HARD NUMBERS

1,400: North and South Korea have succeeded in a joint bid to have traditional Korean wrestling recognized as a cultural gem by the United Nations, the latest sign of thawing relations between the two countries. The sport, which some sources say predates the two countries' 1950s-era partition by more than 1,400 years, is known as Ssirum in the North and Ssireum in the South.

100: More than half of all babies born in Japan today can expect to live to the age of 100. The country, which has the world's highest average life expectancy at 84 years, is facing a demographic crunch as it looks for ways to support a growing elderly and retired population with a shrinking number of working-age adults.

70: Elon Musk, the billionaire industrialist and space enthusiast, estimated there was a 70 percent chance that he would personally move to Mars by hitching a ride on one of his SpaceX rockets. The 47-year-old entrepreneur, who last year unveiled a detailed plan for colonizing the red planet, has stated that humanity must become a multi-planetary species in order to avoid extinction. His statement left us wondering how exactly he got to the number 70.

3: China has begun construction of its third aircraft carrier, state media confirmed this week. The as-yet unnamed warship is part of a broader push by Beijing to increase its naval might. China's navy last year became the world's largest by total vessels, though it still significantly lags the US in terms of firepower and overall budget.

More from GZERO Media

Former President Donald Trump attends the 2024 Senior Club Championship award ceremony at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, March 24, 2024.
REUTERS/Marco Bello

Alongside dealing with inflation, war, AI and hyper-polarizing politics — a full cart of problems already — every US ally and opponent are also busily drawing up their Preparing For Trump (PFT) playbook.

Bottles of blueberry and strawberry maple syrup displayed at a maple syrup farm in Mount Albert, Ontario, Canada, on March 05, 2022.
Reuters

Maple syrup connoisseurs on both sides of the border take note: Canada’s strategic maple syrup reserve has reached a 16-year low.

People take cover from gunfire near the National Palace, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti March 21, 2024.
REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol

Both the US and Canadian governments are facing challenges getting their citizens out of Haiti, and neither country seems to be making any headway toward a plan to reduce the chaos and violence in the Caribbean country.

Displaced Palestinians wait to receive UNRWA aid amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 7, 2024.
REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

The US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield asked Canadian International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen to keep funding the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), Hussen told the Canadian Press.

The casket of late former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is carried by pallbearers following his state funeral at the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal, Quebec, Canada March 23, 2024.
REUTERS/Evan Buhler

The Canada-US trade relationship lost its greatest champion when former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was laid to rest in Montreal on Saturday.

Valeria Murguia, 21, a university student, poses for a photograph in a field near her home in McFarland, California, U.S., December 17, 2020.
REUTERS/Brandon Bell

The big news in the report this year is not who is at the top — the cheerful Finns and their Nordic neighbors are still the happiest countries in the world — but a dramatic increase of misery among the young in English-speaking Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand.

Social media's AI wave: Are we in for a “deepfakification” of the entire internet? | GZERO AI

In this episode of GZERO AI, Taylor Owen, professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University and director of its Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy, looks into the phenomenon he terms the "deepfakification" of social media. He points out the evolution of our social feeds, which began as platforms primarily for sharing updates with friends, and are now inundated with content generated by artificial intelligence.