Hard Numbers: The Croc stays on top in Zimbabwe, India hops over the moon, Ukraine rejects doctors’ notes, Chileans play games with Pinochet, former Proud Boys leader sentenced
5: Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa was inaugurated for a second five-year term on Monday. Mnangagwa, a military man known as “The Crocodile,” toppled long-time strongman Robert Mugabe in a 2017 coup. Opposition parties dispute the results of last weekend’s election, and outside observers have flagged irregularities, but … the Croc don’t care.
40: One small hop for a lunar lander, one giant leap for the most populous country on earth! India’s Chandrayaan-3, which touched down on the moon last month, performed a surprise “hop” on Monday, lifting itself 40cm off the moon’s surface before landing again. The ability to do this difficult maneuver is crucial for future Indian missions that may involve bringing back samples or astronauts.
9: Ukraine’s military has identified 9 categories of physical or mental illness that will no longer exempt otherwise qualified people from doing their obligatory military service. The categories include asymptomatic HIV, minor disorders of the nervous or endocrine systems, and hepatitis. The change suggests that, after a year and a half of grueling war, Ukraine is feeling a manpower pinch.
6: Next week marks a half-century since the Chilean coup that ousted democratically elected socialist Salvador Allende and replaced him with right-wing strongman Augusto Pinochet. To mark the occasion, a Chilean sociologist spent 6 years creating a new espionage-themed video game in which the player’s objective is to resist the 17-year-long military dictatorship.
22: The former leader of the far-right Proud Boys was sentenced on Tuesday to 22 years in prison for his role in orchestrating the attack on the US Capitol after the 2020 election. Enrique Tarrio was handed down the longest sentence of the group, with three other men, who were tried on seditious conspiracy charges, given sentences last week of between 10 and 17 years.