Hard Numbers: Venezuelan opposition arrests, Bangkok’s murder mystery, Acropolis closed amid heat wave, More Kenyan police arrive in Haiti, Voting day for von der Leyen

​Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro looks on during his swearing-in ceremony as caretaker president following the death of President Hugo Chavez in Caracas March 8, 2013.
Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro looks on during his swearing-in ceremony as caretaker president following the death of President Hugo Chavez in Caracas March 8, 2013.
REUTERS/Jorge Silva

102: Ahead of presidential elections set for July 28, Venezuelan authorities have arrested at least 102 people linked to the political opposition this year, according to Foro Penal, a local legal aid non-profit. Three-quarters of them were jailed after the official presidential campaign period began on July 4. On Wednesday, police arrested the security chief of opposition leader Marina Corina Machado. Polls show strongman President Nicolas Madurotrailing badly ahead of the vote.

6: Authorities said Wednesday that traces of cyanide were found in the blood of six Vietnamese nationals, two of whom had dual US citizenship, in a luxury suite of a Grand Hyatt in Bangkok. The group was last seen alive on Monday by a waiter delivering room service. Police say there was a possible financial motive related to an investment … and that the suspected perpetrator is among the six dead.

5: Greece’s most-visited archaeological site, the Acropolis, was closed for five hours by the Ministry of Culture on Wednesday amid a brutal southern European heat wave. Wildfires, meanwhile, are proving difficult to contain amid the extreme heat and led to the closure of a major border crossing between Greece and North Macedonia for several hours on Wednesday.

200: Another 200 Kenyan police officers joined the UN-backed mission in Haiti this week to support local authorities against the violent gangs who took over the capital city of Port-au-Prince in a joint offensive last February. The Kenyan-led mission also expects new arrivals from Jamaica, Bangladesh, Chad, and others to help grow the force to 2,500 personnel in the coming weeks.

361: In the EU parliament later today, MEPs will decide whether to confirm Ursula von der Leyen as Commission president in a knife-edge vote that will either result in another five-year mandate for the EU executive’s first female leader or tip the bloc into a temporary crisis. Despite no other candidate standing, it looks like she will just barely, if at all, get the 361 votes she needs.

More from GZERO Media

As the island nation attempts to crawl its way out of a crippling economic crisis, Sri Lanka’s leading presidential candidates are promising a fairer shake for ordinary families — but will voters demand an upheaval of the entrenched aristocracy?
REUTERS

As the island nation attempts to crawl its way out of a crippling economic crisis, Sri Lanka’s leading presidential candidates are promising a fairer shake for ordinary families — but will voters demand an upheaval of the entrenched aristocracy?

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro delivers a speech during a rally to celebrate the results of last month's presidential election, in Caracas, Venezuela August 28, 2024.
REUTERS/Fausto Torrealba/File Photo

Six foreign nationals, including three American, two Spanish, and one Czech citizen, were arrested in Venezuela on Saturday, accused of plotting to assassinate strongman President Nicolás Maduro.

FILE PHOTO: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with Chairman of NATO's military committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 21, 2024.
Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS

Five people were killed Saturday in Russian aerial attacks on the Ukrainian city of Odessa and a farm in the Zaporizhzhia region.

People, mainly Houthi supporters, rally to mark the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Mohammad and to show solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, September 15, 2024.
REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed that the Houthis would pay a “heavy price” after a missile fired from Yemen struck central Israel.

Law enforcement officers on the scene after reports of shots fired outside Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump's Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sept. 15, 2024.

REUTERS/Marco Bello

Donald Trump is safe after a gunman was apprehended near the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday. The FBI confirms that it had “responded to and is investigating what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.”

Mastercard’s Start Path Open Banking and Embedded Finance startup engagement program is designed to support and collaborate with fintechs to democratize financial services while keeping consumers in control of their data. One participant, Payitoff, is a white-label solution that provides banks and fintechs with the technology to help people manage student loans and other debt. Built on online banking technology, Payitoff can be embedded into fintech and banking platforms to provide clients with a 360-degree picture of their financial profile. The benefits can be life-changing: Reducing monthly debt repayments can improve credit scores, which gives people a better chance of getting mortgages to buy homes or loans to launch businesses. Learn more here.

- YouTube

Are we in a 21st-century space race with China? And if so, who’s winning? On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer breaks down China’s ambitious space program, which in the last few years has sent a rover to Mars, built a space station, and returned samples from the far side of the moon–something no country has done before.