World Tour: Poland elects conservative president

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Next up, World Tour. We begin with some WORLD news of our own from Nigeria. Onize Oduah is going to be out for the next three months as she is on maternity leave. She and her husband have welcomed a baby girl into their family, so here’s WORLD’s Mary Muncy with today’s international run-down.

MARY MUNCY: We begin today in Poland, where citizens elected a new president, and the prime minister survived a no-confidence vote.

Presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki won by just a little more than a percentage point.

NAWROCKI: We must do everything we can to ensure that Poland remains Poland, rich in its cultural heritage, in our attachment to what is enshrined in our national community, to the symbol of the cross and to Christian values.

Nawrocki promised to preserve the nation’s heritage and remain true to its Christian values.

The president-elect is part of the more conservative Law and Justice party while Prime Minister Donald Tusk is part of the liberal Civic Platform. After Nawrocki’s win, Tusk called for a no-confidence vote to see if he could hold a coalition together, and he survived.

Nawrocki is expected to be friendly to the United States and possibly put conditions on helping Ukraine. Tusk will likely focus on promoting cooperation with the European Union and reforming the nation’s judicial system.

Next, to Hungary.

Tens of thousands gathered for a Budapest Pride parade last Saturday in open defiance of the Hungarian government.

In April, officials passed a Constitutional Amendment to secure children’s “right to physical, spiritual and moral development.” The law included shutting down all public LGBTQ events.

COUNTER PROTESTER: Do you people want the city of Budapest to be destroyed? Then stop doing this!

As part of a counter protest at Pride, one Christian preacher walked through the crowds holding a cross and speaking out against the celebration.

COUNTER PROTESTER cont. : You need to repent, people. This is what the real Christian looks like! Repent from your sin …

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his government already effectively recognize marriage as only between one man and one woman. And the country protects children from adoption by two adults of the same sex. The country’s Constitution recognizes only two sexes: a man and a woman.

Aniko Soltesz is Hungarian and attended the parade.

SOLTESZ: [HUNGARIAN] I viscerally object to any restriction of rights. I agree that everyone should be free to choose a partner, and I deeply condemn any restrictions that tends to crush the right of assembly, to crush freedoms, and that is why I am here.

She says here that she objects to Orbán’s government because she believes it is restricting her right to peaceably assemble.

Authorities are expected to use security camera footage and facial recognition technology to identify those who attended. Under Hungarian law, authorities could impose fines up to $586 U.S. dollars for participating in a public LGBTQ event.

In East Asia:

AUDIO: [CANTONESE]

Members of the League of Social Democrats held a rally Sunday in Hong Kong. The purpose? The pro-democracy party announced that it is disbanding.

Party chairwoman Chan Po-ying said political pressure forced the party leadership’s hand.

PO-YING: We need to consider a lot of reasons including, especially our comrades, friends, the consequences for them, so we choose to disband.

The party made headlines in 2019 when it led massive anti-government demonstrations. Since then, authorities have prosecuted and jailed many activists under a national security law that Beijing imposed in 2020.

The party’s platform advocated non-violent forms of resistance, but added that members would not avoid physical confrontations if they were deemed necessary.

China's humanoid soccer playing robots—

And finally, 14-hundred miles to the north in Beijing, the first of its kind sporting exhibition in China.

SOUND: SOCCER MATCH

Four teams of humanoid robots competed in fully autonomous three on three soccer matches. Robots operated by artificial intelligence without human intervention, except for the occasional need to remove a malfunctioning robot off the field.

The players featured advanced visual sensors, allowing them to identify the ball and navigate the field. While not fast moving games, the event seemed to entertain spectators.

CHENG HOA: [CHINESE] In the future, we may arrange for robots to play football with humans. That means we must ensure the robots are completely safe. For example, a robot and a human could play a match where winning doesn’t matter, but real offensive and defensive interactions take place. That would help audiences build trust and understand that robots are safe.

Cheng Hao is founder and CEO of Booster Robotics—the company that supplied the robots. He hopes to eventually have robots and human players compete, and this weekend’s event helped accelerate the robotic systems to someday make that possible.

That’s this week’s WORLD Tour. I’m Mary Muncy.

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