Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Hard Numbers

Hard Numbers: DOGE cuts boost Palantir stocks, Shooter rampages at Swedish school, Trump makes “rare” demand of Ukraine, Rebels in DRC announce ceasefire

​Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk addresses a stadium audience in Washington, DC, on Inauguration Day.

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk addresses a stadium audience in Washington, DC, on Inauguration Day.

USA Today Network via Reuters
25: Who benefits from Elon Musk’s burgeoning crusade to slash US government spending? One immediate answer is the data analytics firm Palantir, whose stock value shot up 25% on Tuesday due to what the company’s boss Alex Karp described as a “revolution” that would be “good for Americans.” Palantir, owned by tech titan Peter Thiel, a big backer of Vice President JD Vance, generates roughly two-thirds of its US revenue from government contracts.

10: At least 10 people were believed to be dead following a shooting at an adult education center in central Sweden on Tuesday. As of this writing, police have not released information about the shooter’s identity or motive, except to say that it was a man who is believed to have acted alone.

500,000: What does Donald Trump want in exchange for continuing to support Ukraine? Something rare. The US president suggested on Monday he wanted US access to Ukraine’s rare earths and critical minerals – those used in batteries, microchips, and other advanced technologies. China currently dominates the global supply. Ukraine has at least 15,000 hectares worth of deposits already mapped out, and 500,000 tons of Lithium which could be worth tens of trillions of dollars. Kyiv said it was “ready to work with America.”

900: After more than 900 people were killed last week in the battle for Goma, a key city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who have wrested control of the city from the Congolese army announced a unilateral ceasefire on Tuesday. The move is meant to facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid. DRC and Kenyan leaders are to meet next week in a fresh attempt to end the more than three-year-old conflict.

More For You

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., USA, on Dec. 5, 2025.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney draws his country’s name at the FIFA World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., USA, on Dec. 5, 2025.

ddp/Marc Schüler via Reuters Connect
158: Canada has been a self-governing nation for 158 years, and has been fully independent of the UK Parliament since 1982. But Prime Minister Mark Carney has been sprinkling British English spellings – think words like “globalisation” or “colour” – into some of his communiqués, rather than Canadian English. Some linguists are upset at his [...]
​Chief Superintendent of the police force's National Security Department Steve Li Kwai-wah speaks at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts building after the verdict in the national security collusion trial of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, in Hong Kong, China, on December 15, 2025.

Chief Superintendent of the police force's National Security Department Steve Li Kwai-wah speaks at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts building after the verdict in the national security collusion trial of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, in Hong Kong, China, on December 15, 2025.

REUTERS/Lam Yik
156: After a 156-day trial, Hong Kong’s High Court found media tycoon Jimmy Lai guilty on national security charges on Monday. Lai, who advocated for democracy in the semi-autonomous Chinese city before the 2019 crackdown, now faces life imprisonment. The decision is another blow for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. [...]
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order on AI next to Sriram Krishnan, Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence on December 11, 2025.

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order on AI next to Sriram Krishnan, Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence on December 11, 2025.

REUTERS/Al Drago
38: Large tech firms will be celebrating after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at undercutting the ability of states to introduce regulations on artificial intelligence. Thirty-eight states have adopted AI laws. Trump’s order aims to just have one federal law be the standard. [...]
Women work in the plastic container assembly area inside the El Oso shoe polish factory, located in Mexico City, Mexico, in its new facilities, after officers from the Secretariat of Citizen Security and staff from the Benito Juarez mayor's office arbitrarily and violently remove their supplies, raw materials, machinery, and work tools on January 17 of this year following a coordinated operation stemming from a private dispute. On August 27, 2025.

Women work in the plastic container assembly area inside the El Oso shoe polish factory, located in Mexico City, Mexico, in its new facilities, after officers from the Secretariat of Citizen Security and staff from the Benito Juarez mayor's office arbitrarily and violently remove their supplies, raw materials, machinery, and work tools on January 17 of this year following a coordinated operation stemming from a private dispute. On August 27, 2025.

Photo by Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto
50: Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is taking a page out of US President Donald Trump’s book, implementing up to a 50% tariff on more than 1,400 products in a bid to boost domestic production. The tariffs are expected to heavily affect China, which has increased its shipping to Mexico as a way to bypass US tariffs, and come as the US has been [...]