Hard Numbers: An Uprising Loses Steam

7,000: When France's Yellow Vest movement erupted last November, protests drew more than 280,000 participants and paralyzed Paris. But seven months and a particularly unsuccessful European parliamentary election campaign later (the group's candidates received less than 1% of the vote), the leaderless movement produced just 7,000 protestors over the weekend and now teeters on the brink of irrelevance.

30 billion: Chinese technology giant Huawei said it expected a $30 billion financial hit from the Trump administration's ban on the firm acquiring US technology, with sales of Huawei smartphones outside mainland China forecast to plunge 60 percent over the next couple of years. Founder Ren Zhengfei said the company "didn't expect the US would so resolutely attack Huawei."

7: Internet outages continued to hit broad stretches of Ethiopia for a seventh day on Monday. Authorities have remained tight-lipped about the reason for the shutdown, but the timing has led to speculation the country may have cut access to prevent students from cheating on nationwide exams. #overkill

500: US Border Patrol recently apprehended 500 African migrants crossing the US-Mexico border in a single week. For context: 211 African migrants were apprehended along the US-Mexico border for the entire 2018 fiscal year. Asylum seekers hail from various African countries, including Eritrea, Angola, Cameroon, and Sudan.

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What is motivating the Starmer UK government from seeking new security treaties with Germany and with Paris? What is the effect of Italy's very restrictive policies on migration and what's happening in the Mediterranean on the migration flows across the Mediterranean? Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden and co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, shares his perspective on European politics from Tabiano Castello in Italy.

Attendees of Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) campaign event for the Saxony state elections leave, as counter protestors stand in the background, in Dresden, Germany, August 29, 2024.
REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

Populist opposition parties of the right and the left are set to make big gains in local elections in two key eastern German states this Sunday.

At a joint press conference in front of the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea, on August 29, 2024, youth climate litigants and citizen groups involved in climate lawsuits chant slogans emphasizing that the court ruling marks not the end, but the beginning of climate action. The Constitutional Court rules that the failure to set carbon emission reduction targets for the period from 2031 to 2049 is unconstitutional and orders the government to enact alternative legislation by February 2026.
Chris Jung via Reuters Connect

South Korea’s constitutional court has ruled that the country’s climate change measures are insufficient for protecting the rights of citizens, particularly those of future generations.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan meets Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China August 29, 2024.
REUTERS/Trevor Hunnicutt/Pool.

Chinese President Xi Jinping struck a conciliatory tone when he met with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday, after three days of talks aimed at managing tensions in the US-China relationship.