☰
HomeLiving Beyond BordersGZERO WorldSignalIn 60 SecondsPuppet RegimeGZERO World PodcastContact UsAbout UsCareersPrivacy PolicyTerms

Hard Numbers: COVAX delivery, Beijing’s billionaires, Belfast burns, a global seed cartel

April 08, 2021
Carlos Santamaria
Hard Numbers: COVAX delivery, Beijing’s billionaires, Belfast burns, a global seed cartel
Workers offload AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID vaccines under the COVAX schemeat the Aden Abdulle Osman Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia.
REUTERS/Feisal Omar

38.4 million:COVAX announced on Thursday it has delivered almost 38.4 million doses of COVID vaccines in its six weeks distributing jabs across the developing world. The rollout has so far been slowed by supply constraints from India, major producer of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the main jab for COVAX.

100: Beijing added 33 billionaires to its roster in 2020 and now has 100, beating New York by one to have the most of any city in the world today. China's recent wealth boom has been spurred by its quick containment of COVID, a soaring stock market, and a pandemic-fueled global surge in online shopping for Chinese-made goods.

55: At least 55 cops were injured Wednesday night in clashes between Catholic and Protestant protesters in Belfast. Northern Ireland has seen sporadic street violence since the 1998 Good Friday Agreements put an end to decades of sectarian bloodshed in Ulster. The latest riots derive in part from local tensions over post-Brexit trade rules.

4: Four multinational corporations — Bayer, Corteva, ChemChina, and Limagrain — currently control more than half of the world's seeds. UN food and agriculture agencies warn that this cartel has an outsize influence over the global food supply because it prevents farmers from buying and selling seeds freely.

More from GZERO Media

What’s up with Trump’s criminal cases now that he’s president-elect?

Former President Donald Trump attends court during closing arguments in his civil business fraud trial at the New York Supreme Court on Jan. 11, 2024.
John Nacion/NurPhoto via Reuters

Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election puts the country in an unprecedented position. He’s the first convicted felon to win the presidency and was elected to the nation’s highest office while facing multiple criminal cases at the federal and state level. What will happen to these criminal proceedings?

Should we rethink the global aging crisis?

- YouTube

youtu.be

The world is quietly being reshaped by a demographic time bomb: Birthrates are plummeting, and the global population is rapidly aging. By 2050, one in six people will be over 65. While the overall population is still increasing—driven by growth in developing countries like Nigeria and Pakistan—experts predict it will peak in about 60 years. The shift to depopulation will have huge implications for the future of work, healthcare, and retirement. So what can we do about it? On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer breaks down the different strategies governments are using to try to get people to have more kids, particularly in East Asia, where the population crisis is severe.

In the Philippines, women are growing a forest — and financial resilience

Mastercard

The Puerto Princesa Forest Restoration Initiative is a project to plant more than 400,000 seedlings to restore Palawan forests destroyed by Super Typhoon Odette in the Philippines. It’s part of a larger global effort by the Priceless Planet Coalition, launched by Mastercard with Conservation International and the World Resources Institute, to fund the restoration of 100 million trees around the world. These projects extend beyond carbon sequestration — they’re aimed at creating economic opportunities for women in the region, enabling them to better provide for their families. Read more about how many local women and community members are leading the charge on nursery construction, maintenance, and seedling production.

The global population is aging. Is the world prepared?

- YouTube

youtu.be

Listen: The world is on the brink of one of the most fundamental demographic shifts in modern human history: populations are getting older, and birth rates are plummeting. By 2050, one in six people on Earth will be over 65, which will have a huge impact on the future of work, healthcare, and social security. On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Jennifer Sciubba, President & CEO of the Population Reference Bureau, to discuss declining fertility, the aging crisis, and why government efforts all over the world to get people to have more babies don’t seem to be working.

Trump’s Cabinet picks set up likely battle with GOP Senate

Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz speaks at a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump in Henderson, Nevada U.S. October 31, 2024.
REUTERS/Mike Blake

President-elect Donald Trump’s unconventional picks for a number of important Cabinet positions in his second administration have set him on a collision course with the GOP-led Senate.

Germany rejects Russian natural gas shipments

Accompanied by tugs, the LNG tanker "Hellas Diana" transports a cargo of LNG to the "Deutsche Ostsee" energy terminal.
Stefan Sauer/Reuters

While other countries in Europe still import small amounts of Russian LNG under long-term contracts, the EU broadly is looking to import more of the stuff from the growing American market.

About UsCareers PressContact Us Privacy PolicyTerms of Use
© 2020 GZERO Media. All Rights Reserved | A Eurasia Group media company.