Libya’s UN-backed government seized control (Al Jazeera) of three cities between Tripoli and the country’s border with Tunisia, marking the latest escalation in the country’s civil war. International envoys have urged both sides to stop fighting amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

The upswing in fighting is fueled by arms sent by Turkey (WaPo) to support the UN-backed government and by the United Arab Emirates to rival commander Khalifa Haftar. At least fourteen hospitals have closed due to clashes and twenty-three more are at risk of closing, the United Nations said. Libya has reported twenty-six coronavirus cases (Bloomberg). The UN-backed government said it will accelerate its campaign to reclaim land captured by Haftar and that it would not negotiate with him, and urged his supporters to withdraw their aid.

China’s measures to limit the flow of the Mekong River caused low water levels (NYT) in countries including Cambodia and Thailand in recent months, even as they suffered extreme drought, according to the water monitor Eyes on Earth.
 
North Korea: The country launched (Yonhap) what appeared to be multiple cruise and air-to-ground missiles off its east coast.
 
This CFR Backgrounder looks at North Korea’s military capabilities.

Members of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused an Islamic missionary organization of conspiring to infect millions with the coronavirus after an event where many attendees unknowingly picked up the virus. The conspiracy theory (Guardian) has been widely repeated in recent weeks amid an uptick in harassment of Indian Muslims.
 
Pakistan: The country’s foreign ministry summoned an Indian official in Islamabad to denounce Indian cross-border shelling in Kashmir that it said killed a child and wounded four others. India said that Pakistani shelling (Reuters) killed three civilians.

Israel’s president granted Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz a forty-eight-hour extension (Haaretz) on a deadline to negotiate a coalition deal. Gantz resumed unity talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

One million Ethiopians need emergency food assistance (Al Jazeera) after desert locusts destroyed farmland, the United Nations announced. Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia currently face a new wave of desert locusts that the United Nations said is twenty times worse (Guardian) than the swarms that descended two months ago.
 
Mozambique: A group of Islamic extremists that have been active in the country’s north since 2017 announced their intention to establish a caliphate (AFP) in a region where they have seized government buildings and blocked roads.

Turkey passed a law to temporarily release (Reuters) forty-five thousand prisoners to reduce health risks during the coronavirus pandemic. A similar number of prisoners will be permanently released as part of a separate effort to reduce overcrowding. Political prisoners arrested after a 2016 crackdown will not be released.
 
Ukraine: Ukraine said its firefighters extinguished a blaze that neared the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant and which Greepeace said posed a radiation risk (Reuters). Ukraininan authorities said radiation levels in the area rose but remained within normal limits.

The Domincan Republic has postponed its presidential election (Miami Herald), originally slated for May 17, until July 5 due to the coronavirus.

The governors of California and New York announced they will coordinate (NPR) with their neighbors to ease coronavirus lockdowns on a timeline based on health outcomes rather than politics. President Donald J. Trump falsely claimed (Vox) that his “authority is total” to determine such measures.
 
In Think Global Health, a CFR initiative, Christopher Thomas discusses lessons from China for returning to “normal” after the pandemic.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will pause debt collection (AP) for six months for nineteen African countries, as well as Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal, the Solomon Islands, Tajikistan and Yemen, so those countries can direct resources toward their responses to the coronavirus.
 
This CFR Backgrounder looks at the role of the IMF.