Hard Numbers: India taxes diesel exports, Donetsk citizens told to flee, France nationalizes EDF, NYC needs lifeguards

Hard Numbers: India taxes diesel exports, Donetsk citizens told to flee, France nationalizes EDF, NYC needs lifeguards
Employee at a gas station during a protest against rising fuel prices in Assam, India.
David Talukdar via Reuters Connect

100,000: New export taxes on fuel could reduce the amount of diesel India sells abroad by as much as 100,000 barrels per day, exacerbating shortages and high prices elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Indians keep scooping up Russian oil at bargain prices.

350,000: The governor of Donetsk is urging 350,000 civilians to escape the Ukrainian province as Russia advances in its bid to seize the entire eastern Donbas region. The Russians took Luhansk over the weekend and now control about half of Donetsk.

100: France will take 100% control of the debt-ridden power group EDF. The state already owned 84%, but EDF has been sustaining huge losses after investing in more nuclear plants and footing the bill for energy price caps introduced in January. The government hopes this will help France move away from fossil fuels.

19: Amid a nationwide shortage of lifeguards, New York City is boosting salaries for the eternally chill summer swimmer saviors to $19 dollars an hour. With signing bonuses!

More from GZERO Media

Five years ago, Microsoft set bold 2030 sustainability goals: to become carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste—all while protecting ecosystems. That commitment remains—but the world has changed, technology has evolved, and the urgency of the climate crisis has only grown. This summer, Microsoft launched the 2025 Environmental Sustainability Report, offering a comprehensive look at the journey so far, and how Microsoft plans to accelerate progress. You can read the report here.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian shake hands as they meet with the media to make a joint statement following their talks in Yerevan, Armenia, August 19, 2025.
Hayk Baghdasaryan/Photolure via REUTERS

$3 billion: Armenia and Iran pledged to triple bilateral trade to $3 billion this week, just days after Yerevan inked a US-brokered peace deal with Azerbaijan.

An Indian paramilitary soldier guards a road during India's 79th Independence Day celebrations in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on August 15, 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi issues a stern warning to Pakistan, stating that India will not tolerate nuclear blackmail anymore and will give a befitting reply to the enemy. He asserts that India has now set a ''new normal'' of not differentiating between terrorists and those who nurture terrorism.
Photo by Firdous Nazir/NurPhoto

For four days in May, two nuclear rivals stood at the brink of a potentially catastrophic escalation, one that could impact a fifth of the world’s population.

People celebrate after early official results show Bolivian presidential candidate Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga of the conservative Alianza Libre coalition in second place, and as the ruling party Movement for Socialism (MAS) was on track to suffer its worst electoral defeat in a generation, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, August 17, 2025.
REUTERS/Ipa Ibanez

20: The centrist Rodrigo Paz and the conservative Jorge Quiroga advanced to Bolivia’s presidential runoff election after winning the most votes in Sunday’s first round, ensuring that a left-wing politician won’t occupy the country’s presidency for the first time in 20 years.

Enaam Abdallah Mohammed, 19, a displaced Sudanese woman and mother of four, who fled with her family, looks on inside a camp shelter amid the ongoing conflict between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army, in Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan July 30, 2025.
REUTERS