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Hard Numbers
Palestinians walk in the rain at a makeshift camp in Gaza City, on Nov. 25, 2025.
20,000-25,000: As part of his vision for Gaza, US President Donald Trump is drawing on his background as a real estate guy, with plans to build a number of temporary residential compounds for Palestinians in eastern Gaza, each of which would house as many as 20,000-25,000 people. The aim is to entice Gazans sheltering elsewhere in the strip to move back to the area, which they were driven out of by the Israeli military. Officials say the first compound won’t be ready for months.
$40 billion: Taiwan will boost defense spending by $40 billion in order to face down the persistent threat from China, which considers the self-governing island part of its own territory. The US, which backs Taiwan, has called on Taiwan to fund more of its own military. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly discussed Taiwan this week. Meanwhile, for more on the rising tension between China and Japan over Taiwan, see our recent report here.
13: At least 13 people have died after a fire tore through a group of apartment buildings in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Hundreds of firefighters are at the scene seeking to quench the blaze. The cause remains unclear, but the buildings were enveloped in bamboo scaffolding, which the government had started to phase out in March over safety concerns.
46%: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would win in any plausible matchup in the 2027 presidential election, according to a new poll. In a face-to-face with São Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, Lula would win 46%, while the man widely considered the right-wing heir to former President Jair Bolsonaro would win 39%. The jailed Bolsonaro remains the kingmaker of the Brazilian right.
2: Cheers to this, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will open two more liquor stores for foreigners, one each in Jeddah and Dhahran. Last year they opened one in the capital, Riyadh as part of a wider modernization drive that is meant to bring more foreign tourists and workers into the country. Name us a cocktail! The Jeddah Julip? The Dhahran Daiquiri? Let us know your proposal, we’ll publish the best ones next week.
Hard Numbers: France’s Bardella would win an election today, Trump’s support among Latinos falls, Fox hunts for a seat in the Bahamas, and Hitler returns
Marine Le Pen, French member of parliament and parliamentary leader of the far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National - RN) party and Jordan Bardella, president of the French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National - RN) party and member of the European Parliament, gesture during an RN political rally in Bordeaux, France, September 14, 2025.
9: US President Donald Trump’s approval among Latino adults has fallen nine points since the start of his presidency to just 27%, according to Pew. In 2024, Trump won nearly half the Latino vote, a record for a GOP candidate. Among Latinos who chose Trump in 2024, his approval is still a robust 81%, but even that is down from a high of 93% when he took office. Trump’s handling of immigration and the economy underline the growing disapproval.
39: Will island politics be a slam-dunk for former Los Angeles Lakers star Rick Fox? The three-time champion, who retired from the NBA in 2004, is taking a jumpshot at public service in the Bahamas, announcing that he’ll run for one of the island nation’s 39 constituencies in the next election. Fox holds Bahamian citizenship through his father.
2: Well, Adolf Hitler is back. The Namibian lawmaker who has that unfortunate name is set to win his second election in a row, representing the constituency of Ompundja in a landslide. Namibia is a former German colony. Hitler, 59, says his father “probably didn’t understand” the meaning of the name, and that it’s “too late” to change it now.
Hard Numbers: Israel assassinates Hezbollah commander, DOGE gets DOGE’d, Ethiopian volcano erupts, Not much to show for COP30
People walk past a damaged building during the funeral of Hezbollah's top military official, Haytham Ali Tabtabai, and of other people who were killed by an Israeli airstrike on Sunday, despite a U.S.-brokered truce a year ago, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon November 24, 2025.
8: DOGE has been DOGE’d, with a White House official declaring that the Department of Government Efficiency – which, under Tesla owner Elon Musk, tried to slash government spending – no longer exists. The department still had eight months left before the end of its charter.
12,000: A long-dormant Ethiopian volcano, Hayli Gubbi, erupted for the first time in nearly 12,000 years, sending ash 9 miles high and drifting across the Red Sea. No casualties were reported, but ash is strangling the local vegetation and threatening local herders’ livelihoods.
1.5: As COP30 comes to a close, the conference concludes with an agreement projecting that the world will likely exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming in the next five years, with few promises made to stop it. The agreement did not mention fossil fuel curtailment, and instead focused on climate change adaptation, in a sign that countries are prioritizing energy security over climate commitments.
Argentine President Javier Milei speaks during the America Business Forum at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, USA, on November 6, 2025.
$20 billion: Argentine President Javier Milei had a fantastic midterm election last month, but the celebration might be coming to an abrupt end: A group of US banks shelved its $20-billion bailout plan for the South American nation, favoring instead a short-term loan package.
6: A group of six US Democratic lawmakers published a video telling military and intelligence officials that they must disobey illegal orders. The move irked President Donald Trump, who suggested that the move constituted, “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
70 million: The Louvre wasn’t the only site of a successful heist in broad daylight this fall, as a group of men posing as Indian central bank officials robbed a vehicle that held 70 million rupees ($800,000) in the southern state of Karnataka on Wednesday afternoon, per police. Law enforcement is still searching for the culprits.
41: Relentless rains and flooding in central Vietnam have killed at least 41 people, left nine missing, submerged over 52,000 homes, and cut power to half a million households. Hard-hit cities like Hoi An and Nha Trang face evacuations, landslides, and infrastructure collapse as typhoons grow increasingly frequent.
10.5: The former leader of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party was sentenced to ten-and-a-half years in prison this morning for accepting pro-Russian bribes. Nathan Gill was paid thousands of pounds to deliver TV interviews in favor of an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Reform UK has taken a more dovish position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine than other parties in the United Kingdom.
$1 trillion: During his White House visit this week, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged to increase his investment in US firms to nearly $1 trillion. There’s just one problem: Riyadh’s Public Investment Fund is running low on cash, according to a New York Times report.
Hard Numbers: 80 years since the Nuremberg trials, Gazan ceasefire holds despite strikes, US and India inch closer to detente, Epstein files out before Christmas
Senior Nazi figures – Hermann Goering (1893-1946), Rudolf Hess (1894-1987), Joachim von Ribentrop (1893-1946), and Wilhelm Keitel (1882-1946) – stand trial in Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-46.
80: Exactly 80 years ago today, the Nuremberg trials began. One scholar who knows a thing or two about the subject says it’s a reminder that international law – despite the punchline that it sometimes seems to be – can also make a real difference.
25: The Israeli military struck parts of Gaza yesterday, killing at least 25 people, per Hamas-linked local health officials. Israel said the attacks were in response to Hamas militants opening fire on its forces. There were another set of Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday that reportedly killed five. Both sides said they were still committed to keeping the ceasefire, though each side is struggling to move forward with the second phase of the ceasefire deal.
$93 million: In another sign that trade tensions between the world’s richest country and the world’s most populous country are easing, the US approved a $93-million deal to sell arms to India. The purchase also marks Delhi’s latest move away from buying Russian arms and toward purchasing US ones.
30: After US President Donald Trump signed the bill last night, the Justice Department has 30 days to release all of the Epstein files. It remains to be seen whether the release will be comprehensive – the department can withhold documents related to ongoing investigations – but Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that she would “encourage maximum transparency.”
Hard Numbers: China-Japan tensions extend to seafood, Italy expands definition of rape, Klimt painting becomes second-most expensive ever sold, & More
A photo taken on September 14, 2024, shows seafood at Jimiya fishing port in Qingdao, China, on September 14, 2024. On September 20, 2024, China and Japan reach a consensus on the issue of the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and China states that it will gradually resume the import of Japanese aquatic products that meet the regulations.
227: All 227 lawmakers who were present in Italy’s lower house yesterday voted to expand the definition of rape to include all non-consensual acts. Under the current penal code, rape is an act that involves violence, threats, or abuse of authority. Reports of sexual violence in Italy have risen in recent years: there were 6,231 in 2023, up from 4,257 in 2014.
2: After a gunman attacked a church in Nigeria, killing two people, rapper Nicki Minaj appeared before the UN to call for action against the persecution of christians in the country – something that US President Donald Trump has said he would also make moves to address.
$236.4 million: A portrait by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, famed for painting “Women in Gold,” sold in New York City on Tuesday for $236.4 million, becoming the second-most expensive painting of all time. Six people competed for “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer,” which Klimt created between 1914 and 1916. Like “Women in Gold,” the Nazis had looted the painting from Jewish owners during World War II.
21 million: The concept of kissing dates back more than 21 million years, University of Oxford scientists have found, with humans and many of their ancestors engaging with the practice. The study didn’t explore why the practice began.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi holds talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Oct. 31, 2025.
650,000: Roughly 650,000 Chinese tourists visited Japan in September, but those levels are under threat amid a diplomatic rift between the two countries. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested that her country would intervene if China attacks Taiwan, prompting Beijing to cancel tour groups to Japan and ban employees of state-owned enterprises from traveling there.
2: Two Ukrainian men, who are believed to have been working with Russia, have been identified as the culprits behind the rail sabotage attacks in Poland over the weekend. The men are believed to have been recruited by Russian intelligence.
18: A Georgian man who hatched a plan to feed poisoned candy to Jewish children in New York City pleaded guilty on Monday to soliciting hate crimes. Prosecutors will seek an 18-year jail sentence. The man led a Russian & Ukrainian neo-Nazi group that has sought to sow violence worldwide.
2,000: The South African government announced that it will block the arrival of any further flights of Palestinians after hundreds arrived by air in recent weeks. Passengers said they paid $2,000 per ticket to an aid agency offering them a route out of the country, but South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola denounced the flights as part of “a broader agenda to remove Palestinians from Palestine.”