Hard Numbers: Trump takes to TikTok, Mexican mayor murdered, Shootout outside US Embassy in Beirut, A criminal epoch?, Spain’s menstrual law misses mark

​Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City, U.S., May 31, 2024.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City, U.S., May 31, 2024.
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

5.2: From president to felon to social media influencer? Donald Trumpposted his first TikTok from a UFC fight last Saturday. He has already amassed over 5.2 million followers, beating Biden at his own game, who in 3 months has failed to even reach half a million followers. The app Trump once sought to ban as president has now become a part of his campaign for presidency as he hopes to woo the younger vote.

19: Within hours of Claudia Sheinbaum’s monumental presidential victory in Mexico, the mayor of Cotija, a town in western Mexico, was shot 19 times in an attack that killed her and her bodyguard. No arrests have been made since the assassination – another tragic example of Mexico’s rampant political violence.

1: A shootout involving one assailant occurred outside the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday. The gunman, identified by the Lebanese military as a Syrian national, was shot and wounded by Lebanese soldiers before being taken into custody and transferred to a local hospital for treatment. The motive is unknown, but the incident occurred amid simmering tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border that have led the Jewish state to warn it could soon launch an offensive against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

67: Weidong Guan, CFO of the Epoch Times, has been charged with one count of conspiring to commit money laundering and two counts of bank fraud in an alleged $67 million, four-year-long scheme involving cryptocurrency and prepaid credit cards. If convicted, Guan faces up to 80 years in prison.

1,559: On June 1, Spain celebrated the first anniversary of Europe’s first paid menstrual leave law. Surprisingly, it has only been taken 1,559 times, according to the country’s Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration. While hailed as a step forward for feminism, the law has limited applicability – as it can only be used by those with previously diagnosed conditions like endometriosis.

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Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz speaks at a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump in Henderson, Nevada U.S. October 31, 2024.
REUTERS/Mike Blake

President-elect Donald Trump’s unconventional picks for a number of important Cabinet positions in his second administration have set him on a collision course with the GOP-led Senate.

Accompanied by tugs, the LNG tanker "Hellas Diana" transports a cargo of LNG to the "Deutsche Ostsee" energy terminal.
Stefan Sauer/Reuters

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