Hard Numbers: India’s deadly air, Ethiopia-Sudan border talks, Rio mayor arrested, COVID back in Taiwan

December 22, 2020

A man walks in front of the India Gate shrouded in smog in New Delhi. Reuters

1.67 million: Around 1.67 million Indians died from exposure to toxic air in 2019, roughly 18 percent of all fatalities that occurred in the massive country last year, according to a new study by The Lancet. Air pollution briefly declined in India this year due to pandemic lockdowns, but immediately returned once economic activity resumed.

250: The governments of Ethiopia and Sudan met for talks on demarcating their common border a week after a deadly cross-border clash erupted there. The most disputed area covers 250 square kilometers (100 square miles) and is right next to Ethiopia's Tigray region, where the Ethiopian army is fighting against nationalist forces in an ongoing conflict that has sparked an exodus of refugees to Sudan.

9: Rio de Janeiro Mayor Marcelo Crivella was arrested on bribery charges just nine days before his term expires on December 31. Crivella, a deeply conservative evangelical pastor who cut funding for the Brazilian city's famous LGBT pride parade, recently lost his reelection bid to Eduardo Paes, the former center-right mayor.

255: Taiwan reported its first coronavirus infection in over eight months, ending a 255-day run without local transmission of COVID-19. The island has been widely praised for its pandemic response, which has allowed Taiwan to avoid the severe lockdowns imposed in other Asian countries around the world, while keeping infections at bay.

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Imagine an economy where products are designed to be reused, repaired, and regenerated instead of ending up as waste. That’s the circular economy, a model that redefines recycling and transforms how small businesses operate. In this episode of Local to Global: The power of small business, host JJ Ramberg sits down with Ellen Jackowski, Chief Sustainability Officer at Mastercard, and Rachel McShane, Chief Financial Officer at Depop, to discuss the scale of the circular economy, why circular practices boost both sustainability and profitability, and where the industry is headed next.

Hard Numbers: India’s deadly air, Ethiopia-Sudan border talks, Rio mayor arrested, COVID back in Taiwan

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Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

Are there more autocracies than democracies in the world today, and why does it matter? María del Carmen Sacasa (UNDP LAC) argues we’re in a paradigm shift, not a terminal crisis.

Household debt rose to $18.39T in Q2. Payments are manageable now, but higher mortgage costs and student loan delinquency may soon strain household spending. Can consumers sustain resilience if the labor market continues to soften? Subscribe to Bank of Institute to read the full report.

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After a spate of Russian drones appeared in European airspace, the European Commission is exploring a so-called “drone wall,” an air defense system that aims to detect and destroy drones that pass through Europe’s eastern borders.