Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

Hard Numbers

833,000: Inflation in Venezuela accelerated to 833,000 percent last month, and the IMF projects that it could hit 1.3 million percent by the year’s end.


50: Vietnam wants 50 percent of all its social media users to be on homegrown messaging, video and news platforms by 2020. It’s part of a wide-ranging cybersecurity plan unveiled last week, meant to give the government more tools to monitor and control social media.

13: Chinese exports to the US rose more than 13 percent last month compared to same period in 2017, despite the ongoing trade dispute between the two countries. The increase is due in part to a fall in the value of China’s currency, the yuan, which increases the global competitiveness of its exports. But it’s also because many US firms have front-loaded new purchases of inputs from China, fearing additional tariffs from the Trump administration in the near future.

1/50: Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. Since 2000, fewer than 100,000 people have died in conflictsworldwide per year. That is about one-sixth the rate observed between 1950 and 2000, and one-fiftieth the rate between 1900 and 1950, the period that included both World Wars.

More For You

Fidel Castro meets with the American parents of the The Bay Of Pigs Prisoners in Havana, Cuba, on March 1, 1963.

Fidel Castro, center left with hands on hips, meets with the American parents of the The Bay Of Pigs Prisoners, who were released after a deal with America for $63 million, in Havana, Cuba, on March 1, 1963.

Keystone Press Agency/Keystone USA via ZUMAPRESS.com
Sixty-five years ago this morning, nearly 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles stormed a beach on the southwestern coast of Cuba. Their aim was to spark a nationwide uprising against the new, revolutionary government of Fidel Castro. The Americans were confident – after all, they’d used a similar approach to overthrow the leftist president of Guatemala [...]
​A crowd celebrates after a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in Sidon, Lebanon, on April 17, 2026.

A crowd celebrates as displaced people return to their homes after a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in Sidon, Lebanon, on April 17, 2026.

REUTERS/Aziz Taher
Is an end to the Iran war in sight?The 10-day ceasefire negotiated between Israel and Lebanon took effect last night – one that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah acknowledged but hasn’t said whether they’d abide by – has added some momentum to the US-Iran ceasefire talks. US President Donald Trump said Thursday that the war “should be ending [...]
Hard number: Haiti’s hunger crisis
Natalie Johnson
Five years after President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, the turmoil in Haiti – where gangs control large swaths of the country and continue to sow chaos – shows no signs of abating. The consequence is a burgeoning humanitarian crisis, with 1.4 million people displaced, and millions more facing food shortages. Officials fear the Iran war could [...]
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on April 14, 2026.​

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Rosseti CEO and Board Chairman Andrei Ryumin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on April 14, 2026.

Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool via REUTERS
Putin ups the ante – but should he?Russia continues to bombard Ukraine, killing 17 people in a wave of drone and missile attacks overnight. But the Parliament also signed a law on Tuesday that would allow the military to attack any country that holds Russians captive. Europe fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use this as a pretext to [...]