Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. White House says relationship with China is disappointing, frustrating

The U.S.-China relationship is one of disappointment and frustration, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Wednesday, highlighting a deepening rift between Washington and Beijing over the deadly coronavirus. The remarks, delivered during a White House news briefing, come as China and the United States have clashed over the origins of the pandemic, which has killed hundreds of thousands worldwide and upended life across the globe. Israel's Supreme Court clears Netanyahu to form government despite corruption charges

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's indictment on corruption charges does not disqualify him from forming a government, Israel's top court said on Wednesday, paving the way for the veteran leader to remain in power. In its ruling against opposition petitioners, the Supreme Court also found that Netanyahu's unity government deal with his election rival Benny Gantz does not violate the law, dismissing arguments that it unlawfully shields him in a corruption trial. Detained American, in Venezuelan TV statement, says he plotted Maduro's capture

Venezuelan state television broadcast on Wednesday a video of captured American Luke Denman, in which he said he was contracted by a Florida security firm to seize control of Caracas' airport and bring in a plane to fly President Nicolas Maduro to the United States. Venezuelan authorities on Monday arrested Denman, U.S. citizen Airan Berry, and 11 others in what Maduro has called a failed plot coordinated with Washington to enter the country via the Caribbean coast and oust him. Duchess Kate launches photo project to capture lockdown Britain

Kate, Britain's Duchess of Cambridge, launched a project on Thursday to encourage Britons to submit pictures of their current daily lives and the work of "Helpers and Heroes" to capture a snapshot of the nation in coronavirus lockdown. The "Hold Still" project, being run by London's National Portrait Gallery, aims to document the spirit and mood of the public during the six-week lockdown during which they have been subject to strict limits on their movements and gatherings. Republicans want review of aid to WHO, Democrat may subpoena Pompeo

Five U.S. Senate Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday seeking a review of U.S. participation in the World Health Organization and other international institutions, after President Donald Trump's administration suspended U.S. contributions to the U.N. health agency and accused it of mishandling the coronavirus pandemic. Introduced by Chairman Jim Risch and four other Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the "Multilateral Aid Review Act of 2020" would establish a task force to assess how well multilateral institutions carry out their missions and serve American interests. Coronavirus pandemic is pushing up the price of illegal drugs, U.N. says

Coronavirus-related border controls, lockdowns and flight shortages are making illegal drugs more expensive and difficult to obtain around the world, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report published on Thursday. The pandemic is having a mixed effect on drug production in different regions and on smuggling by air, land and sea, but the overall trend in countries where drugs are consumed appears to be relatively uniform, the UNODC said in the report on COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Special Report: U.S. rearms to nullify China's missile supremacy

As Washington and Beijing trade barbs over the coronavirus pandemic, a longer-term struggle between the two Pacific powers is at a turning point, as the United States rolls out new weapons and strategy in a bid to close a wide missile gap with China. The United States has largely stood by in recent decades as China dramatically expanded its military firepower. Now, having shed the constraints of a Cold War-era arms control treaty, the Trump administration is planning to deploy long-range, ground-launched cruise missiles in the Asia-Pacific region. Trump vetoes Iran war powers resolution

President Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed legislation passed by both houses of Congress to limit a president's ability to wage war against Iran, as Trump wages a campaign of maximum pressure against the Islamic Republic. "This was a very insulting resolution, introduced by Democrats as part of a strategy to win an election on November 3 by dividing the Republican Party," Trump said in a statement released by the White House. "The few Republicans who voted for it played right into their hands." Iraq lawmakers approve government of Prime Minister-designate Kadhimi

Iraqi lawmakers approved a new government on Wednesday after six months without one as parties squabbled until the last minute over Cabinet seats in backroom deals. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Iraq's intelligence chief and a former journalist, will head the new government. He will begin his term without a full Cabinet, however, after several ministerial candidates were rejected. How lax rules, missed warnings led to Japan's second coronavirus cruise-ship hot spot

Seven days before Japan quarantined a cruise ship near Tokyo early this year, in what became one of the first coronavirus hot spots outside China, another cruise ship docked in southern Japan. For the next five weeks, as the virus took hold in Japan and the Diamond Princess in Yokohama port grabbed global attention, the Japanese authorities issued no warnings to the Costa Atlantica 1,200 km (750 miles) to the southwest.