Hard Numbers: China vs K-pop fans, French terror trial, Americans reject spying, Russian doppelgängers

Hard Numbers: China vs K-pop fans, French terror trial, Americans reject spying, Russian doppelgängers
Members of K-pop boy band BTS pose for photographs during a photo opportunity promoting their new single 'Butter' in Seoul, South Korea, May 21, 2021.
REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

22: Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo has temporarily blocked 22 K-pop fan club accounts for "irrational star-chasing behavior" such as crowdfunding a customized airplane as a birthday gift for one of the members of the super-famous boy band BTS. The suspensions are likely a nod to Beijing's wider crackdown on celebrity obsession among youth.

14: Fourteen men will go on trial on Wednesday in France for their role in the Islamic State attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in November 2015. Most of the accused face life in prison if convicted of aiding the gunmen and suicide bombers. Among them is Salah Abdeslam, the lone surviving attacker, who was later arrested in Belgium and sentenced there to 20 years in prison for other related crimes.

46: As the US prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, 46 percent of Americans polled by the AP say they don't want the US government to prevent terrorist threats by spying on emails sent between people outside the country without a warrant, while 27 percent think it's necessary. A decade ago, 47 percent of Americans supported such surveillance, and only 30 percent were against it.

3: Three Boris Vishnevskys are running for the same seat in the Russian Duma (parliament) for St. Petersburg. They all look alike, but two recently changed their name, and only one is the actual candidate of Yabloko, a liberal party opposed to Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party. Spoilers to confuse voters are nothing new in Russian elections, but doubling down with two doppelgängers is.

More from GZERO Media

Pope Leo XIV presides over a mass at Saint John Lateran archbasilica in Vatican City on November 9, 2025.

VATICAN MEDIA / Catholic Press Photo

It’s been six months since the Catholic Church elected its first American pope, Leo XIV. Since then, the Chicago-born pontiff has had sharp words for US President Donald Trump.

Behind every scam lies a story — and within every story, a critical lesson. Anatomy of a Scam, takes you inside the world of modern fraud — from investment schemes to impersonation and romance scams. You'll meet the investigators tracking down bad actors and learn about the innovative work being done across the payments ecosystem to protect consumers and businesses alike. Watch the first episode of Mastercard's five-part documentary, 'Anatomy of a Scam,' here.

- YouTube

On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer breaks down how the US and China are both betting their futures on massive infrastructure booms, with China building cities and railways while America builds data centers and grid updates for AI. But are they building too much, too fast?

Elon Musk attends the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide, Germany, March 22, 2022.
Patrick Pleul/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

$1 trillion: Tesla shareholders approved a $1-trillion pay package for owner Elon Musk, a move that is set to make him the world’s first trillionaire – if the company meets certain targets. The pay will come in the form of stocks.

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz walk after a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), in Belem, Brazil, on November 7, 2025.
REUTERS/Adriano Machado

When it comes to global warming, the hottest ticket in the world right now is for the COP30 conference, which runs for the next week in Brazil. But with world leaders putting climate lower on the agenda, what can the conference achieve?