News by the Numbers: May 18–24

An additional 2.4 million Americans filed for unemployment the week ending May 21, according to a report released Thursday by the Department of Labor. Unemployment claims filed since mid-March—the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.—have exceeded 38.6 million.

Brazil became the country with the second-highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday. The surge continues to overwhelm the nation, with roughly 330,000 confirmed cases and 21,000 deaths as of May 22, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has failed to respond to the threat of the virus accordingly, publicly minimizing its impact and calling it “a little flu.”

Thousands of Hong Kong residents on Sunday flouted social distancing precautions to protest new Chinese security legislation. At least 180 protesters were arrested in clashes with police that involved tear gas, water cannons, and pepper spray. The legislation proposed by China imposes new security laws that would tamp down anti-government protests in Hong Kong and strip the territory of much of the autonomy it has been fighting and protesting for since June 2019.

A Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed outside of Karachi on Friday, killing 97 people on board. Two passengers survived. The recording retrieved from the plane’s black box confirmed that the plane lost both engines in flight.

A moratorium preventing renter evictions due to COVID-19 hardships was lifted in Texas last week making Houston the largest city where the practice can resume. A rental assistance program in the Houston area ran out of funding in just two hours after the moratorium was lifted.