News

Hard Numbers: India’s COVID compensation, Romanian PM out, global water shortage, US guns sold in Afghanistan

Hard Numbers: India’s COVID compensation, Romanian PM out, global water shortage, US guns sold in Afghanistan
Family members mourn before the cremation of a COVID victim in Giddenahalli village on the outskirts of Bengaluru, India on May 13, 2021.
REUTERS/Samuel Rajkumar

672: India's top court has ordered the country's states to compensate the families of each person who died from COVID with 50,000 rupees ($672) for their loss within 30 days. India has reported almost half a million COVID deaths after suffering a devastating wave in the spring, but that figure is almost surely an undercount.

1,200: The US left a lot of weapons in Afghanistan amid its chaotic withdrawal, and now they're on sale in the black market. A single Beretta M9 handgun, standard issue for US service members, now goes for about $1,200, double what it costs in America and $300 less than a Russian-made Kalashnikov rifle, the weapon of choice for the Taliban.

281: Romania's center-right coalition government collapsed on Tuesday after a majority of 281 lawmakers voted in favor of a no-confidence vote in parliament. PM Florin Citu, who took over only nine months ago, has come under fire for his handling of the pandemic in Romania, which is grappling with a horrendous COVID wave while other EU states are relatively stable.

5 billion: Up to five billion people could lack access to clean water by mid-century, according to a new report by the UN weather agency. Global water supplies have declined by 1 cm (0.4 inches) over the past two decades, in part due to climate change-induced droughts.

More For You

Then-US President George W. Bush waves as he stands with then-People's Republic of China President Jiang Zemin after the two gave statements to the press following their meeting at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, on October 25, 2002.

At the start of the 21st century, Destiny’s Child was atop the US charts, “Google” was a little known search website with a weird name, and two things happened that would shape the world we live in today.