Hard Numbers: Taiwanese pushback, Kosovo license plates, Indian aircraft carrier, Japan’s war on floppy disks

Hard Numbers: Taiwanese pushback, Kosovo license plates, Indian aircraft carrier, Japan’s war on floppy disks

1: Taiwan shot down Thursday for the first time a suspected Chinese drone flying over one of its outlying islets near the mainland. It's the latest sign that Taipei is now pushing back more forcefully against China's military muscle-flexing around the self-governing island.

50,000: Not now, Kosovo! A week after patching things up with Serbia, the Kosovo government announced Thursday that it'll require some 50,000 ethnic Serbs living there to get Kosovo-issued license plates for their cars. NATO peacekeepers are on alert in case things get ugly.

13: India will unveil Friday its first locally-made aircraft carrier, which took 13 years to build. Delhi wants to become a naval power capable of challenging regional rival China, which boasts the world's largest navy.

1,900: Japan’s government has declared “war” on floppy disks, scrapping a decades-old requirement that they be used as storage devices for more than 1,900 official transactions. Shed a tear for the old floppy if you like, but take heart: it will still live forever as the universal symbol for “save.”

More from GZERO Media

Palestinian children look at rubble following Israeli forces' withdrawal from the area, after Israel and Hamas agreed on the Gaza ceasefire, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 10, 2025.
REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Israel approved the Gaza ceasefire deal on Friday morning, bringing the ceasefire officially into effect. The Israeli military must withdraw its forces to an agreed perimeter inside Gaza within 24 hours, and Hamas has 72 hours to return the hostages.

- YouTube

French President Emmanuel Macron is scrambling to pull France out of a deepening political free fall that’s already toppled five prime ministers in two years. Tomorrow he’ll try again—and this time, says Eurasia Group’s Mujtaba Rahman, the fifth pick might finally stick.

In these photos, emergency units carry out rescue work after a Russian attack in Ternopil and Prikarpattia oblasts on December 13, 2024. A large-scale Russian missile attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure left half of the consumers in the Ternopil region without electricity, the Ternopil Regional State Administration reported.
U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in a welcoming ceremony with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, November 9, 2017.
REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

China has implemented broad new restrictions on exports of rare earth and other critical minerals vital for semiconductors, the auto industry, and military technology, of which it controls 70% of the global supply.