What you need to know today about the virus outbreak

Millions of people were allowed to return to work in Italy on Monday as Europe’s longest lockdown started to ease, while countries from Iceland to India took a patchwork of steps to loosen coronavirus restrictions. Businesses including hairdressers in Greece and restaurants in Lebanon were opening their doors under new conditions.

With pressure growing in many countries for more measures to restart the economy, politicians also were trying to boost funding for research into a vaccine for COVID-19.

Here are some of AP’s top stories Monday on the world’s coronavirus pandemic. Follow APNews.com/VirusOutbreak for updates through the day and APNews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak for stories explaining some of its complexities.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY:

— Being homeless in New York City is tougher and scarier now amid the coronavirus pandemic. The city has identified more than 650 cases and more than 50 COVID-19 deaths among the 17,000 single adults in its shelter system.

— President Donald Trump said Americans should brace for as many as 100,000 deaths, up by as much as 40,000 from what he had suggested just a few weeks ago. “This should have been stopped in China,” he said in a virtual town hall from the Lincoln Memorial.

— Dubai, a sheikhdom in the United Arab Emirates, has bet billions of dollars on Expo 2020, a world's fair, to rejuvenate its troubled economy. Now it's been postponed until Oct. 1, 2021. The announcement by the Bureau International des Expositions came hours after police in Kuwait dispersed what they described as a riot by stranded Egyptians unable to return home amid the pandemic. The riot was the first reported sign of unrest from the region’s vast population of foreign workers who have lost their jobs over the crisis.

— An alliance...