Hard Numbers

Hard Numbers: Mother Nature batters South and Southeast Asia, Netanyahu asks for a pardon, Aussies get in kayaks to protest coal, Trump commutes sentence of fraudster, Leo makes first foreign trip as pope

​People stay at a school, which is functioned as the temporary shelter at flooded area, on November 30, 2025 in Sumatra, Sumatra. The authorities in Indonesia were searching on Sunday for hundreds of people they said were missing after days of unusually heavy rains across Southeast Asia that have killed hundreds and displaced millions.
People stay at a school, which is functioned as the temporary shelter at flooded area, on November 30, 2025 in Sumatra, Sumatra. The authorities in Indonesia were searching on Sunday for hundreds of people they said were missing after days of unusually heavy rains across Southeast Asia that have killed hundreds and displaced millions.
Photo by Li Zhiquan/China News Service/VCG

800: The death toll from the tropical storm that battered parts of Southeast Asia is now close to 800. Indonesia has been hit especially hard – at least 600 people have died there as the heavy rains caused floods and landslides. Meanwhile, a cyclone across the Bay of Bengal has left at least 350 people dead in Sri Lanka, prompting Colombo to declare a state of emergency.

10: In a one-page letter, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahurequested President Isaac Herzog end his corruption trial. It comes two weeks after US President Donald Trump sent Herzog a letter urging him to pardon Netanyahu. If convicted, Netanyahu could face up to 10 years in prison.

81,000: Government efforts to address climate change may be stalling, but the protests remain – at least on waters off the Australian coast. Hundreds of protestors took to their kayaks in Newcastle harbor to disrupt inbound shipping at the world’s largest coal export port on Sunday. Two protestors even managed to scale an 81,000-ton coal ship and unfurl a banner on the side of it.

13: Trump didn’t just pardon turkeys this Thanksgiving holiday: he also commuted the sentence of a private equity executive just 13 days into a seven-year sentence for securities and wire fraud. David Gentile, the executive, defrauded thousands of people in a scheme that raised $1.6 billion.

1: Pope Leo XIV made his first foreign trip over the weekend, visiting Turkey for three days before heading to the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Sunday. While in Turkey, he encouraged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help negotiate a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian territories.

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