Hard Numbers

1: There were more than 33,000 murders in Mexico in 2018. But there is just one store where it's legal to buy a gun in the entire country. Perhaps the guns used in many of these homicides are entering Mexico from somewhere else. #ElNorte

3 million: Milan's La Scala opera house announced this week it will return a more than €3 million donation to Saudi Arabia in response to an Italian public outcry over the kingdom's human rights record. Accepting the donation would have forced La Scala to accept the Saudi culture minister as a new member of its board of directors.

2.1 billion: Of the world's 7.7 billion people, 2.1 billion still lack consistent access to safe drinking water at home, according to the latest World Water Development Report, published each year by the United Nations.

394,603: Never pick a public fight with a smart satirist. On Monday, Congressman Devin Nunes of California filed a $250 million lawsuit against Twitter, claiming the company should pay damages for allowing parody accounts like @DevinCow to make fun of him. Mr Nunes' cow, which uses bovine puns to insult the offended lawmaker, had about 7,500 followers on Monday. Thanks to publicity generated by the lawsuit, which experts say will be quickly thrown out of court, the cow began to gain a bigger audience. As of this writing, Congressman Nunes had 394,565 followers, and his cow had about 598,000.

More from GZERO Media

Vice President JD Vance participates in a Q&A with Munich Security Conference Foundation Council President Wolfgang Ischinger at the Munich Leaders' Meeting in Washington, DC, on May 7, 2025.
Munich Security Conference.

GZERO's Emilie Macfie reflects on a week of discussions between top European and American leaders at the Munich Security Conference's Washington, DC installment.

Customizing AI strategies for every region, culture, and language is critical | Global Stage

As artificial intelligence races ahead, there’s growing concern that it could deepen the digital divide—unless global inclusion becomes a priority. Lucia Velasco, AI Policy Lead at the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, warns that without infrastructure, local context, and inclusive design, AI risks benefiting only the most connected parts of the world.

AI can only help people who can access electricity and internet | Global Stage

Hundreds of millions of people now use artificial intelligence each week—but that impressive number masks a deeper issue. According to Dr. Juan Lavista Ferres, Microsoft’s Chief Data Scientist, Corporate Vice President, and Lab Director for the AI for Good Lab, access to AI remains out of reach for nearly half the world’s population.

A cargo ship is loading and unloading foreign trade containers at Qingdao Port in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, China on May 7, 2025.
Photo by CFOTO/Sipa USA

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their Chinese counterparts in Geneva on Saturday in a bid to ease escalating trade tensions that have led to punishing tariffs of up to 145%. Ahead of the meetings, Trump said that he expects tariffs to come down.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks on the phone to US President Donald Trump at a car factory in the West Midlands, United Kingdom, on May 8, 2025.
Alberto Pezzali/Pool via REUTERS

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer achieved what his Conservative predecessors couldn’t.

The newly elected Pope Leo XIV (r), US-American Robert Prevost, appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican after the conclave.

On Thursday, Robert Francis Prevost was elected the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church, taking the name Pope Leo XIV and becoming the first American pontiff — defying widespread assumptions that a US candidate was a long shot.