Hard Numbers: Hungary vs EU over LGBT rights, Hong Kong tabloid shuttered, Arctic shipping grows, deadly Ethiopian airstrike

Hard Numbers: Hungary vs EU over LGBT rights, Hong Kong tabloid shuttered, Arctic shipping grows, deadly Ethiopian airstrike
Fans gather for Euro 2020 Germany v Hungary in Munich, Germany - June 23, 2021 Fans with rainbow flags outside the stadium before the Euro 2020 match Germany v Hungary in Munich, Germany.
REUTERS/Andreas Gebert

14: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declined to attend his country's Euro 2020 soccer game against Germany in Munich after the Germans, along with 13 other EU member states, condemned a new Hungarian law that bans showing LGBT content to minors. The rightwing Orbán, who has overseen a raft of anti-LGBT legislation, did however persuade tournament's organizers to reject a German request to light up the stadium in rainbow colors for Pride.

26: Apple Daily, a pro-democracy tabloid in Hong Kong, printed its last edition on Thursday after 26 years in circulation following recent intense pressure from Chinese authorities. The popular newspaper is the first media outlet targeted by China's security law for Hong Kong, which threatens to end press freedom there as fast as it is eroding democracy.

11: As the polar ice cap continues to recede, trans-Arctic maritime shipping traffic recorded by Russia is already up 11 percent this year from the record 1,014 trips made in all of 2020 because this season started early in February. Russia is starting to build infrastructure to serve the route, which is likely to irk the US, a major Arctic power, as well as China, which is happy to get more Russian oil and gas through Russia's northern waters but doesn't want Moscow to control the passage.

51: At least 51 people died when a military airstrike hit a busy market in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region on Tuesday, a day after the country held a long-delayed parliamentary election. The Ethiopian military has recently intensified its campaign against nationalist forces in Tigray amid an ongoing civil war.

More from GZERO Media

Police arrest Emory economics professor Caroline Fohlin during a rally in which Pro-Palestinian protestors set up an encampment at the Emory Campus in Atlanta, on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Arvin Temkar/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS/ABACAPRESS.COM

Pro-Palestinian student demonstrations and encampments have popped up at dozens of US universities in recent weeks. Columbia University – where protests began – and other elite schools in the Northeast have grabbed plenty of headlines, but where they are facing the harshest pushback – and could ultimately help Republicans win back the White House – is in the South.

A cannabis rights activist waves a flag outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 24, 2022.
Alejandro Alvarez/Reuters

The Biden admin. says it’s high time to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, and it wants to knock it from Schedule I to Schedule III — meaning it would no longer be grouped with heroin and LSD.

Supporters and armed members of the Fatah movement protest against the Palestinian Hamas government during a rally in Jabalya camp September 22, 2006.
REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Beijing, already a global economic power, wants to cut a larger figure in diplomacy, cultivating an image as a more honest broker than the US, with closer ties to the so-called “Global South.”

TikTok logo on a phone surrounded by the American, Israeli, and Chinese flags.
Jess Frampton

Last Wednesday, as part of the sweeping foreign-aid package that included much-neededfunding for Ukraine’s defense, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill requiring that TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, sell the popular video-sharing app to an American buyer within a year or face a ban in the United States.

Russia And China benefit from US infighting, says David Sanger | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

On GZERO World, Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times correspondent David Sanger argues that China's rise and Russia's aggressive stance signal a new era of major power competition, with both countries fueling instability in the US to distract from their strategic ambitions.

NYPD officers arrive at Columbia University on April 30, 2024, to clear demonstrators from an occupied hall on campus.

John Lamparski/NurPhoto via Reuters

Last night, hundreds of NYPD officers entered Columbia University in riot gear, one night after students occupied a building on campus and 13 days after students pitched an encampment that threw kerosene on a student movement against the war in Gaza.

Israel seems intent on Rafah invasion despite global backlash | Ian Bremmer | World In :60

How will the international community respond to an Israeli invasion of Rafah? How would a Trump presidency be different from his first term? Are growing US campus protests a sign of a chaotic election in November? Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.