Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Hard Numbers

Hard Numbers: Von der Leyen seeks reelection, Israel GDP plummets, Ukrainian troops captured, Something’s smelly in Cape Town, Moïse’s widow indicted

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a speech at BusinessEurope conference in Brussels, Belgium March 5, 2020.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a speech at BusinessEurope conference in Brussels, Belgium March 5, 2020.

REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo
Make us preferred on Google
5: Ursula Von der Leyen has announced she will seek a second term as president of the EU Commission. Over her first five-year term, she has seen the EU through a pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a rise in irregular migration, and record-breaking inflation. The election will take place in June, and so far, there are no serious challengers to her reelection.

20: Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel's GDP has plummeted by nearly 20%. The biggest economic hits came from the government calling 300,000 reservists away from their jobs to Gaza, relocating 120,000 Israelis away from the border, and restricting Palestinian West Bank workers from working in the country.

1,000: Up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops appear to have been captured during Russia’s takeover of the east Ukrainian city of Avdiivka. The loss is a sign of military supplies dwindling in the absence of new US funding, damaging morale, and Ukraine’s ability to hold the line.

19,000: After searching for days to locate the source of the “unimaginable stench” that engulfed Cape Town, South African officials finally found the culprit: a ship transporting 19,000 live cattle from Brazil to Iraq. The ship is set to depart soon, but the country is seeing an uptick in livestock bound for the Middle East passing through Cape Town as an alternative to the Red Sea route amid Houthi violence there.

51: Martine Moïse is among 51 people indicted for alleged involvement in the July 2021 assassination of her husband, then-Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. Attorneys for Mrs. Moïse, who was wounded in the attack, denied the charges and questioned the legitimacy of the 122-page indictment, which doesn’t provide evidence of her direct involvement.

More For You

Unemployment on the up
Lottie Tellyn
Republicans won’t be happy with the final jobs report before the midterms. Job market growth was weaker than expected, adding fewer than half of the jobs economists had predicted. It was particularly bad for Black Americans, for whom the unemployment rate rose a whole percentage point to 7% – nearly double that of white Americans. Overall [...]
Small countries, super domains
It’s not the first time that a smaller nation has taken advantage of its internet domain. Anguilla, a tiny British territory in the Caribbean, saw registrations of its .ai domain explode in 2023 and now brings in more than $39 million a year from it – nearly a quarter of its total revenue. Tuvalu, a Pacific island nation with the coveted .tv [...]
US forces leave Iraq
Will Fitzpatrick
This is actually the second time the US has left Iraq. The first was in 2011, when Washington ended the occupation which began with the 2003 invasion. But US forces returned in 2014 to lead a multinational fight against ISIS, the jihadist militant group born amid the chaos and sectarian strife triggered by the original US invasion. Today’s exit [...]
Budget bougie
Natalie Johnson
That’s not exactly cheap for a tiny tin of fish eggs, but compared to traditional caviar prices – which can range from about $350 to $3,000 for a similar portion – that’s an unprecedented bargain. Prices for the delicacy are falling across the board these days, for two reasons. First, direct-to-consumer sellers are disrupting the traditional [...]