Hard Numbers: Greek refugee camp in flames, SA economy in freefall, US to cut troops in Iraq, COVID vaccine trial on pause
13,000: A huge fire destroyed Europe's largest refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, leaving roughly 13,000 people without any shelter. While the cause of the blaze is still unknown, human rights groups have long complained that overcrowded migrant camps would one day prove catastrophic on the Greek island.
51: South Africa's GDP contracted by an annualized 51 percent in the second quarter of this year, the worst decline since 1960. Africa's most industrialized economy — which has been crippled by the pandemic-related lockdown — has now been in recession for a full year, the first time that's happened since 1992.
3,000: The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that it would reduce the number of US troops in Iraq from 5,200 to 3,000 this month. More than 17 years after the US-led invasion as part of the broader War On Terror, American soldiers are still in Iraq, but now they are mostly fighting the Islamic State.
1: US-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has paused its clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine it is co-developing with the UK's Oxford University after one of its volunteers developed neurological symptoms. This vaccine is one of eight currently in Phase III clinical trials in the global race to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus.