Hard Numbers: Twitter boots QAnon, Nigerian ambush, China pulls border troops, US emissions drop

QAnon supporters attend a pro-Trump rally prior to the storming of the US Capitol building. Reuters

70,000: Twitter has removed more than 70,000 accounts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory, some of whose supporters were among the angry mob that stormed the US Capitol building last week. QAnon followers believe that President Trump — who has refused to denounce the movement — is fighting a secret war against a "deep state" of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

13: Jihadists killed 13 soldiers after ambushing a military convoy in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State West Africa Province group, now affiliated with the Islamic State after breaking away in 2017 from Boko Haram, the Nigeria-based militant organization that's extended its footprint across the Sahel in recent years .

10,000: China has pulled back at least 10,000 soldiers from its contested border with India, where troops from the two countries were killed last summer amid deadly skirmishes sparked by a decades-long territorial dispute. While the Chinese military — more wary of the harsh Himalayan winter than the Indians — plans to redeploy some of the troops to Tibet and Xinjiang, there's growing optimism that cross-border tensions will ease if the Indian army also scales back its presence in the disputed area.

10: Greenhouse gas emissions in the US dropped by over 10 percent over 1990 levels in 2020, the largest decline since World War II. A new study says the biggest drop was in transport, one of the hardest hit sectors by pandemic-related lockdowns. The incoming Biden administration says it will prioritize greenhouse gas emissions by immediately rejoining the Paris Climate Accord.

More from GZERO Media

- YouTube

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.

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.”

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.

Press conference about Romania and Bulgaria, former Soviet Bloc countries becoming EU members.
REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

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.

U.S. President Donald Trump attends a bilateral meeting with China's President Xi Jinping during the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

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.

Luisa Vieira

GZERO Publisher Evan Solomon responds to comments made by two of our top 2024 game changers, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, about cutting foreign aid. “A dramatic turn to US isolationism in a world of crisis,” Solomon writes, “would be a troubling, game-changing trend that would only make the US more vulnerable.”