UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed visited the Holocaust memorial in Berlin on Tuesday with his German and Israeli counterparts, a significant public gesture that comes two weeks after the signing of a normalization deal with Israel.
Why it matters: Bin Zayed is one of the first senior Arab officials to ever visit a Holocaust memorial.
China has chosen a new class of 18 astronauts, another step along its methodical path to explore space in the coming decades.
Why it matters: The nation has plans to build a new space station in orbit and eventually send people to the Moon, making some in the U.S. concerned about the geopolitical implications of China's space ambitions.
A new report from the U.S. Department of Labor ranks China as the top country of origin for goods produced through forced labor.
The big picture: China has long utilized prison labor, but new coerced labor schemes targeting Uighurs and other ethnic minorities now taint numerous industries in China.
Views of China in many countries have become more negative, with unfavorable views spiking in the past year as survey respondents disapproved of China's coronavirus response, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
Why it matters: Beijing's global propaganda campaign earlier this year to deflect blame for the pandemic seems to have failed.
A high-ranking German official suppressed a sensitive intelligence report in 2018 on China’s growing influence in Germany out of fear it would damage business ties with China, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Business interests have long shaped Germany’s relationship with China, to the detriment of human rights concerns and even national security.
We are at the onset of a very busy month for global democracy.
The big picture: By the time Americans go to the polls on Nov. 3, the world will have seen 12 national elections and three high-stakes referenda over the course of one month. Earlier pandemic-related delays are partially responsible for the electoral cluster.
The foreign ministers of Israel and the UAE will hold meetings in Berlin on Tuesday, two weeks after they signed a normalization agreement at the White House.
Why it matters: This will be the first-ever publicly announced meeting between the Israeli and Emirati foreign ministers after many secret meetings in the past. They'll continue work on a series of bilateral agreements.
Auckland will join the rest of New Zealand this week in enjoying no domestic coronavirus restrictions after the city's outbreak was deemed "under control," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Monday.
Driving the news: The second COVID-19 outbreak that began in August in New Zealand's most populous city grew to 179 cases, Ardern said at a briefing. "Only five people from the cluster are yet to recover," she said.
