Hard Numbers: El Niño heats up, Eurozone inflation cools down, Senegal’s Sonko launches hunger strike, Congress gets a spark
3.5 trillion: As if the world’s hottest month on record weren’t enough, El Niño, the Pacific Ocean climate phenomenon that raises temperatures around the world every few years, is back. Experts say that droughts and seawater changes associated with the warmer temps could lop $3.5 trillion off global growth by the end of the decade.
5.3: Eurozone inflation fell to 5.3% in July, down nearly a full point since May. Falling energy costs were the main reason, but core inflation — which excludes energy and food prices — is still at 5.5%, meaning the ECB isn’t likely to back off on its rate hike policy any time soon.
7: After he was hit with seven new legal charges, prominent Senegalese opposition figure Ousmane Sonko began a hunger strike. Sonko, currently serving a prison term for "corrupting youth" in a conviction that provoked riots, says the government is trying to keep him from challenging President Macky Sall in next year’s election.
25: At least 25 US members of Congress currently drive electric vehicles, according to a straw poll by Politico. Twenty-three of them are Democrats, but one of them is Republican representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who rocks a “Friends of Coal” license plate on his Tesla Model S.CORRECTION: An earlier version of this piece erroneously stated that 25 members of the US Senate were driving electric cars. It is actually 25 members of Congress. We regret the error.