27.5: A district council election held in Hong Kong amid 2019’s surge in anti-government protests set a record for turnout with 71.2% of registered voters casting a ballot. But on Sunday, just 27.5% turned up for the first vote since Beijing passed new restrictions on who is allowed to run for office.
64: The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Monday that a funding shortfall will cut the number of people who can expect the agency’s help in 2024 by 64 million. With one-third less funding in 2023 than hoped for, investments in food, water, and health projects will benefit 181 million people rather than the hoped-for 245 million.
600: In Israel, a country with strict firearm control laws, gun license applications have increased 600% since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. In recent weeks, the government has relaxed gun ownership rules, speeding up applications and supplying rifles to new volunteer rapid-response units.
128,000: Large numbers of Iranians have taken to social media to post videos of themselves dancing as a way of protesting the censorship of a video of a dancing 70-year-old man known as “Sadegh Booghi.” Authorities labeled Sadegh’s move-busting videos, which had reportedly earned him 128,00 followers, as “criminal content."
Global conflict was at a record high in 2025, will 2026 be more peaceful? Ian Bremmer talks with CNN’s Clarissa Ward and Comfort Ero of the International Crisis Group on the GZERO World Podcast.
Think you know what's going on around the world? Here's your chance to prove it.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi isn’t necessarily known as the greatest friend of Muslim people, yet his own government is now seeking to build bridges with Afghanistan’s Islamist leaders, the Taliban.
The European Union just pulled off something that, a year ago, seemed politically impossible: it froze $247 billion in Russian central bank assets indefinitely, stripping the Kremlin of one of its most reliable pressure points.