Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Hard Numbers

Hard Numbers: Trump confirms constitutional term limits, Singapore’s ruling party wins reelection, Elon Musk gets a city, Maldives bets on the blockchain, Trump tariffs movies made abroad

​U.S. President Donald Trump speaks next to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 30, 2025.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks next to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 30, 2025.

REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Make us preferred on Google

8: On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Donald Trump confirmed he won’t seek a third term, saying “I’ll be a two-term president. I always thought that was very important.” He named Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as key Republican figures to carry on the MAGA mantle after his presidency.


89: Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party, led by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, secured a decisive victory in the general election, winning a whopping 87 of 97 seats on Saturday. The results give Wong a strong mandate to continue governing following an election focused on the economic threats of American tariffs.

283: Starbase, SpaceX’s operations hub in southern Texas, has officially become a city after residents voted to incorporate the area. The Saturday vote passed overwhelmingly, with 212 in favor and just six opposed, among 283 eligible voters — most of whom are SpaceX employees. Spanning 1.6 square miles and complete with a road called Memes Street, the new city will be governed by a mayor and two commissioners.

$8.8 billion: Dubai-based MBS Global Investments has announced a $8.8 billion plan to build a blockchain and digital assets financial hub in the Maldives, surpassing the country's $7 billion annual GDP. The Maldivian government sees the investment as a vital step toward economic diversification, with Finance Minister Moosa Zameer saying the country must “take the leap” to reduce reliance on tourism and fisheries amid a looming debt crisis.

100: Donald Trump’s complicated relationship with Hollywood took another turn last night, as he announced on social media that there would be a 100% tariff on films made outside the United States. The president even suggested that incentivizing filmmakers and film studios to operate outside the United States was a “National Security threat.” It’s unclear how this tariff would function.

More For You

Hard number: Some African states turn to AI surveillance
Zac Weisz
While China has long been a leader in infrastructure investment across the African continent, it’s found a new way to continue to expand its influence – AI-powered surveillance technology. According to a recent study, many of these new systems have even been funded by Chinese banks. Nigeria boasts the continent's largest network of smart CCTV [...]
Hard Number: Is Russia stuck in the mud?
More than four years into its war with Ukraine, the Russian military appears to be stuck in the mud. With the loss of access to Starlink satellites, which were previously used to help guide their drones, the Russians have turned to deploying small teams of soldiers in attempts to break through the front lines, with little success. This sluggish [...]
Hard Number: US eyes Cuba, literally
Natalie Johnson
The US military is reportedly increasing surveillance missions over Cuba, mostly around the country’s two biggest cities, Havana and Santiago de Cuba. Flights of this ilk were previously rare in this area. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is reportedly growing impatient that the Cuban regime hasn’t fallen, despite a de facto US oil blockade on [...]
US labor market holds steady despite Iran war
Natalie Johnson
Employers in the world’s largest economy are shrugging off the uncertainty brought on by the Iran war and higher energy prices – at least for now. Experts expected roughly 65,000 jobs to be added last month, a significant slide from the 185,000 in March. But if higher gas prices persist, and Americans pair back spending, economists say that could [...]