World News at a Glance

Melania Trump, in Africa (and Far From Washington), Seems at Ease

Melania Trump has stepped out of her husband’s shadow. On Wednesday morning, the second day of a four-nation African tour, the first lady looked more comfortable striding into a meeting with local leaders on the coast of Ghana than she has perhaps ever looked in Washington. As she makes her first big solo trip abroad, she seems ready to show another side of herself: the happy one. She has done her best to soften the image of an administration known for its sharp elbows, and of President Donald Trump, who outraged many Africans with his reference to “shithole” countries.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry Goes to a Woman for the Fifth Time in History

Since 1901, when the Nobel Prize in chemistry was first awarded, 177 people have captured the honor. On Wednesday, Frances Arnold became only the fifth woman to be awarded the prize. Arnold, a professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, earned the award for her work with the directed evolution of enzymes. She shared the award — worth close to $1 million — with George Smith, an emeritus professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri, and Gregory Winter, a biochemist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in England. Arnold received half the prize; Smith and Winter split the other half.

U.S. Withdraws From 1955 Treaty Normalizing Relations With Iran

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday that the United States was pulling out of a 6-decade-old treaty with Iran that had provided a basis for normalizing relations between the two countries. The largely symbolic move came hours after the International Court of Justice ordered the United States to ease some of its sanctions against Iran, including those related to the supply of humanitarian goods and civil aviation safety. The court ruling was essentially an injunction related to a lawsuit filed by Iran that challenged a new round of U.S. economic sanctions President Donald Trump had imposed after he withdrew from a nuclear agreement in May.

Australia Scraps Tax on Tampons, Once Considered a ‘Luxury’

When Australia’s conservative government introduced a federal goods and services tax in 2000, the health minister at the time met with protests over a new 10 percent levy applied to tampons and other female sanitary products. Anything that did not prevent diseases, Michael Wooldridge argued, should be taxed. Condoms were exempt but tampons were not, because “condoms prevent illness,” he said. Tampons and pads were considered “luxury” goods. It has taken years for a recognition that sanitary products were a health item. On Wednesday, the six men and two women who hold the purse strings for their states and territories announced that they had agreed to a proposal to exempt such items from taxes.

Canada Revokes Honorary Citizenship of Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s civilian leader, was stripped of her honorary Canadian citizenship Tuesday over her inaction on military violence against the country’s Rohingya Muslims. Senators unanimously passed a measure revoking her citizenship and declaring the treatment of the Rohingya by Myanmar’s government to be a genocide. The same actions were unanimously approved last week by the House of Commons. The Rohingya crisis and Suu Kyi’s response to it have dramatically transformed her global reputation as a democracy icon.

Vatican, Shadowed by Sex-Abuse Crisis, Reaches Out to Youth

With pews emptying and clouds of scandal hanging over the church, the Vatican on Wednesday opened a three-week assembly to discuss how to bring young people into the fold. Pope Francis has said he wants to hear the doubts and criticisms of young people. But the scene not far from where the Synod of Bishops was being held suggested the Roman Catholic Church has its work cut out for it. As synod participants chanted and prayed, some two dozen survivors of clerical sexual abuse were protesting just off the road to St. Peter’s Basilica.

Wife of Malaysia’s Ex-Prime Minister, Known for Moneyed Lifestyle, Is Arrested

Her collection of designer handbags rivaled the shoe fetish of Imelda Marcos. Her jewelry was so ostentatious that one piece, a $27.3 million pink diamond pendant and necklace, earned a mention in a U.S. Department of Justice complaint on rampant corruption in Malaysia. On Thursday, Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Najib Razak, the disgraced former Malaysian prime minister, was charged with 17 counts of money laundering and tax evasion. She was arrested Wednesday at the headquarters of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in Putrajaya, Malaysia’s administrative capital. Like her husband, Rosmah, 66, pleaded not guilty.