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Hard Numbers: Petro aims for trillions, killings of Muslims rattle Albuquerque, Benin bronzes go home, Latinos ditch Democrats

August 08, 2022
Alex Kliment
Petro aims for trillions, killings of Muslims rattle Albuquerque, Benin bronzes go home, Latinos ditch Democrats
Gustavo Petro takes office in Colombia.
REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

25 trillion: Just a day after being sworn in, Colombia’s new President Gustavo Petro, the country’s first leftist head of state, unveiled a tax proposal to raise 25 trillion pesos (about $5.75 billion). As we wrote recently, Colombia needs firmer fiscal footing overall, but Petro’s own expansive plans to reduce inequality will hinge on his ability to get this reform done. The last time a Colombian government tried to raise taxes it didn’t end well.

4: The FBI is looking into a possible connection between four separate ambush-style killings of South Asian Muslim men in Albuquerque, the largest city in the US state of New Mexico. President Joe Biden decried the killings, and officials say they are looking for a vehicle that may help tie together the murders.

72: A London museum will return 72 items looted by British troops more than a century ago to Nigeria. The antiquities, which include highly prized “Benin bronze” sculptures, were spirited out of Benin City, located in present-day southern Nigeria, during an 1897 colonial incursion.

12: Democrats’ generic advantage over Republicans among Latino voters fell to 12 points in a new Ipsos/Axios poll, down four points since March. The findings add to growing concerns that Democrats are losing their historical edge among the multifaceted Latino voting bloc. The 2020 election saw huge swings toward Trump in many heavily Latino precincts that were once reliably Democratic.

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