Official statistics out of China suggest it is bouncing back from the coronavirus outbreak that shuttered the country for much of the first quarter, but there is growing speculation that data is being massaged to paper over a bevy of nagging issues.
Driving the news: China said manufacturing activity returned to expansion in March, with its official metric rising to 52.0. Economists had expected a reading of 45.0 after hitting a record low of 35.7 in February.
The coronavirus is providing cover to autocrats, dictators, and even some democratically-elected leaders who were already looking for reasons to undermine the independent media.
Driving the news: Recent examples show the press is being shut out by the government under the guise of stopping misinformation from spreading about the pandemic.
Few moments better capture the world into which we've slipped than the decision of one man to order 1.4 billion into lockdown.
Why it matters: India’s three-week lockdown is the largest ever attempted, and it sparked South Asia's greatest migration since partition in 1947. While the economic effects could be devastating, the public health crisis it's intended to fend off could be more destructive still.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Monday that he would enter self-isolation after an aide tested positive for coronavirus.
The latest: Netanyahu was tested for the virus on Monday, along with his wife, sons and close aides. All of those tests came back negative, his office said, but he plans to remain in isolation until he receives further instructions from the ministry of health.
President Trump said on "Fox & Friends" Monday morning that he's planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Russia-Saudi rupture on oil policy that's helping to push prices lower.
What he's saying: "I’m talking to him about that among other things, because you know, getting along with Russia is a good thing," Trump said in a response to a question about pain in the oil-and-gas industry.
Hungary's parliament passed a law Monday to allow Prime Minister Viktor Orbán almost unlimited power, for an indefinite period, to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
President Trump brushed aside allegations that China — as well as Russia and Iran — are spreading misinformation about the origin of the coronavirus during a 64-minute call with "Fox & Friends" on Monday, telling the hosts that "every country does it."
Why it matters: Multiple verified Chinese government Twitter accounts have promoted different conspiracy theories, and Chinese foreign ministry deputy spokesperson Zhao Lijian suggested that the virus come from a U.S. military lab, Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian reports.
Traveling locust swarms in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, that had reached the size of Manhattan in some places, are still growing in East Africa, and the problem is now compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.
Driving the news: New cases of coronavirus have been discovered in much of the region this month, and the pandemic also is slowing the delivery of pesticides that can kill the insects.
