The News Roundup—International (The 1A) 2020-05-29

This week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Hong Kong no longer has significant autonomy from China. The statement comes as the Chinese government is expected to pass a law allowing its security agencies to “take broad actions limiting the liberties of Hong Kong residents,” according to The New York Times.

Protests in Hong Kong against the Chinese government have been happening for months, but flared up in recent weeks. The Times reported that 360 protesters were arrested on suspicion of “unauthorized assembly” on Wednesday alone.

What likely steps will the United States take next?

The death toll due to COVID-19 reached over 25,000 in Brazil. The country continues to be one of the virus’s hotspots. And Americans in the country struggled to return home before the United States banned arrivals from Brazil earlier this week.

What is required to stop the spread in Brazil?

And what’s behind New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez’s op-ed in CNN this week? The Democrat wrote that the Trump administration “is currently trying to sell thousands more precision-guided bombs to the President’s ‘friend,’ Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”

DefenseNews put Menendez’s piece into context: “It comes after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday confirmed that he knew his department’s inspector general, Steve Linick, who the president fired this month, was investigating a massive arms sale to Saudi Arabia made last year.”
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