Hard Numbers

1.7 million: In 2017, UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party received £835,000 in membership fees and £1.7 million from the wills and legacy contributions of the deceased. In other words, the party received twice as much money last year from dead people as from the living. One-time statistical aberration or not, the Tories have demographic difficulties.

200: Indian Railways, the world’s eighth largest employer, has launched an online recruitment test as part of job applications. The Railways Recruitment Board received more than 24 million applications for roughly 120,000 vacancies. That’s 200 applicants for each job.

66: Sixty-six percent of Russians polled by VTsIOM, a state-run polling agency, agreed with the statement that “there is a group of people who seek to rewrite Russian history and replace historical facts in order to hurt Russia and diminish its greatness.”

40: In February, Brazil’s military took charge of security in crime-ridden Rio state. During this six-month period, shootings have increased by 40 percent and 736 people have been killed by the police. The drug gangs and militias operating in the city haven’t been seriously disrupted.

17: On Tuesday, El Salvador officially cut ties with Taiwan and established a formal alliance with China. Taiwan now has just 17 diplomatic allies. In defense of Taiwan, the US State Department announced it was “deeply disappointed” by El Salvador’s decision and will review its relationship with San Salvador as a result.