Hard Numbers: Pentagon to plan for cuts, Germany comes up late, Manila issues mosquito bounties, Hamas releases more hostages

8: The Trump Administration has reportedly ordered the Pentagon to make proposals for annual budget cuts of 8% for each of the next five years. Cumulatively, that would amount to a cut of about a third over that period. Trump recently said he’d seek an agreement with Russia and China to cut all of their military budgets by 50%. Here’s our recent look at the world’s largest military budgets, and the allocation of US own defense spending.

6: We live in a time when all the old assumptions are evaporating, truly. A new analysis by the FT shows that trains in famously punctual Germany actually run on time less frequently than in England, where the upper lips were long assumed to be stiffer than the train schedules. Intercity rail journeys in the UK this year have so far arrived within 10 minutes of schedule 78% of the time, 6 points better than in Germany.

1: Think you can catch a mosquito? OK, how about five of them? If you can manage this feat in the Philippine capital of Manila, you can now collect a bounty from authorities who are trying to squelch an outbreak of Dengue, a serious and occasionally fatal mosquito-borne illness. But don’t quit your day job – the reward for every five mosquitos is just one peso, less than two US cents.

4 and 6: Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday, including a mother and her two children and an 84-year-old peace activist who were abducted on Oct. 7, 2023. The armed group said Wednesday that it would also release six living hostages on Saturday. Meanwhile, Israel has allowed increased entry of mobile homes and construction equipment into the Gaza Strip in recent days.