☰
HomeLiving Beyond BordersGZERO WorldSignalIn 60 SecondsPuppet RegimeGZERO World PodcastContact UsAbout UsCareersPrivacy PolicyTerms

Hard Numbers: Slovak far-right conviction, Japan's to go carbon-neutral, Turkish lira falls, al-Shabaab taxes Somalis

October 27, 2020
Carlos Santamaria
Marian Kotleba, leader of the far-right People's Party Our Slovakia (LSNS), attends an election campaign rally in Topolcany, Slovakia. Reuters

52: Slovak far-right lawmaker Marian Kotleba has been sentenced to 52 months in jail for handing out checks with Nazi references to mark the founding of Slokavia's client state under the Third Reich. Kotleba belongs to the neo-Nazi People's Party Our Slovakia, which has an openly racist agenda and wants to pull the country out of the EU and NATO.

2050: Japan has pledged to cut greenhouse gases to zero and become carbon-neutral by 2050, a decade before China aims to reach the same goal. The announcement by Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga represents a major shift in climate change policy for the world's fifth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide.

8.15: The Turkish lira has plummeted to a historic low of 8.15 against the US dollar. Turkey's economy is in a deep crisis due to sky-high inflation and the central bank's refusal to raise interest rates, while analysts worry that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’ recent tirade against NATO allies France and the US, and Turkey's involvement in multiple regional conflicts — are deterring investment.

15 million: The al-Shabaab militant group in Somalia currently collects about $15 million in taxes each month, almost as much as the Somali government. Most of the revenue comes from dues on shipping containers and a 2.5 percent zakat religious levy that al-Shabaab enforces in the parts of the country it controls.

More from GZERO Media

How campus protests in the South could foreshadow the 2024 election

Police arrest Emory economics professor Caroline Fohlin during a rally in which Pro-Palestinian protestors set up an encampment at the Emory Campus in Atlanta, on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Arvin Temkar/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS/ABACAPRESS.COM

Pro-Palestinian student demonstrations and encampments have popped up at dozens of US universities in recent weeks. Columbia University – where protests began – and other elite schools in the Northeast have grabbed plenty of headlines, but where they are facing the harshest pushback – and could ultimately help Republicans win back the White House – is in the South.

Can marijuana save Biden’s reelection campaign?

A cannabis rights activist waves a flag outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 24, 2022.
Alejandro Alvarez/Reuters

The Biden admin. says it’s high time to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, and it wants to knock it from Schedule I to Schedule III — meaning it would no longer be grouped with heroin and LSD.

Palestinian factions talk peace in Beijing

Supporters and armed members of the Fatah movement protest against the Palestinian Hamas government during a rally in Jabalya camp September 22, 2006.
REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Beijing, already a global economic power, wants to cut a larger figure in diplomacy, cultivating an image as a more honest broker than the US, with closer ties to the so-called “Global South.”

The battle over TikTok’s future, explained

TikTok logo on a phone surrounded by the American, Israeli, and Chinese flags.
Jess Frampton

Last Wednesday, as part of the sweeping foreign-aid package that included much-neededfunding for Ukraine’s defense, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill requiring that TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, sell the popular video-sharing app to an American buyer within a year or face a ban in the United States.

Russia and China benefit from US infighting, says David Sanger

Russia And China benefit from US infighting, says David Sanger | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

youtu.be

On GZERO World, Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times correspondent David Sanger argues that China's rise and Russia's aggressive stance signal a new era of major power competition, with both countries fueling instability in the US to distract from their strategic ambitions.

Chaos erupts overnight on US campuses. What’s next for student protesters?

NYPD officers arrive at Columbia University on April 30, 2024, to clear demonstrators from an occupied hall on campus.

John Lamparski/NurPhoto via Reuters

Last night, hundreds of NYPD officers entered Columbia University in riot gear, one night after students occupied a building on campus and 13 days after students pitched an encampment that threw kerosene on a student movement against the war in Gaza.

Israel intent on Rafah invasion despite global backlash

Israel seems intent on Rafah invasion despite global backlash | Ian Bremmer | World In :60

youtu.be

How will the international community respond to an Israeli invasion of Rafah? How would a Trump presidency be different from his first term? Are growing US campus protests a sign of a chaotic election in November? Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.

About UsCareers PressContact Us Privacy PolicyTerms of Use
© 2020 GZERO Media. All Rights Reserved | A Eurasia Group media company.