Three global stories worth putting on your radar
What you need to know about Japan’s new Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga
In late August, Japan’s long-time Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suddenly announced his retirement. After eight years in power, Abe resigned due to ill health.
Yoshihide Suga won a party election to replace Abe despite little being known about Suga’s policy ideas: the 71-year-old has been a behind-the-scenes figure with few publicly recorded positions.
Suga is the son of a strawberry farmer and a schoolteacher. He begins and ends every day with 100 sit ups.
Israel will impose a three-week national lockdown to combat a second COVID-19 wave
From Friday, Israelis will be barred from going more than 450 metres from their homes under a new lockdown aimed to combat a COVID-19 infection rate that is among the highest in the world.
Israel has recorded 24,960 cases in the past seven days. More than 1,100 people in the country have died from the virus.
The lockdown means Jewish Israelis will be unable to travel for the Jewish New Year celebrations, which start on Friday.
Trump, defying state regulations, holds another rally
Thousands of supporters attended an indoor rally held by U.S. President Donald Trump near Las Vegas, Nevada. Attendees’ temperatures were checked at the door. Few wore masks.
The rally ignored a Nevada state directive limiting indoor gatherings to under 50 people.
At the rally, Trump said that if his rival, Joe Biden, was elected, “the mob wins”. “Biden wants to appease domestic terrorists and my plan is to arrest domestic terrorists,” he said.