Hard Numbers: Cyclone hits a reeling India, crackdown in Colombia, WHO says "overworking kills", Taiwan's COVID surge

Women with their children leave their houses and evacuate to a safer place ahead of Cyclone Tauktae in Veraval in the western state of Gujarat, India, May 17, 2021.
150,000: A deadly cyclone is set to make landfall in COVID-stricken India and has already prompted the evacuation of 150,000 people along the coast of Gujarat, India's third largest state. Dozens of people have already been killed there due to high winds and heavy rain.

42: At least 42 Colombians have been killed since a now-scrapped controversial tax bill provoked the country's largest and most violent protests in decades. Social movements have called on the Colombian government to condemn "explicitly and forcefully the abuses of the security forces" as a precondition for negotiations.

745,000: A new World Health Organization report found that 745,000 people died globally in 2016 because of "long working hours." The report revealed that working 55 hours a week or more increased the likelihood of stroke and heart disease-related deaths. The WHO said this trend is likely to worsen because of pandemic-driven "work from home" arrangements.

180: Taiwanese officials enforced new restrictions on movement in Taipei after 180 new COVID-19 infections were recorded in the capital on Saturday, the biggest daily increase since the pandemic began. To date, Taiwan has managed to avoid large scale lockdowns after the government acted swiftly to limit the virus' spread last year.

More from GZERO Media

GZERO

Listen: On this episode of the GZERO World Podcast, while the Gaza war rages on with no end in sight, Ian Bremmer and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman discuss how it could end, who is standing in the way, and what comes next. It may seem premature to talk about a resolution to this conflict, but Friedman argues that it is more important now than ever to map out a viable endgame. "Either we're going to go into 2024 with some really new ideas,” Friedman tells Ian, “or we're going back to 1947 with some really new weapons."

2024 04 04 E0819 Quick Take CLEAN FINAL

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: On the back of the Israeli Defense Forces strike killing seven members of aid workers for the World Central Kitchen, their founder, Chef Jose Andres, is obviously very angry. The Israelis immediately apologized and took responsibility for the act. He says that this was intentionally targeting his workers. I have a hard time believing that the IDF would have wanted to kill his workers intentionally. Anyone that's saying the Israelis are only to blame for this—as well as the enormous civilian death toll in this war–I strongly disagree.

President Joe Biden pauses during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023.
Miriam Alster/REUTERS

Biden told Netanyahu that the humanitarian situation in Gaza and strikes on aid workers were “unacceptable,” the White House readout of the call said.

Commander Shingo Nashinoki, 50, and soldiers of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB), Japan's first marine unit since World War Two, take part in a military drill as U.S. Marines observe, on the uninhabited Irisuna island close to Okinawa, Japan, November 15, 2023.
REUTERS

Given the ugly World War II history between the two countries, that would be a startling development.

Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko listens to the presidential candidate he is backing in the March 24 election, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, as they hold a joint press conference a day after they were released from prison, in Dakar, Senegal March 15, 2024.
REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

Newly inaugurated Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, in his first act in office, appointed his mentor Ousmane Sonko as prime minister on Wednesday.