News

Hard Numbers: Viennese protest mandates, Auckland’s lockdown ends, botched ambush in India, Italian takes up arm against vaccines

Demonstrators hold flags and placards as they march to protest against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions and the mandatory vaccination in Vienna, Austria, December 4, 2021.

40,000: At least 40,000 people joined protests in Vienna on Saturday against new lockdowns and vaccine requirements, the second week in a row the city has seen mass demonstrations of this kind. Amid a surge in new cases, the Austrian government announced that a nationwide vaccine mandate would come into effect on February 1.

107: Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, has come out of a citywide lockdown put in place 107 days ago to curb the spread of the delta variant. Still, for now, only vaccinated Aucklanders will be permitted to travel to other parts of the country.

13: Tensions are high in the state of Nagaland in northeast India after Indian troops mistakenly ambushed a group of miners on their way back from work, killing six of them. Clashes then broke out between civilians and soldiers, bringing the death toll to 13. Indian forces have long been at war with separatists in the region, though violence has declined since the two sides signed a peace deal in 2015.

416: An Italian man tried to get around his country’s vaccine requirements by showing up to a clinic with a prosthetic arm believed to cost 416 euros on Amazon. He almost got away with it until the health worker, sensing something amiss, asked him to take off his shirt.

More For You

- YouTube

At the 2026 US Canada Summit in Toronto, hosted by Eurasia Group and RBC, Ian Bremmer breaks down the idea of a US-China “Thucydides Trap,” where rising and dominant powers collide.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian displays a memorandum of understanding after signing it in Tehran, Iran, on June 18, 2026, after the document was signed by US President Donald Trump.
Iranian Presidency via ZUMA Press

The interim agreement to end the war, signed by both sides on Wednesday, appears to tilt toward Iran. But the regime remains vulnerable.

A displaced woman holds an Iranian flag as she makes her way back to her home in southern Lebanon, on the highway of Sidon, Lebanon, June 16, 2026.
REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

On June 14, the US and Iran announced a deal to end the war. A signing ceremony is set for Friday. The terms include an immediate ceasefire on all fronts. With both sides spinning the deal as a victory, there are plenty of ways for this to go wrong.