Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. 'It's Covid! Stay away!' Latin America's health workers face rising hostility

Shoved to the ground, splashed with bleach or glared at on public transportation, health workers face a growing tide of hostility across Latin America for potentially spreading COVID-19. For Sandra Aleman, a nurse in the city of San Luis Potosi in central Mexico, the attack began when a group of children sprayed juice and soda on her white uniform, shouting, "It's Covid! Stay away from us!" Twelve dead or missing as migrants returned to Libyan capital: U.N. agency

At least five migrants died and seven were missing when the coast guard returned 49 others to Libya's capital Tripoli on Wednesday as fighting there raged, the U.N. migration agency said. A Maltese commercial vessel rescued the migrants from an inflatable boat and handed them to Libya's coast guard, which brought them to a naval base in Tripoli where they were allowed to disembark after a delay of several hours, the International Organization for Migration said. Israel's Netanyahu, Gantz fail to reach unity deal, deadlock persists

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival Benny Gantz failed to strike a unity government deal in last-ditch talks late on Wednesday. Even the medical and economic crises brought on by the coronavirus outbreak have so far failed to end an unprecedented political deadlock that has pushed Israel into three inconclusive elections in the last year, and perhaps now a fourth. Russia carried out anti-satellite missile test: U.S. military

Russia carried out a test of an anti-satellite missile on Wednesday, the U.S. military said, calling it an example of the threats the United States faced in space. The move comes as officials have said that space will increasingly become an important domain for warfare, with the U.S. and other countries such as Russia and China stepping up their military postures in low-Earth orbit and near the moon. Hong Kong? Bushfires? What's been happening on the biggest non-coronavirus stories of the year

The year started with protests, bushfires and a missile strike. New Year’s Day saw another huge pro-democracy rally in Hong Kong; bushfires in Australia destroyed more than 18 million hectares of forest and left at least 34 dead; while a U.S. missile killed Iran’s top general and triggered a retaliatory strike that accidentally downed a Ukrainian airliner. Spain's daily coronavirus deaths decline as testing increases

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday promised more coronavirus testing to try to build on a decline in daily COVID-19 deaths that has allowed Spain to start tentatively reopening its locked-down economy. Officials hope more testing will give a better indication of the areas where lockdowns can be eased further. WHO regrets Trump funding halt as global coronavirus cases top 2 million

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday he regrets U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull funding for the agency, but that now is the time for the world unite in its fight against the new coronavirus. Trump's move prompted condemnation from world leaders as global coronavirus infections passed the 2 million mark. Supplies for coronavirus field hospital held up at U.S.-Mexico border

Red tape and rules on exporting medical gear have delayed work on a field hospital for migrants in an asylum camp near Mexico's border with Texas, undercutting efforts to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic, according to organizers of the project. Mexican authorities approved construction of the 20-bed field hospital on April 2. But since then, a trailer laden with supplies for the project has been parked in Brownsville, Texas, less than a block from the U.S.-Mexico border. China may have conducted low-level nuclear test blasts, U.S. says

China may have secretly set off low-level underground nuclear test explosions despite claiming to observe an international pact banning such blasts, the U.S. State Department said in a report on Wednesday that could fuel U.S.-Chinese tensions. The finding, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, may worsen ties already strained by U.S. charges that the global COVID-19 pandemic resulted from Beijing's mishandling of a 2019 outbreak of the coronavirus in the city of Wuhan. As Brazil's COVID-19 testing lags, available labs go unused

Despite Brazil's backlog of more than 90,000 specimens awaiting coronavirus testing and a rising death toll, laboratories are idle due to a lack of materials, the agriculture ministry said. Brazil's agriculture ministry told Reuters in a written response to questions earlier this week that seven labs it had made available for coronavirus testing and which were cleared by the health regulator two weeks ago are still not being used for tests.