South Africa's unemployment rose 114,000 in a year. One province supplied 263,000 of it, and Stats SA's own significance table scores the national figure p=0,50 and that province p=0,00
South Africa's unemployment rose 114,000 year-on-year in Q2 2026. Stats SA's own provincial appendix puts 263,000 of that in the Eastern Cape alone, and its significance table scores the national figure p=0,50 against the province's p=0,00.
Mexico's crime register counts 549 attempted femicides this year. The government's monthly report on violence against women, published Tuesday, counts none
Mexico's crime register counts 549 attempted femicides for January–July 2026, more than the 363 femicides beside them. SESNSP's own report on violence against women, published Tuesday and cut to the same date, never uses the word across 98 pages.
Thailand's planning agency has now forecast the 2026 current account four times: +$14.0bn, +$14.5bn, +$6.2bn, −$7.4bn. Its August outlook still has no paragraph on imports
NESDC has published four forecasts of Thailand's 2026 current account since November: +$14.0bn, +$14.5bn, +$6.2bn, −$7.4bn. The $21.4bn reversal is entirely the goods balance — imports revised up $67.9bn since February — and the August outlook's growth components stop at exports.
India's new GDP series made the economy ₹8.6 lakh crore smaller. To get there it moved ₹34.5 lakh crore between industries
MoSPI's back series isn't due until December 2026, so until then the ministry's own API serves two accounts of 2025-26 side by side. The gap between them is not one number going down. It is four large numbers going in opposite directions.
We reported 4,105 on Japan's worst heatstroke day. The final count is 4,134 — the fifth July running that the fire agency's first number came in low
Japan heatstroke correction: The Fold published 4,105 ambulance transports for 22 July. Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency finalised the month on Tuesday at 4,134, with twelve deaths rather than nine and 755 workplace calls rather than 744.
For two months Nigeria's inflation report said which prices actually moved. Since May it has been printing the shopping basket again
Nigeria's July 2026 CPI report says food drove 6.18 points of the 15.43% headline. That is food's 40.02 basket weight times the headline rate, as are all 26 cells — and NBS itself published real decompositions for March and April before reverting in May.
Three Kenyan papers read the same line of the same table. One said matatu fares rose 16.8 per cent, one said 67, one said 0.3
Kenya's July 2026 CPI prices one matatu ticket at KSh 60, KSh 80 and KSh 100, then prints changes of 0.3 and 16.8 per cent. The prices say 25.0 and 66.7 — and three Nairobi newsrooms published three different fare figures off that one row.
The ABS names a fastest-growing state twice a year. In 24 of the last 28 releases the gap was smaller than its own margin of error
Australia’s statistical agency put Queensland first for earnings growth in the six months to May and the Northern Territory second, separated by $8.40 a week. The standard error the ABS publishes on the Northern Territory’s own earnings estimate is $37.30.
Brazil’s most gender-balanced line on the ballot is the one no quota touches
Women are about 43 per cent of the candidacies registered for vice-governor in October’s election and about 16 per cent of those for governor. Neither office is covered by the candidacy quota that governs Brazil’s proportional races.
Eurostat headlined a euro-area contraction on 5 June. A scheduled database update took it away, along with 86 of the 264 numbers in the same table
The euro area’s first quarter has been printed five different ways: +0.1, +0.1, −0.2, 0.0 and 0.0. The contraction that made headlines in June was reversed at a routine revision, and no euro-indicator release was issued to say so.
WHO’s Ebola death rate has climbed to 46.8 per cent in a month. Its own recovery counts show what is moving
The crude case fatality ratio WHO publishes for the Bundibugyo outbreak in DR Congo rose from 39 to 46.8 per cent across three notices. Over the same period the share of cases with a recorded outcome rose from 57 to 68 per cent, while the ratio among resolved cases barely moved.
France wildfires 2026: a record 93,301 hectares, and a 20-year average that breaks in two
Copernicus puts France 40.6% above its previous record, set in 2022. The average behind the widely quoted multiple — including in our own reporting on 27 July — spans two different satellites.
The UN’s Syria refugee appeal is down 37% for the three countries still in it
Türkiye, Lebanon and Jordan are asked to plan on $2.74bn this year against $4.38bn last year. Eight months in, the plan has 10.3% of it — the second worst-funded of 34 appeals worldwide.
Brazil’s electoral roll lists 297,977 voters aged 100 or over. The census found 37,814 centenarians
Nine states hold 93.6% of them, and in every one fewer than a quarter have ever been fingerprinted. Where rolls were cleaned between elections, the numbers collapsed by up to 86%.
Cameroon lost in WAFCON qualifying. They are going to the World Cup
CAF expanded the tournament to 16 teams after qualifying had finished and filled the places by ranking. Two of the four invited teams won their groups; one has now taken a direct place at Brazil 2027.
On Japan’s worst heatstroke day, 744 of the 4,105 ambulance calls came from a workplace
The rule Japan made mandatory in June 2025 does not require employers to prevent heatstroke. It requires them to notice it — and the ministry’s own casualty count hit a record while deaths fell 39%.
Britain quietly corrected six years of fuel poverty statistics. One uncorrected file is still up
DESNZ reissued its accredited fuel poverty report and six spreadsheets on 7 August, citing a calculation error on benefit receipt. The share of England’s fuel poor counted as on benefits, once disability benefits are included, falls from 67.3% to 61.0%.
Colombia’s Senate let 18 bills the Chamber had passed die without recording a vote on any of them
The Senate’s own 387-page legislative report logs 42 bills sent up by the Cámara as archived last session. For 18 of them it recorded no first-debate approval date at all — a median of 284 days after the Chamber voted.
Pakistan’s monsoon dead are 47.7% children. Its injured are 33.3%
NDMA’s situation report for 9 August puts the season at 153 dead and 457 injured. Children are nearly half the dead and a third of the injured — the same gap the agency recorded on the identical date last year.
Zambia had the best goal difference at WAFCON and went out. CAF’s published rulebook describes a different tournament
Zambia left the group stage on +6, better than any of the four group winners, eliminated on the third head-to-head tie-break. The only Women’s Africa Cup of Nations regulations CAF publishes are for a 12-team competition.
The UN’s appeal for the Palestinian territories asks $1,368 per person it targets, the most of any in the world
Dividing each of this year’s 34 UN humanitarian plans by the people it targets puts the occupied Palestinian territory first at $1,368 a head, ahead of Ukraine at $559. It held the same position last year.
Japan’s worst heatstroke day on record: 4,105 people taken to hospital on 22 July
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency’s figures put 22 July above the previous daily high, set in 2018, by 296 people. The season read as light until late June; since then it has tracked the heaviest summer ever measured.
Liège had nearly three times its normal deaths in June’s heat week, and it was not the hottest place
Eurostat’s district-level weekly deaths put Arr. Liège first of the 371 districts that have reported, at 2.79 times its four-year median. Paris ran about two degrees hotter and came in at 2.60. An hour north, Flanders barely moved.
In Gaza, cigarettes cost 23 times what they did before the war. Lentils cost less
The Palestinian statistics bureau’s Gaza commodity file, run against its own pre-war baseline, sorts almost perfectly by how a good gets in. Everything that has to be trucked, smuggled or grown locally has multiplied; the staples aid convoys carry have barely moved.
We stopped counting Venezuela's earthquake dead at 1,700. The federal record now says 5,500
The US Geological Survey's impact file for the 24 June doublet puts the toll at least 5,500 killed and 29,995 missing as of 28 July — more than three times the figure this site last published.
Mexico received $918m more in remittances this year. In pesos, households got 82 billion less
Banco de México's June figures show first-half remittances up 3.1% in dollars. Converted at the rates recipients actually face and adjusted for inflation, the same money buys 13% less.
Gatwick's second runway survives its last legal challenge, on a carbon figure the airport supplied itself
The Court of Appeal refused permission to appeal the Gatwick northern-runway consent on Tuesday, calling every ground unarguable. The emissions number underpinning it is the developer's own.
India's disaster deaths more than doubled last year. One state is 62% of the total, and the ministry's own table does not add up
A written reply laid before the Lok Sabha on Tuesday puts hydro-meteorological deaths at 6,631. Six columns fail to reconcile with their own state rows, and Uttar Pradesh reports a 47-fold rise.
DR Congo’s Ebola outbreak is now the country’s largest ever, and its epicentre is closing the deadliness gap
WHO puts the Bundibugyo outbreak past the 2018–20 epidemic on case count. Reading its successive notices in sequence shows Ituri’s case fatality ratio has nearly tripled since June, from 15% to 41%, while the rest of the outbreak barely moved.
Germany’s June asylum figure looks like a fourteen-year low. Its own agency says the month cannot be compared
Eurostat published June data on Monday and Germany’s 4,265 first-time applicants is the lowest since 2012. The EU migration pact took effect on 12 June, and BAMF calls the resulting month-on-month move a purely statistical effect.
Colombia’s Senate gave the Pacto Histórico none of its fourteen committee leadership posts
Six of the seven constitutional committees announced their new chairs by press release. The seventh, the only one not to go to a party of the incoming majority, was updated quietly on the Senate’s own web page.
China’s factory index fell back below 50, and the two things that rose were jobs and unsold stock
The manufacturing PMI dropped 1.1 points to 49.2% in July, the steepest fall in the thirteen months the statistics bureau prints. New orders alone account for four-fifths of it.
Take Ireland out of the euro area and the last four quarters look steadier than the headline numbers
Eurostat put euro-area growth at 0.4% for the second quarter. About a third of that came from Ireland, which is 3.5% of the bloc — and the quarter before, Ireland was most of the reason the euro area recorded no growth at all.
Finland has the EU’s highest unemployment rate, and Eurostat’s table reaches that ranking two different ways
Eurostat’s 30 July release puts Finland at 10.5% against Spain’s 10.1%. The two figures are not calculated the same way: Finland’s is a smoothed trend, Spain’s is seasonally adjusted. Finland leads on either basis.
Taiwan’s own statisticians had this quarter almost flat. It came in at an annualised 9.9%
The advance estimate published on Friday puts second-quarter growth at 12.92% on the year. Measured the way the agency itself forecast it — quarter on quarter, annualised — its May projection was 1.99% and the outturn was 9.91%.
Colombia’s president-elect takes office on 7 August. His candidate has already lost the Senate
Abelardo de la Espriella’s pick for Senate president was beaten 56–45 by Álvaro Uribe’s, eighteen days before the handover. He won the lower house instead — and in both chambers the outgoing left took a vice-presidency.
WAFCON 2026: Malawi beat Nigeria on their tournament debut, and Africa’s World Cup places will be settled in the quarter-finals
The ten-time champions lost 3–2 to a side playing its first match at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, and the holders of the other big record lost too. CAF’s own bracket shows why the decisive round comes on 8 and 9 August, not in the final.
Kumamoto earthquake: Japan’s fire agency confirms three deaths and says 13 more are under investigation
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency’s seventeenth bulletin puts the verified toll at three, names the two towns, and then records separately that Kumamoto fire departments are reporting 13 further deaths not yet counted. Both numbers are in the same three-page document.
England and Wales population growth is the slowest of any non-pandemic year since 1998
The population reached 62,009,993 in mid-2025, a rise of 0.364%. Working through the Office for National Statistics’ own 188-year series shows only one slower year since 1999 — 2020 — and before that you have to go back to 1998.
China extends its flood emergency to Sichuan as Typhoon Hongxia’s rain moves inland
The Ministry of Water Resources activated a level-four flood-defence response for Sichuan on Wednesday evening, warning that three tributary systems feeding the upper Yangtze may produce numbered floods between 30 July and 3 August.
Kumamoto earthquake: Japan puts 354,000 people under its highest evacuation orders as two agencies differ on the magnitude
A Shindo 7 quake struck Kumamoto Prefecture at 16:27 local time. Japan’s fire agency had 354,284 people under its two highest evacuation levels by midnight, with rescues still running at a collapsed building.
Keiko Fujimori inherits the two-chamber Congress her father abolished — and a right-wing bloc with two-thirds of both houses
Fujimori was sworn in on Peru’s independence day alongside its first bicameral legislature since 1992. Her own party has a majority in neither chamber; the wider right clears two-thirds in both.
Pakistan’s monsoon death toll has more than doubled in eight days, and nearly half of the dead are children
The disaster authority’s daily situation reports put the season’s toll at 109 dead and 362 injured. Set against the report from eight days earlier, deaths are up 132% and damaged houses up 349%.
Sixty-seven days from outbreak to first injection: the registry file behind Oxford’s Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine trial
The protocol for the first human trial of a vaccine against the Ebola strain circulating in DR Congo is now public. It gives a cohort structure, a placebo ratio and a timetable that the announcements did not.
Spain and France wildfires: EU satellite data puts France at six times its 20-year average burnt area
Spain and France wildfires have displaced more than 300,000 people, and the EU’s own satellite service puts France’s 2026 burnt area at 91,265 hectares — 6.2 times its 20-year average.
DR Congo Ebola reaches 3,200 cases and 1,405 deaths as the first Bundibugyo vaccine is tested
DR Congo’s Ebola outbreak has reached 3,200 confirmed cases and 1,405 deaths, and Oxford says a first group of volunteers has received an experimental vaccine against the Bundibugyo strain.
Tour de France: Pogacar equals the record five titles as van der Poel takes the Champs-Elysees
Tadej Pogacar won the 2026 Tour de France by 6 minutes 26 seconds, equalling the record of five titles, with Mathieu van der Poel winning a final stage cut short by the wildfires.
Spain and France wildfires force 267,000 to flee as France sets a national burn record
Wildfires across Spain and France have driven more than 267,000 people from their homes and burned nearly 98,000 hectares in France, a national record. Organisers cut the Tour de France’s final stage to free up emergency crews.
Berlin Pride attacker shot dead by police after van ramming kills one at Christopher Street Day
A van was driven into crowds at Berlin’s Christopher Street Day on Saturday night, killing a woman and injuring 29. Police shot the suspect dead on Sunday in Spandau. Germany’s interior minister called it an Islamist terror attack.
Chile declares a state of catastrophe after rain floods its desert north
President José Antonio Kast has decreed a state of catastrophe for Coquimbo and Huasco province after a week of rain across northern Chile killed at least 10 people and damaged more than 23,000 homes.
WAFCON opens in Morocco with Algeria beating Senegal 2-0
The expanded Women’s Africa Cup of Nations began in Morocco on Sunday, with Algeria beating Senegal 2-0 in the opening match. Hosts Morocco face Kenya later the same day.
Philippines, Japan and US finish South China Sea drills days after sailor struck
The three countries completed the 17th Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity in the South China Sea, a five-day exercise that began the day after Manila said a Filipino sailor was struck with a baton by Chinese coast guard personnel.
Trump imposes 50% Canada tariffs under Section 338, a 1930 law never used before
Trump signed three proclamations Monday imposing 50% duties on Canadian cars, alcohol and dairy under Section 338 — a 1930 law never before used for tariffs.
Zelensky removes army chief Syrskyi after six days of protests, promotes Drapatyi
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief was dismissed Tuesday after six days of protests. His replacement, Mykhailo Drapatyi, quit a command in 2025 over a deadly strike.
El Mayo Zambada sentenced to life in prison and a record $15 billion forfeiture
The Sinaloa co-founder was sentenced in Brooklyn on Monday. His $15 billion forfeiture is nominally the largest in a US drug case, but trails El Chapo’s in real terms.
Philippine sailor injured at Second Thomas Shoal days before China talks in Manila
Manila says a China Coast Guard team struck a navy serviceman on the head with a baton near the grounded BRP Sierra Madre. Beijing blames the Philippine side.
WAFCON opens in Morocco on Sunday with 16 teams and 2027 World Cup places at stake
The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations begins July 26 in Rabat, expanded from 12 teams to 16. The four semi-finalists qualify for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.
World Cup final 2026: Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time to win a second title
Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute as Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time at MetLife Stadium. Spain conceded one goal in the entire tournament.
World Cup final 2026: Spain vs Argentina at MetLife, with a 64-year record at stake
The World Cup final kicks off at MetLife Stadium at 3pm Eastern on Sunday. Argentina can become the first back-to-back champion in 64 years; Spain have conceded one goal all tournament.
Josh Kerr breaks the mile world record with 3:42.66, ending a 27-year mark
Josh Kerr ran 3:42.66 in London on Saturday to become the first man under 3:43 for the mile. He took 0.47 seconds off Hicham El Guerrouj’s record, which had stood since 1999.
Trump threatens tariffs over Canadian wildfire smoke as more than 900 fires burn
Smoke from over 900 Canadian wildfires has pushed air quality into unhealthy ranges across the US Midwest and Northeast. Trump said the cost of the pollution should be added to the tariffs Canada already pays.
Colombia’s new Congress convenes as de la Espriella prepares to restore Israel ties
Colombia’s newly elected Congress is sworn in on Monday, weeks before president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella takes office. He plans to restore relations with Israel and open an embassy in Jerusalem.
Israel now holds nearly 70% of Gaza as the ceasefire enters its tenth month
Nine months into a US-brokered truce, Israel now holds nearly 70% of Gaza — up from about half — even as strikes continue. A July 14 attack in Jabalia killed a police commander and several of his officers.
Spain reach the World Cup final; England and Argentina meet to decide who joins them
Spain beat France 2-0 in Dallas to reach their second World Cup final and first since winning in 2010. England face Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday for the other place in the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium.
China expels Ma Xingrui, its third Politburo member purged since 2025
Beijing expelled former Politburo member and ex-Xinjiang chief Ma Xingrui over corruption — the third member of the 24-strong body ousted since 2025 as Xi Jinping's anti-graft drive reaches into the party's civilian ranks.
Brazil's top court bars Flávio Bolsonaro from visiting his jailed father
Justice Alexandre de Moraes barred Senator Flávio Bolsonaro — a leading presidential candidate — from visiting his father, ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, for 90 days, after Flávio read one of his letters on a livestream.
World Cup last 16 ends with all three hosts out and the quarterfinals set
The United States, Mexico, Canada and Brazil are all eliminated as the 2026 World Cup round of 16 closes. Messi dragged Argentina past Egypt in stoppage time; Switzerland knocked out Colombia on penalties.
Hamas dissolves its Gaza government, handing civil rule to a UN-backed committee
Hamas said it has dissolved the body that has run Gaza and will transfer day-to-day affairs to a technocratic committee under a US-founded Board of Peace. It stopped short of disarming — the deadlocked core of the ceasefire.
Trump to lift Turkey sanctions and weigh F-35 sale as NATO summit opens in Ankara
At the Ankara NATO summit, President Trump said the US will lift 2020 sanctions on Turkey and would "consider" returning it to the F-35 programme, while renewing Greenland claims and questioning the US troop presence in Europe.
Russia kills at least 26 in mass Kyiv barrage on eve of NATO summit
A combined Russian assault of ballistic and cruise missiles, Zircon hypersonics and 351 drones killed at least 26 people around Kyiv. Zelenskyy blamed an interceptor shortage and urged NATO for "strong decisions."
UN warns of catastrophe as RSF drone siege tightens on Sudan's el-Obeid
Some 500,000 people are trapped in el-Obeid as the RSF pounds the North Kordofan capital with drones. The UN issued a "red alert"; UNICEF says more than 300 children have been killed or injured in Sudan in 2026 alone.
Super Typhoon Bavi Barrels Toward Guam and Okinawa
Typhoon Bavi strengthened into a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon in the western Pacific, threatening Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands around July 6 before a forecast approach to Okinawa and Japan's Sakishima Islands later in the week.
World Cup Round of 16: Mexico vs England at the Azteca, Brazil vs Norway as the Field Narrows
Mexico host England at a sold-out Estadio Azteca and Brazil face Norway on Sunday as the 2026 World Cup's round of 16 thins the field. Morocco knocked out co-hosts Canada, France edged Paraguay, and the United States meet Belgium on Monday.
NATO Summit 2026 Opens in Ankara With Defense Spending and Ukraine Atop the Agenda
NATO leaders gather in Ankara on July 7-8 for the alliance's first Turkish summit since 2004, with the 5%-of-GDP spending pledge, Ukraine's long-term needs, and a Canada-led Defence, Security and Resilience Bank among the items to watch.
India Climbs to Its Highest-Ever Rank on the UN's 2026 SDG Index
India rose to 94th of 167 countries on the 2026 UN Sustainable Development Report, its best position yet and an 18-place climb since 2015 — even as the report cautions that only about a third of its targets are on track for 2030.
As Khamenei's funeral opens, the US-Iran ceasefire enters its most fragile stretch
Indirect talks are frozen for six days of funeral rites beginning July 4. A month after the June 17 memorandum, The Fold reconstructs how a signed deal survived US airstrikes, a near-collapse and a diplomatic pause — and what still is not settled.
Carney's defence bank nears launch with about 10 founding nations before the NATO summit
Canada aims to unveil roughly 10 founding members of a Defence, Security and Resilience Bank at next week’s NATO summit in Ankara — a multilateral lender designed to raise up to $133 billion in cheaper financing for allied militaries.
DR Congo's Ebola outbreak tops 1,400 cases as a vaccine gap slows the response
The Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo has grown past 1,400 confirmed cases and more than 430 deaths, WHO figures show — a fast-climbing toll made harder to contain because the licensed Ebola vaccine does not protect against this strain.
Wildfire on France's Mediterranean coast forces 3,000 to evacuate campsites and a marina
A fast-moving fire driven by 80 km/h winds swept from Sainte-Marie-la-Mer to the Canet-en-Roussillon marina in the Pyrénées-Orientales, forcing about 3,000 people — half of them from three campsites — to flee and briefly closing Perpignan airport.