Empty spaces throughout the country testify to the economic vacuum the coronavirus pandemic brought with it. The Simon Property Group announced Wednesday it would close all 200 of its shopping malls and outlet centers. Major automakers are shutting down their North American factories. And the New York Stock Exchange will lock up its trading floors and move to all-electronic trading on Monday. The number of Americans filing for unemployment surged last week by 70,000 to the highest level in more than two years.

Decisive primary victories in Florida, Illinois, and Arizona on Tuesday gave former Vice President Joe Biden an almost insurmountable lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic nomination for president. Biden continued to win over African American and older voters and gained ground with Hispanics. In a livestream address to supporters from his home state of Delaware, he told younger voters who continue to cling to Sanders, “I hear you. I know what’s at stake. I know what we have to do.”

When Magnolia, Texas, decided in 2018 to raise its water rates, everyone in the small town felt the pinch. But the increase squeezed churches even more because the city levied additional fees on nonprofit groups, schools, and places of worship.

Americans should work and learn at home, avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people, stay away from restaurants, and only go out when necessary, President Donald Trump said on Monday afternoon. More than 90 people in the United States have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, as of Tuesday morning. Doctors confirmed close to 5,000 cases of the disease in the country. In the San Francisco Bay Area, six counties issued shelter-in-place orders, telling nearly 7 million people to leave their homes only for food, medicine, and exercise.

Ohio’s top health official called a halt to the state’s presidential primary just hours before voting would have begun. After a judge refused Gov. Mike DeWine’s request on Monday to delay in-person voting, state Health Director Amy Acton declared the election would expose voters and volunteers to an “unacceptable risk” of contracting the new coronavirus. She ordered polling places not to open. State election officials rescheduled the primary for June 2.

Stocks lost at least 6 percent of their value in Monday morning trading on Wall Street. Airlines, restaurants, and other major swaths of the U.S. economy are slowing down or closing shop completely due to the coronavirus outbreak.

An end to the war within Afghanistan seems as far away as ever despite the United States and Taliban signing a peace deal last month. The Afghan government on Saturday postponed the release of 1,500 Taliban prisoners, a precondition for getting intra-Afghan negotiations started. Political turmoil at the highest levels of the Afghan government and the threat of the new coronavirus have cast even more doubt on the tenuous peace process.