Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

Hard Numbers: Amazon deforestation, South Sudan famine, COVID vaccine protection, Lebanese inflation

Hard Numbers: Amazon deforestation, South Sudan famine, COVID vaccine protection, Lebanese inflation

An aerial view shows a tree at the center of a deforested plot of the Amazon near Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil.

REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
Make us preferred on Google

16: Brazil's new plan to save the Amazon promises to curb deforestation, but not too much. Although it would reduce annual forest loss to the average recorded over the past five years, next year's target is still 16 percent higher than the Amazon's total deforestation in 2018, the year before President Jair Bolsonaro — who favors economic development of the rainforest — took office.


7.24 million: Up to 7.24 million people in South Sudan will likely suffer acute food insecurity in the coming months, according to the World Food Programme. The country is one of the UN's top 10 projected global hunger hotspots for this year.

0.008: Fully vaccinated people in the US have a 0.008 percent chance of getting COVID, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials have always warned that vaccination is not 100 percent effective against infection, but that the benefits of inoculation far outweigh the risks.

5: Basic food items in Lebanon are now five times more expensive than two years ago. Lebanon's economic collapse, which began in late 2019, has seen the value of the local currency plunge, raising the prices of everyday items in a nation that imports around 80 percent of the goods it consumes.

More For You

Argentina's President Javier Milei visits the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site during his tour in Jerusalem's Old City, February 6, 2024

Argentina's President Javier Milei visits the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site during his tour in Jerusalem's Old City, February 6, 2024

REUTERS/Ammar Awad
“We hope and believe that 2026 will be the year of Latin America,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar proclaimed late last year.So far, it looks like things are going his way. Even as Israel grows increasingly isolated on the world stage, there is one region where a whole swath of newly elected leaders can’t seem to get enough of the Jewish [...]
Tourist Trap
Lottie Tellyn
The dropoff deepens a trend that began in 2025, when overseas arrivals fell by 2.5%. The decline is particularly striking given that thousands of people came to the US for the World Cup earlier this year. The Trump administration has set an ambitious goal of attracting 100 million overseas visitors a year by 2030, but meeting that target would [...]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan receives Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with an official ceremony in Ankara, Turkiye on October 22, 2026.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan receives Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with an official ceremony in Ankara, Turkiye on October 22, 2026.

Anadolu via Reuters Connect
Canada looks to Turkey for new partnershipCanadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Turkey on Thursday for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The visit is the first by a Canadian prime minister to Turkey. The two leaders promptly announced a new “strategic partnership” focused on expanding cooperation in defense and energy — Erdogan is [...]
Climate targets now out of reach
Will Fitzpatrick
That’s way above the UN target of 1.5 degrees that was set by the 2015 Paris Agreement. The UN says the world can still turn things around, but only through steep emissions cuts. It says governments could limit the overshoot to around 1.8 degrees by mid-century, but only if they slash emissions 18% over the next four years, 45% by 2035, and 69% by [...]