You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
1 billion acres
The head of the U.S. Forest Service warned that 1 billion acres of land are at risk for catastrophic wildfires. Moreover, such fires can be expected all year long. “‘Fire season’ is not an appropriate term anymore,” Forest Service chief Vicki Christiansen told NPR. [NPR]
$344.6 million
The winner of the $344.6 million Powerball jackpot selected his numbers from his granddaughter’s fortune cookie at a Vietnamese restaurant. “I said, ‘Dang, I got them all,'” Charles W. Jackson Jr. said at a news conference. Dang, indeed. [WRAL]
16,000 employees
Every Sephora store was closed for an hour on Wednesday as its 16,000 employees took part in diversity training and workshops. The decision followed a tweet in late April from the singer SZA that said a Sephora employee had “called security to make sure I wasn’t stealing.” [Associated Press]
24 percent decline
Television viewership of the first two games of the NBA Finals, featuring the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors, averaged 13.6 million viewers, down 24 percent from last year’s Warriors-Cavaliers affair, according to Nielsen data. Last year’s finals were a four-game sweep, however, so at least this year, there’ll be more games. [AdAge]
800,000 cruise passengers
Earlier this week, the Trump administration tightened restrictions on travel to Cuba, banning cruise ships, which began running between the U.S. and Cuba under President Barack Obama, along with “a heavily used category of educational travel.” The ban affects the bookings of some 800,000 cruise passengers, according to the industry group Cruise Lines International Association. [USA Today]
32 percent increase
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, more than 144,000 migrants were taken into custody on the U.S.-Mexico border in May. That’s a 32 percent increase from April and the largest monthly total under the Trump administration. It was the third straight month with six-digit arrest totals, led, according to The Washington Post, by record-breaking numbers of illegal crossings by Guatemalan and Honduran parents and their children. [The Washington Post]
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