Hard Numbers: Pricey Turkey, German jab scam, know-nothing Russians, a new Taiwanese identity

April 04, 2022

A woman displays her utility bills during a protest against high energy prices in Istanbul, Turkey.

REUTERS/Umit Bektas

61: Annual inflation in Turkey continues to soar, hitting 61% in March, the highest level since 2002. High prices for food and energy, along with a flailing currency, are behind the price growth, but President Erdogan’s bizarre insistence on cutting interest rates isn’t helping.

90: A German man got himself vaccinated 90 times in order to sell forged vaccine cards with authentic batch numbers to jab-dodgers. There is a German word for what we’d feel if this guy ended up catching COVID.

41: According to a new poll, 41% of Russians surveyed said they were unaware there had been any anti-war protests in their country. Wait, does polling still mean anything in Russia? Good question, we’ve got an answer for you here.

95: More than 95% of Taiwan’s population is ethnically Han Chinese. But recently, some of them have begun looking to the traditions and history of the Island’s indigenous groups as a way to craft a new Taiwanese identity.

Strategic abroad, shaky at home: Friedrich Merz’s first 100 days

Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, gives a statement after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sacked Finance Minister Christian Lindner, before a session of the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, in Berlin, Germany, November 7, 2024.

Reuters/Liesa Johannssen

Hard Numbers: Pricey Turkey, German jab scam, know-nothing Russians, a new Taiwanese identity

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It has passed very strongly. #PUPPETREGIME

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Hard Numbers: Pricey Turkey, German jab scam, know-nothing Russians, a new Taiwanese identity

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Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

More from GZERO Media

In a first-of-its-kind deal, Nvidia and AMD will hand 15% of revenues from AI chip sales to China over to the US government in exchange for export licenses.

Friedrich Merz’s first 100 days as chancellor of Germany have marked an assertive shift in the country’s role on the European and global stage.

Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman discusses rising antisemitism—and what he sees as the Trump administration’s weaponization of it to attack higher education.

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

As Trump targets elite universities with lawsuits and funding cut threats, Harvard law professor Noah Feldman warns that critical scientific research— not to mention the pursuit of truth itself—may be on the line.

Harvard Law's Noah Feldman unpacks the Trump administration’s legal and political escalations with elite US universities.

It has passed very strongly. #PUPPETREGIME

Twelve days of war earlier this summer demonstrated that Iran has little capacity to defend its cities or its nuclear facilities from Israeli and US strikes. But it still likely retains some uranium supplies, so it has options.