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The ranks of the unemployed keep growing in the U.S., with another 3.8 million workers claiming jobless compensation last week as the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on the world’s biggest economy.

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On April 30, 1927, the first federal prison for women opens in Alderson, West Virginia. The Federal Industrial Institution for Women was initially for women serving federal sentences of a year or more and was designed to focus on reform, not punishment. Some said it resembled a boarding school. Prisoners farmed, did office work, cooked and even learned to sing. Today, there are nearly 1,000 inmates, most of whom are convicted of non-violent or white-collar crimes. Some notable former inmates include singer Billie Holiday and lifestyle guru Martha Stewart.

VIDEO: Billions of dollars’ worth of food is going to waste in Florida, as local farmers let fruits and vegetable rot, unable to deliver them to restaurants that don’t need as much as before during the pandemic.

VIDEO: Secretary of State Mike Pompe o says the world has every right to investigate the origin of the coronavirus and that the U.S. is also worried about other labs throughout China. Some, with unknown levels of security, may be conducting research on contagious pathogens.

In the Mexican state of Michoacan , the suspicious death of a prominent communal leader at the Monarch butterfly’s World Heritage Reserve rocked the conservation world. VOA went there and found an underside of lawlessness, corruption and poverty that could threaten the sustainability of the biosphere.

VIDEO: The use of militaries to enforce quarantines in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is causing anxiety among some, particularly in African countries. VOA looks at the risks and the benefits of deploying security forces during a pandemic.