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Hard Numbers: Judge reverses federal workers firings, Battling Chinese obesity, Haitian capital overrun by gangs, Belarusian charged with sabotage in Poland

Laid-off U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) probationary employee Juliane Alfen reacts after USAID workers cleared out their desks and collected personal belongings, during a sendoff in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 27, 2025.]

Laid-off U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) probationary employee Juliane Alfen reacts after USAID workers cleared out their desks and collected personal belongings, during a sendoff in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 27, 2025.]

REUTERS/Nathan Howard
By Willis Sparks,
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.
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Riley Callanan
Riley Callanan

Riley is a writer and reporter for GZERO. When she isn’t writing about global politics, you can find her making GZERO’s crossword puzzles, conducting research on American politics, or persisting in her lifelong quest to learn French. Riley spends her time outside of work grilling, dancing, and wearing many hats (both literally and figuratively).

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March 13, 2025

6: A federal judge on Thursday ordered six federal agencies to rehire thousands of workers with probationary status who had been fired from the Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy and Interior Departments as part of DOGE’s efforts to downsize the government. Probationary employees have worked at their agencies for less than 1-2 years and have fewer workplace protections. However, the judge said the Office of Personnel Management overstepped because only the agencies themselves have hiring and firing powers.

900 million: Experts say that by 2030, nearly 900 million Chinese, about two-thirds of the country, will be overweight or obese. For now, Western pharmaceutical companies are profiting from this trend, but Chinese drugmakers are scrambling to catch up.

85: Criminal gangs now control some 85% of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, according to a UN human rights expert. Violence in the city’s Carrefour Feuilles neighborhood this week saw homes pillaged and set alight. Since 2020, gang wars in Haiti have driven more than 1 million people from their homes.

908,000: On Wednesday, authorities in Poland charged a Belarusian with espionage and sabotage on behalf of Russia for an arson attack on a large retail store in Warsaw last year. The vandalism, which caused damage estimated at 3.5 million zlotys ($908,000), is one of several arson attacks in Poland and other nearby countries that have been linked to Russia.

federal judge orderrehire probationary workers

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Hard Numbers: Kenya restarts railroad project without China, South Africans return from Ukraine war, the rapper who wants to run Nepal, Russians say things are going well
$4 billion: The amount Kenya wants to raise in order to complete a partially built railway line that was abandoned in 2019. The project, which will link Nairobi with South Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya, came to a halt after initial funding from China dried up. This time around, Kenya wants to finance the project itself, through new import tariffs, [...]

Hard Numbers: Gunfight on Cuba’s shores, Thousands die taking perilous migration routes, Hong Kong democracy activist wins one appeal, Greenland spat boosts Danish incumbents

​People approach the entrance of the Provincial Clinical-Surgical Hospital "Arnaldo Milian Castro" in Santa Clara, Cuba, on February 25, 2026.

People approach the entrance of the Provincial Clinical-Surgical Hospital "Arnaldo Milian Castro," where, according to local information, injured people were being treated after an armed incident involving a Florida-registered speedboat and a Cuban patrol, at a time of heightened tensions with the United States, in Santa Clara, Cuba, on February 25, 2026.

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10: The number of Cubans who took a Florida-registered speedboat to Cuba’s coast on Wednesday before engaging in a gunfight with border troops from the communist-run island. Four of them died in the shootout. All 10 reportedly resided in the United States. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the incident was not part of a US government operation. [...]

Hard Numbers: China’s mass military purge, Louvre director quits, South Korea’s fertility rate inches up, Trump’s record SOTU speech

​He Weidong, Zhang Youxia, and Li Shangfu swear oaths as they are selected as China's Central Military Commission members during the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on March 11, 2023.

He Weidong, Zhang Youxia, and Li Shangfu swear oaths as they are selected as China's Central Military Commission members during the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on March 11, 2023.

The Yomiuri Shimbun
100: The estimated number of senior officials who’ve been sidelined or have disappeared from China’s military since 2022, according to a study released on Tuesday. According to analysts, those swept up in President Xi Jinping’s purge of his armed forces make up roughly half of the top military leadership. [...]

Hard Numbers: Mexican cartel uprisings leave dozens dead, Another prominent UK leader arrested over Epstein investigations, Trump leaves door open to tariff negotiations, South Sudan’s leader fires another finance minister

​Members of the Mexican army stand guard at a roundabout on a main avenue in Guadalajara, Mexico, on February 23, 2026.

Members of the Mexican army stand guard at a roundabout on a main avenue, following a military operation in which Mexican officials said cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera, "El Mencho," was killed in Jalisco state, in Guadalajara, Mexico, on February 23, 2026.

REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
62: The number of people killed – including 25 Mexican National Guard members and 34 suspected gang members – in the nationwide chaos that erupted following a military operation that killed one of Mexico’s most powerful cartel leaders, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, on Sunday. President Claudia Sheinbaum deployed 2,000 troops to Jalisco state, [...]