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.
Before turning to Top Risks 2026, Ian Bremmer looks back at how this year’s Top Risks 2025 actually performed.
In the latest twist to Yemen’s decade-long civil war, a group of government ministers declared support for the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), a rebel group that broke the war’s deadlock earlier this month by seizing control of the oil-rich Handramout region.