News

Hard Numbers: Ukrainian grain stuck, Kagame to run again, Uber lobbied Macron, Iran enriches uranium

Hard Numbers: Ukrainian grain stuck, Kagame to run again, Uber lobbied Macron, Iran enriches uranium
Ari Winkleman

22 million: Russia's blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has trapped some 22 million metric tons of grain stocks inside the country, worsening a global food crisis that'll hurt scores of developing countries. Turkey is trying to negotiate safe passage for the grain shipments, but the Kremlin wants Western sanctions lifted first.

4: Paul Kagame will seek a fourth term as Rwanda's president in 2024. For his supporters, he's a benevolent tough guy who brought economic growth and stability following the 1994 genocide; for his enemies, Kagame is a ruthless dictator who'll go after anyone who crosses him.

124,000: Uber secretly lobbied European politicians to help it disrupt the taxi industry across the continent from 2013-2017, according to a leak of more than 124,000 internal documents. Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of the US ride-hailing company, was chummy at the time with now-French President Emmanuel Macron, who as economy minister allegedly protected Uber while it was operating illegally in France.

20: Iran has begun enriching uranium up to 20% using sophisticated new centrifuges at an underground atomic facility. Meanwhile, reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with the US remains a long shot, with Qatar now hosting indirect talks as the Iranians inch closer to having enough enriched yellowcake to build a bomb.

More For You

Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa receives Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria, on April 5, 2026.
Photo by Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto

It’s hard to think of two world leaders with more unlikely life paths than Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian who played a president on TV only to become the actual president of a country under assault from a nuclear superpower, and Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda jihadist who toppled the Assad regime and now jet-sets to Western capitals, shoots hoops with US generals, and spits game at prime time news hosts.

Caracas, Venezuela ? In the photos, Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodríguez (center) met with US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum (center, left) at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 4, 2026. Rodríguez discussed a bilateral agenda in sectors such as energy and reiterated that her government is "ready" to cooperate with the United States.
Latin American News Agency

Delcy Rodríguez, the long-time Venezuelan regime insider who took over after the United States abducted her boss Nicolás Maduro in January, had been under US sanctions since 2018.

The share of college students in the United States who said they’ve considered changing their majors because of AI.
Natalie Johnson

College students in the US know they’re soon entering a labor market that looks dramatically different from their parents’ generation, and even from a few years ago.