Closing the Gap
The weaknesses of a digital economy

No Silver Bullet on Closing the Digital Access Gap | Economic Empowerment | GZERO Media

Is there any downside to going cashless?
Not really, but there are challenges, Usman Ahmed, head of Global Public Affairs and Strategic Research at PayPal, says during a livestream conversation on closing the global digital gap hosted by GZERO in partnership with Visa.
On the one hand, digitizing payment allows the creation of other financial services around it — mainly access to finance for the unbanked. On the other, there are privacy and security concerns, although these also exist with cash.
Overall, though, Ahmed believes that going digital is something that nobody will solve on their own. Governments and the private sector need to work together, and digital access is useless without digital literacy.
Politician and diplomat Rahm Emanuel joins Ian Bremmer to unpack the Iran War, Gulf tensions around the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are moving closer to joining the US-Iran conflict.
Until now, Europe has kept out of the Iran war. But with Iran attempting to hit the UK island of Diego Garcia on Friday, and fears growing that US President Donald Trump will forget about Ukraine, that calculus may have changed.
Cyber threats to water and wastewater systems are no longer hypothetical, and they pose real risks to public health, economic stability, and community trust. In collaboration with the Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI) and the Center on Cyber Technology and Innovation (CCTI), Microsoft released new findings showing that cybersecurity training alone isn’t enough to close the readiness gap in the water sector. Drawing on a pilot program, the report finds that pairing accessible training with hands‑on coaching significantly improves cyber resilience, especially for smaller and resource‑constrained utilities. The takeaway is clear: moving from awareness to preparedness requires practical, trusted support—not just guidance—offering a model that could strengthen cybersecurity across other critical infrastructure sectors as well. Read the full blog here.