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

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.