Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Global Stage LIVE from United Nations WATCH REPLAY

Hard Numbers

Hard Numbers: Cocaine bandits, Mpox hits the DRC, Ukraine in contention, Trump Bibles, Lieberman's passing

A member of Colombia's Navy checks cocaine seized in the Gulf of Morrosquillo

A member of Colombia's Navy checks cocaine seized in the Gulf of Morrosquillo

REUTERS
Make us preferred on Google

6,600: Following a high-speed boat chase in the Caribbean Sea on Tuesday, Colombia’s navy seized about 6,600 pounds of cocaine from drug smugglers.

400: The Democratic Republic of Congo is now seeing record levels of Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox. Some 400 suspect cases are reported each week, mainly in children, and this strain of the virus kills about 10% of those infected, a remarkably high level.


2-1: Ukraine’s national soccer team has qualified for this summer’s European Championships with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Iceland, sending tens of thousands of Ukrainians inside the Wroclaw Stadium in Poland into rapturous celebration.

59.99: Presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump is partnering with country music star Lee Greenwood to sell “God Bless the U.S.A. Bibles.” The price? $59.99, not including shipping and handling fees. “Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back,” said Trump at the product launch.

1 of 1: Joseph Lieberman, the former US senator for Connecticut, died on Wednesday at the age of 82 due to complications from a fall. Lieberman was nearly the first Jewish vice president in US history. He was a centrist and foreign policy hawk known for his dogged individualism, which could be controversial at times. Lieberman was the first Jewish candidate on a major party’s presidential ticket in the disputed 2000 election and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. In 2008, Lieberman enraged many Democrats when he endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain for the presidency over then-Sen. Barack Obama, but was also applauded by liberals over the years for his strong support for abortion rights and gay rights. “In an era of political carbon copies, Joe Lieberman was a singularity. One of one," Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said in a tweet.

More For You

Smoke signals
Natalie Johnson
Consumption of illegal cigarettes in the European Union is up roughly 10% over the past decade, according to the bloc’s estimates. The “underground” cigarette industry is surging as European countries raise tobacco taxes: Belgium, for example, recently increased the excise duty on a 20-pack of cigarettes by €0.56 ($0.64). Meanwhile, one report by [...]
Third time (un)lucky
Will Fitzpatrick
Machado was last in her home country in December 2025, when a US private security team smuggled her out to accept her Nobel Prize in Norway. Before that, she had been in hiding for over a year, after a crackdown on political opposition following deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s disputed election victory in 2024. Her team said she was [...]
Chile’s hot dog high
Natalie Johnson
Chileans have long relished the low cost of the completo, one of the country’s widely enjoyed street foods. But with oil prices soaring due to the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine, consumer prices are rising across the board, creating a big challenge for Chile’s new right-wing president, José Antonio Kast. He took office in March with a hard-line [...]
Small country gets big windfall from Iran war
Natalie Johnson
The South American nation has become the world’s fastest-growing economy, with its GDP expanding by 33% in the first half of 2026 – largely due to skyrocketing demand for its oil driven by the war in Iran. The tiny nation, with a population of around one million, began producing oil only a few years ago and now has the highest per capita income in [...]