Hard Numbers

Hard Numbers: ICE to reduce Minneapolis deployment, Another deadly attack in Nigeria, US-Iran confrontation at sea, German airliner acknowledges Nazi past

​Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) stands in formation in a show of force and response after ICE agents tear gassed, shot less lethal weapons and chased a mostly peaceful group of about 150 protestors who were upset with the recent killings of protestors in Minneapolis and the increased activity in their LA neighborhoods.
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) stands in formation in a show of force and response after ICE agents tear gassed, shot less lethal weapons and chased a mostly peaceful group of about 150 protestors who were upset with the recent killings of protestors in Minneapolis and the increased activity in their LA neighborhoods.
Credit Image: © Amy Katz/ZUMA Press Wire

700: The number of ICE and border agents that will leave the Minneapolis area, White House border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday morning. The order is effective immediately. Even with the withdrawal, 2,300 agents will remain in the city’s vicinity, far more than the 80 that were there before Operation Metro Surge began Dec. 1.

162: The number of people killed in western Nigeria on Tuesday, in the deadliest massacre so far this year. A string of attacks has plagued Africa’s most populous country in recent weeks, and Tuesday’s comes despite peace agreements between armed bandits and several local governments most impacted by the security crisis.

3: The number of times that a pair of Iranian gunboats zipped past a US-flagged chemical tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. During one of the passes, the Iranians threatened via radio call to board and seize the tanker. The move came after a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea shot down an Iranian drone that had approached it earlier in the day.

100: That’s the age that the German airliner Lufthansa turns this year. To mark the occasion, the company is reappraising its own role in helping the Nazi party during World War II. The company had disbanded in 1946, but re-opened seven years later under the same name, claiming it was separate from its Nazi-abetting version. The company’s CEO now accepts responsibility for the company’s actions during the war.

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