France and Spain were poised Tuesday to announce plans to ease strict lockdowns that have been in place for weeks, treading a fine line between allowing stalled economies to reboot while staving off another wave of contagion in the hard-hit countries.
Meanwhile US President Donald Trump said he may seek damages from China for the devastating coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 56,000 in the US, the highest of any country in the world.
Beijing immediately hit back, accusing US politicians of "telling barefaced lies" about the virus that emerged in China late last year and has infected more than three million people and killed 211,000 globally.