WELLINGTON, New Zealand—New Zealand delayed a national election by about a month after a coronavirus outbreak in its largest city of Auckland put a third of voters into lockdown. The election, which was expected to be dominated by debate over the government’s response to the pandemic, will now be held on Oct. 17, Prime Minister … Read more
TOKYO—The Japanese economy shrank less than the U.S. and European economies did in the April-June quarter, but it fared worse than Asian counterparts. Japan’s gross domestic product fell 7.8% in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the previous quarter, the worst drop on record in the period since 1980, when comparable data began to … Read more
KYOTO, Japan—The bustle of tourists has disappeared from this ancient capital—only to be replaced by dissension over whether they should ever be welcomed back. Mimiko Takayasu, 80 years old, is proprietress of a century-old tea house where geisha entertain wealthy Japanese with traditional music and dance. Until the coronavirus pandemic, the streets of Gion, Kyoto’s … Read more
SEOUL—South Korean health officials are on guard and strengthening prevention measures after the country on Sunday reported its highest daily count of new coronavirus infections in months. There were 279 newly infected individuals, health officials said. Most of the cases arose in the Seoul metropolitan area, home to about half the country’s population. Though… Source link
TUCHÓW, Poland—Last year, this small Polish town near the eastern edge of the European Union passed a resolution proclaiming itself a “municipality free of LGBT ideology.” Last month, the EU responded by stripping funding for a program connecting Tuchów with a sister city in France. For EU authorities, Tuchów had violated a fundamental right not … Read more
Iran unleashed an angry broadside this weekend reacting to the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, a deal signaling deeper cooperation between the Jewish state and Gulf Arabs to counter Tehran as it vies for regional influence. In a nationally televised speech Saturday, Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, said, “We … Read more
MOSCOW—When Svetlana Tikhanovskaya walked into Belarus’s election commission to complain she had been cheated out of a win in last weekend’s presidential election, her campaign team expected her to quickly emerge to carry on the fight. Instead, she disappeared, resurfacing the next day in Lithuania. In a video posted on social media, she called for … Read more
BEIRUT—In the wake of the massive explosion that devastated large parts of the Lebanese capital, a new danger is stalking the struggling country: hunger. The early August blast, which killed more than 150 people and displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes, destroyed the grain silos storing most of the country’s wheat supplies and badly … Read more
The Trump administration is readying new rounds of sanctions against Syria, U.S. officials said, planning to expand its blacklist by focusing on financial-support networks outside the war-torn nation in a renewed effort to coerce Damascus into peace talks. As President Bashar al-Assad has secured military and political gains in recent months, the U.S. officials say … Read more