US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth arrives for his first official day at the Pentagon in Arlington, on Jan. 27, 2025.
60: The US is going back to the future with Donald Trump’s call this week to develop a system of space lasers to protect the country from nuclear attack. Under the “Iron Dome for America” plan, Trump has given Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 60 days to develop a plan, which is to include the use of defensive space lasers – a revival of former US President Ronald Reagan’s vision of Star Wars.
2.3: The US economy showed strong growth at the end of 2024, expanding by 2.3% in the last quarter of the year. For the full year, the world’s largest economy grew 2.5%, exceeding most expert’s expectations. China, the world’s second-largest economy, grew at an official rate of 5%, though experts dispute those statistics. US President Donald Trump has promised a “golden age” for the US, but the economic impact of his proposed tariffs and massive federal budget/staffing cuts remains unclear.
16: Good news for Canada – only 16% of Americans support Donald Trump’s suggestion of annexing Canada, according to an exclusive poll by Echelon Polling, commissioned by GZERO Media. Meanwhile, 23% of respondents supported retaking control of the Panama Canal and acquiring Greenland.
40 million: The whiplashing moves of theTrump administration regarding federal funding for healthcare research (apparently frozen for review until at least Feb. 1) alongside a broader freeze on all federal grants, which was then rescinded, have rippled far and wide. Canadian researchers, who received more than US$40 million in support from the US, are now mired in uncertainty about the future of their work.
Why is a man wearing a trash can on his head polling nearly as high as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage? Rory Stewart explains.
Think you know what's going on around the world? Here's your chance to prove it.
For weeks, tens of thousands of people in India – most of them young people – protested outside the Jantar Mantar, a historic observatory in New Delhi, to demand the resignation of the country’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. Five days later, they got what they asked for.
Egypt said two ships were hit with a drone in the port of Damietta on Wednesday, just 40 miles from the exit of the Suez Canal, the first attack in the country since the war began.