What happened
Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba beat eight candidates to become leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a party vote today, putting him on track to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida next Tuesday.

Who said what
Ishiba edged out the more conservative Sanae Takaichi, one of the two women in the historically broad leadership race, 215 to 194 in the runoff vote by LDP lawmakers and rank-and-file members. The "elite power brokers" of the LDP "appeared to take public sentiment into account" when choosing Ishiba, The New York Times said. Polls show he is "popular with the public because of his willingness to criticize his party and its elders," The Washington Post said, "but he is largely disliked among his colleagues for the same reason."

Making his fifth run for party leader, Ishida pledged to revitalize rural areas to boost the world's fourth-largest economy and "proposed an Asian version of the NATO military alliance and a more equal Japan-U.S. security alliance," The Associated Press said.

What next?
Kishida announced his resignation last month amid low poll numbers tied to high inflation and a string of party finance scandals. Most Japanese voters say they are "eager for new faces and new ideas" in a country where "people over 50 and hereditary politicians have long called the shots," the Post said. Ishiba, 67, is the son of a former Cabinet minister and has been in office since 1986. Still, the Times said, "voters have shown little inclination to vote the party out of power" after 69 years of almost unbroken rule.

What happened
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, once one of the most powerful politicians in the country, was disbarred in Washington, D.C., yesterday. New York stripped Giuliani of his law license in July over his efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election on Donald Trump's behalf.

Who said what
Giuliani's Washington disbarment is the result of a "reciprocal relationship with the New York Bar," CNN said. The D.C. Court of Appeals found that he had not responded to a court order to explain why Washington should not follow New York's lead. Giuliani's D.C. license, which he held since 1976, had been suspended since 2021, The Washington Post said, and a D.C. Bar panel in May had suggested it be revoked entirely, citing his "recklessly" and "utterly false" claims in a Pennsylvania lawsuit seeking to overturn Trump's 2020 loss. It was "not immediately clear why Giuliani was unresponsive to the D.C. court," after having fought his disbarment for years, Politico said.

Giuliani's disbarment is a "partisan, politically motivated decision," spokesperson Ted Goodman said in a statement. "This is an absolute travesty and a total miscarriage of justice." He has 14 days to appeal.

What next?
Giuliani is set to go to trial next month for his role in the Arizona fake electors case, and he's also a co-defendant in a stalled Georgia election interference case. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases. Two Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation judgment against Giuliani asked a court last month to force him to "turn over his New York apartment, any remaining cash and some of his prized New York Yankees memorabilia," The Associated Press said.