ITALY: The global toll of recorded deaths due to COVID-19 topped 400,000 and total confirmed cases passed 7 million over the weekend. The United States has nearly 111,000 confirmed virus-related deaths. Pope Francis warned, “Don’t cry victory too soon,” as Italy and other European nations reopened and the pontiff again recited prayers from his balcony at the Vatican.

UNITED STATES: Controversy has only grown over the Trump administration’s violent clearing of protesters near the White House ahead of the President Donald Trump’s somber walk Monday evening to St. John’s Church to pose for a photo holding a Bible. On Tuesday, the president signed an executive order dramatically raising international religious freedom as a priority in U.S. foreign policy, but Monday’s events overshadowed it.

UPDATE: WORLD has updated this story to reflect White House and National Park Service comments about the use of chemical agents.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to advance international religious freedom, redirecting funding along with diplomatic priorities and foreign aid to protect religious groups overseas. 

IRAN: China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran all in recent days carried out provocations, taking advantage of a preoccupied United States—where 100,000 people have died of the coronavirus and six days of protests over racial injustice have activated military and National Guard units in 21 states.

CHINA: Beijing’s National People’s Congress, delayed since March, opens on Friday as the government of President Xi Jinping lashes out at those who blame China for aiding the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Monday, President Donald Trump announced he may permanently freeze U.S. funding to the World Health Organization and reconsider its membership unless the WHO enacts reforms.

With record gusts from Cyclone Amphan bearing down on India and Bangladesh, humanitarian aid workers saw a triple threat coming to life before their eyes: The strongest cyclone ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal was about to overwhelm years of a chronic refugee crisis—that weeks of coronavirus spread had already compounded.

“Our worst fears have been confirmed,” said Dipankar Datta, Oxfam’s country director in Bangladesh.

SUDAN: In a unanimous ruling on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court handed what representatives for the plaintiffs called “a huge win” to victims of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, ruling that Sudan owes victims both compensatory and punitive damages. The decision in Opati v. Republic of Sudan vacates a lower court ruling and goes against arguments from the U.S.