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 walk during the evacuation of the Jabalia refugee camp and the Sheikh Radwan and Abu Iskandar neighborhoods in the northern Gaza Strip on October 12, 2024.
Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

Israel launched a new offensive in northern Gaza earlier this month, making it even more difficult to get aid in, and the UN’s human rights office warns that the IDF “appears to be cutting off North Gaza completely.”

Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk gestures while speaking during the weekly Ministerial meeting in Warsaw.
Marek Antoni Iwanczuk / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in recent days unilaterally suspended the right to asylum for migrants crossing into Poland from neighboring Belarus.

Andrei Belousov, Russia's Defence Minister, attends a meeting with Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission, in Beijing, China, in this still image taken from video released on October 15, 2024.
Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov met with China’s top civilian defense official Zhang Youxia on Tuesday in Beijing, where both sides pledged to “continue working closely” to deepen military relations.

Read: “The Empty Space,” by Peter Brook. In this thin volume, first published in 1968, famed director Peter Brook divides theater into its “Deadly,” “Holy,” “Rough,” and “Immediate” forms.

Turkish citizens disembark naval ship TCG Bayraktar carrying people evacuated from Lebanon upon their arrival at a port in Turkey's Mediterranean coastal province of Mersin, Turkey, October 10, 2024.
REUTERS/Umit Bektas

25: Over 25% of Lebanon is facing Israeli evacuation orders, which were expanded to include 20 villages on Tuesday.

Walmart is fueling American jobs and strengthening communities by investing in local businesses. Athletic Brewing landed a deal with Walmart in 2021. Since then, co-founders Bill Shufelt and John Walker have hired more than 200 employees and built a150,000-square-foot brewery in Milford, CT. Athletic Brewing is one of many US-based suppliers working with Walmart. By 2030, the retailer is estimated to support the creation of over 750,000 US jobs by investing an additional $350 billion in products made, grown, or assembled in America. Learn more about Walmart’s commitment to US manufacturing.

In this photo illustration, the Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) logo seen displayed on a smartphone with an Artificial intelligence (AI) chip and symbol in the background.
(Photo by Budrul Chukrut / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

Sir Edward Byrne, recently named the head of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, or KAUST, signaled that the institution will prioritize US technology and cut off ties with China if it jeopardizes its access to chips made in the US.