News

Hard Numbers: Russia's real death toll, jobless American women, Afghan attacks, Seoul tracing challenge

72: The coronavirus death toll in Russia could be up to 72 percent higher than officially reported, according to a Financial Times tally of deaths that exceed the normal rate. The Russian government says 2,009 people have died of COVID-19.

2.7: For the first time during a recession, US female unemployment (at 16.2 percent) is higher than men's – by 2.7 points. While past recessions have landed hardest on male-dominated industries like manufacturing and construction, this one is crippling retail, hotels, and restaurants, which have high female employment rates.

2,000: South Korean contact tracers are now trying to track down as many as 2,000 people who may have visited several Seoul nightclubs that were the site of a recent coronavirus outbreak. So far, 102 infections have been confirmed.

19: At least 19 civilians were killed in separate attacks on a Kabul maternity ward (yes, you read that right) and a funeral in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday. Violence has increased in the country despite a tentative peace deal between the US and Taliban forces.

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Iran war threatens water access in Middle East
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As missiles fly and oil prices soar, the Iran war is exposing another major resource vulnerability in the Middle East: water. Fresh water has been a scarce commodity in a region defined by a dry climate and low rainfall, but attacks on the region’s desalination plants, which convert seawater into drinking water, threaten to open a new front.