Hard Numbers: China's High-Speed Splurge

74 million: As of last weekend, a UN funding drive to help Mozambique recover from Cyclone Idai, which struck in March, had raised $74 million. That's well below an initial $282 million target and less than one-tenth of the estimated $773 million of direct economic losses caused by the storm, which hit the country's food supply hard.

3,200: China plans to build 3,200 kilometers of high-speed rail lines this year. While that is down from the average of 3,600 kilometers of new track it's built each year for the past five years, it's still nearly the equivalent of Spain's entire high-speed rail network.

64: Sixty-four percent of Americans believe that Jews face at least some discrimination in the US today, up 20 percentage points since 2016, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll.

17: More than half of India's 1.3 billion people depend on farming for their livelihood, even though the sector only makes up about 17 percent of the country's economic output. That makes farmers an unusually powerful constituency in India's ongoing national elections.

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.