Hard Numbers: Israel's bonfire breakup, China's second wave, Tequila's pandemic boom, UK economy's collapse
320: Police in Israel arrested 320 worshippers of a 2nd century Jewish mystic after they rioted against a coronavirus-related prohibition on visiting his tomb. The annual Lag Ba-Omer festival usually draws thousands of people for days of praying and dancing around bonfires. This year, it drew people to jail.
13:China's northeastern Jilin region, which borders North Korea and Russia, hasemergedas the potential source of a second wave of COVID-19 infections in the country. With 13 locally-transmitted cases reported, partial lockdowns have already been imposed
60: As Americans drink up while locked down, Mexico's tequila distillers are toasting to a huge export boom: US sales of the spiritjumped 60 percentin April. The industry, which employs 70,000 people, is a rare bright spot for Mexico – the IMFsaysthis year the country will suffer the biggest GDP hit of any large Latin American economy except Venezuela.
5.8: The British economy shrank by 5.8 percent in March, the sharpest decline since the government started tracking monthly data in 1997. With the economy paralyzed by lockdowns, the Bank of England forecasts an overall contraction of 14 percent this year, the largest annual drop since 1701.