News
Hard Numbers: Yemen peace talks, Ukrainian drone challenge, UAE snubs South Africa, Spanish paleo tripping
Houthi supporters rally in Sana'a to mark the 8th anniversary of the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen.
REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
8: Saudi officials on Sunday met in Yemen's capital, Sana'a, with reps of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Omani mediators in what the UN is framing as the most serious effort yet to end 8 years of proxy civil war in the country. The talks come weeks after bitter rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia buried the diplomatic hatchet, raising hopes for peace in Yemen.
543,000: A Ukrainian fintech bro is offering 20 million hryvnias ($548,000) to whoever launches a drone that flies over and lands in Moscow's Red Square during Russia's Victory Day celebrations on May 9. To qualify for the prize, the drone must be identified with the slogan "Glory to Ukraine" or similar.
2: The UAE unexpectedly rejected South Africa's request to extradite two of the Gupta brothers. Atul and Rajesh Gupta, who enjoyed close ties with disgraced former President Jacob Zuma, are wanted by Pretoria on fraud and money laundering charges. The Emirati thumbs-down is a major blow to current President Cyril Ramaphosa's efforts to hold the Gupta family biz empire accountable for allegedly looting the state under Zuma.
3,000: Spaniards are known to party hard — and, it turns out, they've been tripping longer than anyone else in Europe. New research claims that people in Spain were getting high on hallucinogenic drugs derived from plants 3,000 years ago, the oldest direct evidence of narcotics use on the continent.
In this Quick Take, Ian Bremmer weighs in on the politicization of the Olympics after comments by Team USA freestyle skier Hunter Hess sparked backlash about patriotism and national representation.
100 million: The number of people expected to watch the Super Bowl halftime performance with Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican superstar and newly minted Album of the Year winner at the Grammys.
Brazilian skiers, American ICE agents, Israeli bobsledders – this is just a smattering of the fascinating characters that will be present at this year’s Winter Olympics. Yet the focus will be a different country, one that isn’t formally competing: Russia.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), appeals for a candidate during a street speech of the House of Representatives Election Campaign in Shintomi Town, Miyazaki Prefecture on February 6, 2026. The Lower House election will feature voting and counting on February 8th.
Japanese voters head to the polls on Sunday in a snap election for the national legislature’s lower house, called just three months into Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s tenure.