Hard Numbers: Turkish minimum wage, Chilean presidential dead heat, no North Korean laughs, Brazilian pols slug it out

December 16, 2021

Members of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK) shout slogans as they gather to announce their expectations about 2022 minimum wage in Ankara, Turkey December 3, 2021.

REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan

50: Turkey has raised the minimum wage by a whopping 50 percent to combat sky-high inflation and a crashing lira. At the same time, since September the central bank has cut interest rates five times — the exact opposite of what economists usually recommend doing when prices soar.

0.1: Ahead of Sunday's ultra-polarized election, Chilean presidential candidates Gabriel Boric and José Antonio Kast are virtually tied in the polls. The leftist Boric leads the far-right Kast by just 0.1 percentage points.

10: Starting Friday, there will be no laughing, drinking, or shopping for groceries in North Korea for 10 days to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il, father of current Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il. Anyone caught violating the ban will be treated as an "ideological criminal."

2: Two Brazilian politicians — the mayor and a former city councilor from the northern city of Borba — took a dispute over a local waterpark into an MMA ring. The mayor, who live-streamed the fight on his official Facebook account, won after three rounds.

Yoon Suk Yeol can’t take “yes” for an answer

A 24-hour Yonhapnews TV broadcast at Yongsan Railway Station shows South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivering a speech at the Presidential Office in Seoul. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, defended his botched martial law declaration, as an act of governance and denied insurrection charges facing him, while vowing to fight until the last moment against whether it is impeachment or a martial law probe.

Kim Jae-Hwan / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol looks highly likely to be impeached on Saturday after the leader of his own party on Thursday told members to vote according to their “conviction and conscience.”

Turkey mediates key agreement to defuse Ethiopia-Somalia conflict

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan poses with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed following a press conference in Ankara, Turkey, December 11, 2024.

Murat Kula/Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS

Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced a critical agreement to end a yearlong dispute over Ethiopia’s access to the Arabian Sea.

Hard Numbers: Turkish minimum wage, Chilean presidential dead heat, no North Korean laughs, Brazilian pols slug it out

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Hard Numbers: Turkish minimum wage, Chilean presidential dead heat, no North Korean laughs, Brazilian pols slug it out

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More from GZERO Media

The last time Syrians sought to oust the Bashar Assad regime, the ensuing crackdown sparked a 14-year-long civil war, killing over 500,000 Syrians and creating nearly six million refugees. So why did things change this time? Ian Bremmer explains.

The Assad regime is gone, but how much of the old regime's personnel should the country's new rulers keep around?

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol looks highly likely to be impeached on Saturday after the leader of his own party on Thursday told members to vote according to their “conviction and conscience.”

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced a critical agreement to end a yearlong dispute over Ethiopia’s access to the Arabian Sea.

For Romania and Bulgaria, former Soviet Bloc countries that are now EU members, the light finally changed from red to green on Thursday as EU interior ministers agreed to let the two countries fully join the border-free Schengen zone on Jan. 1.

US President-elect Donald Trump has extended an unprecedentedinvitation to Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, 2025.

Think you know what's going on around the world? Here's your chance to prove it.