* The COVID-19 pandemic is having a "devastating impact" on people of African descent and ethnic minorities in Brazil, Britain, France and the United States, the top U.N. human rights official said on Tuesday (June 2). More than 6.39 million people have been reported infected with the new coronavirus globally and 379,433 have died, a Reuters tally showed. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China last December.
* China reported one new coronavirus case and four new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases in the mainland on June 2, the country's health commission said. Total number of infections to date in the mainland stands at 83,021. The death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
* The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday reported a total of 1,802,470 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 14,790 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 761 to 105,157.
* France's coronavirus death toll rose by more than a 100 for the first time in 13 days on Tuesday, an increase that includes nursing homes data again after a three-day interruption. The health ministry said the number of fatalities had risen by 107, or 0.4%, to 28,940, the fifth-highest tally in the world.
* Mexican health authorities reported on Tuesday an additional 3,891 cases of the novel coronavirus, a new record of daily cases, and 470 more deaths. This brings the total number of known cases to 97,326 and 10,637 deaths. Health authorities have previously said the real number is higher.
* Brazil registered another record number of novel coronavirus deaths over the last 24 hours, the health ministry said on Tuesday evening, as the pandemic in Latin America's largest country shows no signs of slowing down. The nation registered 28,936 additional cases of the novel coronavirus, the ministry said, and 1,262 deaths. There are now 555,383 total confirmed coronavirus cases in Brazil and 31,199 coronavirus deaths.
* India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has received an invitation from US President Donald Trump to attend the next Group of Seven summit, India's Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Tuesday. In a telephone call, Modi told Trump New Delhi would be happy to work with the United States and other countries to ensure the success of the next G7 summit, the ministry said in a statement.
* The European Union on Tuesday rejected any suggestion that the Group of Seven advanced economies could be expanded to include Russia and warned Washington that it could not change the rules for the group on its own. US President Donald Trump on Saturday dismissed the G7 as a "very outdated group of countries" and said he would invite the leaders of Australia, Russia, Republic of Korea and India to join a leaders summit now postponed to September.
* French police fired tear gas early on Wednesday to disperse protesters marking the 2016 death of a black man in a police operation that some have likened to the death of George Floyd in the United States. Thousands of people assembled earlier for a demonstration in memory of Adama Traore, a 24-year-old black Frenchman who died in a 2016 police operation. The protesters were defying a police ban imposed because of the risk of disorder and the danger of spreading the novel coronavirus.
* Thailand on Wednesday reported one new coronavirus infection and no new deaths, bringing the country's total to 3,084 confirmed cases and 58 fatalities since the outbreak started in January. There are 2,968 patients who have recovered.
* The streets of Mumbai emptied on Wednesday as a rare cyclone headed for India's most populous metropolis and thousands of people moved away from the coast, adding to the pressure on authorities grappling with coronavirus. India's largest container port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), on the outskirts of Mumbai, was also ordered to shut for 24 hours, the port said in a statement. The cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea "is very likely to intensify into a Severe Cyclonic Storm during next 6 hours," the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Wednesday.
* New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday she could lift all social distancing measures to return the country to normal life, bar the international border closure, as early as next week. Ardern will decide on Monday whether the country is ready to shift to alert level 1, more than two months after she imposed a strict level 4 lockdown, shutting most businesses and forcing people to stay home, in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 342 to 182,370, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday. The reported death toll rose by 29 to 8,551, the tally showed.
* Venezuela's government has signed an agreement with the opposition-led National Assembly to work with the regional arm of the World Health Organization to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic, Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said on Tuesday. Rodriguez reported 1,819 coronavirus cases and 18 deaths.
