Hard Numbers: Paralympic Games open in Paris, Slovaks re-up their air defenses, Ethiopia’s electrifying news, Mexico’s coalition close to supermajority

4,400 The Paralympic Games opened in Paris on Wednesday, with as many as 4,400 athletes who have disabilities or other permanent injuries. They will compete for 549 medals across 22 sports, including fencing, swimming, equestrian, and even blind soccer.

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6: Slovakia is going to buy six mobile air defense systems from Israel in a deal worth about $600 million. The systems will replace ones that were sent by the previous Slovak government to neighboring Ukraine. The current government has clashed with its NATO allies over the wisdom of supporting Kyiv but has stressed the importance of defensive strength within the alliance.

1,550: Dam, that’s a lot of electricity. Ethiopia says that the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which straddles the Blue Nile and has stoked severe tensions with downstream neighbors Egypt and Sudan, is now generating 1,550 megawatts of power, nearly double the output when it first opened in 2022. Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, sees the dam as the cornerstone of its long-term economic development.

1: Mexico’s ruling coalition is now just one seat shy of a supermajority in the Senate after two opposition lawmakers joined the Morena-led coalition of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his incoming successor, Claudia Sheinbaum. A supermajority, or two-thirds control, would permit changes to the constitution, no small issue as the incoming Congress takes up a controversial judicial overhaul that would see the direct election of all justices.