Hard Numbers
Hard Numbers: Japan wins huge Oz carrier contract, Migrant boat sinks off Yemen, US to require bonds from visa-seekers, Taiwan arrests chip snoops
FFM Mogami at the Yokosuka Naval Base on April 8, 2025.
Stanislav Kogiku/AFLO via REUTERS
$6.5 billion: Japan won a $6.5 billion defense contract to build 11 new warships for Australia’s navy on Tuesday. The deal comes as Australia undertakes a major defense overhaul in order to counter China’s expanding presence in the Indo-Pacific.
68: At least 68 African migrants have died after a boat capsized off the coast of Yemen on Sunday. Yemen is a major transit route for migrants from the Horn of Africa – which includes Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea – who go to the Gulf monarchies in search of work. The overall death toll is feared to be greater than 140.
15,000: The US is planning to require some visa applicants to pay bonds of up to $15,000, as President Donald Trump continues his crackdown on immigration. The State Department said the measure will target countries whose citizens overstay their visas most often: looking at you, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Haiti, Venezuela, and Spain.
6: Taiwanese authorities have arrested six people suspected of stealing trade secrets from TSMC, the world’s most advanced semiconductor manufacturer. While their nationalities haven’t been made public yet, China’s Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) and the US’s Intel trail far behind TSMC, which supplies chips to Nvidia and Apple.In this Quick Take, Ian Bremmer breaks down Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s historic re-election victory and what it means for the country’s political future and democracy.
Could replacing Benjamin Netanyahu change Israel’s direction? Brett McGurk explains why a government led by Gadi Eisenkot would likely maintain Israel’s security doctrine while taking a different approach to the West Bank.
The competition to master this technology shapes everything from high-level tensions between the US and China to the local politics of where to build data centers.