News
Hard Numbers: Kenyan result upheld, Euro gas prices soar, Japanese sour on Kishida, drink beer at Qatar 2022
Paige Fusco
50.5: Kenya's Supreme Court on Monday upheld the result of last month’s presidential election, won by William Ruto with 50.5% of the vote. His rival Raila Odinga had contested his fifth consecutive loss for the top job, but the court dismissed his claims as a “wild-goose chase.”
400: Dutch one-month natural gas futures — considered a benchmark for Europe — skyrocketed almost 400% year-on-year in early trading Monday after Russia announced an indefinite shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. EU governments are scrambling to help shield their citizens from sky-high electric bills, and Brussels is mulling a bloc-wide cap on gas prices.
41: The disapproval rating of Japan's embattled PM Fumio Kishida reached 41%, the highest level since he took office. Kishida's popularity has nosedived over the ruling party's ties to the controversial Unification Church following Shinzo Abe's assassination and the government’s decision to hold a state funeral for the slain former PM.
3: Following a strong backlash, the organizers of the soccer World Cup in Qatar will allow ticketed fans to drink beer, normally verboten in the Gulf nation. But there's a catch: they can only purchase it from official sponsor Budweiser outside of stadiums three hours before kickoff or one hour after the final whistle — and never during matches.Tens of thousands still remain missing after the RSF’s siege of El Fasher. The RSF also remains in control of the city, and the civil war continues to drag on with seemingly no end in sight.
With Israel and the US heading to the polls, could elections change the course of the Middle East’s conflicts? Brett McGurk joins Ian Bremmer to discuss the Iran war, escalating Houthi attacks, and whether Washington has a strategy to contain the turmoil.
Can Washington turn military pressure into a diplomatic strategy? Brett McGurk joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World podcast to discuss the Iran war, Houthi attacks, and how elections in Israel and the US could reshape the region.
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.