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Hard Numbers: Gaza begins school year without any schools, Inmates escape prison in Liberia, Massive cocaine seizure made in Guinea-Bissau, Typhoon Yagi kills dozens in Vietnam

Palestinian students sit on the rubble after attending a class in a tent set up on the ruins of the house of teacher Israa Abu Mustafa, as war disrupts a new school year, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024.

Palestinian students sit on the rubble after attending a class in a tent set up on the ruins of the house of teacher Israa Abu Mustafa, as war disrupts a new school year, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024.

REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

0: Not a single school in Gaza was open for the official start of the school year on Monday as the Israel-Hamas war nears its first anniversary. Israel’s offensive has left 90% of schools in the enclave damaged or destroyed, according to the Palestinian Education Ministry.


47: Are you looking for a job as a prison warden? There might soon be an opening at a certain penal facility in Liberia. A whopping 47 inmates escaped from a maximum security prison in Liberia’s Margibi County over the weekend, the country’s justice ministry announced Monday. This was apparently because of a breach in the prison’s security system. The justice ministry says it’s working to recapture the escaped inmates.

3 tons: Snow in West Africa?! Nearly three tons of cocaine were seized in Guinea-Bissau over the weekend, police announced Monday. This is part of a broader trend. International drug traffickers have increasingly looked to West Africa as a transit point for cocaine traveling from South America to Europe, the UN warned earlier this year.

64: At least 64 people have died in Vietnam as of Monday amid heavy rain, flooding, and landslides brought on by Typhoon Yagi – the strongest typhoon to hit the country in decades. In recent days, factories have been damaged, buses have been swept away by flooding, and bridges have collapsed.

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​Buildings lie in ruins amidst the rubble in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on December 8, 2025.

Buildings lie in ruins amidst the rubble in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on December 8, 2025.

REUTERS/Nir Elias
68 million: The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is tentatively holding, but conditions on the ground in Gaza remain dire. Most Palestinians are pitching tents in overcrowded camps, atop 68 million tons of rubble that will take years, and billions of dollars to clear. The level of debris is the equivalent of 186 Empire State Buildings, or 162 [...]
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REUTERS/Stringer
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