World News of the Week – August 20 to August 26, 2018

pope f.jpeg — Pope Francis arrives in Dublin, Ireland (via AP)

Follow @TheZenCorner on Twitter and Facebook for Breaking News.

PS: Subscribe to receive the “World News Recap” directly by email.

What You Need To Know:

1. U.S. President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen testified that Trump directed him to commit a crime by arranging payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence two women who said they had affairs with Trump.

2. Australia has a new prime minister in Scott Morrison – the socially conservative architect of hardline anti-asylum seeker policies – after he mounted a late challenge during a drawn-out struggle for power in the governing Liberal party.

3. Zimbabwe inaugurated the military-backed President Mnangagwa for the second time in nine months as the country is now largely subdued by renewed harassment of the opposition and a bitterly disputed election.

4. Afghanistan’s President Ghani rejected resignations tendered a day earlier by three senior security officials: the Defense Minister, the Interior Minister, and the head of the National Directorate of Security.

5. Iran’s parliament voted to fire the country’s finance minister amid an economic freefall, dealing another blow to President Hassan Rouhani’s embattled administration.

6. Pope Francis issued a sweeping apology for the “crimes” of the Catholic Church in Ireland, saying church officials didn’t respond with compassion, truth or justice to the many children and women who were abused over generations.

7. The United States and China went ahead with tariff hikes on billions of dollars of each other’s automobiles, factory machinery and other goods in an escalation of a battle over Beijing’s technology policy that companies worry will chill global economic growth.

8. An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition killed 26 civilians (22 children and 4 women) near Hodeidah in Yemen.

9. A Ugandan pop star-turned-lawmaker who opposes the longtime president was charged with treason in a civilian court, hours after he was severely beaten in detention.

10. Russian opposition leader Navalny was detained outside his home in Moscow ahead of planned nationwide anti-government protest rallies; he was later taken to a hospital with a suspected broken finger.