Hard Numbers: Georgia school shooting, Harris' tax policy, Grenfell inquiry blames deaths on “incompetence,” Lebanon embezzlement scandal grows, Musk blinks in Brazil dispute, Heavy cars kill more people than they save

​Students and staff gather next to the football field after law enforcement officers responded to a fatal shooting at Apalachee High School in a still image from aerial video in Winder, Georgia, U.S. September 4, 2024.
Students and staff gather next to the football field after law enforcement officers responded to a fatal shooting at Apalachee High School in a still image from aerial video in Winder, Georgia, U.S. September 4, 2024.
ABC Affiliate WSB via REUTERS

4: Four people -- two students and two teachers -- were killed and 30 wounded when a gunman opened fire at a high school in suburban Atlanta on Wednesday. The 14-year-old student accused of carrying out the shooting is in custody, and had been interviewed by the F.B.I last year for making school shooting threats online. For a look at the skyrocketing number of US school shootings over the past decade, see our recent Graphic Truth here.

28:Kamala Harris released her tax policy on Wednesday. In it, she distances herself from Joe Biden by endorsing a lower capital gains tax increase. Her proposal attempts to win over the business community and wealthier Americans by only taxing investment income for Americans earning more than a million dollars a year at a rate of 28%, far below the 39.6% proposed by the president.

72: The deaths of the 72 people killed in the Grenfell apartment tower fire in London in 2017 were the result of “incompetence, dishonesty, and greed” on the part of government officials and contractors. That’s according to the official inquiry on the incident, which was released on Wednesday. The fire was the worst in the UK since World War II.

42 million: Lebanon’s former Central Bank Gov. Riad Salamehhas been charged with embezzling as much as $42 million. Salameh, who served in the post from 1993 until 2023, was once hailed as a hero for righting the country’s finances after 15 years of civil war, but with Lebanon mired in a deep financial crisis, he resigned last year under suspicion of malfeasance. He was arrested earlier this week.

225,000: About 225,000 people in Brazil who rely on Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service are about to lose access to X. That’s because Starlink has reversed course, agreeing now to comply with a Brazilian government order to block the social media platform amid a larger clash with the Brazilian government over the site. Brazil’s supreme court says X hasn’t followed local laws that forbid extremism and disinformation, but X says regulators are overreaching and stifling free speech.

12: Heavier cars may feel safer – and for their owners they are – but the bulkiest 1% of passenger vehicles kill 12 additional people in other cars for every occupant life they save. That’s one of many fascinating findings in an extensive Economist study on the effects of increasingly heavy vehicles.

More from GZERO Media

Walmart’s $350 billion commitment to American manufacturing means two-thirds of the products we buy come straight from our backyard to yours. From New Jersey hot sauce to grills made in Tennessee, Walmart is stocking the shelves with products rooted in local communities. The impact? Over 750,000 American jobs - putting more people to work and keeping communities strong. Learn more here.

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).