Hard Numbers: Ethiopia faces locusts again, Japan's COVID response lags, and Russian booze booms

April 14, 2020

1 million: The UN said this week that recent massive locust infestations in East Africa (some swarms were estimated to be the size of Moscow) have decimated crops, forcing 1 million Ethiopians onto food aid. And it's not over. The UN has also warned that a coming second wave of locusts could be twenty times worse.

14: A surge in fighting between the UN-backed government in Libya and opposition forces has forced the closure of 14 hospitals just as the war-torn country has recorded dozens of new COVID-19 cases. Coronavirus-designated hospitals in Tripoli, the capital, have been targeted in the fighting, prompting the UN to call for an immediate ceasefire. So far, no one is listening.

75: A majority of Japanese – some 75 percent – think that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's move to declare a state of emergency last week in response to the coronavirus pandemic came too late. The move allows some states to mandate the closure of schools and businesses, and order residents to stay in their homes.

65: Alcohol abuse in Russia may have fallen sharply over the past 15 years, but with millions of Russians now under home quarantine orders, vodka sales leapt 65 percent in the last week of March. Hospitals say they are now gearing up for a host of booze-related admissions.

What We’re Watching: Air Crash in India, Time running out for Iran nuclear deal, ICE protests move beyond LA, anti-immigration violence in Northern Ireland

Air India Flight AI171 crashed into the hostel canteen of the B.J. Medical College (BJMC), a well-known medical college in Ahmedabad, India, on June 12, 2025, while students were having lunch inside. Casualties in the building is not known.

West Asia News Agency, Majid Asgaripour/WANA via REUTERS

Hard Numbers: Ethiopia faces locusts again, Japan's COVID response lags, and Russian booze booms

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Hard Numbers: Ethiopia faces locusts again, Japan's COVID response lags, and Russian booze booms

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More from GZERO Media

NATO has long had an informal requirement that its members spend 2% of GDP on defense. However, despite decades of urging by successive US presidents, many member states have consistently fallen short of that target.

Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged this week to increase Canada’s military budget to meet NATO’s target this year. It’s not year clear where the money will go.

Canadian and US officials are reportedly approaching at least the framework of a deal covering trade and other issues.

In this episode of Europe in :60, Carl Bildt breaks down Serbia’s evolving foreign policy, and political developments in Poland.

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

The US on Wednesday evacuated nonessential diplomatic and military personnel from Baghdad and several military bases in the region.

The Trump administration wants to slash the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US’ main medical research institution, by 40% for the next fiscal year.

Flooding in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, the result of snow and heavy rain, has left at least 49 people dead, including several people on a school bus that was swept away by the waters.

An increasingly small proportion of each country’s population was alive during some of the most seminal moments in 20th-century history, altering the worldviews of today’s electorates.

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump activated 2,000 members of the California National Guard to quell protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation efforts in Los Angeles, after small but highly visible demonstrations had popped up across the city in the days prior.