Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ordered his forces to resume their offensive against the Taliban on Tuesday in the wake of two deadly attacks that killed a total of 40 people, including two newborns, the Washington Post reports.
The big picture: President Trump's deal with the Taliban — which Pentagon leaders acknowledged would not bring peace to the country — was meant as a precursor to a peace process between Kabul and the Taliban. The Taliban, which has denied responsibility for the attacks, called Ghani's announcement a "declaration of war."
Wuhan — the original epicenter of the coronavirus — has ordered all residents be tested for COVID-19 within 10 days following six new infections reported over the weekend, China state media announced Tuesday.
The state of play: The city's first confirmed COVID-19 case since early April was seen in an 89-year-old man on Saturday, the New York Times writes, and five asymptomatic cases were reported Monday.
The Trump administration does not view the new Israeli government's July 1 deadline to begin the process of annexing parts of the West Bank as a "do or die" date, a senior U.S. official tells me.
Why it matters: Israel will want an American “green light” before making any moves on annexation.
Russia is reporting the most novel coronavirus cases in the world outside of the U.S., per Johns Hopkins data.
The big picture: Russia first reported a surge of more than 35,000 cases between April 30 and May 3. The country has reported more than 2,100 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon, a significantly lower number than the other most-affected countries such as Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Luckin Coffee, a Chinese rival to Starbucks that went public in the U.S. last year at a $4.3 billion valuation, fired both CEO Jenny Zhiya Qian and COO Jian Liu on Tuesday after an investigation into accounting fraud.
The backstory: Luckin disclosed in early April that its COO had fabricated around $310 million in 2019 sales — numbers the company had relied on while selling investors on both a secondary share sale and convertible bond offering.
Israel will review the participation of a Hong Kong-based company in a government tender for the construction of a $1.5 billion desalination plant, following pressure from the Trump administration.
Why it matters: The U.S. has linked the issue to potential Chinese influence in Israel. With Pompeo arriving in Jerusalem tomorrow in the midst of an intense campaign against the Chinese government, Israeli officials are wary of getting in the middle of U.S.-China tensions.
Reproduced from Pew Research Center; Chart: Axios Visuals
In its first-ever research survey conducted in Taiwan, Pew Research Center has found the vast majority of Taiwanese hold a favorable view of the U.S., while most Taiwanese have an unfavorable view of mainland China.
Why it matters: Beijing has long hoped Taiwan will eventually choose to be unified with the mainland. Taiwanese attitudes toward China suggest this is doubtful.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's longtime spokesman and close adviser Dmitry Peskov has been hospitalized after testing positive for coronavirus, Russian news agencies report, following positive tests for several other senior officials, including Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
Why it matters: The virus is now inside Putin's inner circle. The Russian president has been conducting meetings by video conference, though, and Peskov says he hasn't seen Putin in over a month. Russia's outbreak is among the world's fastest-growing, and is likely far more severe even than the official numbers suggest.
An Interpol Red Notice was issued and circulated globally Monday for Anne Sacoolas, the U.S. diplomat's wife who was charged last December over the auto crash death of a teenager in the U.K.
Why it matters: President Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson have both weighed in on the high-profile case, which threw the issue of diplomatic immunity into the spotlight the spotlight. The International Criminal Police Organization's notice means Sacoolas would be arrested if she were to leave the U.S.