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25: China has announced that it will increase its defense budget by 7.5 percent to $179 billion in 2019. While that's smaller than last year's 8.5 percent boost, it marks the 25th consecutive year that Beijing has increased military spending.

3.5: A child born in Venezuela today can expect to live 3.5 years less than one born into the previous generation, according to the Universidad Central y la Simón Bolívar.


$226,500: Spain's far-right Vox party brought in $226,500 in online donations in just two days this week. The upstart party is relying on grassroots support ahead of parliamentary elections on April 28 because it's too small to qualify for the public subsidies given to the country's dominant political groups.

$8.7 billion: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw his net worth shrink by $8.7 billion in 2018, amid tightening margins and a political backlash against the tech giant. Not to worry, though – Zuck is still sitting on $62.3 billion, according to latest Forbes billionaires ranking.

95: French President Emmanuel Macron has delivered or begun the process of legislating 95 percent of the 60 reforms he's initiated since coming to office in 2017, according to the think tank iFRAP. The question now is whether he can achieve similar success at the European level, after outlining an extensive agenda to do so this week.

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US-Iran ceasefire in doubt, Venezuelans adjust to a new normal, EU blocks funding for Chinese solar tech

Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, Musandam, Oman, May 8, 2026.

REUTERS
Burst of violence tests Iran ceasefireBoth the United States and Iran accused the other of violating the truce on Thursday. The US said it thwarted attacks on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran accused the US of firing on an oil tanker attempting to pass a US blockade. But US President Donald Trump dismissed the exchanges as a [...]
US labor market holds steady despite Iran war
Natalie Johnson
Employers in the world’s largest economy are shrugging off the uncertainty brought on by the Iran war and higher energy prices – at least for now. Experts expected roughly 65,000 jobs to be added last month, a significant slide from the 185,000 in March. But if higher gas prices persist, and Americans pair back spending, economists say that could [...]
​Hebe de Bonafini, the head of Argentina's Mothers of Plaza de Mayo group, whose children disappeared during the dirty war of 1970s, leads one of the marches in Buenos Aires's Plaza de Mayo in December 1979.

Hebe de Bonafini, the head of Argentina's Mothers of Plaza de Mayo group, whose children disappeared during the dirty war of 1970s, leads one of the marches in Buenos Aires's Plaza de Mayo in December 1979.

AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia
Some of the world’s most famous protest movements are remembered as being led by students, dissidents, and ordinary citizens rallying against corruption, repression, and economic collapse — from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the massive unrest that erupted earlier this year in Tehran.Yet some of the most pivotal movements of the modern era have [...]
​US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva meet on the sidelines of the 47th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 26, 2025.

US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva meet on the sidelines of the 47th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, October 26, 2025.

REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Trump hosts Brazil’s Lula at White House todayBrazil’s pugnacious left-wing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will sit down with US President Donald Trump today at the White House, and ties between the two leaders have been fraught, to say the least. Last year, Trump imposed sanctions and tariffs on Brazil over its content moderation policies and the [...]