We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
Hard Numbers: Much ado about Ma, EU-Russia holdouts, Ukrainians in Mexico, Oz raises interest rates
9.4: Shares of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba plunged by as much as 9.4% on Tuesday after state broadcaster CCTV abruptly announced that someone named "Ma" had been detained. CCTV later clarified that it was not Jack Ma, Alibaba's billionaire founder caught in the crosshairs of Xi Jinping's tech crackdown.
2: The EU looks ready to ban Russian oil imports as a bloc over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But so far there are two holdouts: Hungary — whose PM Viktor Orbán is Vladimir Putin’s best EU buddy — and Slovakia, which claims its sole refiner can’t immediately switch to non-Russian crude.
500: Some 500 Ukrainian refugees are waiting in a makeshift camp in Mexico City for US immigration authorities to process their papers. President Joe Biden says they're welcome but has not exempted them from Title 42, a pandemic-era rule to curb immigration that requires US asylum-seekers to apply from a third country.
0.35: Australia's central bank upped interest rates by 0.35% Tuesday, the first hike in over a decade. It's a long-overdue move to combat rising inflation, expected to be a major campaign issue ahead of the parliamentary election on May 21.