HARD NUMBERS: Egypt frees famous dissident, EU postpones deforestation import ban, Argentina burns through reserves, global economy picks up

12: Egypt freed British-Egyptian dual citizen Alaa Abd El Fattah, the country’s most prominent political prisoner, after nearly 12 years in jail. Abd El Fattah, a major leader of the 2011 Arab spring protests, was jailed for criticizing current president Abdel Fattah el Sisi. His release comes after years of pressure from the UK government and from his own aging mother, who nearly died during a hunger strike earlier this year.

2: The European Union postponed for a second time a new law that would ban the import of any products made or grown in illegally deforested areas. The U.S., India, and many other agriculture exporters have complained about compliance costs and the impact on smaller farmers.

1.1 billion: Argentina burned through USD$1.1 billion to defend its currency in the past three days alone. Radical cost-cutting president Javier Milei has tamed inflation, but a combination of an overvalued currency and a bad result for his party in recent elections provoked a run on the peso. The White House, which sees Milei as an ideological ally, said it’s ready to provide a bailout.

3.2: Things are actually looking up for the global economy, at least according to the OECD, a group of wealthy countries. It boosted its global GDP growth forecast for this year to 3.2%, saying the world’s economies were “more resilient than expected” in the first half of the year. The previous forecast, from June, was 2.9%. The group warned, however, that the downside risk of trade wars persists.