Hard Numbers

12,000,000: This week, Rwanda became the first low-income country to provide universal eye care to its 12 million citizens. Two decades on from civil war, the would-be Singapore of Africa has an ambitious agenda to become a middle-income country by 2020.

2024: By 2024, AI could eliminate the jobs of 260,000 customer service representatives, 210,000 assemblers and fabricators, and 76,000 tractor-trailer drivers in the US. That’s just six years from now. Not 20.

70: The Taliban actively operates in 70 percent of the districts in Afghanistan, according to the BBC. America’s longest foreign warslogs on.

47: US oil production has returned to a record high last reached forty-seven years ago. Shale technology has put the US on course to overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world’s largest crude producer.

4: In the past month, four prominent electoral challengers to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi have quit the presidential race, in large part because of pressure from the country’s security services.

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People gather at a petrol station in Bamako, Mali, on November 1, 2025, amid ongoing fuel shortages caused by a blockade imposed by al Qaeda-linked insurgents.
REUTERS/Stringer

Mali is on the verge of falling to an Islamist group that has pledged to transform the country into a pre-modern caliphate. The militant group’s momentum has Mali’s neighbors worried.

Last week, Microsoft released the AI Diffusion Report 2025, offering a comprehensive look at how artificial intelligence is spreading across economies, industries, and workforces worldwide. The findings show that AI adoption has reached an inflection point: 68% of enterprises now use AI in at least one function, driving measurable productivity and economic growth. The report also highlights that diffusion is uneven, underscoring the need for greater investment in digital skills, responsible AI governance, and public-private collaboration to ensure the benefits are broadly shared. Read the full report here.

- YouTube

At the 2025 Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit, UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan warns that without deliberate action, the world’s poorest countries risk exclusion from the AI revolution. “There is no way that trickle down will make the trick,” she tells GZERO Media’s Tony Maciulis. “We have to think about inclusion by design."

- YouTube

In this Global Stage panel recorded live in Abu Dhabi, Becky Anderson (CNN) leads a candid discussion on how to close that gap with Brad Smith (Vice Chair & President, Microsoft), Peng Xiao (CEO, G42), Ian Bremmer (President & Founder, Eurasia Group and GZERO Media), and Baroness Joanna Shields (Executive Chair, Responsible AI Future Foundation).