HARD NUMBERS: Hamas releases more hostages, Midair collision over Potomac, Stampede kills dozens at Hindu festival, Trump lies about condoms, Oz police thwart antisemitic attack, Menendez goes from golden bars to iron ones

People gather as they watch news coverage on the day of the release of hostages held in Gaza since the deadly October 7 2023 attack, as part of a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, in Tel Aviv, January 30, 2025.
REUTERS/Shir Torem

3: In the third exchange of prisoners since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal was inked, Hamas is set to release three Israeli hostages and five unnamed Thai hostages on Thursday. Israel, in turn, will release 110 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails. Nearly a third of the remaining 26 Israeli hostages that Hamas is set to release as part of the first phase of the Jan. 19 ceasefire deal are dead, according to Israeli officials.

19: A commercial airliner collided with a military helicopter in Washington, DC, as it was coming in to land at Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night. The craft, carrying 4 crew members and 60 passengers – many of them members of a figure skating team – plunged into the Potomac River after striking the Black Hawk with three crew aboard. As of Thursday morning, rescue workers had recovered at least 19 bodies from the river. The cause of the crash is unknown, and no one is expected to have survived.

30: At least 30 people were killed in a crowd rush at India’s Kumbh Mela festival on Wednesday. During Kumbh Mela, a Hindu pilgrimage that occurs every 12 years, tens of millions of people take ritual baths at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers over six weeks. Critics of the ruling BJP party, including the opposition Congress Party, seized on the disaster, blasting the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for mismanaging the mass event.

50 million:Donald Trump’s press secretary said that as part of the administration’s mass cost-cutting measures it had slashed $50 million for “condoms in Gaza.” But official reports show the Biden administration’s foreign aid programs sent precisely zero condoms to the entire Middle East over the past three years. Unless the outgoing Biden administration slipped those condoms into the new budget at the last minute, this claim by the Trump administration – since boosted by Elon Musk – is a lie.

100: Australian police on Wednesday said they had thwarted a planned terror attack targeting Jews after discovering a trailer containing explosives in a Sydney suburb. More than 100 police officers have been put on the case. In recent months, Australia has seen a rash of attacks on synagogues as part of a broader uptick in antisemitic hate crimes since the start of the Gaza war in late 2023.

11: Former US Sen. Bob Menendezwas sentenced to 11 years in prison on corruption charges. Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who chaired the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was convicted on a raft of bribery and fraud charges after it was found that he had accepted gold bars and other luxury items from influence-seeking members of the Egyptian government.

More from GZERO Media

- YouTube

“If the G-Zero world is winning, one of the things that's also winning is impunity,” says Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media. Speaking at the 2025 Munich Security Conference, Bremmer highlights the rise of global impunity and the challenges of deterrence in today’s volatile geopolitical climate.

Israelis sit together as they light candles and hold posters with the images Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, on the day the bodies of the deceased hostages were handed over under by Hamas on Feb. 20, 2025.

REUTERS/Itay Cohen
South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a hearing of his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, February 20, 2025.
Matrix Images/Korea Pool

Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol appeared before two courts on Thursday. His first stop at the Seoul Central District Court made him the first sitting president — he’s not yet been formally removed from office — to face criminal prosecution.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy, General Keith Kellogg, meet in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 20, 2025.
Photo by Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto

Ahead of the third anniversary on Monday of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump’sUkraine envoy, Keith Kellogg,met in Kyiv on Thursday to discuss bringing the fighting to an end as Washington’s allegiances appear to be shifting toward Moscow.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa takes the national salute below a statue of former president Nelson Mandela at the Cape Town City Hall, ahead of his State Of The Nation (SONA) address in Cape Town, South Africa February 6, 2025.
REUTERS/Nic Bothma

South Africa’s ruling coalition, made up primarily of the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance, is showing signs of a possible crack in its government of national unity.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks to the media, on the day of a Senate Republicans' weekly policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 19, 2025.

REUTERS/Kent Nishimura

Those of us who grew up in a Cold War world have long thought of Republicans as the US political party that is most consistently tough on Moscow.

Luisa Vieira

The shocking US pivot to Russia has sent the world through the political looking glass and into the upside-down era of Trumpland. Is the US abandoning its historic allies in NATO, Europe, and Canada in favor of … Russia? The short answer is yes, writes GZERO Publisher Evan Solomon. For now.

The Energy Security Hub @BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt Pavilion at the Munich Security Conference held crucial talks last weekend on pressing global issues to the energy transition. Over 2.5 days of controversial and constructive talks in the heart of Munich, it became clear that energy security is not only an economic and geopolitical issue but one that’s also inextricably linked to social progress and democratic values. “There is not just one way forward,” said Dr. Heba Aguib, board member of the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. However, speed, scale, and collaboration across sectors are needed to drive the transition. “The open and collaborative approach that big tech companies are taking can serve as a model for other organizations and countries to use external expertise and resources to drive their energy initiatives, tailored to local needs,” she said. Learn more about the program here.