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.Student protesters are set to take to the streets in Serbia this weekend in the first major demonstrations of the year against President Aleksandar Vučić, as frustration mounts over democratic backsliding and corruption.
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Ukraine is increasingly finding vulnerabilities in Russia’s defenses, piling further pressure on President Vladimir Putin.