South Africa is tightening restrictions on public gatherings and liquor sales, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Tuesday, blaming a rise of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, AP reports.
The big picture: The country's 7-day rolling average of new daily cases has jumped from 6.69 per 100,00 people on May 31 to 12.71 per 100,000 people on June 14, according to John Hopkins University. Ramaphosa said hospitalizations due to COVID-19 increased 59% over the same period of time.
Hungarian lawmakers on Tuesday passed legislation that bans sharing content with minors that features gay characters or any sort of support for the LGBTQ community, AP reports.
The big picture: The ban is part of a law that looks to increase sentences for pedophilia. Critics say the ruling Fidesz party is wrongly conflating LGBTQ people with sex crimes against minors and that the bill will reinforce anti-LGBTQ prejudices.
The National Institutes of Health said Tuesday morning that testing of samples from an ongoing study of Americans show a very limited number of cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in five U.S. states as early as Jan. 7, 2020.
Why it matters: Calling it another "piece of the puzzle" of when and how the coronavirus pandemic began, the NIH researchers say this offers more evidence that the virus was in the U.S. at the end of December.
The United States and the European Union reached a deal to end a 16-year-old dispute over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing, the White House announced on Tuesday.
The state of play: Both sides agreed to suspend tariffs for five years while they work together to counter China's investment in the aircraft sector in ways "that reflect our standards for fair competition," U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told reporters.
Two House Republicans — including Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) — are introducing a bill Tuesday to sanction top Chinese health officials until they allow an investigation into whether the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab, according to a copy of the bill text obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The lab-leak theory has regained prominence in both the scientific and political worlds, after the Wall Street Journal reported that three scientists who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology experienced COVID-19 symptoms in November 2019.
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has called for a full investigation into a deadly crackdown on drugs since President Rodrigo Duterte took office.
Why it matters: Official government data shows more than 6,100 people have died in police drug operations in the Philippines since 2016, but rights groups say the figure is likely to be much higher.
President Biden assembled a group of outside Russia experts — including former Trump officials — to brief him for his summit with President Vladimir Putin, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.
Why it matters: The previously unreported session demonstrates the extent to which Biden wants to be well prepared, drawing on the experience of officials with first-hand knowledge of the onetime KGB colonel’s tactics and tricks.
The man accused of running over a Muslim family with his truck, killing four of them, in London, Canada, is now facing terrorism charges, authorities said Monday, per CBC News.
Driving the news: Investigators say the suspect, 20-year-old Nathaniel Veltman, targeted the family because of their Muslim faith.
President Biden claimed at the conclusion of the G7 summit on Sunday that his plan to buy 500 million Pfizer doses to share with the world had “generated a commitment by the rest of our colleagues in the G7 that they would provide another half billion.”
Why it matters: The 1 billion-dose pledge was the headline announcement from the summit — a signal that the U.S. return to the global table was producing results. But the numbers don’t add up.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday delayed "freedom day", when the U.K. was set end pandemic-related restrictions, to July 19 instead of June 21, as the delta COVID-19 variant continues to spread, the Washington Post reports.
The big picture: The delay is likely an attempt to get more people vaccinated, especially with their second dose, before reopening fully, writes the Post. Restrictions on sporting events, bars, nightclubs and movie theaters will stay in place, and people will be asked to continue working from home if possible.
NATO leaders view China's growing influence, military prowess and assertive behavior as "systemic challenges to the rules-based international order," according to a communique released Monday.
Why it matters: It's the first time that NATO, which was founded in 1949 to confront the Soviet Union, has formally addressed the threat posed by China's military ambitions. The alliance did not, however, refer to China as a "rival" or "adversary."
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in a ceremony on his first day in office on Monday that the new government must repair Israel's relationship with the Democratic Party, which he said had badly deteriorated during Benjamin Netanyahu’s tenure as prime minister.
What he's saying: "The previous government took a bad and lightheaded bet to focus only on the Republican Party and abandon Israel’s bipartisan status in America," said Lapid, who is also the alternate prime minister and heads the biggest faction in the new coalition. He called Netanyahu's behavior toward the democrats "disgraceful and dangerous."
Naftali Bennett yesterday became prime minister of Israel, succeeding Benjamin Netanyahu, after his power-sharing government survived a vote of confidence.
Why it matters: Bennett becomes Israel's first new prime minister since 2009, and he takes office as Netanyahu stands trial for corruption.
President Biden reaffirmed the United States' commitment to NATO during a sit-down with Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, the president's first meeting at NATO's 2021 summit in Brussels.
Why it matters: Biden has used his first international trip as president to reassure allies that his administration is committed to multilateralism and to NATO's Article 5, which stipulates that the entire alliance will respond to an attack on any member nation.
In an exclusive interview with NBC's "Today," Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that Russia is waging cyber warfare against the United States and refused to guarantee opposition leader Alexei Navalny — whose name he would not say — will leave prison alive.
Why it matters: Cyberattacks by Russian intelligence and Russian-speaking criminal groups, as well as the Kremlin's attempted assassination and jailing of Navalny, are among the topics President Biden is expected to raise at his Geneva summit with Putin on Wednesday.
Americans Michael Taylor and Peter Taylor pleaded guilty in a Tokyo court Monday to helping former Nissan chair Carlos Ghosn escape Japan in a box aboard a plane in 2019, per the Wall Street Journal.
The big picture: Ghosn was awaiting trial in Tokyo on financial misconduct charges following his 2018 arrest when he fled to Lebanon. He denies any wrongdoing.
Police in Nicaragua detained five leading opposition critics of President Daniel Ortega over the weekend.
Why it matters: The four arrests Sunday and one Saturday bring the total number of opponents detained since June 2 to 12, suggesting that Ortega isn't just targeting potential rivals in the upcoming November elections, but also "any prominent member of the opposition," AP notes.
