3,500: The Islamic State West Africa Province, a Nigerian jihadist group aligned with ISIS, is estimated to have around 3,500 fighters today, more than the original group now has in Syria and Iraq. Africa may well be the next front for “the caliphate” as it continues to cede ground in the Middle East.
1,692: Civilian deaths in Afghanistan reached a record of 1,692 in the first half of the year, despite a temporary ceasefire between the government and the Taliban, according to a new UN report.
180: One way to prevent online dissent: turn off the internet. Between January 2016 and December 2017, there were more than 180 documented instances of government-imposed online blackouts around the world, according to the internet advocacy group Access Now. The longest lasted 93 days and took place in Cameroon.
160: A stockpile of gold estimated to be worth $160 billion is locked away in Hindu temples across India. That hidden fortune is increasingly becoming a target for theft in a country where more than 70 million still live in extreme poverty.
7: This week’s meeting between Trump and Putin was the seventh official summit between the leaders of the US and Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the first since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
