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Hard Numbers: Japan's same-sex marriage ruling, British Uber drivers, EU-Mercosur trade pact under pressure, Atlanta shooting spree
13: A Japanese court ruled for the first time that the government's failure to recognize same sex marriage is unconstitutional after 13 gay couples filed coordinated lawsuits in February 2019. It's unclear, however, how the government will act: on Wednesday, Tokyo reiterated that its stance did not violate the Constitution. To date, Japan is the only G7 country that does not recognize same-sex marriage.
70,000: After a major legal defeat in Britain's Supreme Court, Uber will now have to provide more legal protections to its 70,000 British drivers. The ruling is a massive blow for Uber, which has long lobbied against greater labor rights for its drivers, and could influence ongoing labor battles with gig economy companies in the EU and the US.
450: More than 450 NGOs have called for the EU to abandon a draft free trade deal with Mercosur countries — a bloc including Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay — which they say would give rise to an increase in deforestation and other livestock trade harmful to the environment. The 2019 deal, which would create a trade bloc spanning roughly 750 million people, has stalled, as France and Germany express concerns over Brazil's lack of protection of the Amazon rainforest.
8: Eight people — six of whom were identified as Asian women — were killed Tuesday in a shooting rampage at several spas in Atlanta, Georgia. Although the police has yet to determine whether race was the motive for the attacks, crimes against Asian Americans in the US have surged since the pandemic began a year ago.