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Hard Numbers: Money for Your Cow Dung

1 billion: West African leaders have pledged $1 billion to combat the growing threat of Islamic extremism in the region. Mali-based insurgent groups with links to the Islamic State and al Qaeda have since spilled over into neighboring countries, hitting Burkina Faso particularly hard in recent months.


45: When polls closed in Tunisia on Sunday evening, just 45 percent of eligible voters had turned out to vote in the presidential election, down 19 percentage points from 2014 when that country held its first post-Arab Spring election after 22 years of dictatorship.

60: India's newly created National Cow Commission has promised to fund 60% of the startup capital for any companies that commercialize a curative product known as panchagavya which is made by mixing milk, cow urine, and cow dung. The ruling Hindu nationalist BJP government has been very cow-friendly.

100 million: As fires continue to ravage the Amazon rainforest, the US and Brazil have agreed on a $100 million biodiversity conservation fund to help save the area, led by the private sector. This plan is already facing pushback from environmentalists who say it's a roundabout way to open the rainforest to even more mining, logging and farming.

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Iran conflict has Asia looking for coalMuch as Europe did when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, Asia is turning to a retro, highly-polluting fuel source as the Iran conflict limits the supply of liquefied natural gas: coal. The continent relies heavily on natural gas for its electricity, much of it imported – in the [...]
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Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
3: The number of runs scored by Venezuela’s national baseball team in their stunning upset of top-seeded USA in the World Baseball Classic final in Miami last night. In an epic game fraught with geopolitical overtones – the US government abducted Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro in January – the arepa-powered pitching staff held the fearsome US [...]
​Explosions in Iran and gas prices increasing.

Explosions in Iran and gas prices increasing.

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Nearly a month ago, the US and Israel started a war with Iran. Over 2,000 miles away, one continent that wants little to do with the war is nevertheless uniquely impacted: Europe.European Union leaders met in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss skyrocketing energy prices resulting from the conflict. It comes after US President Donald Trump issued a [...]
March 13, 2026, Tehran, Iran: ALI LARIJANI (C), Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, participates in the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day rally, a commemoration in support of the Palestinian people on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in Tehran.

March 13, 2026, Tehran, Iran: ALI LARIJANI (C), Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, participates in the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day rally, a commemoration in support of the Palestinian people on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in Tehran.

Supreme National Security Counci via ZUMA Press Wire
Israel says it has killed Iran’s security chief, as war drags onAli Larijani, who was head of the Islamic Republic’s influential security council and had effectively run the country since Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s death, was killed in a strike overnight, Israel has said. Tehran has not confirmed his death. If it is true, Larijani would be the [...]