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65 million: About 65 million apartments, more than 20 percent of all apartments in Chinese cities, are unoccupied, according to a new study. That's cause for concern in a country where housing, construction, and related industries account for up to one-third of economic growth.


5 million: In India on New Year's Day, 5 million women and girls created a 385-mile long human chain "in support of gender equality." They have the support of the center-left local government, but not of Narendra Modi's ruling BJP, which depends on support from Hindu nationalists.

41: In the 2016 US presidential election, 27.3 percent of eligible voters chose Trump, 28.5 percent chose Hillary Clinton, and 3.3 percent chose other candidates. Nearly 41 percent chose not to vote. As new candidates position themselves for 2020 presidential bids, their biggest challenge isn't to win arguments but to motivate people to show up on Election Day.

0: There were zero attempted coups d'état in the world in 2018, just the second year without a coup attempt in the past 70 years. (The other was 2007.) Maybe that's because today's leaders make governance look unappealing.

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Italian winery sees red
At least seven masked men deactivated alarms and cameras at the Antinori winery before using the company’s forklifts to fill two trucks with crates of the winery’s reds. The thieves deliberately targeted higher-end bottles worth between €150 and €500 each, leading Antinori to suggest that they may have had insider knowledge of the winery. Antinori [...]
Tensions boil between Ethiopia and Eritrea, UK’s Labour Party notches win, Lula’s chances slim in Brazil

Members of the Ethiopian Federal Police (EFP) patrol after Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) army retreated from the regional capital near the Tigray Martyrs monument in Mekelle, Tigray Region, Ethiopia, October 8, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone.

Ethiopia claims “all-out invasion” by EritreaEthiopia has told the UN that troops from neighboring Eritrea penetrated at least 60 meters across the border as long-standing tensions between the two East African countries threaten to boil over again. At issue is access to the Red Sea, which Ethiopia lost when Eritrea became independent after 30 [...]
India’s voter-list purge sparks backlash
Lottie Tellyn
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is framing the move as cleaning India’s electoral register – which included around 970 million people before the changes – of dead or duplicate voters. But many people say the purge has disenfranchised them. Critics argue that voters who are less likely to support Modi’s BJP party, such as India’s 200 [...]
Alleged members of Mara Salvatrucha gang, also known as MS-13, attend an open hearing in a mass trial, after 486 alleged gang members were charged with more than 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022, according to prosecutors, at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca, El Salvador, April 23, 2026.

Alleged members of Mara Salvatrucha gang, also known as MS-13, attend an open hearing in a mass trial, after 486 alleged gang members were charged with more than 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022, according to prosecutors, at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca, El Salvador, April 23, 2026.

REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
Mass trials begin in El SalvadorOver the past four years, Salvadoran authorities have used a state of emergency to arrest more than 90,000 people on suspicion of gang activity, putting many of them in maximum security prisons. Now, en masse, they are having their days in court in trials that human rights activists say are riddled with violations [...]