Hard Numbers: Josh Wong sentenced again in HK, carnage in Rio de Janeiro, global food crisis, Florida restricts voting

Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong is seen in Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre after jailed for unauthorised assembly near the police headquarters during the 2019 anti-government protests in Hong Kong, China December 3, 2020.

10: Joshua Wong was sentenced along with other Hong Kong democracy activists to 10 months in prison for participating in a vigil last year marking the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. Wong is currently behind bars for participating in separate pro-democracy protests, and will only start this new sentence after that term concludes in November.

25: At least 25 people were killed Thursday in a shootout in Rio de Janeiro where drug cartels were allegedly trying to recruit children. Police said that it was "the largest number of deaths in a police operation in Rio." Gang violence has surged in Brazil during the pandemic, after it declined in 2018 and 2019.

155 million: The UN World Food Programme released its new annual report this week, and the findings are staggering: 155 million people required food assistance globally in 2020, a five-year high. Some of the worst food-related crises are in Burkina Faso, South Sudan, and Yemen.

40 percent: Florida became this week the latest Republican-run US state to enact fresh laws placing restrictions on voting. A new bill will limit the use of drop boxes, making it harder to vote by mail in a state where 40 percent of people — that's 4.8 million Floridians — cast mail-in ballots in the 2020 presidential election.

More from GZERO Media

"Patriots" on Broadway: The story of Putin's rise to power | GZERO Reports

Putin was my mistake. Getting rid of him is my responsibility.” It’s clear by the time the character Boris Berezovsky utters that chilling line in the new Broadway play “Patriots” that any attempt to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rise would be futile, perhaps even fatal. The show opened for a limited run in New York on April 22.

TITLE PLACEHOLDER | GZERO US Politics

Campus protests are a major story this week over the Israeli operation in Gaza and the Biden administration's support for it. These are leading to accusations of anti-Semitism on college campuses, and things like canceling college graduation ceremonies at several schools. Will this be an issue of the November elections?

The view Thursday night from inside the Columbia University campus gate at 116th Street and Amsterdam in New York City.
Alex Kliment

An agreement late Thursday night to continue talking, disagreeing, and protesting – without divesting or policing – came in stark contrast to the images of hundreds of students and professors being arrested on several other US college campuses on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Judge Amy Coney Barrett after she was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S. October 26, 2020.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Some of the conservative justices (three of whom were appointed by Trump) expressed concern that allowing former presidents to be criminally prosecuted could present a burden to future commanders-in-chief.

A Palestinian woman inspects a house that was destroyed after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, April 24, 2024.
Abed Rahim Khatib/Reuters

“We are afraid of what will happen in Rafah. The level of alert is very high,” Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday.

Haiti's new interim Prime Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert holds a glass with a drink after a transitional council took power with the aim of returning stability to the country, where gang violence has caused chaos and misery, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti April 25, 2024.
REUTERS/Pedro Valtierra

Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry formally resigned on Thursday as a new transitional body charged with forming the country’s next government was sworn in.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at the Beijing Capital International Airport, in Beijing, China, April 25, 2024.
Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via REUTERS

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought up concerns over China's support for Russia with his counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Friday, before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Flags from across the divide wave in the air over protests at Columbia University on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Alex Kliment

Of the many complex, painful issues contributing to the tension stemming from the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza, dividing groups into two basic camps, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, is only making this worse. GZERO Publisher Evan Solomon explains the need to solve this category problem.

Paige Fusco

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has been engulfed in violent gang warfare and without a leader since its former prime minister, Ariel Henry, was barred reentry to the country on March 12.