Hard Numbers
Hard Numbers: Spain’s deadly floods, UK’s giant tax hike, Allegations of Israel misusing US arms, Scary candy bar prices
Cars lie partially submerged after floods in Utiel, Spain, on Oct. 30, 2024.
REUTERS/Susana Vera
40 billion: UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Wednesday announced a whopper of a tax increase: £40 billion (US$52 billion). This is the biggest British tax hike since 1993, and wealthy Brits and business owners will bear the brunt. But Reeves also boosted the health care budget for day-to-day operations of the NHS by £22.6 billion and slotted £5 billion for house building.
500: Are US-supplied weapons being used in Israeli attacks against civilians in Gaza? The White House has 500 reports from government, aid organizations, nonprofits, media, and other eyewitnesses alleging this. Still, the State Department hasn’t taken action on any single case, and more than two-thirds of them remain unresolved, according to a Washington Post report.
45: Americans looking to dole out tasty chocolate treats to costumed kiddies tonight likely had a scare before Halloween — at the checkout. The price of chocolate and confectionary products with cocoa jumped 45% between January and September, according to the producer price index. So those Snickers, KitKats, and M&Ms won’t need to be decorated in spookily decorated foil to cause plenty of fright.
Hezbollah is weaker than it was a year ago, but that doesn't mean it will disappear. Kim Ghattas explains why disarming the group will take years, and why a stronger Lebanese state, not another war, offers the best path forward.
“There will never be elections here again,” Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega proclaimed on Sunday.
In this “ask ian,” Ian Bremmer argues that the debate over whether the United States or China will lead artificial intelligence is overshadowing a more important question: who will govern a technology advancing faster than governments can regulate?
Earlier this month, the Trump administration had suggested it might mark America’s 250th birthday by granting clemency to hundreds of people. Instead, it issued 11 pardons in early July, including to people convicted of environmental crimes and a political donor, while denying clemency to thousands of other applicants.