Editor’s Note: This listicle is part of a weekly series by The Ball State Daily News summarizing five stories from around the world. All summaries are based on stories published by The Associated Press.
Eid al-Fitr celebrations, the new travel restrictions on Brazil, protests in Hong Kong, the Israeli prime minister’s corruption trial and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on work to keep alive a nearly extinct subspecies of rhino make up this week’s five international stories.
Muslims celebrate major holiday amid curfews, virus fears
Muslims around the world on Sunday began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, with millions under strict stay-at-home orders and many fearing renewed coronavirus outbreaks. The three-day holiday is a time of travel, family get-togethers and lavish daytime feasts after weeks of dawn-to-dusk fasting. But this year many of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims will have to pray at home and make do with video calls.
Read more: Religion
White House imposes coronavirus travel ban on Brazil
President Donald Trump on Sunday further limited travel from the world’s coronavirus hotspots by denying entry to foreigners coming from Brazil, which is second to the U.S. in the number of confirmed cases. Trump had already banned certain travelers from China, Europe, U.K. and Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Iran. He has not moved to ban travel from Russia, which has the world’s third-highest caseload. Last week, he said he was considering limiting travel from Brazil.
Read more: Italy
Hong Kong police fire tear gas, water cannon at protesters
Hong Kong police fired tear gas and a water cannon at protesters in a popular shopping district Sunday, as thousands took to the streets to march against China’s move to impose national security legislation on the city. Pro-democracy supporters have sharply criticized a proposal, set to be approved by China’s rubber-stamp parliament this week, that would ban secessionist and subversive activity, as well as foreign interference, in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
Read more: Hong Kong
Israel’s Netanyahu attacks justice system as trial begins
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strode into a Jerusalem courtroom Sunday to face corruption charges in a long-awaited trial that has overshadowed three inconclusive elections and deeply divided the country. Israel’s first sitting prime minister to go on trial launched into a lengthy tirade against the nation’s justice system in which he accused police, prosecutors, judges and the media of a conspiracy aimed to oust him against the will of the people.
Read more: Israel
Virus stalls work to keep alive a rare rhino subspecies
Groundbreaking work to keep alive the nearly extinct northern white rhino subspecies — population, two — by in-vitro fertilization has been stalled by travel restrictions. And time is running out. The two northern white rhinos are female. The goal is to create viable embryos in a lab by inseminating their eggs with frozen sperm from dead males, then transfer them into a surrogate mother, a more common southern white rhino.
Read more: Kenya