Hard Numbers: Deforestation hits highs, Turkey arrests soldiers, Mauritania busts smugglers, OECD sees hope

Amazonas, Brazil. The photo shows the forest fires that affect the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and that have increased to their highest level since 2008.

12: Annual deforestation in Brazil's part of the Amazon rainforest has reached a 12 year high, with more than 4,200 square miles burned this year. That's an increase of 9.5 percent over the previous year. Destruction of the Amazon has increased under Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who favors economic development of the rainforest.

82: The Turkish government has arrested 82 members of the military over suspected links to Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Muslim cleric whom Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016. Gulen, who lives in the US, is the head of a global movement that focuses on Islamic values and education. Turkish authorities have sought his arrest for years.

30: Authorities in the West African nation of Mauritania say they have recently busted more than 30 illegal migration networks responsible for trafficking people to Europe. The news comes just a few weeks after more than 140 migrants aiming to reach Spain's Canary Islands died in a shipwreck off the Senegalese coast.

4.2: There's some light at the end of the COVID tunnel — the OECD says that the global economy will grow 4.2 percent next year, after shrinking by the same amount this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

More from GZERO Media

- YouTube

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.

French police officers seal off the entrance to the Louvre Museum after a robbery in Paris, France, on October 19, 2025. Robbers break into the Louvre and flee with jewelry on the morning of October 19, 2025, a source close to the case says, adding that its value is still being evaluated. A police source says an unknown number of thieves arrive on a scooter armed with small chainsaws and use a goods lift to reach the room they are targeting.
Photo by Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto
Centrist senator and presidential candidate Rodrigo Paz of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), speaks onstage as he celebrates following preliminary results on the day of the presidential runoff election, in La Paz, Bolivia, on October 19, 2025.
REUTERS/Claudia Morales

After two decades of left-wing dominance in Bolivia, the Latin American country elected a centrist president on Sunday. It isn’t the only country in the region that’s tilting to the right.

- YouTube

Artificial intelligence is transforming the global workforce, but its impact looks different across economies. Christine Qiang, Global Director in the World Bank’s Digital Vice Presidency, tells GZERO Media’s Tony Maciulis that while “every single job will be reshaped,” developing countries are seeing faster growth in demand for AI skills than high-income nations.

People attend a vigil in memory of Mauricio Ruiz, a 32-year-old man who was killed during Wednesday's protest against Peru's President Jose Jeri, days after Jeri took office, in Lima, Peru, on October 16, 2025.
REUTERS/Sebastian Castaneda

The Peruvian government is declaring a state of emergency in Lima after the protests, which haven’t stopped, turned deadly – police shot and killed a 32-year-old man on Wednesday at demonstrations outside the Congress.