News
Hard Numbers: Lithuania cuts off Russian gas, Shanghai mass-testing, food aid reaches Tigray, Costa Rican runoff
Model of a natural gas pipeline in front of EU and Russia flag colors.
REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
1: Lithuania has become the first EU country to stop importing Russian natural gas in response to the war in Ukraine. What a turnaround for the Baltic nation, which in 2015 relied almost exclusively on Russian gas for its domestic needs and is now asking other EU states to follow its lead.
26 million: On Sunday, Shanghai’s 26 million residents were ordered to self-test for COVID. China’s most populous city has been under lockdown for almost a week as authorities struggle to contain the country’s largest virus outbreak in two years — the biggest test to date of Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy.
500: A convoy of trucks carrying over 500 metric tons of food entered Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region on Friday, the first since mid-December. This time, the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front observed the government's cease-fire to allow in badly needed shipments of food aid.
53: Costa Rica’s Finance Minister Rodrigo Chaves won the presidential runoff election on Sunday with 53% of the vote. The combative populist upstart beat the centrist former President Jose María Figueres by promising to root out corruption and use referendums to cut through the red tape.Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump launched a war of choice to topple Iran's regime expecting a quick, clean win.
Last week, Microsoft, Europol, and industry partners took coordinated action to disrupt Tycoon 2FA, a major phishing‑as‑a‑service operation designed to bypass multifactor authentication. Active since 2023, the service fueled large‑scale online impersonation, enabling fraud, data theft, and disruptions across sectors, including healthcare and education. Acting under a US court order, the coalition seized hundreds of domains that powered Tycoon 2FA’s infrastructure — underscoring the need for global, public‑private cooperation to counter industrialized cybercrime and protect digital trust. Read the full blog here.
Australian mining giant Lynas will sell rare earths to Japan for 12 years in a major pact meant to chip away at China’s dominance of the global market.