World briefs

CHINA is stepping up pressure on Boeing Co. as its airlines demand compensation for the grounding of 737 Max jetliners after fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

CHINA Beijing is cutting taxes on its fledgling software and integrated circuit industries as U.S. export controls threaten to handicap Chinese tech companies. 

INDONESIA President Joko Widodo said authorities have the volatile situation in the country’s capital under control after six people died yesterday in riots by supporters of his losing rival in last month’s presidential election.

PHILIPPINES The president’s allies won a majority of the 12 Senate seats at stake in midterm elections, official results showed yesterday, while the opposition’s shutout heralds a stronger grip on power by a leader accused of massive human rights violations.

NORTH KOREA has labeled Joe Biden a “fool of low IQ” and an “imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being” after the U.S. presidential hopeful called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a tyrant during a recent speech. 

IRAN will “under no circumstances” enter a war either directly or indirectly with the United States, a prominent reformist Iranian lawmaker said yesterday, as both Washington and Tehran try to ease heightened tensions in the region.

KENYA One of Africa’s best-known authors and gay rights activists, Binyavanga Wainaina, has died at age 48, a colleague and friend said yesterday.

WEST BANK Palestinian officials say they have inaugurated their first solar panel plant as part of a plan to reduce their dependence on Israeli power sources.

EU Fake news has evolved beyond the playbook used by Russian trolls in the U.S. election. As the European Union gears up for a crucial election, it is mostly homegrown groups rather than foreign powers that are taking to social media to push false information and extremist messages, experts say.

BRITISH and Japanese mobile phone companies said yesterday they’re putting on hold plans to sell new devices from Huawei, in the latest fallout from U.S. tech restrictions aimed at the Chinese company. 

GERMANY Germany has granted asylum to two Hong Kong activists in a sign of growing concern over how dissent is dealt with in the territory.