Live updates: Coronavirus lockdowns trigger stirrings of political, social unrest; Trump defends U.S. protests against state restrictions

Some governors have blasted the lack of federal help on testing, which they say is necessary to enact Trump’s plan for reopening the economy.That criticism has focused attention on Giroir and whether he can deliver results under pressure.Read more here.Iraq is to relax some restrictions put in place to halt the coronavirus, authorities said, even as more cases were reported around the country’s crucial energy infrastructure.The country’s coronavirus crisis cell said Sunday that factories and businesses, excluding restaurants, would be able to reopen so long as they committed to “prevention and no-gathering measures.” It was unclear how those would be implemented or enforced.Hours earlier, Iraq’s Health Ministry had announced 17 new coronavirus cases in the southern city of Basra, bringing the official number of infections to 1,530, with 82 deaths. On Monday, it was the turn of intercity highways and major shopping centers, as the government tried to stimulate an economy devastated by sanctions, even as some feared that the new measures risked causing a second wave of infections.KABUL — More than a dozen staff at the Afghan presidential palace have tested positive for the coronavirus, and the country’s 70-year old president, Ashraf Ghani, has largely isolated himself, according to Afghan officials on Monday.Ghani remains in good health, has tested negative for the virus and continues to run the country by conducting most meetings with videoconferencing, one official said. Spain posted 4,266 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, nudging the total of covid-19 cases in Spain to 200,210.“I’d like to say very clearly that we are a technical team and that I don’t think it is decent to use mistakes in the comments or terminology or phrases to hurt us as a team,” said Fernando Simón, who heads Spain’s emergency response, after praising Santiago at Monday’s news conference.When President Trump was asked at Sunday’s White House coronavirus task force briefing why he didn’t warn Americans in February that the virus was spreading and implement social distancing earlier, Trump’s response was to go back to late January, when he issued the travel restrictions on Chinese people coming to the United States.In other words: More than two months into this crisis, Trump doesn’t have an answer for why he didn’t do more in this crucial window to prepare the country for the coronavirus.On Sunday, Trump got defensive when a reporter asked him why his administration had not done more to prepare. He is being held in the Duval County Jail.Bangladeshi officials announced stricter lockdown measures in parts of the country’s Brahmanbaria district on Monday, after tens of thousands of people there over the weekend attended the funeral of Jubayer Ahmad Ansari, a Muslim cleric and politician.“We’ve strictly ordered all residents of the seven villages to stay at home at all times at least for the next 14 days,” an official told Reuters.Bangladesh has been under a coronavirus lockdown since March 26, but Agence France-Presse quoted organizers as saying as many as 100,000 people participated in the Saturday funeral, potentially exposing themselves and others to the virus, as the number of cases in the country is surging.Bangladesh has confirmed more than 2,450 cases and at least 91 deaths, but the low number of conducted tests in the country is feared to conceal the true extent of the outbreak.Although Bangladeshi authorities were monitoring the procession, an official told the local Dhaka Tribune that the number of people meant no effective measures to crack down on the illegal event could be taken.Several officers were subsequently suspended, according to local media reports.With Ramadan set to begin later this week, officials in Bangladesh fear more people could defy their orders to limit the number of devout individuals in mosques and directives to stay at home.China on Monday insisted it had been open about the coronavirus outbreak, pushing back on comments from a top Australian official questioning the country’s transparency.Over the weekend, Marise Payne, the Australian foreign minister, called for an international investigation into the origins of the pandemic.The virus is widely believed to have originated in a wildlife market in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It also raised concerns that a deal to cut global crude supply — backed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and agreed to earlier this month — might fail to prevent a prolonged price fall.LONDON — A vital shipment of personal protective equipment for health care workers from Turkey to Britain was delayed on Sunday, sparking further anger at the British government’s handling of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.On Monday, the front page of many British tabloids focused on the missing shipment, with the Daily Mail labeling it a “betrayal of our bravest.” There are more than 121,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom and over 16,000 reported deaths, including 27 NHS workers.Hospitals across the country are running low on personal protective equipment, and doctors and nurses have called for more support as they attempt to beat back the virus. This follows previous instances of consignments of gowns being mislabeled and failing safety tests,” he said.When asked about the reason behind the delay, a government spokesperson told The Washington Post: “We are continuing to work to ensure the shipment is delivered as soon as possible.” Shake Shack is returning all $10 million it received from a federal loan program intended to help small businesses struggling to stay afloat amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the popular burger chain announced in a statement late Sunday.“Our people would benefit from a $10 million [Paycheck Protection Program] loan but we’re fortunate to now have access to capital that others do not,” the company’s executives, Danny Meyer and Randy Garutti, wrote in a letter shared on LinkedIn. “Until every restaurant that needs it has had the same opportunity to receive assistance, we’re returning ours.”The decision comes shortly after Shake Shack was identified in recent media reports as one of multiple large companies with revenue of more than $100 million that obtained loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, which maxed out last week and is no longer accepting claims.Read more here.DUBAI — Those suffering from the covid-19 disease and the health workers taking care of them are exempted from fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, the council of religious experts in the United Arab Emirates announced early on Monday.The Emirates Fatwa Council issued a string of fatwas, or religious opinions, to guide Muslims during Ramadan, which will start at the end of this week, in light of the coronavirus pandemic which has discouraged public gatherings.The UAE has seen surging rates of infection, with 479 new cases reported Sunday for a total of 6,781 cases, 90 percent of them appearing just this month.During Ramadan, able-bodied adult Muslims are expected to refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours. But it was more limited than many business leaders and government officials had initially signaled.President Trump’s special tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and Chinese goods were excluded from the measure, as were other punitive tariffs on dumped and subsidized products.Singapore reported Monday its largest daily increase in cases of the novel coronavirus, with migrant workers accounting for the bulk of those affected.The country’s health ministry confirmed 1,426 new cases on Monday, bringing the total nationwide to 8,014. Google said that it will continue to cooperate with the government commission.Last week, Australia’s federal government announced a bailout package for the media, including a 12-month tax waiver and a 50 million Australian dollar (roughly $32 million) program to support public-interest journalism.SEOUL — South Korea has partially eased social distancing rules this week as the number of new infections was below 100 for the 19th day in row.South Korea is one of the first countries in the world to buck the global trend of virus-driven lockdown and lift closure orders on high-risk venues such as churches, bars and sporting facilities.Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun announced Sunday that while the social distancing policy will be extended for another 16 days, guidelines will be eased. In recent days, health-care workers have been carrying out random testing; none of the roughly 1,000 random tests has come back positive, Ardern said.President Trump said on Sunday that the federal government is stepping up efforts to obtain vital supplies for coronavirus testing, hours after several governors from both parties faulted his administration for not doing enough to help states.Public health experts say testing on a larger scale is a crucial step before resuming normal social and economic activity in the country. By Sunday, the groups had approximately 200,000 members combined, and they continued to expand quickly, days after President Trump endorsed such protests by suggesting citizens should “liberate” their states.Read more here.The number of new coronavirus cases reported in China continues to drop, with 12 reported in the past 24 hours, the country’s National Health Commission said Monday.