Reuters News Now

What you need to know about the coronavirus today

Hospitals slash use of hydroxychloroquine
U.S. hospitals said they have pulled way back on the use of hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump as a COVID-19 treatment, after several studies suggested it is not effective and may pose significant risks. Early hopes for the drug were based in part on lab tests and its anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties. But its efficacy has so far failed to pan out in human trials, and at least two studies suggest it may increase the risk of death.

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

China plans to extend flight curbs
Chinese civil aviation authorities plan to extend until June 30 their curbs on international flights to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the U.S. embassy in Beijing said in a travel advisory on Friday. China has drastically cut such flights since March to allay concerns over infections brought by arriving passengers. A so-called "Five One" policy allows mainland carriers to fly just one flight a week on one route to any country and foreign airlines to operate just one flight a week to China.

Fighting misinformation
It's not just U.S. President Donald Trump's tweets that are being fact-checked. Twitter has also flagged a tweet written in March by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian that suggested the U.S. military brought the novel coronavirus to China, posting a blue exclamation mark under it with a comment urging readers to check the facts about COVID-19.

Closed climbing season
Nepal's Sherpa guides, famed for being the backbone of mountain expeditions in the Himalayas, have also found their livelihood hit by the coronavirus outbreak. Many have returned to their villages, hiking officials say, as climbing and trekking activities have been suspended since March, and some are looking ahead with hope to the less popular autumn climbing season, which lasts from September to November.

From Breakingviews: Corona Capital - IPOs, Renault, Japan, Champagne. JDE Peet’s completes a caffeine-fueled IPO, and Renault’s survival plan gets a skeptical reception from investors. Catch up with the latest financial insights here.

Reuters reporters and editors around the world are investigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

We need your help to tell these stories. Our news organization wants to capture the full scope of what’s happening and how we got here by drawing on a wide variety of sources. Here’s a look at our coverage.

Are you a government employee or contractor involved in coronavirus testing or the wider public health response? Are you a doctor, nurse or health worker caring for patients? Have you worked on similar outbreaks in the past? Has the disease known as COVID-19 personally affected you or your family? Are you aware of new problems that are about to emerge, such as critical supply shortages?

We need your tips, firsthand accounts, relevant documents or expert knowledge. Please contact us at coronavirus@reuters.com.

We prefer tips from named sources, but if you’d rather remain anonymous, you can submit a confidential news tip. Here’s how.

Top News

The latest unrest in Minnesota’s largest city went largely unchecked late Thursday, with the mayor ordering a tactical police retreat from a police station that was set ablaze. National Guard troops called out earlier in the day by the governor kept a low profile. Governor Tim Walz had ordered the Guard to help keep the peace after two previous nights of disturbances sparked by George Floyd’s death on Monday.

In Kentucky, seven people were shot and at least one was in critical condition after protests in Louisville over the killing of Breonna Taylor, a black woman fatally shot in her apartment in March, police said.

Hong Kong told the United States to keep out of the debate over national security legislation being imposed by China, and warned that withdrawal of the financial hub’s special status under U.S. law could backfire on the U.S. economy. “Any sanctions are a double-edged sword that will not only harm the interests of Hong Kong but also significantly those of the U.S.,” Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing government said. The United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and Canada criticized China for imposing a new security law on Hong Kong that they said would breach the 1984 Sino-British agreement on the former colony and threaten its freedoms.

Former U.S. intelligence officials questioned the Justice Department’s naming of a prosecutor to probe the “unmasking” of names in spy-agency eavesdropping reports by Obama administration officials, saying such requests had not previously been treated as criminal matters. “No one has ever been criminally prosecuted for unmasking. That would be tantamount to pursuing criminal charges against an intelligence analyst for merely doing his job,” said Ned Price, a former CIA analyst who worked for Obama’s National Security Council.

Tech

President Donald Trump said he will introduce legislation that may scrap or weaken a law that has protected internet companies, including Twitter and Facebook, in an extraordinary attempt to regulate social media platforms where he has been criticized. Facebook's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg took pains to distance his company from Twitter and its fight with U.S. President. Twitter attached a disclaimer to Trump tweet for 'glorifying violence.' The decision to step in, at a time of racially charged civil unrest in cities across the United States, escalates a feud between Trump and tech companies.

A Canadian court ruling that could permit the extradition of a senior Huawei executive to the United States leaves Canada vulnerable to further retaliation from Beijing, analysts said. China’s foreign ministry said Canada is an accomplice to the U.S. government’s efforts to bring down the Chinese tech giant and said Canada should immediately release Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.