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Hard Numbers: The world economy hasn't looked this glum since when?

14: At least 14 police were killed and three injured when drug cartel gunmen ambushed a convoy in Michoacán state in western Mexico. The attack highlights the difficulties facing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose first year at the helm may end with a record number of killings in his country.

200: Two-hundred Hong Kong protestors have been arrested since the weekend, when a spike in violence and vandalism swept the city: unrest has been rising since the government invoked colonial-era emergency powers several weeks ago. More than 2,300 demonstrators have been arrested since June.

⅓: At least one-third of all food produced for human consumption globally is wasted or lost every year, according to a United Nations report. While enough food is produced to feed everyone on the planet, the hunger rate is rising: 820 million people around the world are "chronically undernourished," the UN says.

0.8: Global economic growth this year will slow to its weakest level since the 2008 global financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund predicts in its latest forecast. The US-China trade war is a big reason why: the tariff spat between the world's two largest economies could knock 0.8% off global GDP by 2020.

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Iran war threatens water access in Middle East
Natalie Johnson, Eileen Zhang

As missiles fly and oil prices soar, the Iran war is exposing another major resource vulnerability in the Middle East: water. Fresh water has been a scarce commodity in a region defined by a dry climate and low rainfall, but attacks on the region’s desalination plants, which convert seawater into drinking water, threaten to open a new front.