The World

US-China relations have grown tense with regular clashes over trade, security, human rights and China's Hong Kong policies. Now, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is warning of Chinese meddling in Hong Kong's upcoming Legislative Council elections. And, since 2002, a treaty allows Canada to turn back asylum-seekers who come to its border checkpoints and hand them to US officials, where they face detention. But a Canadian judge ruled on Tuesday that the treaty is unconstitutional. Plus, the British boy band One Direction are celebrating 10 years since their founding.

US Democratic lawmakers are demanding a prompt FBI briefing on an alleged foreign interference campaign targeting the 2020 election. And, the Trump administration told China to close its consulate in Houston, Texas, giving staff there 72-hours notice. Plus, a recent social media campaign launched by the Yorkshire Museum in England, called #BestMuseumBum, went viral and museum curators worldwide are still talking about it.

Britain's government failed to determine and "actively avoided" looking into whether Russia meddled in the country’s recent elections, according to a much-anticipated intelligence report. And, after a long legal battle, the Thai Supreme Court has acquitted British human rights activist Andy Hall of defamation charges. And life under lockdown is stressful — perhaps a good, long scream would help? People in Iceland think it's worth a shot.

From The World and PRX, this is The Number in the News. Today’s number: 2.

The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup has big shoes to fill. The 2019 competition drew a record-setting 1.1 billion viewers around the world, and the players made major waves calling for pay equity in the sport. With the recent announcement that two countries — Australia and New Zealand — will co-host the 2023 tournament, players are confident the next World Cup will be just as momentous.

The Number in the News is a daily flash briefing for your smart speaker that we’re featuring as a special here in The World’s podcast feed. Listen to the Number in the News every morning to hear a shareable story in just two minutes. It’s one number you won’t forget, plus why it’s in the news today. Click here to add The Number in the News to your smart speaker News Briefing on an Amazon or Google smart speaker. Produced by The World’s Bianca Hillier.

Scientists at Oxford University published the results Monday of an early-phase coronavirus vaccine experiment showing strong immune response and no early safety concerns. And, for four days now, leaders from the European Union's 27 member states have been locking horns over the EU’s coronavirus recovery package. Plus Italian police found cocaine inside hollowed-out coffee beans. Investigators were tipped off when a shipment of coffee beans from Colombia arrived addressed to Santino D’Antonio, the name of a mafia boss in the action film “John Wick: Chapter 2.”

The surge in coronavirus cases around the world, led by US states like Florida and Texas, serves as a reminder of the urgent need for more testing. But those who can get a test must sometimes wait days for the results. As part of our regular series discussing the pandemic and as a special podcast in The World's feed, reporter Elana Gordon moderated a discussion with epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health on the latest advances in COVID-19 testing.

What should a country do when a citizen leaves to join a terrorist group overseas, then wants to return home? That debate has taken a turn in the United Kingdom. And, India joined a grim club Friday, becoming the third country globally to record more than 1 million cases of the coronavirus behind only Brazil and the US. Plus, a pub landlord in Cornwall, England, is serious about social distancing — so much so he's installed an electric fence in front of his bar to encourage customers to keep their distance.

According to US, British and Canadian intelligence agencies, Russian hackers have allegedly been targeting researchers to steal COVID-19 vaccine research. And, in Iran, a rare online protest went viral this past week, calling for the end of the death penalty there. Also, climate scientists say record-breaking summer temperatures around the world may become the new normal. But, one solution to fight the heat in cities is tiny dense urban forests.

As the US reckons with systemic racism and a less-than-democratic past, China is doubling down on its authoritarian ways. Meanwhile, research on the health of democracy from across the globe indicates the patient is not well.

In episode five of the third season of "Things That Go Boom," our partner podcast from PRX, host Laicie Heeley traces China’s rise from the 1990s, when American pop music held a place alongside patriotic education, to its more recent political assertiveness — not to mention its chokehold on civil rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. As China moves to assert itself on the world stage, is democracy losing?

Guests:

Connie Mei Pickart, writer and educator

Yascha Mounk, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University and senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund

Additional reading:

How the world views American-style democracy, Eurasia Group Foundation

Nationalism ruined my Chinese friendships, Connie Mei Pickart via SupChina

In Hong Kong, defiance has gone quiet, The New York Times

In a reversal, the Trump administration has abandoned a plan to strip international students of their visas if their coursework is entirely online. And, former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the US presidential race, outlined a climate plan on Tuesday that would spend $2 trillion over four years investing in clean-energy infrastructure. Plus, at the International Ninja Research Center, students learn ancient espionage tactics from feudal Japan — and unlearn all the bad history they may have picked up from movies and video games.