Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Monday New Zealand's election would be postponed by four weeks to Oct. 17, after other parties had called for a delay and as the country scrambles to contain a second coronavirus outbreak.
The big picture: Ardern said moving the date would give all parties a "fair shot to campaign" and it'd give Kiwis "certainty without unnecessarily long delays." She ruled out changing the election date again, citing planned safety measures. NZ has reported 58 active cases linked to its cluster in Auckland, which saw the country's largest city lock down and lesser restrictions reintroduced elsewhere.
Editor's note: This article has been updated with the latest figures from the cluster.
Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in the Belarus capital of Minsk on Sunday as President Aleksandr Lukashenko, the man known as "Europe's last dictator," rejected calls to hold a new election and accused NATO of massing at the country's western border.
Why it matters: It was the eighth day of demonstrations since Lukashenko proclaimed a landslide victory over pro-democracy opposition in an election widely viewed as rigs, and likely the largest protest in the history of the former Soviet republic, according to the New York Times.
The United Arab Emirates on Sunday unblocked Israeli websites and direct international phone lines with Israel in a first step following the U.S.-brokered normalization deal announced last week, Israeli officials said.
Why it matters: The U.S. and Israel have tried for years to get the UAE and other Gulf states to establish direct phone service. The Obama administration asked the UAE to do so in support of special envoy George Mitchell’s peace initiative and again during Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace initiative, but the UAE refused.
Over the past several weeks, the coronavirus has killed Americans at six times the average rate in other rich countries. And we’re recording about eight times more infections.
Why it matters: The virus burned through the rich world like wildfire in the spring, but this new data confirms that the U.S. is one of very few wealthy countries that have failed to suppress it since then.
Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko said Saturday his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had pledged "comprehensive security assistance," as protests over last week's elections continue to sweep the country, per state news agency Belta.
Why it matters: The statement adds to tensions in Belarus, where authorities have cracked down on demonstrations over last Sunday’s presidential elections, which Lukashenko claimed to have won in a landslide but which has been widely viewed as rigged. At least one protester has died, hundreds have been injured and thousands have been arrested during the unrest. Many have been tortured, the Financial Times notes.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak signed an agreement on Saturday that paves the way for an increased presence of U.S. troops in the European country.
Why it matters: The deal is a part of the Trump administration's plan to withdraw some 12,000 troops from Germany and redeploy about 5,400 of them to other European countries.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the United Nations Security Council's Friday decision rejecting a U.S. resolution to indefinitely extend an arms embargo on Iran, saying the council "failed ... to hold Iran accountable."
Why it matters: The council voted to allow a 13-year embargo designed to prevent Iran from buying and selling weapons, including aircraft and tanks, to expire this October, despite protests from the U.S., Israel and multiple Arab states, the New York Times reports.
