Hard Numbers: A billion people without ID

1.5 million: China said it has "returned to society" some 1.5 million mainly Muslim Uighurs detained in internment camps in Xinjiang. The detainees were released after "graduating" from vocational training, according to Beijing, but increasing international criticism and a string of damning media exposes are believed to have pressured China to release them.

9: Lebanon's "confessional" system of government, which apportions top positions to people based on their religion, costs the country as much as 9% of GDP every year as a result of corruption and mismanagement, according to a World Bank study from 2016. The country is still struggling to form a new government six weeks after mass protests against the political system forced the prime minister's resignation.

1 billion: The next time you're in a panic after losing your driver's license, consider that roughly a billion people around the world lack any form of personal identification at all, including half the population of sub-Saharan Africa alone. Lack of ID deprives citizens of access to government services and can put people at risk of deportation, discrimination, and statelessness.

85,000: Last year, the number of Poles working abroad fell for the first time in almost a decade, as 85,000 decided to return home. Many of them left the UK because of Brexit uncertainty, and the Polish government is glad to welcome them back: Poland's population has been forecast to shrink 12 percent by 2050.

More from GZERO Media

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Listen: On this episode of the GZERO World Podcast, while the Gaza war rages on with no end in sight, Ian Bremmer and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman discuss how it could end, who is standing in the way, and what comes next. It may seem premature to talk about a resolution to this conflict, but Friedman argues that it is more important now than ever to map out a viable endgame. "Either we're going to go into 2024 with some really new ideas,” Friedman tells Ian, “or we're going back to 1947 with some really new weapons."

2024 04 04 E0819 Quick Take CLEAN FINAL

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: On the back of the Israeli Defense Forces strike killing seven members of aid workers for the World Central Kitchen, their founder, Chef Jose Andres, is obviously very angry. The Israelis immediately apologized and took responsibility for the act. He says that this was intentionally targeting his workers. I have a hard time believing that the IDF would have wanted to kill his workers intentionally. Anyone that's saying the Israelis are only to blame for this—as well as the enormous civilian death toll in this war–I strongly disagree.

President Joe Biden pauses during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023.
Miriam Alster/REUTERS

Biden told Netanyahu that the humanitarian situation in Gaza and strikes on aid workers were “unacceptable,” the White House readout of the call said.

Commander Shingo Nashinoki, 50, and soldiers of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB), Japan's first marine unit since World War Two, take part in a military drill as U.S. Marines observe, on the uninhabited Irisuna island close to Okinawa, Japan, November 15, 2023.
REUTERS

Given the ugly World War II history between the two countries, that would be a startling development.