U.S. regulators are exploring emergency approval (WSJ) for the use of antiviral drug remdesivir for seriously ill patients with the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, after federal infectious disease chief Anthony Fauci announced that a government trial of the drug found it could modestly speed recovery.

The trial of 1,063 patients, some of whom were given a placebo, found the average time to recovery was four days faster (NYT) in people who received the drug. Full data from the trial has yet to be released, and although Fauci cautioned that results must be peer-reviewed, he said he hoped remdesivir would become the “standard of care” for COVID-19. Japan also aims to fast-track approval (STAT) for the drug.

South Korea reported (Yonhap) zero new locally transmitted coronavirus cases for the first time since February 18. Health officials also said no cases had been traced to the country’s April 15 elections.
 
China: China set a May 22 date (Straits Times) for its National People’s Congress session, the country’s most important political event of the year, which had been postponed due to the coronavirus.

Officials from Afghanistan’s northern province of Badakhshan said around four hundred foreign militants are fighting alongside the Taliban, RFE/RL reports. The Taliban’s use of these fighters would violate the terms of a February deal with the United States.

The eastern Libyan forces opposing the country’s internationally backed government in Tripoli announced a cease-fire (AP) for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, citing calls to halt fighting during the coronavirus pandemic.
 
Iran: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seeks to trigger the extension (FT) of a UN arms embargo against Iran using a clause in the 2015 nuclear deal that the United States left in 2018. Pompeo said the United States is technically still party to the deal.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo said robust coronavirus testing and tracing programs have helped control (Reuters) the country’s outbreak, with 1,671 cases and 18 deaths reported since March 13. The major cities of Accra and Kumasi lifted their lockdowns last week.
 
For Think Global Heath, Charles Holmes, Matthew Boyce, and Rebecca Katz discuss how existing health investments in some African countries prepared them for the coronavirus.
 
Ivory Coast: The country withdrew (Bloomberg) from the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Last week, the court ordered it to suspend an arrest warrant for opposition leader Guillaume Soro.

Norway, Western Europe’s largest crude producer, will cut oil output (FT) by more than 13 percent beginning in June to honor an unofficial pact with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies to reduce world oil supply. It is Norway’s first production cut in eighteen years.
 
CFR’s Amy Myers Jaffe discusses the historic pact between OPEC and other major producers.
 
Germany: Germany banned Lebanon’s Hezbollah (DW) from operating in the country and designated it a terrorist organization. Police raided sites thought to be linked to the group in four cities.

Colombia will expand eligibility (Reuters) for sentence reductions and economic assistance for those who leave illegal armed groups to include defectors from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Clan del Golfo, Los Pelusos, and Los Caparros gangs. Until now, the benefits were only available to those who left the National Liberation Army (ELN).
 
For Foreign Affairs, Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli discusses how Colombia’s peace pact with FARC has stumbled.
 
Argentina: Global economic and oil slumps may imperil an effort to tap the world’s second-biggest shale deposits (Guardian), located in Patagonia. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to report on the project’s viability as part of Argentina’s upcoming annual review.

The World Health Organization (WHO) convenes a panel of international health experts today to take stock (UN) of the global response to the new coronavirus disease three months after the COVID-19 outbreak was declared an international public health emergency.