Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Hard Numbers

HARD NUMBERS: Houthis attack ships again, US Measles cases reach new high, message in a bottle finally arrives, & More

Plumes of smoke rise from what is said to be a Greek-operated bulk carrier, in a handout video released on July 8, 2025

Plumes of smoke rise from what is said to be a Greek-operated bulk carrier, in a handout video released on July 8, 2025

HOUTHI MEDIA CENTER/Handout via REUTERS
Make us preferred on Google

3: The Iran-backed Houthi rebel group is once again attacking cargo ships passing through the Red Sea, killing three people while snatching a Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned cargo vessel on Monday night. This was the Houthis’ second such attack over the last few days. Until this past weekend, the group hadn’t targeted cargo ships since late 2024.


33: Measles cases in the US have already reached a 33-year high in 2025, with the disease spreading most rapidly in parts of New Mexico and Texas. At least 1,288 cases have been reported in the first half of this year, surpassing the 2019 full-year total of 1,274, when there was an outbreak within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of New York. The spread has come amid falling nationwide vaccination rates, driven in part by skepticism about vaccines from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

52: A South Korean court on Thursday issued another arrest warrant for former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who faces trial on a range of charges related to his decision to place the country under martial law back in December. Yoon has already spent 52 days in jail, but was previously released on technical grounds. Prosecutors are now expected to expedite their probe into Yoon, who was impeached and officially removed from office back in April.

5.2: A 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck Guatemala on Tuesday afternoon, with authorities urging residents of the Central American country to evacuate. Some of the aftershocks have registered even higher on the Richter scale than the original quake, reaching magnitudes of 5.6.

13: While most of the world now has instant communication, some people have sought out alternative ways of getting their message across the globe – even if it takes a little longer. Thirteen years ago, a young couple in Newfoundland, Canada, placed a message into a bottle and dropped it into the Atlantic Ocean. This week, it was found on a beach on the west coast of Ireland. The note included a request to contact the original writers. After an appeal on social media, they were found: Anita and Brad Squires are now married with three children.

More For You

The ‘gooolllll’ heard around the world
Will Fitzpatrick
Ferran Torres scored the decisive goal in extra time, prompting the emphatic call from Cantor, the Argentine-born announcer who has now been at the microphone for ten World Cups. But the 44-second call on Sunday wasn’t his longest of the tournament. That honor belongs to his 52-second celebration when Curaçao scored its first-ever World Cup goal [...]
Betting on Trump
Farida Dowidar
Gabriel Perez, who has worked for the president since 2016, is under fire for his prediction market wagers, allegedly using his access to the speeches to make his bets. At times, Perez reportedly backed out of bets mid-speech when Trump skipped over portions of addresses that he’d bet would be mentioned. Kalshi, the platform used, detected unusual [...]
Hunger strike in India intensifies
Farida Dowidar
Sonam Wangchuk has long campaigned for the reform of India’s corrupt and inefficient system of entrance exams for higher education. That issue is also central to the recently formed Cockroach Janata Party protest movement, led by people decades younger than Wangchuk, who is 59-years-old. In India, millions of students compete vigorously for a [...]
China’s economic engine cools
Will Fitzpatrick
China’s economy posted one of its slowest quarterly growth rates on record. The slowdown was hardly a surprise: earlier this year, Chinese officials set the country’s lowest growth target since 1991. The weak growth is not coming from a decrease in manufacturing. In fact, exports rose 27% year over year in June. Instead, it’s coming from sluggish [...]