News

Hard Numbers: US jobless record, Forza Chinese bots, Afghan prisoner swap, and an EU wrist slap

46.3: As China was delivering crucial medical supplies to hard-hit Italy in March, the uplifting hashtag #forzaCinaeItalia, which means "Go China and Italy!!" appeared to go viral, with help from Chinese official accounts. Turns out, around 46.3% of posts using the tag were pushed out by bots.

10.4: As the US economy goes on life support, around 10.4 million Americans filed for unemployment in the last two weeks of March alone. In February, unemployment was at a 50-year low of 3.5 percent — economists warn we could be at 15% before long.

3: The European Court of Justice ruled Thursday that three EU countries – Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic – had violated a bloc-wide mandate to absorb a certain amount of the asylum seekers who arrived in the EU at the height of the migrant crisis back in 2015. The ruling, however, appears to be mostly symbolic.

100: Afghanistan's government began the process Thursday of exchanging 100 Taliban prisoners for 20 of its own security personnel held captive by the insurgent group. This is the first in a series of prisoner releases negotiated as part of a broader US-Taliban peace deal.

More For You

People vote in the legislative elections in Algiers, Algeria, on July 2, 2026. The electorate, including the diaspora, consists of 24,727,041 registered voters. These elections will elect the 407 members of the tenth legislature of the People's National Assembly (APN), with a mandate of five years.
Billel Bensalem/APP/NurPhoto

Algerians are headed to the polls today to elect their next members of parliament. However, hopes for true democracy look more remote than ever.

Natalie Johnson

In addition to the health concerns from the Ebola outbreak, the UN is sounding the alarm on a potential development crisis in Africa sparked by the disease.

Protesters hold flamingo-shaped placards and a large representation of a flamingo as they demonstrate against the government, following weeks of protests against a planned luxury resort backed by a company linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, on an environmentally sensitive part of the Adriatic coast, in Tirana, Albania, on June 22, 2026.
REUTERS/Valdrin Xhemaj

The protests in the small Balkan country were touched off by the start of construction on a seaside luxury resort linked to US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.