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Hard Numbers: Cocaine bandits, Mpox hits the DRC, Ukraine in contention, Trump Bibles, Lieberman's passing

March 27, 2024
Riley Callanan
A member of Colombia's Navy checks cocaine seized in the Gulf of Morrosquillo
A member of Colombia's Navy checks cocaine seized in the Gulf of Morrosquillo
REUTERS

6,600: Following a high-speed boat chase in the Caribbean Sea on Tuesday, Colombia’s navy seized about 6,600 pounds of cocaine from drug smugglers.

400: The Democratic Republic of Congo is now seeing record levels of Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox. Some 400 suspect cases are reported each week, mainly in children, and this strain of the virus kills about 10% of those infected, a remarkably high level.

2-1: Ukraine’s national soccer team has qualified for this summer’s European Championships with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Iceland, sending tens of thousands of Ukrainians inside the Wroclaw Stadium in Poland into rapturous celebration.

59.99: Presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump is partnering with country music star Lee Greenwood to sell “God Bless the U.S.A. Bibles.” The price? $59.99, not including shipping and handling fees. “Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back,” said Trump at the product launch.

1 of 1:Joseph Lieberman, the former US senator for Connecticut, died on Wednesday at the age of 82 due to complications from a fall. Lieberman was nearly the first Jewish vice president in US history. He was a centrist and foreign policy hawk known for his dogged individualism, which could be controversial at times. Lieberman was the first Jewish candidate on a major party’s presidential ticket in the disputed 2000 election and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. In 2008, Lieberman enraged many Democrats when he endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain for the presidency over then-Sen. Barack Obama, but was also applauded by liberals over the years for his strong support for abortion rights and gay rights. “In an era of political carbon copies, Joe Lieberman was a singularity. One of one," Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said in a tweet.

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