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U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell attends a press conference following the issuance of the Federal Open Market Committee's statement on interest rate policy in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 18, 2025
Hard Numbers: Fed holds interest rates, Canada’s population stays flat, LNG plant to open in B.C., US nabs suspects in “largest jewelry heist”
4: The US Fed on Wednesday held interest rates steady for the fourth time in a row, awaiting more data on the economic impact of Donald Trump’s tariff policies. Trump himself this week blasted Fed Chair Jerome Powell as “a stupid person, frankly” for not resuming the rate cuts that began last fall.
0%: Canada recorded a population growth of 0% in the first quarter of 2025, the lowest mark since 2020. This is the sixth consecutive quarter where population growth has slowed, and it comes after the federal government voted to reduce immigration levels late last year.
14 million: Canada is set to produce liquified natural gas (LNG) for the first time this weekend when a coastal facility in British Columbia begins operating. While the $40-billion plant will initially operate at just one quarter of its capacity, it is expected to ultimately export 14 million metric tonnes of LNG every year. It is the first North American LNG plant with direct access to the Pacific, meaning it can serve the voracious appetite for LNG in Asia.
$100 million: Seven men were arrested in California for the “largest jewelry heist” in US history, after stealing $100 million dollars worth of gold, gems, and watches from an armored truck near San Francisco in 2022.
Graphic Truth: How many countries can fit in China?
China’s population, once the largest in the world, is now gradually shrinking. The problem has become so acute that the authorities last week raised the pension age by up to five years due to fears that there might not be enough working-age people to support the country’s pension system.
Still, even as the world’s second most populous country – India is now first – China boasts a vast population of some 1.4 billion people.
To put that in perspective, the country is home to nearly one out of every five earthlings.
In fact, of China’s nearly three dozen primary administrative districts, the two most populous – Guangdong and Shandong – alone contain more people than 99% of other entire countries.
Here is a look at China’s provinces expressed (give or take a few million people) as the populations of other entire countries.
For more on the challenge that China faces in maintaining its population, see here.A shopper pays with a euro bank note in a market in Nice, France, amid sky-high inflation.
Hard Numbers: Eurozone inflation record, Saudi woman sentenced for tweeting, US life expectancy drops, Russia cuts off gas to EU … again
9.1: Year-on-year inflation in the Eurozone’s 19 countries rose to 9.1% in August, up from 8.9% last month. It’s the highest rate on record since the group began recording in 1997, and will put pressure on the European Central Bank to again raise interest rates, raising the likelihood of a recession in some EU countries.
45: A Saudi woman has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after a court convicted her of using the internet to "tear the kingdom’s social fabric.” Though Saudi officials have not released many details on the case, a human rights NGO said the woman used a pseudonym to tweet her political opinions.
76: Average life expectancy in the US dropped to 76 in 2021, down three years from 2019. The dip was more pronounced among white Americans and is partly attributable to the pandemic.
745: Russia has again completely halted natural gas deliveries to the European Union via the 745-mile-long Nord Stream 1 pipeline under the Baltic Sea. The pipeline was already operating at just 20% capacity after Russia slashed supply because the EU hit Moscow with sanctions over Ukraine. For now, this move has not impacted global gas prices.The Graphic Truth: Where populations are rising ... or falling
The world is currently 8 billion people strong – and is expected to hit almost 10 billion by 2050. That's well into the future, but for the next three years, the UN actually predicts annual population growth will be just under 1%, with vast disparity among regions. Where are populations growing the most and least, and even declining? We take a look at short-term growth trends ahead of World Population Day on July 11.
Israel-Palestine conflict worsening and could lead to a war
Ian Bremmer shares his perspective on global politics this week:
Why has there been a recent escalation of violence in Jerusalem?
Well, it started with demonstrations of the Palestinians expecting a verdict on these cases of Palestinians that have been pushed out of their homes in East Jerusalem by settlers, contested territory that has belonged to the Palestinians. You've had lots of violence against them by Israeli police, then you had Gaza missiles from Hamas, and then Israeli missiles into Gaza, and now we've got a couple dozen Palestinians dead and the potential for this to get a lot worse is real. The shekel has even moved a little bit because there's concerns that this could lead to a war. It's not a broader war. This is not as much of a priority for the Arabs in the region, so it doesn't kill the Abraham Accords, Iran is still moving ahead with a deal, but in terms of potential for real bloodshed between Israel and the Palestinians, absolutely. That's something to worry about.
What's happening in Colombia?
There was an effort by President Duque in his last year, he can't run for another term, to increase taxes to deal with their fiscal balance. And it's still in the middle of a pandemic, the timing was really difficult, especially because it hits the poor too, it's not just wealthy taxes, even things like funerals. Massive outcry, now anger about all sorts of things, a lot of violence, police brutality in the response. His popularity has hit the toilet as a consequence and a lot of instability on the ground of Colombia. This is not just a Colombia problem. You have this kind of outcry against established political figures across South America, right now, as they're dealing with some of the worst outbreaks of coronavirus. This is a region that's been hit both economically and healthcare-wise really bad.
Finally, what's the concern with China's population growth decline?
Well, every 10 years they have a census and the population is flat. There was some belief it might even have decreased a little bit, but it's certainly not growing. India's population is growing. When you look at India versus China, there is a lot of sense of, "Well, how can China become a superpower if their population is going to get old before it gets rich, and if they're running out of workers and if not as many people are consuming, especially when they focus on dual circulation, which means more domestic demand?" But this is a longer-term issue. Near-term, the more proximate point is that the Chinese are at parity with the Americans on key technologies, and that makes them, by far, the most important competitor and national security threat to the United States. Ain't going to change.
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