Hard Numbers

1,200: How do you keep military officers loyal to your government? Promote them. In 2002 there were seventy generals in Venezuela. Now there are 1,200, according to Venezuelan journalist Miguel Henrique Otero.

27: A January survey for NOI, Nigeria’s largest pollster saw President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval rating slide to 40%, the lowest on record and a 27-point drop since last July. This poll was taken before Boko Haram’s abduction of the Dapchi girls.

2: The leaders of two of the top three parties in Italy are disqualified from taking public office after Sunday’s election because of criminal convictions.

500: Since May 2017, Egypt has blocked about 500 news websites, including HuffPost Arabi and the country’s few remaining independent news websites.

49,780,000: The United States Citizen and Immigration Services has taken the words “nation of immigrants” out of its mission statement. That doesn’t change this basic fact: The US has more immigrants than any other country in the world, with 49,780,000 people living in the US who were born in other countries.

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Last week, Microsoft released its 2025 Digital Defense Report, highlighting the evolving cybersecurity landscape and Microsoft's commitment to defending against emerging threats. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the current threat environment, including identity and access threats, human-operated attacks, ransomware, fraud, social engineering, and nation-state adversary threats. It also outlines advancements in AI for cyber-attack and defense, as well as the emerging cybersecurity threat of quantum technology. The report emphasizes the need for international collaboration, proactive regulatory alignment, and the development of new tools and practices to enhance cybersecurity resilience. Explore the report here.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman chairs the inaugural session of the Shura Council in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on September 10, 2025.

Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS

There are a lot of good vibes between the United States and Saudi Arabia right now. Whether that stretches to the Riyadh normalizing relations with Israel is another matter.

Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (C, first row) poses during a photo session with members of her cabinet at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, Japan October 21, 2025.
PHILIP FONG/Pool via REUTERS

1: As anticipated, Japan’s Parliament elected Liberal Democratic Party leader Sanae Takichi to be the 104th prime minister – and the first female PM in the country’s history.

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As the world faces rising food demand, social entrepreneur Nidhi Pant is tackling the challenge of food waste while empowering women farmers. Speaking with GZERO Media’s Tony Maciulis on the sidelines of the 2025 World Bank–IMF Annual Meetings, Pant explains how her organization, Science for Society Technologies (S4S), is helping smallholder farmers process and preserve their produce reducing massive post-harvest losses.