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Hard Numbers: Russian oil cap not really capping, US air travel chaos, South Africans powerless, Egyptian pound plummets, meth pigeon has landed

Illustration of a wall with the EU flag colors with a Russian oil pipeline peeping through
Annie Gugliotta

171.9: The European Union’s recent $60 price cap for Russian oil is costing the Kremlin $171.9 million a day. That sounds like a lot, but Moscow is still raking in more than half a billion dollars daily from fossil fuels. Critics of the cap say it’s too close to the actual price that Russia gets for its oil on the open market anyway.

10,000: A glitch in the FAA's pilot alert system canceled 1,300+ flights and impacted more than 10,000 the US on Wednesday. Officials rebooted the system, noting there was no sign of a cyberattack, but the incident caused travel chaos just two weeks after Southwest Airlines suffered tech issues that left hundreds of travelers stranded over the holidays.

8: Most South Africans now face up to eight hours a day without power, as the country’s ramshackle state energy firm deepens power cuts just to keep pace with demand. President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to fix the problem when he was elected.

32: The Egyptian pound plunged below 32 to the dollar for the first time after the country floated its exchange rate as part of a loan agreement with the IMF. The IMF often requires countries do this in exchange for loan packages, because artificially propping up a currency can quickly drain a country’s reserves.

30: You’d think that discovering a pigeon wearing a backpack is crazy enough. Because it is. But officials at a Canadian prison recently not only discovered a pigeon in the yard wearing a backpack but also that the backpack was stuffed with … 30 grams of crystal meth. What should the pigeon’s name be? Let us know here.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with journalists to comment on new U.S. sanctions targeting two major Russia's oil producers, as well as other international issues, in Moscow, Russia, October 23, 2025.
Sputnik/Alexander Shcherbak/Pool via REUTERS

The US has paused Russian oil sanctions in a bid to stabilize energy markets rocked by the war with Iran. Administration officials stress that it’s a “tailored” measure, applying only to oil already loaded onto tankers, but it’s still a gift to Russia, which has already been clocking an extra $150 million daily in oil revenues since the war began.

A Boeing C-135 Stratotanker / Stratolifter military aircraft known as KC-135 of the United States Air Force USAF configured as Air Tanker Transport for aerial refueling, powered by 4x CFMI jet engines and tail number 63-8003. The military plane spotted flying over the Netherlands in the blue sky from Mainland USA to Tel Aviv TLV to support the Israel USA - Iran war known as Operation Epic Fury by the US Department of Defense. Venlo, the Netherlands on March 2, 2026
Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto

4: The number of crew members aboard a US refuelling plane – out of six total – who died after the aircraft crashed in neighboring Iraq on Thursday, US Central Command said this morning.