Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Hard Numbers

Hard Numbers: Construction crane kills dozens in Thailand, Hungary’s Orbán in more trouble, China posts record trade surplus, French farmers protest trade deal

​Wreckage at the site where a train was derailed when a construction crane fell onto its carriages in Sikhio district, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, on January 14, 2026.

Wreckage at the site where a train was derailed when a construction crane collapsed and fell onto its carriages, causing several casualties, in Sikhio district, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, on January 14, 2026.

REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

32: A construction crane fell onto a moving train in northeast Thailand on Wednesday morning, killing at least 32 people and injuring another 66. The train was mostly carrying students and workers. The incident occurred after the crane accidentally dropped a concrete wedge onto the train, causing it to derail.


12: Hungary’s opposition Tisza party expanded its lead over Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz to 12 points, according to a Median poll, up from 10 points in a corresponding November survey. Orbán’s grip on power looks increasingly slippery ahead of the April election, as Peter Magyar’s opposition group continues to build momentum.

$1.2 trillion: China posted a record $1.2 trillion trade surplus in 2025, driven by booming exports to non-US markets after firms diversified away from the United States. Strong competitiveness and excess capacity offset weak domestic demand, but risk heightening trade tensions as China leans on exports to sustain growth.

350: French farmers drove 350 tractors to Parliament in Paris on Tuesday to protest the European Union’s trade deal with South America that they worry will jeopardize their livelihoods. The deal, expected to be signed this weekend, would create the largest free trade zone in the world.

More For You

​NTB/Cornelius Poppe via REUTERS

Norway's Queen Sonja views a travel direction signpost as she visits Bjornoya island of the Svalbard Norwegian archipelago, June 14, 2025.

NTB/Cornelius Poppe via REUTERS
1920: Norway is tightening its grip on Svalbard, a remote archipelago near the North Pole rich in rare-earths and vital for satellite and missile monitoring, in a bid to keep rivals out of the Arctic. The archipelago is part of Norway, but a 1920 treaty has allowed almost anyone to live there without a visa. Oslo is asserting more control in [...]
Thailand's caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, a Bhumjaithai Party leader and prime ministerial candidate, arrives for a party list registration event ahead of the upcoming election, in Bangkok, Thailand, December 28, 2025.

Thailand's caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, a Bhumjaithai Party leader and prime ministerial candidate, arrives for a party list registration event ahead of the upcoming election, in Bangkok, Thailand, December 28, 2025.

REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
30%: A pair of surveys showed that Thailand’s progressive opposition party is leading the polls ahead of the Feb. 8 general election. Both polls showed the People’s Party ahead with at least 30% of the vote, while Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s conservative Bhumjaithai party languished in the teens. The snap election comes at a rocky time [...]
​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 [...]
​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. [...]