Hard Numbers: English contact tracing fails, Venezuela's oil revenue dip, Latin American workers flail, Golden Dawn declared criminal org

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wearing a mask

16,000: As a result of a technical glitch, around 16,000 confirmed COVID cases were "lost" from England's contact tracing system over the course of a week. British public health officials believe that as many as 50,000 people may have been exposed to COVID-19 during this period and now will not be contacted and encouraged to self-isolate to stop the virus' spread.

5: After an epic five-year trial, a Greek court found that the far-right Golden Dawn political party was operating as a criminal organization, stemming from a series of attacks including the murder of a left-wing rapper in 2013. Golden Dawn, founded as a neo-Nazi party in the 1980s, became Greece's third largest political bloc amid the country's recent financial crisis in the 2010s.

2.3 billion: Crippling American sanctions and years of political mismanagement and corruption— exacerbated by the pandemic — have brought Venezuela's once-thriving oil sector to a standstill. Venezuela, once Latin America's largest oil producer, is expected to net around $2.3 billion this year from oil exports — a far cry from a decade ago, when Caracas reaped about $90 billion a year from oil sales.

12: Only 12 percent of Latin American workers affected by the coronavirus crisis are eligible for government unemployment benefits, compared to some 44 percent of workers in North America and Europe. The IMF predicts that 15 years' worth of poverty alleviation in Latin America has now been undone because of the global economic crisis.

More from GZERO Media

A combination photo shows a person of interest in the fatal shooting of U.S. right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, U.S. shown in security footage released by the Utah Department of Public Safety on September 11, 2025.
Utah Department of Public Safety/Handout via REUTERS
A drone view shows the scene where U.S. right-wing activist, commentator, Charlie Kirk, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, U.S. September 11, 2025.
REUTERS/Cheney Orr

The assassination of 31-year old conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a college event in Utah yesterday threatened to plunge a deeply divided America further into a cycle of rising political violence.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro stands next to members of the armed forces, on the day he says that his country would deploy military, police and civilian defenses at 284 "battlefront" locations across the country, amid heightened tensions with the U.S., in La Guaira, Venezuela, September 11, 2025.
Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

284: Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has deployed military assets to 284 “battlefront” locations across the country, amid rising tensions with the US.