Hard Numbers: Volcano in Iceland, Earthquake in China, déjà vu in Berlin, gigantic drug bust in Jordan

The eruption of a volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula just after 10pm on Monday night
The eruption of a volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula just after 10pm on Monday night
Icelandic Coast Guard/Cover Imag via Reuters

13,000: A volcanic fissure approximately 13,000 feet long has burst open near the Icelandic village of Grindavik, spewing lava. Grindavik was evacuated weeks ago due to increased seismic activity (which usually precedes eruptions), but there is no telling when they will be permitted to return.

131: At least 131 people have been killed and nearly 1,000 injured after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck southwest of the city of Lanzhou in western China on Tuesday. The death toll may rise in the coming days, as rescue efforts are complicated by the remote, mountainous terrain in one of China’s least developed areas.

455: Berlin residents in 455 of the city’s 2,256 electoral districts will have to go to the polls to rerun elections that they already voted in over two years ago. Germany’s top court found that delays and procedural snafus on Election Day 2021 were severe enough to require a mulligan, but for the MPs whose jobs are on the line, the ruling isn’t the worst possible news: Because only select districts are revoting and not the entire city, they are likely to keep their seats.

4.93 million: Jordanian authorities seized approximately 4.93 million pills of Captagon – a form of amphetamine popular in the Middle East – and nearly 13,000 “palm-sized” sheets of hashish in a bust near the Syrian border. It’s the largest seizure yet in an ongoing crackdown from Amman on the smugglers using the remote desert frontier to sneak drugs out of Syria, where the majority of the world’s Captagon is produced.

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Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025.
REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

15: Fifteen Palestinian medics who went missing last week were apparently killed by Israeli forces and buried in an impromptu mass grave along with their ambulances, according to the UN.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MBS) appointed Saudi Prime Minister, in a government shuffling announced by a Royal Decree, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on September 24, 2022.
Balkis Press/ABACAPRESS.COM

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National Rally leader Marine Le Pen poses prior to an interview on the evening news broadcast of French TV channel TF1, in Boulogne-Billancourt, outside Paris, France, on March 31, 2025.
THOMAS SAMSON/Pool via REUTERS

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen was found guilty by a French court on Monday for embezzling European Parliament funds, and faces a five-year ban from running for public office.

President Donald Trump holds an executive order about tariffs while flanked by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in the Oval Office on Feb. 13, 2025.

REUTERS/File Photo

Donald Trump argues that any short-term pain from his global tariffs will translate into long-term gain as businesses move their operations to the US. He plans to announce a sweeping new round of tariffs on April 2. We asked Eurasia Group expert Nancy Wei what to expect from what Trump is billing as a “Liberation Day” from an unfair global trading system.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, member of parliament of the Rassemblement National party, leaves the courthouse on the day of the verdict of her trial alongside 24 other defendants over accusations of misappropriation of European Union funds, in Paris, France, on March 31, 2025.

REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

Oh là là! A French court on Monday found National Rally leader Marine Le Pen guilty of misappropriating European funds to her far-right party, and barred the three-time presidential candidate barred from running for office for the next five years. Le Pen has denied wrongdoing and said last November, “It’s my political death that’s being demanded.”