Hard Numbers

90,000: The "Yellow Vest" protests are catching on in western Canada where fuel fears come in a different form, namely low prices hurting domestic oil producers and their employees.

A Facebook group for protesters, Yellow Vests Canada, drew 90,000 members in its first two weeks.

14,000: President Trump announced this week that ISIS has been "defeated" in Syria and that US troops will soon be withdrawn from that country. The plan continues to draw criticism from a number of US lawmakers, including Republicans, in part because the US military reported recently there were still as many as 14,000 ISIS militants in Syria as recently as June and a similar number in neighboring Iraq.

2008: As of yesterday's close on Wall Street, the Dow and S&P 500 are on track for their worst yearly performance since 2008. We can't remember what happened that year, but it must have been bad.

1: A calendar that features only pictures of Vladimir Putin is the #1 best-selling 2019 calendar in Japan. Because the Japanese love Putin? Doubtful. Because Russian bots are brainwashing Japanese holiday shoppers? We're not going there. Because the Japanese love kitsch? That seems more likely.

More from GZERO Media

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Judge Amy Coney Barrett after she was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S. October 26, 2020.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Judge Amy Coney Barrett after she was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S. October 26, 2020.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Some of the conservative justices (three of whom were appointed by Trump) expressed concern that allowing former presidents to be criminally prosecuted could present a burden to future commanders-in-chief.

A Palestinian woman inspects a house that was destroyed after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, April 24, 2024.
Abed Rahim Khatib/Reuters

“We are afraid of what will happen in Rafah. The level of alert is very high,” Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday.

Haiti's new interim Prime Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert holds a glass with a drink after a transitional council took power with the aim of returning stability to the country, where gang violence has caused chaos and misery, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti April 25, 2024.
REUTERS/Pedro Valtierra

Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry formally resigned on Thursday as a new transitional body charged with forming the country’s next government was sworn in.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at the Beijing Capital International Airport, in Beijing, China, April 25, 2024.
Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via REUTERS

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be in marathon meetings in Beijing on Friday, including what could be a testy conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Flags from across the divide wave in the air over protests at Columbia University on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Alex Kliment

Of the many complex, painful issues contributing to the tension stemming from the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza, dividing groups into two basic camps, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, is only making this worse. GZERO Publisher Evan Solomon explains the need to solve this category problem.

Paige Fusco

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has been engulfed in violent gang warfare and without a leader since its former prime minister, Ariel Henry, was barred reentry to the country on March 12.

Nashville Predators defenseman Ryan McDonagh (27) stick checks Vancouver Canucks forward Brock Boeser (6) during the third period in game two of the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Arena.
Bob Frid/Reuters

For the past 31 years of hockey folly, Canadian fans have greeted the NHL playoffs by telling anyone who will listen that “this year is different.”

Workers assemble a vehicle as Honda announces plans to build electric vehicles and their parts in Ontario with financial support from the Canadian and provincial governments, at their automotive assembly plant in Alliston, Ontario, Canada, April 25, 2024.
REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

Honda has announced an $11 billion plan to build electric vehicles in the Canadian province of Ontario, an investment Premier Doug Fordsays will be the largest ever for Canada.