New data suggests North Carolina is key to Democratic hopes of a congressional takeover.

As Democrats dream of a congressional takeover this November, you often hear about swing districts everywhere from the Northeast to Orange County, California, to South Florida. But the true test of a blue election wave could come in North Carolina, where as many as five seats previously considered safely Republican are now in play.

An exclusive OZY election model in partnership with Republican data and technology firm Øptimus finds that two of the most dramatic House seat shifts in the past two weeks have been in North Carolina.

The Central African Republic has the world’s lowest per capita income, but it is the world’s biggest buyer of weapons as a percentage of imports.

The road map was precise. Devastated by a brutal civil war, the Central African Republic (CAR) decided in 2014 to restore its broken education system. The country received international aid worth $65 million but said it was still $53 million short for its plan to hire teachers and rebuild schools by 2017. It turns out the country had the money. It just chose instead to spend what it said was its education budget shortfall for three years — plus an additional $6 million — on one year of the war.

The CAR has the lowest per capita income — less than $2 a day — in the world. Two-thirds of the country’s population lives in poverty, according to its government. But the landlocked nation has emerged an unlikely leader in an arena usually dominated by emerging or established powers, and relatively wealthier nations: military imports.

TV doctors and hospitals run heavy on the George Clooney and light on the blood, guts and messy deaths that are part of one doctor’s daily deal.

The page I received at 11 p.m. on the Fourth of July was unlike any I had received before.

It was my third night on call as chief orthopedic resident at a large urban trauma center in Northern California. With eight years of medical training under my belt, I was ripe with confidence — the program pretty much let residents take care of everything, and the chief resident was king.

I had four junior residents and a couple of interns running interference for me — when things went down, my juniors would go to the emergency room, order tests and perform exams. Once all the pieces were in place, they would present the situation to me. By the time we were in the operating room, I would know every detail of the case and walk in ready to roll.

Tonight, though, was different.