Hard Numbers: Chinese travel bug, Iran on the high seas, another mass shooting in Serbia, Proud Boys found guilty, Peru’s unlucky shoe criminals

A sightseeing spot in China's Ningbo is crowded with tourists.
A sightseeing spot in China's Ningbo is crowded with tourists.
Reuters

274 million: Restless after years of restrictions on their movement, Chinese travelers made 274 million domestic trips during the recent five-day May Day holiday, 19% more than during that same period in 2019, before COVID hit. Analysts say this jump is yet another sign of China’s economic rebound.

8: Still reeling from a mass shooting at a school in Belgrade earlier this week, Serbs experienced another mass shooting Thursday when a gunman went on a rampage across several villages outside the capital, killing at least eight people. While mass shootings aren't common in Serbia, many weapons left over from the Balkan wars are still circulating throughout the country.

2: For the second time in under a week, Iran has seized a commercial oil tanker in the region. The first was bound for Texas, but the second was heading to the UAE port of Fujairah, making the motive less clear. Some say the Iranians are acting out after the US last month redirected a tanker delivering Iranian crude oil to … China.

4: Four members of the far-right Proud Boys organization – including longtime chairman Enrique Tarrio – have been found guilty of seditious conspiracy for their role in the US Capitol riots. The Proud Boys, who espouse racist and antisemitic ideology, were among the most violent actors on Jan. 6. The conspiracy charges alone could send them to jail for up to 50 years.

13,000: Criminals in the central Peruvian city of Huancayo ransacked a shoe store, getting away with $13,000 worth of sneakers. But when it comes to turning a profit, they face one big problem: All the stolen shoes are for the right foot!

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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.