World Views

TAIWAN The founder of a bookshop specializing in texts critical of China’s Communist Party leaders was attacked with red paint in Taiwan yesterday, but suffered no serious physical injuries. Lam Wing-kee (pictured) was assaulted by a man wearing a mask and dark clothes while he was sitting alone at a coffee shop. The assailant remains unknown, but surveillance footage provided by the police shows a person fleeing the scene on foot as Lam chased him.

NORTH KOREA Officials in Seoul reported no unusual activity in North Korea yesterday following unconfirmed media reports that leader Kim Jong Un was in fragile health after surgery. But the possibility of high-level instability raised troubling questions about the future of a nuclear-armed state that has been steadily building an arsenal meant to threaten the U.S. mainland amid stalled talks between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump.

SOUTH KOREA reported nine new coronavirus infections and one more death, bringing its totals to 10,683 cases and 237 deaths. The country’s caseload has slowed from early March, when it was reporting about 500 new cases a day. Infections continue to wane in the hardest-hit city of Daegu, which reported two new cases. While calling for vigilance to maintain hard-won gains against the virus, officials have relaxed social distancing guidelines.

JAPAN Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said people haven’t practiced social distancing as much as they should under the state of emergency he declared two weeks ago to fight the coronavirus. Abe has asked people reduce social interactions by as much as 80% to slow infections to manageable levels, but surveys show people are moving around too much, especially at train stations and in downtown areas where restaurants and grocery stores are still operating.

WHO has warned that the lifting of lockdowns and other measures needs to be done gradually or there will likely be a resurgence of virus cases. The WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, Takeshi Kasai, said “we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future.” He said governments must remain vigilant, and the lifting of lockdowns and other social distancing measures must strike the right balance between keeping people healthy and allowing economies to function.

AUSTRALIA’s prime minister has backed his foreign minister’s call for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus. China’s foreign ministry has already rejected the call for an independent review into the origins of the virus including China’s handling of the initial outbreak. But Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) said yesterday that his minister’s proposal had his “very, very strong support.”

AUSTRALIA Virgin Australia, the nation’s second-largest airline, announced it had entered voluntary administration, seeking bankruptcy protection after a debt crisis worsened by the coronavirus shutdown pushed it into insolvency. Virgin said it had appointed a team of Deloitte administrators to “recapitalize the business and help ensure it emerges in a stronger financial position on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis.”