In this occasional series, The Washington Post brings you up to speed on some of the biggest stories of the week. This week:
The biggest story: The E.U.'s biggest struggle
Viktor Orban, Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, soared to reelection victory on Sunday with a two-thirds supermajority in parliament — precisely the margin he needed to continue an overhaul of the country’s democratic constitution and system of checks and balances. Many now fear a crackdown on liberal actors in civil society, writes James McAuley.
A far different threat than Brexit
The triumph of European liberal democracy is increasingly being attacked from within by E.U. members like Hungary, which openly deride the union's values, principles and rules. The bloc, meanwhile, has been incapable of fighting back, its weakness a side effect of the optimism with which it grew.
“Orban doesn’t want to leave the E.U. . . . He really wants to change the E.U,” a senior German official told Griff Witte and Michael Birnbaum.
Six other important stories
1. He was wearing a vest marked ‘PRESS.’ He was shot dead covering a protest in Gaza.
Yaser Murtaja, who was married and had a 2-year-old son, died Saturday after being shot the day before while covering protests at the edge of the Gaza Strip. Israel’s defense minister later said that Murtaja was a Hamas operative. But critics immediately raised doubts, saying that the media-production company he founded had recently been vetted for a U.S. government grant, reports Loveday Morris.
The controversy continued as a video clip emerged showing what appears to be a group of Israeli soldiers loudly celebrating as a sniper shoots and wounds a Palestinian demonstrator standing inside the Gaza Strip near Israel's border fence, according to Ruth Eglash.
2. Facing trade war with U.S., China’s Xi renews vow to open markets, import more
President Xi Jinping renewed a pledge this week to further open China’s markets, including its automobile sector, to outside trade and investment. He also said he would also work harder to boost imports. The speech was seen as a conciliatory gesture amid an escalating trade conflict with the United States.
Read the full story by Simon Denyer.
3. North Korea’s definition of ‘denuclearization’ is very different from Trump’s
After a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and China's Xi Jinping, it's now the White House that is gearing up to discuss denuclearization with Kim at their much anticipated summit next month. But what does “denuclearization” mean? It depends on whom you are asking — and the difference in definition could sound a death knell for the summit before it even starts.
Read the full analysis by Anna Fifield.
4. ‘Air Force Un’: As North Korea’s leader steps onto international stage, a question over his ability to fly
Then there's the question of how Kim would get to the summit. Some analysts have suggested that Trump would favor a grand setting in the United States or another country outside of northeast Asia — perhaps Singapore, Switzerland or Sweden.
Yet, it’s not clear that Kim possesses an airplane that could reliably fly him across the Pacific Ocean or to Europe without stopping, writes David Nakamura.
5. ‘It is like we have regressed 100 years’: Report warns of resurgent global anti-Semitism
Jewish life around the world is under attack once again by “classic traditional antisemitism,” according to a report by an Israeli university released Wednesday. “There has been an increase in open, unashamed and explicit hatred directed against Jews. The Jew as exploiter, the Jew as killer, the Jew as banker. It is like we have regressed 100 years,” said European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor.
6. A huge crack provides evidence that Africa is slowly splitting into two
A piece of East Africa is expected to break off the main continent in tens of millions of years. If you need any proof, look no further than Kenya’s Rift Valley, where a gaping tear opened up following heavy rains and seismic activity at the end of March. The crack is about 50 feet wide and several miles long — and it's still growing.
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