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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.

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Chief Superintendent of the police force's National Security Department Steve Li Kwai-wah speaks at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts building after the verdict in the national security collusion trial of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, in Hong Kong, China, on December 15, 2025.

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An ally under suspicion

Donald Trump at the NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium. - 25/05/2017 - Belgium / Brussels - Julien Mattia / Le Pictorium.

Julien Mattia via Reuters Connect
In an unprecedented move last week, Denmark labeled its ally the United States as a potential security risk. A report by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service argued Washington is using its economic and military power to “assert its will,” creating new security risks for Europe and for Greenland, Denmark’s semi-autonomous territory.NATO allies [...]
​Then-US President George W. Bush with then-People's Republic of China President Jiang Zemin following their meeting at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, on October 25, 2002.

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