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.

More from GZERO Media

The Biggest Threats To US National Security, Foreign And Domestic | GZERO World

Less than a month ago, the Biden administration finally dropped its long-anticipated National Security Strategy. The No. 1 external enemy is not Russia but rather China. It also emphasizes the homegrown threat of Americans willing to engage in political violence if their candidate loses at the ballot box. On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer speaks to New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger about the key national security threats facing the United States right now.

Iran is being rocked by its most significant protests since the Green Movement of 2009. Since September, hundreds of thousands of young and mostly female demonstrators have filled the streets of nearly every major city from Tehran to Tabriz, many discarding their headscarves at great personal risk to protest draconian societal rules and restrictions. Iranian-American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World podcast to discuss.

Will independent Krysten Sinema Move the US Senate's Needle? | US Politics In :60 | GZERO Media

What does Kyrsten Sinema caucusing as an independent mean for the United States Senate next year? Jon Lieber, head of Eurasia Group's coverage of political and policy developments in Washington, DC shares his perspective on US politics.

Viktor Bout is escorted by Thai police as he arrives at a criminal court in Bangkok in 2010.
REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Who is Viktor Bout, and why is he worth so much to Moscow that Vladimir Putin agreed to trade such a prized bargaining chip as Griner to get him back?

Former U.S. president Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Youngstown, Ohio.
Reuters

The former president’s political obituaries are everywhere these days, and it’s no mystery why. But there's little chance of Donald Trump disappearing as the most potent force in US politics.