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450 billion: Since 2000, annual defense spending by countries in the Asia Pacific has more than doubled to $450 billion today, led by China who will spend more than $200 billion on defense this year. But that still pales in comparison with the US, which recently passed a $717 billion defense spending bill into law for 2019.
2,599: Mexican prosecutors opened 2,599 homicide investigations, or about 84 a day, in the month of July. That’s the highest number of investigations opened during any single month on record. Squelching rising violence will be one of the biggest challenges facing incoming President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who takes over in December.
96: A recent survey of Facebook accounts conducted by the Counter Extremism Project documented Islamic State supporters in 96 different countries, including those as far flung as Namibia, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic. In his first audio recording in nearly a year, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi recently called for fighters to step up attacks outside of Iraq and Syria.
13.3: South Korean men use an average of 13.3 cosmetic products per month, according to official data, and they spend more than twice as much on beauty products as men from any other country. Their devotion to daily skin care starts in an unlikely place, the military, where rough weather and lots of down time have fostered a strong culture of self-care among the country’s conscripts.
7: Myanmar’s de-facto leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, has been stripped of seven international awards and honors for her previous humanitarian work since the outbreak of violence against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. Yesterday, a United Nations report called for the investigation and prosecution of Myanmar’s top military generals for genocide and accused Aung San Suu Kyi of contributing “to the commission of atrocity crimes.”