World briefs

HONG KONG At the city’s most prestigious local schools, the admissions process can be brutally competitive. Demand for openings almost always exceeds supply, and children from the city’s upper echelons often get rejected.  But as protests intensify, some financial professionals who once coveted such schools for their kids are now steering them away.

TAIWAN President Tsai Ing-wen says China’s pressure on the self-governing island democracy will only increase amid a changing international situation. Tsai is seeking a second term in January’s presidential elections and told supporters last night she had overseen an upgrading in the island’s defense against China’s military threat.

MYANMAR’s government rejected the International Criminal Court’s decision to allow prosecutors to open an investigation into crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Myanmar has been accused of carrying out human rights abuses on a massive scale in the western state of Rakhine in 2017.

KOREAS U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the United States and South Korea have indefinitely postponed a joint military exercise in an “act of goodwill” toward North Korea. The move comes even as Japan’s defense minister Jeong Kyeong-doo told Esper “no one could be optimistic about” changing the North’s behavior. 

SRI LANKA A family of strongmen who tilted the country toward a deep reliance on China clinched victory in a tightly-fought presidential election, as voting showed the country remains divided down ethnic lines. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa won 52.3% of the votes, while ruling alliance candidate Sajith Premadasa had 42% at the final count. 

UK A report from Parliament’s intelligence committee leaked to the press concludes that Russian interference may have affected the 2016 referendum on Britain’s departure from the European Union, though the impact is “unquantifiable,” the Times of London reported without saying how it got the information. Critics say leaks from the document raised concerns about the security of next month’s election.

UK The media yesterday slammed Prince Andrew’s effort to rebut claims that he had sex with a teenager who says she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, branding his televised interview a complete public relations disaster. In a rare interview with BBC Newsnight, Andrew categorically denied having sex with the woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre. 

ITALY Venice was hit yesterday by a record third exceptional tide in the same week while other parts of Italy struggled with a series of weather woes, from rain-swollen rivers to high winds to an out-of-season avalanche. Stores and museums in Venice were mostly closed in the hardest-hit area around St. Mark’s Square.