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Hard Numbers: The World's Rivers Are Full of Drugs

40,000: The US beer industry has lost some 40,000 jobs since 2016, according to an industry study. The main driver seems to be the Trump administration's aluminum tariffs, which have raised the price of beer cans, cutting into companies' profits.


525: Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz lost his job in a no-confidence vote on Monday after just 525 days, the shortest tenure of any Austrian Chancellor in modern history. (German speakers may now gleefully note that "kurz" means "short"). But after his party did well in the EU parliament elections, he'll likely return to power after a fresh ballot this fall. #DerKommBackKid

65: Traces of antibiotic drugs were discovered in 65% of rivers surveyed across 72 countries, in a recent study. That's a big problem: when antibiotics pollute waterways, bacteria that is harmful to humans has a better chance of encountering them and developing resistance. The UN says that as many as 10 million people globally could be killed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria by 2050.

5.7: Chinese tourism to the US dropped 5.7% in 2018 from the year prior, marking the first time that figure has declined year-on-year since 2003. That's real money lost—in 2017 Chinese tourists spent $18.8 billion dollars while visiting the US. No word yet on any possible government bailouts for the US tourism industry, though.

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What We’re Watching: The kings of soccer make a trade deal, Venezuela’s Machado to meet Trump, Moscow sends message to Europe

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Attila Husejnow / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
Europe and South America finally agree to long-sought trade dealIt took more than 25 years, but the European Union and Mercosur, the South American common market, provisionally agreed to a free trade deal, eliminating tariffs on over 90% of each other’s exports. If it passes, it would create the largest free trade zone in the world and mark the [...]
​Sudanese brothers, refugees from el-Fasher, wash clothes at sunset outside the Tine transit camp in eastern Chad, on November 22, 2025.

Sudanese brothers, refugees from el-Fasher, wash clothes at sunset outside the Tine transit camp, amid the conflict between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army, in eastern Chad, on November 22, 2025.

REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
1,000: A civil war that has produced one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises reached a grim milestone today. One thousand days into the conflict in Sudan, over 150,000 people have been killed and 9 million uprooted across the country by the fighting.. 584,000: The US economy added just 584,000 jobs in all of 2025, according to the Bureau of [...]
​Protesters gather as vehicles burn in Tehran, Iran, in this screen grab from a social media video released on January 9, 2026.

Protesters gather as vehicles burn, amid evolving anti-government unrest, in Tehran, Iran, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video released on January 9, 2026.

Social Media/via REUTERS
Twelve days ago, a protest over Iran’s deteriorating economy began at a market in Tehran, in what were then estimated to be the largest demonstrations in the country since 2022.Since then, they have spread dramatically. People in over 100 cities and towns across the country have taken to the streets to vent their anger over a plunging Iranian rial [...]
​Passengers enter a shared taxi in Dnipro, Ukraine, on January 8, 2026.

Passengers enter a shared taxi in Dnipro, Ukraine, on January 8, 2026. Following a massive Russian drone attack on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine’s southern regions, most consumers in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, including the regional capitals, were left without power.

Mykola Miakshykov/Ukrinform
1 million: Russian drone strikes crippled energy infrastructure in southeast Ukraine overnight, leaving over one million people in Dnipropetrovsk without heat or water in the dead of winter. Electricity supplies were also disrupted for thousands more people in neighboring Zaporizhzhia. [...]