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What you need to know about the coronavirus today

Stepping up steroid use
Several U.S. 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. Traditionally, doctors wait for detailed data to be published in a peer reviewed journal - or for guidelines from medical societies - before embracing a new treatment, so they can better gauge the risks against the drug’s benefits. The urgency of the coronavirus pandemic and lack of other treatments has altered those calculations.

Track the spread of the virus with this state-by-state and county map.

New data suggests European strain
China has released genome sequencing data for the coronavirus responsible for a recent outbreak in Beijing, with officials saying it identified a European strain based on preliminary studies. Details published on China’s National Microbiology Data Center website revealed the Beijing genome data was based on three samples - two human and one environmental - collected on June 11. That was the same day the Chinese capital reported its first new local COVID-19 infection in months.

Seeking united recovery
European Union leaders will try to narrow their differences over a coronavirus economic recovery plan at a video-conference summit, worried that further bickering and delay will only dent public confidence in the bloc as a deep downturn takes hold. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU, reeling from more than 100,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 and facing its worst recession since World War Two, urgently needed an agreement on its multi-year budget and a multi-billion-euro recovery fund.

UK alert level lowered
The United Kingdom’s chief medical officers have agreed that the COVID-19 threat level should be lowered one notch to “epidemic is in general circulation” from “transmission is high or rising exponentially”. The UK has a COVID-19 death toll of more than 50,000 based on official data including fatalities where it is mentioned on death certificates, making it one of the worst hit countries in the world.

From Breakingviews - Corona Capital: UK debt, Oaktree, KKR, Chanel. UK government borrowing surges past GDP and Chanel takes a gloomier view than rivals on the luxury rebound. Catch up with the latest financial insights.

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Top News

Twitter added a ‘manipulated media’ label on a video posted on President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed that showed a doctored news clip with a misspelled banner. The original video, which went viral on social media in 2019, showed a black toddler and a white toddler running towards each other and hugging. It was published with the headline "These two toddlers are showing us what real-life besties look like" on CNN's website last year. Facebook said it took down posts and ads run by the re-election campaign of Trump for violating its policy against organized hate.

Many Juneteenth observances celebrating the emancipation of African American slaves more than a century and a half ago were shifted to the internet due to the coronavirus, though street marches and “car caravans” were planned in several major U.S. cities. Organizers said the occasion holds particular significance this year - despite limitations imposed by the pandemic - as it comes amid a reckoning with America’s troubled racial history following last month’s death of George Floyd.

In Daphne murder investigation, money trail leads to Montenegro venture. Last year, police charged the owner of a company called 17 Black with ordering the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Charges he denies. Now, new evidence sheds light on the activities of this company which had remained shrouded in mystery.

COVID Science

European governments are working with the United States on plans to overhaul the World Health Organization, a top health official for a European country said, signalling that Europe shares some of the concerns that led Washington to say it would quit. European countries have occasionally called for reform of the WHO but have generally shielded the organisation from the most intense criticism by Washington. In public the European position has usually been that any reform should come only after an evaluation of the response to the coronavirus crisis.

After nearly 15 hours of labor, Karla Lopez Rangel received a stern warning from her midwife: if you do not deliver the baby now, we will have to rush you to the hospital. Although she was exhausted and battered by contractions, Lopez knew the hospital was the last place she wanted to be. It was the morning of May 25, and coronavirus cases were surging across Mexico City. Dozens of the capital’s health facilities were saturated with patients.