The coronavirus and agency shakeups are making NASA's goal of landing people back on the Moon in 2024 seem less likely.

Why it matters: The Trump administration has hung its hat on the Artemis Moon program as its defining space policy, with the goal of accomplishing the first crewed landing before the end of President Trump's second term — if he is re-elected.

Republican senators on Tuesday largely avoided discussing President Trump's tweet alleging without evidence that a 75-year-old Buffalo protester, who was seriously injured after being shoved by police, is an "antifa provocateur."

Our thought bubble: It's the classic dodging mechanism, which we've grown accustomed to during the Trump presidency. Whenever senators and Trump advisers don't want to weigh in on an inflammatory tweet that puts them in a difficult position, they claim they haven't read it.

Chinese intelligence officers have been covertly operating in Hong Kong for years, but Hong Kong’s new national security law means Beijing’s spies will likely establish a more official presence there.

Why it matters: Allowing mainland China’s security and intelligence services to operate with impunity in Hong Kong would dramatically reduce the political freedoms enshrined in the “one country, two systems” agreement that was supposed to provide the region with a high degree of autonomy until 2047. This could endanger Hong Kong-based pro-democracy figures and other local anti-Communist Party dissidents.

Burundi's government says President Pierre Nkurunziza, 55, has died of a heart attack — though his death follows reports that he and his wife may have contracted COVID-19.

Why it matters: Burundi has reported few cases of coronavirus and done little to mitigate the spread. It expelled World Health Organization officials last month, accusing them of "interference," and went ahead with elections on May 20 that were widely viewed as rigged but saw Nkurunziza's chosen successor declared the winner.

1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 12 p.m.: ET: 7,156,598 — Total deaths: 407,326 — Total recoveries — 3,322,421 — Map.
2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 12 p.m.: ET: 1,963,828 — Total deaths: 111,097 — Total recoveries: 518,522 — Total tested: 20,615,303 — Map.
3. Public health: WHO walks back comments on asymptomatic transmission. — Social distancing may have prevented 5 million U.S. deaths.
4. Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index: 86% think protests present large to moderate risk.
5. Federal government: HHS to send $25 billion to Medicaid and safety net providers.

The World Health Organization clarified comments an official made on Monday that called asymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus "very rare," saying in a press conference that these carriers do take part in spreading the virus but that more information is needed to know by how much.

What they're saying: WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove clarified Tuesday that patients sometimes confuse not having any symptoms with only exhibiting mild symptoms. In addition, some patients transmit the virus before developing symptoms. Contact tracers classify this group as "presymptomatic," rather than asymptomatic.

Airbnb has restarted internal conversations about going public in 2020, something unthinkable just a month ago, per multiple sources close to the company.

The big picture: Stock markets are no longer moored to macroeconomic conditions or financial performance, and IPOs are riding the tsunami.

The twin global goals of effectively responding to COVID-19 and bringing power to hundreds of millions of people lacking electricity and cooling infrastructure are converging.

Why it matters: "Reliable power is critical for effective responses to COVID-19 and other diseases," states a Brookings Institution piece.

President Trump tweeted Tuesday that the 75-year-old protester who was shoved to the ground by Buffalo, N.Y., police last week "could be an ANTIFA provocateur" and "fell harder than he was pushed."

Why it matters: The conspiracy theory, which originated on the far-right blog Conservative Treehouse, made its way to the president via a report on One America News Network, a small Fox News rival with a history of conspiracy-focused reporting. It highlights just how far the president's media consumption can veer from the mainstream.

The fast-moving world of Twitter has become the nerve center of the American news cycle — as evidenced by record-breaking downloads and engagement for the service last week.

Why it matters: Twitter is our mediaverse's grand interface between journalism and social media. While news organizations play a central role in sharing links to their coverage on Twitter, much of the visual content shared in real time during breaking news events like protests is shared by everyday users.

Professional investors have largely abandoned the stock market amid the coronavirus pandemic, but sports bettors and bored millennials have jumped into the retail stock trading market with both feet.

Why it matters: They may be a driving force pushing U.S. stocks to their recent highs — and potentially driving them further.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has an intensely personal interest in the protests over police brutality: She admitted to "Axios on HBO" that she doesn't feel she or her four black children are safe from the possibility of dying at the hands of the police.

Why it matters: In an emotional interview, she recounted her horror when she discovered that one of her sons had bought a cap gun — an act that reminded her of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old African American boy who was shot to death by a Cleveland police officer in 2014 who saw him playing with a toy gun in a park.

A slew of high-level resignations from top news editors over the past week shows how much pressure the current racial protests is putting on media companies to confront their own shortcomings on diversity and on covering race issues.

Driving the news: Top editors at Bon Appétit, Refinery29, The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer have all resigned in the past week due to their handling of sensitive stories about race, the Black Lives Matter protests, or newsroom culture.

Eight in 10 Americans worry that mass demonstrations around George Floyd's killing, police brutality and structural racism could trigger new coronavirus infections, in Week 12 of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index.

Why it matters: More than one in 10 people surveyed has an immediate family member or close friend who's participated — and 2% say they've taken part themselves. That puts tens of millions of people in close contact with protesters.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) says President Trump's "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" tweet reminded him of one of the most famous enemies of civil rights from the 1960s — and that Trump's responses to the protests against police brutality prove "there's no compassion in this guy."

Driving the news: In an interview with "Axios on HBO," Clyburn compared Trump to Bull Connor, the segregationist commissioner of public safety in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1960s who was known for using firehoses and police dogs on civil rights protesters, including children.

The S&P index of top health care companies finished Monday higher than where it opened the year.

The big picture: A global coronavirus pandemic, social unrest, mass unemployment, and the halting of medical procedures hasn't been enough to derail Wall Street's rosy view of the health care industry.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a statement Monday urging Black Lives Matter protesters in the U.K. to "work peacefully, lawfully" following days of unrest that saw the statue of wartime leader Winston Churchill twice defaced.

Why it matters: The tense situation in the U.S. has brought the issue of racism and discrimination into focus globally as the world is consumed by the coronavirus pandemic. Protests spreading across Europe "highlight that discrimination and violence against black people is not only a problem of one country — it is commonplace," a top European Union agency told the EU Observer on Monday.

Kathy Sullivan has become the first woman in the world to reach the lowest point on Earth, the Challenger Deep.

Why it matters: The 68-year-old former NASA astronaut and oceanographer became in 1984 the first American woman to walk in space. Now she's "the first human to have been in space and at full ocean depth," said EYOS Expeditions, a firm coordinating the mission' logistics, in a statement on Monday.

The leader of the Episcopal Church tells "Axios on HBO" that "the soul of America is at stake" and "it's time to speak up" against racial injustice and needed reforms to policing.

• "I believe in this country and what it stands for: freedom, justice, equality," the Most Rev. Michael Curry said in the interview. "Those are ideals worth standing for. And when they are challenged, we must speak up."

Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) made it clear in an interview with "Axios on HBO" that she's interested in being Joe Biden's running mate, saying two terrible crises — the killing of George Floyd and the coronavirus — have changed what the U.S. needs in a vice president.

The big picture: The former Orlando police chief told Axios' Alexi McCammond that the moment requires a vice president "who has on-the-ground experience" dealing with issues like police brutality and the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on African Americans.

A man accused of driving his pick-up truck into peaceful protesters in Richmond, Virginia, over the weekend is an "admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology," prosecutors said Monday.

Details: Harry H. Rogers, 36, of Virginia, was charged with assault and battery, attempted malicious wounding, and felony vandalism over Sunday evening's incident, tweeted Shannon Taylor, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Henrico County. "We are investigating whether hate crimes charges are appropriate," she said in a statement.

India opened up restaurants, shopping malls and places of worship today even as it recorded a record-high 9,971 new coronavirus cases, the third-most worldwide behind Brazil and the U.S.

Why it matters: Lockdowns are being lifted in South Asia — home to one-quarter of the world’s population — not because countries are winning the battle against COVID-19, but because they simply can't sustain them any longer.