Hard Numbers

Hard Numbers: Hurricane Melissa’s death toll rises, sectarian violence displaces hundreds of thousands in Syria, Coffee prices soar, More jewel thieves arrested

​A woman carries water out of her home, after floods caused by the outer bands of Hurricane Melissa killed several people, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, October 29, 2025.
A woman carries water out of her home, after floods caused by the outer bands of Hurricane Melissa killed several people, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, October 29, 2025.
REUTERS/Egeder Pq Fildor

23: Twenty-three people have died in Haiti after Hurricane Melissa passed near the island, adding more anguish to a country that has been in crisis for most of the past decade and without a president since Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021. The hurricane is now headed toward Bermuda.

430,000: The UN reports that sectarian violence in post-Assad Syria has already displaced 430,000 people. Syria’s 14-year long civil war had pushed more than half the country’s 22 million people from their homes. The end of that conflict with the ouster of Assad last December had raised hopes for an end to the displacements.

41%: US coffee roasters’ stockpiles are running low as they wait for a new US-Brazil trade deal. Since US President Donald Trump put 50% tariffs on Brazil, coffee prices in the US have gone up by 41% from a year ago, to an average of $9.14 a pound. Brazil alone accounts for a third of American coffee consumption.

5: French authorities arrested five more Louvre heist suspects outside Paris on Wednesday. However, the stolen jewels, valued at more than $100 million, have yet to be recovered.

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