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Hard Numbers: Germany owes Afghans, Bangladesh terrorists get death, Putin plumps for cops, EU anti-fraud office
Afghan refugees arrive with the last plane via Tashkent from Kabul at Frankfurt airport.
REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
40,000: German Chancellor Angela Merkel says that up to 40,000 at-risk Afghans have a right to apply for German residency because they worked for the country's military or development organizations (so far, Germany has evacuated about 4,100). Germany is the third-largest global recipient of Afghan refugees after Pakistan and Iran.
6: A court in Bangladesh ordered the death penalty for six members of a banned extremist group affiliated with al-Qaeda convicted of brutally killing two LGBTQ activists in 2016. One of the victims, Xulhaz Mannan, was the editor of the country's first and to date only LGBTQ rights magazine.
15,000: Vladimir Putin has approved a one-time 15,000 rouble ($205) bonus for all military and police personnel to protect their "social needs." Critics say the Russian president is trying to buy off cops, soldiers, and pensioners so they'll vote for Putin's ruling Russia United party in next month's legislative elections.
5: Five EU member states have so far declined to join the new European Public Prosecutors' Office, which investigates misuse of EU funds. Among them are Hungary and Poland, whose "illiberal" governments have long been accused of undermining judicial independence, while the Hungarians have the highest fraud rate of all EU member states.GZERO World with Ian Bremmer is returning to your screens this week, kicking off Season 9 in a summer of sweltering global tensions. The United States is celebrating its 250th birthday, a war has reshaped the Middle East, AI is forcing humanity to confront profound ethical choices, and democracies around the world are bracing for what comes next. Host Ian Bremmer is here to make sense of it all.
As America approaches its 250th anniversary, Bank of America is investing in the legacy of leadership — committing $5M to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and conserving 110 presidential portraits at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, so the history of leaders who defined our nation is preserved for generations to come. Learn more here.
In his latest “ask ian,” Ian Bremmer says the US and China should use their growing engagement to address two major global challenges where cooperation could have an outsized impact: the war in Ukraine and the risks posed by artificial intelligence.
The trade bloc is also reducing its quota of tariff-free steel imports, as trade tensions mount with Beijing.