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

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.

More from GZERO Media

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Democratic Republic of the Congo's Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe on June 27, 2025.
REUTERS

On June 27, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda signed a US-mediated peace accord in Washington, D.C., to end decades of violence in the DRC’s resource-rich Great Lakes region. The agreement commits both nations to cease hostilities, withdraw troops, and to end support for armed groups operating in eastern Congowithin 90 days.

What if the next virus isn’t natural, but deliberately engineered and used as a weapon? As geopolitical tensions rise and biological threats become more complex, health security and life sciences are emerging as critical pillars of national defense. In the premiere episode of “The Ripple Effect: Investing in Life Sciences”, leading experts explore the dual-use nature of biotechnology and the urgent need for international oversight, genetic attribution standards, and robust viral surveillance.

A woman lights a cigarette placed in a placard depicting Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, during a demonstration, after the Hungarian parliament passed a law that bans LGBTQ+ communities from holding the annual Pride march and allows a broader constraint on freedom of assembly, in Budapest, Hungary, on March 25, 2025.
REUTERS/Marton Monus

Hungary’s capital will proceed with Saturday’s Pride parade celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, despite the rightwing national government’s recent ban on the event.