Counters
Numbers instead of news numbers
A ticker for the causes behind the headlines: war spending, children killed or orphaned, datacenters opened, stores closing, how many major media outlets remain after each merger. Every value is a named source with a link — never a wire summary, never an approximation. A counter without a sourced value yet says exactly that.
-
119.7 USD billions
The war's biggest single supporter, by the wallet. Follow the appropriations, not the headlines.
US$119.7 billion spent on activities related to the Russian invasion (Kiel Institute aggregate, as stated on the support page; a CRS-counted US$133.2B through April 2025 includes wider activities)
Source: United States support for Ukraine — Wikipedia (citing Kiel Institute / CRS) · checked 2026-09-28
↓ falling is good tracking · flow · beats: us-national, defense -
200 USD
The June 2025 strikes and everything after: what the operations actually cost, against what was announced.
The June 2025 strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, known as Operation Midnight Hammer, likely cost taxpayers more than $200 million, according to analysis by The Center Square of open-source data on flight hours, per-weapon costs and other expenses (Jun 26, 2025; no official total released — wider totals incl. missile defense of Israel run toward $636M per other tallies)
Source: The Center Square — analysis, Steve Wilson · checked 2026-09-28
↓ falling is good tracking · flow · beats: defense, east-asia -
20000 children (cumulative, per Gaza Health Ministry)
The number the war will be remembered by. Carries its attribution permanently: Gaza Health Ministry, as reported through UN bodies.
A June 2026 UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry report found that Israel had killed approximately 20,000 children and injured 44,000 more since 7 October 2023; the MoH-identified trajectory passed at least 19,424 children by 3 September 2025
Source: Effect of the Gaza war on children in the Gaza Strip — Wikipedia (citing the UN COI June 2026 report) · checked 2026-09-28
↓ falling is good tracking · flow · beats: israel-palestine -
2596 children
The war's longer shadow: children who lost one or both parents. Distinct from the killed count, and independently sourced.
Children who lost BOTH parents in Gaza (2,596); 53,724 lost one parent (47,804 their father, 5,920 their mother)
Source: Casualties of the Gaza war — Wikipedia (citing UN / identified-casualty tracking) · checked 2026-09-28
↓ falling is good tracking · flow · beats: israel-palestine -
— outlets (stock — goes DOWN on a merger)
Ricardo's frame: count the majors, watch each merger subtract one, until 'there's 3'. How many independent national voices are left.
Count of major US national media outlets under separate ownership. The SET needs Ricardo's definition call (broadcast networks only? networks + national newspapers + the big streamers/news sites?) — proposed default: separately-owned national TV networks + national daily newspapers.
Awaiting its first sourced value. Source lane: Media cross-ownership in the United States — Wikipedia
↑ rising is good registered — no sourced value yet · stock · beats: us-national -
600 stores
The retail-lane canary: closures announced, by wave. 2025's restructuring wave lands here when its numbers are sourced.
Historical anchor: 600 underperforming company-owned stores announced July 2008 (Great Recession); 977 worldwide closed in that cycle. The 2025 restructuring wave (~1% of North America stores) lands as its own row once its count is verbatim-sourced.
Source: Starbucks — Wikipedia · checked 2026-09-28
↓ falling is good tracking · flow · beats: auto-consumer, money -
— stores
Grocery consolidation store by store: post-merger closures and divestitures, counted one location at a time.
Store closures and divested locations following the Kroger–Albertsons merger outcome, per company filings and named reporting.
Awaiting its first sourced value. Source lane: Albertsons — Wikipedia
↓ falling is good registered — no sourced value yet · flow · beats: auto-consumer, money -
— facilities / MW (definition pending)
The AI buildout as physical facts: campuses opened, megawatts energized, town halls held against them.
Count of US datacenter campuses announced/opened (and MW energized) per industry trackers and state records; the town-halls counter rides the same beat.
Awaiting its first sourced value. Source lane: Data center — Wikipedia
↑ rising is good registered — no sourced value yet · flow · beats: technology -
32167 children per period (reported online)
The daily minus: children reported missing, as covered by online articles. Paired with children-found-recovered to make the +/- Ricardo asked for.
32,167 missing children cases supported in 2025 (year) — NCMEC 2025 Impact Report
Source: NCMEC 2025 Impact Report · checked 2026-09-28
↓ falling is good tracking · flow · beats: us-national, mexico -
29013 children per period (reported online)
The daily plus. Read against children-reported-missing: the +/- is the number the reader follows.
29,013 of 32,167 reported cases resolved in 2025 — 90% recovery rate (year) — NCMEC 2025 Impact Report
Source: NCMEC 2025 Impact Report · checked 2026-09-28
↑ rising is good tracking · flow · beats: us-national, mexico -
21 % of total generation (TWh in label)
The energy transition as a number that rises: the share of US electricity from wind, sun and water. Good news you can follow year over year.
Renewables were 21% of total US electricity, or 907 TWh; wind and solar together (incl. small-scale solar) supplied 19% of total net generation. EIA projects renewables reach 44% of US generation.
Source: Renewable energy in the United States — Wikipedia (citing EIA) · checked 2026-09-28
↑ rising is good tracking · flow · beats: money, technology -
85 % surviving 5+ years
Medicine's quiet win: children surviving a cancer diagnosis five years or more, up from barely half in the 1970s.
85% of individuals who had childhood cancer now survive five years or more — an increase from the mid-1970s, when only 58% survived five years or more.
Source: Cancer in children — Wikipedia · checked 2026-09-28
↑ rising is good tracking · flow · beats: health -
— payroll jobs per month (BLS)
The labor market's heartbeat: monthly nonfarm payrolls. The feeds lane already ingests the BLS release (bls-latest-rss); the first verbatim figure lands from it.
Monthly change in nonfarm payroll employment per the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment situation release.
Awaiting its first sourced value. Source lane: BLS employment situation (already a newsroom feed: bls-latest-rss)
↑ rising is good registered — no sourced value yet · flow · beats: money, us-national, education-careers -
— pairs (stock — recovered)
The recovery story: from hundreds of pairs in the 1960s to tens of thousands after the DDT ban and Endangered Species Act. Proof the ticker can go the good way.
Estimated contiguous-US nesting pairs per USFWS surveys (the 2021 estimate exceeded 300,000 individuals incl. Alaska; the nesting-pair figure is the tracked anchor).
Awaiting its first sourced value. Source lanes: Bald eagle — Wikipedia (USFWS-cited recovery figures) · USFWS bald eagle information
↑ rising is good registered — no sourced value yet · stock · beats: us-national -
— % of children (DTP3/WHO)
One of the widest positive numbers there is: the share of the world's children receiving basic vaccines.
Global DTP3 coverage per WHO/UNICEF estimates (the standard yardstick), with the year in the label.
Awaiting its first sourced value. Source lanes: Immunization — Wikipedia (WHO/UNICEF-cited) · WHO immunization coverage
↑ rising is good registered — no sourced value yet · flow · beats: health
Flow counters accumulate; stock counters fall when a merger closes one of the majors. Updates land through research findings and carry their date; nothing is edited after the fact.