Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

Hard Numbers

Make us preferred on Google

120 million: Between now and March, officials expect around 120 million Hindu pilgrims to gather at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers near the city of Prayagraj in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The celebration, known as the Kumbh Mela festival, will be so big that it is expected to be visible from space.

993: Governments around the world executed 993 prisoners in 2017, according to Amnesty International. The tally doesn't include China, thought to be the world's top executioner, which keeps the frequency of its use of capital punishment a closely guarded secret. This week a Chinese court hastily sentenced a Canadian citizen to death in a drug smuggling case, in a decision many saw as a thinly-veiled response to Canada's detention of a top Chinese tech executive.


90: Approximately 90 percent of all economic espionage cases handled by the US Justice Department over the past seven years have involved China. Alleged theft of American intellectual property is one of the major sticking points in trade talks and the growing strategic confrontation between Washington and Beijing.

31: Around 31 percent of Britons say they trust the European Union, the second lowest in the common bloc above only Greece.

More For You

Hard number: Seeking owners
Will Fitzpatrick
It’s not known whether these works were among the hundreds of thousands that the Nazis looted – especially from Jews – during their time in power, but in displaying these pieces, the museum hopes that the public can identify their original owners. Perhaps the most famous lost painting of this kind was Gustav Klimt’s “The Woman in Gold”, which was [...]
CIA Director John Ratcliffe meets with Cuban officials

CIA Director John Ratcliffe attends a meeting with Cuban officials at a location given as Havana, Cuba in this image released May 14, 2026.

CIA via X/Handout via REUTERS
Cuba has run out of fuel, and the CIA director is there for it.US spy chief John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana yesterday just hours after the communist-run island said it had run out of fuel due to the ongoing US energy blockade. Ratcliffe, the highest ranking Trump administration official to visit, went to reiterate his boss’s vision of a “deal”: [...]
Saudi Arabia's MBS shaking hands with the UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman receives UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Saudi Arabia, on September 3, 2025.

IMAGO/APAimages via Reuters Connect
For many years, mutual concern about Iran helped to paper over deeper disagreements between Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The two powerful and ambitious Sunni Gulf monarchies have been on opposite sides of the civil wars in both Sudan and Yemen, as well as in fierce competition for regional dominance in AI. But two months into the so-far unresolved [...]
Chinese court compensates AI-replaced worker
A court in Hangzhou ruled that companies are not permitted to fire employees or reduce their salaries because their positions are being automated or replaced by AI. The case was brought by a worker who was initially offered a 40% pay cut and a demotion when his job as a quality assurance supervisor was automated. After he refused the reduced [...]