Hard Numbers: IAEA Zaporizhzhia report, Solomons election snub, millionaire SUV, a dream job

Hard Numbers: IAEA Zaporizhzhia report, Solomons election snub, millionaire SUV, a dream job
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi departs a press conference in Austria upon returning from Ukraine.
REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

50: The International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday issued its much-awaited report on the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. The 50-page document recommends, among other things, a security perimeter around the facility to enable safe inspections.

50 million: The Solomon Islands – growing increasingly cozy with China – turned down Australia’s offer to fund its 2023 election. Honiara said it was “inappropriate” and that Canberra shouldn’t try to influence how MPs vote on scheduling the election, which pro-Beijing PM Manasseh Sogavare wants to delay until 2024 and would reportedly cost $50 million.

50,000: Colombia’s new leftwing President Gustavo Petro may have big plans to redistribute wealth, but a social media influencer in Cali, the third largest city, is beating him to the punch. Kevin Rivera, known on the web as @negroestaclaro, has been driving through town in a “Millionaire SUV” plastered with 50,000 peso bills (about $11 each.) Absolute scenes!

71: That's how much a Japanese man charges clients per session — in US dollars — to do ... (mostly) nothing. Shoji Morimoto, who earns enough as a professional companion to support his wife and child, admits he's been called lazy but believes that "it's fine to really not do anything."

More from GZERO Media

GZERO

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.