Hard Numbers: Khashoggi verdict, food insecurity in southern Africa, Aussie journalists leave China, human toll of US War on Terror

A Vigil is held at Saudi Embassy for Journalist Jamal Khashoggi

8: A Saudi court has issued "final verdicts" against eight people for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi back in 2018, with five of the defendants receiving 20-year prison terms. It's widely believed that the killing was directed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, a claim that Riyadh has long denied.

45 million: Around 45 million people living in southern Africa do not have enough to eat, according to the World Food Program (WFP), a UN agency. The COVID crisis and the effects of climate change are the main reasons for the uptick in food insecurity, with Zimbabwe being the worst affected country in the region. Around 8.6 million Zimbabweans may not have access to affordable and nutritious food by the end of 2020, the WFP says.

2: The last two journalists working for Australian media in China have left the country after being held and questioned by Chinese authorities. More than a dozen Australian journalists were expelled from China in the first half of 2020 as the two countries have clashed over alleged Chinese hacking in Australia as well as Canberra's recent backing of an international probe into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

37 million: A new report from Brown University in the United States says that 37 million people have been displaced by America's far-reaching War on Terror since September 2001. Most civilians displaced are from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Libya, and Syria, the study says.

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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."

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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.