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Hard Numbers: Hong Kong protests resume, support for Italy's Lega party slides, governments hoard PPE

Hard Numbers: Hong Kong protests resume, support for Italy's Lega party slides, governments hoard PPE

80: At least 80 countries and territories have enforced export restrictions on medical equipment such as face masks and ventilators in recent months. This protectionist trend is threatening global supply chains and ramping up prices for much-needed gear, the World Trade Organization warns.


300: After a curb on public gatherings to prevent the spread of COVID-19 halted the activities of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement earlier this year, around 300 people flouted social distancing rules Sunday, calling for "revolution" and demanding the release of 15 pro-democracy protesters recently arrested.

17: Seventeen people, including 12 park rangers, were killed Saturday in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo in an attack that DRC officials blamed on a Rwandan rebel group. Logging, poaching, and spillover violence from Congo's civil wars have made the park, Africa's oldest nature reserve, a hotspot of conflict between rival militias.

25.4: National approval ratings for Italy's far-right Lega party have recently slipped nearly 6 points to 25.4 percent, on account of Lega-run regional governments' poor handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the party's traditional strongholds in northern Italy.

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