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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky walks outside No. 10 Downing Street in London, ahead of a bilateral meeting with British PM Rishi Sunak.
Hard Numbers: Zelensky goes to London, French protesters at it again, Korea compensates Vietnam victim, Brazilian wildcats seek help, Russian vodka in Africa
20,000: The UK military will train an additional 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers in 2023, British PM Rishi Sunak announced during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit on Wednesday, his first trip to London since the Russian invasion almost a year ago. The UK is expanding its training program to cover pilots to fly fighter jets, which Zelensky is desperate to get his hands on despite NATO resistance and Sunak's own reservations.
3: It’s an encore of the encore. French trade unions have now led three waves of strikes against proposals to raise the retirement age. Tuesday’s walkouts hit public transport, schools, and oil refineries. The government wants most French people to retire at 64 instead of 62 — why is that so contentious? Read more here.
30 million: For the first time, South Korea will compensate a Vietnamese victim of atrocities carried out by Korean forces that fought alongside the US in Vietnam. Nguyen Thi Thanh, who survived a massacre of civilians, will receive 30 million won (about $24,000.)
20,000: As many as 20,000 illegal “wildcat” miners who have occupied — and allegedly terrorized – an indigenous reservation in northern Brazil are asking the government to help them leave ahead of a planned military operation to evict them.
15: A Russian-owned distillery in the Central African Republic produces packets of Wa Na Wa vodka for 15 cents apiece. This is just a small example of a vast economic, military, and cultural push by the Kremlin to win friends and influence people across sub-Saharan Africa.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman sign a joint declaration on migrants in Paris.
Hard Numbers: UK-France migration deal, Amazon layoffs, Gabon's carbon credit mega-sale, North Korean crypto windfall, Lake's loss
8 million: The UK will pay France 8 million pounds ($9.4 million) more per year to beef up patrols to stop migrants on small boats from crossing the English Channel to reach British shores. London and Paris have long tussled over how to combat the human-trafficking gangs that control the route, while tens of thousands of asylum-seekers wait years to get their applications processed.
10,000: Following earlier mass layoffs at Twitter and Meta, now Amazon reportedly plans to cut up to 10,000 workers, the largest job cut in the tech giant's history. The news came out on the same day that Amazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos announced he'll give most of his immense fortune to charity.
90 million: Not everything is doom and gloom at COP27. In the coming weeks, the densely forested West African nation of Gabon plans to sell a whopping 90 million carbon credits, roughly the same amount issued globally in 2021. If oil-rich Gabon makes a killing from its sale, perhaps other developing countries might follow its example of pursuing sustainable growth over fossil fuels.
1 billion: North Korean hackers are estimated to have swiped roughly $1 billion from crypto exchanges in the first three quarters of the year. Where did the money go? No surprise: to fund Kim Jong Un's ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
0.8: Almost a week after the US midterm elections, MAGA icon Kari Lake lost the Arizona gubernatorial race to her Democratic rival, Katie Hobbs. Lake — part of a slate of Trump-backed election deniers running this year — did not immediately concede despite trailing Hobbs by an insurmountable 0.8% of the vote in a battleground state for 2024.
This was featured in Signal, the daily politics newsletter of GZERO Media. For smart coverage of global affairs that normal people can understand, subscribe here.