Hard Numbers: NASA probe starts long journey toward Jupiter, Russia’s shadow fleet evades oil price cap, Israel vows to strike Hezbollah across Lebanon, Global inequality researchers win Nobel economics prize

October 14, 2024

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center, FL Monday, October 14, 2024 carrying the Europa Clipper spacecraft for NASA.

Craig Bailey/Reuters

1.8 billion: Would you live on one of Jupiter’s moons? On Monday, NASA launched a solar-powered probe toward Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, to see if it can support life. The probe will travel for five and a half years and about 1.8 billion miles before it reaches Europa.

70: Russia is using a shadow fleet of oil tankers — comprised of aging vessels with unclear owners — to evade a Western price cap meant to limit energy revenues and punish Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. Roughly 70% of Russia’s seaborne oil has been transported by its shadow fleet in recent months, according to a new report from the Kyiv School of Economics.

21: At least 21 people were reportedly killed in an Israeli strike on Monday in northern Lebanon, a Christian-majority area. This came a day after a Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in northern Israel killed four soldiers. “We will continue to strike Hezbollah without compassion in every part of Lebanon, including in Beirut,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to the base on Monday.

3: On Monday, three US-based academics — Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and James Robinson of the University of Chicago — won the 2024 Nobel economics prize for their research on global inequality. “The laureates have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions” to help reduce the vast differences in income between countries, says Jakob Svensson, chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences.

Podcast: The State of the World in 2024 with Ian Bremmer

Listen: The world is grappling with intense political and humanitarian challenges—raging wars, surging nationalism, and a warming climate, to name a few. Yet, we also stand at the brink of some of the most transformative opportunities in human history. So how do we make sense of the future and what’s next? Ian Bremmer breaks it all down in a special edition of the GZERO World Podcast: The 2024 State of the World.

Mexican Congress defangs the judiciary as majority of Supreme Court resigns

Workers of the Judiciary in Mexico City, Mexico, on October 15, 2024, protest outside the National Palace in the capital against judicial reform in Mexico. They reject the bill promoted by the former president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which proposes the election by popular vote of judges, magistrates, and ministers of the Supreme Court starting in 2025.

(Photo by Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto)

Eight out of Mexico’s 11 Supreme Court justices announced late Wednesday that they would resign their positions in opposition to a judicial overhaul that requires them to stand for election, while at the same time Congress passed new legislation that will prohibit legal challenges to constitutional changes.

North Korean troops expected to engage Ukrainians within days as allies flounder

Footage circulated online on Oct 18, 2024 shows North Korean troops training in Russia.

EYEPRESS via Reuters Connect

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says North Korean soldiers are expected to deploy in combat against Ukrainians in the coming days, while American Deputy UN Ambassador Robert Wood said 8,000 of Pyongyang’s soldiers are in the Kursk region, which Ukraine has partially occupied.

Will Iran attack Israel before Election Day?

Iranians walk next to an anti-US and Israeli billboard with pictures of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, and US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a street in Tehran, Iran, October 27, 2024.

Majid Asgaripour/Reuters

Ali Vaez, director of the International Crisis Group’s Iran Project, said rumors of an impending Iranian attack “make no sense.”

Political endorsements: Do they help or hurt trust in journalism?

Jess Frampton

Yanking endorsements days before a close election is like giving yourself a political wedgie, an awkward, painful experience that seems inappropriate and undermines the integrity of the decision — and yet, while the timing looks weak, the merits of the argument are strong, writes GZERO Publisher Evan Solomon. He weighs in on Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos’ last-minute decision to no longer publish political endorsements — and explains why GZERO never endorses candidates.

Hard Numbers: NASA probe starts long journey toward Jupiter, Russia’s shadow fleet evades oil price cap, Israel vows to strike Hezbollah across Lebanon, Global inequality researchers win Nobel economics prize

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North Korean troops expected to engage Ukrainians within days as allies flounder

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Ian Bremmer: AI and clean energy are reshaping the US-China rivalry

What happens when the Chinese government decides that its own people can't be trusted with the state-of-the-art AI tools being developed by American companies?

Hard Numbers: NASA probe starts long journey toward Jupiter, Russia’s shadow fleet evades oil price cap, Israel vows to strike Hezbollah across Lebanon, Global inequality researchers win Nobel economics prize

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A new analysis by Cyabra, in partnership with GZERO, found that roughly 20% of the accounts interacting with election-related tweets from Musk were, in fact, bots.

What did Game 4 of the World Series and so-called election interference have in common? Senior Writer Alex Kliment weighs in.

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says North Korean soldiers are expected to deploy in combat against Ukrainians in the coming days, while American Deputy UN Ambassador Robert Wood said 8,000 of Pyongyang’s soldiers are in the Kursk region, which Ukraine has partially occupied.

Ali Vaez, director of the International Crisis Group’s Iran Project, said rumors of an impending Iranian attack “make no sense.”

What happens when the Chinese government decides that its own people can't be trusted with the state-of-the-art AI tools being developed by American companies?