Hard Numbers: Korean War remembered, EU bucks up for WHO, asparagus seen from space, stimulus for dead people
70: Thursday marked 70 years since the start of the Korean War, which began with with a surprise cross-border attack by North Korea and never technically ended: the two sides merely signed an armistice in 1953, but no peace treaty. The anniversary comes amid heightened tensions between the North and the South.
500 million: France and Germany revealed on Thursday a joint €500 million ($561 million) commitment to fund the World Health Organization's response to the coronavirus pandemic.This is a major funding boost for the UN public health body after the US — the top national contributor to its budget — announced last month it would cut ties with the WHO over concerns that the organization was too cozy with China.
17: The space agencies of the EU, Japan and the US have pulled together data from 17 different satellites in order to map the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as seen from orbit. The Earth Observing Dashboard shows how national lockdowns are affecting global air pollution, hospital lights... and white asparagus harvests.
1.4 billion: The US Treasury Department inadvertently sent coronavirus stimulus checks worth almost $1.4 billion to about 1.1 million deceased people, a government watchdog found. The revelation was included in a US Government Accountability Office report on how to improve COVID-19 federal response and recovery.