Hard Numbers

837: Chinese direct investment in Pakistan totaled $837 million in 2017, compared to $42 million for the US. China loves a vacuum.

15: Iranians have become 15 percent poorer in real terms over the past decade, according to the BBC. Now some of them are calling for change.

7: China’s One Belt One Road initiative is expected to costmore than seven times what the US spent on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II. This is the most important geopolitical story you’ve never heard of.

150: The Chinese government has committed $150 billion dollars to AI in its current five-year plan. The US spent $1.2 billion on unclassified programs in 2016.

22: The popularity of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Tory Party dropped 22 percentage points this summer, the largest such drop for any UK prime minister in the past half century. #StrongAndSteady

More from GZERO Media

- YouTube

Following a terrorist attack in Kashmir last spring, India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers, exchanged military strikes in an alarming escalation. Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Khar joins Ian Bremmer on GZERO World to discuss Pakistan’s perspective in the simmering conflict.

- YouTube

A military confrontation between India and Pakistan in May nearly pushed the two nuclear-armed countries to the brink of war. On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer breaks down the complicated history of the India-Pakistan conflict, one of the most contentious and bitter rivalries in the world.

A combination picture shows Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Arkhangelsk Region Governor Alexander Tsybulsky in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk region, Russia July 24, 2025.
REUTERS/Leah Millis

In negotiations, the most desperate party rarely gets the best terms. As Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet in Alaska today to discuss ending the Ukraine War, their diverging timelines may shape what deals emerge – if any.