Hard Numbers: Americans divided, EU slaps tariffs on US goods, Japanese mandarins for sale, Armenia's setback

Supporters of Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Joe Biden embrace

20: The 2020 US election revealed that Americans are more divided than they have been in decades. But they don't only disagree on policy: only 20 percent of Americans surveyed by Pew believe that supporters of Joe Biden and Donald Trump share the same core American values and goals for the country's future.

4 billion: The European Union said it will impose $4 billion worth of tariffs on US goods, a response to the Trump administration applying levies on European products including French wine and Italian cheese. The EU says it hopes to work with the incoming Biden administration to resolve the trade disputes, which are tied in part to a long-standing disagreement over EU and US subsidies for their respective aircraft giants, Airbus and Boeing.

9,600: A crate (100 pieces) of sweet Japanese mandarins called mikan sold for a whopping $9,600 this week at an agricultural market in Tokyo. The coveted fruits from the southern island of Shikoku are often sold at an inflated price because they are only produced by around 100 farmers. The lucky buyer remains unknown but well-fed.

6: After six weeks of fighting between Azeris and Armenians over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Armenian officials say they have lost control over Shusha (which Armenians call Shushi), the enclave's second largest city. It's a big setback for ethnic Armenians who want to maintain control of the territory, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

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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.