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

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

More from GZERO Media

UN Italian peacekeeping soldiers secure an area outside their base in the southern Lebanese border village of Alma al-Shaab.
Marwan Naamani/Reuters

The UN says that Israeli forces have fired on their peacekeepers in southern Lebanon several times in recent days and that at least five peacekeepers have been injured in the process.

Boats navigate the Moscow River near the Kremlin.
(Photo by Vlad Karkov / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

On Monday, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency told a parliamentary committee at the German Bundestag that a package exploded in Leipzig earlier this year before it could be loaded onto an airplane.

Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris cheer before the start of the golf cart rally in the retirement community of The Villages, Florida U.S. October, 14, 2024.
REUTERS/Octavio Jones

With exactly three weeks left before Election Day, both campaigns are battling it out on the ground for the handful of undecided voters who will decide the election.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Mike Duheme takes part in a press conference about India-linked criminal activity occurring in Canada, in Ottawa, Ontario, October 14, 2024.
REUTERS/Blair Gable

Canadian authorities declared India’s High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma a persona non grata note on Monday, expelling him and five other diplomats from their posts over allegations they were part of a criminal network harassing Canadian Sikhs.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the National Defense University in Pyongyang, North Korea, October 7, 2024, in this photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency.
KCNA via REUTERS

South Korea’s military announced Monday it had detected North Korea preparing to destroy roads connecting the two countries, the latest in a series of steps advancing Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un’s renunciation of peaceful reunification.

- YouTube

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: After Iran’s latest strikes on Israel, all eyes are on how Israel will respond and what role the US will play. Ian Bremmer shares insight on these and more.

- YouTube

Is there a risk of a full-scale trade war between the European Union and China? Why is the deal between Italy and Albania on refugee centers so controversial? Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden and co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, shares his perspective on European politics from Vienna, Austria

- YouTube

As Election Day approaches, freedom is on the ballot. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris offer starkly different visions for the country and what freedom means to them. The question is, which version of freedom will voters pick? On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer sits with author and historian Timothy Snyder to discuss these, drawing from his latest book, “On Freedom,” an exploration into how freedom is used—and often misused—in society and politics.

Army Cpl. Rogelio Argueta, Patriot Launching Station Enhanced Operator-Maintainer, assigned with Task Force Talon, 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command gives commands, during a practice missile reload and unload drills on a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system trainer at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.
Photo by Capt. Adan Cazarez/U.SS Army via ABACAPRESS.COM

The Biden administration is sending an anti-ballistic missile system to Israel to bolster the Jewish state’s defenses against potential Iranian attacks and underscore Washington’s “ironclad commitment” to Israel’s defense, the Pentagon said Sunday.