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Hard Numbers: Bidding Adios to the Beetle!

650 million: Between 2012 and 2018, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia donated roughly $650 million to more than 60 US universities. But Saudi Arabia isn't the greatest source of foreign money to American universities — that honor goes to Qatar…with whom the Saudis are currently feuding. #CollegeRivalries (Willis hastens to note that in the American South, college football rivalries are known as "border wars.")

81: The last VW Beetle rolled off the production line last week in Puebla, Mexico, marking the end of the iconic car's 81-year history. Designed by Ferdinand Porsche, championed by Adolf Hitler, anthropomorphized as Herbie the Love Bug, and driven famously (with a Rolls Royce Grill!) by Cheech and Chong, this car is one of the most beloved machines humanity has ever made. What's your best memory of the Beetle?

390,000: According to the US Government Accountability Office, the FBI has conducted more than 390,000 facial recognition searches since 2011. If that worries you, then consider that the FBI has access to 641 million face photos in databases compiled by local, state, and federal authorities. #savingface

6,856: Death squads backed by the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela killed 6,856 people between January of 2018 and mid-May 2019, according to a report released by the UN earlier this month. The report says this is a conservative estimate, citing outside groups that place the death toll higher than 9,000.

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Participants and protesters hold posters opposing Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's administration and her policies on constitutional revision and military expansion during a Constitution Memorial Day rally in Tokyo, Japan, May 3, 2026.
REUTERS/Issei Kato.

Will Japan rewrite its rules of war? Europe meets (again) to shape its own defense destiny, US to “guide” ships through Hormuz

Natalie Johnson

Putin is increasingly paranoid, according to a Financial Times report out today. Security has been tightened, more time is being spent in underground bunkers, and the vast majority of his attention is being absorbed by Russia’s war with Ukraine. One reason of his concern is said to be Ukraine’s drone capabilities, which have demonstrated an ability to strike Russian airfields thousands of miles from Kyiv.