12: Annual deforestation in Brazil's part of the Amazon rainforest has reached a 12 year high, with more than 4,200 square miles burned this year. That's an increase of 9.5 percent over the previous year. Destruction of the Amazon has increased under Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who favors economic development of the rainforest.
82: The Turkish government has arrested 82 members of the military over suspected links to Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Muslim cleric whom Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016. Gulen, who lives in the US, is the head of a global movement that focuses on Islamic values and education. Turkish authorities have sought his arrest for years.
30: Authorities in the West African nation of Mauritania say they have recently busted more than 30 illegal migration networks responsible for trafficking people to Europe. The news comes just a few weeks after more than 140 migrants aiming to reach Spain's Canary Islands died in a shipwreck off the Senegalese coast.
4.2: There's some light at the end of the COVID tunnel — the OECD says that the global economy will grow 4.2 percent next year, after shrinking by the same amount this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
