Hard Numbers: Greece wants to build a new wall in the sea to deter migrants

10,000: In an attempt to uproot the vast network of jihadist groups in the Sahel region, Mali says it will recruit 10,000 new soldiers in the coming months, increasing the size of its army by 50%. But it's not clear how the government will entice so many people to join an underfunded army whose soldiers are regularly killed in Islamist attacks.


7: The EU has piled new sanctions on seven Russian-backed officials in Crimea for illegally organizing elections in the peninsula last year, raising the number of individuals on the EU blacklist to 177. These people have their assets in the EU frozen and are barred from traveling there.

2.7: Greece's government wants to install a 2.7 km (1.7 mile) floating barrier in the Aegean Sea to deter migrants from reaching the Greek islands from Turkey's coast. A resurgence in the number of migrants arriving at the island of Lesbos from the Middle East and Africa has created severe overcrowding at some refugee camps.

200,000: The Colombian government will grant legal status to some 200,000 Venezuelan refugees in the coming months, and many more will be eligible for new work visas as well. Colombia has absorbed 1.6. million Venezuelan refugees, by far the most of any country, and the government wants to formalize their status in order to discourage criminality and other social problems.

At its plant in Mantua, Italy, Eni's chemical company Versalis has developed a new kind of expanded polystyrene, commonly known as styrofoam. It requires lower emissions and energy consumption, and it even resists breaking into little flecks and styrofoam balls. This new polystyrene was designed and produced specifically with reuse in mind, and for some applications it can be reused several times.

Learn more at Eniday: Energy Is A Good Story

The 2020 Iowa Democratic Caucuses, a critical early contest on the path to winning the nomination, begin tonight. After that, the pace of the primaries picks up fast, with important contests in New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. Here's the latest polling of the frontrunners in each of those states. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tops polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, but former Vice President Joe Biden is number one in Nevada and has a commanding lead in South Carolina.

Ben White, Chief Economic Correspondent for Politico, with his Special Iowa Caucus edition of US Politics In :60 Seconds!

So, it's finally here. Voters are actually voting, or I should say caucusing, to be more precise. So, what's going to happen?

Typically, the conventional wisdom is there's three tickets out of Iowa. I don't think that's going to be true this year. I think there's a pretty good chance that Bernie Sanders comes in first. I think that Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren will be fighting for second place. Klobuchar and Buttigieg fighting for third and fourth. But I think the result will be kind of muddled. So, I think there may actually be six tickets coming out of Iowa.

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What do Chechnya, Georgia, and Iowa have in common? The President of Russia has an answer.

GZERO WORLD with Ian Bremmer airs nationwide on public television Fridays beginning at 11 a.m. ET. Check local listings. The interview will also be published in full on gzeromedia.com on Monday, February 10, at 6 a.m. ET.