Hard Numbers: Diversity wins at Emmy Awards, Space tourism blasts off, European floods prove deadly, Russia and Ukraine swap prisoners, US leaves Niger, Germany holds fake horse contest

September 15, 2024

Anna Sawai, winner of the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series award, and Hiroyuki Sanada, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for "Shogun."

Reuters

18: Diversity won the night at Sunday’s Emmy Awards, honoring a lineup of Latino, LGBTQ+, and Japanese artists. The FX drama “Shogun” nabbed the best drama prize, collecting 18 Emmys overall, including best actor awards for Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada.

5: SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission splashed down in the Caribbean on Sunday after a five-day mission that made cosmic history. Billionaire Jared Isaacman became the first non-astronaut to complete a spacewalk, and the four-member team he bankrolled flew further away from Earth than anyone else has in half a century. His mission will allegedly open opportunities for commercial space tourism — but this reporter will live and die entirely within the Earth’s atmosphere, thank you very much.

8: At least eight people are dead and four are missing amid the catastrophic floods devastating Central Europe. Authorities in the Czech Republic have ordered 10,000 people to evacuate, and Vienna declared a state of emergency in Lower Austria.

206: Russia and Ukraine exchanged 206 prisoners on Saturday — 103 each — in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. Moscow said the prisoners it brought home had been captured during Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk last month.

11: The United States officially ended its military mission in Niger and pulled out the last of its troops on Sunday, ending an 11-year mission that was crucial to fighting terrorists in West and Central Africa. The withdrawal leaves US Africa Command bereft of close military partners in the region, though Washington’s position in East Africa is stronger, with major bases in Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia.

~300: Germany held its first ever, uh … hobby horse competition on Saturday, where about 300 competitors — mostly children — pretended to ride horses through obstacle courses. The appeal of the sport is inexplicably, but undeniably, growing, and the US and Australia each held their first-ever championships earlier this year as well.

Dems vs GOP: Who Blinks?

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., talks with reporters in Russell building after a senate vote on Wednesday, February 19, 2025.

(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA)

House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to pass a budget bill with only Republican support on Wednesday, sending Senate Democrats an imminent predicament: Either approve a spending bill created solely by the GOP or trigger a shutdown standoff – a strategy they have consistently criticized in the past.

Romania’s leading presidential candidate appeals ban

A boy holds a sign reading "Calin Georgescu President" during an anti-government rally in Bucharest, Romania.

REUTERS/Andreea Campeanu/File Photo

Ultranationalist Calin Georgescu was the frontrunner heading into Romania’s May presidential election. But electoral authorities banned him from running over the weekend, citing paperwork mistakes and unspecified concerns about this commitment to upholding the country’s constitution.

Carney clinches Canadian Liberal leadership

Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney listens to outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's speech just before being elected to succeed Trudeau as Liberal Party leader on Sunday, March 9, in Ottawa, Canada.

REUTERS/Amber Bracken/Pool

Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, won the leadership of Canada’s Liberal Party on Sunday, succeeding outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Sectarian violence erupts in Syria – in former Assad stronghold

Syrian fighters and civilians carry the coffin of a member of the Syrian security forces during his funeral in Hama province after he and 11 other colleagues were killed in an ambush by groups loyal to the ousted President Bashar al-Assad in Latakia.

Moawia Atrash/dpa via Reuters Connect

It seems that the 14-year-long civil war isn’t quite over in Syria. Since Thursday, violent clashes between deposed dictator Bashar Assad’s Alawite loyalists and supporters of the new Sunni regime in the coastal regions have left over 1,000 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Hard Numbers: Diversity wins at Emmy Awards, Space tourism blasts off, European floods prove deadly, Russia and Ukraine swap prisoners, US leaves Niger, Germany holds fake horse contest

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What is President Donald Trump’s strategy on China? On the one hand, he slapped additional 10% tariffs on Chinese goods and is considering$1 million fees on Chinese-built vessels entering US ports.

The Trump administration is committed to cutting the federal bureaucracy, have you been keeping up with which departments have been on the chopping block? Prove it by solving this crossword puzzle.

32: An oil tanker and a cargo ship collided in the North Sea off the coast of East Yorkshire, causing a massive fire andinjuring 32 people.

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Ultranationalist Calin Georgescu was the frontrunner heading into Romania’s May presidential election. But electoral authorities banned him from running over the weekend, citing paperwork mistakes and unspecified concerns about this commitment to upholding the country’s constitution.

As Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky was in Saudi Arabia Monday ahead of US-Ukrainian talks, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has made waves by discussing nuclear weapons.

Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, won the leadership of Canada’s Liberal Party on Sunday, succeeding outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.