Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

Hard Numbers: El Salvador to take Bitcoin, France freezes CAR aid, US donates (more) shots, a Chinese “Trojan horse”

Hard Numbers: El Salvador to take Bitcoin, France freezes CAR aid, Biden and Gitmo, a Chinese “Trojan horse”
Gabriella Turrisi
Make us preferred on Google

90: After an overwhelming majority of lawmakers voted in favor of President Nayib Bukele's plan to accept Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency will become legal tender in El Salvador in 90 days. Bukele says using the cryptocurrency will help poor people without bank accounts, but it may also complicate his plans to get a big loan from the IMF.


10 million: France has frozen 10 million euros ($12.1 million) in economic assistance and suspended military cooperation with the Central African Republic amid worsening ties with its former colony. Paris says the CAR government is doing little to stop an anti-French disinformation campaign likely orchestrated by Russia, which seeks to gain influence there and in other parts of Africa.

500 million: The Biden administration will purchase 500 million doses of Pfizer's COVID vaccine to donate to other countries in need. This is more than five times the amount America had pledged to give until now, and previews how President Biden will push at this week's G7 meeting for other wealthy nations to do more to augment the global supply of jabs for low-income nations.

1.5 billion: Protesters are up in arms over Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's plans to spend 1.5 billion euros ($1.83 billion) to build a Chinese university campus in Budapest, a first on EU soil, which they view as a "Trojan horse" for Chinese intelligence. Two years ago, Orbán closed the George Soros-backed Central European University, also in Budapest, after accusing the Hungarian-born US billionaire — and prominent Orbán critic — of meddling in domestic politics.

More For You

The Iran war's global fallout (so far)
- YouTube
The Iran war has had a ripple effect on the global economy and international relations way beyond the Middle East. Kori Schake of the American Enterprise Institute joins Ian Bremmer to discuss how the conflict is redrawing power for the US, Russia, China, and America's allies. [...]
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 [...]