Hard Numbers

20,800: The United States is on track to resettle only 20,800 refugees in fiscal year 2018, according to calculations by The Economist. That’s a 61% annual reduction, and the lowest number since 1980, when the modern system of refugee admissions was established.

318: Chinese companies have bought or invested in European assets amounting to at least $318 billion over the past 10 years, according to Bloomberg. American firms invested 45 percent less over the same period.

39.2: Africa spent $39.2 billion on defense in 2016 — but given its 1.2 billion population, that’s the lowest per capita military expenditure of any region in the world. Still, the continent faces numerous security challenges including transnational terrorism, local militancy, and clashes over resources that are becoming scarcer because of climate change.

5: At least five of the seven men who carried the coffin at Kim Jong-Il’s funeral have been executed, banned, or banished since his son Kim Jong-un came to power in 2011.

2: The blackouts in Puerto Rico caused by last year’s Hurricane Maria are the second largest power-outage ever on record, knocking out nearly 4 trillion customer hours. According to a study by Rhodium Group, only Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 was worse, knocking out more than 6 trillion customer hours in the Philippines.

More from GZERO Media

- YouTube

As AI adoption accelerates globally, questions of equity and access are coming to the forefront. Speaking with GZERO’s Tony Maciulis on the sidelines of the 2025 Paris Peace Forum, Chris Sharrock, Vice President of UN Affairs and International Organizations at Microsoft, discusses the role of technology in addressing global challenges.

A woman carries water out of her home, after floods caused by the outer bands of Hurricane Melissa killed several people, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, October 29, 2025.
REUTERS/Egeder Pq Fildor

23: Twenty-three people have died in Haiti after Hurricane Melissa passed near the island, adding more anguish to a country that has been in crisis for most of the past decade and without a president since Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping talk as they leave after a bilateral meeting at Gimhae International Airport, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Busan, South Korea, on October 30, 2025.

REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

After months of escalating tensions, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached a trade truce at their meeting in South Korea on Thursday. Several long-term issues remain unresolved, though.