You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
1 pigeon
A noble pigeon did the avian version of streaking this week when it stormed the court during a Wimbledon qualifying match and delayed the game by about a minute. The pigeon was lucky Rufus the Hawk wasn’t on the job at that moment. Normally, Wimbledon employs Rufus to discourage lesser birds from bugging players. [Deadspin]
6 countries
Last night at 8 p.m. Eastern, President Trump’s travel ban went into effect, partially — banning visa applicants from six Muslim-majority countries and refugees unless they have “a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.” Some family relations count (including a parent, child, spouse or sibling), and some don’t (including a grandparent, cousin, niece or uncle). And importantly, the administration’s guidelines don’t consider a refugee’s ties to a resettlement agency — often the only connection refugees have in the U.S. — as a “bona fide relationship.” [The Guardian]
1989
Sony got out of the vinyl record business in 1989, when that was a perfectly sensible and intuitive business decision. But nearly three decades later, they’re getting back in. [The Guardian]
1.4 million children
An internationally renown Syrian doctor who coordinated a campaign that vaccinated 1.4 million Syrian children has given up on coming back to the U.S. — he was studying at Brown University — because of the travel ban. Instead, Khaled Almilaji will settle in Canada. [The Associated Press]
$9.4 billion
Walgreens and Rite Aid canceled their $9.4 billion merger because of antitrust concerns. Walgreens will now try to buy half of Rite Aid’s stores for $5.18 billion. [The Wall Street Journal]
$15 billion
Britain will investigate whether Rupert Murdoch’s attempted $15 billion takeover of media juggernaut Sky gives Twenty-First Century Fox too much power over the industry and if it should be blocked on those grounds. [Reuters]
If you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.