5,600: France deployed 5,600 police officers and security guards to manage the risk of violence at a soccer match between France and Israel in Paris on Thursday. Pro-Palestinian protests were held nearby, and only minor scuffles were reported from within the stadium, where the match ended in a draw. The police ramp-up was a law enforcement response to violent attacks on Israeli fans last week in Amsterdam.
98: On Wednesday, a man blew himself up in an attempt to attack Brazil's Supreme Court. A former failed candidate for local office, the man had stood for ex-President Jair Bolsonaro’s political party in 2020 and received just 98 votes. The public square near the Supreme Court was also hit by violent protests by Bolsonaro supporters after their candidate lost the last presidential election. A Bolsonaro spokesman responded to the news on X: “There are crazy people everywhere.”
6.5: About 6.5 million people moved legally to the 38 OECD countries in 2023 – a sizable jump from the previous record of 6 million who moved to these countries in 2022.
4,000: South Africa’s government has threatened to “smoke out” about 4,000 illegal miners who are reportedly inside an abandoned mine searching for gold in the country’s North West province.
35: On Sunday, Czechs and Slovaks will mark the 35th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, which ended the 41-year rule of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
$3.5 million: A judge temporarily halted the sale of InfoWars to The Onion after the satirical outlet on Thursday said it had won a bankruptcy auction to acquire the website founded by Alex Jones, a well-known conspiracy theorist. The judge moved to put a hold on the sale until a hearing next week after complaints from Jones and a company linked to him that put in a $3.5 million bid for InfoWars.
