Fresh out of Barnard College with a degree in political science, Riley is learning the ropes as a writer and reporter for GZERO. When she isn’t writing about global politics, you can find her making GZERO’s crossword puzzles, conducting research on American politics, or persisting in her lifelong quest to learn French. Riley spends her time outside of work grilling, dancing, and wearing many hats (both literally and figuratively).
1: Adriana Ruano wonGuatemala its first-ever gold medal at the Olympics in shooting on Wednesday. Going into the 2024 Games, there were69 countries that had never won a Summer Olympics medal and another 37 that had never won gold. We’ll be watching to see how much shorter that list gets as the Games progress.
60: American-made F-16 fighter jets have begun to arrive in Ukraine and are expected to give Kyiv’s air defenses a much-needed boost in its fight against Russia. Although the US approved the delivery last August, it won’t be providing any of its own planes. Instead, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway have committed to providing Ukraine with more than 60 of them over the coming months in what is likely to be a slow trickle of deliveries.
20,000: Central African Republic officials say they are meeting with the governments of neighboring countries to stop the spread of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, which has been rapidly spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and Nigeria. The DRC alone has seen20,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths from mpox, mainly among children, since the start of 2023.
20: In a rocky start to the third quarter, data shows a continued decline for China’s property sector. Transactions among the country’s top 100 real estate developers fell20% last month from a year ago, equivalent to about $38.7 billion. On a month-over-month basis, sales dropped 36%.