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Annie Gugliotta
The Graphic Truth: Trump's indictment fundraising boom
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded not guilty to four counts linked to allegations that he tried to undermine the 2020 election result and remain in power despite losing the vote.
A judge set the first hearing for Aug. 28, just days after the first Republican presidential debate is set to take place – though the GOP frontrunner has suggested he may not participate in the debate.
Thursday’s appearance marked the third time in just four months that Trump has stood in a court and pleaded not guilty to criminal charges.
Still, not only do these legal woes not appear to be hurting Trump in the polls – the former president remains the frontrunner by a huge margin – but his joint fundraising committees have actually seen a boost from his previous indictments. The charges appear to be firing up his loyal base. (To be sure, that doesn’t translate to cash on hand as his legal quandaries appear to be draining the committee’s finances.)
We take a look at what Trump’s monthly joint fundraising committee has raised since he announced his reelection bid in Nov. 2022.
Early on Thursday, rebel soldiers announced that they had taken over in a coup in Niger. President Mohamed Bazoum was reportedly detained by members of the presidential guard, but it's not clear whether the rest of the military is on board, so the situation in the Sahel country remains too messy to know for sure who is really in charge. (Bazoum already survived a botched coup after winning reelection in March 2021.)
Successful or not, this is the first — known — coup of the year (notwithstanding Yevgeny Prigozhin's failed mutiny/freak show in Russia). And rather interestingly, it took place in Niger, the West African country we assessed was most at risk of the next power grab in early 2022.
Despite a recent brief resurgence on the continent, coup attempts around the globe have become both less common and less successful. That's partly because the end of the Cold War diminished the superpowers' interest in backing military takeovers against governments they didn't like. Here's a look at the historical record.
Eurovision winners
Eurovision – you either love it or you hate it. And if you love to do either, then this is your moment. Saturday marks the Grand Final of the 2023 edition of the song contest, which pits the nations of “Europe” against each other in an annual battle of song, spectacle, and kitsch. The event began with just seven countries in the 1950s as a way to bolster Western European unity and channel the continent’s nationalistic urges into a more cheerful kind of competition.
In the decades since, it’s expanded to nearly 40 nations – including some that aren’t geographically in Europe – and while it reliably produces dreadful earworms, it’s also turned up some real stars: Olivia Newton-John, ABBA, and Céline Dion, for example, all came up through Eurovision.
It’s also produced plenty of political intrigue: Moscow and Kyiv, for example, have traded darts over each other’s acts since 2014 (Ukraine has won Eurovision twice since Putin first invaded Ukraine that year), and while this year’s contest should’ve (by tradition) gone off in Ukraine, home of last year’s winners, it’s being held in Liverpool, England, instead because of the Russian invasion. Russia, of course, has been banned.
Here’s a look at which countries have won the most Eurovision finals over the years. Of these, only the Netherlands and France were part of the first competition, and Ukraine is the only country to have won three times in the 21st century.
The Graphic Truth: Who pays most/least for college tuition?
One of the many reasons Americans have so much student debt is the high tuition fees charged by universities — especially private ones. Then again, graduating from an elite private school generally leads to a higher future salary and more opportunities, so many US students are willing to risk enormous debt in hopes of a huge payoff. But what about the rest of the world? We take a look at tuition fees across OECD countries.
Afghanistan has been mired in war since the Soviet Union invaded the country in the late 1970s. In the post-Soviet era, the vying for influence between different clans and terror groups caused mass migration throughout the landlocked country. This trend continued under the Taliban’s oppressive rule, and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, which saw millions of Afghans caught in the crossfire of war. But it’s not just conflict that has led to the internal displacement of Afghans. In recent decades, natural disasters – many linked to climate change – have pummeled the country, causing hundreds of thousands to flee. We look at the numbers of internally displaced Afghans since 2008.
The Graphic Truth: Upcoming 2022 elections
In the first half of 2022, we’ve already seen a number of pivotal national elections. France’s centrist President Emmanuel Macron held off a challenge from the far right; Hungary’s far-right PM Viktor Orbán held off a challenge from the center; Colombia elected its first leftist head of state; and South Korean conservative Yoon Suk-yeo prevailed in a presidential race that bordered on reality TV mayhem.
But there’s more to come. In the next six months, 19 different countries plan to hold national legislative or executive elections. Some standouts include Brazil’s presidential throwdown in October, pitting embattled right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro against his poll-leading nemesis, the leftwing former President Lula da Silva. Around that time, Israel will also head to its — checks notes — fifth election in less than four years, while in November US President Joe Biden will lead his Democrats into midterm elections in which his party could very well lose control of Congress.
Here’s a look at all the planned national-level elections left in 2022.
After weeks of speculation, the US Supreme Court has issued a ruling reversing Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion. American women will now face a hodgepodge of abortion laws that grant different rights depending on one’s geographical location. While abortion will remain accessible and legal in deep blue states like New York and California, more than a dozen Republican-run states, mostly in the South and Midwest, already have “trigger laws” on the books that will outlaw abortion immediately. Indeed, women living in these states will have to travel long distances in many cases to access abortion care. We take a look at some of their closest options.
Check out the longest distances women will have to travel to obtain legal US abortions below.
The Graphic Truth: Boris hangs on by a thread
Boris Johnson is famous for weathering controversy — from alleged affairs to partygate — often emerging stronger than before. But since taking office, the British PM has been caught in so many political scandals that most Brits, and many in his own Conservative Party, have now turned against him. Still, Johnson narrowly survived a no-confidence vote on Monday and lives to fight yet another day. We take a look at his approval ratings as prime minister, highlighting a few of the dramas that have eroded his popularity.
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