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Commercial vessels wait to pass the Bosphorus strait during a misty morning in Istanbul, Turkey, October 31, 2022.

REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo

Hard Numbers: Grain deal extension woes, FRB rescued, loose Libyan uranium, global coke binge

120 or 60: Although the Black Sea grain deal will almost certainly get extended before it expires Saturday, Russia and Turkey are tussling over how long that extension should be. Ankara — backed by Ukraine and the UN — wants to prolong the agreement for another 120 days, while Moscow is insisting on 60 days, presumably to pressure the West to lift sanctions against certain Russian payment systems.

30 billion: Asian and European stock markets on Friday saw gains hours after a group of 11 big US banks swooped in to rescue First Republic Bank, an embattled regional lender. The banks injected $30 billion into FRB to shore up confidence in the US banking system following the recent collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

2.3: A warlord has recovered an estimated 2.3 metric tons of uranium ore that had gone missing in eastern Libya. The uranium was probably left over from the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s defunct nuclear weapons program.

35: Global cocaine production surged by a whopping 35% in 2020-2021, according to a new UN report. One of the main reasons is that drug cartels have taken over coca-cultivating areas of Colombia previously run by the FARC and are competing to churn out more powder for Americans and Europeans to snort.

A central processing unit (CPU) semiconductor chip is displayed among flags of China and U.S., February 17, 2023.

REUTERS/Florence Lo

What We're Watching: US-China tech race, Ukraine-Russia confusion, Greek train politics, world's most populous "country"

Who's winning the US-China tech race?

China is now ahead of the US in 37 out of 44 types of advanced technology, according to a new report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. These include artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and robotics — all key to winning the race to dominate global tech. Beijing is finally reaping the benefits of decades and vast sums of money invested in scientific research, a priority for Xi Jinping. So, can China declare victory? Not so fast. The study points out that it’s not easy to turn cutting-edge research milestones into manufacturing prowess. In other words, the Chinese might have acquired the technology to make the most advanced quantum computers in the world, but the country still lacks the capacity to mass-produce them at the same quality standards as less powerful American-made models (this applies, for instance, to semiconductors). For now, at least, China is not yet eating America's tech lunch.

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Ukraine war will last as long as Putin is in power | Europe In :60 | GZERO Media

Ukraine war will last as long as Putin is in power

Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics from a slightly chilly Kyiv:

24th of February 2022 is going to redefine the future of Europe. That was one year ago. Putin launched his insane attempt to get rid of Ukraine by military invasion. The verdict so far? Ukraine has really stood up, forming a heroic defense. It's been a strategic failure so far of a massive proportion for Russia and for Mr. Putin. The West has come together, Europe, America. A vote in the UN General Assembly earlier today, 141 nations called for Russia to immediately withdraw its troops from Ukraine. The future? Peace is not imminent. We don't know what's going to be the outcome of the battle, the battlefield is not too far from here, or what is to come. But what we need to do is to secure the future of Ukraine, membership of the European Union, of NATO by one way or the other, and change in Russia. This conflict will go on as long as Mr. Putin sits in the Kremlin. One year has passed, many years lie ahead of us in this part of the world.

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A view shows graves of killed Ukrainian defenders, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a cemetery in Kharkiv, Ukraine January 31, 2023.

REUTERS/Vitalii Hnidyi

Hard Numbers … after a year of war in Ukraine

300,000: Human losses on both sides of the conflict are mounting (and disputed), but there have been a whopping 300,000 military and civilian deaths on both sides, according to high-end estimates.

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Philanthropy's moment to act | UN Foundation's Elizabeth Cousens | GZERO World

Philanthropy's moment to act

Note: This interview appeared as part of an episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, "Inequality isn't inevitable - if global communities cooperate" on January 29, 2023.

It's almost the first anniversary of Russia's war in Ukraine. On March 11, it'll be three years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. And 2022 was the sixth warmest year on record since 1880. We are still dealing with the fallout from all three events. But not equally. Since 2020, the richest 1% of people has accumulated nearly two-thirds of all the new wealth created in the world.

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Why Philanthropic Foundations Need To Spend Money (& Quickly) | GZERO World

Why philanthropic foundations need to spend money (and quickly)

In today's world, where global development needs are high and seismic geopolitical events have turned back the clock on so much progress, UN Foundation President Elizabeth Cousens says its the perfect time for philanthropy to step up.

Indeed, there's a lot more that can be done, Cousens tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.

And philanthropy, she explains, doesn't have to be about greenwashing or PR but rather a way of making things better in many places that have been through more than their fair share in recent years.

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Podcast: Salvaging the world we leave our kids with innovative philanthropy

Listen: Global inequality has reached a level we haven’t seen in our lifetimes and recent geopolitical convulsions have only made things worse. The rich have gotten richer while extreme poverty has exploded. UN Foundation President Elizabeth Cousens thinks it's the perfect time for institutions backed by the 1% to step up. She speaks with Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World podcast about the key role that innovative philanthropy could play to address problems exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, economic fallout from the COVID pandemic, and a warming planet.

Why now? The stakes are so high and the crises so urgent that Cousens sees a window of opportunity for philanthropy to take swift action instead of their traditional long-term approach. When it comes to immediate and deadly problems like famine and flooding, an influx of money could start making a huge difference very quickly.

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 published.

Ukrainians & Russians Should Abide by Human Rights Law | Volker Türk | Global Stage | GZERO Media

Fighting crimes against humanity in a world of crisis

Volker Türk, the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, is surprisingly candid about one of his organization's most famous shortcomings.

The Security Council, which includes Russia as a permanent member, is "dysfunctional" on Ukraine. On the other hand, he adds, the General Assembly has seen a sort of revival in how much it's been able to help the country.

In a Global Stage delegate interview on the ground in Davos, Türk tells Ian Bremmer that believes it is critical that the Ukrainians, just as much as the Russians, abide by international human rights law. And he's been in close contact with the Ukrainian prosecutor general, who assures him he is investigating potential war crimes within his country's military.

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