World Today: Japanese Citizens Warned Not to Panic Buy Toilet Paper

Today’s World Report edition on Wednesday, 25 March 2026, returns with reports from several countries over the past 24 hours. We begin this edition with a report from Japan. Japanese citizens panic buy toilet paper. Japan is urging its citizens not to panic buy toilet paper, amid the growing phenomenon of ‘panic buying’ due to the Iran war. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan is assuring the public that there are no issues with supplies and no need to hoard. It stated this despite “reports and social media posts regarding toilet paper distribution.” “We ask the public to make calm and rational decisions regarding the purchase of toilet paper based on accurate information,” read its statement. Four retail groups, including the Japan Supermarket Association and the Japan Drugstore Chain Association, issued a uniform statement titled: ‘The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will not affect the supply of toilet paper products.’ Israel intends to take over southern Lebanon. Israel’s Minister of Defence has announced his country’s military plans to take control of southern Lebanon, from the Israeli border, known as the Blue Line, to the Litani River. Lebanese citizens fear that Israel’s military action against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah could be the beginning of a period of sustained occupation, similar to Israel’s occupation from 1982 to 2000. Israel has been intensively bombing targets claimed by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, and so far has killed more than 1,000 people, with more than 100 of them children. The UN states that more than 1 million people have also been displaced due to the conflict. Israel’s Minister of Defence Katz described the move as the establishment of a “security zone.” Russian drone attacks take lives and damage UNESCO heritage. Russian drone attacks on Ukraine have killed at least three people, injured 30, and set fire to a centuries-old building in the western city centre of Lviv. Ukraine’s Air Force said more than 400 drones were launched at Ukraine at midday. This represents a sudden change in Russian tactics, which usually launch large-scale air attacks at night during the war that has lasted more than four years. In another city in western Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk, two people were killed and four injured. The governor of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyi, said that part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site around the 17th-century St. Andrew’s Church was damaged. Booksellers of biography written by founder of pro-democracy newspaper arrested. Hong Kong police arrested one bookstore owner and three shop assistants yesterday (24/03) for allegedly selling “seditious” publications, including a biography of the imprisoned media tycoon Jimmy Lai. Book Punch owner Pong Yat-ming and three staff were accused of selling copies of “The Troublemaker”, a biography of Lai written by one of his former business directors, Mark Clifford. Lai, founder of the now-closed pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last February. A police spokesperson, when asked about the reported arrests, did not comment directly. In his statement, he said the police “will take action in accordance with the actual circumstances and in accordance with the law.”