Hard Numbers: India’s COVID compensation, Romanian PM out, global water shortage, US guns sold in Afghanistan

Hard Numbers: India’s COVID compensation, Romanian PM out, global water shortage, US guns sold in Afghanistan
Family members mourn before the cremation of a COVID victim in Giddenahalli village on the outskirts of Bengaluru, India on May 13, 2021.
REUTERS/Samuel Rajkumar

672: India's top court has ordered the country's states to compensate the families of each person who died from COVID with 50,000 rupees ($672) for their loss within 30 days. India has reported almost half a million COVID deaths after suffering a devastating wave in the spring, but that figure is almost surely an undercount.

1,200: The US left a lot of weapons in Afghanistan amid its chaotic withdrawal, and now they're on sale in the black market. A single Beretta M9 handgun, standard issue for US service members, now goes for about $1,200, double what it costs in America and $300 less than a Russian-made Kalashnikov rifle, the weapon of choice for the Taliban.

281: Romania's center-right coalition government collapsed on Tuesday after a majority of 281 lawmakers voted in favor of a no-confidence vote in parliament. PM Florin Citu, who took over only nine months ago, has come under fire for his handling of the pandemic in Romania, which is grappling with a horrendous COVID wave while other EU states are relatively stable.

5 billion: Up to five billion people could lack access to clean water by mid-century, according to a new report by the UN weather agency. Global water supplies have declined by 1 cm (0.4 inches) over the past two decades, in part due to climate change-induced droughts.

More from GZERO Media

- YouTube

On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer breaks down how the US and China are both betting their futures on massive infrastructure booms, with China building cities and railways while America builds data centers and grid updates for AI. But are they building too much, too fast?

Elon Musk attends the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide, Germany, March 22, 2022.
Patrick Pleul/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

$1 trillion: Tesla shareholders approved a $1-trillion pay package for owner Elon Musk, a move that is set to make him the world’s first trillionaire – if the company meets certain targets. The pay will come in the form of stocks.

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz walk after a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), in Belem, Brazil, on November 7, 2025.
REUTERS/Adriano Machado

When it comes to global warming, the hottest ticket in the world right now is for the COP30 conference, which runs for the next week in Brazil. But with world leaders putting climate lower on the agenda, what can the conference achieve?