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Hard Numbers: Cheaper British pound, India’s Congress Party march, Chilean damage control, convictions of Hong Kong children’s authors
British pound banknote is displayed on US Dollar banknotes.
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
37: Markets are responding negatively to new British PM Liz Truss, with the British pound falling this week to its lowest level against the US dollar in 37 years. Truss is taking the helm this week as the UK grapples with cost-of-living and inflation crises that dwarf those in the EU and the US.
2,218: Rahul Gandhi, the leader of India’s once-prominent Congress Party, will embark on a 2,218-mile cross-country march over five months to connect with locals and try to boost his flailing party’s political prospects. Congress has been crippled by internal dissent in recent years, and many supporters have defected to PM Narendra Modi’s BJP.
5: Chile’s embattled leftist President Gabriel Boric has replaced five cabinet ministers – interior, health, science, energy, and the presidency – with more moderate politicians closer to the center-left. This comes just days after Chileans gave a resounding thumbs down to a proposed new constitution, with many saying that some of the new provisions were too radical.
5:Five producers of children’s books in Hong Kong were convicted Wednesday of sedition, with authorities saying that their cartoons – depicting sheep trying to stave off wolves from a village – constituted a plot against the government. This targeting of the authors, all of whom are speech therapists who now face a couple of years in prison, is the latest attempt by Beijing to quash freedom of expression in Hong Kong.In this Quick Take, Ian Bremmer weighs in on the politicization of the Olympics after comments by Team USA freestyle skier Hunter Hess sparked backlash about patriotism and national representation.
100 million: The number of people expected to watch the Super Bowl halftime performance with Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican superstar and newly minted Album of the Year winner at the Grammys.
Brazilian skiers, American ICE agents, Israeli bobsledders – this is just a smattering of the fascinating characters that will be present at this year’s Winter Olympics. Yet the focus will be a different country, one that isn’t formally competing: Russia.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), appeals for a candidate during a street speech of the House of Representatives Election Campaign in Shintomi Town, Miyazaki Prefecture on February 6, 2026. The Lower House election will feature voting and counting on February 8th.
Japanese voters head to the polls on Sunday in a snap election for the national legislature’s lower house, called just three months into Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s tenure.