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Hard Numbers: China-Canada diplomatic spat, Rohingya vaccine rollout, deadly Marburg virus in Guinea, Chinese elephants on a mission

August 10, 2021
Gabrielle Debinski
Flags of Canada and China

227: Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian citizen who in 2014 planned to smuggle 227 kg (500 lb) of methamphetamine from China to Australia, has lost his appeal against the death penalty in China. Ottawa has accused Beijing of using Schellenberg as a pawn amid an ongoing extradition battle involving Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who faces criminal charges in Canada.

65,000: Bangladesh has started vaccinating Rohingya refugees against COVID, and is hoping to vaccinate 65,000 of them (out of 990,000 who fled from neighboring Myanmar) over the next few months. The delta variant is already spreading in the refugee camps and has caused at least 200 deaths at the sprawling Cox's Bazar.

88: The World Health Organization has identified a case of the highly infectious Marburg virus, linked to Ebola, in the West African country of Guinea. Marburg, which originates in bats, has a fatality rate of 88 percent but the WHO says it doesn't pose a global risk.

150,000: More than 150,000 Chinese residents have been evacuated from the path of a herd of migrating wild elephants. It's unclear why the elephants — an endangered species protected by the state — left their habitat in northwest Yunnan province some 17 months ago, but since then Chinese drones have been monitoring the herd's movements, clearing residents from its path.

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