CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Many South Africans spent their Monday morning lining up outside liquor stores, as alcohol sales were allowed again after a two-month ban because of the coronavirus outbreak.But while South Africa — with the continent’s most developed economy and the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 — relaxed its strict lockdown, the reopening of most school classes was delayed and there was debate about how churches could safely resume services.The government postponed the planned opening of two grades for another week so that some under-prepared schools could get... Read More

HONG KONG — Hong Kong police rejected an application Monday by organizers for an annual candlelight vigil marking the anniversary this week of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, as residents rushed to apply for passports that could allow them to move to the United KingdomIt would be the first time in 30 years that the vigil, which draws a huge crowd to an outdoor space, is not held in Hong Kong. The vigil commemorates China’s deadly military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.The decision follows a vote by China’s ceremonial parliament... Read More

Michael Patterson was concerned — then stumped.A resident of Pond Inlet, a hamlet of about 1,600 people in the vast, mostly empty Arctic Canadian territory of Nunavut, had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The individual hadn’t been outside the territory, which had sealed itself off to most outsiders and enacted strict travel restrictions for residents.Within 24 hours, contact tracers isolated 20 people in the mostly Inuit community on the northeastern tip of Baffin Island who might have been exposed to the infected resident. Thirteen were swabbed for the virus. They tested negative.“We... Read More

HELSINKI, Finland — Finns in the Nordic nation’s eastern border region say they haven’t seen anything like this since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.The closure of Finland’s border with Russia amid the coronavirus pandemic has put an abrupt stop to visits by the nearly 2 million Russian tourists who prop up the local economy each year.Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) land border with Russia complete with several crossing points in what is one of the European Union’s longest external borders. It was shut down both by Helsinki and Moscow in mid-March due to the pandemic.Given... Read More

CAIRO — Aid organizations are making an urgent plea for funding to shore up their operations in war-torn Yemen, saying they have already been forced to stop some of their work even as the coronavirus rips through the country.Some 75% of U.N. programs in Yemen have had to shut their doors or reduce operations. The global body’s World Food Program had to cut rations in half and U.N.-funded health services were reduced in 189 out of 369 hospitals nationwide.“It’s almost impossible to look a family in the face, to look them in the eyes and say, ‘I’m sorry but the food that you need in order... Read More

BHAKTAPUR, Nepal — When the new mother died in the hospital last month — the first person to succumb to COVID-19 in Nepal — her days-old baby was moved to an isolation ward.But the woman’s body remained. Ambulance drivers and hospital workers, fearful of the contagion, refused to move the corpse from the hospital morgue to the crematorium, where it could be burned in keeping with Hindu tradition.And so authorities called upon RNA-16 — three men and a woman in signature blue vests, renowned for their selfless volunteer work in Bhaktapur, a UNESCO world heritage site known as the “city... Read More

NEW YORK — Outside Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, thousands of protesters churned this weekend in tightly packed crowds, casting aside social distancing to express their rage and grief.In Minneapolis, ungloved demonstrators held hands as they marched.In Las Vegas, demonstrators roared their anger into the faces of police lined up just a few feet away.And in nearly two dozen U.S. cities, police grappled physically with more than 2,500 people arrested during often-violent protests over the death of a black man, George Floyd, in the custody of Minneapolis police on Memorial Day.The rules of the... Read More

When Trump did address public health issues that day, he alarmed officials by revealing that he had been taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic — despite his own administration’s warning that doing so could cause severe heart problems.A day later, when Trump journeyed to the Capitol for the first time during the pandemic, he again allowed his personal concerns to eclipse the crisis engulfing the nation. Over lunch with Republican senators, Trump complained about “criminal” Democrats who had “unmasked my children.” He accused his political opponents of “treason.”... Read More

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S recent claim to be taking hydroxychloroquine as a precaution against covid-19 prompted skepticism. Would any doctor really prescribe an unproven and potentially dangerous drug to the holder of the world’s most powerful office? A statement from Mr. Trump’s doctor added to the doubt, because it never explicitly said he had prescribed the drug. The incident, sad to say, is typical of the troubling way the White House has handled issues related to the president’s health.Mr. Trump’s last annual physical for which information was released to the public was conducted in February... Read More

America is at a low ebb. Pain and destruction strangle hopes and dreams of people across the country. People are dying — alone from a terrible virus or from a knee on the neck in full public view. Cities burn, destroying businesses and inflaming divisions. Tens of millions are out of work. The president makes it all worse.This is the state of the union as the nation reels from multiple blows, each one arriving with swift and overwhelming force. Long-standing, untreated inequalities have been exposed anew, and they, in turn, have highlighted the country’s real vulnerabilities. What has been... Read More