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Hard Numbers: Viva Zapata

30,000: According to the UN, just over 30,000 refugees have reached Europe by boat across the Mediterranean so far this year. That compares with 114,000 for all of 2018, 171,000 in 2017, 363,000 in 2016, and more than 1 million at the height of the crisis in 2015.

4.25: Turkey's central bank slashed interest rates by a whopping 4.25 points this week, the biggest cut in 17 years. This is an important story because it shows just how desperate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to boost the local economy out of a recession that threatens his political popularity.

37,900: About 37,900 people held jobs in American newsrooms in 2018, according to Pew. In 2008, the figure was 71,000. Only a fraction of those journalists have been re-hired by digital media outlets.

10: Remember Franky Zapata, the former jet ski champion and inventor riding a hoverboard while carrying an assault rifle above the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris? Franky attempted this week to cross the English Channel on that board in 20 minutes at an average speech of about 87 mph at an average height of about 50 feet above the water. But 10 minutes into the flight, Franky got very wet. He says he'll try again. #TheRealRonObvious

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