1,000: More than 1,000 airline flights with a stop in the US were canceled on Sunday due to crews testing positive for COVID. Globally, thousands of holiday season flights have been scrapped due to the omicron wave.
310 million: Israel will invest some $310 million to double the number of Jewish settlers living in the Golan Heights, a swath of strategic territory captured from Syria in 1967. Although Golan is considered occupied land under international law, the US has recognized Israeli sovereignty there since 2019.
15: Fifteen Western governments have condemned the deployment of mercenaries employed by Russia's shadowy Wagner Group in conflict-ridden Mali. The Kremlin has officially denied any links to the private military company, which is owned by Vladimir Putin's former caterer.
3: El Salvador freed three women who’d been jailed for aggravated homicide after suffering miscarriages. Under the country’s draconian abortion laws, losing a pregnancy can count as murder. The women were serving sentences of up to 13 years.
As AI creates new opportunities, the people who understand a community best play an important role in determining how those opportunities take shape. Across the US, Microsoft is supporting AI literacy classes as part of a new program developed in collaboration with the Public Library Association, working through trusted local institutions to help people build practical AI skills. By pairing new technology with local knowledge, the initiative is helping communities explore how AI can support their needs and open new possibilities, while putting local leaders and organizations at the center of that work. Read the full story here.
Russia is testing NATO’s red lines with escalating drone attacks and airspace violations. Can Europe defend Ukraine and itself without help from the US? Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski joins Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.
Who among us has not gotten stiffed by a superpower. #PUPPETREGIME
Is Putin's war machine starting to crack? Poland's foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski discusses Ukraine's battlefield gains and mounting economic pressure on Russia.