Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

Hard Numbers: RIP wages in Argentina, Japan's missile arsenal, Mogadishu attack, Singapore’s big LGBT move

Hard Numbers: RIP wages in Argentina, Japan's missile arsenal, Mogadishu attack, Singapore’s big LGBT move

Demonstrators carry flower crowns during a symbolic funeral for their wages in Buenos Aires.

REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian

317: Argentine workers held Friday a mock funeral procession for the "death" of the living wage in the country, where sky-high inflation is wiping out purchasing power. The minimum wage of $317 a month now covers less than half the cost of a basic food basket for a family of four.


1,000: Japan is stockpiling more than 1,000 long-range missiles, and for the first time plans to deploy the arsenal on islands facing China and North Korea. Two weeks ago, China responded to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan by firing ballistic missiles around the island, five of which landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone.

21: At least 20 people were killed Sunday in Mogadishu after security forces ended a standoff with al-Shabab militants who had stormed a hotel and taken hostages. It's the first attack in Somalia's capital by the group linked to al-Qaida since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud took over in May.

377: In a surprise move Sunday, PM Lee Hsien Loong announced that Singapore will repeal section 377A of the criminal code, a colonial-era law banning same-sex relationships. The notoriously conservative island nation is the latest Asian government to decriminalize gay sex after India, Thailand, and Taiwan (where same-sex marriages are allowed since 2019).

More For You

It’s official: Trump wants a weaker European Union

Trump, Putin, and Zelensky surrounded by tanks and negotiators.

The transatlantic relationship isn’t at a crossroads, it’s past one. America’s new National Security Strategy confirms what Europeans have feared since Vice President JD Vance’s speech in Munich last February: Washington now sees a strong, unified European Union as a problem to be solved, not an ally to be supported.The Trump administration’s NSS [...]
​Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo, Japan, on December 10, 2025.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrives at her office in Tokyo, Japan, on December 10, 2025.

The Yomiuri Shimbun
In a show of force against Tokyo, Russian bombers joined Chinese air patrol for a joint flight around two Japanese islands on Tuesday.The flight was just the latest challenge for Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who has faced plenty of turbulence in the 50 days since she took office. She started a war of words with China – without support of [...]
​Buildings lie in ruins amidst the rubble in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on December 8, 2025.

Buildings lie in ruins amidst the rubble in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on December 8, 2025.

REUTERS/Nir Elias
68 million: The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is tentatively holding, but conditions on the ground in Gaza remain dire. Most Palestinians are pitching tents in overcrowded camps, atop 68 million tons of rubble that will take years, and billions of dollars to clear. The level of debris is the equivalent of 186 Empire State Buildings, or 162 [...]
ANO party leader Andrej Babis signs a document on the day he is appointed as the country's new prime minister in Prague, Czech Republic, on December 9, 2025.

Czech President Petr Pavel looks on as the ANO party leader Andrej Babis signs a document on the day he is appointed as the country's new prime minister at Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic, on December 9, 2025.

REUTERS/Eva Korinkova
Babiš returns to power in CzechiaThe billionaire is back. Populist tycoon Andrej Babiš officially returns to the premiership of Czechia after decisively winning the election earlier this year. Babiš, a staunch Eurosceptic who last held power from 2017 to 2021, has formed a cabinet with the ultranationalist SPD party and the Motorists movement, [...]