15: Voters in Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began, head to the polls on Sunday to vote in the country’s first municipal elections since President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced from power in 2011. A new Gallup poll finds that 15 percent of Tunisians say their local economy is getting better. 50 percent say it’s getting worse.
1: French economist Thomas Piketty estimates that offshore assets held by wealthy Russians exceed one year of Russia GDP. It’s a measure of the extent to which Russia’s natural wealth no longer lives in Russia.
37: China’s trade as a percent of GDP fell from 65% in 2006 to 37% in 2016, making it less reliant on exports for economic growth and less vulnerable to a trade slowdown. Combine that with an ability to muzzle domestic mediaand China enters negotiations with the US on trade with a pretty strong hand.
24: The number of Russians applying for asylum in the United States hit a 24-year high in 2017, up 39 percent from the previous year, according to a report from Radio Free Europe.
25: A Pew Research study published this week finds that 90 percent of Americans say a respectful tone of debate among political leaders is important. Just 25 percent say this accurately describes the political debate in the United States.
