Justin Sullivan Getty Images

This spring, Dave Watson flew from his British factory to Dallas to present the restaurant chain Chuck E. Cheese with his new coin-operated children’s ride.

The machine, which Watson said cost his company about $64,000 to develop, featured a miniature train chugging around a grinning likeness of Chuck E. Cheese’s mouse mascot.

Then the pandemic shutdowns hit, forcing many businesses to close or rethink everything from how to serve customers to how to get supplies. Bankruptcies were not far behind. A wave of major U.S. corporate brands have sought Chapter 11 protections.

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Guanajuato State Attorney’s Office/Handout EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities on Sunday arrested José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, one of the country’s most wanted criminals, whose reign helped transform one of Mexico’s most peaceful states into its deadliest. 

Yépez Ortiz, known as “El Marro” — the Sledgehammer — was the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, a group based in the central state of Guanajuato that has specialized in oil theft, stealing billions of dollars from the country’s pipelines and refineries in recent years...

President Trump’s promise this week to bar the popular, Chinese-owned TikTok from operating in the United States is the latest move in his increasingly hostile posture toward Beijing that echoes a broader, anti-China stance within the Republican Party ahead of the November elections.

In essentially every reference to the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, covid-19, Trump has derided it as the “China virus,” faulting the country for being unable to contain it as it spread beyond its borders and led to more than 17.6 million cases worldwide. When he floated a potential TikTok ban in a television interview last month, Trump indicated it was in retaliation for China’s role in the pandemic.

Until this year, when the coronavirus pandemic caused dramatic numbers of infections...

Eran Levy

RAANANA, Israel — As one of Israel’s biggest pop stars, Noa Kirel’s shining face adorns billboards, and she appears daily in an array of commercials, reality television shows and teen dramas. Famous since 14, her YouTube videos have garnered millions of viewers, and last month she signed a multimillion-dollar music deal with Atlantic Records, reportedly the largest by any Israeli artist with a U.S. label.

But for the foreseeable future, every media interview, every public appearance, every television taping and photo shoot must be strictly coordinated with the Israeli army.

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Vasily Fedosenko Reuters

MOSCOW — As Belarusian state television aired footage of the arrests of 33 suspected Russian mercenaries near Minsk, the anchor explained why the men raised suspicions: They weren’t drinking alcohol or visiting entertainment spots and wore plain military-style clothing.

In other words, the report said, it was “behavior atypical of Russian tourists.”

The detentions on Wednesday also have expanded an unusual run of tension between Belarus and Russia, once tight allies that have drifted apart as Belarus’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, tests policies independent of Moscow’s backing.

The rare friction with Russia is now part of the back...

Photo by Eran Levy

RAANANA, Israel — As one of Israel’s biggest pop stars, Noa Kirel’s shining face adorns billboards, and she appears daily in an array of commercials, reality television shows and teen dramas. Famous since 14, her YouTube videos have garnered millions of viewers, and last month she became the first Israeli to sign a multimillion dollar music deal, with Atlantic Records.

But for the foreseeable future, every media interview, every public appearance, every television taping and photo shoot must be strictly coordinated with the Israeli army.

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Diallo Dixon

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s high court ruled Friday that a school was within its rights to demand that a girl cut her dreadlocks to attend classes, a surprise decision that touched on issues of identity and one the most recognizable symbols of the island’s Rastafarian culture.

The ruling by the Supreme Court of Jamaica capped a two-year battle after the girl — then 5 years old — was told she must cut her dreadlocks for “hygiene” reasons to study at Kensington Primary School in a Kingston suburb.

A rights group, Jamaicans for Justice, had initially lent support to the family, saying the order for the girl to cut her dreadlocks amounted a denial of her freedom of expression and her access to education.

Others ...