20.1: India's economy grew at a record 20.1 percent in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the same period last year, despite the country suffering a crushing COVID wave this spring. PM Narendra Modi was criticized at the time for refusing to impose another nationwide lockdown to keep struggling businesses open, but in the end it paid off (for him) — the economic rebound has given Modi a comeback in his approval rating.
5: Extreme weather events — like this summer's deadly global heat waves— are now five times more frequent and cause seven times more economic damage than they did in the 1970s, according to a new report by the UN weather agency. However, these disasters are now killing four times fewer people than they did 50 years ago because of better preparedness and technology.
4.5 billion: Egypt has signed a $4.5 billion agreement to connect its Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts with a 660-km (410-mile) high-speed railway. Siemens, the German conglomerate that will build it all, is calling the project a "Suez Canal on rails."
275,000: Singapore's PM Lee Hsieng Loong will get $275,000 in damages from two bloggers he sued for publishing an article that criticized his late father Lee Kuan Yew, the prosperous city-state's first post-independence leader. The Lees and the ruling PAP party have long been accused of using defamation suits to silence free speech by bankrupting opposition pols and independent journalists.President Trump unveiled “Project Freedom,” an initiative to escort ships and restore traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, on Sunday. By Tuesday evening, he had unceremoniously suspended it by Truth Social post, shortly after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters how committed the administration was to it.
India’s Modi consolidates grip after historic state election win, Venezuela and Guyana are back in court over border dispute, Trump administration weighs a hands-on approach to AI
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney attended a meeting of the European Political Community in Armenia this weekend, a first by the leader of a non-European country. He was invited to discuss common interests in trade, energy, and security. In a speech that echoed his address to the World Economic Forum in Davos two months earlier, Carney called on middle powers, including Canada and European nations, to work together in the wake of disruption of the established world order — implicitly pointing to the United States. “It’s my strong personal view that the international order will be rebuilt,” he told the crowd in Yerevan, “but it will be rebuilt out of Europe.”
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s government fell after losing a no-confidence vote, putting Romania’s access to EU recovery funds – worth approximately $13 billion – at risk.
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s government fell after losing a no-confidence vote, putting Romania’s access to EU recovery funds – worth approximately $13 billion – at risk. The country, which has the largest budget deficit in the EU, has to complete the bloc’s mandated economic reforms by August to unlock the funds. But with its country’s pro-EU government pushed out, those reforms are uncertain.