17: In an unprecedented move, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the vaccine advisory committee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday. While Kennedy defended the “clean sweep” as necessary to restore public trust, experts warn that changes to the panel could threaten public confidence in government health agencies.
$180 million: Chinese tech giant Tencent recently struck a deal with SM Entertainment, one of the leading K-pop production houses, to purchase almost a 10% stake for $180 million. The latest move signals a potential musical thaw in China-South Korea relations: Beijing has imposed an unofficial ban on K-pop ever since Seoul agreed to host US missile defenses in 2016.
2%: Citing the need to reduce reliance on the United States, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carneypledged to raise defense expenditures to 2% of the nation’s GDP by the end of the year. The accelerated spending will bring the country in line with NATO benchmarks five years ahead of Carney’s previous target of 2030.
499: Russia launched 499 drone and missile attacks on Kyiv last night, in one of the largest aerial assaults of the three-year-war. The latest attack coincides with a fresh Russian push into eastern Ukraine, and it follows Kyiv’s own large-scale drone attacks on Russian strategic bombers last week.
3%: Less than 3% of the world’s oceans are effectively protected from destructive activities like industrial fishing and deep-sea mining. But with the UN Oceans conference now underway in France, delegates are on track to ratify the High Seas Treaty, a landmark agreement that will allow countries to establish protected areas in biodiverse international waters.
Israeli soldiers walk near a damaged car, which Palestinians say was burned by Israeli settlers, in Halhul, near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on May 20, 2026.
Violence by Jewish nationalists against Palestinians in the West Bank has been rising ever since Benjamin Netanyahu formed a government with far-right groups. It accelerated after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and has risen again this year.
Global humanitarian needs are rising sharply – right as the systems designed to respond to them are facing the deepest funding cuts in years. At a recent UN event focused on the wellness of aid workers, GZERO’s Tony Maciulis spoke to experts, including Rajabi and Michel Saad, a deputy director at the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who leads efforts in the Middle East and North Africa.
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