Hard Numbers: Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh, GOP debate falls flat, Evergrande stock drops, tragedy strikes Iraqi wedding, Commander strikes again

September 27, 2023

Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh region ride in a truck upon their arrival at the border village of Kornidzor, Armenia, September 27, 2023.

REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze

50,000: A torrent of at least 50,000 ethnic Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijani forces occupied the hotly contested enclave last week. The refugees constitute approximately one-third of the pre-war Armenian population. Among those fleeing was Russian-Armenian billionaire Ruben Vardanyan, who Azerbaijan’s border guard service said Wednesday it had arrested.

200,000: A 30-second spot at last night’s Republican debate ran advertisers around $200,000 – not cheap, but less than half the $495,000 the same time slot cost during the first debate. The network clearly expected fewer viewers to tune in for the second round, probably because polls show the lion’s share of GOP voters know they will back Donald Trump.

19: Massive Chinese property developer Evergrande saw its stock price fall 19% on reports that its chairman has been placed under police surveillance. The company has lost an astonishing 99.9% of its value since a 2017 peak and is in the midst of a government-supervised restructuring, fueling fears of liquidation.

100: Over 100 people died and scores more were injured late Tuesday when a fire swept through a wedding party in Qaraqosh, a small town in Iraq's Nineveh region. It is just the latest tragedy to strike the tight-knit community of Assyrian Christians — one of the most ancient ethnic groups in Iraq — which was forced to flee between 2014 and 2017 by the Islamic State.

11: President Joe Biden’s dog Commander has bitten yet another Secret Service agent in the 11th known incident in which the canine has harmed people at the White House. Biden’s other dog, Major, was sent to live with friends in Delaware after displaying similar aggression, but he's not the only president to have had a misbehaving pet: America’s most animal-crazy president, Teddy Roosevelt, notoriously had a badger named Josiah who bit legs constantly – “but never faces,” according to the president’s son Archie.

Hard Numbers: M23 expands territory in DRC, Brazil charges Bolsonaro with coup plot, US housing authority layoffs loom,Turkey arrests hundreds, judge clears DOGE access to student loan info

Police officers stand guard as Congolese youngsters jostle to receive relief food, after fleeing from renewed clashes between M23 rebels and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. February 18, 2025.

REUTERS/Evrard Ngendakumana

100: M23 rebels – a Rwanda-backed militia – took control of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s second-largest city, Bukavu, on Monday.

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Hard Numbers: Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh, GOP debate falls flat, Evergrande stock drops, tragedy strikes Iraqi wedding, Commander strikes again

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“The Taliban’s war is against women,” Fawzia Koofi, former Afghan parliamentarian, and women’s rights activist, told GZERO’s Tony Maciulis on the sidelines of the 2025 Munich Security Conference.

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100: M23 rebels – a Rwanda-backed militia – took control of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s second-largest city, Bukavu, on Monday.

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Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

The latest salvo at Musk from Steve Bannon reflects the sharpening of already rough-edged rivalries within Trump’s circle between hard-core populists and hyper-libertarians.

Argentina’s flamboyant libertarian President Javier Milei is at the center of a cryptocurrency scandal that’s already having legal consequences. Whether there will be political consequences remains to be seen.

"Ransomware attacks surged 252% last year—hospitals, schools, and local governments are paying the price," said Brad Smith, Microsoft vice chair and president, during a Global Stage discussion at the 2025 Munich Security Conference.