Hard Numbers: Hunter Biden cops to charges, Brazilians bust shark fin racket, Pakistan and India face off on home grass, Aussies worry about China

Hunter Biden disembarks from Air Force One.
Hunter Biden disembarks from Air Force One.
REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

2: Hunter Biden — perhaps you’ve heard of him! — will plead guilty to two federal charges, and neither of them has anything to do with Ukraine, China, laptops, or any of the other things that Republicans have been hammering him about since 2020. The president’s son will cop to charges of tax evasion and illegal firearms possession, following a five-year probe that began during the Trump presidency.

28.7: Brazilian authorities have taken a megalodon-sized bite out of crime, confiscating a record 28.7 tons of illegally fished shark fins that were destined for delicacy diners in Asia. Investigators said as many as 11,000 sharks were killed in order to harvest the fins. Brazil is one of dozens of countries that ban “shark finning,” in which poachers slice off the fins at sea and discard the dying carcass in open water.

9: For the first time in nine years, Pakistan’s national football team will play against India in India. Home matches between the two are rare, given decades of geopolitical tensions. Neither is a star at football, but the match could pave the way for the first Pakistan-India cricket face-off in India since 2012 at this fall’s ICC Cricket World Cup. That would be a much bigger deal: a smackdown summit featuring two of the sport’s superpowers.

75: Some 75% of Australians polled believe that China will be a military threat to their country over the next two decades. It’s worth wondering whether Australia’s dependence on trade with China — by far its largest commercial partner — makes that outcome more likely, or less.

More from GZERO Media

Listen: Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, made his fortune-breaking industries—space, cars, social media—and is now trying to break the government… in the name of fixing it. But what happens when Silicon Valley’s ‘move fast and break things’ ethos collides with the machinery of federal bureaucracy? On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with WIRED Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond to unpack the implications of Musk’s deepening role in the Trump administration and what’s really behind his push into politics.

France's President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference following a summit for the "coalition of the willing" at the Elysee Palace in Paris on March 27, 2025.

LUDOVIC MARIN/Pool via REUTERS

At the third summit of the so-called “coalition of the willing” for Ukraine on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed a multinational “reassurance force” to deter Russian aggression once a ceasefire is in place – and to engage if attacked.

A group demonstrators chant slogans together as they hold posters during the protest. The ongoing protests were sparked by the arrest of Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
Sopa Images via Reuters

Last week’s arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu sparked the largest anti-government rallies in a decade and resulted in widespread arrests throughout Turkey. Nearly 1,900 people have been detained since the protests erupted eight days ago.

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the then-nominee for US ambassador to the UN, during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025.
Al Drago/Pool/Sipa USA

An internal GOP poll found a Republican candidate trailing in a special election for a conservative-leaning district in Florida, forcing US President Donald Trump to make a decision aimed at maintaining the Republican Party’s majority in the House.

South Sudan's Vice President Riek Machar, pictured here addressing the press in 2020.

REUTERS/Samir Bol

Alarm bells are ringing ever more loudly in South Sudan, as Vice President Riek Machar — chief rival to Prime Minister Salva Kiir — was arrested late Wednesday in an operation involving 20 armored vehicles at his compound in Juba. He was placed under house arrest, a move that is fueling fears that the country will soon descend into civil war.

Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, pictured here at the anniversary event of the departure of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 28, 2022.

REUTERS/Ali Khara

The Trump administration has dropped multimillion-dollar bounties on senior Afghan officials from the Haqqani network, a militant faction that carried out some of the deadliest attacks on American troops but has now positioned itself as a moderate wing within the Taliban government. But why?

The Canadian flag flies on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

REUTERS/Blair Gable

Canada’s foreign interference watchdog is warning that China, India, and Russia plan on meddling in the country’s federal election. The contest, which launched last weekend, has already been marked by a handful of stories about past covert foreign interventions and threats of new ones.