You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
3 top elected officials
The top three elected officials in the state of Virginia — the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general — are all embroiled in political crises. The governor, Ralph Northam, appeared in (or maybe not) a racist photo in his medical school yearbook. Vanessa Tyson released a statement with detailed allegations of sexual assault against the lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax. And the attorney general, Mark Herring, acknowledged that he wore brown makeup and a wig to look like a rapper at a party in 1980. [Associated Press]
‘100 percent’
President Trump said yesterday that officials were soon prepared to announce that “100 percent” of the ISIS caliphate has been “liberated.” “The United States military, our coalition partners and the Syrian Democratic forces have liberated virtually all of the territory previously held by ISIS in Syria and Iraq,” Trump said. [Politico]
6 years in prison
A Russian court sentenced a Danish Jehovah’s Witness to six years in prison for “promoting extremism.” He was arrested in 2017 after unlocking an entrance to a building and delivering a sermon. The Supreme Court there banned the denomination, equating it with the Islamic State. [NPR]
20 migrants per day
A new caravan of more than 1,800 migrants has just reached the U.S.-Mexico border. But agents in Eagle Pass, Texas, “can process fewer than 20 asylum seekers a day,” and there are currently no plans to increase that number. [NBC News]
40 players
Currently in this NHL season, there are 40 players scoring at least 1 point per game. If that figure held, this season would feature the most players to reach that threshold since 1995-96. Why? “Whether the scoring uptick can be attributed to a culmination of rule changes, smarter shot selection, worse goaltending or evolved tactics — or some combination of all of that — one thing is certain: The NHL is a scorer’s league again, and the 2018-19 iteration is the most entertaining in nearly three decades,” Terrence Doyle and Neil Paine write. [FiveThirtyEight]
4th hottest
The year 2018 was the fourth hottest on record, according to NASA and NOAA. The rest of the “top four” also happened in the past five years. [Vox]
Love digits? Find even more in FiveThirtyEight’s book of math and logic puzzles, “The Riddler.” I hope you dig it.
If you see a significant digit in the wild, please send it to @ollie.
From ABC News: