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Hard Numbers
People bathe in the sun under parasols on a beach near the city of Larnaca, Cyprus, on August 11, 2024.
15,000: The United Arab Emirates is literally helping Cyprus navigate troubled waters by providing portable desalination plants to the Mediterranean island free of charge so it can supply enough water to the deluge of tourists set to visit this summer. The Emirati nation’s plants will reportedly produce 15,000 cubic meters of potable water per day. It’s unclear if the UAE is receiving anything in return – it seems happy to go with the flow.
$582 billion: China informed the United States that it must “completely cancel all unilateral tariff measures” if it hopes to begin talks over trade. Beijing had previously said that it was open to talks, without preconditions. However, on Friday, Reuters reported that Beijing would exempt some critical goods from its 125% and is asking its firms to identify imports they need to continue functioning --- though it stopped short of publicly making the first move in trade war de-escalation. Total trade between the two superpowers was $582 billion in 2024, but the sweeping new tariffs that each has slapped on the other is likely to force this number down.
2: In the latest clash between the Trump administration and the courts on immigration, the White House moved a Venezuelan man from Pennsylvania to Texas — possibly preparing to deport him — right after a judge ruled that the government couldn’t remove him from the commonwealth or the United States. The man, who wasn’t formally named, had been employed as a construction worker in Philadelphia for two months before his arrest in February on suspicion of being part of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.
77%: The price isn’t right: 77% of Americans expect President Donald Trump’s tariff plan to raise consumer prices, with 47% believing that consumer prices will “increase a lot,” according to an AP-NORC poll. Despite those numbers, 4 in 10 Americans still approve of Trump’s handling of the economy and trade negotiations.
0: In the wake of Trump’s tariffs, Germany announced on Thursday it was downgrading its predicted economic growth rate — the economy depends heavily on manufacturing exports — from 0.3% to 0.0%. If the prediction holds, 2025 will be the third straight year of stagnation for Europe’s largest economy.
217 million: Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in was indicted on Thursday on bribery charges, alleging that he received 217 million won ($151,705) from the founder of a low-cost airline. No, it wasn’t Turkish Airlines but Eastar Jet.The $Trump meme coin together with Bitcoin and crypto coins, seen in this photo illustration.
50: The value of $TRUMP surged by more than 50% on Wednesday after the cryptocurrency’s issuer said President Donald Trump would have dinner with the top 220 holders of the meme coin next month. The top 25 holders of $TRUMP would get a special pre-dinner reception and VIP tour of the White House.
62.3 and 31.4: No matter which of Canada’s largest parties wins the upcoming election, you can be sure of one thing: Deficits are here to stay. The Liberals’ spending plans foresee a deficit of $62.3 billion this year, falling to about $48 billion by the end of the decade. The Conservatives see a deficit of $31.4 billion this year, falling to $14 billion over the same time frame.
25: The number of people locking in mortgage rates to buy second homes in the Tampa area of Florida fell 25% in the first quarter of this year. Experts say the drop is due largely to evaporating interest from Canadian “snowbirds” put off by the Trump administration’s attacks on Canada and its tighter security restrictions on foreigners.
28: It’s about to get easier to drill, baby, drill. The US Department of the Interior has implemented an emergency measure that caps approval times for energy and mining projects on federal lands at 28 days. Permitting for projects of this kind can normally take months or even years. Solar and wind projects are, notably, excluded from the new rules.
Bleached corals are seen in a reef in Koh Mak, Trat province, Thailand, May 8, 2024.
84: A harmful mass “bleaching” event has struck 84% of the world’s coral reefs, in the largest incident of its kind on record, the International Coral Reef Initiative announced Wednesday. Bleaching occurs when warmer seas cause the colorful algae that live inside corals to emit toxic compounds. The corals, which feed on those algae, then expel them, leaving behind a colorless “bleached” coral that is at greater risk of starvation. Coral reefs are critical for ocean biodiversity, fisheries, shoreline protection, and tourism. Last year was the hottest on record.
1 trillion: The rich get richer, they say, and the poor get poorer. In the US, the first half of that is true for sure, as a new study shows $1 trillion in additional wealth was created for the country’s 19 richest families in 2024 alone. As a result, the top 0.00001% richest Americans now control 1.8% of US household wealth, the highest share ever for the stratospherically wealthy.
6: Donald Trump’s approval rating on the economy has fallen six points since he was elected, to 37%, according to a new Reuters/IPSOS poll. Most of the drop preceded Trump’s April 2 announcement of global “reciprocal tariffs.” His approval rating on immigration fell five points since early March, to 45%. Trump’s overall approval rating is at 42%. That’s the same level he showed at this point in his first term, and 13 points below where Joe Biden was in his.
1 billion: Brazilian police said Wednesday that they have arrested the head of the country’s social security agency and seized assets worth 1 billion reais ($175 million) as part of a sprawling corruption investigation. Five other officials of the agency were also jailed, and more than 200 search warrants have been executed in multiple states. The probe’s focus is the possibly fraudulent deduction of certain fees from social security benefits.
700 million: The European Commission on Wednesday fined US tech giants Apple and Meta a total of €700 million for breaching the EU’s Digital Markets Act, an antitrust law. Apple must pay €500 million ($572 million) for discriminating against developers and platforms that sell apps outside of the company’s own App Store. Meta, meanwhile, got a €200 million fine for forcing users to pay for enhanced privacy protections. Apple said it would appeal, while Meta blasted EU tech regulations, saying they will “handicap American business” while helping Chinese and European competitors.
Burkina Faso’s junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore attends the first ordinary summit of heads of state and governments of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in Niamey, Niger, on July 6, 2024.
40%: Burkina Faso’s ruling military recently foiled an attempted coup aimed at removing junta leader Cap. Ibrahim Traoré, the country’s security minister said on Monday. The Sahel nation has had to deal with widespread insurgency in recent years, with rebel jihadist groups reportedly controlling around 40% of the country’s land mass.
55: US President Donald Trump made a dent in American democracy almost as soon as he won the 2024 election, according to a survey of 520 political experts. The Bright Line Watch benchmark gave US democracy a rating of 55 in February, down 12 points from where it was on the day of Trump’s election victory and 14 points from where it was in October 2024. It’s the country’s fastest drop since the survey began in 2017.
2%: Our globally minded readers will immediately recognize this figure as the proportion of gross domestic product that NATO member nations are encouraged to spend on defense. Under pressure from the Trump administration and its European allies to expand its military, Spain said Tuesday that it will finally hit that figure again this year, after falling short for over 30 years.
130: Elon Musk is DOGE-ing himself. The Tesla CEO says he will cut back his role in the government after his electric vehicle company reported a massive profit drop. Musk says he will spend just one to two days each week on DOGE following accusations that he has let his focus on Tesla slip. Regardless, temporary government employees like Musk are normally limited to working 130 days a year, which would expire at the end of May.
8: So much for the Great Escape: From January through April, US authorities arrested eight undocumented Dominican migrants in Puerto Rico who were trying to return to their home country. The arrests raise questions over the Trump administration’s stated goal of encouraging undocumented migrants to leave of their own accord.
$20 billion: Trump’s tariffs have Tokyo in a selling mood. Japanese investors said sayonara to more than $20 billion of foreign debt early this month. The selloff shows how Wall Street jitters can ripple across the Pacific. It’s not clear which foreign debt Japanese investors unloaded, though they are the largest holders of US Treasuries of any country worldwide, so their investment choices are observed hawkishly.
26: Outrage is rising after gunmen killed 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam on Tuesday. Several other victims remain critically injured. The Resistance Front – believed to be an offshoot of Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba – has claimed responsibility.
U.S. President Donald Trump salutes as he attends the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on April 21, 2025.
30,000: Rising egg prices don’t seem to have hit the White House, as nearly 30,000 real eggs adorned the White House lawn Monday morning for the 147th annual Easter egg roll. Donald Trump paid tribute to Pope Francis, defended embattled US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and shared photos with the Easter bunny.
1: Hey ChatGPT, can you propose some new legislation for the United Arab Emirates? Yes, the Emirati nation plans to become the first country to harness the power of artificial intelligence to propose new legislation.
875: Out of the roughly 1,000 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Healthjobs, the Trump administration has cut 875 of them as part of its broader effort to slash the number of federal employees. This move could especially harm former coal miners – who often suffer from lung disease – as NIOSH has helped them find work outside the mines.
14,000: More than 14,000 American and Filipino soldiers – 9,000 from the US, 5,000 from the Philippines – are participating in a “full battle test” this year, amid mounting tensions in the South China Sea. The coordinated drill will also feature soldiers from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The exercise, which started on Monday, will run for three weeks.
$3,400: An age-gold problem: The price of gold surpassed $3,400 on Monday amid fears over the future of the global economy and concerns for the Federal Reserve’s independence. A year ago today, the price of gold was at $2,384.
$3,000: A thief swiped US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s bag while she was having dinner in Washington, DC, on Sunday night, taking her passport, makeup bag, checkbook, and $3,000 in cash. Police officers have not yet caught the thief, believed to be a white male.Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivers remarks during a reenlistment ceremony for Medal of Honor recipient in the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon last week.
2: Defense Secretary Pete Hegsethreportedly shared classified details about looming US airstrikes in Yemen in a second unclassified Signal group -- this time including his wife, brother, and personal attorney. On March 15, he disclosed flight plans for F/A-18 Hornets targeting Houthi positions. That was the same day Hegseth sent similar information to another Signal chat that included The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, raising serious concerns about mishandling of sensitive military intelligence.
50: Protests were held in cities across the US on Saturday to protest the “anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies,” according to the group 50501, which organized many of the events. From Portland, Maine, to Los Angeles, thousands took to the streets to protest what they see as Donald Trump’s civil rights and constitutional violations.
329,196: Five foreign students are suing the US Dept. of Homeland Security over the loss of their F-1 visas, which they held as international students. The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit, says the Trump administration has terminated F-1 visas for “hundreds, if not thousands, of international students.” One of the five involved in the suit, Chinese national Hangrui Zhang, invested a whopping $329,196 into his US studies, and he now faces the prospect of not being able to finish his degree.
56: Suspected violence between Muslim cattle herders and Christian farmers over land use and grazing rights turned deadly again in central Nigeria. At least 56 people were killed on Thursday and Friday in Benue state in the latest clash to plague Africa’s most populous country — fighting in north central Plateau state also claimed more than 100 lives in recent weeks. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar condemned the killings and publicly blamed President Bola Tinubu for not doing enough to stop the violence.
4,000: Whether it’s because they’re shunning the US amid Donald Trump’s tariff war, reading how wonderful Japan is to visit, or simply enjoying how far their dollars go against the weaker yen, Canadians are increasingly vacationing in Japan. More than 550,000 Canadian tourists visited last year, a 37% jump from 2023. But the Japanese, concerned with overtourism and housing affordability, are starting to push back by raising tourism prices. From July, foreigners looking to climb Mount Fuji, for example, will pay 4,000 yen, roughly CA$40, double last year’s cost. But the price may not be steep enough to keep adventure-seeking hordes at bay.
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem takes part in a news conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada April 16, 2025.
2.75: Canada’s central bank held its key interest rate steady at 2.75% this week, ending a streak of seven consecutive cuts. Despite concerns about a slowing Canadian economy, and a lower-than-expected inflation reading earlier this week, the regulator opted not to cut rates due to massive uncertainty about the extent and impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
100 and 25: Canadian industries are busy lobbying one of the world’s largest economies for tariff relief — but, in this case, it’s not the US but China. The world’s number two economy last month slapped a 100% tariff on Canadian canola products and a 25% levy on pork and seafood. The move, which could cost some Canadian meat-processors more than $100 million this year, was made in retaliation for Ottawa’s tariffs on Chinese EVs.
110,000: The Trump administration transferred nearly 110,000 acres of federal land along the US southern border to the Army, as part of its efforts to rein in illegal immigration and drug smuggling. The move, which lasts three years, will permit increased federal patrols, broaden the powers of US troops there to detain migrants, and facilitate the construction of more border security infrastructure.
2: Global economic growth will fall below 2% this year, the weakest showing since 2009, excluding the pandemic. That’s the grim new forecast from Fitch Ratings, a leading global ratings group. Fitch said it had slashed its global growth prognosis by 0.4 percentage points because of the expected impact of the US tariffs and the deepening trade war between the US and China, the world’s two largest economies.
6.2: This week Major League Baseball celebrated Jackie Robinson Day, honoring the storied Brooklyn Dodger who became the first Black player to take the field in the big leagues. But 78 years after Robinson broke the color barrier, black players made up just 6.2% of the names on Opening Day rosters this year, down from a peak of about 19% in the early 1980s.