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Photo: Czarek Sokolowski / AP
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1. Polish parliament debates easing near-total abortion ban
On Thursday, members of Poland’s parliament began discussing four proposals surrounding abortion, three of which would ease the country’s strict restrictions, some of the harshest in the European Union.
Under the current law, people can only get abortions if the pregnancy endangers their life or if it was the result of a crime. One proposal under consideration would decriminalize the procedure in Poland and two others would legalize abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
The proposals follow a record-high voter turnout — nearly 75% of the Polish electorate — in Poland’s parliamentary election in October, which put the opposition alliance Civic Coalition into power after eight years of control by the right-wing Law and Justice party.
In the leadup to the election, the Civic Coalition pledged to permit abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Now, the women and young people who helped put the coalition in power are looking to collect.
“Women elected this government and our demands are clear — we want legal, safe and accessible abortion,” wrote Poland’s Federation for Women and Family Planning on social media.
In 2020, after a Polish court further restricted the country’s abortion laws, thousands took to the streets in a series of massive protests known as the Women’s Strike.
The MPs are expected to vote on Friday whether to send the bills to a special commission for further analysis.
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2. Hong Kong denies entry to advocate monitoring press trial
A representative from the nonprofit Reporters Without Borders was detained in Hong Kong’s international airport and then deported on Wednesday. Aleksandra Bielakowska, who’s based in Taipei, had traveled to Hong Kong to monitor a hearing in the trial of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.
“We have never experienced such blatant efforts by authorities to evade scrutiny of court proceedings in any country … The world must know what is happening in Hong Kong, which has implications for global press freedom,” said Reporters Without Borders’ Rebecca Vincent in a statement.
In 2021, 500 police officers raided Apple Daily’s offices and detained six of its employees, saying that the newspaper had broken Beijing’s then-new National Security Law. Soon after, the 25-year-old publication was shut down.
A year before that, Lai, who’s long been a critic of China’s Communist Party, was arrested for allegedly violating the same law, which strictly penalizes acts considered seditious or subversive. He’s pled not guilty to the three charges against him, for which he could face life in prison.
Last month, Hong Kong passed its own security bill — similar to Beijing’s — that would allow the government to more easily crush dissent in the semi-autonomous region.
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3. Myanmar’s civil war sparks economic catastrophe
Myanmar has plummeted into a major economic crisis ever since the military seized power in 2021, according to a U.N report released Thursday. It’s a shocking contrast to the nation’s promising ascent in 2016, when it was declared Asia’s fastest growing economy.
Now, Myanmar’s middle class is vanishing, and nearly half of the population lives under the nation’s poverty line, which equates to 76 cents per day.
Escalating violence has also unleashed profound human rights concerns. Nearly 13 million people in the country are facing food insecurity. And at a rare U.N. Security Council open meeting on Myanmar last week, senior officials delivered the grim news that 2.8 million people have been displaced.
Nearly a third of school-aged children are unable to attend classes due to military attacks. Additionally, the military junta has enacted a dormant mandatory national conscription law for citizens, resulting in millions attempting to flee and the forcible recruitment of Rohingya men and boys, despite the Rohingya having long been denied citizenship.
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In other news
- Famine is underway in northern Gaza, the director of USAID, Samantha Power, told lawmakers on Wednesday — the first senior U.S. official to say so publicly. [The New York Times]
- Holocaust survivors in Israel will receive a collective $27 million to help them cope with the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war, Germany announced on Thursday. [Barron’s]
- President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the U.S. is considering Australia’s request to drop its case against WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange. [Reuters]
- Canada is training extra firefighters in anticipation of this summer’s “explosive” wildfire season. [BBC]
- A memoir by Russian activist Aleksei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison in February, will be released in English this fall. Navalny wrote much of the book in Germany while recovering from a near-fatal poisoning in 2020 believed to be an assassination attempt. [The New York Times]
- In an attempt to quash the West’s “polluting” influence, Chechnya has banned any music that doesn’t have a tempo of 80 to 116 beats per minute — essentially criminalizing typically uptempo dance genres like house, techno, and dubstep. [The Guardian]
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Say that again
“HELP.”
That’s the full statement released by three mariners who were stranded on a remote islet in the Pacific last week after their skiff’s motor was damaged. The trio was rescued earlier this week once their message — written in palm fronds on the islet’s sandy beach — was discovered. (Click through for photo.) [CNN]
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What can the price of a latte tell us about the global economy?
Let Blue Marble’s Kyra Dahring guide you through the Starbucks Index — one way to compare the purchasing power of different currencies.
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What we’re listening to
Habibi Funk Records has become one of my favorite record labels as of late. Based in Berlin, the label reissues music from throughout the Arab world. (Including the album “Jazz Jazz Jazz” from Sudanese funk group The Scorpions & Saif Abu Bakr, which gets a lot of play in my house. Start with this song for a taste.)
I most enjoy listening to full albums from individual artists or groups, but it’s also fun to sample songs off of Habibi’s compilations. The latest single I’ve gotten into is Libyan musician Najib Alhoush’s “Ya Aen Daly” — a synth-soaked Arabic cover of the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” which is as good as it is unexpected.
And for those keeping score: With a BPM of about 106, this song sneaks in under the wire for music that’s midtempo enough to be played in Chechnya.
—Laura Adamczyk, staff writer
Thanks for reading. We’ll see you tomorrow.
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Tria Raimundo contributed writing and reporting to today's newsletter. Questions, comments, or corrections? Email us at theoverview@globalaffairs.org.
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