Pressure is mounting for Lebanese authorities to deliver justice after a pair of explosions in the capital city of Beirut killed at least 137 people, injured 5,000, and caused up to $15 billion (Al Jazeera) worth of damage. As authorities scrambled to deflect blame (National), the Lebanese government announced a five-day investigation and ordered officials to be placed under house arrest. The explosions are widely attributed to massive quantities of ammonium nitrate allowed to sit at Beirut’s port for years.
 
International support for Lebanon, already racked by economic crisis and social upheaval, has surged following the tragedy. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Beirut today (FT), pledging “unconditional aid” and calling for economic and political reforms to stabilize Lebanon. As the country seeks accountability for the tragedy, an international court delayed the verdict (Arab News) in the trial of men accused of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

Japan commemorated seventy-five years since the United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima with a scaled-back ceremony due to the coronavirus. Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui appealed for society (Kyodo) to “reject self-centered nationalism” and urged countries, including Japan, to take nuclear disarmament more seriously.
 
​This CFR timeline traces the last days of imperial Japan.
 
North Korea: A state news agency said officials ordered aid (Yonhap) for the city of Kaesong, which is locked down due to the coronavirus. A report filed to the World Health Organization revealed North Korea has quarantined thousands of people (AP) in state facilities after a reported coronavirus case.

Nearly forty people were injured when unidentified assailants lobbed a grenade (Dawn) at a rally in Karachi as people throughout Pakistan protested on the anniversary of India’s 2019 revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy. Indian authorities restricted movement (RFE/RL) and deployed troops in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir to contain protests there.
 
India: Eight patients with COVID-19 (Straits Times), the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, died from smoke and heat exposure after a fire broke out at a hospital in Ahmedabad. India has recorded nearly two million coronavirus cases and more than forty thousand deaths.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States will submit a resolution (Al-Monitor) to the UN Security Council urging it to extend an arms sale ban on Iran set to expire in October. China and Russia will likely veto the measure, which could prompt the United States to take action under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a move some critics say it cannot make because the United States withdrew from the agreement in 2018.
 
This CFR timeline looks at the history of U.S.-Iran relations.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Zimbabwean businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei and his company, Sakunda Holdings, accusing him of corruption and derailing economic development in Zimbabwe. Tagwirei, who has close ties (FT) to Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has been widely accused of state capture.
 
Togo: Civil society groups alleged that the government spied on citizens (AFP), including its opponents and Catholic leaders, as part of an international spyware attack involving the messaging service WhatsApp.

Thousands of women protested in cities across Turkey as frustration mounts over gender-based violence and reports that Turkey could withdraw (Al Jazeera) from the Istanbul Convention, which seeks to prevent violence against women. Turkish conservatives argue that the convention undermines family structures.
 
Natalia Kanem discusses gender-based violence during the pandemic for CFR’s blog Women Around the World.
 
United Kingdom: The Bank of England projected the UK economy will shrink 9.5 percent in 2020, nearly 5 percent less than initially expected. Still, it would be the sharpest annual drop (BBC) in a century.

Mexican authorities announced that a journalist was shot and killed (teleSUR) by unidentified attackers in the state of Michoacan, days after another Mexican journalist was killed. Gunmen also attacked the headquarters of a newspaper in Guerrero this week. Mexico is among the deadliest places for media workers, according to watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
 
Brazil: The country’s Supreme Court gave the government thirty days to develop measures to protect Brazil’s indigenous populations (Reuters) from the coronavirus. The virus has infected more than twenty-two thousand indigenous people and could obliterate some tribes.

Secretary Pompeo called on U.S.-run mobile application stores to ban “untrusted” Chinese-owned applications (SCMP) such as TikTok and WeChat as the Donald J. Trump administration seeks to limit the reach of Chinese-made technology in the United States. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called the move (Reuters) “a textbook case of bullying.”