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Hard Numbers: Taiwan’s last “comfort woman,” social media warning for teens, Austria scolds Hungary, editing WhatsApp
The Statue of Peace symbolizing Korean Comfort Women by Japanese military during the Second World War.
Reuters
2,000: An anti-sex trafficking group says that the last known Taiwanese “comfort woman” has died, though they declined to share the woman’s details. From 1932-1945, around 2,000 Taiwanese were taken as “comfort women” – sex slaves – by the Japanese military, out of a total of 200,000, most of whom were Korean. These women were forced to service Japanese brothels.
40: In a new report released Tuesday, the US surgeon general, the nation’s top doctor, sounded the alarm about the negative impact of social media on adolescent mental health. While the ill effects of apps like Instagram and Facebook on young people are well established, the report revealed that 40% of 8-12-year-olds use these apps even though the minimum age for use of most sites is 13.
13: Austria summoned the Hungarian envoy this week for a telling-off after PM Viktor Orban agreed to release foreign people smugglers from prison on the condition that they leave the country ASAP. Human traffickers, Hungarian nationals and foreigners, make up around 13% of those incarcerated in Hungary. Orban says this is needed to relieve pressure on the prison system, but Vienna fears that many of the criminals will come its way.
2 billion: WhatsApp, owned by Meta, will soon allow users to edit their messages, following competing apps like Telegram and Signal that already allow users to do so. That’ll be welcome news for many of WhatsApp’s 2 billion users worldwide who likely want the option to revise a stream-of-consciousness text.
The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut, global energy markets are under mounting pressure, and President Trump appears to be backing away from some of his original demands on Tehran. Ian Bremmer argues that Iran increasingly believes it has more leverage than the United States, and that perception alone is reshaping the negotiations.
Carl Bildt answers two major political questions shaping Europe’s future: Could Canada ever join the European Union? And is UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer politically finished after Labour’s disastrous local election results?
The world is a wild place. Happy 100th Sir David Attenborough
The Pentagon has poured billions into AI warfare, from drone footage analysis to autonomous targeting. Katrina Manson, author of Project Maven and Bloomberg reporter, joins Ian Bremmer to trace how AI went from a computer experiment to key technology for the Pentagon, and why some risks and moral stakes remain unresolved.