Hard Numbers: Another quake in Turkey, Israel advances judicial reform, debt interest payments up, North Korea’s “firing range”, Mugabe Jr. busted

A man sits outside after an earthquake in Antakya in Hatay province, Turkey.
A man sits outside after an earthquake in Antakya in Hatay province, Turkey.
REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

3: At least three people died following a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that rocked southern Turkey on Monday, two weeks after a bigger quake killed more than 44,000 people there and in northern Syria. This will likely cause even more human tragedy and make it harder to help the survivors as the blame game continues on the Turkish side of the border and war and politics hamper aid delivery on the Syrian side.

63: With 63 votes in favor, the 120-seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed the first reading of a bill that will allow the government to reform the judiciary. This bill would change the committee that appoints judges and also stops the High Court from striking down the country’s Basic Laws.

13 trillion: Rising interest rates make it more expensive to borrow money — and pay it back. Last year, a group of 58 rich and emerging economies accounting for over 90% of the world's GDP surveyed by The Economist coughed up a whopping $13 trillion in interest payments on their debt, up from $10.4 trillion in 2021.

2: North Korea on Monday fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the Pacific Ocean, with Kim Jong Un's sister warning that Pyongyang might use the region as its "firing range" if the US and South Korea don't back off on plans for joint military drills. Meanwhile, the South Koreans are more openly talking about upping their deterrent capabilities by getting their own nukes.

12,000: A son of Zimbabwe's late strongman Robert Mugabe was arrested for allegedly causing $12,000 in property damage after trashing cars and other property at a party in Harare, the capital. Still, Mugabe Jr. will probably get off with a slap on the wrist since he’s patched things up with Emmerson Mnangagwa, his dad's former right-hand man and top spook, who succeeded him in 2018.

More from GZERO Media

A Russian army soldier walks along a ruined street of Malaya Loknya settlement, which was recently retaken by Russia's armed forces in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Kursk region, on March 13, 2025.

Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

The Russian leader has conditions of his own for any ceasefire with Ukraine, and he also wants a meeting with Donald Trump.

Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of the media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University on June 1, 2024.

REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

The court battle over whether the US can deport Mahmoud Khalil, the 30-year-old Palestinian-Algerian activist detained in New York last Saturday, began this week in Manhattan. Khalil, an outspoken activist for Palestinian rights at Columbia University, was arrested Saturday at his apartment in a university-owned building at Columbia University by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and he is now being held in an ICE detention center in Louisiana.

The Israeli Air Force launched an airstrike on Thursday, targeting a building in the Mashrou Dummar area of Damascus.
(Photo by Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto)

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a residential building on the outskirts of Damascus on Thursday in the latest Israeli incursion into post-Assad Syria.

Lars Klingbeil (l), Chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, and Friedrich Merz, CDU Chairman and Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, talk at the end of the 213th plenary session of the 20th legislative period in the German Bundestag.

Germany’s government is in a state of uncertainty as the outgoing government races to push through a huge, and highly controversial, new spending package before its term ends early this spring.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, a Republican, speaks as the U.S. vice president visits East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., February 3, 2025.
Rebecca Droke/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

On Wednesday, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin redefined the agency’s mission, stating that its focus is to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home, and running a business.”

Paige Fusco

Canada has begun thinking the unthinkable: how to defend against a US attack. It suddenly realizes — far too late – that the 2% GDP goal on defense spending is no longer aspirational but urgent. But what kind of military does it need? To find out, GZERO Publisher Evan Solomon spoke with retired Vice Admiral Mark Norman, the former vice chief of defense staff in Canada and currently a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

The energy transition is one of society’s biggest challenges – especially for Europe’s largest economy – according to a survey commissioned by the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt and undertaken by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research. Sixty percent of those polled believe the energy transition is necessary but have doubts about how it is being implemented. A whopping 63% would like to be more involved in energy-transition decisions affecting their region. The findings strongly suggest that it’s essential to get the public more involved in energy policymaking – to help build a future energy policy that leads to both economic prosperity and social cohesion. Read the full study “Attitudes Toward the Energy Transition” here.