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Jeong Bo-mi, 37, and her baby in Seoul, South Korea, April 7, 2016.
Hard Numbers: South Korea's baby money, Cobalt and reproductive issues in the DRC, Egypt gets bailed out, Calif. braces amid storms, New Japanese words hit dictionary
75,000: In South Korea, where the overall fertility rate is expected to plummet to 0.68 this year, significantly lower than the 2.1 deemed essential by the OECD for maintaining a relatively steady population, a construction firm is providing employees with a $75,000 reward for every child they have. This initiative is just one of numerous attention-grabbing incentives being introduced as policymakers and businesses contend with the nation's demographic challenges.
56: A study from NGO’s Rights & Accountability in Development and Afrewatch found 56% of respondents in 25 villages near five major cobalt mines reported serious concerns over related health issues, including miscarriages and birth defects. Cobalt production is critical for electric vehicles and batteries and has ramped up over the past decade fueled by the green energy transition.
8 billion: The International Monetary Fund confirmed Saturday it will more than double the bailout loan it is issuing to Egypt to $8 billion, as Cairo’s economy nears collapse with dwindling foreign reserves and soaring inflation. Egypt secured a similarly sized aid package from the EU as well, which will be disbursed over three years.20 million: Some 20 million West Coasters were facing flood watches thanks to a big storm that slammed the Golden State over the weekend. While much of the state faced up to three inches of rain, the foothills of Southern California were expecting up to six. The havoc came just a week after Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded a state of emergency to 11 counties that struggled with powerful storms in early February.
23: The Oxford English Dictionary added 23 Japanese words in its latest update. More than half of the borrowed words relate to cooking, while a number also relate to art like Kintsugi, an increasingly popular way of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer.
Santa does his holiday shopping
Hard Numbers: Santa sees holiday sales surge, Ukraine scores a win at sea, Catholic monasteries busy brewin’ beer, Opposition candidates cry fraud in Congo
360: As the Ukraine War grinds into a stalemate on land, at sea Kyiv scored a win against Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet when it destroyed a 360 foot warship at port in Russian-occupied Crimea. The successful attack came as Ukrainian officials acknowledged that they had lost the month-long battle to maintain control of the eastern city of Marinka.
13: The Christmas season is a busy time for Catholic monasteries around the world, but especially for 13 Trappist monasteries across Europe, responsible for producing the world’s supply of Trappist beer. Trappist beer – often lauded as the best, as well as the holiest, beer – flies off the monastery’s shelves at Christmas, with the sole UK monastery selling nearly a third of the 105,000 liters it produces each year over the holiday season.
18: The 18 opposition candidates in Democratic Republic of Congo’s presidential election plan to march on the capital city, Kinshasa, on Wednesday over alleged election fraud. Although the official results won’t be released until December 31st, early results show the incumbent Felix Tshisekedi far ahead of his challengers, winning almost 79% of the 6.1 million votes counted so far.Aftermath of a Russian missile strike, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine.
Hard Numbers: Russia's deadly hit in central Ukraine, pandemic money vanishes, AI comes to Jesus, DRC refugee camp attacked, Russian birds on “strike”
10: At least 10 people were killed Tuesday when Russian forces hit a number of civilian buildings in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. An industrial hub, Kryvyi Rih had already been impacted by last week’s dam breach, prompting authorities to instruct residents to consume less water because of a drop in supplies.
400 billion: Did the pandemic lead to the biggest grift in US history? An Associated Press analysis found that at least $400 billion in US federal COVID relief funds were either stolen or lost. That’s about 10% of all US federal pandemic funds, and it’s about equal to the GDP of Hungary or Greece. As Washington scrambled to pump cash to vulnerable businesses and individuals, oversight fell apart – fraudsters posing as dead people even got some of the money.
45: At least 45 people were killed in an attack on an internally displaced persons camp in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Local officials blamed CODECO, a coalition of militias that has frequently attacked IDP camps. The country, wracked by numerous civil conflicts since the 1990s, is home to more than 5 million IDPs, the largest number in Africa.
300: Can there be Deus IN Machina? More than 300 churchgoers in Germany recently attended a sermon – replete with biblical quotes and prayers – led by an AI that was personified by four humanoid avatar “priests” projected on a screen. The AI priests’ creator, a 29-year old Viennese theologian who used ChatGPT, says he wants AI to help human clerics expand their reach and scholarship, not replace them.
82: Incidents in which Russian airliners were damaged by bird strikes have soared 82% so far this year. That’s according to a leaked letter from the head of Russia’s civil aviation service, which warns of “serious problems” in airport functioning (source in Russian). Some experts have suggested war-related shortages of funding, manpower, or equipment could be to blame. But what if the birds are just very pro-Ukrainian?
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to the media in Brussels.
What We're Watching: Macron gets a boost, East Africa trade bloc welcomes DRC
Macron’s Ukraine boost
Less than two weeks before France’s presidential election, incumbent Emmanuel Macron has a nine-point lead ahead of far-right firebrand Marine Le Pen. The war in Ukraine has given Macron a chance to showcase his statesman bonafides, boosting his lead in the polls. He has spoken with Vladimir Putin many times over the past month and is trying to coordinate a humanitarian corridor for residents of Mariupol (though that seems to have failed). Macron’s critics say he’s used the war to avoid going head to head with rivals on domestic issues. Still, Macron isn’t popular. The centrist is seen by many as an aloof elitist detached from real people’s problems. What’s more, while unemployment is at a 13-year low, soaring food and fuel prices are fueling voter antipathy and, for some, apathy. A recent poll found that only one-third of French voters plan to cast their ballots. But with the left imploding and the far-right remaining divided, Macron wins by default (though the second-round runoff with Le Pen could be much closer than their 2017 face-off).
DRC joins East African economic bloc
The Democratic Republic of Congo was admitted on Tuesday into the East African Community, the regional economic bloc. Once lawmakers ratify accession, DRC’s citizens will be able to travel visa-free to the other six members — Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda — while most tariffs will be lifted for most DRC products. The EAC, in turn, theoretically gains access to the Atlantic Ocean via a tiny strip of DRC land, as well as the DRC’s 90 million people and natural resources. But there are two big problems. First, the DRC urgently needs to upgrade its road and rail networks. Second, and more importantly, the DRC government must do a much better job on security. Last December, it asked Ugandan troops to help combat the Allied Democratic Forces, one of several rebel groups operating in the resource-rich eastern part of the country. On Monday, DRC forces clashed with M23 militants, which a decade ago controlled swaths of Kivu province but have since mostly retreated to neighboring Rwanda and Uganda (which the DRC and UN have accused of supporting the rebels).
What We're Watching: DRC's Ebola outbreak, Russia's referendum, Netanyahu's annexation push
DRC's new Ebola wave: On the verge of eradicating an Ebola outbreak in the country's east which began back in 2018, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has now identified a fresh wave of cases in the northwestern city of Mbandaka. The disease, which has a fatality rate of 25 – 90 percent depending on the outbreak's character, has already killed five people in recent weeks, prompting the World Health Organization to issue a grim warning that a surge of new cases could occur there in the coming months. (Ebola has an incubation period of about 21 days.) This comes as the central African country of 89 million also grapples with COVID-19 and the world's largest measles outbreak, which has killed 6,779 people there since 2019. In recent weeks, officials from the World Health Organization predicted that the DRC's deadly Ebola crisis, which has killed 2,275 people since 2018, would soon be completely vanquished.
Russia's referendum is on again: Coronavirus postponed, but couldn't cancel, Vladimir Putin's latest grand plan. Back in April, Russians were supposed to vote on constitutional amendments that would allow Putin to reset the clock on term limits and potentially serve as president until 2036. That vote has now been re-scheduled for July 1, and Putin has good reason to want to hold it ASAP. True, his approval rating remains at 59%, and a credible poll conducted on May 20 found that 44% intended to support the new plan with just 32% opposed. (Others were undecided.) But the health and economic damage inflicted by coronavirus has cut into his popularity enough in recent months to persuade him to act now before his margin becomes embarrassingly narrow. In the end, it's virtually assured that Putin will get the results he wants – state media will see to that. Then all he has to do is keep Russians happy with his leadership for another 16 years.
Netanyahu's annexation push: After staging an unlikely political victory in April, Israel's newly emboldened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he plans to move ahead with contentious plans to annex part of the West Bank starting on July 1. The unilateral move, deemed illegal by most of the international community, has not been coordinated with the Palestinian Authority, who preemptively rebuffed the move and threatened to tear up all agreements with Israeli military forces, crucial to the security of both. But it's not Palestinian misgivings that are holding Netanyahu back from going full steam ahead now – it's the Trump administration. While the US initially showed enthusiasm for the annexation plan, which involves Israel folding 30 percent of the West Bank into its territory, including the Jordan Valley and settlements, American delegates, including Jared Kushner who pioneered President Trump's Mideast peace plan, as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have since waffled on the annexation issue. The political fallout is reverberating throughout the region. Jordan, for example, which has enjoyed a cold peace with Israel for decades, threatened to reassess the peace accord if Netanyahu pushes ahead with the annexation issue.