Hard Numbers: The shrinking Amazon, US views on #BLM, Boko Haram attack, the UK economy's bad case of COVID

10,000: Under Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro's push to develop the Amazon, more than 10,000 square kilometers of the rainforest were destroyed last year. That's an area equal to the size of Lebanon, and it's a 34 percent increase over 2018. So far this year, destruction of the Amazon is already up 55 percent. The Amazon's vast absorption of greenhouse gasses is critical for limiting global warming, scientists say.

53: Two weeks of nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd have moved a majority (53 percent) of Americans to support the Black Lives Matter movement for the first time, according to the pollster Civiqs. Before Floyd's death, the figure stood at 48 percent, the highest mark on record at the time.

11.5: The UK economy will shrink 11.5 percent this year, the worst of any major economy, says the OECD, a group of advanced countries. And that's the optimistic case, which assumes no "second wave" of coronavirus. If another wave breaks, Britain's GDP would contract 14 percent. Analysts say that the UK's economic dependence on services has made it especially vulnerable to coronavirus-related shutdowns.

81: Boko Haram jihadists are suspected in an attack on a village in Northeastern Nigeria that left at least 81 people dead on Tuesday. The terror group has killed more than 30,000 people over the past decade, in a conflict that has displaced more than 2.5 million. With governments around the world distracted by the coronavirus pandemic, the group has recently increased its attacks.

More from GZERO Media

A drone view shows the scene where U.S. right-wing activist, commentator, Charlie Kirk, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, U.S. September 11, 2025.
REUTERS/Cheney Orr

The assassination of 31-year old conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a college event in Utah yesterday threatened to plunge a deeply divided America further into a cycle of rising political violence.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro stands next to members of the armed forces, on the day he says that his country would deploy military, police and civilian defenses at 284 "battlefront" locations across the country, amid heightened tensions with the U.S., in La Guaira, Venezuela, September 11, 2025.
Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

284: Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has deployed military assets to 284 “battlefront” locations across the country, amid rising tensions with the US.

A member of Nepal army stands guard as people gather to observe rituals during the final day of Indra Jatra festival to worship Indra, Kumari and other deities and to mark the end of monsoon season.
REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Nepal’s “Gen-Z” protest movement has looked to a different generation entirely with their pick for an interim leader. Protest leaders say they want the country’s retired chief justice, Sushila Karki, 73, to head a transitional government.

Trump's silhouette as a wrecking ball banging into the Federal Reserve.
Gemini

President Trump has made no secret of his longstanding desire for lower interest rates to juice the economy and reduce the cost of servicing the $30 trillion federal debt.

The Nepalese government’s decision last week to ban several social platforms has touched off an ongoing wave of deadly unrest in the South Asian country of 30 million.

The Nepalese government’s decision last week to ban several social platforms has touched off an ongoing wave of deadly unrest in the South Asian country of 30 million.

General Wieslaw Kukula, chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, takes part in an extraordinary government cabinet meeting at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, following violations of Polish airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine in Warsaw, Poland, on September 10, 2025.
(Photo by Aleksander Kalka/NurPhoto

NATO jets last night shot down Russian drones that had entered Polish airspace. Poland said the unmanned aircraft had crossed the border en route to a strike on Ukraine.