‘We’re almost extinct.’

Liu Hu, an independent journalist in China, on investigative journalists under the government of President Xi Jinping. “The government has made its citizens ignorant,” Liu said of the harassment of reporters and sources. “The public’s eyes are blind, their ears are deaf, and their mouths have no words.”

Enforced

‘It is our fault.’

Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, taking responsibility for migrants fleeing his country to the United States, including those who have died in the process. “People don’t flee their homes because they want to,” he said. “They flee their homes because they feel they have to.”

Died

3.4%

The decline in individual charitable giving in the United States last year despite rising incomes, according to a report by Giving USA. Experts blame the 2017 tax reform law that raised the standard deduction, removing the tax benefit of giving for many taxpayers.

$130 million

The cost of the Global Hawk intelligence-gathering drone shot down by Iranian forces over the Strait of Hormuz on June 20.

Grandfathered in

After more than a century of construction, the Sagrada Família finally has a building permit. On June 7 the city government of Barcelona, Spain, issued what is apparently the first building permit ever obtained by the iconic Catholic church. Work on the 137-year-old project first began in 1882, and famed Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí directed the construction and design beginning the next year. Officials with the privately funded modernist masterpiece expect the building to be finished in 2026.

The view from ‘Doralzuela’

[ May 25 ] The experience in Venezuela mirrors what has happened in much of Africa: initial excitement and great promises followed by stagnation, ending in despair and greatly reduced standards of living. I wish we had as great a faith in the living God as they have in their dead social experiment. —Clarke McIntosh on wng.org