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Rescue and search operations continue in Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 28, 2025, following Russian strikes on the capital city overnight.
Hard Numbers: Russia strikes Kyiv’s residential areas, Shooting at Minneapolis school mass, Soccer giants dumped out of cup, US economy rolls on
19: A series of Russian strikes in residential areas of Kyiv last night left at least 19 people dead, with one of the bombs hitting a European Union office. These weren’t the only attacks on Ukraine overnight: Russian artillery and drones killed another five Ukrainian civilians in the southern and eastern parts of the country. Two weeks since the Alaska summit, peace looks further away than ever.
2: A gunman murdered two children – a six-year-old and a 15-year-old – and injured another 17 when he unloaded his rifle yesterday during a school mass in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The 23-year-old perpetrator, who is now also dead, was a former student of the school. “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said after the horrific shooting.
13: Thirteen is unlucky for some: soccer giants Manchester United missed their 13th spot kick in last night’s penalty shootout against Grimsby Town, a team in the fourth tier of English football, to crash out of the League Cup last night. The financial disparity between the two clubs is enormous: United’s revenue last year was £620 million, while Grimsby’s was £5.72 million.
3.3%: The US economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.3% – up from an initial 3% estimate – led by a 5.7% jump in business investment. Consumer spending rose modestly, while rising exports added up to record gains.
Rethinking the refugee crisis and global aid system, with David Miliband
Listen: The number of people forced to flee their homes because of war, persecution, humanitarian disaster or political collapse topped 123 million people in 2024. That’s double what it was just 10 years ago. Yet just as the need has exploded, the global aid system is unraveling. On the GZERO World Podcast, David Miliband, president & CEO of the International Rescue Committee sits down with Ian Bremmer to discuss the growing crisis as the number of refugees continues to rise and the US, once the anchor of the global aid system, shuts down USAID and drastically pulls back foreign funding.
Miliband says we’re facing “a new abnormal,” with 275 million people facing humanitarian emergencies in 20 countries in crisis. The vast majority of displaced people are hosted in low and middle income countries, meaning the world’s poorest and most under-resourced places are shouldering a disproportionately high share of the burden. Miliband and Bremmer discuss the worsening humanitarian situation in places like Sudan and Gaza, the impact of US aid cuts, whether any nation or group of nations can fill the void, and where Miliband sees glimmers of hope amid so many intractable problems.
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're publishedA woman walks past the peace wall that separates neighborhoods of Belfast, United Kingdom, on September 30, 2019.
Twenty years since the IRA put down its guns: What’s changed in Northern Ireland?
Twenty years ago, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) agreed to lay down its weapons and end the armed campaign to achieve a united Ireland free of British rule. The move came 11 years after an initial ceasefire in Northern Ireland, and seven years after the Good Friday Agreement that brought an end to the Troubles, a decades-long conflict between Irish nationalists and supporters of the union with Great Britain, which killed roughly 3,600 people.
“Dozens, if not hundreds, of people are alive today that perhaps wouldn’t be if this violence had continued,” former US special envoy to Northern Ireland Mitchell Reiss told GZERO.
As other militant groups around the world explore or proceed with disarmament – such as the Kurdish PKK in Turkey or, perhaps one day, Hezbollah in Lebanon – the peace that has held in Northern Ireland ever since the IRA’s disarmament shows what can be achieved if paramilitary groups drop their weapons. However, it also offers a cautionary tale: peace is one thing, but harmony is another.
So how has Northern Ireland fared over the past two decades?
First, the good news. The bloodshed has stopped, even as the PIRA didn’t achieve its goal of uniting the island of Ireland – Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom. While there are regular displays of pride by nationalists, and unionists alike, these events are relatively peaceful. Gone are the car bombings, killings, and abductions that ignited fear across the country throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
What’s happened to the IRA? The Provisional IRA has officially demilitarized and pledged to pursue its aims peacefully, with the help of nationalist political parties like Sinn Fein.
While police believe parts of the armed grouping still exist, their influence, along with that of several other offshoot nationalist paramilitary groups, is limited. They may oppose the “promise of the Good Friday Agreement,” says Reiss, but “the good news is that they are generally small in number. They are marginalized.”
What the disarmament hasn’t achieved. First, Northern Irish society remains deeply divided. If you take a walk down the Shankhill Road in Belfast, you’ll see shopfronts lined with unionist memorabilia and odes to the late Queen. Meanwhile Falls Road, only a few hundred yards away, is still festooned with the Irish tricolor and monuments to slain nationalist fighters. Police still shut off access between the two roads at night as a precaution.
Secondly, while the IRA put down its weapons, the opposing Protestant paramilitary groups – like Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force – never had to do the same.. Though their influence isn’t as widespread as it was during the height of the Troubles, they continue to function as criminal gangs, exerting a corrosive effect of their own on Northern Irish society.
“For the last eight years, I’ve been talking to these [Protestant paramilitaries],” says Reiss “trying to see if we can achieve the same goal with them that we did with the IRA, that they could put weapons beyond use and commit to a purely political and peaceful way forward.”
Lastly there’s the continued dysfunction of the Northern Irish government. Under the GFA, there has to be a power-sharing agreement between the nationalists and unionists for the Northern Irish Assembly to function. However, the two sides have regularly failed to form a government, with impasses often lasting years.
None of this changes the significance of the achievement. If the number of people killed during the Troubles was projected proportionally onto the United States, the numbers would be akin to the American Civil War, notes Reiss, underlining the hostilities between the nationalist and unionist factions of Northern Ireland, and thus the challenge in achieving peace.
“Is it better than it was? Absolutely. Is progress continuing to be made? Absolutely. Do we need to do more? Absolutely,” says Reiss. “But Northern Ireland is fundamentally transformed from the way it was 20 years ago.”
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer as they sign a free trade agreement at the Chequers Estate, United Kingdom, on July 24, 2025.
Hard Numbers: UK-India trade deal signed, Zelensky backs down on anti-corruption move, Columbia settles with Trump, Togo protests escalate, & Trump’s name reportedly makes an Epstein file cameo
£6 billion: India and the United Kingdom formally signed a trade deal worth £6 billion ($8.1 billion). Under the deal, first announced in May, India will drop its tariffs on UK cars and whisky imports, while the UK will reduce barriers to imports of Indian textiles and jewelry. The agreement also includes efforts to tackle illegal migration.
2: After two days of protests in Kyiv against a government decision to subsume independent anti-corruption bodies, President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to retreat on the move, approving new legislation that would preserve these agencies’ independence. Zelensky’s decision came after he received advice on the matter from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
5: At least five demonstrators have died in Togo in recent weeks amid protests against long-time leader Faure Gnassingbé’s successful effort to circumvent constitutional term limits and remain in power. The Togolese leader had occupied the role of president, but has now adopted a new role as the all-powerful prime minister. More protests are expected Friday.
$221 million: Columbia University will pay fines of $221 million in a settlement with the Trump administration over allegations that the school failed to prevent the harassment of Jewish students. The elite school also pledged to stop using race as a factor in admissions and hiring. In exchange, the government will restore hundreds of millions of dollars in suspended research funding.
300: President Donald Trump’s name reportedly appears somewhere in the Justice Department’s 300 gigabyte trove of Jeffery Epstein investigation documents and, according to the Wall Street Journal, Trump knows it, having heard directly from Attorney General Pam Bondi in May. Separately, DOJ officials are interviewing Epstein sidekick Ghislaine Maxwell in Florida today.Syrian residents in Madrid have gathered in Puerta del Sol to celebrate the fall and end of the government of President Bashar al-Assad in the Arab country on December 14, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Spain top destination for asylum seekers, Pakistan’s deadly monsoons, babies born with three DNA’s, & more
12,800: Spain replaced Germany in May as the top destination in the European Union for asylum seekers, receiving 12,800 applications that month. Germany had 9,900 asylum applicants, down from 18,700 in the same period last year, as Berlin tries to stem the influx of Syrian nationals – who represent the largest of asylum seekers – following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
69: At least 69 people have died in a fire at a shopping mall in the city of al-Kut in eastern Iraq. The origin of the fire is not yet known, but initial analysis of the site suggests that it started on the floor where cosmetics and perfumes are sold.
8: In a major scientific breakthrough, 8 UK babies were made using DNA from three people rather than two. The approach, which uses the egg and sperm from a mom and a dad along with a second egg from a donor woman, is meant to prevent a deadly mitochondrial disease. Most DNA still comes from the two parents, with just 0.1% from the second egg donor.
69: A Reuters/Ipsos poll found 69% of Americans believe the Trump administration is hiding information about Jeffrey Epstein’s clients. Just 6% disagreed, while about 25% were unsure. President Donald Trump had pledged to release more information, but now is trying to shift the conversation elsewhere.
British soldiers with NATO-led Resolute Support Mission arrive at the site of an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan March 6, 2020.
Hard Numbers: Secret British plan resettles Afghans, More Palestinians die at aid sites, US AIDS relief lives on, robots take the field, & more
19,000: According to a BBC report, the personal details of 19,000 Afghans who had applied to move to the United Kingdom following the 2021 Taliban takeover were leaked in February 2022. The government learned of the data breach in August 2023 and created a secret resettlement scheme for those affected, as it was deemed they were at risk of harm by the Taliban. Under the program, 4,500 Afghans have relocated to the UK.
20: At least 20 Palestinians were killed in a stampede at an aid distribution site operated by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund on Wednesday. The UN says at least 875 people have lost their lives in the past six weeks alone while trying to access aid at these sites, with the majority reportedly gunned down by Israeli security forces. While Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians, it has said it is investigating the incidents.
$400 million: US Republican senators reached a budget deal on Tuesday that will preserve the $400-million President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program, which helps to stem the spread of HIV in more than 50 countries and has reportedly saved 26 million lives. President Donald Trump had previously frozen funding for PEPFAR as part of his foreign-aid freeze.
2: A US citizen, Daniel Martindale, who spent more than two years spying on Ukrainian troops for Russia was awarded citizenship by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Martindale reportedly biked from Poland to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in 2022, and surveyed key military positions and facilities from a Ukrainian village near the front line.
4: Our new robot umpire overlords have arrived! Last night’s Major League Baseball All-Star game – a meaningless but fun contest between the sport’s biggest stars – featured a trial system allowing players to appeal to a computerized system to challenge ball-and-strike calls made by human umps. Four out of the five challenges in the game were successful. The system could be introduced in meaningful games at the Major League level as soon as next season. Do we want this?
Riot police officers fire tear gas canisters to disperse demonstrators during anti-government protests dubbed “Saba Saba People’s March,” in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru, Kenya, on July 7, 2025.
What We’re Watching: Kenya’s president cracks down further, UK and France open an atomic umbrella, Trump meddles in Brazil
Ruto orders police to shoot looters as Kenya protest escalate
Amid ongoing anti-government protests, Kenyan President William Ruto has ordered police to shoot looters in the legs. The order is meant to stop attacks on businesses, but could lead to more casualties after 31 people were killed on Monday alone. The youth-led protesters want Ruto to resign over high taxes, corruption allegations, and police brutality. According to Mercy Kaburu, a professor of international relations at United States International University in Nairobi, Ruto’s government “is not at risk of collapse before the next general election” which is set for 2027. But, she cautions, he “could be threatened if nothing changes.”
United Kingdom and France to open their nuclear umbrella
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron signed a landmark deal aimed Thursday at restricting the flow of migrants across the English Channel. But the cross-channel agreement that may draw more attention globally is a pledge from Europe’s only two nuclear-armed nations to extend their nuclear umbrellas to allies on the continent who face an “extreme threat.” This is a big step toward “common European defense” at a time when Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and uncertainty about the US long-term commitment to NATO have prompted more urgent action in Europe.
Trump uses tariffs to meddle in Brazil
US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the US will slap 50% on Brazil starting on August 1. The reason? Trump blasted Brazil for its “unfair” treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro, a rightwing firebrand and close Trump ally who is currently on trial for allegedly plotting to overturn the 2022 Brazilian election. Trump also cited an “unsustainable” US trade deficit with Brazil, though official data show the US actually runs a small trade surplus with Latin America’s largest economy. Brazil’s leftwing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, reportedly blindsided by the announcement, has vowed to respond with reciprocal measures.
See below for Ian Bremmer’s Quick Take on what Trump’s move really means.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves (right) crying as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, London, United Kingdom, on July 2, 2025.
UK PM’s freefall is a warning to centrists
A week is a long time in politics, so the expression goes. A year? Well that must feel like a lifetime – especially for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
It was just over one year ago that Starmer took up residence at 10 Downing Street. With a 174-seat majority in parliament, and the opposition Conservatives in shambles after their worst election ever, the new Labour PM seemed ready to hit the ground running with a center-left agenda of better healthcare, lower immigration, and economic growth that benefits everyone.
He’s stumbled out of the starting blocks.
Just last week Starmer suffered a ringing defeat on a key agenda item, failing to pass welfare reforms that would have saved a mere £5.5 billion ($7.5 billion) by 2030 – just a small fraction of the overall government deficit. Members of the prime minister’s own party had objected to the cuts to disability benefits. To make matters worse, Starmer’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves was seen crying in the House of Commons after the government had to gut key provisions of the legislation.
The debacle reflected larger problems for the prosecutor-turned-politician. Starmer has failed to revive the UK’s long-sputtering economy, struggled to make good on a promise to stop illegal migrant crossings by boat from mainland Europe (they are actually rising), and had little-to-no effect on long waits for National Health Service appointments and treatments. These issues have overshadowed the prime minister’s successes elsewhere, notably the trade deals with the US and India.
The result: the Labour Party is now polling at just 24%, and Starmer’s net approval rating is a crushing -40.
“I think of him more as a barrister than a politician,” Lord Gavin Barwell, who was former Prime Minister Theresa May’s chief of staff, told GZERO. “You deal with issues sequentially, like a barrister deals with one case at a time, [but then] you don’t have any kind of overall narrative about what the government is for.”
To be fair to Starmer, he inherited some of his troubles from his predecessors. The UK’s challenging fiscal situation and the turbulent international environment would be hard for any prime minister to address within a year. What’s more, while the Conservatives are in the wilderness, there is a resurgent opposition group in the form of Nigel Farage’s nativist Reform UK. It is now polling ahead of both Labour and the Tories, the two parties that have held a duopoly on power in the UK for nearly a century.
Even so, the prime minister has often been his own worst enemy. Polling data from the opinion-research firm Early Studies suggests the government’s priorities haven’t aligned with those of the voters, especially when it comes to cost of living – 15% of voters said it’s their top concern, making it the biggest singular issue of all, yet it attracts just 1% of parliamentary attention. What’s more, Starmer’s communication with Labour backbenchers has been lacking, so rebellions – like the one on the welfare bill – occur more frequently than they should.
“I've heard from a few Labour MPs that they've never spoken to him,” says Jon Nash, a fellow at the London-based think tank Demos. “It does feel like there’s a bad level of organization within the party.”
Ominous signs for centrists. Starmer’s struggles highlight a broader issue that centrist parties across the world face: they tend to work too methodically and timidly within a system that a growing number of voters think is broken, all-the-while focusing on short-term issues while glossing over longer-term ones. The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change conducts focus groups in most major Western democracies, and has found that the public’s frustrations are broad-based.
“There are these deep systemic trends where basically, voters and non-voters alike, just feel that around them is this pervasive sense of decline,” Ryan Wain, an executive director at TBI, told GZERO. “It’s mainstream politics’s job – I include the center-right in that, as well as the center left – to arrest and reverse that decline.”
And if centrist parties don’t reverse that decline, others are waiting in the wings to take their place, says Jon Nash of Demos.
“That inability to get anything done is what opens up the door to others coming along and saying, ‘Look, we’re going to do things differently. Vote for me, I’m a businessman,’ or, ‘vote for me, I’ll do something radical.’”