Hard Numbers: Russia touts vaccine, US sells jets to UAE, world's longest-serving PM dies, EU budget moves ahead

November 11, 2020

Art by Gabriella Turrisi and Annie Gugliotta

92: Just days after US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine showed a 90 percent effectiveness rate, Russia now claims that its own "Sputnik V" miracle drug is 92 percent effective at preventing COVID-19. Good news — if it's true — for Vladimir Putin, who wants Russia to win the global vaccine race.

23 billion: The Trump administration has notified the US Congress of its intent to sell 50 F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates for $23 billion. The long-awaited deal was authorized by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who will be in the UAE this week as part of a Middle East tour that also includes Israel and Saudi Arabia.

49: Prince Khalifa bin Salman of Bahrain, the world's longest-serving prime minister, died on Wednesday at age 84 after 49 years in power. Khalifa took over as PM when Bahrain gained independence from the UK in 1971, and in 2011 survived mass protests that demanded his ouster in the wake of the Arab Spring.

1.8 trillion: European Union negotiators have agreed on a 1.8 trillion euro ($2.12 trillion) budget for the next seven years. The deal must be ratified by the European Parliament, the Council and all EU member states. However, it could hit a snag because Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has threatened to veto if Brussels moves forward on linking future EU funding to respect for the rule of law.

Hard Numbers: Russia touts vaccine, US sells jets to UAE, world's longest-serving PM dies, EU budget moves ahead

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More from GZERO Media

Protests against a controversial “foreign agent” bill in Georgia this week have led to violent police crackdowns in the capital, Tbilisi.

As police ramp up efforts to dismantle pro-Palestine encampments and demonstrations on US campuses, the student protests are going global.

For the second week running, campus protests continue to dominate headlines. They are starting to spill into the political sphere, especially as efforts to quell demonstrations on college campuses nationwide intensify.

The US State Department accused Russia on Thursday of using a chemical weapon called chloropicrin against Ukrainian soldiers.

This weekend, Panamanians will elect a president after a roller-coaster campaign period that has featured a dog with an X (formerly Twitter) account and a popular former president hiding in the storage room of a foreign embassy.

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

In response to roiling campus protests, the House of Representatives passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act on Wednesday.

Think you know what's going on around the world? Here's your chance to prove it.

What started as a reaction to the Hamas-orchestrated massacre of Oct. 7 and the extent of the deadly counteroffensive by the Israeli military has now grown to encompass wider, more amorphous issues, writes GZERO Publisher Evan Solomon.

Carney, the former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, wants to be Canada’s prime minister, so he is letting it be known that he might do a better job than Trudeau while warning against the alternative.