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Hard Numbers: Hunter Biden cops to charges, Brazilians bust shark fin racket, Pakistan and India face off on home grass, Aussies worry about China
Hunter Biden disembarks from Air Force One.
REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
2: Hunter Biden — perhaps you’ve heard of him! — will plead guilty to two federal charges, and neither of them has anything to do with Ukraine, China, laptops, or any of the other things that Republicans have been hammering him about since 2020. The president’s son will cop to charges of tax evasion and illegal firearms possession, following a five-year probe that began during the Trump presidency.
28.7: Brazilian authorities have taken a megalodon-sized bite out of crime, confiscating a record 28.7 tons of illegally fished shark fins that were destined for delicacy diners in Asia. Investigators said as many as 11,000 sharks were killed in order to harvest the fins. Brazil is one of dozens of countries that ban “shark finning,” in which poachers slice off the fins at sea and discard the dying carcass in open water.
9: For the first time in nine years, Pakistan’s national football team will play against India in India. Home matches between the two are rare, given decades of geopolitical tensions. Neither is a star at football, but the match could pave the way for the first Pakistan-India cricket face-off in India since 2012 at this fall’s ICC Cricket World Cup. That would be a much bigger deal: a smackdown summit featuring two of the sport’s superpowers.
75: Some 75% of Australians polled believe that China will be a military threat to their country over the next two decades. It’s worth wondering whether Australia’s dependence on trade with China — by far its largest commercial partner — makes that outcome more likely, or less.People in support of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol rally near Seoul Central District Court in Seoul on Feb. 19, 2026. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment the same day for leading an insurrection with his short-lived declaration of martial law in December 2024.
65: The age of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday after being found guilty of plotting an insurrection when he declared martial law in 2024.
In an era when geopolitics can feel overwhelming and remote, sometimes the best messengers are made of felt and foam.
The Hungarian election is off to the races, and nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is facing his most serious challenger in 16 years.
Does skepticism rule the day in politics? Public opinion data collected as part of the Munich Security Conference’s annual report found that large shares of respondents in G7 and several BRICS countries believed their governments’ policies would leave future generations worse off.