HARD NUMBERS: Macy’s parade goes from 0 to 100, Germany needs immigrants, Trump’s deportation plans rattle farm industry, South Korea busts pudgy dodger, Interpol sweeps African cybercriminals
100: This Thursday marks 100 years since the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade first took New York City by storm with “floats, brass bands ... and clowns in profusion.” The event – famous for its seven-story tall balloons of cartoon characters – was originally themed around Christmas, to whet people’s appetites for holiday shopping. The pageantry has had its run-ins with political issues and culture wars over the years. Last year’s installment, for example, drew boycott demands from ultra-conservative groups upset about the inclusion of two non-binary performers.
288,000: Economic need, meet political reality. To offset declining birth rates and the retirement of skilled workers, Germany will require an influx of as many as 288,000 foreign workers every year until 2040. Is that feasible at a moment when anti-immigrant backlash is one of the leitmotifs of German and wider European politics?
44: Pudge tried to dodge, but his plan was too plump by half. A South Korean man was sentenced to a suspended prison term for deliberately gaining more than 44 pounds in a bid to escape military service. South Korea runs a conscription system in which all able-bodied men serve for nearly two years.
2 million: President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to deport millions of undocumented migrants has scared the stalks off of the US agriculture industry, where roughly half of the country’s 2 million farm workers are thought to lack legal status. Industry leaders warn that deportations from the fields could cause inflation to soar, and have sought assurances that Trump’s plans will focus more narrowly on undocumented migrants with criminal records.
1,006: Africa is home to some of the most vibrant tech hubs in the world – Lagos, Nairobi, and Cape Town among them – but also to increasingly sophisticated cybercrime operations. Over the past two months, Interpol has arrested 1,006 people across 19 African countries on charges of ransomware schemes, digital extortion, fraud, and trafficking. Those nabbed in the crackdown had scammed or fleeced at least 35,000 people out of nearly $200 million.