Hard Numbers: US' COVID U-turn, India green-lights J&J vaccine, Huawei's revenue dip, Riyadh targets Hamas
100,000: After boasting of a successful vaccine rollout in the spring, the US is now recording more than 100,000 new daily COVID cases on average. States with a high percentage of vaccine resistant people — like Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas, and Mississippi — have experienced some of the biggest surges in infections over the past two weeks.
11: With just 11 percent of its population vaccinated, India has now approved the Johnson & Johnson one-shot COVID vaccine for emergency use. This is the second foreign-produced vaccine Delhi has approved to date, but the bad news is that J&J says it can't commit to a timeframe for delivery of the jab.
38: Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, recorded a 38 percent revenue drop in the second quarter of this year, in large part because of US sanctions imposed by the Trump administration in 2019. President Biden has shown little indication that he will lift the measures, which block Huawei from accessing US-made microchips.
69: Saudi officials have sentenced 69 Palestinian and Jordanian residents of the kingdom to prison, for alleged support of the Hamas militant group based in the Gaza Strip. Those sentenced include veteran Hamas representative Mohammed al-Khoudary, who managed the relationship between Hamas and Riyadh for two decades. Some say the Saudis' recent crackdown is due to warming ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.