Hard Numbers: Truth Social’s big day, Missing migrants, Chinese workers killed in Pakistan, Palestinians drown reaching for aid
50%: Shares in former President Donald Trump’s social media business, Trump Media & Technology Group, jumped by more than 50% on Tuesday after going public under the ticker DJT. The stock rose as high as $79.38. The company’s stock market debut was made possible by a merger between Trump Media (which owns Twitter-clone Truth Social) and Digital World Acquisition. Trump owns 58% of the company’s shares, but it’s unlikely to help with his recent money issues because he can’t sell his shares for six months.
63,000: Over 63,000 people have died or gone missing while migrating over the past decade, according to a report published Tuesday by the International Organization for Migration, the UN migration agency. Most of the recorded deaths were caused by drowning, and the majority — over 28,000 — occurred in the Mediterranean. The report cautioned that its tally was “likely only a fraction of the actual number of lives lost worldwide.”
5: At least five Chinese workers and a Pakistani driver were killed in Pakistan on Tuesday when a suicide bomber slammed into the van they were traveling in. No group has claimed responsibility. China has invested billions in infrastructure projects in Pakistan, but Chinese workers and interests have repeatedly come under attack by Baluch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban.
12: At least 12 Palestinians drowned on Monday while attempting to retrieve aid packages that fell into the Mediterranean during airdrops, authorities in Gaza said Tuesday. Strict Israeli restrictions on aid truck deliveries have seen a number of governments, including the US, to turn to airdrops to deliver assistance as famine looms in the war-torn enclave. It’s not clear which country dropped the aid that was tied to the reported fatalities, but the Pentagon on Tuesday said several bundles of aid dropped by the US on Monday landed in the sea due to parachute malfunctions.