William Roy, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Response Operations Division, is departing his position at the end of July, a senior administration official told NBC News.

Roy, a retired Army major general, has served as director of the division since July 2017. As part of that role, Roy oversees multiple departments, including the FEMA Operations Center and the National Response Coordination Center.

Roy has been deeply involved in the coronavirus response effort and is a member of the interagency leadership group that works with the White House and its task forces.

FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

ESPN announced Monday it struck a deal with South Korean baseball officials, and plans to televise six games per week to sports-starved American viewers.

The pact, made with the Korean Baseball Organization's (KBO) international rights holder Eclat Media Group, calls one game to air each day, Tuesday through Sunday, on an ESPN channel and its digital platform. 

The first game, to be played in an empty stadium, will feature the Samsung Lions and NC Dinos. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. in Korea and 1 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

Virtually all sports around the world have been put on hold, due to the coronavirus pandemic. South Korea and Taiwan have been widely praised for their aggressive fight against the pandemic — and now both have professional baseball up and running. 

Confronted by the coronavirus outbreak, Americans bought an estimated 4.2 million firearms in March and April, a gun control group said Monday.

The Everytown for Gun Safety group came to that conclusion after crunching the newest numbers from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and discovering that 25 percent more background checks were done in April 2020 than in April 2019.

And more guns means more danger for Americans sheltering at home during the coronavirus crisis, according to Shannon Watts of the Moms Demand Action gun control group.

“The risks are particularly high for the millions of kid in homes with unsecured guns, women sheltering in places with abusers, and anybody struggling psychologically during this crisis,” Watts said.

WASHINGTON — U.S. regulators Monday pulled back a decision that allowed scores of coronavirus blood tests to hit the market without first providing proof that they worked.

The Food and Drug Administration said it took the action because some sellers have made false claims about the tests and their accuracy.

Read more here.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday that the city will hand out 7.5 million face masks for free.

The mayor said the initiative started over the weekend to a "great response" as people spilled out of their apartments and into public spaces while temperatures soared into the 70s.

He said "people were really grateful the get them," and the city would now start distributing masks at parks, food distribution centers, public housing developments, affordable housing facilities and anywhere police and the parks department are enforcing social distancing. Five million three-ply non-medical masks and 2.5 million cloth face coverings will be handed out. 

"When you put on that face covering, you are reducing the spread of this disease, and taking one small step toward normalcy," de Blasio said. 

A vice president and engineer at Amazon said he quit on May 1 "in dismay" at the company's firing of "whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19."

Tim Bray, who announced his resignation on his personal blog, worked at Amazon for five-and-half years said the move to fire employees sounding the alarm on working conditions was "chickens---."

"At the end of the day, the big problem isn’t the specifics of Covid-19 response," Bray wrote. "It’s that Amazon treats the humans in the warehouses as fungible units of pick-and-pack potential."

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As millions of commuters continue to stay home, Britain's rail companies are using their Twitter accounts to entertain the public with bedtime stories and cute animal photos. 

Instead of the usual updates on train delays and timetable changes, London North Eastern Railway's customer service reps are posting videos of themselves reading Thomas the Train out loud to sleepy train enthusiasts, and video updates on a mother goose who has chosen to lay her eggs in the flower bed of an almost-empty railway station in York, Yorkshire.  

Not wanting to miss out on the fun, ScotRail has been providing behind-the-scenes videos like a virtual trip through a train wash, as well as content guaranteed to please all ages: cute animal photos. "Please enjoy this picture of a very fluffy alpaca," wrote one customer service rep yesterday. "That's it. That's the Tweet."