0.2: Argentina is in the black for the first time since 2008. The South American country is starting Q2 with a 0.2% fiscal surplus in quarterly revenues. President Javier Milei took a victory lap and promised to continue his fiscal austerity program, causing bond valuations to jump.
2: Two former UN employees in Montreal were charged with participating in a conspiracy to sell Chinese military equipment to Libya, including large drones capable of carrying multiple missiles. The men are accused of violating sanctions related to the Libyan civil war (2014-2020) between 2018 and 2021. One of the suspects was arrested Tuesday, but the other remains at large.
80,000: The US State Department’s annual human rights assessment found that nearly 80,000 people in Gaza have been killed or injured during the Israeli offensive, amounting to some 3% of the population.
2.4 trillion: The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that global military expenditures reached an all-time high of $2.4 trillion, a year-over-year increase of 6.8%. The United States alone made up 37% of that spending, and with China spending another 12%, the two leading military powers cumulatively spent just under half of the world’s entire military budget.
Israel used AI in Gaza in a way that felt "potentially uncomfortable for the US military tradition" says Bloomberg reporter Katrina Manson.
Microsoft recently published its latest Global AI Diffusion Report, showing continued growth in AI usage worldwide. In the first quarter of 2026, global usage increased from 16.3% to 17.8%, with 26 economies now exceeding 30% adoption. As adoption expands, regional gaps are also becoming clearer. The report highlights faster growth in parts of Asia and a widening divide between the Global North and South. It also points to advances like multilingual AI and coding capabilities, driving increased usage and software development globally. Read the full blog here.
AI is now embedded across the US military's targeting process, from identifying objects to speeding up strike decisions. Bloomberg defense tech reporter Katrina Manson on what that looks like from the inside.
For decades, Beijing has successfully pushed countries to cut diplomatic ties with Taipei.