News
Hard Numbers: RIP wages in Argentina, Japan's missile arsenal, Mogadishu attack, Singapore’s big LGBT move
Demonstrators carry flower crowns during a symbolic funeral for their wages in Buenos Aires.
REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
317: Argentine workers held Friday a mock funeral procession for the "death" of the living wage in the country, where sky-high inflation is wiping out purchasing power. The minimum wage of $317 a month now covers less than half the cost of a basic food basket for a family of four.
1,000: Japan is stockpiling more than 1,000 long-range missiles, and for the first time plans to deploy the arsenal on islands facing China and North Korea. Two weeks ago, China responded to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan by firing ballistic missiles around the island, five of which landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone.
21: At least 20 people were killed Sunday in Mogadishu after security forces ended a standoff with al-Shabab militants who had stormed a hotel and taken hostages. It's the first attack in Somalia's capital by the group linked to al-Qaida since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud took over in May.
377: In a surprise move Sunday, PM Lee Hsien Loong announced that Singapore will repeal section 377A of the criminal code, a colonial-era law banning same-sex relationships. The notoriously conservative island nation is the latest Asian government to decriminalize gay sex after India, Thailand, and Taiwan (where same-sex marriages are allowed since 2019).The prevailing view a few months ago was that Democrats were likely to retake the House of Representatives in November's midterm elections, but not the Senate. That calculus has now changed.
Kim Jong Un is preparing his daughter Kim Ju Ae, reportedly around 12 years old, as a potential successor, something that would break every precedent in the Kim dynasty's 80-year history.
GZERO has won the Webby People's Voice Award in the Social - Comedy category for our political satire series Puppet Regime, and our Ian Explains series was named an Honoree in the Social - News & Politics category this year.
In this “ask ian,” Ian Bremmer explores why Taiwan is becoming a key issue ahead of the upcoming Trump–Xi meeting.