US registers record 2,228 deaths AFP reports that the US has registered a record 2,228 deaths from the coronavirus in the last 24 hours. We’ll have more on this in a minute. San Francisco cancels 50th anniversary LGBTQ+ Pride parade amid pandemic San Francisco has cancelled its famed Pride parade this summer, which would have marked the event’s 50th anniversary, due to the coronavirus, organizers announced on Tuesday. For the first time since it began, there will be no march along the city’s Market Street, no rainbow-clad revelers celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, no outdoor concerts or drag shows. The events had been scheduled for 27 and 28 June. “This was not a decision we arrived at lightly – we are sincerely heartbroken”, Fred Lopez, the executive director, told the Guardian. “But what it came down to is that the wellbeing of our community is always going to be our top priority.” California enters ‘optimistic’ phase but coronavirus restrictions won’t ease soonRead more San Francisco’s Pride parade is one of the largest in the world, and this year upward of 1 million people were expected to attend as part of its 50th anniversary. The cancellation comes as other Pride events – including Boston and Toronto have already been cancelled or moved online due to fears surrounding the pandemic. In these extraordinary times, the Guardian’s editorial independence has never been more important. Because no one sets our agenda, or edits our editor, we can keep delivering quality, trustworthy, fact-checked journalism each and every day. Free from commercial or political bias, we can report fearlessly on world events and challenge those in power. Your support protects the Guardian’s independence. We believe every one of us deserves equal access to accurate news and calm explanation. No matter how unpredictable the future feels, we will remain with you, delivering high quality news so we can all make critical decisions about our lives, health and security – based on fact, not fiction. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. In the US, the tornado onslaught in the Southern states began Sunday has killed more than 30 people. The coronavirus outbreak is affecting how the states are able to respond, AP reports. About 550 people in four states are staying in hotel rooms funded by the Red Cross since mass shelters were not an option, said Brad Kieserman, a vice president of the organization. Mississippi governor Tate Reeves, who toured damaged areas, said the pandemic was making a bad situation worse. “The fact that the coronaviruses exist is complicating the recovery from the tornado, while the tornadoes are complicating our efforts to make sure that we do everything in our power to stop the spread of the virus,” Reeves said during a stop in tiny Soso. The storms claimed lives in at least six states, and the National Weather Service said preliminary assessments found evidence of at least 27 twisters. The strongest confirmed so far was an EF-4 tornado that devastated southeastern Mississippi with winds as strong as 170 mph (273 kph). Hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed across the region, and heavy rains caused flooding in some areas. Nashville, Tennessee, broke a 71-year-old record by receiving 2.23 inches (5.66 centimeters) of rain in a day, the weather service said. A day later, on Tuesday morning, the city saw snow flurries. Damage occurred up the East Coast, with a flurry of tornado warnings issued in Delaware after storms left the Southeast. Here is everything we know so far about US president Donald Trumps’ decision to suspend funding for the World Health Organization: Donald Trump has announced he is halting funding to the World Health Organization, at least temporarily, after condemning its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The US president told a White House news conference on Tuesday that the WHO had “failed in its basic duty and it must be held accountable”. He said the group had promoted what he called China’s “disinformation” about the virus that likely led to a wider outbreak than otherwise would have occurred. Having previously threatened to withhold funding, Trump abruptly announced on Tuesday within moments of beginning the daily White House coronavirus briefing that he would cut off American funding to the World Health Organization while the US conducts a “review”. Three potential Covid-19 vaccines are making fast progress in early-stage testing in volunteers in China and the US, the Associated Press reports, but its still a long road to prove if they’ll really work. Chinas CanSino Biologics is beginning the second phase of testing its vaccine candidate, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology said Tuesday. In the US, a shot made by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc. isn’t far behind. The first person to receive that experimental vaccine last month returned to a Seattle clinic Tuesday for a second dose. NIH infectious disease chief and key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force Dr Anthony Fauci told The Associated Press there are no red flags so far and he hoped the next, larger phase of testing could begin around June. A third candidate, from Inovio Pharmaceuticals, began giving experimental shots for first-step safety testing last week in the US and hopes to expand its studies to China. Looking ahead, Fauci said if the new coronavirus continues to circulate widely enough over the summer and fall, it might be possible to finish larger studies slightly sooner than the 12 to 18 months he’d originally predicted maybe toward “mid to late winter of next season. “Please let me say this caveat: That is assuming that its effective. See, thats the big if, Fauci stressed. “It’s got to be effective and it’s got to be safe.” Asked about the Reuters suspension in an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN, Iraqi President Barham Salih said it was a “regrettable decision” taken by a commission which is independent of the government. “From my vantage point you would not get me in a situation where I would defend that. I’m working with our legal team in order to revoke that and manage the situation,” Salih said. Iraq has suspended the licence of the Reuters news agency after it published a story saying the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country was higher than officially reported. The Reuters report, published on April 2, cited three doctors involved in the testing process, a health ministry official and a senior political official as saying Iraq had thousands of confirmed Covid-19 cases, many times more than the 772 it had publicly reported at that time. The report was updated on 2 April to include a denial from a health ministry spokesman, sent by text message, who dismissed the sources’ assertions about the spread of the disease, describing them as “incorrect information”. Iraq’s media regulator said it was revoking Reuters’ licence for three months and fining it 25 million dinars ($21,000) for what it said was the agency’s violation of the rules of media broadcasting. In a letter to Reuters, the Communications and Media Commission (CMC) said it had taken the action “because this matter is taking place during current circumstances which have serious repercussions on societal health and safety.” Hello and welcome to today’s live coronavirus pandemic coverage with me, Helen Sullivan. Over the course of a particularly tone deaf and worrying press conference, US President Donald Trump announced that he will be temporarily suspend funding to the World Health Organization. US deaths meanwhile have passed 25,000 – a fifth of the global total – and its confirmed cases number more than 600,000. We’ll be bringing you analysis of the repercussions of Trump’s decision regarding the WHO as well as the main stories from around the world. You can get in touch with me directly on Twitter @helenrsullivan. We really do appreciate your tips and comments. Below are the key developments from the last few hours: US President Donald Trump announced the suspension of funding to the World Health Organization, as well as an investigation into the WHO’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump also walked back his comments yesterday regarding “absolute power” over the states, saying states would have the authority to reopen when it is appropriate. The International Monetary Fund slashed its forecasts for global growth and warned of a slump in output this year unparalleled since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It said the “Great Lockdown” is likely to cause a drop in activity more painful than the recession that followed the banking meltdown of the 2008. The UK government is being urged to publish its lockdown exit strategy this week. The leader of the opposition Labour party, Sir Keir Starmer, has written to Dominic Raab, who is deputising for the prime minister, to say his party would support an extension – but that ministers need to explain their plan. British charities have said thousands of homeless people are still on the streets despite the government’s aim to house all rough sleepers by the end of last month. France summoned the Chinese envoy. France’s foreign minister has summoned the Chinese envoy after the embassy published a second article on its website criticising western handling of the coronavirus crisis. “We think we are at the apex,” the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced after the state recorded a small decrease in its the number (1,600) of new patients coming into New York hospitals on Monday. Amazon has fired two employees after they publicly denounced the company’s treatment of warehouse workers during the pandemic. Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa said they were fired after internally circulating a petition about health risks for Amazon warehouse workers during the Covid-19 crisis. A German zoo has said it may have to feed some animals to others. Zoos are making contingency plans, including killing some of the animals, should the lockdown continue without a solution to their financial troubles. Italy, Spain and Austria allowed partial returns to work as countries across Europe report further falls in new cases and begin taking the first cautious steps out of lockdown to revive their battered economies. Britain’s economy could shrink by 35% and unemployment rise by more than 2 million people due to the crisis, the official economics forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility warned, as it forecast a 13% fall in GDP for 2020.