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Hard Numbers: The world economy hasn't looked this glum since when?

14: At least 14 police were killed and three injured when drug cartel gunmen ambushed a convoy in Michoacán state in western Mexico. The attack highlights the difficulties facing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose first year at the helm may end with a record number of killings in his country.

200: Two-hundred Hong Kong protestors have been arrested since the weekend, when a spike in violence and vandalism swept the city: unrest has been rising since the government invoked colonial-era emergency powers several weeks ago. More than 2,300 demonstrators have been arrested since June.

⅓: At least one-third of all food produced for human consumption globally is wasted or lost every year, according to a United Nations report. While enough food is produced to feed everyone on the planet, the hunger rate is rising: 820 million people around the world are "chronically undernourished," the UN says.

0.8: Global economic growth this year will slow to its weakest level since the 2008 global financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund predicts in its latest forecast. The US-China trade war is a big reason why: the tariff spat between the world's two largest economies could knock 0.8% off global GDP by 2020.

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Participants and protesters hold posters opposing Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's administration and her policies on constitutional revision and military expansion during a Constitution Memorial Day rally in Tokyo, Japan, May 3, 2026.
REUTERS/Issei Kato.

Will Japan rewrite its rules of war? Europe meets (again) to shape its own defense destiny, US to “guide” ships through Hormuz

Natalie Johnson

Putin is increasingly paranoid, according to a Financial Times report out today. Security has been tightened, more time is being spent in underground bunkers, and the vast majority of his attention is being absorbed by Russia’s war with Ukraine. One reason of his concern is said to be Ukraine’s drone capabilities, which have demonstrated an ability to strike Russian airfields thousands of miles from Kyiv.