The prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand have agreed to "safe travel zone" plan that will be gradually rolled out, Australian Deputy PM Michael McCormack announced Friday.
Details: McCormack said the travel "bubble" will initially see Kiwis who aren't in a COVID-19 hot spot permitted to fly to New South Wales and the Northern Territory from Oct. 16 without mandatory quarantine. But NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made clear that Kiwis will have to go into quarantine upon their return.
World leaders were sending well wishes on Friday to President Trump and first lady Melania Trump after they tested positive for the coronavirus.
What they're saying: The Kremlin press office said Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram wishing the Trumps well, saying: " I am confident that your vital energy, high spirits, and optimism will help you cope with the dangerous virus," per Interfax.
Calls for an unconditional ceasefire in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh have been rejected by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and by Turkey — which has reportedly sent weapons and even Syrian mercenaries to aid its ally Azerbaijan.
Why it matters: The risk of a full-fledged war appears to be growing after five days of clashes and more than 100 deaths. Armenia claims it shot down an Azeri drone Thursday night near its capital, Yerevan.
Protests sparked earlier this year by the dissolution of Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit's Future Forward Party have evolved into a massive youth-led movement that's rattling Thailand's establishment, including the once-untouchable monarchy.
What he's saying: "No one knows how this is going to end or where this journey is going to lead us," Thanathorn told Axios in a Zoom interview this week. “We would like to see a peaceful transition to democracy, but it’s not really up to us."
The big picture: The precautions that we're taking against the spread of COVD-19; the way in which the president of the U.S. delights in violating political norms; the fires, hurricanes and other signs that catastrophic global warming has arrived; the virulent spread of the QAnon conspiracy theory — all of these things, and many more, represent a stunning break with the world as we knew it.
Israel and Lebanon announced today they will launch direct talks on their maritime border — mediated by the U.S. and under the auspices of the UN — to attempt to resolve a dispute over natural gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Why it matters: These will be the first such talks in 30 years between the countries, and the revenues at stake could reach the tens of billions of dollars.
The European Union's chief executive on Thursday initiated legal proceedings against the U.K. over Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plans to break international law to override parts of the Brexit deal the two sides struck last year.
Why it matters: It's a sign of a major breakdown in the U.K.-EU relationship and deals a blow to the odds of the two sides successfully negotiating a free trade agreement before the Brexit transition period expires at the end of the year. Investors and trade experts fear a "no-deal" Brexit on Dec. 31 could cause massive economic disruptions.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Thursday accused President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating his poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok, a calling card of the Russian security services.
Driving the news: In his first interview since being released from a German hospital, where he was kept in a medically induced coma for weeks, Navalny told Der Spiegel that German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid him a personal visit last week.
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