles has banned all cruise ship tourism through the end of 2021 as part of its efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The archipelago has just 11 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and no reported deaths.
    (Good Morning America, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Sri Lanka’s Pres. Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that he will withdraw the country from any international organization that continuously “targets” the military with allegations of human rights violations during its long civil war.
    (AP, 5/19/20)
2020        May 19, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, welcomed a European Union (EU) resolution, adopted by consensus by WHO's 194 member states, that calls for an independent evaluation of the international response to the coronavirus, "including, but not limited to, WHO’s performance".
    (Reuters, 5/19/20)

2020        May 20, President Trump threatened to halt federal funding to Michigan and Nevada over the distribution of absentee ballots in those states amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that has left more than 90,000 Americans dead.
    (Yahoo News, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, The US Supreme Court temporarily prevented the House of Representatives from obtaining secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
    (AP, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, was awarded the Templeton Prize. In 2003 as the director of the National Center for Hiuman Genome Research he led the team that mapped the entire human genome.
    (Econ., 5/23/20, p.20)
2020         May 20, California to date had 85,728 cases of coronavirus and 3,485 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,419 cases and 410 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,550,959 with the death toll at 93,406.
    (sfist.com, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, Authorities in Massachusetts arrested two men who allegedly helped ex-Nissan chair Carlos Ghosn flee Japan ahead of his trial. Former US Green Beret Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, were set to appear before a judge through video conference. They were being held for possible extradition to Japan.
    (The Week, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, Alphabet Inc's Google Cloud said it has secured a deal with the United States Department of Defense to help detect and respond to cyber threats.
    (Reuters, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, The US Food and Drug Administration approved AstraZeneca Plc and Merck & Co Inc's Lynparza as a treatment for a form of prostate cancer.
    (Reuters, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, US immunotherapy company Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said its experimental vaccine to prevent coronavirus infection produced protective antibodies and immune system responses in mice and guinea pigs.
    (Reuters, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, Cyclone Amphan slammed ashore along the coastline of Bangladesh and India, where more than 2.6 million people fled to shelters in a frantic evacuation made all the more challenging by the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, Bolivia's health minister, Marcelo Navajas, was arrested on charges he paid millions over the going rate for 170 substandard ventilators.
    (Business Insider, 5/21/20)
2020        May 20, Brazil's Pres. Jair Bolsonaro unveiled rules expanding the prescription of chloroquine, the predecessor of an anti-malaria drug promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump, for coronavirus patients despite a lack of clinical proof that it is effective.
    (AP, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, England-based airline engine maker Rolls-Royce announced plans to cut 9,000 workers as it grapples with the collapse in air travel due to the pandemic.
    (AP, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, Britain's death toll from confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose by 338 to 36,042 according to the health ministry. Broader figures based on suspected COVID-19 deaths put the toll at over 43,000.
    (Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020        May 20, Burundi held elections. Regional observers were not present after being told that arriving foreigners would face a 14-day quarantine. Ahead of the vote, government agents were accused of harassing the main opposition party, the CNL, whose leader Agathon Rwasa, the deputy parliament speaker, was believed to be in a close race with Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza’s chosen successor in the ruling CNDD-FDD, Evariste Ndayishimiye.
    (AP, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, It was reported that Estonia has started to test one of the world's first digital immunity passports, created by a team including founders of global tech startups Transferwise and Bolt, seeking a safer return to workplaces following the coronavirus lockdown.
    (Reuters, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, Iran said it was close to "curbing" the new coronavirus outbreak. 2,346 new infections were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 126,949. The death toll rose to 7,183 with 64 fatalities in the past day.
    (AP, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, Iranian authorities extended Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe's furlough from prison pending a decision on clemency. She was arrested at Tehran airport in 2016 as she prepared to fly home after a holiday with her parents. She was then jailed for five years for plotting to overthrow the government.
    (The Telegraph, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, The Israeli military thwarted an attempt to smuggle weapons into the country from neighboring Jordan, firing upon and arresting one of the smugglers. Nine pistols, six rifles and additional smuggled weapons were seized in the early morning operation.
    (AP, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, The Lebanese military said it has detained two soldiers caught on camera slapping and pushing a doctor in an emergency ward at a hospital in the northern city of Tripoli. The attacked doctor was trying to keep the soldiers from interrogating two patients receiving urgent medical care Lebanese authorities have reported over 950 cases of coronavirus, including 26 deaths.
    (AP, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, The Philippines' health ministry recorded 279 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, the highest daily increase in nine days, and five additional deaths. Total deaths reached 842, while infections rose to 13,221.
    (Reuters, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, Russia reported 8,764 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 308,705. There were also 135 coronavirus-linked fatalities over the same period. The nationwide death toll rose to 2,972.
    (Good Morning America, 5/20/20)
2020        May 20, The UAE delivered 14 tons of protective gear, medical items and ventilators to help curb the spread of the new virus in the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian Authority later said it was not informed about the aid shipment.
    (AP, 5/22/20)

2020        May 21, President Donald Trump, who was in Michigan to visit a Ford production plant, signed an emergency declaration authorizing the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts as floodwaters receded in the center of the state.
    (AP, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, President Trump complained that his onetime favorite network, Fox News, isn’t doing enough to help him and other Republicans get reelected.
    (Yahoo News, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, The Trump administration notified international partners that it is pulling out of a treaty that permits 30-plus nations to conduct unarmed, observation flights over each other’s territory, because Russia is violating the pact, and imagery collected during the flights can be obtained quickly at less cost from US or commercial satellites. The treaty entered into force in January 2002. Currently, 34 nations have signed it.
    (AP, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, The US White House issued a 20-page report attacking China's predatory economic policies, military buildup, disinformation campaigns and human rights violations.
    (SFC, 5/22/20, p.A2)
2020        May 21, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen (53) was released from federal prison because of coronavirus concerns and will serve the rest of his three-year sentence at home.
    (NBC News, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, The US delivered 50 ventilators to Russia as part of a $5.6 million humanitarian donation to help Russia cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Another 150 were expected to follow in a week.
    (SFC, 5/22/20, p.A6)
2020         May 21, California to date had 87,939 cases of coronavirus and 3,581 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,591 cases and 416 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,576,542 with the death toll at 94,661.
    (sfist.com, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, The University of California system announced plans to eliminate the SAT and ACT as requirements for applying to its 10 schools.
    (NY Times, 5/22/20)
2020        May 21, Authorities in Georgia arrested William "Roddie" Bryan (50), the man who filmed the Feb. 23 shooting of Ahmaud Arbery (25).
    (SFC, 5/22/20, p.A4)
2020        May 21, The US Navy said an active shooter at its Corpus Christi naval air station in Texas had been "neutralized," with one security force member injured in the early morning hours. The FBI said the case is being investigated as terrorism related.
    (Reuters, 5/21/20)(SFC, 5/22/20, p.A4)
2020        May 21, It was reported that Victoria's Secret is closing 250 stores in shopping centers, malls and other locations in the US and Canada.
    (Good Morning America, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, It was reported that Argentina plans to help charter a private flight to bring in rabbis from Israel to certify meat at the country's packing plants for kosher markets around the world.
    (Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, Cyclone Amphan, the most powerful storm to hit the region in more than a decade, killed at least 13 people in Bangladesh and cut a path of destruction that is still being assessed.
    (AP, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, A spokesman for PM Boris Johnson said Britain has agreed a deal to acquire antibody tests for the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, China's leadership struck a hard line at the annual meeting of the legislature, unveiling a plan to impose sweeping new security laws that would place Hong Kong more firmly under Beijing’s thumb and crack down on antigovernment protests. The proposed bill would forbid secessionist and subversive activity, as well as foreign interference and terrorism.
    (NY Times, 5/22/20)(AP, 5/22/20)(Econ., 5/30/20, p.8)
2020        May 21, It was reported that Jorge Rodrigo Tovar (30), the son of a notorious death squad leader, has been appointed to run the Colombian government’s programs for victims of the country’s long civil war, prompting fury among survivors.
    (The Guardian, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, The Arab Network for Human Rights Information said that Egyptian security forces have disappeared one of its former researchers, Shayma Samy, a journalist who had recently written for a news outlet run by a socialist opposition party. The group also said the government has arrested at least 10 journalists since the coronavirus was detected in the country. Egypt confirmed about 14,000 cases of the coronavirus.
    (AP, 5/21/20)(Econ., 5/23/20, p.35)
2020        May 21, Cyclone Amphan, the most powerful storm to hit the region in more than a decade, killed 77 people in West Bengal, India, and cut a path of destruction that is still being assessed. By May 27 the death toll rose to 100 in India and just over 20 in Bangladesh.
    (AP, 5/21/20)(AP, 5/22/20)(Econ., 5/30/20, p.52)
2020        May 21, Indian pharmaceutical company Strides Pharma Science Ltd received regulatory approval in India to start clinical trials of antiviral drug favipiravir, which has been touted as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Favipiravir is manufactured under the brand name Avigan by a unit of Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp and was approved for use as an anti-flu drug in the country in 2014. Kyodo News has reported that so far there has been no clear evidence of efficacy for Avigan in treating the novel coronavirus in some clinical trials.
    (Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, Iran put the total number of dead from the coronavirus at 7,249, or 66 more than a day earlier. 2,392 new cases raised the total confirmed cases to more than 129,000. The virus has infected more than 10,000 health care workers in the country.
    (AP, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, In Iran Romina Ashrafi (14) was decapitated at the family home in the village of Talesh in the northern province of Gilan. Romina had reportedly run away after the father refused to give permission for her to marry a man 15 years her senior. Her death sparked widespread outrage, with media condemning "institutionalized violence" in the Islamic republic. In late August her father was sentenced to nine years in jail for beheading his teenaged daughter in her sleep.
    (The Telegraph, 8/28/20)
2020        May 21, Lebanon's Health Ministry reported 63 new cases of the coronavirus, the largest single-day increase since the outbreak of the pandemic. The country has recorded 1,024 cases and 26 deaths.
    (Reuters, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, It was reported that at least 9,479 Russian medical workers in more than 70 regions have been infected with the coronavirus in the past month, and more than 70 have died. Health care workers believe the death toll to be much higher and they have compiled a list of more than 250.
    (AP, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, Russian state media reported that Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's strongman leader, was flown to Moscow and hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms.
    (The Week, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, In Sudan a head-on collision between a truck carrying passengers and a tractor-trailer killed 57 people and left more than 20 injured on a highway in the Darfur region.
    (AP, 5/22/20)(SSFC, 5/24/20, p.A4)
2020        May 21, The International Committee of the Red Cross warned of a worsening crisis in northeast Syria, where water cuts, food shortages and depleted health services are proving as dangerous as coronavirus.
    (AFP, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, A Syrian court said Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of the president and one of the country's wealthiest businessmen, would be temporarily banned from leaving Syria until a dispute over outstanding financial dues is settled.
    (AP, 5/22/20)
2020        May 21, Authorities in Turkey's western city of Izmir detained an opposition politician after she shared videos of an Italian anti-fascist song being blared out of mosques' loudspeakers instead of the call to prayer. Ozdemir denied any disrespect to religious values and said that she shared the videos because she wanted to draw attention to the incident.
    (AP, 5/22/20)
2020        May 21, Turkey reported its lowest daily increase in confirmed coronavirus cases in the past two months, with 961 new infections in the past 24 hours along with 27 more deaths. The total number of infections in the country now stands at 153,548, with a total of 4,249 deaths.
    (AP, 5/21/20)
2020        May 21, The UN launched a new initiative to sign up millions of “digital first responders” around the world to counter misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and spread fact-based information and advice to their networks of family, friends and followers.
    (AP, 5/22/20)
2020        May 21, The World Bank announced a $500 million program for East African countries affected by historic desert locust swarms. The affected countries included Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda.
    (SFC, 5/22/20, p.A6)
2020        May 21, Doctors Without Borders in Yemen said that as many as 80 people have been dying in Aden per day during the past week, up from a pre-outbreak normal of 10.
    (AP, 5/24/20)

2020        May 22, The US Trump administration imposed sanctions on eight more Chinese companies for their role in a crackdown on Muslims in in the northwestern Xinxiang region. Washington also imposed controls on access to American technology for 24 companies and government linked entities it said might be involved in obtaining goods with potential military uses. On May 25 China demanded that the sanctions be lifted.
    (SFC, 5/26/20, p.A2)
2020        May 22, President Donald Trump labeled churches and other houses of worship as “essential" and called on governors nationwide to let them reopen this weekend even though some areas remain under coronavirus lockdown.
    (AP, 5/23/20)
2020        May 22, President Trump suggested Fox News should fire its pollster after the cable news network’s latest national survey showed former Vice President Joe Biden leading him by 8 points.
    (Yahoo News, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, The United States called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to begin work immediately on investigating the source of the novel coronavirus, as well as its own handling of the response to the pandemic.
    (Reuters, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) said that data from its trial of Gilead Sciences Inc's remdesivir show that the drug offers the most benefit for COVID-19 patients who need extra oxygen but do not require mechanical ventilation.
    (Reuters, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, It was reported that a total of 14 Theodore Roosevelt sailors who had appeared to have recovered from the disease have tested positive again. The carrier is now back at sea after being sidelined in Guam since late March by a COVID-19 outbreak that infected more than 1,100 members of its roughly 4,900-strong crew.
    (Yahoo News, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, US actress Lori Loughlin (55) pleaded guilty to paying half a million dollars to get her two daughters into the Univ. of Southern California. Her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli (56), also pleaded guilty.
    (SFC, 5/23/20, p.A4)
2020        May 22, The US Treasury imposed sanctions on Julio Cesar Aviles Castillo and Ivan Adolfo Acosta Montalvan, two high-ranking Nicaraguan officials, for their support of government crackdowns on protesters.
    (https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1019)(SSFC, 5/24/20, p.A4)
2020        May 22, US District Court Judge David Carter ordered the city and county of Los Angeles to move as many as 7,000 people camping near freeway ramps and overpasses, saying they face a dangerous health risk.
    (SSFC, 5/24/20, p.A7)
2020        May 22, US regulators approved the Phexxi birth control gel made by Evofem Biosciences of San Diego. It will have a list price of $250-$275 for a box of 12.
    (SFC, 5/26/20, p.A3)
2020         May 22, California to date had 90,251 cases of coronavirus and 3,663 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 11,963 cases and 421 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,599,740 with the death toll at 95,886.
    (sfist.com, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, Hollywood producer William Sadleir was arrested. The former chairman and CEO of Aviron Pictures, is accused of defrauding the government out of millions of dollars meant for coronavirus relief, and of using nearly $30 million in investor funds for his personal use — including buying a $14-million Beverly Hills Mansion.
    (Business Insider, 5/26/20)
2020        May 22, In southern California William Robert Cable (38) was arrested. He had allegedly poisoned eight homeless people in Huntington Beach with a substance “twice as strong” as pepper spray and videotaped them suffering seizure-like symptoms.
    (The Independent, 6/12/20)
2020        May 22, University of Connecticut senior Peter Manfredonia shot and killed Ted DeMers in Willington. On May 24 police found Nicholas Eisele (23), a high school friend of Manfredonia, shot to death in his Derby home.
    (SFC, 6/13/20, p.A4)
2020        May 22, Minnesota reported an increase of 847 positive coronavirus cases, the highest daily total. There have been 19,845 positive cases in the state thus far.
    (Good Morning America, 5/24/20)
2020        May 22, Car rental company Hertz filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid the global economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
    (Good Morning America, 5/23/20)
2020        May 22, The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Africa's coronavirus cases have surpassed 100,000, as the continent with many fragile health systems has not yet seen the high numbers of other parts of the world.
    (AP, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, Argentina missed a bond payment technically entering default for the ninth time in its history. The government signaled that it was making progress in restructuring $66 billion in foreign debt.
    (SSFC, 5/24/20, p.A4)
2020        May 22, A British court ruled that Farhad Azima, an Iranian-American aviation magnate and gunrunner tied to the CIA and the Iran-Contra scandal, must pay Ras al-Khaimah, a sheikhdom in the United Arab Emirates, over $4.1 million over a series of business disputes.
    (AP, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, China dropped its annual growth target for the first time and pledged more government spending as the COVID-19 pandemic hammers the world's second-biggest economy, setting a somber tone to this year's meeting of parliament.
    (Reuters, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, China-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd said it had started mid-stage human trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine in China earlier this month. Chinese researchers reported that the coronavirus vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc appears to be safe and induced a rapid immune response in its first human trial.
    (Reuters, 5/22/20)(Reuters, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, Acclaimed Egyptian artist Adam Henein (b.1929) died. He joined ancient pharaonic themes with sleek modernism in sculptures that often portrayed birds and other animals.
    (AP, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, Ten EU countries expressed concern over US plans to withdraw from the 2002 international treaty that allowed nations to conduct unarmed, observation flights over each other’s territory.
    (SFC, 5/23/20, p.A2)
2020        May 22, India reported 6,088 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, its biggest single-day spike. This brought total cases to 118, 447. The death toll rose to 3,583.
    (SFC, 5/23/20, p.A5)
2020        May 22, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Israel a “cancerous tumor” that “will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed” in an annual speech in support of the Palestinians, renewing threats against Iran's archenemy in the Middle East.
    (AP, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, Iran said it had detected another 51 deaths from its novel coronavirus outbreak, bringing the country's overall fatalities to 7,300. The health ministry said 2,311 new positive tests for COVID-19 took the country's caseload to 131,652.
    (AFP, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, Libya’s UN-supported government said its forces took back several districts on in Tripoli’s southern reaches that had been captured by their rivals in a year-long offensive on the country's capital.
    (AP, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, It was reported that archaeologists in Mexico have found the bones of about 60 mammoths at an airport under construction just north of Mexico City, near human-built ’traps’ where more than a dozen mammoths were found last year. The bones were found in sediment layers corresponding to 15,000 to 20,000 years ago.
    (AP, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, In Pakistan an Airbus A320 jetliner carrying 99 people crashed in a crowded neighborhood near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi after an apparent engine failure during landing. 97 people were killed and two survived. Eight people on the ground were injured.
    (AP, 5/22/20)(AP, 5/23/20)(SSFC, 5/24/20, p.A4)
2020        May 22, Peru has reported more than 104,000 cases of COVID-19 and 3,000 deaths. More than 5,000 police officers have been diagnosed with the disease along with 92 deaths.
    (SFC, 5/22/20, p.A6)
2020        May 22, President Vladimir Putin said the coronavirus outbreak in Russia has begun to abate. Russia has recorded 326,448 cases, including 3,249 deaths. Russia recorded its highest one-day coronavirus death toll of 150.
    (AP, 5/22/20)(AP, 5/23/20)
2020        May 22, The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) said former Rwandan defense minister Augustin Bizimana, one of the top suspects wanted over the country's 1994 genocide, is believed to have died around August 2000 in the Republic of Congo. DNA tests confirmed his identity and that he had been dead for 20 years.
    (AFP, 5/22/20)(BBC, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, The family of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi announced they have forgiven his Saudi killers, giving legal reprieve to five government agents who had been sentenced to death for the 2017 operation that cast a cloud of suspicion over the kingdom's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Saudi activists claimed that the family’s decision to pardon Mr Khashoggi was made following intense pressure by the Saudi authorities.
    (AP, 5/22/20)(The Telegraph, 5/22/20)
2020        May 22, Spain's overnight death toll from the new coronavirus rose by 56 to a total of 28,628. The number of diagnosed cases rose to 234,824.
    (AP, 5/22/20)

2020        May 23, In San Francisco a fire engulfed a warehouse on Pier 45 at Fisherman's Wharf, sending a thick plume of smoke over the waterfront.
    (AP, 5/23/20)
2020         May 23, California to date had 92,555 cases of coronavirus and 3,735 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 12,209 cases and 424 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,613,476 with the death toll at 96,662.
    (sfist.com, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, Missouri has recorded has more than 11,844 diagnosed cases of COVID-19, with at least 677 deaths.
    (Good Morning America, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said daily deaths in New York state fell to 84, marking the first time since late March the number was below 100.
    (Good Morning America, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, North Carolina reported its highest one-day increase of confirmed cases, with 1,107 cases. Total confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose to 22,725 with 737 deaths.
    (Good Morning America, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, In Utah police fatally shot Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal (22). Officers fired 34 shots at Palacios-Carbajal, striking him 13 - 15 times, after chasing him while he ran away carrying a gun and repeatedly dropped it and retrieved it.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Bernardo_Palacios-Carbajal)
2020        May 23, The Taliban and Afghanistan's president announced a three-day cease-fire late today ahead of Eid al-Fitr, a major Islamic holiday that marks the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
    (AP, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, Egypt said that security forces have killed 21 militants in two separate raids in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula.
    (AP, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, In Honduras inmates at a women's prison used a fire late today to distract officials and killed six other prisoners.
    (SFC, 5/26/20, p.A2)
2020        May 23, India reported 6,654 new coronavirus cases bringing the nationwide total to 125,102, including 3,720 deaths.
    (SSFC, 5/24/20, p.A9)
2020        May 23, India-based Reliance Industries Ltd said it has launched an online grocery service, JioMart, in a move aimed at rivalling Amazon.com's local unit and Walmart Inc's Flipkart in the huge Indian market.
    (AP, 5/24/20)
2020        May 23, Iran announced a further relaxation of coronavirus lockdown measures and said it has started to control the outbreak in nearly a third of its provinces. The health ministry recorded 1,869 new positive tests for coronavirus in the past 24 hours raising the country's tally to 133,521. The death toll was raised to 7,359, with 59 new deaths over the same period.
    (AFP, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, The first of five tankers carrying much-needed Iranian fuel and oil products entered Venezuelan waters.
    (AFP, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, Khalifa Hifter, the military commander of eastern Libya-based forces, said that they will continue fighting forces loosely allied with the UN-supported government in Tripoli, even though his campaign has suffered setbacks in recent weeks.
    (AP, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, The crowded Gaza Strip recorded its first death from the coronavirus, amid fears an outbreak could paralyze the territory's already overstretched health care system.
    (AP, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, In Russia the new daily coronavirus case counts fell to 9,434.
    (AP, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, Sudan's PM Abdalla Hamdok met with representatives of doctors to find “decisive and strict solutions” to “the phenomenon of repeated attacks on health workers," amid the coronavirus pandemic. Sudan has reported at least 63 deaths from COVID-19 among around 3,380 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
    (AP, 5/23/20)
2020        May 23, Thailand began trials of an experimental coronavirus vaccine using monkeys, one of at least 100 potential vaccines in the works around the world.
    (Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020        May 23, The Tunisian coast guard rescued 11 migrants after an emergency call from a boat that was filling with water off the city of Sfax. At least one migrant drowned, six people were missing. The coast guard also rescued 70 people from another boat in poor condition off the Kerkennah Islands. Tunisia has thwarted 10 smuggling attempts to send migrants across the Mediterranean in the last two days.
    (AP, 5/24/20)

2020        May 24, President Trump said the United States would suspend travel from Brazil, after a surge in coronavirus cases made the South American nation one of the world's hotspots. Brazil now has more than 22,000 deaths and 347,000 confirmed cases.
    (AP, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, A US federal judge ruled that a Florida law requiring felons to pay legal fees as part of their sentences before regaining the vote is unconstitutional for those unable to pay, or unable to find out how much they owe. On July 1 a federal appellate court stayed the lower court ruling pending a review of the case.
    (AP, 5/24/20)(SFC, 7/2/20, p.A5)
2020         May 24, California to date had 93,022 cases of coronavirus and 3,739 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 12,411 cases and 425 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,635,192 with the death toll at 97,495.
    (sfist.com, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, In Belarus about 1,000 protesters denouncing authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s seeking of another term in an upcoming election held the largest opposition demonstration of the year in the capital Minsk. Many of the demonstrators wore masks, defying Lukashenko’s dismissal of coronavirus concerns as a “psychosis.” Belarus has recorded more than 36,000 cases of coronavirus infection.
    (AP, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, Brazil has now surpassed Russia with a total number of confirmed cases standing at 347, 398.
    (Good Morning America, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, China reported 11 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the mainland as of today's end, up from three a day earlier. The total number of cases to date in the mainland stood at 82,985. The death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
    (Reuters, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, French authorities reported the smallest daily rise in new coronavirus cases and deaths since before a lockdown began on March 17. Confirmed cases rose by 115 to 144,921. The death toll increased by 35 to 28,367.
    (Reuters, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, French singer Liliane Lebon (b.1917), known professionally as Lily Lian, died at Ivry-sur-Seine on the outskirts of Paris.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Lian)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.78)
2020        May 24, Hong Kong police fired tear gas and a water cannon at protesters in a popular shopping district, as thousands took to the streets to march against China's move to impose national security legislation on the city.
    (AP, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, India reported 6,767 new coronavirus infections, the country’s biggest one-day increase. India has confirmed 125,102 coronavirus cases, including 3,867 deaths.
    (The Telegraph, 5/24/20)(AP, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher reopened to visitors after a two-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Church authorities limited entrance to 50 people at a time, and required that those entering the cavernous site maintain social distance and avoid touching any of the church’s stones, icons or other religious items.
    (AP, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, In Pakistan more than 1,000 worshippers gathered and prayed shoulder-to-shoulder in an open field in Karachi, with only a few of them wearing masks. Muslims around the world began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, with millions under strict stay-at-home orders and many fearing renewed coronavirus outbreaks.
    (AP, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, Russia reported their updated coronavirus figure at a total of 344,481.
    (Good Morning America, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, It was reported that operations at the world's deepest gold mine, in South Africa, have been halted after 164 cases of coronavirus were detected there.
    (BBC, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, It was reported that Switzerland's Bachem has begun round-the-clock production of Propofol, a drug needed to sedate ventilated patients whose plight during the pandemic has become emblematic of COVID-19's hit to healthcare systems.
    (Reuters, 5/24/20)
2020        May 24, In Zambia the bodies of three Chinese nationals were dragged into the Chinese-owned Blue Star clothing factory and set alight. Three suspects were soon arrested. The attack came amid a controversial crackdown in Lusaka, on Chinese businesses accused of discriminating against Zambians.
    (BBC, 5/27/20)

2020        May 25, US President Donald Trump warned that he may move the Republican National Convention from North Carolina set for August if the event faces state social distancing restrictions as a result of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, It was reported that companies that contaminated soil and water at a former recycling plant in southern California have agreed to pay $4.5 million to help clean the Superfund site. Omega Chemical Corp. in Whittier had recycled refrigerants and solvents from 1976-1991.
    (SFC, 5/25/20, p.A3)
2020         May 25, California to date had 94,590 cases of coronavirus and 3,756 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 12,505 cases and 426 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,653,904 with the death toll at 97,948.
    (sfist.com, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit failed on its first attempt to launch a test satellite into space aboard a rocket carried aloft by a Boeing 747 and released over the Pacific off the coast of California.
    (SFC, 5/26/20, p.A3)
2020        May 25, University of Connecticut senior Peter Manfredonia (23) went on the run after allegedly killing two men, injuring another and kidnapping a girl during a Memorial Day crime spree across at least three states.
    (The Independent, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, In Minnesota George Floyd (46) died after appearing to yell "I can't breathe" as a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground and put his knee on the man's neck for about eight minutes, prompting the FBI and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to step in and investigate. Four police officers involved were fired the following day.
    (NBC News, 5/26/20)(AP, 5/26/20)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.78)
2020        May 25, Missouri's health director issued a dire warning after photos and video showed Memorial Day weekend revelers partying close together. Missouri has confirmed 11,988 cases of COVID-19 and 681 deaths.
    (SFC, 5/26/20, p.A5)
2020        May 25, In Australia remnants of Cyclone Mangga battered a vast stretch of the western coast for a 2nd day.
    (SFC, 5/26/20, p.A2)
2020        May 25, Burundi's election commission declared ruling party candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye (52) as the winner of the May 20 presidential election with 69% of the vote.
    (SFC, 5/26/20, p.A2)
2020        May 25, Egypt’s medical union blamed the government for increasing levels of coronavirus infections and deaths among healthcare professionals, its sharpest criticism yet of the country’s handling of the pandemic.
    (AP, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, Germany-based Bayer said it had made progress seeking a settlement over claims its glyphosate-based Roundup weedkiller causes cancer, after Bloomberg reported the company reached a verbal agreement on about 50,000 to 85,000 cases.
    (Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, Germany-based Siemens Healthineers said it stands ready to ramp up production of its antibody test to more than 50 million per month from June as governments across the world are keen to identify those who may have developed immunity to the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020        May 25, Iran reopened major Shiite shrines across the Islamic republic, more than two months after they were closed, as it reported its lowest deaths from coronavirus since March.
    (AfP, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, A resident of the Kathua district of Indian-administered Kashmir, reported a bird - painted pink and carrying a coded ring tagged to its foot - flew into her home late today. The Indian Border Security Force passed the pigeon on to the police, who launched an investigation and logged the animal as a ‘Pak Suspected Spy.’
    (The Telegraph, 5/26/20)
2020        May 25, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe lifted a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and four other remaining areas, ending nationwide restrictions as businesses began to reopen.
    (SFC, 5/26/20, p.A4)
2020        May 25, It was reported that some 250,000 registered migrant laborers in Lebanon are growing more desperate as a crippling economic and financial crisis sets in, coupled with coronavirus restrictions.
    (AP, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, Libya's UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) accused opposition forces under Khalifa Haftar of planting mines in houses before pulling back from their positions in the south of the capital.
    (AFP, 5/26/20)
2020        May 25, A court in the Netherlands rejected a suit brought by a group seeking to halt the country's 5G telecommunications network rollout over possible health concerns.
    (Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, Fifty trafficked Nigerian women, rescued from Lebanon, returned home. A further 19 Nigerians, stranded in Lebanon because of Covid-19 lockdowns, were also repatriated.
    (BBC, 5/26/20)
2020        May 25, Russian prosecutors asked a Moscow court to sentence former US Marine Paul Whelan (50) to 18 years in prison on espionage charges, wrapping up a high-profile trial that has put additional pressure on the country's relations with Washington. The Moscow City Court is expected to hand down a verdict on June 15.
    (CBS News, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, Spain's health ministry revised the country's coronavirus death toll down by nearly 2,000 to 26,834 after checking data provided by regions. The total number of cases recorded since the outbreak began was also been revised down, and is now 235,400.
    (Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, Suriname held elections. Chandrikapersad Santokhi (61), a former minister of justice and police, was expected to become the next president. In July the new parliament chose Chandrikapersad Santokhi as the new president. His inauguration was set for July 16.
    (SFC, 6/1/20, p.A2)(SFC, 7/15/20, p.A2)
2020        May 25, Sweden reported that deaths from COVID-19 had risen to 4,029 from 3,998 a day earlier while the number of confirmed cases amounted to 33,843 up from 33,459.
    (Reuters, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, Traffic returned to a major highway in northeastern Syria for the first time in seven months, following Russian mediation to reopen parts of the road captured last year by Turkey-backed opposition fighters.
    (AP, 5/25/20)
2020        May 25, Zambia's President Edgar Lungu pardoned two men who were jailed last year for having sex with each other. They were listed among the names of nearly 3,000 prisoners to be pardoned to mark Africa Freedom Day.
    (AP, 5/26/20)

2020        May 26, The US military accused Russia of deploying at least 14 fighter planes to conflict-stricken Libya to support Russian mercenaries aiding east-based forces in their offensive on the capital, Tripoli.
    (AP, 5/26/20)(SFC, 5/27/20, p.A2)
2020        May 26, Twitter added a link to two of President Trump’s tweets in which he had made false claims about mail-in ballots, urging people to “get the facts”.
    (NY Times, 5/27/20)
2020        May 26, Palmer Luckey, an American best known for making virtual reality headsets, alerted the world that YouTube was deleting all comments which mentioned Wumao, slang for propogandists paid by the Chinese Communist Party to flood online forums with pro-CCP views.
    (Econ., 5/30/20, p.21)
2020        May 26, The US deported 30 people to Haiti.
    (SFC, 5/27/20, p.A2)
2020        May 26, Chicago reported its deadliest Memorial Day weekend for gun violence since 2015. Police reported 49 people shot, ten of them fatally.
    (SFC, 5/27/20, p.A3)
2020        May 26, Former biotech executive Robert Repella (61), a resident of Ambler, Pa., pleaded guilty to a federal charge and admitted paying $50,000 to Georgetown University's former tennis coach to get his daughter admitted to the prestigious school.
    (NBC News, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, It was announced that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud in Minnesota will pay sexual abuse victims $22.5 million and file for bankruptcy. Some 70 people say they were abused by 41 priests in cases that date back to the 1950s.
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 26, Merck & Co Inc said it was buying Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience and would collaborate with research nonprofit IAVI to develop two separate vaccines.
    (Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, US biotechnology company Novamax began injecting a coronavirus vaccine candidate into people in Australia with hopes of releasing a proven vaccine this year.
    (AP, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, The Afghan government released hundreds of Taliban prisoners from Bagram prison. The government said it would release 900 prisoners as a three-day cease-fire marking Muslim Eid-al-Fitr holiday draws to an end.
    (SFC, 5/27/20, p.A2)
2020        May 26, Police in Rio de Janeiro raided the governor's residence and 10 other addresses as part of a widening probe into the alleged embezzlement of part of the $150 million in public funds earmarked for building field hospitals. Gov. Wilson Witzel denied any wrongdoing and accused Pres. Bolsonaro of ordering the raid as political retribution. Brazil has 375,000 coronavirus cases and 23,000 deaths so far.
    (AP, 5/26/20)(SFC, 5/27/20, p.A4)
2020        May 26, J.K. Rowling published the first chapters of a fairy tale about a monster known as the Ickabog, an allegory about truth and abuse of power that is free online so that children can read it during coronavirus lockdown.
    (AP, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, Chile's LATAM Airlines Group filed for US bankruptcy protection, becoming the world's largest carrier so far to seek an emergency reorganization due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chile was averaging 4,000 new coronavirus cases daily.
    (Reuters, 5/26/20)(SFC, 5/27/20, p.A4)
2020        May 26, In CongoDRC Judge Raphael Yanyi Ovungu reportedly died of a heart attack. An autopsy later showed that the judge, who was overseeing a corruption trial involving Vital Kamerhe, the president's chief of staff, actually died of stab wounds to the head.
    (Bloomberg, 6/16/20)(Econ., 6/27/20, p.37)
2020        May 26, Costa Rica became the latest country to legalize same-sex marriage when a 2018 ruling from its supreme court went into effect.
    (SFC, 5/27/20, p.A2)
2020        May 26, The EU ended its controls on the export of coronavirus protective equipment after concluding that supplies for European medical and other workers were now adequate.
    (Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, Germany extended social distancing rules aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus to June 29. Germany's virus caseload now tops 179,000 with just over 8,300 deaths.
    (AFP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 26, Stanley Ho (98), the opportunistic casino tycoon, died in Hong Kong He led the transformation of the tiny territory of Macau off the coast of China into the world’s most lucrative gambling destination. Mr. Ho left behind 14 children and a $6 billion-plus fortune.
    (NY Times, 5/26/20)(Econ., 5/30/20, p.56)
2020        May 26, India's Ministry of Health reported that there had been a daily increase of 6,535 coronavirus cases, bringing the toll up to 145,380 cases. In total, there have been 4,167 officially recorded coronavirus deaths.
    (Good Morning America, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, India-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it would begin a clinical trial in India to test a combination of two anti-viral drugs, favipiravir and umifenovir, as a potential COVID-19 treatment.
    (Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, Iran further eased restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus by allowing restaurants to accept customers, as it announced another 57 deaths from the virus, bringing the total number of fatalities in the country to 7,508. The health ministry said 1,787 new cases of infection over the same period brought the total caseload to 139,511.
    (AFP, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, The third cargo of an Iranian tanker flotilla carrying fuel for gasoline-thirsty Venezuela was approaching the nation's exclusive economic zone as the previous two were preparing to discharge.
    (Reuters, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, Bethlehem's storied Church of the Nativity reopened to visitors, after a nearly three-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Israel’s Health Ministry has reported over 16,700 confirmed cases of the disease and 279 deaths.
    (AP, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia has passed its peak of coronavirus infections and ordered a World War II victory parade postponed by the pandemic to be held next month. Russia recorded its highest daily death toll of 174, bringing the nationwide toll to 3,807. Russia reported 8,915 new cases of COVID-19 over the same 24-hour period, placing the country's total count at 362,342.
    (AFP, 5/26/20)(Good Morning America, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, A Russian military helicopter crash-landed on an airfield in the far eastern region of Chukotka, killing four people.
    (AP, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, In Saudi Arabia a shootout in Azir province, sparked by a dispute between two families, killed six people. The cause of their dispute was unclear.
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 26, South Korea reported 19 new coronavirus cases, mostly from the Seoul area.
    (SFC, 5/27/20, p.A4)
2020        May 26, Turkey’s COVID-19 death toll reached 4,397 after 28 new deaths were reported in 24 hours. Turkey also recorded 948 more confirmed cases, bringing the total to 158,762. Today was the final day of a four-day nationwide lockdown for Turkey’s 83 million residents.
    (AP, 5/26/20)
2020        May 26, In Ukraine an attempted assassination of an alleged Montenegrin drug kingpin on a Kiev, Ukraine, street went sideways as two gunmen lit themselves on fire while trying to destroy evidence during their escape. Radoje Zvicer, a man believed to be a key member of a Montenegrin cocaine trafficking gang, was wounded in the attack. Five people were arrested.
    (Business Insider, 5/27/20)

2020        May 27, President Trump threatened to impose federal regulations on — or even shut down — social media platforms after Twitter added a fact-checking reply to his tweets about mail-in voting.
    (Yahoo News, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, The United States and China clashed over Hong Kong at the UN after Beijing opposed a request by Washington for the Security Council to meet over China's plan to impose new national security legislation on the territory.
    (Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, The United States said it was ending waivers in its sanctions for nations that remain in the Iran nuclear accord, bringing the deal further to the verge of collapse.
    (AFP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, US Sec. of State Mike Pompeo notified Congress that the Trump administration no longer regards Hong Kong as autonomous from mainland China, setting the stage for the US to withdraw the former British colony's preferential trade and financial status.
    (SFC, 5/28/20, p.A4)
2020        May 27, The US charged Adel El Zabayar (56), a former Venezuelan politician, with participating in a vast narco-terrorism conspiracy in which he traded drugs for weapons and recruited terrorists from Hezbollah and Hamas to orchestrate attacks against US interests. Zabayar remained out of US custody.
    (NBC, 5/27/20)(SFC, 5/28/20, p.A2)
2020        May 27, George Esparza (33), an aide to a longtime Los Angeles City Councilman, agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge in an ongoing FBI "pay-to-play" investigation inside City Hall that includes alleged distribution of $1 million in bribes and inducements.
    (NBC News, 5/28/20)
2020         May 27, California to date had 100,038 cases of coronavirus and 3,830 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,038 cases and 435 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,697,495 with the death toll at 100,271.
    (sfist.com, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Police in Maryland captured college student Peter Manfredonia (23). He was sought by police as a suspect in a crime spree including two slayings in Connecticut.
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, In Minneapolis a second night of protests erupted around a police station, one person died after being shot by a store owner amid looting. Rioters ignited fires and looted stores all over the city over the police killing of George Floyd.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y9pvof6z)(AP, 5/28/20)
2020        May 27, Larry Kramer (84), a playwright and an outspoken AIDS activist, died in NYC. In 1981 Kramer started the Gay Men's Health Crisis to draw attention to the plague. In 1987 he founded ACT UP and helped shock the country into dealing with the AIDS crisis.
    (NY Times, 5/28/20)(Econ., 6/13/20, p.74)
2020        May 27, In North Dakota a police officer was killed while serving an eviction notice in Grand Forks. Salamah Pendleton (41) opened fire on two officers. One officer was killed and a woman was found shot to death inside the home. Pendleton was shot and wounded.
    (SFC, 5/29/20, p.A4)
2020        May 27, Tropical Storm Bertha made landfall on South Carolina's coast shortly after it formed, becoming the second named storm before the official start of this year's Atlantic hurricane season.
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, It was reported that Tennessee will soon stop providing the names and addresses of COVID-19 patients to first responders, after initially arguing that doing so would protect those on the front line. An Associated Press review has found public officials in at least two-thirds of states are sharing the addresses of people who tested positive with first responders.
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Boeing Co said it will notify 6,770 US workers they are being laid off with "several thousand remaining layoffs" planned in the next few months.
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Novavax Inc said it is buying Praha Vaccines, a Czech-based manufacturing plant, from privately held Serum Institute of India, the world's largest maker of vaccines by volume. The US company aims to produce 1 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate next year.
    (Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Police in Belgium and France announced the arrests of 26 people suspected of human trafficking in the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who were found in a refrigerated truck in Britain last October.
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Brazil's Federal Police executed more than two dozen search and seizure warrants in six states as part of an investigation into a network that allegedly spread defamatory fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices.
    (SFC, 5/28/20, p.A3)
2020        May 27, Britain closed its embassy in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and ordered its staff to leave the country. The surprise closure was linked to coronavirus-related restrictions in place since earlier this year.
    (The Telegraph, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, A Canadian judge dealt a major blow to a senior Huawei executive’s attempts to evade extradition to the United States, ruling that the high-profile case against Meng Wanzhou can proceed.
    (The Guardian, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, India reported 6,387 new coronavirus infections, a new single-day record. A total of 151,767 cases have been confirmed including 4,337 deaths.
    (SFC, 5/28/20, p.A5)
2020        May 27, In Hong Kong thousands of protesters shouted pro-democracy slogans and insults at police as lawmakers debated a bill criminalizing abuse of the Chinese national anthem in the semi-autonomous city.
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani urged his Cabinet to speed up harsher laws in so-called honor killings, after a particularly disturbing slaying of a 14-year-old girl by her father shocked the nation. Last week Reza Ashrafi used a farming sickle to kill his daughter for running away with her boyfriend (34).
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's cabinet approved a new $1.1 trillion stimulus package that includes significant direct spending, to stop the coronavirus pandemic pushing the world's third-largest economy deeper into recession.
    (Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, In Libya the family of a slain Libyan human trafficker attacked a group of migrants in Mizdah, a desert town that recently changed hands amid the fighting over the country's capital, killing 26 Bangladeshi and four African migrants.
    (AP, 5/28/20)
2020        May 27, For the fifth consecutive day New Zealand has no new COVID-19 cases, with the total remaining at 1,154 diagnosed cases.
    (Good Morning America, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Peru has registered 135,905 COVID-19 cases and 3,983 deaths.
    (AP, 5/28/20)
2020        May 27, South Korea reported 40 new coronavirus cases, its biggest daily jump in about 50 days. The country has significantly relaxes its rigid social distancing rules as a result of waning coronavirus cases. South Korea now has a total of 11,265 confirmed cases with 269 deaths.
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Flags were lowered to half-mast across Spain as the European country began 10 days of official mourning for the victims of the coronavirus pandemic. Spain has recorded more than 236,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 with at least 27,117 deaths.
    (Good Morning America, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Researchers in Spain identified two anti-inflammatory medications that might inhibit the main enzyme that helps the coronavirus to replicate: Celecoxib, sold by Pfizer Inc for arthritis pain under the brand name Celebrex, and carprofen, used for pets under several brand names, including Rimadyl from Zoetis Inc.
    (Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Turkey’s health minister said that the country recorded 34 coronavirus-related deaths since the day before, bringing the country's COVID-19 death toll to 4,431. Turkey confirmed 1,035 new virus cases in the past 24 hours. The total number of confirmed cases in Turkey now stands at 159,797.
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, Human Rights Watch called on the UN’s top human rights body to launch an independent investigation into the Philippine government’s drug war that has left thousands dead, pointing in particular to its harmful effects on children.
    (AP, 5/27/20)
2020        May 27, The UN World Food Program warned that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy.
    (AP, 5/27/20)

2020        May 28, The US charged 28 North Korean and 5 Chinese nationals with laundering more than $2.5 billion used to help fund Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile program.
    (The Week, 5/29/20)
2020        May 28, President Trump signed an executive order seeking to chip away at regulations protecting social media companies from lawsuits over content posted on their platforms.
    (The Week, 5/29/20)
2020        May 28, President Trump, who has long considered racial conflict to be politically helpful to him, sent two tweets about the situation in Minneapolis. One taunted the mayor for not having control of the situation, while the second used the racially charged word “thugs” (in all capital letters) and added, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
    (NY Times, 5/29/20)
2020        May 28, The US National Security Agency warned government partners and private companies about a Russian hacking operation that uses a special intrusion technique to target operating systems often used by industrial firms to manage computer infrastructure.
    (Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, It was reported that Chevron Corp., based in San Ramon, Ca., will lay off up to 15% of tis 45,000-person global workforce amid the economic havoc wrought on the energy sector by the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 5/28/20, p.C1)
2020         May 28, California to date had 103,605 cases of coronavirus and 3,983 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,221 cases and 437 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,719,855 with the death toll at 101,562.
    (sfist.com, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, Lennie Niehaus (90), alto saxophonist and arranger for the jazz bandleader Stan Kenton in the 1950s, died in Redlands, Ca. He composed scores for 14 films that Clint Eastwood directed, including “Pale Rider,” “Heartbreak Ridge,” “The Bridges of Madison County,” “Absolute Power” and “Space Cowboys.”
    (NY Times, 6/11/20)
2020        May 28, A Michigan court ordered a barber in Owosso, about 70 miles northwest of Detroit, to close his shop and stop defying the state's coronavirus restrictions, though he vowed to keep cutting hair. Karl Manke (77) said he's not backing down.
    (AP, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, Protesters in Minneapolis broke into the city’s Third Precinct, on the city’s south side, just after 10 p.m. and smashed equipment, set off fireworks and lit fires. Dozens of fires were also set in nearby St. Paul, where nearly 200 businesses were damaged or looted. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz deployed 500 National Guard troops to restore order after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey declared a state of emergency and requested assistance. Arson suspect Dylan Shakespeare Robinson (22) of Brainerd, Minnesota, was located by federal investigators in the Denver area on June 12 and was captured two days later in Breckenridge, Colorado.
    (AP, 5/28/20)(NY Times, 5/29/20)(NBC News, 5/29/20)(Good Morning America, 6/17/20)
2020        May 28, CVS Health Corp said it would open more COVID-19 testing sites at some of its pharmacy drive-thru locations, completing the last leg of the drugstore chain's planned 1,000 sites across more than 30 US states.
    (Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, US drugmaker Pfizer Inc said it has signed a long-term agreement with glass maker Corning Inc to procure vials for storing drugs.
    (AP, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, In eastern Afghanistan Taliban fighters attacked an army checkpoint in Paktia province.
    (SFC, 5/30/20, p.A2)
2020        May 28, It was reported that British drugmaker AstraZeneca last week started phase 2 and 3 trials of a coronavirus vaccine, looking to recruit around 10,000 adults and children in Britain. AstraZeneca revealed that new data showed that its drug Tagrisso reduced the risk of relapse in some early-stage lung cancers by 83%.
    (Reuters, 5/28/20)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.57)
2020        May 28, Oxford Biomedica said it has signed a one-year clinical and commercial supply agreement with AstraZeneca to provide multiple batches of a coronavirus vaccine, called AZD1222, and that the majority of the batches would be produced throughout 2020.
    (Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, Brazil had 411,821 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 25,598 deaths. A study by the Federal Univ. of Pelotas and Rio Grande de do Sul state has concluded that the caseload is seven time the official number.
    (Econ., 5/30/20, p.26)
2020        May 28, China’s legislature endorsed a national security law for Hong Kong that has strained relations with the United States and Britain and prompted new protests in the territory. Beijing ordered that a new law be written to extend many of mainland China’s security practices to Hong Kong, creating broad powers to quash unrest.
    (AP, 5/28/20)(NY Times, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, China’s top legislature, the 13th National People’s Congress, passed the long-expected Civil Code. Comprised of seven parts plus supplementary provisions, 84 chapters and 1,260 articles. The Civil Code is the most extensive legislation in the history of the People’s Republic of China and takes effect January 1, 2021. The new ciivl code requires couples to wait 30 days between registering their intent to split for good and actually doing so.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y6joz733)(Econ., 8/8/20, p.34)
2020        May 28, China reported just two new coronavirus cases.
    (AP, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, The European Union prolonged for another year its sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad and other top political officials, military officers and business people over the regime's continued crackdown on civilians in the conflict-torn country.
    (AP, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, India’s top court ordered state authorities to provide free train rides and proper food and water to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers returning to their villages in the blazing heat after being thrown out of work. India reported another record single-day jump of 6,566 coronavirus cases, pushing up the total to 158,333 confirmed cases and 4,531 deaths.
    (AP, 5/28/20)(Good Morning America, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, It was reported that swarms of desert locusts have devastated crops in India’s heartland, threatening an already vulnerable region that is struggling with the economic cost of the lockdown.
    (AP, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, Indonesia recorded 687 new coronavirus cases bringing its total to 24,538. The total death toll was near 1,500.
    (SFC, 5/29/20, p.A6)
2020        May 28, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said that Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley will remain in what he described as an “enclave” after Israel annexes the territory and will not be granted Israeli citizenship.
    (AP, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, It was reported that Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd will be allowed to keep a drug used to treat bowel disease because changes in the market have removed the need to sell it to allay EU antitrust concerns over last year's acquisition of Shire plc.
    (Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, Japan-based Nissan Motor Co outlined a new plan to become a smaller, more efficient carmaker after the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated a slide in profitability that culminated in its first annual loss in 11 years.
    (Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, Lebanon's parliament approved a law to remove decades-old banking secrecy rules to better fight rampant corruption that has pushed the country to the edge of economic collapse.
    (SFC, 5/29/20, p.A2)
2020        May 28, In Malawi manhunts have begun after more than 400 people, recently repatriated from South Africa and elsewhere, fled a center at a stadium in Blantyre. At least 46 escapees had tested positive for the virus. Authorities worry they will spread COVID-19 in countries whose health systems can be rapidly overwhelmed.
    (AP, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, In Mali Lieut. Col. Carlos Moisés Guillén Alfaro (46), a pilot with the El Salvadoran air force, became the first UN peacekeeper to officially die of COVID-19.
    (AP, 8/3/20)
2020        May 28, Russia reported more than 8,300 new infections. The total number of infections topped 379,000. Russian officials reported 174 new deaths, for a total of almost 4,150.
    (AP, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, A Rwandan court sentenced Ladislas Ntaganzwa, a former mayor of Nyakizu, to life in prison for substantially participating in the 1994 planning, preparation and execution of over 20,000 Tutsis at Cyahinda parish.
    (SFC, 5/29/20, p.A2)
2020        May 28, South Korea reported its biggest jump in coronavirus cases in more than 50 days. The Korean Centers for Disease Control reported 79 newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases.
    (AP, 5/28/20)(Good Morning America, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, In Sudan an attack in the eastern province of al-Qadarif killed at least one officer and one child. Sudan blamed a militia backed by Ethiopia's military. Border tensions between the two countries have heated up recently with repeated attacks targeting Sudanese troops.
    (AP, 5/30/20)
2020        May 28, Swiss-based Novartis said its gene therapy unit AveXis it has signed a manufacturing deal to help produce a novel genetic COVID-19 vaccine candidate being developed by US researchers in Massachusetts.
    (Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020        May 28, In Zimbabwe manhunts have begun after more than a hundred people, some with the coronavirus, fled quarantine centers. Nearly all of Zimbabwe’s 75 new cases this week came from the centers that hold hundreds of people who have returned, sometimes involuntarily, from neighboring South Africa and Botswana.
    (AP, 5/28/20)

2020        May 29, US President Donald Trump said that he has terminated Washington's relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO), accusing the United Nations agency of bowing to pressure from China and allowing the Covid-19 pandemic to spread out of control.
    (South China Morning Post, 5/30/20)
2020        May 29, Transcripts of phone calls that played a pivotal role in the Russia investigation were declassified and released, showing that Michael Flynn, as an adviser to then-President-elect Donald Trump, urged Russia's ambassador to be “even-keeled” in response to punitive Obama administration measures, and assured him “we can have a better conversation” about relations between the two countries after Trump became president.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, It was reported that the Trump administration is accelerating efforts to seize property for a border wall in southern Texas. The Trumps administration has brought 78 lawsuits against landowners on the border, 30 of them this year.
    (SFC, 5/30/20, p.A6)
2020        May 29, In Oakland, Ca., more than 7,500 demonstrators gathered for a protest that Interim Police Chief Susan Manheimer said began peacefully, but "turned violent and disruptive" as the night wore on. Two Federal Protective Service officers were shot. Security guard David Patrick Underwood (53) soon died of his wounds. 60 suspected looters were detained and 22 others arrested. On Jun. 25 Steven Carrillo (32), a member of the "Boogaloo Bois" and a sergeant with the US Air Force based at Travis Air Force Base, was accused of spraying bullets in front of the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland on May 29, killing a federal security officer.
    (Insider, 5/30/20)(SFC, 6/1/20, p.A1)(SFC, 10/24/20, p.C1)
2020         May 29, California to date had 106,402 cases of coronavirus and 4,071 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,435 cases and 441 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,745,606 with the death toll at 102,798.
    (sfist.com, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, Florida woman Alison Marie Sheppard (35) was sentenced to five years and 10 months in federal prison for attempting to send cellphones to the Middle East to be used as bomb detonators by the Islamic State terrorist group.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, In Georgia Momodou Lamin Sisay (39), the son of a Gambia diplomat, was shot by police after a car chase. The police said he had produced a gun. Gambia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs soon called for an investigation.
    (AP, 6/3/20)
2020        May 29, Georgia's confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose to 5,260 as Gov. Brian Kemp announced plans to ease restrictions meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 5/30/20, p.A6)
2020        May 29, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the end of a 10-week stay-at-home order meant to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 5/30/20, p.A6)
2020        May 29, In Kentucky a police officer was seen on camera firing what appeared to be pepper balls at a news crew during a live television broadcast of the second night of Louisville protests, prompting an apology from the Louisville Metro Police Department. A crew from WAVE-TV was downtown in Louisville, covering demonstrations over the death of Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed by police in her own home in March.
    (AP, 5/30/20)
2020        May 29, In Michigan a 19-year-old was killed in Detroit's Greek Town after someone pulled up in an SUV and fired into a crowd of people protesting the death of George Floyd.
    (Insider, 5/30/20)
2020        May 29, In Minnesota fires burned unchecked and thousands protesting the police killing of George Floyd ignored a curfew as unrest overwhelmed authorities for another night in Minneapolis. Earlier today former police officer Derek Chauvin (44) was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the killing of George Floyd.
    (AP, 5/30/20)
2020        May 29, Missouri's only abortion will be able to keep operating after a government administrator decided that the health department was wrong not to renew the license of the Planned Parenthood facility in St. Louis.
    (SFC, 5/30/20, p.A6)
2020        May 29, A Texas deputy mistakenly shot and killed another responding officer early today while searching a home after a neighbor reported a suspicious person in the Sienna Plantation subdivision of Missouri City.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, It was reported that AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's Enhertu helped patients with three different types of cancer live longer in trials, pointing to potential broader use of the breast cancer treatment.
    (Reuters, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, Congolese militia leader Trésor Mputu Kankonde, accused of involvement in the murder of an American citizen and a Swedish national working with the United Nations, was arrested more than three years after their brutal slayings. The bodies of American Michael Sharp, Swedish national Zaida Catalan and a local interpreter, Betu Tshintela, were found in March 2017 after they went missing while investigating human rights abuses in central Congo.
    (AP, 5/30/20)
2020        May 29, Dagestan officials said the new coronavirus is sweeping through some mountain villages and that they are struggling to treat patients properly, protect medics or even count the dead. Dagestan had recorded 686 coronavirus deaths as of May 17.
    (Reuters, 5/30/20)
2020        May 29, Ethiopia has confirmed more than 830 coronavirus cases.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, The European health regulator said healthcare professionals should closely monitor COVID-19 patients receiving malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for serious side effects, stressing the need for in-depth clinical data on benefits and risks.
    (Reuters, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, A panel of the European health regulator recommended approving Johnson & Johnson's two-dose experimental vaccine for Ebola in the European Union.
    (Reuters, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, Shares in coffee maker JDE Peet's surged 15% in their stock market debut as investors jumped on the only big European IPO launched during the coronavirus crisis.
    (Reuters, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, A Berlin official said a hostel on the grounds of the North Korean embassy has been closed. It was accused of helping finance the East Asian country in violation of international sanctions.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, A German court convicted Cheryl von U. (61), an American-born dentist, of strangling her British husband (69) in Nov. 2018. The body of Peter von U. was found in a Czech wood with its teeth removed to hinder identification.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, India-based drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to start clinical trials of a pancreatitis drug in COVID-19 patients.
    (Reuters, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, Iran said its experts would continue nuclear development activities, despite sanctions imposed earlier this week on their fellow scientists by the United States.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, Iran announced its highest number of new coronavirus infections in nearly two months and warned the Middle East's deadliest outbreak was worsening in some regions. 2,819 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall total to 146,668. The virus claimed 50 lives over the same period, raising the overall toll to 7,677.
    (AFP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, In Iran unknown gunmen killed three Iranian border guards in a Kurdish area near the country's western border with Iraq. Several attackers were reported killed during the clash.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian after he attempted to run over them with his vehicle north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, Israeli archaeologists said they’ve found cannabis residue on artifacts from an ancient temple in southern Israel — providing the first evidence of the use of hallucinogenics in the ancient Jewish religion.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        May 29, Italy's civil protection agency reported 345 new coronavirus infections in the Lobardy region, bringing the total in the region to 88,500. This was about 40% of Italy's total.
    (SFC, 5/30/20, p.A5)
2020        May 29, In Kenya two children and an unborn child were killed in a police operation aimed at detaining a family member. Police confirmed the children’s deaths and asserted they were used as “human shields" by the man, whom they called a suspected Islamic extremist with an al-Qaida linked group. The suspect was killed.
    (AP, 5/30/20)
2020        May 29, Lebanon’s government agreed to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel for another year.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, The Maldives reported 1,513 coronavirus cases and five deaths as it began relaxing of restrictions imposed since mid-April.
    (SFC, 5/30/20, p.A5)
2020        May 29, New Zealand reached a milestone in its effort to end its coronavirus outbreak, with just one person in the nation of 5 million still known to be infected. The country has reported 22 COVID-19 deaths out of 1,504 infections.
    (The Week, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, In Nigeria nearly 9,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed as worries grew about undetected spread in the north.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, The Philippines reported 21 more novel coronavirus deaths and 1,046 additional infections. Total deaths rose to 942 while confirmed cases reached 16,634.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, Police in Moscow and St. Petersburg detained 25 people who came out to protest, in violation of city coronavirus restrictions, against the arrest of a prominent Russian journalist. The activists were protesting against the arrest of journalist Ilya Azar, who was sentenced to 15 days in jail the night before, also for holding a one-man protest amid the lockdown.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, Russian mining company Norilsk Nickel spilled more than 20,000 tons of oil into a river in the Arctic Circle. President Vladimir Putin soon declared a state of emergency and expressed anger that officials only learned about the spill two days after it happened.
    (Business Insider, 6/4/20)
2020        May 29, South Africa said it has a backlog of nearly 100,000 unprocessed tests for the coronavirus, a striking example of the painful shortage of testing kits and reagents across Africa as cases steadily rise. The country has the most confirmed cases in Africa with 27,403.
    (AP, 5/29/20)
2020        May 29, The UN Security Council approved a resolution extending for a year an arms embargo on South Sudan and a travel ban and financial sanctions for targeted individuals, with Russia, China and South Africa abstaining.
    (AP, 5/30/20)
2020        May 29, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the deaths of the first two UN peacekeepers from COVID-19. He made the announcement at a ceremony marking the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, saying both peacekeepers, who died over the last 24 hours, were serving in Mali. One was from Cambodia and the other from El Salvador.
    (AP, 5/30/20)(SSFC, 5/31/20, p.A7)

2020        May 30, NASA astronauts lifted off in a SpaceX capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket in the first launch into orbit from American soil with a crew since the space shuttles were retired in 2011. Two American astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, left the same Florida launchpad that once served Apollo missions.
    (NY Times, 5/31/20)
2020        May 30, A fourth day of violence in Los Angeles prompted Mayor Eric Garcetti to impose a rare citywide curfew and call in the National Guard after demonstrators clashed repeatedly with officers, torched police vehicles and pillaged businesses in a popular shopping district. Community leaders denounced the violence that has accompanied protests over the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020         May 30, California to date had 107,535 cases of coronavirus and 4,091 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,709 cases and 442 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,764,671 with the death toll at 103,605.
    (sfist.com, 5/30/20)
2020        May 30, In Florida what started out as a peaceful protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd turned violent late today as protesters hurled rocks and bottles at cops outside Miami police headquarters and set squad cars on fire. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez ordered a local state of emergency and a 10 p.m. curfew.
    (Miami Herald, 5/30/20)
2020        May 30, In Chicago demonstrations over the May 25 of George Floyd in Minneapolis started out peacefully, but gave way to violence and destruction around the city, prompting Mayor Lori Lightfoot to order a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew indefinitely and city officials to raise bridges to limit access to Chicago’s business core.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 30, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz acknowledged that he didn't have enough manpower to contain the chaos in Minneapolis. Walz said he was moving quickly to mobilize more than 1,000 more Guard members, for a total of 1,700, and was considering the potential offer of federal military police. Police, state troopers and National Guard members moved in soon after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect to break up demonstrations.
    (AP, 5/30/20)
2020        May 30, In Nebraska Jake Gardner (38), a white bar owner, shot and killed James Scurlock (22), a Black protester, on the second night of Black Lives Matter protests in Omaha. Within just 36 hours of the shooting, Douglas County prosecutor Don Kleine announced that criminal charges would not be filed, finding that Gardner — a 38-year-old ex-Marine with an expired concealed carry permit — had shot Scurlock in self-defense. The move met with backlash, fueling more protests. In September a grand jury voted to charge a bar owner Jake Gardner with manslaughter after the slaying outside of his establishment.
    (Yahoo News, 7/1/20)(The Grio, 9/16/20)
2020        May 30, In NYC British photographer Adam Gray (33) became one of the first members of the media to be arrested and charged for “unlawful assembly” while working at the George Floyd protests. After 8 hours in custody, in a large holding cell of 50 to 70 people at its fullest with zero social distancing, Gray was given a ticket for a court date on 10 September 2020.
    (The Independent, 6/1/20)
2020        May 30, US federal agents arrested Stephen Parshall and Andrew Lynam, along with a third man, William Loomis, before they allegedly planned to disrupt a Black Lives Matter protest in Las Vegas. The men were arrested by an FBI SWAT team while preparing Molotov cocktails in a parking lot near the site of another protest. Various other explosives and firearms were found in their cars. All three, who are white and have US military experience, “self-identified as part of the ‘boogaloo’ movement,” a disparate yet growing collection of extremists, including far-right militias, radical gun rights activists, white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
    (Yahoo News, 6/5/20)
2020        May 30, In Tennessee police in Nashville arrested 29 people after protesters set fires inside and outside the courthouse and toppled a statue of a former state lawmaker and newspaper publisher who espoused racist views. Protesters damaged 30 businesses. Wesley Somers (25) was among those arrested. He was charged with felony arson, vandalism and disorderly conduct for setting fire to the city's Historic Courthouse.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        May 30, Confederate monuments were defaced in Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Mississippi as protests swelled across the country over the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 30, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb attack in Kabul against a bus belonging to a local TV station killed two employees. Four other employees were wounded. The Islamic State soon took responsibility.
    (SFC, 6/1/20, p.A2)
2020        May 30, In Bangladesh the first death of a Rohingya refugee was recorded. At least 29 refugees have tested positive for the virus.
    (SFC, 6/3/20, p.A6)
2020        May 30, Brazil reported a record 33,274 new cases of the novel coronavirus. Brazil now has 498,440 confirmed cases, a level of contagion second only to the United States. The death increased to 28,834, with 956 new deaths in the last 24 hours.
    (Reuters, 5/30/20)
2020        May 30, In eastern Burkina Faso at least 20 people have been killed when gunmen stormed a cattle market in Kompienga town.
    (BBC, 5/31/20)
2020        May 30, Burundi has registered 42 cases of the coronavirus.
    (Econ., 5/30/20, p.39)
2020        May 30, The western European parties to the landmark nuclear deal with Iran criticized a US decision to end nearly all of the last vestiges of sanctions relief provided under the 2015 pact.
    (AP, 5/30/20)
2020        May 30, India registered another record jump with 7,964 coronavirus cases and 265 deaths. Total cases now stand at 173,763 with 4,971 deaths.
    (SSFC, 5/31/20, p.A7)
2020        May 30, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani announced that collective prayers will resume in mosques. A further 57 people who tested positive for the virus died over the last day, taking the total confirmed death toll to 7,734. The health ministry announced 2,282 new confirmed infections, taking the total number of declared infections since February to 148,950.
    (AP, 5/30/20)
2020        May 30, Israeli police shot dead Iyad Halak (32), a Palestinian near Jerusalem's Old City, who they had suspected was carrying a weapon but turned out to be unarmed. Halak was mentally disabled and was heading to a nearby school for people with special needs. Security cameras in the closely monitored area were later said not to have been operating properly at the time of the shooting. In 2021 the border police officer who shot Halak was charged with reckless manslaughter.
    (AP, 5/30/20)(AP, 7/14/20)(AP, 6/17/21)
2020        May 30, It was reported that a fossilized millipede-like creature discovered in Scotland may represent the oldest-known land animal, a humble pioneer of terrestrial living 425 million years ago. Researchers said the fossil of the Silurian Period creature, called Kampecaris obanensis and unearthed on the island of Kerrera in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, inhabited a lakeside environment and likely ate decomposing plants.
    (Reuters, 5/30/20)
2020        May 30, Slovakia has recorded 1,513 cases of the coronavirus and 28 deaths.
    (Econ., 5/30/20, p.44)
2020        May 30, South Korea reported 39 new cases of the coronavirus. South Korea has confirmed 11,441 cases and 269 deaths.
    (SSFC, 5/31/20, p.A7)
2020        May 30, Taiwan's government said it had approved Gilead Sciences' potential COVID-19 treatment, remdesivir, to treat the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 5/30/20)

2020        May 31, Pres. Donald Trump in tweets accused anarchists and the media of fueling violence. Trump said he will designate Antifa as a terrorist organization. Attorney General William Barr pointed a finger at “far left extremist” groups. Police chiefs and politicians accused outsiders of causing the problems. At the White House, the scene of three days of demonstrations, police fired tear gas and stun grenades into a crowd of more than 1,000 chanting protesters across the street in Lafayette Park. The district's entire National Guard, roughly 1,700 soldiers, was called in to help control the protests.
    (AP, 6/1/20)(SFC, 6/1/20, p.A4)
2020        May 31, Downtown Washington, D.C., was filled with flames and broken glass in the early hours as large groups of protesters moved through the city for the second straight night.
    (Yahoo News, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, Demonstrations across the US descended into violence again. Protesters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police in Philadelphia and were hit with tear gas and pepper spray in Austin, Texas, and other cities. Seven Boston police officers were hospitalized. In Indianapolis, two people were reported dead in bursts of downtown violence over the weekend, adding to deaths recorded in Detroit and Minneapolis.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        May 31, In Alabama three women and four men were found shot dead in a home set on fire in what police described as a “horrific” scene in Morgan County. The incident was being treated as a homicide.
    (The Independent, 6/5/20)(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A4)
2020        May 31, San Francisco police officers seized firearms and explosives and arrested at least 80 people late today on violating a curfew and looting charges.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020         May 31, California to date had 111,893 cases of coronavirus and 4,171 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 13,926 cases and 444 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,788,762 with the death toll at 104,356.
    (sfist.com, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, In Florida a “large mob” ransacked a Walmart near the suburban city of Greenacres late today, stole thousands of dollars of merchandise and caused thousands of dollars of damage. Eight people were later arrested, including three minors.
    (Miami Herald, 6/3/20)
2020        May 31, Atlanta's Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said two police officers have been fired and three others placed on desk duty over excessive use of force during a protest arrest incident involving two college students.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, In Indiana overnight shootings in Indianapolis left two people dead.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota activated thousands of National Guard troops — up to 13,200 — to control protesters in Minneapolis who turned out in droves for the fifth night in a row. He declined the Army’s offer of military police.
    (NY Times, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, In NYC cleanup was underway following scattered clashes between police and protesters over the May killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Police said 345 people were arrested, 33 officers were injured and 27 police vehicles were damaged.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, South Dakota Gov. Governor Kristi Noem activated the National Guard after protests in Sioux Fall turned violent over the death of George Floyd.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        May 31, In Wisconsin hundreds of volunteers gathered early today in downtown Madison to clean up damage from a night of violence that included setting a police squad car on fire, looting and breaking windows at dozens of stores and an art museum. 15 people were arrested after a second night of violence erupted late today in Madison, with police firing tear gas as protesters again threw rocks and damaged store downtown stores following an afternoon peaceful protest over the death of George Floyd.
    (AP, 5/31/20)(AP, 6/1/20)
2020        May 31, SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA. The SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked automatically.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, Australia continued easing COVID-19 restrictions as infections totaled 7,180 with 103 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/1/20, p.A5)
2020        May 31, Belarus human rights group Vesna said more than 30 people have been detained in recent days amid demonstrations against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is running for another term. Those detained included Nikolai Statkevich, one of Belarus’ most prominent opposition figures, and popular opposition blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, Thousands gathered in central London to offer support for American demonstrators. Chanting "No justice! No peace!" and waving placards with the words “How many more?” at Trafalgar Square, the protesters ignored UK government rules banning crowds because of the pandemic. Police didn't stop them.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, Authorities in Bogota, Colombia, began locking down an area of nearly 1.5 million people as coronavirus cases continued to rise.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, The Egyptian military said it killed at least 19 militants in raids and airstrikes last week against an Islamic insurgency in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. The clashes also left at least five casualties among its troops. The Sinai affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, Tropical Storm Amanda pounded El Salvador with rain for days before moving ashore as a tropical storm and pushing across Guatemala. The storm left at least 17 dead and seven missing while causing extensive damage across El Salvador and Guatemala that pushed thousands of people into shelters amid the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        May 31, India reported more than 8,000 new coses of the coronavirus. Confirmed infections have now reached 182,143, with 5,164 fatalities.
    (SFC, 6/1/20, p.A5)
2020        May 31, In Iran 2,516 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 151,466. The virus claimed another 63 lives over the same period, raising the overall toll to 7,797.
    (AFP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, Libya’s eastern-based forces retook the key town of al-Asabaa from militias allied with the UN-supported government. Growing foreign intervention in the conflict appeared to move the Libyan war into a new phase. Khalifa Hifter's eastern-based forces are backed by the UAE, Egypt and Russia, while the Tripoli-allied militias are aided by Turkey, Qatar and Italy.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        May 31, In western Niger dozens of armed men on motorcycles have attacked Intikane, a town that has been hosting 35,000 displaced people, killing three and cutting off the community's water supply. The authors said the discovery from an 8th-century BC shrine at Tel Arad offers the first proof for “the use of mind-altering substances as part of cultic rituals in Judah,” including the first Jewish Temple that stood in Jerusalem at the same time.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        May 31, In Pakistan Hassan Sidiqui and his wife reportedly beat to death their 8-year-old maid after she opened a cage to feed parrots and the birds flew away. The couple were soon arrested and a probe into the girl's death was opened by the state'ws human rights minister.
    (SFC, 6/6/20, p.A2)
2020        May 31, Pakistan's daily death toll from COVID-19 kept climbing, hitting a new high of 88 overnight putting the death toll at 1,483. The country has counted 69,496 positive cases of COVID-19.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, Tens of thousands of mosques across Saudi Arabia reopened for the first time in more than two months, with worshipers ordered to follow strict guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Islam's holiest site in Mecca remained closed to the public. Saudi Arabia also lifted a ban on domestic air travel and permitted some public sector workers to resume office work again, though full attendance will not be allowed until mid-June.
    (AP, 5/31/20)
2020        May 31, South Korea reported 27 new cases of the coronavirus as the government pushed to allow businesses to access vast amounts of personal information and to ease restrictions holding back emerging technologies.
    (SFC, 6/1/20, p.A5)
2020        May 31, Spain's PM Pedro Sánchez said that he would ask Parliament for a final two-week extension of the nation’s state of emergency that is set to expire on June 7. That allows the government to keep ordering lockdown measures to control its coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed at least 27,000 lives.
    (AP, 5/31/20)

2020        May, ATSG-owned charter airline company, Omni Air, secured a $67 million bailout as part of the US congressional coronavirus relief package. That came on the heels of a $77.65 million contract with the Department of Defense for “international charter airlift services.” ATSG donates exclusively to Republican candidates through its political action committee. When ATSG released its first-quarter earnings, it noted that “revenues were up 12 percent, or $41.1 million, to $389.3 million.” The increased revenue was the result “mainly from growth in Omni Air” and another subsidiary, Air Transport International.
    (Yahoo News, 6/23/20)
2020        May, Facebook unveiled a new oversight board which will act as its "supreme court." It will hear appeals and monitor government websites for incitement.
    (Econ., 7/4/20, p.42)
2020        May, Facebook agreed to pay $52 million to 11,250 moderators who developed post-traumatic stress disorder from looking at the worst of the internet.
    (Econ., 10/24/20, p.19)
2020        May, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd, one of Bangladesh's largest drug makers, became the first company in the world to introduce a generic variant of Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir.
    (Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020        May, Charles R. Saunders (73), copy editor and writer for The Daily News of Halifax, died in Nova Scotia. Saunders had reimagined the white worlds of Tarzan and Conan with Black heroes and African mythologies in books that spoke especially to Black fans eager for more fictional champions with whom they could identify. His first novel, “Imaro,” was published in 1981.
    (NY Times, 1/21/21)
2020        May, Two Chinese nuns who work at a mission in Hong Kong were arrested by mainland authorities during a visit home to Hebei province. The Vatican operates the unofficial diplomatic mission in Hong Kong, its only political outpost of any kind in China.
    (Reuters, 12/30/20)
2020        May, In eastern Congo DRC gold was found in Luhihi, sparking a rush by artisan miners.
    (Econ., 12/19/20, p.80)
2020        May, The IMF approved an additional $643 million emergency loan to Ecuador.
    (Econ., 7/4/20, p.27)
2020        May, This was the warmest May on record worldwide according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. The level of atmospheric carbon dioxide reached a record high this month even as shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp decline in greenhouse gas emissions.
    (SSFC, 6/14/20, p.B8)
2020        May, India police and soldiers were filmed ransacking a village in northern Kashmir, where they beat men and women, looted stores and burned goods on the street.
    (Econ., 9/12/20, p.31)
2020        May, Iran's parliament approved a plan to lop four zeroes off banknotes.
    (Econ., 10/10/20, p.39)
2020        May, Iran arrested French tourist Benjamin Berier for taking pictures in a desert area where photography is prohibited. In 2021 he was charged and indicted with spying and spreading propaganda against the system.
    (AP, 3/15/21)(AP, 5/30/21)
2020        May, In Kenya more than 100 people arriving from Tanzania tested positive for coronavirus and were sent back. At Ugandan border testing points, at least 15 Tanzanian lorry drivers tested positive. The authorities in Tanzania have not released official figures on the extent of the outbreak there since the start of May.
    (BBC, 6/19/20)
2020        May, Aguila Saleh Issa (b.1944), the speaker of Libya's parliament, declared himself commander-in-chief of the Libyan National Army (LNA).
    (Econ., 6/13/20, p.38)
2020        May, Tanzania's high court declared that it was unconstitutional to deny people bail automatically. On August 5 the country's Court of Appeal overturned the ruling.
    (Econ., 8/15/20, p.44)

2020        Jun 1, In Washington, DC, police violently broke up a peaceful and legal protest by several thousands in Lafayette Park across from the White House ahead of a Trump speech in the Rose Garden. Trump's following photo op at St. John's Church, a house of worship known as the Church of the Presidents, was condemned by Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. The death toll from the unrest across the country rose to at least nine. The Secret Service later admitted that pepper spray was used to clear protesters from Lafayette Park. In 2021 an internal government investigation determined that the decision to forcibly clear racial justice protesters from the area was not influenced by then-President Donald Trump's plan to stage a Bible-toting photo opportunity at that spot. The report concluded that the protesters were cleared by US Park Police last June 1 so that a contractor could get started installing new fencing.
    (AP, 6/1/20)(AP, 6/2/20)(SFC, 6/15/20, p.A4)(AP, 6/9/21)
2020        Jun 1, The US EPA announced that it had limited state's ability to block the construction of energy infrastructure projects.
    (SFC, 6/2/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 1, US Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan stepped down as the first head of the Joint AI Center. JAIC, formed in 2018, is the Department of Defense’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center of Excellence that provides a critical mass of expertise to help the Department harness the game-changing power of AI.
    (https://tinyurl.com/ybb7fxe6)(Econ., 5/30/20, p.57)
2020        Jun 1, The Florida Keys reopened after the island chain was closed for more than two months to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 6/2/20, p.A5)
2020        Jun 1, Two people were killed during unrest in the Chicago suburb of Cicero amid protests there.
    (AP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 1, In Kentucky police officers and National Guard soldiers enforcing a curfew in Louisville, killed a man early today when they returned fire after someone in a large group shot at them first. The mayor of Louisville fired the city’s police chief after David McAtee (53), the owner of a local barbecue restaurant, was killed when police officers and National Guard troops shot toward protesters.
    (AP, 6/1/20)(NY Times, 6/2/20)(AP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 1, Police Officer Shay Mikalonis was shot in the head during a Las Vegas Strip protest of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He was paralyzed from the neck down, on a ventilator and unable to speak. Prosecutors later charged Edgar Samaniego (20) with deliberately shooting Mikalonis during the protest.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 1, In New York an SUV carrying two people who had been shot plowed through a group of law enforcement at a George Floyd demonstration late today in Buffalo, injuring at least two officers.
    (AP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 1, In NYC nonviolent protests were punctuated late today by people smashing shop windows near Rockefeller Center and breaching the doors of Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street, littering the pavement with broken glass. In 2021 charges dropped for hundreds of alleged looters.
    (AP, 6/2/20)(NBC News, 6/18/21)
2020        Jun 1, In Manhattan Bruce Bagley (74), a University of Miami professor, pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering. Bagley blamed Jorge Luis Hernandez, a controversial law enforcement informant, for his career-ending decision to try and hide $3 million in proceeds from a corruption scheme run by Alex Saab, a Miami businessman connected to Venezuela’s socialist government.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        Jun 1, In New Mexico a protest along the historic Route 66 into downtown Albuquerque turned violent early today after police reported demonstrators setting small fires and officers say they were fired upon.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        Jun 1, In North Dakota a shooting early today left two airmen dead at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. No one else was involved in the two fatalities.
    (AP, 6/1/20)(SFC, 6/3/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 1, Abiomed Inc said the US Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for its temporary invasive heart pump to help patients suffering from COVID-19 related right heart failure. It was approved for use in the United States for treating right ventricular failure after cardiac surgery in 2017.
    (Reuters, 6/1/20)
2020        Jun 1, The World Health Organization said officials have confirmed a second Ebola outbreak in Congo. Congolese health authorities have identified six cases in the north near Mbandaka in Equateur province, including four fatalities. Congo has also confirmed 611 cases of COVID-19, including 20 deaths, and the number was rising.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        Jun 1, India registered 230 coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing that total to 5,394.
    (SFC, 6/2/20, p.A3)
2020        Jun 1, Iran announced almost 3,000 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily count in two months. The caseload was raised to 154,445 with 2,979 new infections recorded in the past 24 hours. 81 deaths in the past day raised that total to 7,878. Half Iran's fatalities for the past day were recorded in three provinces.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        Jun 1, In Japan anti-harassment legislation went into effect requiring firms to have clear policies in palce and to create internal systems for reporting and verifying claims of abuse. Complaints of power harassment, aka pawahara, had been growing in recent years.
    (Econ., 6/13/20, p.53)
2020        Jun 1, In Kenya residents of a slum in Nairobi protested the death of James Mureithi (51), a homeless man, who they said was killed by police for violating a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the coronavirus.
    (AP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 1, Several thousand people marched in New Zealand's largest city to protest the killing of George Floyd in the US as well as to stand up against police violence and racism in their own country.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        Jun 1, The Philippine health ministry reported three new deaths and 552 more confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Total deaths increased to 960 and confirmed cases reached 18,638 as the government eased strict quarantine measures in Manila.
    (Reuters, 6/1/20)
2020        Jun 1, Moscow residents ventured out to exercise, stroll and shop as the city eased a strict nine-week lockdown, but millions remained largely confined to their homes as Russia recorded thousands more coronavirus cases. Russia recorded 9,035 new infections bringing its total to 414,878. The death toll was put at 4,855.
    (AFP, 6/1/20)
2020        Jun 1, Singapore announced plans to build lower-density dormitories for some 100,000 migrant workers. Nearly all of its COVID-19 cases have been among migrant workers.
    (Econ., 6/20/20, p.31)
2020        Jun 1, In South Africa long queues formed outside shops selling alcohol after restrictions on its sale, imposed two months ago as part of measures to fight Covid-19, were lifted.
    (BBC, 6/1/20)
2020        Jun 1, South Korea reporter 24 new coronavirus cases linked to a group of churches near Seoul. The country has reported 11,503 cases and 271 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/2/20, p.A3)
2020        Jun 1, South Korea-based Celltrion said its experimental antibody COVID-19 treatment demonstrated an up to 100-fold reduction in viral load of the disease in animal testing, saying it aims to start human clinical trials in late July.
    (AP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 1, Spain recorded 71 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours and no officials deaths from the virus. The official death toll stands at 27,127 with 240,000 confirmed cases.
    (SFC, 6/2/20, p.A3)
2020        Jun 1, Rafiki, one of Uganda's best known mountain gorillas, went missing. His body was discovered by a search party the following day. The silverback, believed to be around 25-years-old when he died in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, was the leader of a group of 17 mountain gorillas. Four men were expected to be charged under a wildlife protection law that was passed last year. In late July Felix Byamukama pleaded guilty to illegally entering a protected area and killing the gorilla and was jailed for 11 years.
    (BBC, 6/12/20)(BBC, 7/30/20)
2020        Jun 1, The United Arab Emirates called on Israel to halt a plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, joining a long list of Arab nations that have condemned the expected Israeli move.
    (AP, 6/1/20)
2020        Jun 1, Uruguay's government began reopening schools, with sample testing for COVID-19 of teachers and students.
    (Econ., 6/20/20, p.28)
2020        Jun 1, Aid organizations in war-torn Yemen made an urgent plea for funding to shore up their operations, saying they have already been forced to stop some of their work even as the coronavirus rips through the country.
    (AP, 6/1/20)

2020        Jun 2, President Donald Trump said he is seeking a new state to host this summer’s Republican National Convention after North Carolina refused to guarantee the event could be held in Charlotte without public health restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, A top immigration official for the Trump administration admitted that immigrants are not systematically tested for the coronavirus when they are apprehended, nor when they are removed from the United States.
    (Yahoo News, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, The US Commerce Department said it was opening an investigation into whether imports of vanadium, a metal used in aerospace, defense and energy applications, impair US national security.
    (Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, Nine US states held primary elections. Joe Biden and President Donald Trump easily swept their respective primary contests.
    (AP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, In Alabama police Sgt. Stephen Williams (50) was fatally shot late today when responding to a call at a Super 8 motel in Moody. Two people were arrested.
    (AP, 6/2/20)
2020          Jun 2, California to date had 117,214 cases of coronavirus and 4,305 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 14,342 cases and 449 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,830,066 with the death toll at 106,120.
    (sfist.com, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, In Missouri David Dorn (77), a former police captain, was shot and killed outside of a friend's pawn shop in St. Louis early today, during unrest in the city over George Floyd's death. The pawn shop was looted.
    (NBC News, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 2, In Philadelphia Joe Biden blistered President Donald Trump a day after police drove back peaceful protesters near the White House so Trump could pose with a Bible before a damaged church.
    (AP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, US drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb Co said its treatment Zeposia, which it gained through its $74 billion buyout of Celgene last year, met the main goals of a late-stage study testing it in patients with an inflammatory bowel disease.
    (Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, Bank of America Corp pledged $1 billion to help communities across the country address economic and racial inequality, the first big bank to vow monetary support following violent protests after the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
    (Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, Crypto intelligence company CipherTrace, which started tracking cryptocurrency crime a few years ago, said it has started to see coronavirus-related frauds that require some form of digital currency payment.
    (Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, In France riot police fired volleys of tear gas at Paris protesters, who assembled at the city’s main courthouse despite a coronavirus-related ban on protests. And it wasn't just Floyd: the crowd also paid homage to Adama Traore, a French black man who died in police custody.
    (AP, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 2, High-flying shares in Novacyt dropped as much as 12% after the healthcare diagnostics firm said a French regulator had decided against approving the company's coronavirus test for reimbursement by the state.
    (Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, Authorities in India said three mudslides triggered by overnight rains in Assam state killed 20 people.
    (SFC, 6/3/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 2, Iran reported 3,117 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours bringing the overall caseload to 157,562. The virus claimed another 64 lives in the past day, raising the overall death toll to 7,942. The health ministry lamented that people were ignoring social distancing rules.
    (AFP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, Iranian scientist Sirous Asgari (59) departed the United States after being released from prison on a return flight to the Islamic republic. Both Iran and the United States hold a number of each other's nationals and they have recently called for them to be released amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
    (AFP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike issued a coronavirus alert after 34 new cases were reported in the city, where infections had slowed to a few per day in late May.
    (AP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, Japan approved saliva-based tests for the coronavirus, offering a safer, simpler way to diagnose infection than nasal swabs as it looks to boost its testing rates.
    (Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, The board of governors of the 55-year-old US and the African Development Bank met to discuss whether to bring in an outside investigator into the allegations concerning the conduct of Akinwumi Adesina, the head of the Nigerian branch of the AfDB, just days after the US rejected an initial inquiry that cleared him. Besides the core 54 African countries, the US is one of the 27 non-regional members of the AfDB and its second largest shareholder.
    (BBC, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, President Vladimir Putin endorsed Russia's nuclear deterrent policy which allows him to use atomic weapons in response to a conventional strike targeting the nation's critical government and military infrastructure.
    (AP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, A Russian court committed to a mental asylum Alexander Gabyshev, a Siberian shaman critical of Vladimir Putin, a move rights groups condemned as a repressive move to silence a dissenter. Last year Gabyshev set out three times to walk from his home in Yakutsk to the Kremlin to "banish" the Russian president.
    (AFP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, In Turkey prosecutors in Istanbul issued warrants for the detention of 118 military personnel over their suspected links to a US-based Muslim cleric as authorities pressed ahead with a crackdown on a network Turkey blames for a failed coup attempt in 2016. 72 of the suspects were detained in simultaneous raids in 35 provinces. Police searched for 46 other suspects.
    (AP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, The United Nations' Libya mission (UNSMIL) said the country's warring parties had agreed to restart talks aimed at reaching a lasting ceasefire, after a three-month suspension.
    (AFP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, The UN raised only around half the required $2.41 billion in humanitarian aid for Yemen, ravaged by war and coronavirus, at a donor conference co-hosted by Saudi Arabia in the sixth year of its military intervention.
    (AFP, 6/2/20)
2020        Jun 2, Yemeni journalist Nabil al-Quaety (34) was shot dead outside his home in Aden’s Dar Saad district.
    (AP, 6/2/20)

2020        Jun 3, The Trump administration moved to block Chinese airlines from flying to the US starting June 16. This followed China's failure to allow United and Delta Airlines to resume flights this week to China.
    (SFC, 6/4/20, p.A3)
2020        Jun 3, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper overturned an earlier Pentagon decision to send a couple hundred active-duty soldiers home from the Washington, D.C., region.
    (AP, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, Former defense secretary Jim Mattis denounced President Donald Trump's heavy-handed use of military force to quell protests near the White House and said his former boss was setting up a “false conflict" between the military and civilian society.
    (AP, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, Sean Monterrosa (22) of San Francisco, was outside a Walgreens in Vallejo, California, shortly early today when police responded to a report the store was being looted. An officer in a police vehicle shot him five times through the windshield, striking him once. Monterrosa soon died of his injuries at a local hospital.
    (NBC News, 6/4/20)
2020          Jun 3, California to date had 119,228 cases of coronavirus and 4,377 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 14,486 cases and 453 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,849,560 with the death toll at 107,093.
    (sfist.com, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, In Michigan Gary Jones (63), the former president of the United Auto Workers Union, pleaded guilty to embezzling union funds to pay for vacations, liquor and other personal luxuries.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 3, Minnesota charged three officers with aiding and abetting murder in the death of George Floyd. The state also upgraded to second-degree murder the charge against Derek Chauvin, who pinned his knee on Floyd’s neck. The tougher charge requires prosecutors to prove Chauvin intended to kill Floyd or that he did so while committing another felony. Protests across the country were still big, but largely peaceful, and most police forces kept a mainly hands-off policy, even after curfews took effect.
    (NY Times, 6/4/20)(AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 3, A New York City police officer on an anti-looting patrol was ambushed in Brooklyn late today by a man who walked up behind him and stabbed him in the neck, setting off a struggle in which the assailant was shot and two other officers suffered gunshot injuries to their hands.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 3, It was reported that Nicholas DiMarzio, the Roman Catholic bishop of Brooklyn, has been accused by a second man of abuse in the 1970s, when the bishop was a parish priest in New Jersey. DiMarzio was already under a church investigation for alleged sex abuse. DiMarzio has denied both allegations.
    (AP, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, Philadelphia took down a statue of former mayor Frank Rizzo, who aggresively policed black and gay people in the 1960s and 1970s. Mayor Jim Kenney said the statue, unveiled in 1999, represented bigotry, hatred and oppression for too many people for too long.
    (SFC, 6/4/20, p.A3)
2020        Jun 3, Authorities said explosions have hit 50 cash machines in and near Philadelphia since the weekend in a coordinated effort to steal them or take the money inside. Authorities also said Talib Crump (25) has been taken into custody during an undercover buy. His vehicle was found to have enough dynamite to blow up at least four more ATMs. One man (24) died a day earlier hours after he tried to break into an ATM.
    (AP, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, In Afghanistan a roadside bombing killed nine passengers traveling on a bus in Kandahar province.
    (SFC, 6/4/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 3, Afghanistan has recorded 16,400 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 270 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/3/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 3, Thousands of protesters gathered in London’s Hyde Park to demonstrate against police violence and racial injustice following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which has set off days of unrest in the United States.
    (AP, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, In eastern CongoDRC 16 civilians, five of them children, were killed overnight in a fresh massacre in Ituri province.
    (AFP, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, It was reported that poachers in Ethiopia killed at least six elephants in a single day last week. In the 1970s Ethiopia had more than 10,000 elephants, but poaching and habitat degradation have reduced the number to about 2,500 to 3,000.
    (SFC, 6/3/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 3, French forces killed Abdelmalek Droukdel, the Algerian leader of al-Qaeda in north Africa, along with members of his inner circle in an operation in Mali.
    (BBC, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 3, Germany's ruling coalition agreed to a new, 130 billion stimulus plan to help the economy recover from a pandemic-induced recession this year.
    (Reuters, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 3, Iran officially confirmed 3,134 new cases, bringing the total number of infections to 160,696. Another 70 people have died taking the death toll to 8,012. Infections have been on a rising trajectory in the Islamic republic since hitting a near two-month low on May 2.
    (AFP, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, It was reported that researchers at Japan's Shinshu Univ. have successfully split water into hydrogen and oxygen using light and newly developed catalysts that achieve almost 100% efficiency.
    (https://tinyurl.com/ybxrxo6s)
2020        Jun 3, Kosovo’s parliament elected a new government with PM Avdullah Hoti promising to reach a deal on normalizing ties with Serbia that would enable it to get a UN seat. Hoti was voted for by 61 deputies in the country’s 120-seat parliament after weeks of legal wrangling.
    (The Telegraph, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, Lebanese PM Hassan Diab said Israel violated Lebanon's sovereignty by land, sea and air over 1,000 times in the last five months.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 3, Lebanon has recorded a total 1,256 cases of COVID-19 and 27 deaths. The first confirmed case was reported on February 21 among a group who flew in from a pilgrimage in hard-hit Iran.
    (AFP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 3, Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) regained full control of Tripoli after recapturing the capital's airport.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 3, Dutch broadcaster RTL reported that the government intends to cull the mink at farms where animals have been infected with the coronavirus. Coronavirus has so far been detected on eight farms in the Netherlands. A law banning mink farming in the Netherlands was passed in 2013, and the remaining 120 farms are due to cease operations in 2023.
    (Reuters, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, In northern Norway a powerful landslide near the town of Alta swept eight houses into the sea.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 3, A South African court has found some coronavirus lockdown regulations imposed by the government "unconstitutional and invalid". The judge picked out rules around funerals, informal workers and amount of exercise as "irrational". The government was given 14 days to overhaul the regulations.
    (BBC, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, South Korea reported 49 new cases of COVID-19 bringing the national total to 11,590 and 273 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/4/20, p.A5)
2020        Jun 3, Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who has overseen the country’s laissez-faire response to the coronavirus, defended the country's coronavirus strategy but acknowledged that the country has had too many deaths from Covid-19 and should have done more to curb the spread of the virus.
    (NY Times, 6/4/20)(SFC, 6/4/20, p.A5)
2020        Jun 3, The Syrian government condemned a new wave of US sanctions against the country, calling the measures “economic terrorism” that will increase the suffering of the Syrian people. A Foreign Ministry statement said Washington's so-called Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, which goes into effect this month, is based on “lies and fabricated claims by enemies of the Syrian people.” Caesar is a code name for a Syrian forensic photographer who took thousands of photographs of victims of torture and other abuses between 2011 and 2013 and smuggled them out of the country.
    (AP, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, In northwestern Syria Russian warplanes early today carried out the first airstrikes in three months on the last remaining rebel stronghold. There was no immediate word on any casualties.
    (AP, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, In Turkmenistan thousands of tracksuit-wearing officials were brought along for a ride as eccentric leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov (62) spearheaded a cycling parade to mark World Bicycle Day. World Bicycle Day was recognized by the UN in 2018 following a proposal by Turkmenistan.
    (AFP, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, Uganda has reported 507 cases of COVID-19 with no deaths. Medical workers say they lack adequate supplies of personal protective equipment for tackling COVID-19 and the risk of infection is making some reluctant to treat patients. Seven health workers including two doctors and two nurses have recently contracted the virus.   
    (Reuters, 6/3/20)
2020        Jun 3, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted two resolutions to create a mission in Sudan to support the country's political transition and extend the mandate of peacekeepers in Darfur.
    (AFP, 6/3/20)

2020        Jun 4, The Trump administration, in twin actions to curb environmental regulations, moved to temporarily speed the construction of energy projects and to permanently weaken federal authority to issue stringent clean air and climate change rules.
    (NY Times, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 4, Michael White, a US Navy veteran detained in Iran for nearly two years, was released and is on his way home aboard a Swiss government aircraft.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, US federal court documents released early today showed that Alaska man Kenneth Zong, accused of laundering $1 billion held in South Korea for Iran, funneled nearly all the money through the United Arab Emirates. Zong allegedly created fake invoices to help Iran draw cash held by South Korea in lieu of payment for oil shipments.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, Google reported that Chinese hackers are targeting the personal email accounts of campaign staff members working for former Vice President Joe Biden, and confirmed previous reports that Iran has targeted President Donald Trump’s campaign.
    (NY Times, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 4, Arizona reported nearly a 1,000 new coronavirus cases amid a recent surge in hospitalizations. The state now has tallied more than 22,000 and 981 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/5/20, p.A8)
2020          Jun 4, California to date had 122,238 cases of coronavirus and 4,444 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 14,735 cases and 453 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,870,156 with the death toll at 108,051.
    (sfist.com, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, Federal inmate Jamel Floyd (35) lost consciousness after corrections officers pepper-sprayed him at a Brooklyn detention center. Floyd had barricaded himself inside his cell and used a metal object to break the cell-door window. Floyd had arrived at the federal detention facility on Oct. 30, 2019. He was serving a 15-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him of burglary and other charges in connection with a 2007 violent home invasion in Long Island, N.Y.
    (NBC News, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 4, In New York two members of the Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response Team were suspended without pay and were being investigated after a local radio station released video of officers shoving Martin Gugino, an elderly protestor, to the ground at a march against racism. Gugino remained in a hospital intensive care unit. All 57 members of a police tactical unit in Buffalo soon resigned from that team to protest the suspension of two colleagues who were filmed shoving a 75-year-old man to the ground.
    (Reuters, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 4, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced his decision to remove  a large statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue in Richmond, ten days following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. An 1890 deed had transferred the statue, pedestal and land they sit on to the state. In 2021 the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the state can take down the statue.
    (SFC, 9/3/21, p.A7)
2020        Jun 4, Powerball lottery officials said a ticket worth more than $136 million has been sold at a Go Mart in Hinton, West Virginia.
    (SFC, 6/5/20, p.A5)
2020        Jun 4, An influential medical journal article that found hydroxychloroquine increased the risk of death in COVID-19 patients was retracted, adding to the controversy around a drug championed by US President Donald Trump. The observational study published in the Lancet on May 22 said it looked at 96,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, some treated with the decades-old malaria drug.
    (Reuters, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, Brazil recorded a record 1,473 coronavirus fatalities taking its total tally to more than 34,000. The official number of infections rose to nearly 615,000, second only to the US.
    (The Guardian, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, In East London two men were shot in broad daylight as they drove through Barking, a stronghold of the Hellbanianz, a notorious Albanian crime group. This followed the murders of five Albanians in the past year as Albanian gangs tighten their grip on the UK cocaine market.
    (The Telegraph, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 4, Rupert Hine, a prolific English producer and songwriter, died at his home in Wiltshire, England. He thrived in the synth-pop heyday of the 1980s making hits with Tina Turner, the Fixx and Howard Jones.
    (NY Times, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 4, It was reported that violence in Burkina Faso linked to jihadists has spread from the north to the western breadbasket in the Boucle du Mouhoun region. Reports were rising of jihadists burning granaries and looting food warehouses at schools. Burkina Faso has reported 884 cases of the coronavirus and 53 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/4/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 4, Burundi's constitutional court upheld the results of last month's presidential election and rejected complaints by opposition leader Agathon Rwasa. The court upheld the win of ruling party candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye with 68% of the vote. Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza will have the title "Supreme Guide" after he steps down.
    (SFC, 6/5/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 4, In Cambodia armed men snatched Thai dissident Wanchalearm Satsaksit (37) in front of his apartment in Phnom Penh. Wanchalearm was among 29 exiled Thai activists accused of violating Thailand’s lese majeste law, officially Section 112 of the Criminal Code. He fled Thailand after the coup in 2014, but had been summoned by the military before he fled.
    (https://tinyurl.com/yav37vwe)(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 4, Danish citizen Amir Faten Mekky (23), allegedly involved in gang-related crime in southern Sweden, and killings and explosions in Spain, was arrested in Dubai. Mekky was also wanted for two contract killings and several explosions in Spain where he allegedly leads a gang known as “Los Suecos” — Spanish for the Swedes.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 4, The European Central Bank approved a bigger-than-expected expansion of its stimulus package to prop up an economy plunged by the coronavirus pandemic into its worst recession since World War Two.
    (Reuters, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, Hong Kong’s legislature approved a contentious bill that makes it illegal to insult the Chinese national anthem. It passed with 41 lawmakers voting for it and just one voting against. Most of the pro-democracy lawmakers boycotted the vote out of protest.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, Thousands of people in Hong Kong defied a police ban this evening, breaking through barricades to hold a candlelight vigil on the 31st anniversary of China's crushing of a democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, India registered 9,304 new cases of the coronavirus raising its totals to 216,919 cases and 6,075 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/5/20, p.A7)
2020        Jun 4, The Iranian cargo ship Behbahan sank in Iraqi waters, and at least one crew member was dead and two others missing. The vessel was loaded with construction materials and ceramics.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 4, Iran announced 3,574 new coronavirus infections, the most in one day since the pandemic started. Authorities increase health warnings following the resurgence. 59 people died of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, taking the overall official toll to 8,071. A total of 164,270 people have tested positive for the virus since the first cases were announced in February.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, In Lebanon dozens of domestic workers gathered outside the Ethiopian Consulate in Beirut, some inquiring about flights home, others stranded after they were abandoned by employers who claimed they could no longer afford to pay their salaries.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, Protests erupted in Mexico against police brutality in the second-largest city, Guadalajara, calling for authorities to be held accountable for the May 4 death of Giovanni Lopez, allegedly arrested for not wearing a face mask.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 4, The Mexican Ministry of Health registered a record 1,092 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, more than double the previous single-day record. The nation's official death toll now stands at 11,729.
    (Good Morning America, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, Tropical Storm Cristobal weakened to a tropical depression as it move from Mexico's Gulf coast toward the Guatemala border. The storm has caused one death in Mexico and five in El Salvador.
    (SFC, 6/5/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 4, The Pakistani government registered 4,688 new cases of COVID-19 and 82 new fatalities across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 85,264 confirmed cases and 1,770 deaths.
    (Good Morning America, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, Russia's coronavirus headquarters said it had registered 8,831 new cases of COVID-19 and 169 deaths in the past 24 hours. The country's tally now stands at 441,108 diagnosed cases with 5,384 deaths.
    (Good Morning America, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, South Korea said it planned to push new laws to ban activists from flying anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border after North Korea threatened to end an inter-Korean military agreement reached in 2018 to reduce tensions if Seoul fails to prevent the protests.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, Syrian air defenses responded to an Israeli attack near a central town that caused explosions and a large fire near the town of Masyaf in the Hama countryside.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, Turkey’s parliament stripped three opposition party deputies of their legislative seats, setting off a raucous protest inside the assembly hall by colleagues who accused the ruling party of an assault on democracy.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, The UN human rights office called on the Philippine government in a new report to end all violence targeting suspected drug offenders and to disband private and state-backed paramilitary groups.
    (AP, 6/4/20)
2020        Jun 4, Floods swept through Yemen amid heavy seasonal rains, leaving at least 16 people dead and flooding dozens of homes. The casualties were reported in eastern Hadramawt and southern Shabwa provinces.
    (AP, 6/4/20)

2020        Jun 5, President Donald Trump said "we're bringing our jobs back" as he held a news conference to tout May's surprising jobless numbers out about two hours earlier -- the unemployment rate declining to 13.3 percent -- not rising to near 20 percent that even one of his own economists had predicted. The April number was 14.7%.
    (Good Morning America, 6/5/20)(SFC, 6/6/20, p.A1)
2020        Jun 5, The Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to reduce the number of US troops in Germany by 9,500. Currently there are 34,500 American service members permanently assigned in Germany as part of a long-standing arrangement with America's NATO ally.
    (AP, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 5, Pres. Donald Trump on a trip to Maine took action to allow commercial fishing at the Northeast Canyons marine conservation area off the New England coast.
    (SFC, 6/6/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 5, The city of Washington capped nearly a week of demonstrations against police brutality by painting the words Black Lives Matter in enormous bright yellow letters on the street leading to the White House, a highly visible display of the local government's embrace of protests that has put it further at odds with President Donald Trump.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, Joe Biden formally clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, setting him up for a bruising challenge to President Donald Trump that will play out against the unprecedented backdrop of a pandemic, economic collapse and civil unrest.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, Alabama's port city of Mobile, under orders from mayor Sandy Stimpson, removed a statue of Confederate naval officer Adm. Raphael Semmes, which had stood on the waterfront for 120 years.
    (SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 5, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state's police training program to stop teaching officers how to use a neck hold that blocks the flow of blood to the brain and endorsed legislation that would ban the practice statewide.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020          Jun 5, California to date had 125,718 cases of coronavirus and 4,525 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,025 cases and 461 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,894,502 with the death toll at 109,000.
    (sfist.com, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, A small plane crashed in rural Georgia killing all five people on board, including four members of a Florida family traveling to a funeral in Indiana.
    (SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 5, In Michigan the city of Dearborn removed the statue of Orville Hubbard from the grounds of the Dearborn Historical Museum. It had been removed from the former City Hall in 2015. Orville had advocated segregationist policies and made racist comments over his 35-year tenure that ended in 1977.
    (SFC, 6/9/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 5, Minneapolis agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints by police and to require officers to try to stop any other officers they see using improper force, in the first concrete steps to remake the city's police force since George Floyd's death.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, Walter Ogrod (55), a man who spent 28 years behind bars, was released from prison after a Pennsylvania judge vacated his 1996 conviction in the murder of a 4-year-old girl.
    (NBC News, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 5, In Tennessee Anthony Marcuzzo (18) slowly drove his Chevrolet Tahoe into a line of protesters in Memphis and continued to move forward, pushing through four demonstrators. The following day Marcuzzo with reckless endangerment and reckless driving.
    (AP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 5, In Virginia a 176-year-old slave auction block was removed from downtown Fredericksburg. In 2019, the City Council voted in favor of its removal and relocation to the Fredericksburg Area Museum.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, US drugmaker AbbVie Inc said it would develop an antibody therapy to prevent and treat COVID-19 in partnership with three organizations including the Netherlands' Utrecht University.
    (Reuters, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, In southern Afghanistan an ambush on a convoy killed 10 policemen in Zabul province. The Taliban soon claimed responsibility. US forces carried out two sets of airstrikes against the Taliban in western and southern Afghanistan.
    (AP, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 5, In Brazil a Supreme Court judge banned most police operations in the favelas for the remainder of the pandemic.
    (Econ., 6/13/20, p.47)
2020        Jun 5, British scientists halted a major drug trial after it found that the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine, touted by US President Donald Trump as a potential "game changer" in the pandemic, was "useless" at treating COVID-19 patients.
    (Reuters, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, The UK became the second country to officially record more than 40,000 coronavirus-related deaths as more than 100 scientists wrote the British government to urge it to reconsider lifting virus lockdown restrictions.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, Brussels and London pledged to step up the pace of Brexit trade talks to try to strike a deal by the end of October, after the latest round of negotiations ended with no major breakthrough. David Frost, Britain's chief Brexit negotiator, said that progress was limited at talks with the European Union on a free trade deal though the tone had been positive.
    (AFP, 6/5/20)(Reuters, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, The International Monetary Fund said it has reached an agreement with authorities in Egypt to allocate $5.2 billion to help the country cope with the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, It was reported that Ali Motaghian, the head of Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency, has been convicted over publishing an article that quotes a former ambassador criticizing Tehran's “arbitrary” intelligence operations in Europe.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, Iran registered 2,886 new cases of infection, bringing the total number to 167,156. The health ministry said 63 more people had died, with the official death toll now at 8,134.
    (AFP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran has now accumulated enriched uranium at nearly eight times the limit of a 2015 deal and has for months blocked inspections at sites where historic nuclear activity may have occurred.
    (AFP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, Iraq's Health ministry reported at least 1,006 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours bringing the nationwide total to 9,846. The death toll stood at 285.
    (SFC, 6/6/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 5, Japan-based Toyota announced a joint venture with several Chinese carmakers to develop fuel-cell technology.
    (Econ., 7/4/20, p.70)
2020        Jun 5, In Libya forces allied with the UN-supported government in Tripoli said they have retaken Tarhouna, another key western town from rivals behind a year-long offensive on the capital.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, In Mali some 30 people were killed and the Fulani village of Binedama burnt in the volatile Mopti region. The following day the government pledged to investigate claims that the army killed dozens of civilians in the conflict-riven region.
    (AFP, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 5, In Mali the M5-RFP, a group of oppostion leaders, began protesting against a growing jihadist insurgency. Mahmoud Dicko, a charismatic imam, bolstered the group. More than 1,800 people have been killed in the first six months of this year in fights involving jihadist groups and ethnic militias.
    (Econ., 8/8/20, p.36)
2020        Jun 5, Pakistani security forces shut down more than 3,000 shops and markets across the country for violating social distancing regulations. Pakistan recorded 68 more coronavirus-related deaths raising the overall toll to 1,838. Total infections reached 89,249.
    (SFC, 6/6/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 5, It was reported that medicinal oxygen to treat the coronavirus has become a scarce commodity in Peru. President Martín Vizcarra has issued an emergency decree ordering industrial plants to ramp up production or purchase oxygen from other countries.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, St. Kitts and Nevis PM Timothy Harris (b.1964) increased his majority in local elections.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y67slwvb)(Econ., 8/22/20, p.29)
2020        Jun 5, Sweden’s former ambassador to China went charged with unauthorized contacts with a foreign power for organizing a meeting in Stockholm between the daughter of a Swedish publisher detained in China, Beijing’s ambassador and two Chinese businessmen about the possible release of the publisher.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, The UN called on Congolese authorities to establish state authority in conflict regions by increasing the presence of security forces and ensuring civilian protection. Various conflicts involving armed groups and government forces in Congo have killed more than 1,300 civilians in the past eight months and violence has surged in recent weeks in eastern provinces.
    (AP, 6/5/20)
2020        Jun 5, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the arms embargo on Libya for a year.
    (SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A4)

2020        Jun 6, In the US massive protests against police brutality nationwide capped a week that began in chaos but ended with largely peaceful expressions that organizers hope will sustain their movement. The largest US demonstration appeared to be in Washington, where protesters flooded streets closed to traffic.
    (AP, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 6, Black Lives Matter protesters marched across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco forcing a temporary closing of the span.
    (SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A1)
2020        Jun 6, Northern California sheriff’s deputy Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller (38) was killed and two law enforcement officers wounded when they were ambushed with gunfire and explosives while pursuing a suspect. Suspect Steven Carrillo (38) was shot during his arrest and was being treated at the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. The US Air Force confirmed the following day that Carrillo (32) was an active duty sergeant stationed at Travis Air Force Base.
    (AP, 6/6/20)(AP, 6/8/20)
2020         Jun 6, California to date had 126,329 cases of coronavirus and 4,538 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,270 cases and 461 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,909,077 with the death toll at 109,127.
    (sfist.com, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 6, In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Carlos Carson, a 36-year-old unarmed African American father of three, was shot dead after he was attacked by former Tulsa detention officer Christopher Straight (53) at a motel parking lot. Straight was later charged with first-degree manslaughter.
    (The Guardian, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 6, In Virginia a small group of demonstrators toppled a statue of Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham in Monroe Park, Richmond, late today, following a day of largely peaceful protests in the city.
    (AP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 6, In Afghanistan two separate militant attacks killed 14 Afghan security personnel in the northeastern Badakhshan province and the capital of Kabul.
    (AP, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 6, Algeria has reported about 700 deaths due to the coronavirus. The government has used the outbreak to to repress the Hirak, as the country's protest movement is known.
    (Econ., 7/6/20, p.38)
2020        Jun 6, Brazil's government stopped publishing a running total of coronavirus deaths and infections in an extraordinary move that critics call an attempt to hide the true toll of the disease in Latin America's largest nation. President Jair Bolsonaro tweeted that disease totals are “not representative” of the country's current situation.
    (AP, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 6, In central London 14 officers were injured during clashes with protesters that followed a largely peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration attended by tens of thousands.
    (AP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 6, Colombia has had 33,466 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,099 deaths.
    (Econ., 7/6/20, p.26)
2020        Jun 6, Egypt’s Pres. Abdel Fattah el-Sissi announced a unilateral initiative to end the civil war in neighboring Libya, a plan accepted by the commander of the eastern forces that have suffered heavy defeats in recent weeks. El-Sissi said the initiative included the formation of an elected presidential council in which Libya’s three regions would be represented.
    (AP, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 6, In France protests attracted 23,000 people across the country. The May 25 death of George Floyd in Minnesota has shone a spotlight on similar French police abuses and given voice to complaints from minorities that they are frequent targets of harassment and worse from French police.
    (AP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 6, In Germany 93 people were detained in Berlin in connection with a Black Lives Matter demonstration, most of them after the main rally of 15,000 had ended. At least 15,000 people demonstrated in Berlin and 25,000 protested in Munich. There were protests in other German cities as part of the global demonstrations against racism and police brutality that have followed the May 25 death of American George Floyd.
    (AP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 6, Police in Ghana fired warning shots to break up a rally in Accra against police brutality after arresting the organizer. Ernesto Yeboah was charged with failing to obtain a police permit for the protest and for breaking the rules on public gatherings.
    (BBC, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 6, In Guatemala Domingo Choc Che, a Mayan medicine specialist and traditional healer, was murdered by a mob after he was accused of witchcraft in his hometown of Chimay. Che, a collaborator on a University College London (UCL) pharmaceutical project, was burnt alive.
    (The Independent, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 6, India reported 9,887 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the total to 236,657.
    (SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A8)
2020        Jun 6, Iran's total number of coronavirus cases rose to 169,425 with 2,269 new infections confirmed in the past 24 hours. 75 people who were infected died in the same period, bringing the overall fatalities to 8,209. President Hassan Rouhani warned Iranians to prepare to live with the novel coronavirus "for a long time", as the country gradually rolls back restrictions imposed to curb the outbreak. Universities reopened after being closed for more than three and a half months.
    (AFP, 6/6/20)(Reuters, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 6, Iraqi lawmakers signed off on the rest of PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi's government, following weeks of horse-trading between political factions over individual ministers.
    (AP, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 6, Hundreds of Lebanese demonstrators gathered in central Beirut, hoping to reboot nationwide anti-government protests that began late last year amid an unprecedented economic and financial crisis. Protesters poured into the streets of Beirut to decry the collapse of the economy, as clashes erupted between supporters and opponents of the Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah.
    (AP, 6/6/20)(AFP, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 6, In Mexico police in Guadalajara seized some 80 protesters planning to demonstrate against police brutality and held them incommunicado for over 24 hours.
    (The Guardian, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 6, The OPEC alliance extended production cuts by a month as world demand for oil fell amidst lockdowns to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. OPEC controlled about 70% of the world's oil reserves.
    (Econ., 6/13/20, p.57)
2020        Jun 6, Ramadan Shalah (62), the former head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, died after a long illness. He was believed to have been in Lebanon. Shalah led the Iranian-backed group for over 20 years, after its founder, Fathi Shikaki, was shot dead in Malta in an attack widely attributed to Israel. In 2018, the group named Shalah’s deputy, Ziad al-Nakhalah, as the new leader.
    (AP, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 6, In Poland a rapid growth of coronavirus infections among miners at the state-run coal producer JSW boosted the increase in daily cases to the highest since May 12. There were 576 new cases in the country, of which 346 were linked to the JSW mine at Zofiowka. The daily increase brought the total number of people infected in the country to 25,986, with 1,153 deaths.
    (Reuters, 6/6/20)
2020        Jun 6, In eastern Syria at least 12 Iraqi and Afghan fighters in a pro-Iran base in rural Deir Ezzor province died in eight strikes by unidentified aircraft. Israel was believed to have carried out the attack.
    (AFP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 6, In Taiwan voters in the port city of Kaohsiung ousted Mayor Han Kuo-yu. His failed bid for the presidency on behalf of the China-friendly Nationalist Party had brought widespread disapproval among residents. This was Taiwan first successful recall vote.
    (SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A4)

2020         Jun 7, California to date had 129,099 cases of coronavirus and 4,608 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,481 cases and 463 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,931,325 with the death toll at 110,110.
    (sfist.com, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 7, Rain pounded the US Gulf Coast ahead of the arrival of Tropical Storm Cristobal. Roads flooded in coastal Louisiana and Mississippi, and thousands were without power even before the storm made landfall.
    (AP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 7, Nine of twelve members of the Minneapolis City Council said they support disbanding the city's police department, an aggressive stance that comes just as the state has launched a civil rights investigation after George Floyd's death.
    (AP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 7, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ended a nightly curfew, a day earlier than he had planned.
    (Reuters, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 7, In Washington state a man drove a car at George Floyd protesters in Seattle late today, hit a barricade then exited the vehicle brandishing a pistol. The suspect was detained and the 27-year-old man who was shot in the arm was taken to hospital.
    (NBC News, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 7, British protesters in Bristol toppled a statue of slave trader Edward Colston (b.1636) and threw it into the harbor. The bronze memorial had been in place since 1895.
    (AP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 7, Thousands of people took to the streets of European cities in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
    (AP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 7, Estonian police apprehended a man involved in a traffic accident who had opened fire as he fled the scene, leaving two people dead and at least three others wounded, including two children.
    (AP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 7, Iran confirmed 2,364 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 171,789. Another 72 people died in the same period, raising the overall death toll to 8,281.
    (AFP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 7, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu urged world powers to reimpose tough sanctions against Iran, vowing to curb Tehran's regional "aggression" hours after another deadly strike on pro-Iranian fighters in Syria.
    (AFP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 7, A Kenyan police officer was filmed apparently dragging a 21-year-old woman tied to a motorcycle. Another man is seen whipping her as she pleads for them to stop in Olenguruone, Nakuru County. Three officers were soon arrested. Mercy Cherino was treated in hospital for a broken leg, among other injuries. She was accused of being part of a gang of three who had stolen some items from a police officer's house.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 7, The Lebanese military said overnight riots and sectarian tensions in central Beirut and other areas left dozens of people injured, including 25 soldiers, and warned that the clashes had endangered national unity.
    (AP, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 7, It was reported that eight people have died in Mexico's mountain city of Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero state, from drinking alcohol adulterated with methanol. Last month as many as 40 people died after drinking methanol in two state in central Mexico.
    (SSFC, 6/7/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 7, Tanzania's President John Magufuli declared the country "coronavirus-free" thanks to prayers by citizens. Mr Magufuli said last week that only four patients were receiving treatment in the largest city, Dar es Salaam.
    (BBC, 6/8/20)

2020        Jun 8, US congressional Democrats proposed the Justice in Policing Act, a sweeping overhaul of police oversight and procedures in response to the deaths of black Americans at the hands of law enforcement.
    (AP, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, The US Food and Drug Administration allowed emergency use of a COVID-19 saliva test made by privately held Phosphorus Diagnostics LLC that allows people to send in their saliva samples to the company's laboratory for testing.
    (Reuters, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, PG&E announced that it will begin relocating from downtown San Francisco to Oakland in 2022. The company planned to sell its SF offices at 77 Beale St. and 245 market St. after it emerges from bankruptcy protection.
    (SFC, 6/9/20, p.A1)
2020         Jun 8, California to date had 131,138 cases of coronavirus and 4,634 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 15,746 cases and 464 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,951,722 with the death toll at 110,771.
    (sfist.com, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, Grammy winner Bonnie Pointer (69) died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles. In 1969 she convinced three of her church-singing siblings to form the Pointer Sisters, which would become one of the biggest acts of the next two decades.
    (AP, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, New York's legislature created the crime of "aggravated strangulation," punishable by up to 15 years in prison, for officers whose chokehold "or similar restraint" kills or seriously injures someone.
    (Econ., 6/13/20, p.19)
2020        Jun 8, Disgraced former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping (70) was released from a New York prison, after serving a jail term over a multimillion-dollar scheme to bribe top African leaders. Ho was Hong Kong's home affairs chief from 2002 to 2007.
    (South China Morning Post, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 8, In Pennsylvania the dismembered body of Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, a transgender woman, was found in Philadelphia's Schuylkill River. On June 16 police identified Akhenaton Jones (38) as a suspect in the murder.
    (NBC News, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 8, Aimmune Therapeutics Inc said 80% of patients being treated with its drug Palforzia were successfully desensitized to peanut proteins after two years of daily dosing. Palforzia, was approved in late January and priced at $890 per month.
    (Reuters, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, JCPenney confirmed that 154 stores will close this year.
    (Good Morning America, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 8, Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza (55), died of a reported heart attack. Local sources whispered that he succumbed to COVID-19.
    (BBC, 6/9/20)(Econ., 6/13/20, p.37)
2020        Jun 8, The Chinese government vigorously defended its actions in a new, detailed account that portrays the country’s approach to combating the outbreak as a model for the world.
    (NY Times, 6/7/20)
2020        Jun 8, France’s interior minister says police will no longer conduct chokeholds that have been blamed for multiple cases of asphyxiation and prompted new criticism after George Floyd’s death. Several hundred people took a knee in front of a memorial to the abolition of slavery in the city of Nantes. Ships from Nantes are estimated to have taken some 550,000 black slaves to the colonies, according to the city’s Slavery Abolition Memorial.
    (AP, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, Iran urged its citizens to wear masks in public as it announced another 70 deaths from the novel coronavirus and 2,043 new cases of infection. The latest figures took the overall toll to 8,351 dead out of a total of 173,832 people infected.
    (AFP, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, Libyan fighters allied with the country's UN-supported government in Tripoli pressed their advance, boosted by recent battlefield gains and their rivals' withdrawal from around the capital. The push came despite a unilateral cease-fire proposal over the weekend by Egypt, a backer of the rival Libyan forces commanded by Khalifa Hifter.
    (AP, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, Malaysian authorities detained 269 Rohingya refugees and found a body on board a suspected smuggling boat they said had been intentionally damaged so it could not be turned back to sea.
    (SFC, 6/10/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 8, Poland said it will close two coal mines owned by state-run JSW and ten mines of PGG group for three weeks to stop the spread of the new coronavirus among miners.
    (Reuters, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said that he's worried about fast rising coronavirus infections. More than half of South Africa’s more than 48,000 confirmed cases have been recorded in the last two weeks.
    (AP, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, In South Africa the stabbed body of Tshegofatso Pule (28), reported missing on June 4, was found hanging from a tree near Johannesburg. She was eight months pregnant. Suspect Mzikayise Malephane was arrested on June 15. In 2021 Malephane (31) pleaded guilty at a court in Johannesburg. He accused her ex-boyfriend of paying him to carry out the killing. In 2021 prosecutors charged boyfriend Ntuthuko Ntokozo Shoba with planning Pule's murder and paying the killer.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y7w5pfvd)(BBC, 6/17/20)(BBC, 2/19/21)(BBC, 2/22/21)
2020        Jun 8, South Africa partially reopened its schools. After 5 weeks nearly 800 schools reported cases of COVID-19.
    (Econ., 7/18/20, p.50)
2020        Jun 8, Sudanese militia leader Ali Kushayb was arrested on war crimes charges related to the conflict in Darfur more than 13 years after a warrant was issued for him. Kushayb was arrested in a remote corner of northern Central African Republic, near the border with Sudan.
    (AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 8, In northwestern Syria insurgents launched a limited offensive against government-held positions, briefly seizing a couple of villages. Government troops, backed by Russian air support, responded, repelling the insurgents but also widening their area of operations. The fighting more than 40 fighters dead on both sides.
    (AP, 6/8/20)(AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 8, Turkish police detained two journalists for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged “political and military espionage.” Ismail Dukel, the Ankara representative of TELE1 television channel, and Muyesser Yildiz of the OdaTV news website, were being questioned by anti-terrorism police.
    (AP, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, UN General Assembly Pres. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said that world leaders will not be coming to New York for their annual gathering in late September for the first time in the 75-year history of the United Nations because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    (AP, 6/8/20)
2020        Jun 8, It was reported that the coronavirus is spreading throughout Yemen. Rebels in the Houthi-controlled north have suppressed information about the virus and severely punished those who speak out.
    (AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 8, The UN held its first virtual World Oceans Day event, partnering with nonprofit Oceanic Global as a production partner, making the live event free to attend globally.
    (https://www.un.org/en/observances/oceans-day)

2020        Jun 9, The US Senate unanimously confirmed Gen. Charles Brown Jr. as chief of staff of the US Air Force, making him the first black officer to lead one of the nation's military services.
    (AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, It was reported that Arizona, Utah and New Mexico all posted COVID-19 rises of 40% or higher for the week ended June 7 compared with the prior seven days.
    (Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, The California Public Utilities Commission said that ride-hail drivers are employees under AB5, the state's new gig-work law.
    (SFC, 6/11/20, p.C1)
2020         Jun 9, California to date had 136,039 cases of coronavirus and 4,730 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,062 cases and 475 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,973,083 with the death toll at 111,751.
    (sfist.com, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, In Idaho investigators announced that they had found human remains while searching the rural home of Chad Daybell. Joshua “JJ” Vallow (7) and his sister Tylee Ryan (17) were last seen in September, 2019. Their mother Lori Daybell had married Chad Daybell two weeks following the death of Chad's wife Tammy Daybell died in October. Police soon confirmed the identification of the remains as those of the missing children.
    (AP, 6/9/20)(SFC, 6/15/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 9, New York state lawmakers repealed a decades-old law that has kept law enforcement officers’ disciplinary records secret, spurred by the national uproar over the death of George Floyd.
    (AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, Anti-racism protesters in Virginia tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus late today in Byrd park in Richmond, then draped it in a burning flag and dumped it in a lake.
    (Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 9, The American Cancer Society updated its guideline on diet and physical activity for cancer prevention. Staying at a healthy weight, staying active throughout life, following a healthy eating pattern, and avoiding or limiting alcohol may greatly reduce a person's lifetime risk of developing or dying from cancer.
    (https://tinyurl.com/ybhwq3rc)
2020        Jun 9, AstraZeneca received $23.7 million in funding from a US government agency to advance the development of antibody-based COVID-19 treatments as the British drugmaker ramps up efforts beyond its potential vaccine to combat the pandemic.
    (Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, Glass maker Corning Inc said it would receive $204 million from the US government to boost the manufacturing capacity of its vials that will be used to store coronavirus vaccines and treatments.
    (Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, The Paramount Network announced it has canceled its long-running reality series "Cops" after 32 seasons. The show, which first aired in 1989 and was scheduled to launch its 33rd season on June 8, was delayed amid protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
    (Good Morning America, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 9, Argentina confirmed more than 1,000 new cases as the rate of new infections continued to rise just days after it extended lockdown measures in the capital Buenos Aires.
    (Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 9, Bahrain freed Nabeel Rajab (55), a prominent human rights activist, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, allowing him to serve out the remainder of his internationally criticized prison sentence from home.
    (AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, Britain has seen the deadliest coronavirus outbreak in Europe, with nearly 40,700 confirmed deaths. Official statistics released today suggested that thousands more have died in the pandemic, and the true toll could be over 50,000 dead.
    (AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, In Canada CitizenLab, a part of the Munk School of Government at the Univ. of Toronto, said that it had unearthed one of the biggest known mercenary hackers, which it has dubbed "Dark Basin." CitizenLab pointed to BellTrox InfoTech Services, a company based in New Delhi, India.
    (Econ., 6/13/20, p.51)
2020        Jun 9, Cyprus reopened its airports following an 11-week ban aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. Cyprus permitted 19 countries with low coronavirus infection rates for commercial flights.
    (AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, Hundreds of people marched in Hong Kong's streets to mark a year since the start of anti-government protests, as Carrie Lam, the leader of the semi-autonomous city, called for peace and stability.
    (AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, Tehran said it will execute an Iranian for spying for the United States and Israel after his conviction was upheld for helping the US to locate top Iranian General Qasem Soleiman killed in a drone strike. Mahmoud Mousavi Majd was found guilty of receiving large sums of money from both the US Central Intelligence Agency and Israel's Mossad.
    (AFP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, Iran announced another 74 deaths from the coronavirus. Cases of infection increased by 2,095 over the last 12 hours to total 175,927 and the overall death toll rose to 8,425. A health official said nearly one in five Iranians may have been infected with the novel coronavirus since the country's outbreak started in February.
    (AFP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, Israel's internal security service Shin Bet said it has halted its cell-phone tracking of coronavirus carriers, citing the success of alternatives to the controversial method of containing contagions.
    (Reuters, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, Israel's highest court struck down a contentious law that sought to retroactively legalize thousands of West Bank settlement homes built unlawfully on private Palestinian land.
    (AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, In Mexico Alexander Martinez Gomez (16), a Mexican-American born in North Carolina, was fatally shot by police in Oaxaca state. Gomez and eight other youths were riding motorcycles when they encountered a police patrol driving with lights off. One officer was ordered detained for alleged murder.
    (SFC, 6/15/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 9, Nigerian police arrested a man after 40 people were raped in one town over the period of a year. A mother in the northern town Dangora caught the man in her children's bedroom. The man ran away but neighbors gave chase and caught him.
    (BBC, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 9, In north-eastern Nigeria at least 69 people were killed in a suspected jihadist attack on a remote village in the Gubio district of Borno state. It was unclear who carried out the attack.
    (AP, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 9, North Korea announced that it is severing all official communication links with the South. Analysts said the move was aimed at manufacturing a crisis on the divided peninsula. Pyongyang has refused to engage with Seoul for months, with few if any conversations on the lines aside from test calls.
    (AFP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, The Palestinians said they proposed a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem with one-to-one land exchanges with Israel as a counteroffer to President Donald Trump's Mideast plan.
    (AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, Philippine defense officials flew to a disputed island in the Spratlys to inaugurate a beach ramp to allow development. The island internationally called Thitu and Pag-asa by Filipinos has long been occupied by Filipino forces and fisherman.
    (SFC, 6/10/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 9, Moscow lifted a strict anti-coronavirus lockdown after more than two months of restrictions. Health officials reported 8,595 new cases and 171 deaths. The total death toll reached 6,142. The overall number of infections rose to 485,253.
    (AFP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, Sweden announced that 1.2 million kronor ($130,000) would be used to set up the truth commission to shed light on injustices against indigenous people carried out by the Swedish state. Sweden had announced in 2019 that it would finance such a process.
    (AP, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 9, In northwestern Syria suspected Russian airstrikes pounded villages in southern Idlib and western Hama, sending thousands of civilians fleeing. State media said government forces have repelled an offensive by the insurgents, and that a soldier was killed.
    (AP, 6/9/20)
2020        Jun 9, Tunisian coast guards recovered the bodies of 20 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who drowned off the country's east coast amid a new wave of dangerous attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe. 53 people were aboard the shipwreck off the Kerkennah Islands.
    (AP, 6/9/20)

2020        Jun 10, Pres. Donald Trump said he will not consider changing the name of any of the 10 Army bases that are named after Confederate Army officers.
    (SFC, 6/11/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 10, Officials at the Federal Reserve said they expected the unemployment rate to end 2020 at 9.3 percent and to remain elevated for years. The Fed pledged to do “whatever we can” to support the recovery.
    (NY Times, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 10, It was reported that Steve Linick, the US State Department inspector general fired last month by President Donald Trump, told lawmakers the department discouraged him from investigating arms sales to Saudi Arabia before he was dismissed.
2020        Jun 10, The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a study to evaluate drugs prescribed to treat COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, among children and adolescents across the United States.
    (Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, Arizona again told hospitals to activate the coronavirus emergency plans after cases spiked following reopening. The state's stay-at-home order ended on May 15, and its cases have increased 115 percent since then.
    (Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, A California sheriff's deputy was struck by gunfire at the Paso Robles Police Department headquarters. About four hours later, the body of an adult male was discovered near an Amtrak train station in Paso Robles. He was dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. Police began a manhunt for suspect Mason James Lira (26) of the Monterey area. Lira (26) was killed June 11 after he emerged from a brushy riverbed in Paso Robles where he'd hidden all night. Jose Lira said his son had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
    (Reuters, 6/11/20)(AP, 6/11/20)
2020         Jun 10, California to date had 139,622 cases of coronavirus and 4,853 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,231 cases and 478 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 1,999,392 with the death toll at 112,878.
    (sfist.com, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, In southern California a passerby noticed the body of Robert L Fuller (24) hanging from a tree in the city of Palmdale in northern Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) said Fuller’s death was being treated as an alleged suicide and that a full autopsy would soon be carried out.
    (The Independent, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 10, In Denver, Colorado, Michael R Close (36) fatally shot Isabella Thallas (21) and critically injured her boyfriend Darian Simon after a verbal exchange over their dog defecating. Close was soon charged with murder and attempted murder.
    (The Independent, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 10, Thomas Lane, one of the four Minneapolis police officers involved in the death of George Floyd, was been released from jail on $750,000 conditional bail.
    (ABC News, 6/10/20)     
2020        Jun 10, Protesters in Portsmouth, Virginia, covered statues at 127-year-old Confederate monument in the city with sheets and bags, several hours after the city’s council members had a meeting about relocating it. Mayor John Rowe has proposed allocating $100,000 to remove the statue and possibly relocate it to a local cemetery.
    (AP, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, In Richmond, Virginia, protesters late today toppled a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, as demonstrators across the country continued to target symbols of white supremacy after the death of George Floyd.
    (NY Times, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 10, Abbvie Inc said it is partnering with Danish biotech firm Genmab AS to jointly develop and market cancer treatments, as it looks to expand its cancer franchise.
    (AP, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, Johnson & Johnson said it would start human trials of its potential COVID-19 vaccine in the second half of July, two months earlier than planned.
    (Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, It was reported that scientists have used human embryonic stem cells to create an embryo-like research model to help them study some of the earliest stages of human development. Gastruloids have no potential to develop into fully-formed embryos. Alfonso Martinez-Arias, a professor at Britain's Cambridge University, co-led the project.
    (Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, In Cambodia four people died and 10 others were hospitalized over the last 24 hours after drinking rice wine that police believe was adulterated with a toxic substance.
    (SFC, 6/11/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 10, Chinese researchers said a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed showed promise in trials in monkeys, triggering antibodies and raising no safety issues and that a human trial with more than 1,000 participants is under way.
    (Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, China's official Xinhua news agency said a Chinese vaccine against African swine fever appears to be safe in clinical trials now underway, a step closer to preventing one of the world's most devastating livestock diseases.
    (Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, Egyptian police raided the houses of two uncles of Mohamed Soltan, an Egyptian-American activist who recently sued former Egyptian PM Hazem el-Beblawi in US court, accusing him of crimes against humanity.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 10, Ethiopia’s PM Abiy Ahmed faced an extra year or more in office after lawmakers voted to extend their mandates and hold the national election nine to 12 months after health authorities determine it's safe.
    (AP, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, Germany said that it will from next week relax entry restrictions for seasonal workers introduced to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, Ghana's Incas Diagnostics expects the country's regulator to approve its new COVID-19 antibody test by the end of July, saying its kits could help health authorities ease pandemic restrictions.
    (Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, Indonesia reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases for a second successive day, with 1,241 new infections, taking its total to 34,316.
    (Reuters, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, Iran announced 2,011 infections confirmed in the past 24 hours raising its overall caseload to 177,938. Fatalities reached 8,506 with 81 new deaths over the same period.
    (AP, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, Japanese biotech AnGes Inc said it expects its coronavirus vaccine to be ready as early as the first half of 2021, if it can overcome supply chain and production hurdles.
    (AP, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, It was reported that an outbreak of African swine fever in Nigeria's largest pig farm co-operative in the south-west of the country has been confirmed and that some 300,000 pigs have been killed.
    (BBC, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, Polish state television faced increasing criticism for its negative coverage of the main opposition candidate in this month's presidential election, with accusations from watchdog groups it was resorting to anti-Semitic and racist tropes.
    (AP, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, South Korea’s government said that it will press charges against two activist groups that have been floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets and bottles filled with rice to North Korea.
    (AP, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, Dozens of Sudanese protesters rallied in Khartoum against a newly formed United Nations mission mandated to support a political transition following last year's ouster of President Omar al-Bashir.
    (AFP, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, Sweden dropped its investigation into the unsolved murder of former Swedish PM Olof Palme, who was shot dead Feb. 28, 1986, ago in Stockholm, saying the decision was made because the main suspect, Stig Engstrom, died in 2000.
    (AP, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, It was reported that authorities in Zimbabwe have started publicly naming people who have escaped from quarantine centers and urging the public to report them to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Zimbabwe has reported 314 cases of COVID-19. The figures have risen from the 56 recorded toward the end of May. Most of the new cases have been reported at the quarantine centers.
    (AP, 6/10/20)
2020        Jun 10, In Zimbabwe three female opposition party members, including an MP, were arrested for allegedly lying about being tortured while in custody. The women were found last month dumped in a marketplace and had to receive treatment in hospital for their injuries.
    (BBC, 6/11/20)

2020        Jun 11, President Donald Trump lobbed a broadside attack against the International Criminal Court by authorizing economic sanctions and travel restrictions against court workers directly involved in investigating American troops and intelligence officials for possible war crimes in Afghanistan.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Pres. Donald Trump issued an executive order effectively criminalizing anyone who works at the ICC, claiming the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes by US forces in Afghanistan poses a national security threat.
    (The Conversation, 9/2/20)
2020        Jun 11, The United States and Iraq launched much-anticipated strategic talks that are to span the gamut of their bilateral relations, with Washington prioritizing the issue of the future of its forces in the country while Baghdad is expected to focus on the nation's dire economic crisis.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued an emergency rule barring colleges from granting virus relief funds to foreign and undocumented students, including tens of thousands protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, or DACA.
    (NY Times, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 11, Army Gen. Mark Milley, the nation's top military officer, said he was wrong to accompany President Donald Trump on a June 1 walk through Lafayette Square that ended in a photo op at a church.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, It was reported that the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops in response to protests on the streets of Washington, endorsed by President Donald Trump and much criticized by the city's mayor, cost the federal government $2.6 million per day at its peak. Officials said it cost about $530 per Guard member, per day to be deployed.
    (Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Garrison Courtney, who served in the US Drug Enforcement Agency’s public affairs office between 2005 and 2009, admitted that he constructed his false identity and duped other unwitting individuals to help him convince companies to pay for involvement in either a special operations forces program operating covertly in Africa, or a separate program aimed at enhancing the United States' intelligence collection abilities. His scheme defrauded more than $4.4 million from at least a dozen companies.
    (ABC News, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, In California Michael Thomas (62) was shot and killed by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies in Lancaster early today after deputies responded to reports of domestic violence inside the home. The family's attorney, Bradley Gage, said Thomas didn't have a weapon and wasn't hurting his fiancee.
    (CBS News, 6/12/20)
2020         Jun 11, California to date had 139,863 cases of coronavirus and 4,857 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,456 cases and 484 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,011,341 with the death toll at 113,341.
    (sfist.com, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, In Hawaii Eligio Lee Bishop, leader of the “Carbon Nation” cult, and 20 others were arrested on the big island over the last 24 hours for violating the state’s emergency quarantine orders. The cult practices nudism and polygamy, and does not bathe. The group had reportedly already been kicked out of several countries in Central America.
    (Charlotte Observer, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 11, John Catanzara, who was appointed to lead the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police last month, labelled officers who kneeled alongside protesters as “ridiculous” and warned that officers who kneel in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters could be kicked out of the union.
    (AP, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 11, The Louisville, Kentucky, Metro Council unanimously passed Breonna's Law -- named in honor of police-shooting victim Breonna Taylor -- outlawing "no-knock" warrants and requiring body cameras be turned on before and after every search.
    (Good Morning America, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon said that she was pausing efforts to reopen the state’s economy for a week because of a recent rise in virus cases.
    (NY Times, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 11, It was reported that coronavirus cases are rising in 21 US states, a worrying trend that could worsen as people return to work and venture out during the summer. It was also reported that outbreaks of the virus are emerging at US fruit and vegetable farms and packing plants.
    (AP, 6/11/20)(Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Moderna Inc confirmed it plans to start a trial of 30,000 volunteers of its much-anticipated coronavirus vaccine in July as the company enters the final stage of testing.
    (Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said it has begun human testing of its experimental antibody cocktail as a treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Emergent BioSolutions Inc said it has signed an $87 million deal to make AstraZeneca Plc's experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, boosting the British drugmaker's efforts to bring a vaccine to the market.
    (Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Twitter said that China has stepped up its effort to spread misinformation on the platform by creating tens of thousands of fake accounts that discussed the Communist Party’s response to the virus and the Hong Kong protests. Twitter has removed a vast network of accounts pushing false information favorable to China's communist rulers.
    (NY Times, 6/12/20)(SFC, 6/13/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 11, It was reported that ship owners are postponing or cancelling the installation of "scrubbers" that extract harmful sulphur emissions from their vessels as the coronavirus pandemic tightens finances.
    (Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Belarusian opposition activist Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has been rallying against the reelection of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and collecting signatures to run against him, canceled rallies in big cities amid crackdown on her supporters.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Brazil reported 30,412 new coronavirus cases, bringing its cumulative total to above 800,000. Shops reopened in the country's two largest cities.
    (Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 11, Beijing, a city of 21 million people, confirmed a new coronavirus case, the first confirmed case in the capital in nearly two months.
    (Reuters, 6/11/20)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.34)   
2020        Jun 11, The European Court of Human Rights ruled that France violated the freedom of expression of pro-Palestinian activists who were convicted for campaigning against Israeli goods. The protesters, led by French activist Jean-Michel Baldassi, had been convicted of incitement to economic discrimination after taking part in a 2009 demonstration at a hypermarket in the eastern French town of Illzach and handing out leaflets calling for a boycott of Israeli products.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, In Haiti coronavirus infections spiked to 3,334 with 51 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/12/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 11, In India coronavirus cases shot up, rising by a record of nearly 10,000, raising questions about whether authorities have done enough to avert catastrophe. The total count of infections reached 286,579, the fifth highest in the world, with 8,102 deaths.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Indonesia added 979 new coronavirus cases.
    (Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 11, Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency reported that police confiscated two tons of morphine from drug smugglers in a suburb of Tehran. Two smugglers, including the ringleader of the smuggling gang, were arrested.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, In Iran 2,238 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours took the country's total to 180,156. The overall death toll rose to 8,584 with 78 new deaths.
    (AFP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, Italian police unveiled a Banksy artwork that they found stashed in a farmhouse attic after it was stolen from Paris in January, 2019. It was painted in 2018 on the side of the Bataclan concert hall as a tribute to the 90 victims killed in the 2015 Islamist terrorist attack.
    (The Telegraph, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, In northern Ivory Coast some 20 men on motorbikes attacked ab army-and-police post near the border at Kafolo. 14 soldiers were killed.
    (Econ., 7/11/20, p.35)
2020        Jun 11, The Nigerian Minister of Women Affairs called on law enforcement to speed up prosecution of rape cases which had reached an "alarming rate" three times the typical level as women and children are locked down with their abusers.
    (Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, In Norway Philip Manshaus (22), a white nationalist who killed his stepsister and then stormed an Oslo mosque and opened fire, hitting no one, was found guilty and sentenced to 21 years in prison.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, It was reported that hundreds of Russian polling station officials, citing the risk of spreading the coronavirus, say they won't help organize a nationwide vote on reforms that could extend President Vladimir Putin's rule until 2036. Russia reported 8,779 new cases, bringing its nationwide infection tally past the half million mark.
    (Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, In South Korea two North Korean defector-run groups targeted for legal action by South Korean authorities said they intend to continue sending propaganda leaflets and humanitarian aid into North Korea, despite criticism from governments in both countries.
    (Reuters, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, South Korean health officials reported 45 new cases of the coronavirus raising national totals to 11,947 and 276 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/12/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 11, Syrian President Bashar Assad fired PM Imad Khamis,, a month ahead of elections and as the economic crisis worsens and public anger rises in the territory under his control. Assad appointed Hussein Arnous, the current public works and housing minister, to replace Khamis. Hundreds of protesters in the southern Sweida province have taken to the streets in the last four days, decrying the rising cost of living and chanting against Assad.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, A Turkish court convicted Metin Topuz, a local US Consulate employee in Istanbul, of membership in an armed terror organization and sentenced him to eight years and nine months in prison. Topuz has been jailed since 2017, accused of links to US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said international trade is set to plunge by 27% in the second quarter and by 20% for the year, as major sectors including the automotive and energy industries collapse from the effects the pandemic.
    (Reuters, 6/11/20)   
2020        Jun 11, The UN refugee agency announced that more than 94,000 people have been displaced and forced to flee their homes in several parts of Yemen since January.
    (AP, 6/11/20)
2020        Jun 11, The United Nations voiced "horror" after reports that eight mass graves had been discovered in an area recently seized by Libya's unity government after forces loyal to eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar withdrew.
    (AFP, 6/11/20)

2020        Jun 12, President Donald Trump bowed to pressure over an election rally scheduled to take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the "Juneteenth" anniversary that commemorates the end of US slavery, and said he was pushing the event back from June 19 to June 20.
    (Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, The Trump administration finalized a rule that overturns Obama-era protections for transgender people against sex discrimination in health care.
    (AP, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, The US said it will withdraw troops from Iraq in the coming months, six months after the assassination of an Iranian general in Baghdad threatened to see them expelled from the country.
    (The Telegraph, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, In Arizona very dry and blustery conditions continue to spread the Bighorn Fire near Tucson, where evacuations have been issued. The fire was only 10% contained and covered more than 6,000 acres.
    (Good Morning America, 6/12/20)
2020         Jun 12, California to date had 146,358 cases of coronavirus and 4,978 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 16,811 cases and 493 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,043,656 with the death toll at 114,471.
    (sfist.com, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, San Francisco agreed to remove 70% of the tents crowding the Tenderloin neighborhood by July 20. As of June 5 there were some 415 tents scattered throughout the 49 blocks of the Tenderloin.
    (SFC, 6/13/20, p.A1)
2020        Jun 12, A black man died after a white police officer shot him at a Wendy’s in Atlanta late today, prompting more protests. Rayshard Brooks (27) had run from the police after failing a sobriety test and taking an officer’s Taser during a struggle with him. Officer Garrett Rolfe was fired the following day. Officer Devin Brosnan was placed on administrative duty. In August Rolfe filed suit against the mayor and police chief saying his firing violated the city code and his constitutional rights. On May 5, 2021, The Atlanta Civil Service Board announced that it is reversing the termination of Garrett Rolfe.
    (NY Times, 6/14/20)(AP, 6/14/20)(SFC, 8/6/20, p.A4)(NBC News, 5/5/21)
2020        Jun 12, The Kentucky Historic Properties Advisory Commission voted 11-1 to take down a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from the state Capitol and move it to a state historic site in southern Kentucky where the Confederate leader was born.
    (AP, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, Kentucky teen Gabriel Parker (18), who killed two classmates and injured others when he opened fire at his high school on Jan. 23, 2018, was sentenced to two life sentences. He will be eligible for parole in 20 years.
    (NBC News, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, The Minnesota Board of Pardons granted the state's first posthumous pardon to a man convicted over a white woman's false rape claim that led to lynchings in 1920. Max Mason, who was in Duluth with a traveling circus. He was one of several black men accused of raping a white woman in the city. Three men -- Isaac McGhie, Elmer Jackson and Elias Clayton -- were lynched as a result. Mason was the only one convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, the doctor who examined the accuser never found evidence of rape. He was released from prison in 1925 on the condition that he not return to Minnesota for the next 16 years.
    (CBS News, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, It was reported that North Dakota is making sweeping cuts to state agencies in a bid to stem the financial bleeding from a historic oil price collapse sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, and a battered farm economy still struggling with the fallout from the US-China trade war.
    (Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, Oklahoma health officials said a spike in coronavirus cases in the Tulsa area is linked to indoor events and warned that people who attend such gatherings should take health precautions.
    (AP, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, William S. Sessions (90), an FBI chief (1987-1993) under three US presidents, died at his home in San Antonio, Texas. He had won praise for bringing more diversity to the agency, but was fired after being investigated for ethical lapses.
    (Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 12, Texas reported 2,166 patients in hospitals with the coronavirus. 19 deaths were reported bringing the overall toll to 1,939.
    (SSFC, 6/14/20, p.A9)
2020        Jun 12, A US judge ordered Seattle police to temporarily stop using tear gas, pepper spray and flash-bang devices to break up largely peaceful protests. For nearly a week, people opposing police brutality and racial injustice have turned a neighborhood near the largely abandoned Capitol Hill precinct into ground zero for their protests. Protesters say they want the police precinct to be turned into a community center and much of the police department's funding to be redirected to health and social services.
    (AP, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, Drugstore chain CVS Health Corp joined Walmart Inc in announcing it will stop keeping beauty and personal care products designed for people of color in locked display cases, after the practice drew criticism online.
    (Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, Australia's chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy said the coronavirus has been eliminated in many areas of the country, as more than half of the 38 cases reported over the past week were travelers returning from abroad and remaining quarantined.
    (NY Times, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, In Brazil two members of the Yanomami ethnic group were shot to death be illegal gold prospectors in the Amazon regions Roraima state.
    (SFC, 6/29/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 12, Britain said it would introduce border controls in stages on European Union goods after the end of the Brexit transition period, to try to soften the blow for companies already battling the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, Authorities in Cape Verde on a US warrant arrested Alex Saab, a prominent businessman accused of corrupt dealings with the government of Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro. Cape Verde has no extradition treaty with the US.
    (AP, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 12, In China the local government in Beijing said that it would suspend the resumption of school for young primary school students after the appearance of three new cases of Covid-19 in the city.
    (NY Times, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, French police defied a ban on mass gatherings to protest what they see as a lack of government support, marching shoulder to shoulder on the Champs-Elysees to show their anger against new limits on arrest tactics and criticism of racism in their ranks. The protest was small but highly visible.
    (AP, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, India’s nationwide caseload overtook Britain to became the fourth highest in the world with 297,535 confirmed coronavirus cases and 8,498 deaths. The number of cases had increased by 10,956 from the previous day.
    (AP, 6/12/20)(Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, Indian drugmaker Zydus Cadila said it signed a non-exclusive licensing pact with Gilead Sciences Inc to manufacture and market antiviral drug remdesivir, the first treatment to show improvement in COVID-19 trials.
    (Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, An Indian citizen was killed by Nepalese border guards, amid a border row between the two countries.
    (Econ., 6/20/20, p.30)
2020        Jun 12, Indonesia reported 1,111 new coronavirus infections and 48 new deaths, taking the total number of cases to 36,406 and fatalities to 2,048.
    (Reuters, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, Iran reported 75 deaths and more than 2,369 new cases of novel coronavirus as calls mounted for all people to wear masks in public. The new infections in the past 24 hours took the total to 182,545. The new deaths brought that overall toll to 8,659.
    (AFP, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, Russia reported 8,987 new coronavirus infections, taking the total to 511,423 cases. Russia has confirmed a total of 6,715 coronavirus deaths. President Vladimir Putin said an "absolute majority" of Russians backed his controversial plan to change the constitution, as he made his first public appearance after weeks of lockdown.
    (AFP, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, In southern Somalia Al-Shabab unveiled a COVID-19 isolation and care facility in Jilib, a major stronghold of the extremist group. The facility included a round-the-clock hotline.
    (AP, 6/12/20)
2020        Jun 12, South Korea reported 56 new cases of the coronavirus bringing the national totals to 12,003 cases and 277 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/13/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 12, Sudan has reported 6,879 coronavirus infections and 433 deaths. Of those, 193 cases and 54 fatalities have been confirmed across Darfur — a figure experts believe is a vast undercount.
    (AP, 6/12/20)

2020        Jun 13, The official US unemployment rate stood at 13.3%. It would rise to 16% if people were counted who say they are employed but absent from work due to coronavirus.
    (Econ., 6/13/20, p.58)
2020         Jun 13, California to date had 147,938 cases of coronavirus and 4,994 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,007 cases and 493 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,068,591 with the death toll at 115,251.
    (sfist.com, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, SF Bay Area BART began carrying passengers across the Santa Clara County line into San Jose as it opened a 10-mile extension from Warm Springs in Fremont to the new Milpitas and Berryessa Stations.
    (SFC, 6/13/20, p.A1)
2020        Jun 13, Florida health officials reported 2,581 new coronavirus cases. Fatalities now stand at over 3,000 out of 73,552 confirmed cases.
    (SSFC, 6/14/20, p.A9)
2020        Jun 13, Atlanta's Police Chief Erika Shields resigned hours after Rayshard Brooks was fatally shot by an officer in a struggle following a field sobriety test. Authorities said the slain man had grabbed an officer's Taser, but was running away when he was shot. Protesters set fire to the Wendy’s restaurant where Brooks was fatally shot and blocked traffic on a nearby highway.
    (AP, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, In Mississippi Steven Joaquin Blackwell (22), accused of shooting and killing Deputy Sheriff James Blair (77) a day earlier in Mendenhall, was captured after a day on the run. , Blackwell was reportedly in custody for another crime.
    (ABC News, 6/13/20)(SSFC, 6/14/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 13, In North Carolina two more prisoners died at the Federal Correctional Complex at Butner from COVID-19 complications. Both men were in the low-security prison, which has the largest coronavirus outbreak in the federal prison system, with 623 total active cases, eight among staff members.
    (Charlotte Observer, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 13, West Virginia reported a significant number of coronavirus outbreaks linked to houses of worship. A total of five churches have seen outbreaks. Pres. Donald Trump insisted in late May that churches reopen, threatening governors who continued to impose restrictions on houses of worship.
    (Yahoo News, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 13, Protests went ahead in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in far-flung parts of Australia against the advice of government and health authorities but on a significantly smaller scale than the previous weekend.
    (AP, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, Brazil has recorded nearly 40,000 deaths from the coronavirus, th world's third highest number.
    (Econ., 6/13/20, p.26)
2020        Jun 13, The Chinese capital of Beijing reported 36 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, setting an all-time high for new daily infections in the city.
    (Reuters, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 13, In China a tanker truck exploded on a highway in Zhejiang province killing 18 people and injuring 189 others.
    (SSFC, 6/14/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 13, A few thousand people demonstrated in Paris to denounce police brutality and entrenched racism, as France’s minorities increasingly push back against a national doctrine of colorblindness that has failed to eradicate discrimination.
    (AP, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, India reported its biggest single-day jump in coronavirus cases, adding 11,458 confirmed infections and taking its total count to more than 300,000. India has 145,779 active cases, and has recorded 8,884 deaths.
    (Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, Indonesia reported 1,014 new coronavirus infections and 43 more deaths, taking the total number of cases to 37,420 and fatalities to 2,091.
    (Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, Iran reported 2,410 new coronavirus cases raising the total count to 184,955. The death of 71 people in the past 24 hours raised total fatalities to 8,730. President Hassan Rouhani said Iran will reimpose restrictions to stem the surge if health regulations are not observed.
     (Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, The Baha’i International Community (BIC) said Iranian authorities have escalated their persecution of the Baha’i community, targeting at least 77 individuals across the country in recent weeks, despite a potential second wave of coronavirus infections hitting the country.
    (The Telegraph, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, Lebanese protesters took to the streets in Beirut and other cities in mostly peaceful protests against the government, calling for its resignation as the small country sinks deeper into economic distress.
    (AP, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, A dozen people were missing and feared drowned off the coast of Libya after a boat carrying around three dozen migrants bound for Europe capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.
    (AP, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, In central Mali at least 24 soldiers were killed and others are unaccounted for after gunmen ambushed a convoy. About 12 vehicles were in the convoy and four of them were destroyed in the ambush.
    (BBC, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 13, In Nigeria three attacks by Islamic extremists, including an assault on Monguno, a military garrison town, have killed more than 40 people in northeastern Borno state. At least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians are said to have been killed in the attacks.
    (AP, 6/14/20)(BBC, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 13, In the Philippines two men on motorcycles opened fire on a police station in Parang, Sulu province, killing two officers and woiunding two others.
    (SFC, 6/15/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 13, The Philippines' health ministry reported 607 new coronavirus infections and 22 more deaths, taking the total number of cases to 25,392 and fatalities to 1,074.
    (Reuters, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, Polish President Andrzej Duda accused the LGBT rights movement of promoting a viewpoint more harmful than communism and said he agreed with another conservative politician who stated that “LGBT is not people, it's an ideology”.
    (AP, 6/13/20)
2020        Jun 13, In Turkey the number of new coronavirus cases rose to 1,459 in the last 24 hours and 14 people died, bringing total fatalities to 4,792. Turkey has reported a total 176,677 cases of COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 6/13/20)

2020         Jun 14, California to date had 152,285 cases of coronavirus and 5,082 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,262 cases and 497 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,093,448 with the death toll at 115,730.
    (sfist.com, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, Authorities in Georgia announced that Rayshard Brooks’s death was a homicide after Atlanta police shot him twice in the back on June 12 outside a Wendy’s. Photos emerged that appear to show a white woman setting fire to the Wendy’s during protests over the death of Rayshard Brooks. Police offer a $10,000 reward to find her and other suspected arsonists.
    (The Independent, 6/14/20)(The Independent, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 14, Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican member of the US Senate, said he is open to exploring whether to enact a new law that would decertify bad police officers as part of a larger law enforcement reform package.
    (Reuters, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, Sarah Hegazi (30), a queer Egyptian activist, ended her life in Canada. She had been jailed for promoting what the Egyptian state called “sexual deviance” after raising a rainbow flag during a concert in Cairo in 2017. She was released on bail three months later and sought asylum in Canada.
    (The Conversation, 7/10/20)
2020        Jun 14, Egypt announced 1,677 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus. This raised the totals to 1,484 deaths and 42,980 confirmed cases.
    (SFC, 6/15/20, p.A5)
2020        Jun 14, In Germany thousands of people formed a human chain through Berlin in a message against racism, discrimination and social inequality among other causes.
    (AP, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, It was reported that at least 58 employees of Guatemala's presidential offices have tested positive for the coronavirus. Guatemala has reported 8,600 infections and 351 deaths.
    (SSFC, 6/14/20, p.A8)
2020        Jun 14, In India Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput (34), was found dead at his home in Mumbai. Police termed this an "accidental death." Rajput had won acclaim for his role in the 2016 biopic of then Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Local media reported that the actor had been found hanging from the ceiling of his home. In August the government of Bihar, Rajput's home state, turned the inquiry over to the federal investigation agency (CBI).
    (Reuters, 6/14/20)(Reuters, 8/5/20)
2020        Jun 14, An Indian soldier was killed by Pakistani shellfire in Kashmir.
    (Econ., 6/20/20, p.30)
2020        Jun 14, Indonesia reported 857 new coronavirus infections and 43 more deaths, taking the total number of cases to 38,277 and fatalities to 2,134.
    (AP, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, Iran reported 107 Covid-19 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the overall toll to 8,837. There were 2,472 new cases confirmed in the past day, bringing the total infection caseload to 187,427.
    (AFP, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, An Israeli cabinet minister said the government approved plans to build a new settlement in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights named after President Donald Trump. Ramat Trump — Hebrew for “Trump Heights” — will house 300 families.
    (AP, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, Paolo Giorgio Ferri (72), Italian prosecutor and hunter of looted antiquities, died. He dismantled multinational trafficking rings, recovering tens of thousands of Greco-Roman artifacts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
    (NY Times, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 14, In Japan hundreds of people marched peacefully in Tokyo, highlighting the outrage over the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
    (AP, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, The Lebanese military carried out an operation in the eastern town of Brital liberating 23 people, including women and children, who were kidnapped two weeks ago.
    (AP, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, In New Zealand, thousands protested in Auckland and Wellington over the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
    (AP, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, The Philippines reported 539 more coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 25,930. Health authorities said 14 additional fatalities related to the novel coronavirus took the death toll to 1,088.
    (Reuters, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, Russia confirmed 8,835 new virus cases, taking the total to 528,964.
    (AFP, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, South Korea convened an emergency security meeting and urged North Korea to uphold reconciliation agreements, hours after the North threatened to demolish a liaison office and take military action against its rival.
    (AP, 6/14/20)
2020        Jun 14, South Korea confirmed 34 more coronavirus cases raising the country's total to 12,085 cases and 277 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/15/20, p.A5)
2020        Jun 14, In northwestern Syria a drone strike killed two senior commanders with an al-Qaida-linked group. The strike was believed to have been carried out by the US-led coalition.
    (AP, 6/14/20)

2020        Jun 15, Pres. Donald Trump said he is cutting the number of American troops in Germany by half because Berlin is "delinquent" in its contributions to NATO and treats the US "badly" on trade.
    (The Telegraph, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, The US Supreme Court in Bostock v Clayton County ruled that a landmark civil rights law protects LGBT people from discrimination in employment, a resounding victory for LGBT rights from a conservative court.
    (AP, 6/15/20)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.20)
2020        Jun 15, The US Supreme Court decided that the federal government has the authority to allow a proposed $7.5 billion natural gas pipeline to cross under the popular Appalachian Trail in rural Virginia.
    (Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, The US Food and Drug Administration revoked the emergency use authorization for malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, the use of which has been championed by President Donald Trump.
    (Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, The US Food and Drug Administration cleared a new version of Abbott Laboratories' continuous glucose monitoring device, helping the company build upon the success of its fastest-growing diabetes product.
    (Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, An American fighter jet crashed into the North Sea off the coast of England. Pilot 1st Lt. Kenneth Allen was soon found and confirmed to be dead.
    (Good Morning America, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 15, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced policing reform proposals aimed at "improving use of force procedures," amid nationwide scrutiny of bias in policing. He is calling on police departments around the state to ban the practice of chokeholds and to decertify police officers for serious misconduct.
    (CBS News, 6/16/20)
2020         Jun 15, California to date had 155,044 cases of coronavirus and 5,107 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,495 cases and 498 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,110,795 with the death toll at 116,090.
    (sfist.com, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Florida reported a daily increase of 1,758 COVID-19 infections. That number follows two days with more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases.
    (Yahoo News, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 15, In New Mexico a man was shot late today as protesters tried to tear down a bronze statue of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate outside the Albuquerque Museum.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, New York City’s police department said it is disbanding the type of plainclothes anti-crime units that were involved in the 2014 death of Eric Garner and have long been criticized for aggressive tactics.
    (AP, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 15, A teenager (14) who admitted taking part in a mugging that preceded the Dec. 11, 2019, stabbing death of Barnard College student Tessa Majors was sentenced to up to 18 months in a juvenile detention center, where he will undergo mental health counseling and be able to continue his education.
    (NY Times, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 15, The Seattle City Council voted unanimously to bar police from using tear gas, pepper spray and several other crowd control devices after officers repeatedly used them on mostly peaceful demonstrators protesting racism and police brutality.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Eli Lilly and Co said it was launching a study of its rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib in patients hospitalized for COVID-19.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Houston-based engineering company KBR Inc said it was awarded a $570.3 million contract by NASA to develop and execute spaceflight operations at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. KBR, until April 2007, was the engineering and construction arm of oilfield services giant Halliburton Co.
    (Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, A 12-hour and 13-minute outage took place that led to congestion across T-Mobile's 4G, 3G and 2G networks and resulted in the "complete failure" of more than 23,000 US 911 calls. In 2021 T-Mobile agreed to pay 19.5 million in a settlement with the FCC over the nationwide outage that resulted in thousands of failed 911 calls.
    (SFC, 11/25/21, p.C2)(https://tinyurl.com/3hvv8x8t)
2020        Jun 15, An Afghan lawmaker accused Iranian authorities of involvement in recent attacks on Afghan refugees in Iran, incidents that have sparked protest rallies in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Cameroon recorded one of the highest number of coronavirus cases in the sub-Sahara Africa region. It hit the 10,000 cases milestone, with 277 deaths and remains one of the continents hotspot for the pandemic. Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Douala diocese, who has practiced herbal medicine for several years, says he has developed two plant-based remedies for COVID-19 which are given free to those who test positive for the respiratory disease.
    (Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 15, In China several districts of Beijing set up security checkpoints, closed schools and ordered people to be tested for the coronavirus after an unexpected spike of cases linked to the biggest wholesale food market in Asia. Beijing said it had tracked down 79 infections over the previous four days.
    (Reuters, 6/15/20)(SFC, 6/16/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 15, Medical authorities said the Democratic Republic of Congo has recorded up to 17 Ebola cases in a new outbreak of the deadly virus in the western province of Equateur, and 11 of those infected have died.
    (Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Denmark said it will hand out cash to Danes to stimulate the economy, while announcing plans to phase out generous aid packages introduced at the beginning of the crisis.
    (Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Egyptian authorities detained prominent local journalist Mohamed Monir (65) on charges of spreading fake news. Monir had criticized the Egyptian government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Under pressure from police, the French government backed away from a ban on chokeholds during arrests.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Greece welcomed visitors with passengers on flights from other European countries not having to undergo compulsory coronavirus tests.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, An Indian Army officer and two soldiers were killed by Chinese troops late today in Galwan Valley in the Ladakh region along the countries’ disputed border. China's PLA grabbed some 40-60 square km of territory that India considers to be its own. Preliminary reports indicated that the soldiers had not been shot, but had been killed in a brawl involving rocks and wooden clubs. The Indian Army soon raised its death toll to 20 soldiers.
    (NY Times, 6/16/20)(AP, 6/16/20)(SFC, 6/17/20, p.A3)(Econ., 6/20/20, p.29)
2020        Jun 15, India's Health Ministry reported a jump of more than 11,000 infections nationwide for a third straight day.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Two Indian officials in Pakistan were allegedly abducted and tortured by "Pakistani agencies".
    (Econ., 6/20/20, p.30)
2020        Jun 15, Iran said 113 new fatalities took to 8,950 the total number of COVID-19 deaths since the country's outbreak began in February. Another 2,449 people had tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, taking the Islamic republic's overall caseload to 189,876.
    (AFP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, IAEA Director General Mariano Grossi said that Iran must provide inspectors access to sites where the country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material.
    (SFC, 6/16/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 15, Ireland’s long-dominant rival political parties said they have agreed on terms for a coalition government, four months after an election that shook the country’s political landscape.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Japan's Defense Ministry said that it has decided to stop unpopular plans to deploy two costly Aegis Ashore systems US missile defense systems aimed at bolstering the country’s capability against threats from North Korea.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Montenegro reported a new COVID-19 case, a person who arrived from neighboring Bosnia, three weeks after declaring it was free of the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, North Macedonian health authorities announced 103 new confirmed coronavirus cases and five deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 4,157 and the death toll to 193 in this country of around 2 million people. President Stevo Pendarovski declared an eight-day state of emergency ahead of an early national election after the country’s main political leaders agreed the vote will be held on July 15.
    (AP, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 15, Norway said it will halt its track and trace app and delete all data collected so far after criticism from its data protection watchdog.
    (Reuters, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, In the Philippines Maria Ressa, the editor of Rappler, was found guilty of cyber libel charges, in a verdict widely viewed as a test of press freedoms and attempt to silence government critics.
    (The Telegraph, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, A court in Moscow sentenced Paul N. Whelan (50) to 16 years in a high-security prison on espionage charges that he and his family have described as a tool to increase his value in a potential future trade for Russians held in the United States. The former Marine, who holds British, Irish and Canadian citizenships, was arrested in December 2018 at a luxury hotel in Moscow, where he was attending a wedding.
    (NY Times, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, The Russian cities of Penza, Pyatigorsk and Yakutsk joined a growing list of places that are cancelling June 24 military parades over coronavirus fears despite a decision by President Vladimir Putin to press ahead with the main event in Moscow. Coronavirus cases rose by 8,246 cases over the last 24 hours raising the total to 537,210 and 7,091 deaths.
    (Reuters, 6/15/20)(SFC, 6/16/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 15, Russia's Foreign Ministry ordered two Czech diplomats to leave the country in a quid pro quo response to Prague's expulsion of Russian diplomats amid tensions rooted in differences over history.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Slovenia lifted travel restrictions with Italy.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Spain put its tourism industry to the test by allowing thousands of Germans to fly to its Balearic Islands without a 14-day quarantine.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Syrian security forces detained several demonstrators in the southern city of Sweida where days of anti-government protests have taken place amid a crash in the local currency and sharp price increases.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Turkey reiterated its opposition to US sanctions on neighboring Iran, saying the coronavirus pandemic has shown that the world needs greater cooperation and solidarity.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Turkey’s jets carried out new cross-border airstrikes targeting Turkish Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. The latest operation, codenamed ”’Operation Claw-Eagle,” hit suspected PKK targets in several regions in Iraq's north. Turkey bombed Sinjar, claiming the Yazidis had teamed up with the PKK.
    (AP, 6/15/20)(Econ., 12/12/20, p.51)
2020        Jun 15, Ukraine resumed flights to countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, India, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, relaxing a ban in place since March 17. Ukraine's own caseload has spiked in recent days to nearly 32,000 following a decision in May to resume public transportation and reopen of malls and gyms.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s government off a global blacklist of parties whose actions have harmed children in conflict, a move that drew immediate protests from human rights groups.
    (AP, 6/15/20)
2020        Jun 15, In northern Yemen an airstrike from the Saudi-led coalition struck a vehicle carrying civilians, killing 13 people, including four children in the Shada area of Saada province.
    (AP, 6/15/20)

2020        Jun 16, President Donald Trump signed an executive order he said would encourage better police practices. But he made no mention of the roiling national debate over racism spawned by police killings of black people.
    (AP, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 16, The US Department of Health and Human Services said the Trump administration is narrowing its list of promising experimental coronavirus vaccines to about seven from 14.
    (Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, Gregory Dow (61), an American Christian missionary, pleaded guilty in a US court to sexually abusing young girls at an orphanage he started in Kenya. The orphanage was in operation from 2008 to 2017 when Mr Dow fled Kenya.
    (BBC, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, PG&E Corp. formally pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter related to the 2018 Camp Fire that nearly leveled the California town of Paradise.
    (SFC, 6/17/20, p.A1)
2020         Jun 16, California to date had 157,293 cases of coronavirus and 5,156 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 17,813 cases and 504 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,134,973 with the death toll at 116,854.
    (sfist.com, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, Florida reported a record-high one-day increase of 2,783 coronavirus cases. 55 more virus-related deaths raised that toll to 2,993.
    (SFC, 6/17/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 16, Atlanta’s mayor vowed to change police use-of-force policies and require that officers receive continuous training in how to deescalate situations before the consequences become fatal.
    (AP, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, In Indiana a psychiatric patient disarmed and fatally shot a retired police officer at the Community Hospital in Munster early today before another retired officer working security at the hospital fatally shot the patient.
    (AP, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds committed to restoring voting rights to those with past felony convictions, potentially expanding the electorate in a state that could be competitive in the Nov. 3 presidential election.
    (Reuters, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 16, In Missouri a statue of Christopher Columbus that stood in a St. Louis park for 134 years was removed amid a growing national outcry against monuments to the 15th century explorer.
    (AP, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, Vermont health officials said 83 cases of the coronavirus have been recorded in the Bhutanese community of Winooski and that the virus is expanding into neighboring Burlington.
    (SFC, 6/17/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 16, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced that Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the US, will become an official state holiday to be celebrated annually on June 19.
    (SFC, 6/17/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 16, Eli Lilly and Co said its treatment, Verzenio (aka abemaciclib), met the trial goal of reducing the risk of early-stage breast cancer returning, sending the company's shares up 11%.
    (Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, Facebook announced it will allow people to "turn off seeing" political ads as the 2020 presidential campaigns ramp up in the US ahead of November's elections.
    (Good Morning America, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 16, Radio-frequency chip maker MaxLinear Inc said it was hit by a "Maze" cyber attack, with a hacker releasing some proprietary information about the company online.
    (Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, The World Health Organization's regional director for the Americas Carissa Etienne said that the region is fast approaching 4 million cases of coronavirus and the pandemic continues to accelerate. Etienne said Brazil accounts for 23% of the more than 3.8 million cases in the Americas and 23% of the almost 204,000 deaths in the region.
    (Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, Doctors Without Borders said it closed its operation in Kabul, ending yearslong work to support a maternity hospital in the Afghan capital. The closure came a month after an attack at the facility killed 24 people, including two infants, nurses and several young mothers. MSF, said it would keep its other programs in Afghanistan running, but did not go into details.
    (AP, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, British PM Boris Johnson said the Department for International Development is to be scrapped and the Foreign Office handed direct control of the £14 billion aid budget.
    (The Telegraph, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, Researchers in England said they have the first evidence that a drug can improve COVID-19 survival: A cheap, widely available steroid called dexamethasone reduced deaths by up to one third in severely ill hospitalized patients. Japan-based Nichi-Iko Pharmaceutical Co was among those that produce dexamethasone.
    (AP, 6/16/20)(Reuters, 7/21/20)
2020        Jun 16, Charles Webb (81), author of the novel “The Graduate” (1963), died in East Sussex, England. The novel was the basis for the hit 1967 film.
    (NY Times, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 16, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said its experimental coronavirus vaccine has triggered antibodies in clinical trials and the company plans late-stage human trials in foreign countries.
    (Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, The French government sent police reinforcements and a top official to the Dijon region to quell four nights of unusually violent clashes between rival groups that have left at least 10 injured and cars burned and rattled the community. Local officials say it appears linked to the drug trade and tensions between members of France’s Chechen community and other groups.
    (AP, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, Iran said a third straight day of more than 100 coronavirus deaths took its overall toll past 9,000, attributing the spike to increased travel by its citizens. 115 new deaths in the past 24 hours took Iran's overall toll to 9,065. Another 2,563 people tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to 192,439 since the start of Iran's outbreak.
    (AFP, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, Netherlands-based Signify, the world's largest lighting manufacturer, said researchers at Boston University had confirmed an ultraviolet light made by the company works to degrade most coronavirus in a laboratory setting in a matter of seconds.
    (Reuters, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, In New Zealand, two new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in recent arrivals from Britain, only days after the government had declared the country’s epidemic eradicated.
    (NY Times, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 16, Edén Pastora (83), Nicaraguan revolutionary, died.
    (AP, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, North Korea blew up a building where its officials and their South Korean counterparts had recently worked side by side, after weeks of threats to end the détente that has existed on the Korean Peninsula for the past two years. The liaison office was opened in 2018 as the first channel for full-time, person-to-person contact between the Koreas.
    (NY Times, 6/16/20)
2020        Jun 16, Tanzania's PM Kassim Majaliwa reported 66 active coronavirus cases, releasing data for the first time since April when Pres. John Magufuli questioned the reliability of the figures.
    (BBC, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 16, Ukraine received more than $60 million worth of weapons and other equipment from the US as part of a security aid program.
    (SFC, 6/18/20, p.A2)

2020        Jun 17, Pres. Donald Trump signed into law the Uighur Human Rights Act of 2020, landmark legislation targeting Chinese leaders for their treatment of Muslims in the country’s remote and sparsely populated west.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 17, The Trump administration increased the pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad, his wife, Asma, and his inner circle with new economic and travel penalties for human rights abuses and blocking a settlement of the country’s bloody nine-year conflict.
    (AP, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, It was reported that the US Senate Ethics Committee has cleared Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler of wrongdoing in connection with stock trades, after the wealthy Republican - who is in a tough election race - was criticized over share sales during the coronavirus outbreak.
    (Reuters, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, In southern California Terron Boone was shot dead by the police in a confrontation in a Rosamond parking lot. He was half brother of Robert Fuller, a Black man whose body was found hanging from a tree in Palmdale, California, last week.
    (NBC News, 6/17/20)
2020         Jun 17, California to date had 163,445 cases of coronavirus and 5,282 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 18,103 cases and 511 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,163,290 with the death toll at 117,717.
    (sfist.com, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, William Dement (91), American pioneer in the study of sleep and dreams, died in his sleep at Stanford, Ca.
    (Econ., 7/11/20, p.74)
2020        Jun 17, Former Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe was charged with felony murder and aggravated assault in the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks outside a Wendy’s restaurant.
    (NY Times, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 17, Jean Kennedy Smith (92), the last surviving sibling of President John F. Kennedy, died in Manhattan. She was a US ambassador and played a key role in the peace process in Northern Ireland.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 17, The largest labor group in the Seattle area expelled the city's police union, saying the guild representing officers failed to address racism within its ranks.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 17, Conagra Brands, the parent company of Mrs. Butterworth's, announced the brand has begun a "complete brand and packaging review" of its syrup products, which critics say feature offensive phrases and imagery.
    (Good Morning America, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 17, Shares of Chembio Diagnostics Inc slumped more than 60% after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked the emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 antibody test kit on concerns about its accuracy.
    (Reuters, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, A collection of American civil-rights groups began a #StopHateForProfit campaign aimed at Facebook. By July 1 more than 600 firms had pulled ads from the platform.
    (Econ., 7/4/20, p.58)
2020        Jun 17, PepsiCo, the owner of the Quaker Oats Company, announced that Aunt Jemima, the more than 130-year-old breakfast brand that has faced criticisms for being based on a racial stereotype, will be removed from its packaging.
    (Good Morning America, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, Zoom, an American teleconferencing firm, said it was introducing end-to-end encryption for all users.
    (Econ., 6/20/20, p.57)
2020        Jun 17, Scientists reported that a mysterious 68-million-year-old fossil found in 2011 on Seymour Island off Antarctica's coast that looked like a deflated football has turned out to be the second-largest egg on record and one that may have belonged to a huge marine reptile that lived alongside the dinosaurs.
    (Reuters, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, China's President Xi Jinping announced that Beijing will write off all interest-free loans advanced to African countries that are due this year. Speaking at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against the Covid-19 Pandemic, which was conducted by video link, he said China will also build hospitals and send more medical experts to Africa to aid in the coronavirus fight.
    (South China Morning Post, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 17, China and India accused each other of instigating deadly border clashes between their forces along the disputed Himalayan frontier, pledging to safeguard their territory but also to try to end a standoff that has dramatically raised the stakes between the nuclear-armed giants.
    (AP, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, Danish authorities said mink at a farm in Denmark were found to be infected with the new coronavirus and all 11,000 of the animals there will have to be culled.
    (Reuters, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, France accused Turkey of repeated violations of the U.N. arms embargo on conflict-torn Libya and says Ankara is an obstacle to securing a ceasefire there.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 17, Iran reported more than 100 deaths from the novel coronavirus for a fourth straight day. 120 new deaths in the past 24 hours took Iran's overall toll to 9,158. Another 2,612 tested positive for COVID-19, bringing total confirmed cases to 195,051.
    (AFP, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, Japanese researchers confirmed the presence of the coronavirus in wastewater plants, a finding that could serve as a signal for future outbreaks. The findings mirror similar studies in Australia, the United States, and Europe.
    (AP, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, Kyrgyzstan's parliament approved Kubatbek Boronov as the new prime minister. Former PM Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziyev resigned on June 15 over a scandal on whether the government had illegally sold radio frequencies.
    (SFC, 6/18/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 17, It was reported that North Korea has a cyber army of about 7,000, trained to find secrets, disrupt critical infrastructure, and steal money to circumvent sanctions.
    (Reuters, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, Hundreds of unemployed Tunisians from around the country tried to march on parliament to demand a law guaranteeing jobs, and skirmished with police who blocked their way.
    (AP, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, Turkey said it has airlifted troops into northern Iraq for a cross-border ground operation, dubbed Operation Claw-Tiger, against Turkey's Kurdish rebels.
    (AP, 6/17/20)
2020        Jun 17, The UN General Assembly held council elections. India and Mexico were chosen as non-permanent members of the Security Council alongside Norway and Ireland, while Djibouti and Kenya - both of which failed to receive the two-thirds vote majority required to win - will go to a second round of voting on June 18.
    (AP, 6/17/20)(The Telegraph, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 17, Pope Francis paid tribute to hundreds of thousands of seafarers stuck on ships due to the coronavirus pandemic, a situation the United Nations has said poses a risk to the safe operation of the world's merchant fleet.
    (Reuters, 6/17/20)

2020        Jun 18, Donald Trump's presidency was in turmoil after top ex-aide John Bolton declared him unfit for office, raising the stakes on a controversial re-election rally meant to boost his flailing campaign -- yet facing troubles of its own. Portions of Bolton's upcoming book, " The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," revealed a withering portrayal of his ex-boss.
    (AFP, 6/18/20)(Reuters, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, The Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s effort to end legal protections for 650,000 young immigrants, a stunning rebuke to the president in the midst of his reelection campaign. The justices in a 5-4 vote rejected administration arguments that the 8-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program is illegal and that courts have no role to play in reviewing the decision to end DACA.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, The US Africa Command released a statement accompanied by two photographs, saying it had photographic evidence of Russian aircraft being deployed in Libyan airspace.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, In Arizona Paul Petersen, a former elected official in metro Phoenix accused of running an illegal adoption scheme in three states involving women from the Marshall Islands, pleaded guilty to fraud charges for submitting false applications to the Arizona’s Medicaid system for the mothers to receive state-funded health coverage.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, Arizona reported 2,519 new cases of the coronavirus and 32 new deaths. This raised the state's total to 43,443 and 1,271 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020         Jun 18, California to date had 167,348 cases of coronavirus and 5,355 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 18,590 cases and 519 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,192,279 with the death toll at 118,467.
    (sfist.com, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, California health officials issued a mandate that all citizens wear masks when in an indoor public place or in line waiting to enter as well as riding public transport and in public outdoor spaces where people cluster. This followed a a day after the state reported the largest number of new coronavirus cases in a single day.
    (SFC, 6/19/20, p.A1)
2020        Jun 18, Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies chased and shot dead a security guard at an auto repairs shop this evening. Family members identified the dead man to local media as Andres Guardado Pinedo (18). The sheriff’s department said a handgun was found where the man was shot. An autopsy showed that Guardado was shot five times in the back. It was later reported that Deputy Art Gonzalez, a whistleblower, has filed a complaint alleging that there is a violent clique operating inside the Compton station and that Deputy Miguel Vega had been trying to impress and join the "Executioners" group at the time he killed Guardado.
    (The Guardian, 6/19/20)(SSFC, 7/19/20, p.A8)(Insider, 9/1/20)
2020        Jun 18, In San Francisco a 50-pound male cougar, believed to be under 2 years old, was spotted roaming downtown over several days this week. He was seen sleeping in a planter box and looking at his reflection in the glass of an office tower before being captured. Authorities said he may have killed three animals at the city zoo. The cougar was soon released back to the wild. On July 3 the mountain lion was found dead on the shoulder of Highway 1 near Pacifica.
    (AP, 6/20/20)(AP, 7/4/20)
2020        Jun 18, San Francisco officials removed a 4,000 pound statue of Christopher Columbus from its pedestal at Coit Tower. Protesters had threatened to throw it into the bay.
    (SFC, 6/19/20, p.B1)
2020        Jun 18, A number of Atlanta police officers called out sick over the last 24 hours to protest the filing of murder charges against an officer who shot a man in the back. The interim chief acknowledged members of the force feel abandoned amid protests demanding massive changes to policing.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, In Decatur, Georgia, a crane swooped in and took down a 112-year-old Confederate memorial. The monument to the Lost Cause was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and was often vandalized and marked by graffiti. The obelisk was removed and placed in storage indefinitely
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 18, In Santa Fe, New Mexico, crews removed the statue of Don Diego de Vargas (1643-1704), a Spanish territorial governor, from a city park. This came ahead of a rally by organized by indigenous advocates. Vargas is most famous for leading the reconquest of the New Spain territory in 1692 following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
    (SFC, 6/20/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 18, School board members in Wisconsin’s largest school district voted to cut ties with police officers who patrol outside its schools.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, Facebook and Twitter both pushed back against Trump’s use of inflammatory material. Facebook removed advertisements by the Trump campaign that prominently featured a red triangle that the Nazis used to classify Communist political prisoners during World War II. Twitter added a warning — an exclamation point with the label “Manipulated Media” — to a Trump tweet that featured a video of two toddlers running down a sidewalk. The video, which included a headline about a “racist baby,” had been made to look like a CNN segment.
    (NY Times, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 18, It was reported that Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix, and his wife, Patty Quillin, have donated $120 million to the United Negro College Fund, Spelman College and Morehouse College to support scholarships at the historically black colleges and universities.
    (SFC, 6/18/20, p.C5)
2020        Jun 18, A US district court ruled in favor of generic drugmaker Mylan NV in a patent dispute over Biogen Inc's blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug, Tecfidera, sending Biogen's shares down nearly 6%.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, Pfizer Inc and Sangamo Therapeutics Inc said their gene therapy helped maintain levels of a vital protein for up to 14 months in patients with a rare genetic disorder in which blood does not clot easily.
    (Reuters, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, Vera Lynn (103), British singer, died. She became a symbol of hope in Britain during World War Two and again during the coronavirus pandemic with her song "We'll Meet Again".
    (Reuters, 6/18/20)(Econ., 6/27/20, p.78)
2020        Jun 18, Belarusian authorities detained potential presidential candidate and former Belgazprombank chief Viktor Babariko after arresting 15 bank executives on tax evasion and money laundering charges and putting the bank under temporary administration. Several thousand demonstrators formed a chain that spread for about four km (2.5 miles) across downtown Minsk to protest Babariko’s detention.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 18, Burundi's newly elected president, Evariste Ndayishimiye, was sworn in two months earlier than planned.
    (BBC, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, Chinese officials said that they had indicted two Canadians on espionage charges. The move escalated a conflict that began after Canada arrested an executive of the Chinese technology giant Huawei in 2018. ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor were "suspected of foreign espionage" and leaking "state secrets".
    (NY Times, 6/19/20)(The Telegraph, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 18, China released genome sequencing data for the coronavirus responsible for a recent outbreak in Beijing. Officials the next day said it identified a European strain based on preliminary studies.
    (Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 18, The Beijing government said that the number of coronavirus cases in a recent outbreak had risen to 158, after an additional 21 cases were reported today.
    (NY Times, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, The auditor of Wirecard, a German payments company, said it could not find $2.1 billion, nearly a quarter of the firm's balance sheet, that was meant to be held in escrow accounts in the Philippines.
    (Econ., 6/27/20, p.60)
2020        Jun 18, India reported its highest one-day increase of 12,281 coronavirus cases. Deaths rose by 334 to 12,237.
    (SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020        Jun 18, The Israeli military said a soldier who shot and killed a Palestinian fisherman near the Gaza frontier in 2018 has been given 45 days of community service after an army investigation concluded he fired without authorization. Nawaf al-Attar, a 23-year-old fisherman, was shot and killed by Israeli troops near the northern beach frontier on Nov. 14, 2018.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, Scientists in Italy said they have found traces of the new coronavirus in wastewater collected from Milan and Turin on December 18, 2019, suggesting COVID-19 was already circulating in northern Italy before China reported the first cases.
    (Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 18, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said that his country needs to bolster its security posture amid threats from North Korea and should consider acquiring preemptive strike capability after having to scrap the planned deployment of two new land-based missile defense systems.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, In Japan former justice minister Katsuyuki Kawai and his wife, Anri Kawai, were arrested over allegations they engaged in vote buying during last year's election.
    (SFC, 6/19/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 18, Kenya defeated Djibouti for an African seat on the UN Security Council in a second round of voting held under dramatically different procedures because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, It was reported that six policemen in Mozambique have been found guilty of murdering an election observer ahead of last October's election. Anastacio Matavel was shot as he was driving in the southern city of Xai-Xai. His car was hit by 13 bullets.
    (BBC, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, Industry officials said Peru's miners are revving up stalled operations with mass testing, isolation periods and revamped shift patterns, setting up the world's No. 2 copper producer to hit 80% of production capacity by the end of June.
    (Reuters, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, Russia revised steeply higher, to nearly 500, the number of medical workers who have died after contracting COVID-19. The official figure rose to 489, some 6.4% of the overall nationwide death toll. The Health Ministry had reported on May 26 that 101 medics had died from the coronavirus.
    (Reuters, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 17, In Turkey the governors of Istanbul, Ankara and Bursa announced that wearing masks to curb COVID-19 are now obligatory following an uptick in confirmed cases.
    (SFC, 6/19/20, p.A7)
2020        Jun 18, The UN reported that DR Congo's military is receiving weapons and training from multiple countries without notifying the United Nations as required by a 2004 resolution. Experts pointed to instructors and equipment from Albania, Romania, Turkey, South Africa, Israel, China, Iran, the United Kingdom, North Korea, Sudan and the United States, among others.
    (AP, 6/18/20)
2020        Jun 18, Uruguay to date has recorded 849 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 24 deaths.
    (Econ., 6/20/20, p.26)

2020        Jun 19, US President Donald Trump threatened unspecified action against any protesters at his weekend Tulsa, Oklahoma, re-election rally in a warning that his campaign said was not directed at peaceful demonstrators.
    (Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, President Donald Trump said that he will renew his administration's effort to end legal protections for young immigrants after the Supreme Court blocked the first try.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, The US Justice Department moved abruptly late today to oust Geoffrey S. Berman, the US attorney in Manhattan overseeing key prosecutions of President Donald Trump’s allies and an investigation of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. But Berman said he was refusing to leave his post and his ongoing investigations would continue.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, The Trump administration moved forward with a rule that rolls back health care protections for transgender people, even as the Supreme Court barred sex discrimination against LGBT individuals on the job.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, The US State Department said COVID-19 infections have been reported at its embassy in the Afghan capital and affected staff include diplomats, contractors and locals.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 19, Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, said the two senior commanders on a coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier didn't “do enough, soon enough," to stem the outbreak, a stunning reversal that upheld the firing of the ship's captain who had pleaded for faster action to protect the crew.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, A hacktivist group published hundreds of gigabytes' worth of potentially sensitive files from police departments across the US in the form of a searchable database that can be sorted by officers' badge numbers.
    (Business Insider, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 19, US prosecutors said that Tahawwur Rana, a former Chicago businessman imprisoned for aiding terrorist groups, has been arrested in Los Angeles to face murder charges in India for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed more than 160 people. Rana was convicted in Chicago in 2011 of providing material support to the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which planned the 2008 India attack.
    (The Telegraph, 6/19/20)
2020         Jun 19, California to date had 170,581 cases of coronavirus and 5,420 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 18,814 cases and 521 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,219,977 with the death toll at 119,099.
    (sfist.com, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, In San Francisco a statue of Francis Scott Key, who is known for writing "The Star-Spangled Banner" but was a slave owner, was toppled by protesters during demonstrations against racial injustice.
    (Good Morning America, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 19, Colorado's Governor Jared Polis signed a sweeping police reform bill that, among other reforms, bans chokeholds and makes officers personally liable if they are found guilty of violating a person's civil rights.
    (CBS News, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, In Atlanta, Georgia, David Lee (29) was arrested in connection with the recent killings of three homeless people between June 1 and June 15.
    (SFC, 6/20/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 19, Oklahoma reported 359 new cases of the coronavirus. The state's death toll rose to 367.
    (SFC, 6/20/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 19, In Washington, DC, protesters toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the nation's capital and set it on fire on Juneteenth, the day marking the end of slavery in the United States. The statue of Albert Pike, dedicated in 1901, was located in Judiciary Square about half a mile from the Capitol. It was built at the request of Masons who successfully lobbied Congress to grant them land for the statue as long as Pike would be depicted in civilian, not military, clothing. Pike had been a longtime influential leader of the Freemasons.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, In Washington state bags containing human remains were found on a beach in West Seattle. The bodies of Jessica Lewis (35) and Austin ‘Cash’ Wenner (27) washed-up on Seattle’s Alki Beach. A suitcase contained the couple’s limbs and other body parts.
    (Miami Herald, 6/21/20)(The Independent, 7/9/20)
2020        Jun 19, It was reported that several US hospitals in states with fresh surges of COVID-19 cases have started treating their sickest patients with dexamethasone rather than await confirmation of preliminary results of a study by British researchers, who said the inexpensive steroid saves lives.
    (Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, US drug developer Ampio Pharmaceuticals Inc said it would begin an early stage study of its experimental treatment, Ampion, in COVID-19 patients after it received regulatory clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration.
    (Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, Johnson & Johnson said it has decided to stop selling skin-whitening creams popular in Asia and the Middle East, after such products have come under renewed social pressure in recent weeks amid a global debate about racial inequality.
    (Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, Nabriva Therapeutics Plc said the US Food and Drug Administration has declined to approve its antibiotic for complicated urinary tract infections, citing still-unresolved manufacturing issues. Contepo, chemically known as fosfomycin, is the first intravenously administered drug from a class of antibiotics called epoxide in the United States.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, Belarus Pres. Alexander Lukashenko said that his government has thwarted a foreign-inspired plot to destabilize the nation ahead of the August presidential election in which he is seeking a sixth term. Police arrested demonstrators and journalists this evening to break up new protests against Lukashenko, hours after he blamed foreign plotters for fomenting unrest.
    (AP, 6/19/20)(The Telegraph, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, Brazil’s Health Ministry said that total coronavirus cases now stood at 1,032,913, up more than 50,000 from a day earlier.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, British actor Ian Holm (88), best known for his roles in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "Alien", died from a Parkinson's related illness.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, China said the Galwan Valley high up in the Himalayan border region where Chinese and Indian troops engaged in a deadly brawl this week falls entirely within China, boldly renewing claims on the disputed area as the Asian giants continued using military and diplomatic channels to try to reduce tensions.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 19, Egypt appealed for the UN Security Council to intervene in a deepening dispute with Ethiopia over its gigantic Nile dam that Cairo fears would cut its vital water share.
    (AFP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew declared that his country will go ahead and start filling the $4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam next month, even without an agreement.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, A prominent regional leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany won a court injunction against his expulsion from the party. The national leadership of Alternative for Germany, or AfD, last month voted to void the membership of Andreas Kalbitz, its chief in the eastern state of Brandenburg, for failing to disclose his ties to extremist groups. Kalbitz can continue to exercise his rights as a party member and a member of its national leadership until an AfD arbitration committee rules on the matter.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, Wirecard CEO Markus Brown, head of the German payments company, quit the firm. He was soon arrested on suspicion of false accounting and market manipulation.
    (Econ., 6/27/20, p.9)
2020        Jun 19, In Ghana a building inside the Nigerian High Commission compound in Accra was demolished. Armed men reportedly stormed the compound and destroyed buildings under construction. Days later Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo apologized to Nigeria.
    (BBC, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 19, Haiti's government announced that Fritz Gerard Cerisier, an assistant to the government prosecutor, was assassinated in Port-au-Prince. Haiti reported 4,916 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 84 deaths.
    (Miami Herald, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 19, Mumbai-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it has received Indian regulatory approval to make and sell oral antiviral drug favipiravir for treating mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infections in the country.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, In Mali thousands of protesters gathered in the capital, Bamako, calling for Pres. Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (75) to resign because of escalating jihadist and inter-communal violence.
    (BBC, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, Pakistan reported 4,944 new confirmed cases for the coronavirus raising that total to 165,062. The death toll rose by 136 for a total of 3,229.
    (SFC, 6/20/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 19, In Romania exiled Iranian judge Gholamreza Mansouri (52), was found dead after he apparently fell from his hotel room window. He was facing arrest in Germany over the alleged abuse and torture of journalists. Mansouri was also the subject of an extradition request by Iran which had accused him of taking bribes worth half a million pounds.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 19, Spain updated its coronavirus numbers for the first time in nearly two weeks. At least 28,313 people have died with a COVID-19 diagnosis.
    (SFC, 6/20/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 19, Swiss drugmaker Roche said it had mixed results for a late-stage trial of an experimental drug for prostate cancer, missing its goal in the overall population but cutting risk of disease worsening in patients with mutated tumors.
    (Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, The United Nations Human Rights Council condemned discriminatory and violent policing that led to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month and ordered a report be drawn up on "systemic racism" against people of African descent. The Trump administration quit the forum two years ago alleging anti-Israeli bias.
    (Reuters, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, The board of the United Nations' atomic watchdog agency adopted a resolution calling for Iran to provide inspectors access to sites where the country is thought to have stored or used undeclared nuclear material. Russia and China voted against the IAEA resolution.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, UN experts reported that armed groups, criminal networks and some law enforcement agents in Congo are reaping vast sums of money from illegally exploiting gold and other natural resources and smuggling them to Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and the United Arab Emirates.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, The UN Human Rights Council condemned what it called serious human rights violations in Nicaragua and urged President Daniel Ortega to cease such tactics.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, Fiery clashes convulsed Yemen’s remote Socotra archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as an armed unit funded by the United Arab Emirates battled government security forces for control of the island’s capital.
    (AP, 6/19/20)
2020        Jun 19, Zimbabwe's health minister, Obadiah Moyo, was arrested after the government came under pressure from the opposition and on social media over the procurement of coronavirus tests and equipment. He was released on bail after appearing in court on corruption charges. Zimbabwe says it has confirmed nearly 500 virus cases, including four deaths, but the actual number of cases is thought to be higher.
    (BBC, 6/20/20)

2020        Jun 20, President Donald Trump returned to the rally stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma, only to find the venue about two-thirds full, a surprising and undoubtedly disappointing turn of events for a politician who values crowd size. Trump said he's asked his administration to slow down coronavirus testing because robust testing turns up too many cases of COVID-19. Trump's campaign said six staff members helping set up for his rally have tested positive for coronavirus.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, A US federal judge ruled that former national security adviser John Bolton may move forward in publishing his memoir "The Room Where It Happened," while at the same time arguing Bolton's conduct in releasing the book "raises grave national security concerns".
    (Good Morning America, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, Alabama had more than 29,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than a quarter of the cases reported in the last two weeks. Over the past two weeks, Alabama had the second highest number of new cases per capita in the nation.
    (AP, 6/21/20)
2020         Jun 20, California to date had 170,923 cases of coronavirus and 5,425 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 19,068 cases and 525 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,241,023 with the death toll at 119,475.
    (sfist.com, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, In San Francisco a statue of Francis Scott Key was toppled from its pedestal in Golden Gate Park. San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone criticized the pulling down of the Junipero Serra statue in Golden Gate Park. Statues of Serra have been defaced in California for several years by people who said he destroyed tribes and their culture.
    (AP, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 20, An arrest warrant was issued by Atlanta fire officials for a woman accused of setting fire to a Wendy's restaurant on June 13 hours after Rayshard Brooks (27) was seen on surveillance video fatally shot by a police officer. Natalie White (29) was charged with first-degree arson by Atlanta Fire Rescue Department Fire Investigators for torching the Wendy's on University Avenue.
    (AP, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 20, Geoffrey Berman, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, ended his standoff with Attorney General William Barr, stepping down voluntarily after Barr reversed course and named Berman's deputy to lead the powerful US attorney's office.
    (Reuters, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, In Raleigh, North Carolina, crews worked to removed two Confederate statues outside the state Capitol the morning after protesters toppled two nearby statues.
    (SSFC, 6/21/20, p.A8)
2020        Jun 20, In Washington state a pre-dawn shooting in a park in Seattle's "Capitol Hill Occupied Protest" zone killed a 19-year-old man and critically injured another person.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, Anti-racism demonstrators are holding a fourth weekend of protests across the UK, despite a ban on large gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, One in seven Britons live in London, an int'l. travel hub which prior to the pandemic received nearly 1,500 flights a day.
    (Econ., 6/20/20, p.45)
2020        Jun 20, In England three people were killed and three others seriously wounded in a stabbing attack that came out of the blue in Forbury Gardens park in Reading. Unarmed officers from the Thames Valley Police force arrested a local man at the scene. The Press Association named him as Khairi Saadallah (25), a Libyan asylum-seeker. Police soon declared the stabbings a terror attack. Saadallah (25) faced three counts of murder and three of attempted murder over the knife attack.
    (AP, 6/21/20)(AP, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 20, It was reported that China plans to establish a special bureau in Hong Kong to investigate and prosecute crimes considered threatening to national security.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, Chinese officials reported 22 new coronavirus cases in Beijing, along with five others elsewhere in the country. There were no new deaths.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, In CongoDRC Vital Kamerhe, President Felix Tshisekedi's chief of staff, was sentenced to 20 years' hard labor, after facing charges of embezzling almost $50m (£39m) of public funds. The judge presiding over the case was murdered in May. Kamerhe's supporters say the trial is a political move designed to prevent him from standing for president. Co-accused Lebanese businessman Jammal Samih was also sentenced to 20 years in prison.
    (BBC, 6/20/20)(Econ., 6/27/20, p.37)
2020        Jun 20, In France hundreds of people in Paris protested against racism and police violence and in memory of Black men who died following encounters with French police or under suspicious circumstances.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, Germany reported that some 800 workers at one of the country’s largest slaughterhouses were confirmed positive for the coronavirus. Authorities reported 601 new cases over the last 24 hours, following on from 770 the previous day. Earlier in June the number of new cases was as low as 300. The R number, which estimates how many people the average carrier infects, rose to 1.7.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, Guatemala replaced its health minister. The country has reported more than 11,000 coronavirus cases and 449 deaths.
    (SSFC, 6/21/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 20, Indian troops backed by artillery fired on villages along the Pakistani-administered side of Kashmir killing a girl (13) and wounding her mother and brother.
    (SFC, 6/22/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 20, Iranian health authorities announced 115 new deaths from coronavirus raising the country's death toll to 9,507. Another 2,322 new cases of infection brought the confirmed case total to 202,584.
    (AFP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, In Iraq coronavirus infections spiked seven-fold to over 29,000, up from less than 4,000 at the end of May. Deaths also spiked, with over 1,013 killed among the confirmed cases, according to Health Ministry figures.
    (AP, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 20, Mexico reported 4,717 new infections and 387 additional deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the total number in the country to 175,202 cases and 20,781 deaths.
    (Reuters, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, State news agency KCNA said North Korea is gearing up to send propaganda leaflets over its southern border, denouncing North Korean defectors and South Korea.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, In 2021 the UN weather agency said it has certified a 38-degree Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) reading in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk on June 20, 2020, as the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic.
    (AP, 12/14/21)
2020        Jun 20, South Africa reported 5,000 new COVID-19 cases as the country continued to loosen lockdown measures under economic pressure.
    (SSFC, 6/21/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 20, South Korea recorded 67 new coronavirus cases, the largest 24-hour increase in about three weeks. Many cases have been linked to exposure in nightlife outlets.
    (AP, 6/20/20)
2020        Jun 20, Yemen's southern separatists seized control of the strategic island of Socotra, further undermining the government, which is battling to defeat the Huthi rebels firmly entrenched in the north.
    (AFP, 6/21/20)

2020        Jun 21, The World Health Organization reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours. The WHO said Brazil led the way with 54,771 cases tallied and the US next at 36,617. Over 15,400 came in in India.
    (NBC News, 6/21/20)
2020         Jun 21, California to date had 175,449 cases of coronavirus and 5,499 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 19,472 cases and 529 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,271,414 with the death toll at 119,921.
    (sfist.com, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 21, A shooting in a popular Minneapolis nightlife area early today left one man dead and 11 people wounded in a chaotic scene that sent people ducking into restaurants and other businesses for cover. No one was in custody.
    (AP, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 21, Nevada reported 445 more COVID-19 cases. Total cases reached 12,931and 486 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/22/20, p.A3)
2020        Jun 21, In Pennsylvania Amish woman Linda Stoltzfoos (18) was last seen walking home from church in the Bird-in-Hand area of Lancaster County. On July 10 police arrested Justo Smoker (34) on felony kidnapping and misdemeanor false imprisonment charges. Stoltzfoos remained missing.
    (NBC News, 7/12/20)
2020        Jun 21, Police in Richmond, Virginia, declared an unlawful assembly on late today as anti-racism protesters tried to tear down the Confederate-era J.E.B. Stuart statue.
    (Good Morning America, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 21, Police in Germany said 24 people were arested overnight in Stuttgart after a check for drugs sparked attacks on officers and widespread vandalism. 19 officers were reported injured.
    (SFC, 6/22/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 21, It was reported that poaching in India has become increasingly common amid the coronavirus pandemic, as people left jobless turn to wildlife to make money and feed their families. The problem extended into Nepal, southeast Asia and parts of Africa.
    (AP, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 21, Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd. and privately held Hetero Labs gained approval to sell generic versions of Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir in India.
    (Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 21, Iraqi officials sounded the alarm over a surge in virus cases in Baghdad.
    (AP, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 21, Zeev Sternhell (85), a prominent Israeli academic and expert in the study of fascism who issued dire warnings about the state of Israeli democracy, died. Sternhell was an outspoken critic of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians and an opponent to Israel’s settler movement.
    (AP, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 21, Mexican security forces said they arrested members of an organized crime group in a raid in Celeya, Guanajuato state, where they found about one kg of a something resembling methamphetamine and 2 million pesos ($88,000). Among the detainees were Maria "N", Juana "N" and Rosalba "N", alleged financial operators of the criminal organization. Jose "El Marro" Yepez, leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, threatened the government and his arch-foes in highly video messages after his mother was detained. Enraged members of the gang blocked highways and set cars and trucks ablaze along state roads.
    (Reuters, 6/22/20)(SFC, 6/23/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 21, It was reported that the coronavirus is spreading in Pakistan at one of the fastest rates in the world, and its overwhelmed hospitals are turning away patients. But the government is pushing ahead with opening up the country, trying to salvage a near-collapsed economy.
    (AP, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 21, Mutinous soldiers in the Somali capital Mogadishu have blocked roads near the presidential palace in a protest over unpaid salaries. Some of the troops say they haven't been paid in more than a year. Al-Shabab said three of its militants blew up themselves up in a car at a military checkpoint in Bacadweyn town, Galmudug state, killing three soldiers. Separately, two bombs were detonated in front of the home of a military official in Wanlaweyn town, north-west of the capital Mogadishu, killing four people.
    (BBC, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 21, Serbia held parliamentary elections held amid concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. President Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party appeared set for a landslide victory, facing little challenge from the divided opposition.
    (AP, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 21, In Turkey flash floods caused by torrential rains in the northwest left at least five people dead in Kestel, Bursa province.    .
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 21, The UN released a special report expressing concerns over what it called recent “deliberate attacks” against health care workers and facilities in Afghanistan during the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 6/21/20)
2020        Jun 21, Zimbabwean authorities said people who cannot explain where their wealth came from are in danger of having their assets seized even if courts clear them of a corruption allegation. The new operation was called "an intensive lifestyle audit" of the rich.
    (BBC, 6/21/20)

2020        Jun 22, President Donald Trump opened a new front in his fight against mail-in voting, making unsubstantiated assertions that foreign countries will print up millions of bogus ballots to rig the results and create what he called the “scandal of our times”.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, The Trump administration extended a ban on green cards issued outside the United States until the end of the year and added many temporary work visas to the freeze, including those used heavily by technology companies and multinational corporations. Pres. Trump suspended the arrival of new au pairs, along with some other sorts of foreigners, until at least the end of the year.
    (AP, 6/22/20)(Econ., 8/15/20, p.25)
2020        Jun 22, Protesters threw ropes over a statue of President Andrew Jackson near the White House late today and tried to pull it down, in the latest attempt to remove memorials of marred historical figures, including Confederate leaders and Christopher Columbus. Police officers with riot shields and pepper spray confronted the demonstrators in Lafayette Park. The statue remained upright.
    (AP, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 22, Global cases of the novel coronavirus surpassed 9 million, as Brazil and India grappled with a surge in infections, and the United States, China and other hard-hit countries reported new outbreaks.
    (Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, The US Supreme Court placed limits on the Securities and Exchange Commission's practice of forcing defendants to surrender profits obtained through fraud as part of its enforcement of investor-protection laws in federal courts.
    (Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020         Jun 22, California to date had 184,284 cases of coronavirus and 5,559 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 20,103 cases and 537 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,310,334 with the death toll at 120,384.
    (sfist.com, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, Florida reported that over 100,00 people in the state have been diagnosed with the coronavirus infection. More that 3,100 people in the state have died.
    (SFC, 6/23/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 22, It was reported that 14 people, including five children, were killed as more than 100 people were shot in a wave of gunfire in Chicago over the Father’s Day weekend that produced the city’s highest number of shooting victims in a single weekend this year.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, In Maine 4,300 production workers at the Bath Iron Works went on strike after overwhelmingly rejecting the company's final offer.
    (SSFC, 7/26/20, p.A9)
2020        Jun 22, Joel Schumacher (80), American film director, died in New York City. His visually inventive and sometimes subversive movies, including the coming-of-age drama “St. Elmo’s Fire,” the vampire action-comedy “The Lost Boys” and the campy superhero caper “Batman and Robin,” became cultural mile markers of the 1980s and ’90s.
    (NY Times, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 22, Li Zhensheng (79), photographer and chronicler of China's Cultural Revolution, died in Long Island, New York.
    (Econ., 7/4/20, p.82)
2020        Jun 22, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that officials will work with community leaders and Black-led organizations to amicably dismantle the protester-occupied streets near Cal Anderson Park in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood.
    (Good Morning America, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 22, It was reported that a nursing home owned by Life Care Centers of America Inc has fired one nurse and banned another from the premises after the two were quoted in a Reuters investigation detailing horrific conditions, a staff exodus and a botched management response to the facility’s deadly COVID-19 outbreak. Life Care terminated Nurse Colleen Lelievre last week after managers at the Littleton, Massachusetts, home accused her of making clerical errors involving narcotics for residents. Nurse Lisa Harmon said a manager barred her from the building on June 12 without explaining why.
    (Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, It was reported that the bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt, on horseback and flanked by a Native American man and an African man, which has presided over the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History in New York since 1940, is coming down.
    (NY Times, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, In North Carolina two people were killed and seven others were wounded in an early morning shooting at an "impromptu block party" on Beatties Ford Road in northern Charlotte.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, The encrypted instant messenger Telegram said it's ramping up efforts to develop anti-censorship technologies serving users in countries where it is banned or partially blocked, including China and Iran.
    (TechCrunch, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, In Afghanistan gunmen opened fire on a car belonging to the Afghan attorney general's office killing five people.
    (SFC, 6/23/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 22, The African Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that the continent now has 306,567 confirmed cases of the coronavirus including 8,115 deaths. South Africa accounted for nearly a third of the cases.
    (SFC, 6/23/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 22, Austria broke ground on a new memorial to the country's 65,000 Jews killed during the Nazi era. “The Memorial to the Jewish Children, Women and Men of Austria who were Murdered in the Shoah” being erected in Vienna's central Ostarrichi Park will consist of large slabs set in the ground in a circle, engraved with the names of the 64,000 victims who have been identified.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, French movie fans ventured back into cinemas for the first time since the COVID-19 lockdown, helped by a new safety feature: minions placed at intervals in the seats to ensure social distancing is observed.
    (Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, Wirecard acknowledged that €1.9 billion ($2.1 billion) in cash included in financial statements, roughly a quarter of its assets, probably never existed in the first place. The company withdrew its preliminary results for 2019, the first quarter of 2020 and its profit forecast for 2020. A day later prosecutors announced that Wirecard CEO Markus Brown has been arrested.
    (https://tinyurl.com/ycuu9s9a)
2020        Jun 22, Hong Kong reported 30 imported new coronavirus cases, taking the number of cases in the city to 1,162.
    (Reuters, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, India reported a record number of new coronavirus cases and a death toll of more than 400 people in the past 24 hours as foreign embassies warned their citizens in the country that hospitals might not have beds for them. 14,821 new cases brought India's total to more than 425,000. Nearly 14,000 people in India have now died from the disease caused by the virus since the country reported its first case in January.
    (Reuters, 6/22/20)(SFC, 6/23/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 22, Iran's health ministry announced 119 new coronavirus deaths and another 2,573 cases of infection. That takes the overall toll to over 9,742 dead out of more than 207,500 cases in the outbreak. The Iranian rial plunged to new depths against the US dollar in what economists said was a slump partly induced by the Middle East's deadliest coronavirus outbreak.
    (AFP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, Iranian security forces arrested Sharmin Meimandinejad, the founder of the influential Imam Ali’s Popular Students Relief Society, and two of his aides, and sealed the group’s offices in Tehran.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, In northern Iraq dozens of civilians fled villages as Turkey stepped up a military campaign targeting Kurdish rebels that has drawn condemnation from Iraqi officials.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, Israeli company Sonovia said it expects that a fabric it has developed will be able to neutralize close to 99% of the coronavirus, even after being washed multiple times, following a successful lab test. Israel has reported over 20,000 confirmed cases and at least 305 deaths.
    (Reuters, 6/22/20)(SFC, 6/22/20, p.A3)
2020        Jun 22, In Lebanon political activist Kinda El-Khatib, who was detained last week, was charged with collaborating with Israel and referred to a military prosecutor.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, Amnesty International said sophisticated telephone surveillance software appears to have been used to spy on a journalist-activist in Morocco, in a continuing crackdown on dissent in the North African kingdom.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, Dutch police arrested six men after discovering sea containers that had been converted into a makeshift prison and sound-proofed “torture chamber” complete with a dentist's chair, tools including pliers and scalpels and handcuffs. The arrests followed investigations code-named 26Lemont.
    (AP, 7/7/20)
2020        Jun 22, North Korea said it has readied thousands of balloons and millions of leaflets in preparation for "retaliatory punishment" against South Korea.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, A Russian military court convicted two members of a left-wing youth group of terrorism in a case that human rights groups called fabricated and based on coerced testimony. A three-judge panel in the court in St. Petersburg found Victor Filinkov (25) and Yuly Boyarshinov (28) guilty of membership in a terrorist organization. Filinkov was handed a seven-year prison term, while Boyarshinov, who was also found guilty of possession of explosives, was sentenced to five and a half years behind bars.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, Saudi Arabia said it will drastically limit the number of pilgrims to this year’s hajj, with only Saudis and foreign nationals already in the kingdom allowed to take part.
    (NY Times, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 22, The Saudi-led coalition announced that Emirati-backed southern separatists and the country’s internationally recognized government have agreed to a cease-fire after months of infighting. The agreement aims to close the rift between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, nominal allies in a war against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, In South Africa a strike by minibus taxi drivers over what they say is inadequate coronavirus relief funds has disrupted the return of scores of thousands of people to work. The minibus taxis have been restricted in the hours they can work the number of passengers they can carry due to the coronavirus lockdown.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, A South Korean group launched hundreds of thousands of leaflets by balloon across the border into North Korea late today, despite repeated warnings from the North that it will retaliate against such actions. Activist park Sang-hak said his organization flew huge balloons carrying 500,000 leaflets, 2,000 one-dollar bills and small books into North Korea.
    (AP, 6/22/20)(SFC, 6/24/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 22, The main al-Qaida-linked group in Syria detained Jamal Zeina, better known as Abu Malek al-Tali, one of its own former commanders who had defected and set up his own hard-line outfit earlier this year after coming out against a cease-fire.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, The UN says the coronavirus outbreak in South Sudan is growing rapidly, with nearly 1,900 cases, including more than 50 health workers infected, more than 30 deaths and no way to know the true number of infections.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, Venezuela accused the US of blocking its ability to pay over $21 million in dues to the UN causing the loss of its voting rights in the General Assembly.
    (AP, 6/22/20)
2020        Jun 22, Yemen's Houthi rebels launched ballistic missiles and bomb-laden drones in an attack on Saudi Arabia. All were reportedly destroyed by Saudi air defenses.
    (AP, 6/22/20)

2020        Jun 23, President Donald Trump said he will issue an executive order regarding U.S. historical monuments, as the movement to remove memorials that activists consider racist gains momentum, part of wider national protests over racial injustice.
    (Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, Pres. Donald Trump visited Yuma, Arizona, to mark the completion of the 200th mile of the border wall system.
    (SFC, 6/23/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 23, The Trump administration won a legal victory yesterday when a US District Court sided against hospital groups that had challenged new rules requiring them to disclose the prices they negotiate with insurers. Those rates have long been considered trade secrets, and critics of the new policy fear the ruling with further strain the already struggling hospital industry.
    (Wall Street Journal, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 23, The United States recorded the second-largest increase in coronavirus cases since the health crisis began, with a rise of 35,588 new infections. A dozen states saw infections surge.
    (Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 23, Major League Baseball announced a 60-game season this year, kicking off on July 23 or 24.
    (NY Times, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 23, A “statement of recommitment” issued by the Alabama Department of Archives and History said the state agency was founded in 1901, the year Alabama's current Constitution was approved, to both preserve records and promote “lost cause” ideals favored by Southern whites.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020         Jun 23, California to date had 191,372 cases of coronavirus and 5,618 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 20,857 cases and 538 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,347,022 with the death toll at 121,228.
    (sfist.com, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, Kentucky held its Democratic Senate primary to decide who will face Mitch McConnell. Amy McGrath, a former fighter pilot led Charles Booker, a 35-year-old black state representative. Only one polling place was designated for Louisville, a city of 600,000 people.
    (NY Times, 6/23/20)(AP, 6/23/20)(NY Times, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 23, The Louisville Metro police department said it has fired Officer Brett Hankison, one of the police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, more than three months after the 26-year-old Black woman was killed in her home.
    (AP, 6/23/20)(SFC, 6/25/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 23, Martins Friday Inalegwu and Steincy Mathieu both of Maple Shade, New Jersey, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. The couple helped run an international romance scam that used bogus profiles on dating websites to woo dozens of victims into giving up more than $6 million.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 23, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., won renomination, cementing her rise from obscurity to progressive icon status when she ousted Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley, on track to become speaker, from the New York City district.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 23, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee ordered residents to wear face masks in public as officials across the country sought new means to control the coronavirus pandemic while easing clamp-downs on residents and reopening the economy.
    (Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, Turmoil unfolded late today outside the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison as protesters allegedly attacked a state senator, smashed windows and toppled two historic statues.
    (Good Morning America, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 23, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said it has received $71 million from the US Department of Defense (DoD) to scale up production of the company's devices that are used to administer its experimental COVID-19 vaccine into the skin.
    (Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, Researchers reported that a trial in pigs of AstraZeneca's experimental COVID-19 vaccine has found that two doses of the shot produced a greater antibody response than a single dose.
    (Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said it has won approval to run a large-scale "Phase 3" clinical trial of its novel coronavirus vaccine candidate in the UAE.
    (Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, China successfully put into orbit its final Beidou satellite, completing a navigation network years in the making and setting the stage to challenge the US-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).
    (Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, In Egypt Sanaa Seif, the youngest sister of activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, was taken into custody outside the public prosecutor's headquarters in Cairo. The public prosecutor’s office issued a statement saying it had ordered her arrest pending an investigation into charges that she "broadcast fake news and rumors about the country's deteriorating health conditions and the spread of the coronavirus in prisons," among a slew of other charges.
    (AP, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, A letter signed by more than a thousand European lawmakers protesting Israel’s planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank was published. It said such a move would “be fatal” to hopes for a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 23, Germany banned a neo-Nazi group and ordered police raids against its members. Nordadler, or Northern Eagles, is the third far-Right organization to be banned this year under a crackdown by Horst Seehofer, the interior minister.
    (The Telegraph, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, In Germany Guetersloh becoming the first area in the country to be ordered back into lockdown. More than 1,500 workers at the Guetersloh meatpacking plant have tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. Meat-processing plants around the world have proven to be coronavirus infection hotspots.
    (AP, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, Indian drugmaker Cipla Ltd said it will price its generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc's antiviral drug remdesivir for use in COVID-19 patients at less than 5,000 rupees ($66).
    (AP, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, In southern India a father and son died while in police custody. The father had been arrested three days earlier for flouting coronavirus rules by keeping his mobile phone shop open past curfew. The son went to check on him and both were severly beaten. Ten police officers were later arrested following a feceral investigation and charged with murder.
    (SFC, 8/18/20, p.A3)
2020        Jun 23, Iran reported 121 new coronavirus deaths, its highest daily toll in over two months, as it battles to contain the Middle East's deadliest COVID-19 outbreak. 2,445 people had tested positive for COVID in the past 24 hours, raising the country's caseload to 209,970. The new fatalities brought the overall virus death toll to 9,863.
    (AP, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, Israel's parliament approved a request by PM Benjamin Netanyahu for tax exemptions for official benefits that could exceed $150,000. Opposition lawmakers blasted the committee for granting the tax rebates, both for the timing and the lack of transparency.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 23, Kazakhstan has reported almost 29,000 COVID-19 cases, up from about 5,000 at the end of the lockdown. Almaty's the city's healthcare chief said the city may convert two sports arenas into COVID-19 hospitals as existing facilities for patients with suspected and confirmed cases are nearly full.
    (Reuters, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov abandoned plans to attend the Moscow 75th anniversary Victory Day parade when two members of his delegation tested positive for the virus after arriving in Moscow. He and the delegation returned to Kyrgyzstan and the president went into self-isolation. The parade for the May 9 Victory Day, Russia’s most important secular holiday, was postponed to June 24 due to the pandemic.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 23, Malawians voted in a re-run election a year on from President Peter Mutharika's disputed victory that was annulled nearly five months ago. On June 26 state broadcaster MBC said opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera is leading with 59% of the vote.
    (BBC, 6/23/20)(BBC, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 23, Mexico’s southern coast was shaken by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake, which was followed by more than 140 aftershocks. Small villages in the Oaxaca region were isolated by rockfalls on mountain roads. At least 10 people were reported killed.
    (AP, 6/23/20)(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.B10)
2020        Jun 23, A Palestinian driver died after he was shot by an Israeli policeman at a checkpoint in the West Bank in what police said was an attempted attack on Israeli military personnel. The family of Ahmed Erekat (27) cast doubt on the police account, saying he was planning to get married next week and had no reason to attack Israeli security forces. In 2021 an international research group examining the fatal shooting challenged Israeli self-defense claims, saying the man had emerged from his car after it crashed into a checkpoint, did not approach troops and was instantly shot six times.
    (AP, 6/23/20)(AP, 2/26/21)
2020        Jun 23, International donors pledged over $130 million to the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees, an amount the organization's head says is encouraging but not enough to keep operations running through the end of the year.
    (AP, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, In Somalia a suicide bomber detonated inside a Turkish military training base in Mogadishu and killed two people. The al-Shabab extremist group claimed responsibility.
    (AP, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, The Spanish foundation that organizes the annual Princess of Asturias awards said that the 2020 prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation will go to mathematicians Yves Meyer, Ingrid Daubechies, Terence Tao and Emmanuel Candes for theories that have improved the compression of large digital files of data, including images and sound.
    (AP, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, Syria’s foreign minister accused the United States of allegedly “seeking to starve the people” of Syria by imposing new sanctions and opening the door for “terrorism" to return to the war-torn country.
    (AP, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, Tanzania authorities arrested Zitto Kabwe (b.1976), an opposition MP, for holding an unlawful assembly. He was released the following day. Kabwe had been arrested before for questioning GDP numbers.
    (https://tinyurl.com/y64gpfqk)(Econ., 7/25/20, p.10)
2020        Jun 23, Turkish authorities allowed a group of top lawyers to continue a symbolic march into the capital of Ankara to protest the government's plans to amend laws regulating lawyers and bar associations, including the way the associations elect leaders, ending a more than 24-hour standoff between the lawyers and police.
    (AP, 6/23/20)
2020        Jun 23, Vietnam said Hong Kong-based power tool manufacturer Techtronic Industries will invest an additional $650 million in Ho Chi Minh City to produce cordless appliances.
    (Reuters, 6/23/20)

2020        Jun 24, A US federal appeals court in a 2-1 decision ordered the dismissal of the criminal case against President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, even though Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, The US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the Trump administration can deport some people seeking asylum without allowing them to make their case to a federal judge.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 24, The United States doubled to $10 million its reward for the capture of Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli (b.1976), the supremo of the Islamic State movement.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 24, The US Democratic National Committee said in a statement that official business, including the votes to nominate Biden and his yet-to-be-named running mate, will take place virtually on Aug. 17-20, with delegates being asked not to travel to Milwaukee.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, The US recorded 36,880 coronavirus cases, the highest single-day total so far. While some of that reflects an increase in testing, the virus really is spreading more rapidly than it was several weeks ago. The University of Washington computer model of the outbreak projected nearly 180,000 US deaths by Oct. 1.
    (NY Times, 6/25/20)(AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 24, Tucson, Arizona, police Chief Chris Magnus offered his resignation. This came the day after it was announced that Carlos Ingram-Lopez (27) had died on April 21 while handcuffed and placed face-down, resulting in the resignation of three officers.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020         Jun 24, California to date had 194,726 cases of coronavirus and 5,713 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 21,325 cases and 543 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,378,648 with the death toll at 121,932.
    (sfist.com, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, In Florida coronavirus cases skyrocketed by 5,500. The state began reopening its economy last month.
    (SFC, 6/25/20, p.A7)
2020        Jun 25, Chicago police found the bruised body of Frederick Johnson, a schizophrenic man, in the South Side garage of caretakers Santino Carter (38) and Dominique Beck (29). He died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries. In November the couple and Brian Gray (48) were charged with murder in the man's torture and slaying.
    (AP, 11/26/20)
2020        Jun 24, Minnesota AG Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit against the American Petroleum Institute, Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries for violating state laws barring consumer fraud, deceptive trade practices and false advertising.
    (Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 24, The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced that visitors from states with high coronavirus infection rates must self-quarantine for 14 days on arrival.
    (Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, The South Carolina city of Charleston continued removing a symbol of its legacy, sending crews to take away a statue honoring John C. Calhoun (d.1850), an early US vice president whose zealous defense of slavery led the nation toward civil war. The Calhoun Monument had stood since 1898 in the heart of downtown Charleston.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, Wisconsin Gov. Tom Evers activated the National Guard to protect state properties following a night of violence in Madison.
    (SFC, 6/25/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 24, Bayer AG agreed to pay as much as $10.9 billion to settle as many as 125,000 lawsuits by US Roundup users who say the herbicide caused them to develop a form of blood cancer.
    (Reuters, 6/24/20)(SFC, 6/25/20, p.C1)
2020        Jun 24, BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc, a US-Israeli company, said it will begin a clinical trial of its experimental stem cell treatment in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
    (Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, It was reported that CVS Health Corp has begun selling companies a diagnostic testing program. CVS also will offer symptom screenings, flu vaccines and other immunizations and add-on services like contact tracing for employees exposed to the virus.
    (Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, Fulcrum Therapeutics Inc said it has started the late-stage trial of its experimental muscle disorder drug, losmapimod, in adults hospitalized with COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, Segway Corp. said it will be retiring its Segway PT on July 15. The New Hampshire-based personal transporter company, founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1999, was sold to British millionaire Jim Heselden in 2009. Heseldon (62) died ten months after buying the company when he careened off a 30-foot cliff while riding a Segway near his country estate. Since 2015, Segway has been owned by the Chinese company Ninebot.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_Heselden)(SFC, 6/25/20, p.C3)
2020        Jun 24, Africa's first participation in a COVID-19 vaccine trial started today as volunteers received injections developed at the University of Oxford in Britain. The large-scale trial is being conducted in South Africa, Britain and Brazil.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, Cambodia's PM Hun Sen announced that the government would spend $25 million on cash transfers to 560,000 households identified as the poorest in the country to alleviated financial burdens due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (SFC, 6/25/20, p.A7)
2020        Jun 24, China's Canton Fair, the world's biggest trade show, ended a 10-day run held entirely online.
    (Econ., 6/27/20, p.62)
2020        Jun 24, The Czech Republic recorded 127 cases of the new coronavirus. The country of 10.7 million has recorded 10,780 cases of the disease and 344 deaths.
    (Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 24, Indian authorities launched a massive coronavirus survey taking down health details from New Delhi's entire population of 29 million, and testing everyone with symptoms by July 6. In the past 24 hours, 3,788 new cases were confirmed in Delhi, compared to 1,118 in Mumbai.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 24, Mexico's health ministry reported 947 new deaths from the coronavirus and 5,437 new cases.
    (Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 24, Mongolia held parliamentary elections. The Mongolian People's Party (MPP) secured 62 of 76 seats, marking the first time a single party has retained an absolute majority in consecutive elections.
    (SFC, 6/25/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 24, A Hague-based tribunal said Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has been charged with 10 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the country's conflict in the 1990s. Prosecutors at the Kosovo Specialist Court (KSC) laid the charges on April 24, but decided to unveil them publicly two months later.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, It was reported that police in Nigeria have rescued more than 100 people they say were locked in a rice-processing factory and forced to work throughout a coronavirus lockdown. Five managers at the Indian-owned mill have been arrested.
    (BBC, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, North Korea said it will 'postpone' plans for military action against South Korea.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, Pakistan's aviation minister Ghulam Sarqar Khan said 262 out of 860 Pakistani pilots had "fake" licenses. The following day Pakistan Int'l. Airlines (PIA) said it will ground 150 pilots accusing them of obtaining licenses by having others take exams for them.
    (SFC, 6/26/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over a long-awaited military blowout to celebrate 75 years since Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II. Authorities in at least 20 cities have canceled their Victory Day parades outright, citing concerns over the coronavirus epidemic. Russia reported 7,176 new cases of the coronavirus, pushing its nationwide case total to 606,881, the world's third highest tally.
    (NBC News, 6/24/20)(Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, Saudi officials effectively canceled this year’s hajj, one day after restricting the journey to people already in the country. Because of the coronavirus, only about 1,000 people will be permitted to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, compared with the 2.5 million who did so last year.
    (NY Times, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, Sicily's regional leader Nello Musumeci said dozens of migrants rescued in the Mediterranean have tested positive for the new coronavirus while held in a quarantine ship off the southern Italian coast.
    (Reuters, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, The remains of 147 South Korean soldiers killed in the Korean War were sent back to their homeland from Hawaii, where they were previously sent by the North following their discovery over the past three decades.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, Syrian air defenses responded to Israeli attacks on military posts in a central province early today, shortly after similar attacks in the south killed two soldiers.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, A small-scale miner in Tanzania became an overnight millionaire after selling two rough Tanzanite stones - the biggest ever find in the country. Saniniu Laizer earned £2.4m ($3.4m) from the country's mining ministry for the gemstones, which had a combined weight of 15kg (33 lb). Tanzanite, one of the rarest gemstones on Earth, is only found in northern Tanzania and is used to make ornaments.
    (BBC, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 24, In Turkey seven journalists went on trial, accused of revealing state secrets for their reports on the funeral of an intelligence officer who was killed last February in Libya.
    (AP, 6/24/20)
2020        Jun 24, The United Nations and the Arab League joined in calling for Israel to abandon its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
    (AFP, 6/24/20)

2020        Jun 25, The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court late today to overturn the Affordable Care Act. If successful, the move would end health-insurance coverage for as many as 23 million Americans. The US Department of Justice submitted a legal brief to the Supreme Court arguing that the 2010 Affordable Care Act was invalidated in 2017 when Congress, under GOP control at the time, took away financial penalties for being uninsured.
    (NY Times, 6/26/20)(AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 25, The US Dept. of Labor said 1.48 million people were seeking unemployment benefits marking the 14th straight week of new claims above 1 million.
    (SFC, 6/26/20, p.D1)
2020        Jun 25, US officials estimated that 20 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus since it first arrived in the United States, meaning that the vast majority of the population remains susceptible.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, The US CDC reported that pregnant women are more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit and to be put on mechanical ventilators than non-pregnant women.
    (Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020         Jun 25, California to date had 201,036 cases of coronavirus and 5,804 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 22,038 cases and 557 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,422,310 with the death toll at 124,416.
    (sfist.com, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, The attorney general for the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc, Chevron Corp, and Royal Dutch Shell Plc for "systematically and intentionally misleading" consumers about the role their products play in causing climate change.
    (Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, Officials with the Mississippi Health Department took to Facebook to warn of an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the state.
    (Good Morning America, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 25, In Missouri Rapper Huey (32), best known known for the 2007 hit song "Pop, Lock & Drop It," was fatally shot and another man wounded during a late-night shooting outside St. Louis.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 25, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he is pausing any further phases of reopening as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations increase in the state. Abbott again halted elective surgeries in the state's biggest counties in a bid to free up hospital beds. Texas reported more than 11,000 new cases in the past two days.
    (Good Morning America, 6/25/20)(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A9)
2020        Jun 25, CEC Entertainment, the parent company of Chuck E. Cheese, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, saddled by a huge pile of debt and dismal sales because of lockdowns across the country.
    (Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, LabCorp said it has launched a new test that could assess the capacity of antibodies in patient plasma to inhibit the novel coronavirus.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, Moderna Inc said it was partnering with contract drugmaker Catalent Inc to prepare an initial 100 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine for the United States, starting in the third quarter of this year.
    (Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, Symantec Corp., a division of Broadcom, reported that Russian hackers had exploited the sudden change in American work habits to inject code into corporate networks with a speed and breadth not previously witnessed.
    (NY Times, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 25, Unilever, a British-Dutch consumer products giant, said it is aiming for a “more inclusive vision of beauty” in its skin care products and will remove words such as “fair,” “whitening” and “lightening” from its products, a move that comes amid intense global debate about race sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, A study of residents in the Alpine ski resort of Ischgl, the site of Austria's biggest coronavirus outbreak, has found 42% have antibodies for the virus, the highest rate ever proven.
    (Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, Belgian police arrested 10 people suspected of smuggling migrants into Britain during a major operation linked to a cross-border investigation into human trafficking.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, China reported 19 newly confirmed cases nationwide amid mass testing in the capital.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, In Colombia seven soldiers were charged in the rape of an indigenous girl (13). All seven pleaded guilty.
    (SFC, 6/27/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 25, Eastern Congo marked an official end to the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which killed 2,280 people over nearly two years, as armed rebels and community mistrust undermined the promise of new vaccines. No new cases of the disease have been reported in the north-east of the country, where dozens of armed groups operate, since 27 April. However, DR Congo is dealing a fresh Ebola outbreak in the north-west of the country.
    (AP, 6/25/20)(BBC, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, The Ethiopia-based Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the continent's COVID-19 cases have surged to more than 336,000, up by 10,000 from a day earlier.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, In France the Eiffel Tower reopened to visitors after its longest-ever closure in peace time: 104 days.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
 2020        Jun 25, Wirecard, a German payments company, filed for insolvency, shortly after the arrest of its former CEO Markus Brown on suspicion of market manipulation and false accounting practices. The firm claimed that more than $2 billion had disappeared from its balance sheet and falsely claimed that the missing cash was in the Philippines.
    (Business Insider, 6/27/20)(Econ., 6/27/20, p.9)
2020        Jun 25, Hungary said it has lost 120,000 to 130,000 jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. The cabinet expected the economy to contract by 3% this year.
    (Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, India said it will carry out a survey for the coronavirus targeting the 29 million population of New Delhi, to be completed by July 6. India registered another record high of 16,922 cases, taking the total to 473,105.
    (AP, 6/25/20)(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A9)
2020        Jun 25, Maharashtra, India's richest state, banned a "spurious" coronavirus treatment manufactured by a company founded by popular yoga guru, which he says has a 100% record in curing patients. Baba Ramdev, co-founder of Patanjali and a household name in India, launched Coronil to much fanfare on June 23, but hit a roadblock when New Delhi and some state governments expressed skepticism.
    (Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, In eastern India lightning killed 23 people and injured 10 others during thunderstorms and heavy rain in Bihar state.
    (SFC, 6/26/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 25, Indonesia exceeded the 50,000 mark for confirmed infections as the government allowed businesses to reopen amid increasing economic pressures.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, Iran announced 134 new deaths from the novel coronavirus took the overall toll in the Middle East's deadliest outbreak to 10,130. Another 2,595 people tested positive for the virus in the last 24-hours, bringing the country's overall caseload to 215,096.
    (AFP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, A study published by Justice for Iran and the International Federation for Human Rights said Iranian state television has broadcast the suspected coerced confessions of at least 355 people over the last decade as a means to both suppress dissent and frighten activists in the Islamic Republic on behalf of security services.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, Iraq registered 2,437 new coronavirus cases and 107 deaths, setting new records in a country whose health sector had been bracing itself for such a spike. This brought the total in the country to over 39,000 the total death toll to 1,437.
    (AFP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, Israel and the United Arab Emirates said they will cooperate in the fight against the coronavirus, a possible boost to Israeli efforts to normalize relations with Gulf Arab countries.
    (Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 25, Japan's National Security Council endorsed plans to cancel the deployment of two $4.1 billion land-based US missile defense systems. The Aegis Ashore systems had been aimed at bolstering Japan's capability against threats from North Korea.
    (SFC, 6/26/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 25, Kazakhstan's health minister resigned, saying COVID-19 complications prevented him from leading efforts against the coronavirus outbreak. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kazakhstan has nearly tripled this month to 32,000, with 136 deaths.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, The Peruvian government said it had struck an agreement with the country's private health clinics on the cost of COVID-19 care. A day earlier President Martin Vizcarra warned they would be expropriated within 48 hours if negotiations did not progress. Peru has reported 264,689 confirmed cases and 8,586 deaths.
    (Reuters, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, Portugal reported 311 new cases of the coronavirus, 222 of them in the Lisbon metropolitan area. Since emerging on May 2 from a state of emergency and 45-day lockdown, the country has recorded an average of 275 new cases a day.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, Russians began casting early ballots in a nationwide vote on controversial constitutional reforms that could keep President Vladimir Putin in power until 2036. Election officials opened polling stations in the lead-up to the official voting day on July 1 to reduce the risk of overcrowding that could spread the coronavirus infection.
    (AfP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, South Africa's Minerals Council said the mining industry has recorded 1,796 cases of COVID-19 with six deaths, as mines ramp up after an extended shutdown. The country has seen 2,205 deaths from COVID-19.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, South Korea reported 28 new coronavirus cases, mostly associated with nightlife, churches, a huge e-commerce warehouse and door-to-door sales.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, The international community pledged $1.8 billion at a conference to drum up support for Sudan, in an effort to help the northeast African country battle economic woes after the ousting of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir.
    (AFP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warned that without massive financial support, Yemen will “fall off the cliff,” with many more people starving to death, succumbing to COVID-19, dying of cholera and watching their children die because they haven’t been immunized for killer diseases.
    (AP, 6/25/20)
2020        Jun 25, The UN said the abandoned FSO Safer oil tanker moored off the coast of Yemen loaded with more than 1 million barrels of crude oil is at risk of rupture or exploding, causing massive environmental damage to Red Sea marine life, desalination factories and international shipping routes. The ship has been in the hands of the Houthis since 2015.
    (AP, 6/25/20)(Econ., 10/3/20, p.39)
2020        Jun 25, In southern Yemen fierce fighting continued between Emirati-backed separatists and the country’s internationally recognized government, a blow to the Saudi-led coalition's declared ceasefire between the factions.
    (AP, 6/25/20)

2020        Jun 26, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to withhold federal funding from local governments that don’t stop statue desecration.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, The US government's coronavirus task force briefed the public for the first time since April. VP Pence announced that 16 states were seeing worrisome increases, as the number of confirmed new coronavirus infections per day in the US rose to more than 45,000.
    (AP, 6/27/20)(Reuters, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 26, The US House of Representatives approved statehood for Washington, DC. The bill passed on party lines, with Democrats voting in favor and Republicans against it. The House bill would designate a small downtown area, mostly government buildings, as the new national capital. It was expected to die in the Republican-controlled Senate. In a 2016 referendum 86 percent of DC residents voted in favor of statehood.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, A US federal judge ordered the release of children held with their parents in US immigration jails and denounced the Trump administration’s prolonged detention of families during the coronavirus pandemic.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, A US federal appeals court ruled against the Trump administration in its transfer of $2.5 billion from military construction projects to build sections of the US border wall with Mexico, ruling it illegally sidestepped Congress, which gets to decide how to use the funds.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, The US Supreme Court sided with Republican state officials in Texas and refused to allow broader mail-in voting in the state, leaving in place a lower court ruling blocking the expansion sought by Democrats amid the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, The US State Department imposed its first wave of visa restrictions against Chinese officials in retaliation for Beijing's policies in Hong Kong.
    (South China Morning Post, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 26, Attorney General William Barr ordered the establishment of a task force to counter what he called "anti-government extremists" committing violence as protests against police brutality convulse the United States.
    (Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, The Federal Trade Commission approved Eldorado Resorts Inc acquisition of Caesars Entertainment Corp. The $17.3 billion buyout will create the world's biggest casino company. In July New Jersey regulators agreed to the deal.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldorado_Resorts)(SSFC, 7/19/20, p.D1)
2020        Jun 26, Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. (82), the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in the Sept. 15, 1963, Alabama church bombing, died at Donaldson prison. The bombing killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020         Jun 26, California to date had 206,654 cases of coronavirus and 5,865 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 22,532 cases and 562 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,467,837 with the death toll at 125,039.
    (sfist.com, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, Florida banned alcohol consumption at its bars after its daily confirmed coronavirus cases neared 9,000.
    (SFC, 6/27/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 26, Georgia state Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation allowing additional penalties to be imposed for crimes motivated by a victim's race, sexual orientation or other factors.
    (SFC, 6/27/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 26, In Illinois Michael L. Collins (48), suspected of fatally shooting two coworkers and critically wounding another at Bunn-O-Matic facility in Springfield, died after apparently shooting himself. The third victim died the next day.
    (AP, 6/26/20)(SFC, 6/29/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 26, Louisiana reported a jump of over 1,300 cases of the coronavirus. Total confirmed cases rose to 54,769. The death toll rose by 26 for a total of 3,077.
    (SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A11)
2020        Jun 26, The Minneapolis City Council voted on a proposal to change the city charter to allow elimination of the city's police department, a radical move supported by a majority of the council after George Floyd's death but far from assured.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, A US federal judge blocked New York state from enforcing coronavirus restrictions limiting indoor religious gatherings to 25% capacity when other types of gatherings are limited to 50%.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, Nevada ended a two-year legal battle with the US Energy Department over the secret shipment of weapons-grade plutonium to a site near Las Vegas. The state's lawyers said they would drop their lawsuit after the federal government agreed to remove the highly radioactive material already trucked there and abandon any future plans to send more.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order limiting certain businesses as the state's positivity rate soared above 10%.
    (Good Morning America, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, In Texas seven people were killed and three injured in a car crash in El Paso. Border Patrol agents had tried to stop a car carrying 9 passengers. The vehicle fled and crashed into a semitrailer.
    (SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A12)
2020        Jun 26, Amazon announced that it is buying Bay Area self-driving startup Zoox. The price tag was reported to be $1.2 billion.
    (SFC, 6/27/20, p.C1)
2020        Jun 26, Facebook said that it will flag all "newsworthy" posts from politicians that break its rules, including those of Pres. Donald Trump.
    (SFC, 6/27/20, p.C1)
2020        Jun 26, The World Health Organization's chief scientist said Astrazeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate is probably the world's leading candidate and most advanced in terms of development. Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine candidate was not far behind.
    (Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, ASEAN leaders held their annual summit by video, with the coronavirus pandemic and the long-raging territorial disputes high on the agenda.
    (AP, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 26, Australian intelligence officers and police raided the home and office of New South Wales opposition state legislator Shaoquett Moselmane as part of an investigation into alleged Chinese influence operations.
    (The Telegraph, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, In Bangladesh four suspected members of a Rohingya group allegedly involved in kidnapping for ransom were killed in a gunfight near the Rohingya migrant camps at Cox's Bazar. Gang leader Abdul Hakim remained at large.
    (SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 26, Britain's official death toll from confirmed COVID-19 cases rose by 186 to 43,414.
    (Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, A court in Denmark sentenced a Norwegian man (40) of Iranian descent to seven years in prison after he was found guilty of spying for Iran and being accessory to attempts to commit murder on Danish soil.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, The International Monetary Fund approved another $5.2 billion loan for Egypt, to be added to the $2.8 billion the fund had already promised to stave off the pandemic’s worst economic effects.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, A panel of the European health regulator recommended approving Vertex Pharmaceuticals' triple-combination treatment for cystic fibrosis (CF), a rare, deadly genetic disorder that causes the build-up of thick mucus in some body parts.
    (Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, India confirmed 17,296 new coronavirus infections bringing its total to 490,401. Another 407 deaths brought that total to 15,301.
    (SFC, 6/27/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 26, Iraqi security forces interrogated pro-Iran fighters detained for planning a rocket attack in the first such raid in a country caught in the tug-of-war between Tehran and Washington. Fourteen Kataeb fighters were arrested the previous evening.
    (AFP, 6/26/20)(SFC, 6/27/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 26, Japan recorded more than 100 new infections for the first time since May 9, hitting its highest daily total since it eased a lockdown.
    (Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, It was reported that Japanese startup Donut Robotics has developed an internet-connected "smart mask" that can transmit messages and translate from Japanese into eight other languages.
    (Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, It was reported that Kenyan police have killed three people when a crowd of motorcycle taxi drivers protested against the arrest of a colleague for ignoring coronavirus restrictions. Kenya has 5,384 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 132 people have died.
    (BBC, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, In Mexico dozens of gunmen believed tied to the hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel deployed for a complex, multi-point dawn ambush meant to kill Mexico City police Chief Omar García Harfuch (37). Garcia was shot in the shoulder, collar bone and the knee but was reported out of danger. Two of his bodyguards and a woman driving by were killed. Police rounded up a dozen of the shooters, who were hauled off for questioning.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, In the Philippines protesters staged a march without a permit to demand government aid for poor workers and drivers displaced by a months-long coronavirus lockdown. 20 protesters were arrested.
    (SFC, 7/1/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 26, Russia reported 6,800 new coronavirus cases, the first daily rise below 7,000 since late April, taking its nationwide tally of infections to 620,794.
    (Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, In Scotland a suspected attacker was shot dead by police in Glasgow. One police officer was stabbed and five people were hospitalized with injuries.
    (SFC, 6/27/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 26, South Korea police raided the Seoul office of Park Sang-hak, an activist and North Korean refugee, whose anti-North Korea leafleting campaign has intensified tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said that Park will be summoned soon for an investigation.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, The UN children’s agency warned that millions of children could be pushed to the brink of starvation as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across war-torn Yemen amid a "huge" drop in humanitarian aid funding.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, An unusually large group of independent UN human rights experts urged the international community to “take all appropriate measures” to monitor China and “act collectively and decisively” to ensure its government respects human rights.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that 580 civilians have been killed in central Mali this year amid worsening inter-communal violence, faulting security forces for rights violations and saying radical groups like the regional wings of al-Qaida and Islamic State are fanning and exploiting it.
    (AP, 6/26/20)
2020        Jun 26, Venezuela has reported 4,525 confirmed coronavirus cases and 39 deaths, although the true numbers appear to be significantly larger. It was reported that hospitals in Maracaibo, Venezuela's main oil-producing state, are filled with coronavirus patients and that dozens of health workers have been infected.
    (AP, 6/27/20)

2020        Jun 27, It was reported that American intelligence officials believe a Russian military intelligence unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, including targeting Americans. On April 15, 2021, the Biden administration announced that US intelligence only had “low to moderate” confidence in the story.
    (NY Times, 6/27/20)(DB, 4/15/21)
2020         Jun 27, California to date had 206,928 cases of coronavirus and 5,868 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 22,746 cases and 563 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,492,246 with the death toll at 125,240.
    (sfist.com, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 27, In Red Bluff, Ca., a man drove into distribution center and started shooting at people, killing an employee and wounding four others before he was killed by police. The alleged gunman was later identified as Louis Wesley Lane (31), a former Walmart employee fired in 2019.
    (AP, 6/28/20)(SFC, 6/29/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 27 In northern California two people were shot and killed and a third person was critically wounded in Shingletown, Shasta County. Law officers began searching for suspect Daun Eric Sanders (35).
    (SFC, 6/29/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 27, The Florida Department of Health reported a total of 132,545 cases of COVID-19 with 9,636 new positive cases, and 24 additional deaths from COVID-19.
    (Reuters, 6/27/20)(Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 27, Georgia reported a record high in coronavirus cases at almost 2,000. The 7-day average for cases has nearly tripled since late May.
    (Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 27, Jazz artist Freddy Cole (88) died in Atlanta. The pianist and vocalist spent much of his musical life in the shadow of his brother Nat King Cole (1919-1965).
    (SFC, 7/3/20, p.B3)
2020        Jun 27, In Kentucky Tyler Charles Gerth (27) of Louisville, died after being shot at Jefferson Square Park in downtown Louisville during peaceful demonstrations advocating for the destruction of the systemic racism. Steven Nelson Lopez was Lopez was wounded in the leg by gunfire from bystanders at the park who were defending themselves. Lopez was hospitalized and interviewed by homicide investigators about the shooting.
    (AP, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 27, Nevada reported almost 1,100 coronavirus cases, although health officials later said hundreds of those cases could be attributed to a delay in lab testing and were not new cases in the last 24 hours.
    (Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 27, Princeton University announced plans to remove the name of former President Woodrow Wilson from its public policy school because of his segregationist views, reversing a decision the Ivy League school made four years ago to retain the name. Wilson served as governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913. He then served as the 28th US president from 1913 to 1921, supported segregation and imposed it on several federal agencies not racially divided up to that point. He also barred Black students from Princeton while serving as university president and spoke approvingly of the Ku Klux Klan.
    (AP, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 27, South Carolina blew past its original record mark for most COVID-19 cases in a single day with nearly 1,599 positive tests.
    (Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 27, US-based Carlyle Group Inc said it has agreed to buy a 20% stake in the pharmaceutical unit of Indian conglomerate Piramal Enterprises Ltd for about $490 million.
    (Reuters, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 27, ASEAN leaders said a 1982 UN oceans treaty should be the basis of sovereign rights and entitlements in the South China Sea, in one of their strongest remarks opposing China’s claim to virtually the entire disputed waters on historical grounds.
    (AP, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 27, Chinese authorities said three people have died and 12 were missing following drenching rains in Sichuan province. About 7,500 people have been evacuated from their homes.
    (SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 27, Egypt lifted many restrictions put in place against the coronavirus pandemic, reopening cafes, clubs, gyms and theaters after more than three months of closure, despite a continued upward trend in new infections. Egypt has reported 62,755 infections, including 2,620 deaths.
    (AP, 6/27/20)(SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A10)
2020        Jun 27, Egypt executed Abdel-Rahim al-Mosmari, a Libyan militant convicted of plotting an attack that killed at least 16 police officers in October 2017. The official death toll announced by the Interior Ministry was 16 police, with 15 militants killed or wounded. Officials who spoke with The Associated Press at the time said more than 50 police were killed.
    (AP, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 27, High-profile Egyptian belly dancer Sama El-Masry was sentenced to three years in prison and received a £15,000 fine for sharing photos and videos of herself on social media that were deemed to incite “debauchery” and “immorality”.
    (The Telegraph, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 27, Ethiopia said it is set to begin filling a $4.6 billion hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile within the next two weeks and that construction will continue, hours after the leaders of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia agreed to return to talks aimed at reaching an accord over its operation.
    (AP, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 27, It was reported that six people have been arrested in France over the 2019 theft of an artwork by street artist Banksy commemorating the victims of the 2015 Paris attacks that was stolen from the Bataclan concert hall.
    (AFP, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 27, India confirmed cases of the coronavirus jumped 18,552 raising its total to over half a million. 384 new deaths raised that total to 15,685.
    (SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A10)
2020        Jun 27, Iran's supreme leader warned that the country's economic problems would worsen if the novel coronavirus spreads unchecked. There were 2,456 new cases of COVID-19 infection in the past 24 hours, raising the country's caseload to 220,180. Overall fatalities reached 10,364 as 125 of those infected had died during the same period.
    (AFP, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 27, Ireland's centrist politician Micheál Martin became prime minster, fusing two longtime rival parties into a coalition four months after an election that upended the status quo. The deal will see Martin’s Fianna Fail govern with Fine Gael and with the smaller Green Party.
    (AP, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 27, A Lebanese judge banned local and foreign media outlets in the country from interviewing Ambassador Dorothy Shea for a year, calling a recent interview in which she criticized the powerful Hezbollah group seditious and a threat to social peace.
    (AP, 6/27/20)
2020        Jun 27, In Malawi election results for the historic June 23 rerun of the presidential election put the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) of Lazarus Chukwera and his opposition alliance ahead with 59% of the votes cast, the first time a court-overturned vote in Africa has led to the defeat of an incumbent leader.
    (AP, 6/27/20)(Econ., 7/4/20, p.38)
2020        Jun 27, Mexico reported 5,441 new cases of the coronavirus for a total of 208,392. Deaths rose by 719 to 25,779.
    (SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A10)
2020        Jun 27, It was reported that new daily coronavirus cases in Panama have nearly trippled from below 200 per day and that deaths this month were coming twice as fast.
    (SFC, 6/27/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 27, It was reported that fires in Russia's Sakha Republic have grown nearly five-fold over the past week. 2.85 million acres were reported burning in Siberia in areas that cannot be reached by firefighters.
    (SSFC, 6/28/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 27, Tunisia reopened its land, sea and air borders for the first time in more than three months after it announced it had brought the coronavirus outbreak under control.
    (Reuters, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 27, In eastern Turkey a boat carrying up to 60 migrants across Lake Van went down in stormy weather. Authorities detained 11 people in connection with the incident. 56 bodies were later retrieved.    
    (ABC News, 7/1/20)(AP, 7/19/20)
2020        Jun 27, Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi called on southern separatists to "stop the bloodshed" and abide by a power-sharing agreement, in his first public comments since the secessionists declared autonomy in April.
    (AFP, 6/27/20)

2020        Jun 28, President Donald Trump denied that he had been briefed on reported US intelligence that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American troops in Afghanistan, and he appeared to minimize the allegations against Moscow. The NY Times, citing unnamed officials familiar with the intelligence, said the findings were presented to Trump and discussed by his National Security Council in late March.
    (AP, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, A new milestone was reached early today, with more than 10 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide.
    (Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, It was reported that some Arizona hospitals have begun activating surge plans as coronavirus cases rise. The state has recorded more than 70,100 cases with 1,580 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/29/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 28, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered bars to close in seven counties due to the "rising spread" of COVID-19.
    (Good Morning America, 6/28/20)
2020         Jun 28, California to date had 210,820 cases of coronavirus and 5,900 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 23,455 cases and 568 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,531,733 with the death toll at 125,691. More than 38,800 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in the United States, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
    (sfist.com, 6/28/20)(Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 28, In Missouri Mark and Patricia McCloskey pointed guns at social justice demonstrators as they marched past the couple's home in a luxury St. Louis enclave. In June 2021 the couple pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges. In early August Gov. Mike Parson pardoned the couple.
    (SFC, 8/4/21, p.A3)
2020        Jun 28, Tyson Foods said 371 employees at its chicken processing plant in Noel, Missouri, have tested positive for the coronavirus.
    (SFC, 6/29/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 28, The Mississippi legislature passed a bill to abolish the state’s current flag, the last in the country to feature the Confederate battle emblem.
    (NY Times, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 28, Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy, American oil and gas producer, filed for bankruptcy protection. The company was nearly 9 billion in debt.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_Energy)(Econ., 7/4/20, p.62)
2020        Jun 28, San Antonio officials urged residents to stay home as the city recorded its highest number of cases in a single day. An emergency alert was sent out early today just minutes after the city reported 795 new COVID-19 cases. That brings the city's total number of cases to 9,652. Two new deaths were reported and the death toll is now at 107.
    (AP, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, Online accounts provided by lender Morses Club have been frozen following action by British regulators against the UK unit of Wirecard, a collapsed payments services firm. Several other UK fintech firms have been forced to suspend services after the Germany-based firm's collapse.
    (Reuters, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, China National Biotec Group (CNBG) said that early human test results for a coronavirus vaccine candidate suggested it could be safe and effective, the second vaccine candidate from the firm to show encouraging results in a clinical trial. Mainland China reported 17 new coronavirus cases, mostly in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
    (Reuters, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, It was reported that the Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uighurs and other minorities as part of a sweeping campaign to curb its Muslim population, even as it encourages some of the country’s Han majority to have more children. The campaign over the past four years in Xinjiang is leading to what some experts are calling a form of “demographic genocide".
    (AP, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, France held the second round of municipal elections in 5,000 towns and cities that got postponed due to the country's coronavirus outbreak.
    (AP, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, Greece reported 10 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths for a total of 3,376 confirmed cases and 191 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 28, India reported an additional 19,906 confirmed cases of the coronavirus taking its total to 528,859 with 16,095 deaths.
    (SFC, 6/29/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 28, Iran said it will make mask-wearing mandatory in certain areas and has allowed virus-hit provinces to reimpose restrictions. Iran counted 144 new fatalities from the COVID-19 disease in the last 24 hours, raising the total to 10,508. Total confirmed infections rose to 222,669, with 2,489 new cases during the same period.
    (AFP, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, Israeli regulators announced they ordered a US-based evangelical broadcaster taken off the air, saying the channel hid its missionary agenda when it applied for a license.
    (AP, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, Hamas militant Izz el-Din Hussein (24) fled Gaza to escape family problems and unspecified “persecution” by Hamas commanders. Israeli naval forces spotted him in the Mediterranean Sea and arrested him before he reached the shore.
    (AP, 7/30/20)
2020        Jun 28, A Jerusalem court early today ordered the release of Retired Brig. Gen. Amir Haske, a leading activist opposed to PM Benjamin Netanyahu's rule. His arrest had prompted hundreds to protest outside the Israeli leader's residence.
    (AP, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, Lazarus Chakwera was sworn in as president of Malawi after winning an election rerun with 58.57% of the vote.
    (BBC, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, Poles voted in a presidential election that was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and was taking place amid deep cultural and political divisions. President Andrzej Duda (48), a conservative backed by the nationalist ruling Law and Justice party, was running against 10 other candidates as he sought a second 5-year term. Duda won 41.8% and a runoff was scheduled to face Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski July 12.
    (AP, 6/28/20)(SFC, 6/29/20, p.A2)(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 28, Poland had nearly 34,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among its 38 million people, with over 1,400 deaths.
    (AP, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, Sudan said security forces arrested at least 122 people, including eight children, in the western Darfur region who intended to go and fight as mercenaries in neighboring Libya's civil war.
    (AP, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, Taipei held its annual LGBT pride parade, making it one of the few places in the world to proceed with such an event in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Numbers were reduced by both virus concerns and heavy rain with over 1,000 attending.
    (AP, 6/28/20)
2020        Jun 28, The UN called for "urgent measures to spare civilians" in Myanmar's conflict-wracked northwest, saying fighting has intensified between the army and insurgents.
    (AFP, 6/28/20)

2020        Jun 29, Eight Republican lawmakers attended a White House briefing about explosive allegations that Russia secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American troops in Afghanistan — intelligence the White House insisted the president himself had not been fully read in on.
    (AP, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, The US Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics, reasserting a commitment to abortion rights over fierce opposition from dissenting conservative justices in the first big abortion case of the Trump era.
    (AP, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, The US Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling handed President Donald Trump more authority over a federal agency charged with protecting consumers in the financial sector, empowering him to fire its director at will and ruling that the structure it was given by Congress violated the US Constitution.
    (AP, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, The US Supreme Court paved the way for President Donald Trump's administration to carry out the first federal executions since 2003, turning away an appeal by four inmates challenging the lethal injection protocols due to be used.
    (Reuters, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ended a somewhat contentious news conference by imploring people to wear face masks. Arizona has seen its cases go from 13,000 on May 15 to 74,500 today, and deaths from the virus have nearly doubled in the last six weeks. More than 1,500 people have died.
    (AP, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, In California Joseph DeAngelo (74) accused of being the Golden State Killer, pleaded guilty in Sacramento to 13 counts of first-degree murder in a deal that will spare him the death penalty. He will be sentenced later to life without the possibility of parole.
    (NBC News, 6/29/20)
2020         Jun 29, California to date had 222,046 cases of coronavirus and 5,970 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 24,464 cases and 573 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 2,586,844 with the death toll at 126,123.
    (sfist.com, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, Carl Reiner (98), a driving force in American comedy, died at his home in Beverly Hills. He was a writer for television pioneer Sid Caesar, partner of Mel Brooks and creator and co-star of the classic sitcom "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961).
    (Reuters, 6/30/20)
2020        Jun 29, Jacksonville, Fl., ordered the wearing of face coverings amidst a surge in coronavirus infections.
    (SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020        Jun 29, The Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry, said New York City's iconic Broadway shows will be suspended through the rest of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
    (Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, In Oklahoma two police officers were shot during a traffic stop. Suspect David Anthony Ware (32) was arrested following a search that lasted over seven hours. Sgt. Craig Johnson died the following day.
    (SFC, 7/1/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 29, Seattle police investigated a deadly shooting early today near the self-declared Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone. A boy (16) was killed and a younger teenager was wounded.
    (NBC News, 6/29/20)(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A4)
2020        Jun 29, Some 205 people in West Virginia were being asked to quarantine themselves and watch for symptoms after a Planet Fitness member in Morgantown tested positive for COVID-19. People who were there between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. local time on June 24 were asked to stay home for 14 days since being exposed.
    (Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, Medical device maker Danaher Corp said its COVID-19 blood test for detecting if a person had ever been infected with the new coronavirus received emergency use clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration.
    (AP, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, Gilead announced that it will charge $2,340 for a typical treatment course of remdesivir for patients covered by government health programs in the United States and other developed nations where the drug is authorized for use. The price would be $3,120 for patients with private health insurance in the United States.
    (Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, In Afghanistan a bombing and mortar shells fired at a busy market in Helmand province killed at least 23 people, including children. The next day the UN mission in Afghanistan said its findings indicate the Afghan military had mistakenly fired the mortars at the market that left 23 people dead.
    (SFC, 6/30/20, p.A2)(AP, 7/1/20)
2020        Jun 29, In Bangladesh a passenger boat collided with a ferry in Dhaka leaving at least 30 people drowned, including three children.
    (SFC, 6/30/20, p.A2)
2020        Jun 29, China reported just 12 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths, as the country which was the original epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic continues to see a downward trend in infections.
    (Good Morning America, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, Chinese online tutoring startup Zuoyebang said it has raised $750 million in a fresh funding round, led by investment firms FountainVest Partners and Tiger Global Management, as the COVID-19 crisis spurs investor interest in education technology.
    (Reuters, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, A new study said a strain of the H1N1 swine flu, known as G4 EA H1N1, has been spreading silently among workers on pig farms in China since 2016. In 2009 H1N1 spread around the world killing about 285,000 people.
    (AP, 7/1/20)
2020        Jun 29, In Egypt an intensive care unit at a hospital in Alexandria caught fire, killing seven COVID-19 patients. Egypt's Health Ministry reported 1,566 infections, including 83 deaths, bringing the total to 66,754 and 2,872 fatalities––the highest death toll in the region.
    (AP, 6/29/20)
2020        Jun 29, In Ethiopia musician Hachalu Hundessa (34), well known for his political songs, was shot and killed on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. Several people were arrested. Demonstrations soon broke out in response and seven died during the spontaneous protests. Security forces cut off t