News
Hard Numbers: Ukraine’s refugee crisis, Germany may keep nuclear plants, Guatemala rejects Sputnik V, Australia hit by “rain bomb”
A family fleeing Russian invasion of Ukraine arrives at a train station in Lviv, Ukraine.
REUTERS/Thomas Peter
660,000: More than 660,000 refugees fled Ukraine in the five days after Russia invaded Ukraine, and half of them have gone to neighboring Poland. The UN estimates that the worsening conflict could force up to 5 million people to flee.
3: Germany says it is looking into extending the lifespan of its three remaining nuclear plants because of uncertainty about the future of energy supplies in Europe. Still, Germany’s energy minister said that reviving the plants, which were set to shut down later this year, won’t help with the 2022-23 winter season because the shutdown is so far advanced.
1 million: Authorities in Guatemala say that 1 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID vaccine are set to expire because large swaths of the population are rejecting the shot. An additional 1.7 million doses of the second Sputnik jab will expire there next month.
10: At least 10 people have been killed by severe flooding in southeastern Australia in an event described as a massive “rain bomb.” Australia has been hit by a range of extreme weather events at least partly linked to climate change in recent years, most notably severe bushfires in 2019-2020 that decimated 74,000 square kilometers of forestry.
Tune in on Saturday, February 14th at 12pm ET/6pm CET for the live premiere of our Global Stage from the 2026 Munich Security Conference, where our panel of experts takes aim at the latest global security challenges.
Think you know what's going on around the world? Here's your chance to prove it.
At the Munich Security Conference, the mood is clear: Europe no longer assumes the United States will lead. In this Quick Take, Ian Bremmer reports from Munich, where this year’s theme, “Under Destruction,” reflects growing anxiety that the US itself is destabilizing the transatlantic alliance it once anchored.
Every year, the Munich Security Conference, the world’s leading forum on international security, releases data that sheds light on how citizens view global risks.