Hard Numbers: The Spaniards are Going Home

89: In South Korea, 89% of consumer payments are now cashless, and paper money is becoming increasingly rare in Chinese cities. Here's an interesting look at what happens when cash disappears.

47 million: Spain's population grew in 2018 to 47 million, its highest point ever. The growth comes from an influx of migrants from North Africa but also from other European countries. In addition, the number of Spaniards returning home last year topped those who left the country for the first time in at least seven years. This population surge is fueled in part by a national economic growth rate that's forecast at double the Eurozone average in 2019.

76: According to a new survey from Gallup, 76% of US adults say immigration is good for the country — the highest figure to date by just one percentage point. But 23% say immigration is the country's most important problem — also the highest figure ever by one point.

0: The masses headed for this weekend's famed Glastonbury Music Festival are in for a surprise. Just two years ago, the Glastonbury crowd consumed one million plastic bottles. This year, that number will be zero as event organizers take the festival green. No word yet on what all those people will be drinking from.

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2024 04 04 E0819 Quick Take CLEAN FINAL

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: On the back of the Israeli Defense Forces strike killing seven members of aid workers for the World Central Kitchen, their founder, Chef Jose Andres, is obviously very angry. The Israelis immediately apologized and took responsibility for the act. He says that this was intentionally targeting his workers. I have a hard time believing that the IDF would have wanted to kill his workers intentionally. Anyone that's saying the Israelis are only to blame for this—as well as the enormous civilian death toll in this war–I strongly disagree.

President Joe Biden pauses during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023.
Miriam Alster/REUTERS

Biden told Netanyahu that the humanitarian situation in Gaza and strikes on aid workers were “unacceptable,” the White House readout of the call said.

Commander Shingo Nashinoki, 50, and soldiers of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB), Japan's first marine unit since World War Two, take part in a military drill as U.S. Marines observe, on the uninhabited Irisuna island close to Okinawa, Japan, November 15, 2023.
REUTERS

Given the ugly World War II history between the two countries, that would be a startling development.

Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko listens to the presidential candidate he is backing in the March 24 election, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, as they hold a joint press conference a day after they were released from prison, in Dakar, Senegal March 15, 2024.
REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

Newly inaugurated Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, in his first act in office, appointed his mentor Ousmane Sonko as prime minister on Wednesday.