Hard Numbers: Biden’s ad buy, German nuke games, Kwoks lose big, Bolsonaro’s sick cabinet

280 million: Democratic candidate Joe Biden plans to spend $280 million on campaign ads in his battle against US President Donald Trump. Although Trump trails the former vice president by 7 points in an average of national polls, the incumbent has set aside less than half that amount for ads of his own.

500,000: About half a million people would die instantly if a large nuclear bomb were detonated in Frankfurt, Germany's most populous city, according to a new simulation from Greenpeace. It is estimated that the US — the only atomic power that stores part of its arsenal in other countries — has maintained between 15 and 20 nukes on German soil since the end of the Cold War.

8 billion: The uber-rich Kwok family, which owns Hong Kong's largest real estate empire, lost $8 billion over the past twelve months. The steep drop in the dynasty's net wealth is partly attributed to lack of investor confidence in Hong Kong as China has moved to assert fuller control over the city. It's also worth noting that the Kwoks publicly oppose the new security law that China has imposed on the former British colony.

8: Jorge Oliveira, Brazil's secretary of the presidency, is the eighth member of President Jair Bolsonaro's cabinet to have tested positive for the coronavirus. Bolsonaro — who recently survived COVID-19 himself — is part of a select group of world leaders who continue to play down the threat of the pandemic, and is often seen meeting people without social distancing or wearing a mask, even as Brazil has tallied more 2.8 million cases and close to 100,000 deaths.

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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.