Search
AI-powered search, human-powered content.
scroll to top arrow or icon

Hard Numbers: Kenya's vaccine goal, (some) American hostages released in Haiti, Sri Lanka's Easter bombing trial, US democracy slides

Nandoiye Ole Yiele, 74, receives her first dose of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at the Bissil Health Centre within Iibissil settlement, Matapato North of Kajiado county, Kenya August 23, 2021

10 million: The Kenyan government hopes to vaccinate 10 million people over the next month. A vaccination mandate will go into effect in the country on December 21, when unvaccinated people will be banned from accessing public facilities including transport.


2: Two American hostages kidnapped by a Haitian gang over a month ago have been released. Sixteen Americans and one Canadian belonging to Christian missionary groups were kidnapped for ransom outside Port-au-Prince by gangs who have taken over large swaths of the city since the July assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

855: Sri Lanka's former police chief Pujith Jayasundera has been hit with 855 charges for failing to act on intelligence in the lead up to the deadly Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 that killed 270 people. The prosecution says Jayasundera received – and ignored – information that could have helped prevent a series of ISIS attacks on churches and hotels.

1: The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a European think tank, has added the United States to a list of backsliding democracies for the first time. The report cites former President Trump's questioning of the 2020 election results as "a historic turning point."