A truck bomb (AFP) in a northern Syrian city controlled by Turkey-backed rebel forces killed at least forty-six people and wounded fifty at a crowded marketplace, according to a human rights monitor. Turkey blamed (Anadolu) the People’s Protection Units (YPG) Kurdish militia group for the attack.

The attack was one of the largest to occur in the city of Afrin since Turkish and allied Syrian opposition forces seized the surrounding region from the YPG in 2018. The YPG did not immediately comment (BBC) on the attack. The U.S. State Department condemned it as a “cowardly act of evil” and repeated the United Nations’ call for a cease-fire in Syria.

The U.S. Commerce Department announced new rules restricting exports (SCMP) to China to prevent technology and other products from being used to support the Chinese military.
 
This CFR Backgrounder examines China’s modernizing military.
 
Japan: The head of the Japan Medical Association said holding the Olympics next year would be “difficult” without a coronavirus vaccine. The games would be canceled rather than postponed (Guardian) if they cannot be held in 2021, the president of Japan’s Olympic organizing committee said.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom designated India a “country of particular concern” in a new report, saying the Indian government tolerated “campaigns of harassment and violence” against Muslims and other religious minorities. It urged sanctions (Reuters) on Indian government officials.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Pratap Bhanu Mehta discusses India’s shift away from secularism.

Iraqi authorities blamed the self-proclaimed Islamic State for an attack on an intelligence bureau (AP) in the northern city of Kirkuk, the latest in what they say is an uptick in attacks (Al-Monitor) by the militant group.

Mozambique’s military said it killed 129 insurgents (Reuters) this month in retaliation for an attack in early April that killed 52 civilians. Militias with suspected ties to the Islamic State have conducted raids in the country’s north since 2017.
 
Ivory Coast: Opposition leader Guillaume Soro was sentenced in absentia (AP) to twenty years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering, charges he calls politically motivated. Soro said he would remain on the ballot for a presidential election set for October.

The head of Germany’s disease control agency urged Germans to stay home (Guardian) even as the country begins its economic reopening after the domestic coronavirus infection rate rose to 0.96—nearly enough for each infected person to infect one other person.
 
France: French Health Minister Olivier Veran urged international researchers to gather data on a possible link between the coronavirus and heart inflammation in children (AFP) after more than a dozen French children were found to have that symptom. The United Kingdom also announced that heart inflammation in children could be linked to the coronavirus.

Mexico and the European Union finalized a free trade agreement (FT) four years in the making that will eliminate virtually all duties on trade. The deal also includes sustainability and anticorruption commitments.
 
Peru: A Lima uprising (Reuters) of prisoners demanding stronger sanitary measures was quashed by two hundred security officials and left nine inmates dead.

President Donald J. Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to order meatpacking plants to stay open (Politico) during the coronavirus pandemic. Twenty workers in the sector have died from the virus and twenty-two plants have closed.
 
This CFR In Brief looks at the Defense Production Act.

Every three additional months of coronavirus lockdown could lead to fifteen million more cases of domestic abuse (Reuters) than average, the United Nations warned, while interrupted access to contraception could lead to seven million unwanted pregnancies if lockdowns continue for six months.