Hard Numbers: Hong Kong protests resume, support for Italy's Lega party slides, governments hoard PPE

80: At least 80 countries and territories have enforced export restrictions on medical equipment such as face masks and ventilators in recent months. This protectionist trend is threatening global supply chains and ramping up prices for much-needed gear, the World Trade Organization warns.

300: After a curb on public gatherings to prevent the spread of COVID-19 halted the activities of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement earlier this year, around 300 people flouted social distancing rules Sunday, calling for "revolution" and demanding the release of 15 pro-democracy protesters recently arrested.

17: Seventeen people, including 12 park rangers, were killed Saturday in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo in an attack that DRC officials blamed on a Rwandan rebel group. Logging, poaching, and spillover violence from Congo's civil wars have made the park, Africa's oldest nature reserve, a hotspot of conflict between rival militias.

25.4: National approval ratings for Italy's far-right Lega party have recently slipped nearly 6 points to 25.4 percent, on account of Lega-run regional governments' poor handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the party's traditional strongholds in northern Italy.

More from GZERO Media

Marine Tondelier, of Les Ecologistes party, talks to journalists next to colleagues as they leave a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Dec. 10. They had met with the French president as part of consultations aimed at appointing a new prime minister.
REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

On Tuesday, France’s President Emmanuel Macron hosted a meeting with the leaders of center, center-right, and center-left political parties at the Elysee Palace in a bid to end France’s political crisis by building support for a new prime minister and a 2025 budget.

- YouTube

President-elect Donald Trump has made no secret of his love of tariffs, vowing steep import taxes on China, Mexico, Canada, and almost every product that crosses the US border on his first day in office. Will they boost US jobs and manufacturing, as Trump promises, or lead to rising inflation, as many economists warn? On GZERO World, Oren Cass, founder and chief economist at conservative think tank American Compass, joins Ian Bremmer for an in-depth discussion about Trump’s tariff plan and the future of US-China trade policy.

A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.
REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

The US government has reportedly permitted Microsoft to export advanced AI chips to one of its own facilities in the United Arab Emirates.

David Sacks, former CEO of Zenefits, is seen here speaking at a 2016 TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, California.
REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach/File Photo

Not only is he a close friend of Elon Musk, who is leading a government efficiency committee for Trump, but Sacks has spent the last few years as one of the loudest voices supporting Trump from the upper echelons of Silicon Valley.

A man rides a scooter past a giant screen showing news footage of Chinese President Xi Jinping attending a Chinese Communist Party politburo meeting, in Beijing, China December 9, 2024.
REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

China’s Politburo — the top leadership cabinet — said Monday it would take “more proactive” fiscal measures and loosen up its monetary policy in 2025 as it aims to boost domestic consumption.