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68: The downing of a Soviet-era Indian fighter jet last week has brought into sharp focus the dilapidated state of the country's armed forces. In the event of war, India could supply its troops with ammunition for just 10 days, according to government estimates, and 68 percent of the army's equipment is considered "vintage." We were going to make a Salvation Army joke but...

10,000: Since the launch of a campaign against organized crime in January 2018, China has brought more than 10,000 alleged gangsters to trial across the country. The effort aims, in part, to assuage citizens' growing concerns about gangs' control over large portions of both the formal and informal economies.


13,000: British decontamination experts spent 13,000 hours cleaning the house of former Russian spy Sergei V. Skripal, who was poisoned a year ago this week. The UK government blames Russia for carrying out the attack. The house is clean now – there's an Airbnb play there for sure.

130,000: Over the next decade, automation will erode or replace the work of around 130,000 US government employees, according to a new report.

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For the first three weeks of the Iran conflict, Europe made its position clear: this isn’t our war. Many countries on the continent joined the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, a move that wrought casualties and sweeping political backlash at home. They want to avoid a repeat – especially when the European public largely opposes this war, too.Then, [...]