Hard Numbers: Americans vote, deadly truck bomb in Syria, Nicaragua muzzles media, Iranian restitution payout

The US election is on November 3. Art by Annie Gugliotta

4 million: More than four million Americans have already voted in the upcoming presidential election. That's more than fifty times the early voting tally at this point in 2016, according to the United States Elections Project, which attributed the shift partly to expanded mail-in voting due to COVID-19.

18: At least 18 people were killed by a truck bomb explosion in Al-Bab, a town in northwestern Syria. No one has claimed responsibility (yet), but the area — now controlled by the Turkish military — was run by the Islamic State until the group was expelled by US-backed Kurdish forces in 2017.

4: A new law being debated by Nicaragua's parliament would throw people in prison for up to four years for the electronic distribution of misinformation "which causes alarm." The bill is widely seen as yet another step by authoritarian President Daniel Ortega to crack down on press freedom after he was threatened by anti-government protests in 2018.

1.4 billion: A US judge has decided that Iran owes $1.4 billion to the family of a former FBI agent who was allegedly kidnapped thirteen years ago while on a covert mission inside the Islamic Republic, and is believed to have died in Iranian custody. The ruling cited the case of Otto Warmbier, a US student who died soon after being released from captivity in North Korea.

More from GZERO Media

A miniature statue of US President Donald Trump stands next to a model bunker-buster bomb, with the Iranian national flag in the background, in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, on June 19, 2025.
STR/NurPhoto

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will decide whether to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities “in the next two weeks,” a move that re-opens the door to negotiations, but also gives the US more time to position military forces for an operation.

People ride motorcycles as South Korea's LGBTQ community and supporters attend a Pride parade, during the Seoul Queer Culture Festival, in Seoul, South Korea, June 14, 2025.
REUTERS/Kim Soo-hyeon

June is recognized in more than 100 countries in the world as “Pride Month,” marking 55 years since gay liberation marches began commemorating the Stonewall riots – a pivotal uprising against the police’s targeting of LGBTQ+ communities in New York.

Port of Nice, France, during the United Nations Oceans Conference in June 2025.
María José Valverde

Eurasia Group’s biodiversity and sustainability analyst María José Valverde sat down with Rebecca Hubbard, the director of the High Seas Alliance, to discuss the High Seas Treaty.

Housing shortages in the US and Canada have become a significant problem – and a contentious political issue – in recent years. New data on housing construction this week suggest neither country is making enough progress to solve the shortfalls. Here’s a snapshot of the situation on both sides of the border.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks during a meeting of northeastern U.S. Governors and Canadian Premiers, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., June 16, 2025.
REUTERS/Sophie Park

While the national level drama played out between Donald Trump and Mark Carney at the G7 in Kananaskis, a lot of important US-Canada work was going on with far less fanfare in Boston, where five Canadian premiers met with governors and delegations from seven US states.

- YouTube

What’s next for Iran’s regime? Ian Bremmer says, “It’s much more likely that the supreme leader ends up out, but the military… continues to run the country.”