Global stock markets were mixed Wednesday after Wall Street sank despite an emergency U.S. interest cut aimed at defusing fears the virus outbreak might stunt global economic activity.

Israel looked set to slide back into political deadlock on Wednesday as the final votes were being tallied from the country’s third election in less than a year, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party holding on to a solid lead but failing to win the outright parliamentary majority needed to form a government.

The Latest on the virus outbreak (all times local):

The U.S. conducted Wednesday its first airstrike against Taliban forces in Afghanistan, a military spokesman said, days after signing an ambitious peace deal with the militant group in the Mideastern state of Qatar.

Amid fierce criticism from environmental activists, the European Commission is unveiling plans Wednesday for its first ever climate law ? the basis of the European Union’s Green Deal aimed at making the 27-country bloc climate neutral by 2050.

Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday is set to accept the resignation of the nation’s prime minister and reshuffle the Cabinet after six months on the job.

A Tennessee mother accused of lying to authorities about her missing 15-month-old daughter has been denied a bond reduction.

Turkey said that two more of its soldiers were killed Wednesday in a Syrian government attack in northwestern Syria, as steady clashes between the two national armies continued to rack up casualties.

Technical issues plagued polling sites throughout California as people turned out in droves, taxing a system meant to make voting easier with new technology, same-day registration and centralized vote centers in some counties.

China prepared to close temporary hospitals while South Korea struggled to find enough beds for its sick Wednesday as the virus epidemic that began in Asia increasingly troubled the West.