40,000: Moscow blamed a Ukrainian drone attack for a huge fire in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol that burned 40,000 metric tons of oil intended for Russia's Black Sea Fleet on Saturday. Kyiv, as expected, deflected responsibility and (wink-wink) called the blaze "God's punishment" for Friday's Russian missile strikes on civilian targets in eastern Ukraine.
49.2: China's manufacturing activity index unexpectedly dropped in April to 49.2, a light contraction. Although the world's second-largest economy grew faster than predicted in the first quarter, sluggish manufacturing is yet another sign that recovery from zero-COVID will still be a bumpy road.
2/3: Cuba nixed Monday's traditional Labor Day parade for the first time since the 1959 revolution due to acute fuel shortages. President Miguel Díaz Canel says the island is only receiving two-thirds of the fuel it needs to keep the economy going after deliveries from Venezuela plummeted by half in recent months.
42: Santiago Peña from the ruling Colorado party won Paraguay's presidential election on Sunday, clinching more than 42% of the vote over opposition candidate Efraín Alegre. Good news for Taiwan, since Alegre was open to switching Paraguay's diplomatic allegiance to China.In his latest Quick Take, Ian Bremmer argues that the war between the United States and Iran has entered a more dangerous phase, with both sides demonstrating they can sustain military and economic pressure without forcing the other to back down. The question is, will this standoff bring them back to the table before the conflict escalates further?
Ukraine is bringing the war to Russia, challenging one of the conflict's biggest assumptions: that time is on Vladimir Putin's side. Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba joins Ian Bremmer to discuss whether the war is entering a new phase.
For years, Russia has counted on one advantage above all else: time. Ian Bremmer explains why Ukraine's expanding campaign inside Russia is challenging that assumption, and what it could mean for the future of the war.
The US president used a primetime address last night to argue America’s election system is broken and vulnerable to “rigging.” He pointed to documents he says show Chinese interference in the 2020 vote. But the evidence Trump offered, along with past assessments from the intelligence community, doesn’t support his broadest claims.