Scientists in Australia begin human trials of new COVID-19 vaccine while Indian officials announce spike in new coronavirus cases. Plus, the European Union will send a joint task force to Africa's Sahel region. And the United Nations gives an update on world hunger.

With more than 3 million cases and over 137,000 deaths, COVID-19 is taking a heavy toll on the United States as the number of new infections continues to rise.  After six months of struggling to cope, officials are encouraging citizens to wear masks to help control the spread of the virus.   

Florida reported a record increase of more than 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours on Sunday.

Philippine lawmakers have voted to reject the license renewal of the country’s largest TV network, leading some rights activists to call the move “a grievous assault on press freedom in the country.” Plus, Britain said Friday it was committed to working hard to agree to a post-Brexit deal with the European Union, but the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator said Thursday that "significant divergences" persisted. And a look ahead as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Graves Investigation prepares to look for those lost to time.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden Thursday accused President Trump of ignoring the pandemic at the expense of the economy and American lives. Speaking in Pennsylvania to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Biden introduced an ambitious economic agenda while drawing a contrast with the current billionaire president who he said has abandoned working-class Americans and encouraged division amid a national reckoning with systemic racism. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday was also in Pennsylvania courting voters where he cast Biden as a threat to the economy.

The United States Supreme Court upheld that a New York prosecutor's office could demand President Trump's tax returns as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. It's one of two decisions the high court handed down Thursday. Plus, Australia's second-largest city enters a second lock-down and the deepening crisis in Lebanon.

As the World Health Organization studies emerging evidence that the novel coronavirus can spread more easily through the air, several nations are re-instituting lockdowns to curtail the virus' spread. Plus, China opens its new security office in Hong Kong and the extradition case of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech firm Huawei, is very slowly winding its way through the Canadian legal system.

Health experts say new information is emerging about the dangerous nature of transmission of the novel coronavirus.  The World Health Organization said Tuesday there is reason to believe COVID-19 may be an airborne spread. The WHO has previously said the virus spreads primarily through small droplets transmitted from the nose or mouth of an infected person quickly fall to the ground.