Hard Numbers: Americans need stimulus, Yemen prisoner exchange, South Africa's economic recovery, EU sanctions Russia

8 million: As financial aid from the US Congress dries out, some 8 million more Americans have been plunged into poverty since May, according to new research by Columbia University. While the relief package passed in the spring helped millions of Americans weather the pandemic-induced recession, Congress remains in a bitter dispute over a follow-up stimulus deal.

1,000: The warring parties in Yemen's protracted conflict — Saudi-led coalition forces and Houthi rebels backed by Iran — began the exchange of more than 1,000 prisoners Thursday. The deal, brokered in Switzerland last month, aims to engender trust between the two sides and pave the way to renewed peace talks.

800,000: As South Africa's economy is in freefall because of the pandemic, President Cyril Ramaphosa presented an ambitious economic recovery plan Thursday that includes the creation of 800,000 new jobs in the immediate term. As many as 2.2 million jobs in the country were lost in the second quarter of this year alone, data show.

6: The EU has imposed sanctions on six senior Russian officials — and a chemical research center — over the poisoning of anti-Putin politician Alexei Navalny. While the Kremlin has denied involvement in the nerve-agent attack against Navalny, an anti-corruption activist, the EU said in a statement that "the poisoning was only possible with the involvement of the [Russian] Federal Security Service."