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Cross country skiing at the 2022 Beijing Olympics
Hard Numbers: Real snow disrupts Winter Games, French airstrikes in the Sahel, “blasphemy” lynching in Pakistan, Canadian cops arrest protesters
222 million: Several ski and slalom events had to be pushed back at the Beijing Olympics Sunday due to heavy snow and poor visibility. Ironically, China has been criticized for using 222 million liters of water to create artificial snow conditions for the Games.
40: In coordination with local forces, the French military conducted airstrikes in Burkina Faso Saturday, killing 40 militants believed to be linked to local terror cells. The French, who have been operating in a counterterrorism capacity in the jihadist-plagued Sahel region, said the targets were responsible for recent attacks in neighboring Benin, which killed a French national.
80: More than 80 people have been arrested in Pakistan’s Punjab province for lynching a man who allegedly burned pages of the Quran. Pakistan’s British-era blasphemy law triggers a potential death sentence for anyone who insults Islam, but critics say that the law is often used by vigilantes to target minorities and settle personal scores.
1.6: Canadian police started arresting protesters Sunday in Windsor, Canada, in an attempt to unblock the 1.6 mile Ambassador Bridge that runs from there to Detroit, Michigan, and accommodates more than a quarter of all trade between the US and Canada. This comes as weeks-long protests against vaccine mandates and other measures that have crippled Ottawa, the capital, continue to grow.Hard Numbers: French troops out of Sahel, Saudi-UAE oil deal, Chinese father-son reunion, Belarusian migrant wave
5,100: France will gradually withdraw most of its 5,100 troops from Africa's conflict-ridden Sahel region by the first quarter of next year. A month ago, President Emmanuel Macron vowed that at least "hundreds" of French soldiers would remain in the Sahel as part of an international task force to counter jihadist groups in the region.
400,000: Saudi Arabia and the UAE have reached a compromise in their dispute over OPEC+ oil production quotas, which has caused global prices to rise lately. The Saudis will allow the Emiratis to pump a bit more crude than Riyadh initially wanted in exchange for Abu Dhabi endorsing a deal for all OPEC+ countries to produce 400,000 barrels per day until the end of the year.
1,700: More than 1,700 migrants have crossed into Lithuania from Belarus in recent weeks, compared with just 80 in all of 2020. Lithuania, an EU member state, says this is payback from strongman Alexander Lukashenko for EU sanctions against Belarus over his diversion of a Vilnius-bound passenger jet to arrest a dissident journalist last May.
24: Now for some good news — a Chinese man has been reunited with his son 24 years after the boy was kidnapped at the age of two. Such abductions were common under China's one-child policy (1978-2015) because most Chinese families preferred a male heir to carry the family name.