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What you need to know about the coronavirus today

Red alert in Tokyo
Tokyo raised its coronavirus alert to the highest “red” level on Wednesday, alarmed by a recent spike in daily new cases to record highs, with Governor Yuriko Koike describing the situation in the Japanese capital as “rather severe”. The resurgence of the virus could add to the growing pressure on policymakers to shore up the world’s No. 3 economy, which analysts say is set to shrink at its fastest pace in decades this fiscal year due to the pandemic. “We are in a situation where we should issue warnings to citizens and businesses,” Koike told a press conference, urging residents to refrain from unnecessary travel.

Vaccine has positive Phase 1 results
Moderna’s experimental vaccine for the coronavirus showed it was safe and provoked immune responses in all 45 healthy volunteers in an early-stage study, U.S. researchers reported. Moderna’s shot, mRNA-1273, uses ribonucleic acid - a chemical messenger that contains instructions for making proteins. When injected into people, the vaccine instructs cells to make proteins that mimic the outer surface of the coronavirus, which the body recognizes as a foreign invader, and mounts an immune response against.

‘A tale of two cities’
A few blocks from the Miami Beach Convention Center, where an emergency field hospital stands ready to treat a potential tidal wave of COVID-19 patients, it’s party-on along the resort city’s famed Ocean Drive. In recent days, social media has shown maskless revelers dancing in the street, jammed into cars turned into ad hoc nightclubs, and crowding shoulder-to-shoulder, with drinks in both hands, in the outdoor seating areas of restaurants.

Catalans return to lockdown
Some 160,000 people in the Spanish region of Catalonia returned to confinement on Wednesday as authorities scrambled to control a fresh surge of coronavirus infections in the area. A judge finally approved the regional government’s stay-at-home order for residents of the city of Lleida and six nearby towns on Tuesday night after several days of legal wrangling and political tensions over the issue. Under the new rules, people may leave their homes only for essential activities like working or buying supplies, while hotels, restaurants and bars will close except for food pick-up or delivery.

Masks and Mickey
Disneyland Paris welcomed back visitors on Wednesday after a four-month closure due to the coronavirus outbreak. Masks were mandatory and advance booking required. Visitors to the park, which has imposed a limited capacity, were told to keep a meter away from others, and hundreds of sanitizing-gel and hand-washing stations were scattered around. No tickets were sold at the entrance and rides where social distancing is difficult have not yet reopened. Playgrounds and make-up workshops also remained closed.

From Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Trench coats, Chinese movies. Burberry learns the limits of China’s Covid-19 recovery, and Wanda Film faces a messy sequel as a new wave of contagion in Hong Kong threatens more lockdowns. Catch up with the latest financial insights.

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Top News

President Donald Trump ordered an end to Hong Kong’s special status under U.S. law to punish China for what he called “oppressive actions” against the fiancial hub, prompting Beijing to warn of retaliatory sanctions. Citing China’s decision to enact a new national security law for Hong Kong, Trump signed an executive order that he said would end the preferential economic treatment for the city.

A younger, more defiant generation of Hong Kong democrats has secured the most votes in unofficial primary elections in the Chinese-ruled city, setting the stage for a battle with pro-Beijing politicians for control of the city’s legislature.

Two out of three Americans want to see President Donald Trump’s income taxes, and about half believe he has been withholding them for reasons that could hurt him politically, according to a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll. The July 13-14 poll shows many Americans remain concerned about Trump’s finances and potential conflicts of interest with his family business. The survey was conducted after a Supreme Court ruling over Trump’s financial records last week likely postponed their release to New York City prosecutors until after the Nov. 3 election.

In a stunning reversal of policy, the Trump administration abandoned a plan that would have forced out tens of thousands of foreign students following widespread condemnation of the move and pressure from colleges and major businesses.

Oliver Taylor seems to be an elaborate fiction. His university says it has no record of him. He has no obvious online footprint beyond an account on the question-and-answer site Quora, where he was active for two days in March. Two newspapers that published his work say they have tried and failed to confirm his identity. And experts in deceptive imagery used state-of-the-art forensic analysis programs to determine that Taylor’s profile photo is a hyper-realistic forgery - a “deepfake.”

Reuters Special Report

Climbing cell towers to perform maintenance work is no picnic in the best of times, but Mexico’s technicians face an especially pernicious hazard: drug cartels. Traffickers use the towers to rig their own “parasite” antennas to power their two-way radios - and they don’t like anyone messing with their equipment.