Hard Numbers: Chipmaking under lockdown, UN veto power questioned, Russian oil for India, crypto CAR

Hard Numbers: Chipmaking under lockdown, UN veto power questioned, Russian oil for India, crypto CAR
Gabriella Turrisi

2/3: Two-thirds of workers at a major semiconductor company in Shanghai haven't gone home since China's largest city locked down a month ago. Xi Jinping won’t let zero-COVID stop Chinese factories from churning out chips to sustain the country's supply while the world is still running low.

5: The tiny European principality of Liechtenstein punched way above its diplomatic weight on Tuesday by getting the UN General Assembly to pass its resolution obliging the five permanent members of the Security Council — China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US — to justify their vetoes. China and Russia were not amused.

26: India has bought some 26 million barrels of Russian oil since the war in Ukraine began — more than it did in all of last year. Why? The Indians, who remain ambivalent on Russia's invasion, are getting it at a steep discount.

2: After El Salvador, the Central African Republic became on Wednesday the world’s second country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Crypto bros must be excited, but it’s certainly a strange move in a country where only a tenth of the population is online.

More from GZERO Media

The clock is ticking on efforts to help halt and reverse biodiversity loss, but there’s still time to help support the animals, plants, and ecosystems that are all necessary for a healthy planet. In order to protect biodiversity — every living organism and ecosystem from microbes to mangroves — citizens, companies, and countries all need to do their part. That’s why the Mastercard-led Priceless Planet Coalition is on a mission to restore 100 million trees and regenerate biodiversity-rich forests. Read more about the Coalition's approach and progress.

- YouTube

Delegates at the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings have been giving rosy outlooks to the press while the cameras are rolling, but GZERO Senior Writer Matthew Kendrick heard a different story in private settings. He told Tony Maciulis that the global outlook depends heavily on US policy continuity — which is highly unlikely under a second Trump administration — and successful efforts in China to revive its own floundering economy.

- YouTube

This week World Bank announced a bold initiative to bridge the gender divide by creating more economic opportunity, broadening female leadership, and reducing gender-based violence in the next 5 years as 2030 approaches.

Matthew Kendrick

When a country hits rock bottom financially, the International Monetary Fund is meant to step in with funds to stabilize the economy without damaging its society — or the gender gap. But studies show that these programs often push women out of work at a disproportionate rate to men as the economy contracts. Matthew Kendrick reports from the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings on a push to build more equitable programs.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attend a farewell ceremony before Putin's departure at an airport in Pyongyang, North Korea June 19, 2024.
Gavriil Grigorov/Reuters

Kyiv says that roughly 12,000 North Korean troops are in Russia, a far greater number than reported by the US, though it remains unclear precisely how many have entered what Ukraine referred to as the “combat zone.”

Supporters of the Georgian Dream party attend a final campaign rally ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Tbilisi, Georgia October 23, 2024.
REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze

Georgian Dream insists the country is still on track to join the EU, as critics accuse the party of pushing Georgia in an increasingly anti-Western, authoritarian direction.

Luisa Vieira

In 2001, a Goldman Sachs economist coined an acronym for the four largest and most promising “emerging market” economies: Brazil, Russia, India, and China became known as the “BRIC” countries.