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Significant Digits For Monday, July 8, 2019

You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.


4 titles

U-S-A! U-S-A! The American team won its fourth Women’s World Cup title yesterday in a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands on the backs of goals from Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle. The U.S. also won in 1991, 1999 and 2015, and this year the team broke the record for most goals in the tournament with 26. [ESPN]


$185 million

“Spider-Man: Far From Home,” a movie I have literally never heard of until now, led the domestic box office over the holiday weekend with $185 million from 4,636 theaters. It also set a number of dubious records including “biggest Tuesday ticket sales of all time.” I’d like to go on record myself and say, to whomever it might concern, make some new goddamn movies. [Variety]


3 runners

Ah, the signs of summer. Three runners — two Americans and a Spaniard — were gored by bulls in Pamplona over the weekend, according to Spanish officials. One was gored in the neck and the other two were gored in the thigh. Thanks, Hemingway. [Associated Press]


10 points

A new poll from the Washington Post and ABC News showed at least two things: 1) President Trump’s approval among voting-age Americans has risen to 44 percent and 2) if the 2020 presidential election were held today, Trump would lose to Joe Biden 53 percent to 43 percent. [ABC News]


7.1 magnitude

The West Coast was rattled by earthquakes late last week: a 6.4 magnitude quake on Thursday followed by a 7.1 magnitude quake on Friday, which even rattled the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. A Caltech seismologist announced that there was an 8 to 9 percent chance of an even bigger quake “coming within hours and days.” [Los Angeles Times]


2.2 billion acres

Perhaps trees are our most powerful weapon in the fight against climate change. Scientists writing in the journal Science found that there were 2.2 billion acres — an area nearly equal to that of the United States — that could be reforested with some 1.2 trillion new trees, which would “soak up an astounding two-thirds of humanity’s emissions in the atmosphere since the 19th century.” [Vox]


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Oliver Roeder was a senior writer for FiveThirtyEight. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied game theory and political competition.

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