Hard Numbers

97 cents. The amount of money that Russia’s infamous “Troll Factory” actually spent on pro-Brexit ads ahead of the UK vote in 2016. A Brexceptional return on investment.

75 percent of all voting-age Latin Americans will choose a new leader over the course of 2017–2018.

73 journalists imprisoned by Turkey in 2017, the highest number in the world for this year.

8 years. The amount of time Russia’s former Economy Minister Alexey Ulyukayev will spend in a maximum security penal colony for allegedly receiving a $2m bribe from Putin’s pal Igor Sechin, who miraculously didn’t have to testify at the trial.

More from GZERO Media

There’s a new strain of cybercrime in online retail. It targets consumers going about their everyday business, whether it’s booking flights on a major airline or purchasing concert tickets from their go-to platform. It’s called digital skimming, also known as e-skimming, online card skimming, or web skimming, and it’s the evolution of an older scam known as card skimming. That’s when criminals install equipment on point-of-sale systems or tiny cameras at ATMs or gas pumps to capture card data. With digital skimming, hackers plant malware at online stores to harvest that information. It can be harder than physical skimming to detect, and it can strike more victims at once. Read our explainer to learn more and understand how to stay safe.

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk reacts next to Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump during a campaign rally, at the site of the July assassination attempt against Trump, in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 5, 2024.
REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has thrown his full weight behind former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

FILE PHOTO: Yahya Sinwar, Gaza Strip chief of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, waves to Palestinians during a rally to mark the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day), in Gaza, April 14, 2023.
REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo

Ever since 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, in southern Israel, the Jewish state has been on the hunt for the mastermind, the terrorist group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar.

Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service Ronald Rowe Jr. speaks during a press conference as the FBI investigates what they said was an apparent assassination attempt in Florida on Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. September 16, 2024.
REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo
Doctors, paramedics, and medical students from various medical institutions are attending a protest against what they say is the rape and murder of a trainee doctor, inside the premises of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, India, on August 12, 2024.
(Photo by Debajyoti Chakraborty/NurPhoto)

In August, the brutal rape and murder of a female medical resident in a Kolkata hospital set off aseries of protests by doctors and others who demanded a full investigation of the crime and stepped-up police protection in government-run hospitals.