Hard Numbers

Hard Numbers: SCOTUS removes protections for Venezuelans, France to build overseas prison, Rice prices soak Japan’s PM, US borrowing costs rise

​Detainees stand behind a fence at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility, where Venezuelans at the center of a Supreme Court ruling on deportation are held, in Anson, Texas, U.S. April 22, 2025.
Detainees stand behind a fence at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility, where Venezuelans at the center of a Supreme Court ruling on deportation are held, in Anson, Texas, U.S. April 22, 2025.
REUTERS/Daniel Cole

350,000: The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the Trump administration can end temporary deportation protections for nearly 350,000 Venezuelans, making them vulnerable to mass deportation.

45 million: After a series of attacks on prison workers, France plans to build a new high-security prison in French Guiana, an overseas department of France which borders Brazil. The $45 million facility, meant to hold drug traffickers and radical Islamists, could open as soon as 2028, and will be located deep in the Amazon jungle.

27.4: With upper house elections approaching, Japan’s current government is facing its lowest approval ratings yet, as support for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s cabinet has fallen to 27.4%. Shigeru is blamed in part for soaring rice prices, which have doubled over the last year.

5.03: On Monday, US long-term borrowing costs edged up to 5.03%, the highest level since late 2023. The increase reflects the loss of the country’s triple-A credit rating, and concerns that Donald Trump’s major tax and budget bill will plunge the US government into even further debt.

More For You

- YouTube

GZERO World heads to the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Ian Bremmer lookst at how President Trump’s second term is rattling Europe, reshaping both transatlantic relations and the global economy, with Finland’s President Alexander Stubb and the IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva.

- YouTube

How widely is AI actually being used, and where is adoption falling behind? Speaking at the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft, outlined how AI adoption can be measured through what he calls a “diffusion index.”

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2026.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

After saying numerous times that he would only accept a deal that puts Greenland under US control, President Donald Trump emerged from his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte singing a different tune.