Hard Numbers: Babies stranded in Ukraine, Rwandan killer caught, Iran and US play chicken

100:At least 100 babies in Ukraine born to surrogate mothers are now stranded there as coronavirus-related restrictions prevent their parents from coming to pick them up. Ukraine is thought to have the largest surrogate birth industry in the world, and more than 1,000 more babies could be born there before travel rules ease.

26: After 26 years on the run, Rwandan tycoon Felicien Kabuga, who funded the massacre of as many as 800,000 people during his country's 1994 genocide, was arrested in Paris, where he had been living under a false name. The 84-year old Kabuga will now face justice for his crimes before an international tribunal at the Hague.

45.5: A US-Iran naval confrontation looms as a flotilla of Iranian tankers carrying at least $45.5 million worth of gasoline to Venezuela is currently steaming across the Atlantic, in violation of Washington's sanctions. US warships have been deployed to the Caribbean, potentially to stop the delivery.

70: At least 70 refugees living at one of Germany's designated homes for asylum-seekers have tested positive for coronavirus. The outbreak underscores advocacy groups' concerns about weak precautions against the disease at the country's many "reception-centers," which house migrants while their asylum applications are processed.

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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.

Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko listens to the presidential candidate he is backing in the March 24 election, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, as they hold a joint press conference a day after they were released from prison, in Dakar, Senegal March 15, 2024.
REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

Newly inaugurated Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, in his first act in office, appointed his mentor Ousmane Sonko as prime minister on Wednesday.