2,000: The cost of obtaining a Venezuelan passport has risen to around $2000, more than 68 times the average monthly wage and double the price only a year ago. Around 5,000 people continue to flee the country’s collapsing economy and democracy every day.
54: Last Sunday, which marked the 17th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan, saw 54 people killed across the country in just 24 hours. The conflict has taken the lives of 30 to 40 Afghan security forces and at least 13 civilians a day.
26: A survey of wealthy countries by Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation found that the quality of democracy has deteriorated in 26 of 41 nations over the past four years, with 19 states including Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Mexico and the United States showing a relatively sharp downward trend.
24: Nikki Haley, who announced her resignation as US ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday, will have spent roughly 24 months in the post by the time she leaves at the end of 2018. That’s a shorter tenure than Obama-era appointees Susan Rice (four and a half years) and Samantha Power (just under three and a half years) served in the role, but longer than President Trump’s national security adviser and frequent UN critic John Bolton’s 16-month stint in Turtle Bay during the George W. Bush administration.
