Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

Hard Numbers: Japan's tourism troubles, lockdown delays cost lives, violence in South Sudan, Nigerians lack access to water

Hard Numbers: Japan's tourism troubles, lockdown delays cost lives, violence in South Sudan, Nigerians lack access to water

99.9: Japan has recorded its steepest drop in tourism in over fifty years, with just 2,900 foreign nationals entering the country last month, a dip of more than 99.9 percent compared to the previous year. Consider that in 2018, the last year for which comprehensive data is available, around 7 percent of Japan's total GDP came from tourism.


300: At least 300 people were killed in South Sudan's Jonglei state in recent days amid ongoing clashes between rival communities. Violence between warring ethnic groups has intensified in recent months despite the signing of a treaty earlier this year aimed at ending the state's enduring civil war.

36,000: Delays in implementing lockdowns across the US to curb the spread of the coronavirus cost tens of thousands of lives, according to new data released by Columbia University. If residents in hard-hit places like New York City, New Orleans and Detroit were ordered to stay home one week earlier, at least 36,000 lives would have been saved, researchers say. Two weeks earlier would have spared 54,000.

60 million: Living through a pandemic is trying, but living through a pandemic when you don't have easy access to clean water is extremely difficult. Some 60 million Nigerians, a third of the population, have to leave their homes to access clean drinking water, complicating efforts to maintain effective sanitation and hygiene needed within families to curb the virus' spread.

More For You

Luis Fernando Cerimedo, advisor of Presidential candidate Nasry Asfura of the National Party of Honduras (PN), speaks during a press conference after the general election, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, December 1, 2025.

Luis Fernando Cerimedo, advisor of Presidential candidate Nasry Asfura of the National Party of Honduras (PN), speaks during a press conference after the general election, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, December 1, 2025.

REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
515: There are close presidential races, and then there’s the one in Honduras, where just 515 votes separate the top two candidates following Sunday’s election in the Central American nation. Officials say that former Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura and former sports broadcaster Salvador Nasralla are locked in a “technical tie.” Officials are still [...]
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a meeting with Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader at the National Palace, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic November 26, 2025.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a meeting with Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader at the National Palace, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic November 26, 2025.

REUTERS/Erika Santelices
Washington is growing uncomfortable with Venezuela strikeThe White House sought to shift blame away from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Monday, instead declaring that Admiral Frank Bradley ordered the killing of two people on a boat – even after the boat was destroyed. A report from the The New York Times undermined the original Washington Post [...]
​Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky inspects a guard of honor by the Irish Army in Dublin, Ireland, on December 2, 2025.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky inspects a guard of honor by the Irish Army at Government Buildings during an Irish State visit, in Dublin, Ireland, on December 2, 2025.

REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
It hasn’t been an easy year for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – and not just because Russia is still invading his country.US President Donald Trump’s return to office heralded a sharp slowdown in new White House spending on Ukraine – it has dropped to virtually zero this year. Europe has made up for some of the shortfall, but is now [...]
​The Gen Z group led by Miraj Dhungana escalates their ongoing demonstrations in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Nov. 26, 2025.

The Gen Z group led by Miraj Dhungana escalates their ongoing demonstrations, confronting police outside the prime minister's official residence in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Nov. 26, 2025.

Sanjit Pariyar/NurPhoto
Youth unemployment is making headlines from China to Canada, with many countries’ rates at historic highs. While the global youth unemployment rate for 2025 is projected to be slightly lower than that of 2020, at 12.8%, regional disparities abound. In developed countries, four in five workers aged 24-29 have a regular paid job, but in developing [...]