Hard Numbers

23: After Mexico's deadliest year in decades, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is cutting the country's national security budget by 23 percent in 2019, compared to the average levels under his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto. AMLO is moving funds away from traditional security forces and toward a newly constituted National Guard, which is expected to enlist 60-thousand plus soldiers.

240: French authorities arrested 240 gilets jaunes, or "Yellow Vest," protesters over the weekend. The demonstrations, which are now entering their 19th week, have recently been smaller but much more violent – with participants overturning cars, looting, and setting important Parisian landmarks on fire.

11: Eleven babies died in less than 24 hours in Tunisia last week, where a confluence of poor economic conditions and few opportunities caused half of newly registered doctors to leave the country to work abroad in 2018. Six years on from the only successful Arab Spring revolution, a worsening healthcare system could become a political problem in Tunisia.

140,000: Chinese authorities have shut down more than 140,000 online blogs and deleted more than 500,000 articles for containing what they claim is false information or obscenities since December. Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government isn't shying away from going after the country's most widely-read writers.

More from GZERO Media

A combination photo shows a person of interest in the fatal shooting of U.S. right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, U.S. shown in security footage released by the Utah Department of Public Safety on September 11, 2025.
Utah Department of Public Safety/Handout via REUTERS
A drone view shows the scene where U.S. right-wing activist, commentator, Charlie Kirk, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, U.S. September 11, 2025.
REUTERS/Cheney Orr

The assassination of 31-year old conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a college event in Utah yesterday threatened to plunge a deeply divided America further into a cycle of rising political violence.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro stands next to members of the armed forces, on the day he says that his country would deploy military, police and civilian defenses at 284 "battlefront" locations across the country, amid heightened tensions with the U.S., in La Guaira, Venezuela, September 11, 2025.
Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

284: Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has deployed military assets to 284 “battlefront” locations across the country, amid rising tensions with the US.

A member of Nepal army stands guard as people gather to observe rituals during the final day of Indra Jatra festival to worship Indra, Kumari and other deities and to mark the end of monsoon season.
REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Nepal’s “Gen-Z” protest movement has looked to a different generation entirely with their pick for an interim leader. Protest leaders say they want the country’s retired chief justice, Sushila Karki, 73, to head a transitional government.