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Hard Numbers: Trump’s big lead,  Russian nationalists and pig heads, a bet on steel and fusion, Taiwan’s new sub, Barbie’s underground Russian adventure

Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks on while his supporters cheer on the day he addresses auto workers as he skips the second GOP debate, in Clinton Township, Michigan, U.S., September 27, 2023.

Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks on while his supporters cheer on the day he addresses auto workers as he skips the second GOP debate, in Clinton Township, Michigan, U.S., September 27, 2023.

REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
Willis Sparks
By Willis SparksSeptember 28, 2023
Willis Sparks
Willis Sparks is a senior editor for GZERO Daily. He is also a Director in the Global Macro practice at Eurasia Group, where he has worked since 2005. He has made speeches on international politics on every continent except Antarctica. Willis holds degrees from Brown University, the Juilliard School, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He also holds an honorary degree from the Moscow Art Theatre School. A native of Macon, Georgia, Willis has worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera. As a child, he declined an opportunity to spend an afternoon riding the Great American Scream Machine, a rollercoaster, with Ronald McDonald, for money. He has never regretted that decision.
See Full Bio

16: Recent polling averages show that Donald Trump leads the combined rest of the GOP presidential field by 16 percentage points.

3: Three prominent Russian military analysts, including one who recently wrote an article calling for the killing of Ukrainian civilians, have discovered severed pig heads outside their homes in recent weeks.

35 million: In an unprecedented step, Nucor, the largest US steelmaker, is working with a nuclear fusion startup on construction of a 500-megawatt fusion power plant that would be placed at one of Nucor’s steel mills by 2030. The company’s $35 million investment is an early bet that steel will eventually be made without carbon emissions.

10: To help deter a potential future Chinese invasion, Taiwan has unveiled its first domestically made submarine. Over time, the island nation’s government wants to build a fleet of 10 submarines and equip them with missiles.

0: In today’s edition, we really wanted to highlight the excitement generated in Russia by underground screenings of the movie Barbie. Unfortunately, we found zero good numbers we could use from the press coverage, some of which you can see here, here, and here.
barbienuclear fusionrussiataiwantrumpus electionhard numbers

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REUTERS/Nir Elias
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​Israa Mukhtar, a witness of the RSF attack in April 2025 on a medical clinic, sits inside a tent in Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan, on June 13, 2025.

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REUTERS/Stringer
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