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Hard Numbers
Orania town sign in front of local shopping centre is pictured in whites-only town of Orania, South Africa, April 1, 2025.
14 billion: On Thursday, India’s parliament passed a controversial law on the governance of lands donated to Muslim charities. The organizations, known as waqfs (or awqāf, if you’re a stickler for the original Arabic grammar), control a million acres of territory worth more than $14 billion. The new law permits non-Muslims to join the management boards that manage these properties. Supporters say the law promotes inclusivity and transparency, but opponents say it weakens the rights of India’s Muslim minority at a time when government-backed Hindu nationalist groups are trying to seize and destroy mosques they argue are located atop earlier Hindu temples.
6: In the United States, door-knocking Jehovah’s Witnesses can be seen as a blessing or a nuisance, but in Russia, they are “extremists.” A Russian court in the city of Chelyabinsk on Thursday sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to six years in prison for organizing group activities. Since banning the group in 2017, Russia has jailed hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a community of about 175,000 people who are viewed with suspicion because of their dissidence from the Russian Orthodox Church and their ties to the US.
75: On Thursday, Portuguese anti-corruption investigators carried out 75 separate raids in three cities, targeting the Bank of Portugal as well as private accounting firms, homes, and other public institutions. They allege a massive, eight-year corruption scheme amounting to nearly $20 million in IT service contracts.Hard Numbers: Border apprehensions plunge, Maplewashing crops up, Fentanyl trickles in, Trump puts “Truth” on the block
An aerial view shows a truck crossing into the United States over the Cordova of the Americas border bridge, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on April 2, 2025.
7,180: US border authorities apprehended just 7,180 migrants illegally crossing the Southern Border in March, the lowest monthly number on record. The figure marks a twentyfold decline from the monthly average over the past four years as the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on undocumented migration continues. A recent poll put popular support for Trump’s immigration approach at 49%, the highest mark of any issue.
6: You may have heard of “pinkwashing,” “greenwashing,” “sanewashing,” or the more conventional “whitewashing.” But now there’s “maplewashing.” As of mid-March, Canadian authorities have busted six companies for fraudulently claiming their products are made in Canada rather than the US. The crackdown comes as the “Buy Canadian” movement, which boycotts American products, continues to grow in response to Donald Trump’s threats against Canada.
0.1: Donald Trump has said fentanyl is “pouring” into the US from Canada. But one man’s “pour” is another man’s “barely perceptible trickle.” Turns out, barely 0.1% of the drug seized along the US northern border last year actually came from Canada, according to government data obtained by the Globe & Mail. The remaining 99.9% came either from Mexico or from elsewhere in the US.
2.3 billion: The truth may be priceless, but Truth Social? That’s a different story. President Donald Trumpsuggested this week that he was open to selling his $2.3 billion stake in the social media company, which is a competitor of X in the microblogging space. The company has lost some 40% of its market value this year amid a wider stock market plunge triggered by uncertainty about Trump’s trade and tariff plans.German police forcibly dispersed a pro-Palestinian protest in Berlin on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025.
4: Berlin’s immigration authorities have ordered three EU citizens and one American to leave Germany by April 21 or face deportation following accusations that the four had committed antisemitic acts in support of terrorism. In a joint statement, the four accused Berlin authorities of trying to “silence pro-Palestinian voices.” Officials say the expulsion was connected to protests at Berlin’s Free University during which “a violent, masked group of individuals” caused “significant property damage.”
90: The head of a three-judge panel that barred far-right leader Marine Le Pen from running in France’s 2027 presidential election this week has been placed under police protection following death threats and the online publication of her home address. A poll published Monday found that more than half of French respondents say Le Pen got a fair trial, while nearly 90% of her National Rally supporters say the court treated her more harshly than other politicians.
2 million: In 2023, Washington sent 225 US Agency for International Development workers and $185 million to Turkey and Syria for relief and recovery efforts following a devastating earthquake. President Donald Trump’s adviser Elon Musk is currently finalizing plans to shut down the USAID, and the US State Department announced on Monday that a team of three people and a donation of $2 million to humanitarian organizations working in Myanmar are headed for the site of a 7.7-magnitude quake last Friday.
13: Tesla, the electric vehicle maker led by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that its global sales for the first three months of 2025 fell 13% from the same period last year. Musk’s controversial role in Donald Trump’s White House and his public advocacy for far-right parties and politicians in Europe likely contributed to the slump.
500: Haiti’s violent chaos continues. On Tuesday, gang members stormed the town of Mirebalais, 30 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital, and freed about 500 prison inmates. The UN says that gang violence killed more than 5,600 people in Haiti last year.
3,750: New York City Mayor Eric Adams has confirmed that he will seek reelection as an independent rather than a Democrat. He must collect 3,750 signatures by May 27 to make it onto the November ballot. It’s been quite a week for Adams: A judge dismissed the criminal corruption case against the mayor on Wednesday, and his party switch was announced Thursday morning.
3: Hungary is set to become the third country to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, following the path of Burundi and the Philippines. Viktor Orban’s government announced the move on Thursday amid a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an arrest warrant from the ICC over alleged war crimes.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) speaks during a marathon address from the US Senate floor on Tuesday, April 1, 2025.
25+: The Democrats may not have the White House or a majority in Congress, but one thing they do have, still, is words. Lots and lots of words. Words for days, even, as Democratic Sen. Cory Booker showed by taking to the podium on Monday with a broadside against Donald Trump that lasted more than 25 hours. The veteran lawmaker from New Jersey, a former football player, had vowed to stay up there as long as he was “physically able.” Before yielding the floor on Tuesday night, Booker broke the record for the longest Senate floor speech, surpassing one set in 1957 by the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, who filibustered against civil rights.
42: The first stage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, brokered in January, officially lasted 42 days. The deal now looks to be far in the rearview mirror, as Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Wednesday that he would expand his army’s latest military offensive in Gaza. The two sides are still negotiating another ceasefire deal via mediators but haven’t yet reached an agreement.
5: Benjamin Netanyahuleaves Wednesday on a five-day visit to Hungary. It’s the Israeli PM’s second trip abroad since the International Criminal Court last year issued an arrest warrant for him over alleged war crimes in Gaza. In February, he visited the US. Hungary is an ICC member, but the country’s proudly “illiberal” PM Viktor Orban says he won’t honor the court’s warrant. In recent years, the right-winger Netanyahu has cultivated controversial ties with populist nationalist parties in Europe, including some with histories of overt antisemitism.
6: In recent years, half a dozen Australian universities have closed the Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes on their campuses. The CIs educate students about Chinese language, history, and culture. The moves come amid broader tensions between Australia and China, and they reflect fears that Beijing has used the institutes to spread pro-Chinese propaganda and cultivate possible intelligence assets.
38: Argentina’s poverty rate plunged from 53% to 38% last year. Analysts credit “anarcho-capitalist” president Javier Milei, who drastically slashed government spending to put the mismanaged economy on a more stable footing. After an initial bout of pain, those measures brought inflation down from nearly 300% to 70%, easing poverty as people’s spending power increased.
Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025.
15: Fifteen Palestinian medics who went missing last week were apparently killed by Israeli forces and buried in an impromptu mass grave along with their ambulances, according to the UN. Israel said its forces fired on the medical convoy after it began moving “suspiciously” and alleged that a specific Hamas operative was killed in the attack, but initial reports said his name was not listed among the dead. Gazans laid the medics to rest properly on Monday.
900,000: The days of the archetypal Japanese “salaryman” — spending his entire career with one company, toiling away by day and drinking away by night with the graybeards whom he will one day replace — are numbered. Last year, more than 900,000 Japanese people changed their full-time jobs, up 60% from a decade ago. Experts say Japan’s rapidly aging population has given younger workers fresh power to choose new paths.
35: With a little more than a month before the Romanian presidential election, polls show right-wing opposition leader George Simion as the frontrunner with 35% support. Last year, Romania canceled the results of the presidential election won by ultra-right-winger Calin Georgescu, alleging Russian meddling, and disqualified him from running again. Simion appears to have inherited his support.
49: A new poll shows 49% of Americans approve of Donald Trump’s handling of immigration, the highest mark of any issue. Meanwhile, 46% like how he has handled government spending, and roughly 4 in 10 Americans like his approach to trade and the economy.
4.6%: Fears over new US tariffs led to the S&P 500 falling 4.6% during the first three months of 2025, bringing a close to the worst quarter for the index since 2022. It’s quite the slowdown from the end of 2024, when the S&P completed a second straight year posting greater than 20% gains. The Stoxx Europe 600 index has had no such issues, running nearly 10 percentage points ahead of its American rival in the first quarter of this year.
Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa speaks during a Ministerial formation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic, in Damascus, Syria, on March 29, 2025.
23: Syria has a new transitional Cabinet. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa swore in his new 23-member team on Saturday, replacing caretakers who had been in those roles since former President Bashar Assad was ousted in December. While the new Cabinet is largely filled with al-Sharaa allies, it is religiously and ethnically diverse, a sign that Syria is moving forward to rebuild in the post-Assad and post-civil war era.
1: At least one person was killed amid suspected US strikes against Yemen’s Houthis on Saturday. According to the Associated Press, the Trump administration has embarked on an expanded anti-Houthi campaign in recent days, targeting ranking rebel personnel. Satellite photos also reportedly show an airstrip off Yemen that looks prepared to accept flights and B-2 bombers.
100,000: The FDA’s top vaccine official resigned on Friday after being told he could quit or be fired. Dr. Peter Marks stressed that he was worried that Robert F. Kennedy’s aggressive stance on vaccination would dangerously undermine public confidence in vaccines against common diseases such as measles, which is spreading in the US and has “killed more than 100,000 unvaccinated children last year in Africa and Asia.” An HHS spokesperson, meanwhile, said Friday that Dr. Marks didn’t belong at the FDA if he was not committed to supporting the “restoration of science to its golden standard and advocate for radical transparency.”
5-50: On Saturday, Hamas offered to release 5 hostages during the three-day Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, which began Sunday, to secure a 50-day ceasefire. The offer came in response to a proposal the militants received from Egypt and Qatar. Israel offered a counterproposal in coordination with Washington, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding the release of 10 of the remaining 24 hostages believed to still be alive.
3: US President Donald Trump mused on Sunday that he’s not joking about finding “methods” to serve a third term, including being elected VP and then having the president resign to become president by succession. While some Trump loyalists like Steve Bannon believe a third term might be possible, constitutional experts warn there’s no “one weird trick” to bypass the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to two elected terms.
6: Four police officers and two suspected rebels — dubbed terrorists for their opposition to Indian rule — were reportedly killed Saturday morning in Jammu and Kashmir. Thousands of people have died in battles between rebels and Indian security forces over the past few decades, but violence has lessened in recent years.
15,000: How much will US President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico drive up car prices? Goldman Sachs estimates a bump of between $5,000 and $15,000 per vehicle, depending on the brand and model. But Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he “couldn’t care less” if car prices soared, maintaining that manufacturers should build their vehicles in the US.
Rescue personnel walk near a building that collapsed after a strong earthquake struck central Myanmar on Friday, March 28, 2025.
7.7: Two disastrous earthquakes, the first of 7.7 magnitude, struck Myanmar on Friday, destroying vital infrastructure across Southeast Asia. Videos of a collapsed bridge in Mandalay, Myanmar, and a fallen building in Bangkok, Thailand, have emerged. The number of casualties isn’t yet known, although several are feared trapped under a fallen skyscraper in the Thai capital. At least 144 people have been confirmed dead.
71,000: Israel’s right-wing government on Thursday passed a contentious law to allow politicians greater sway in judicial appointments, despite some 71,000 opposition amendments. The move is a part of the judicial overhaul that protesters have been fighting for over a year and comes amid Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
125: Since the US election, Fox News has gained 125 new high-profile advertisers as Rupert Murdoch’s cable network continues to draw soaring viewership during President Donald Trump’s second term. Businesses such as Amazon, GE Vernova, JPMorgan Chase, Netflix, and UBS have recently run ads on Fox News for the first time in over two years.
5.7 million: According to a new World Bank study, 5.7 million people are killed annually by air pollution. The global institution is calling on countries to take an integrated approach to halve the number of people breathing unhealthy air by 2040 and points to places like Mexico City, which has successfully curbed pollution, and Egypt and Turkey, which have put financing mechanisms in place to support emission reduction.
20,000: The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will cut 20,000 positions from the Department of Health and Human Services – 10,000 from job cuts and 10,000 from voluntary departures – as part of a major restructuring that its chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says “will do more — a lot more — at a lower cost to the taxpayer.” RFK says the reorganization is intended to help the department prioritize the fight against chronic diseases, but critics fear it could hinder the critical agency, which includes Medicare and the Federal Drug Administration. And throughout the federal government, officials are planning for between 8% and 50% staff cuts, according to an internal White House document obtained by the Washington Post.
19: Two weeks after the Trump administration dropped its first bombs on Houthi rebels in Yemen — details of which were revealed over the now-infamous Signal chat — the United States is believed to have attacked again early Friday, firing at least 19 strikes. The extent of the damage is unclear, although the intensity of the bombardment has increased since the Biden administration first started pounding the Houthis.