Science & Tech
Silver lining from COVID? Women around the world got access to digital payments

Silver Lining From COVID? Women Around the World Got Access to Digital Payments | GZERO Media

There are few silver linings from the pandemic, but for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman, one of them is "a massive expansion of social payments to women across the world." Women traditionally excluded from such systems in countries like Kenya or Pakistan, he says, finally got online — with immense potential to set up businesses for instance in agriculture. These are the "green shoots that we need to collectively build on" so after COVID we get a "faster, more effective, and more equitable recovery for the entire world."
He spoke during "Measuring what matters: How women are critical to pandemic recovery," a livestream conversation on October 28, 2021, hosted by GZERO Media in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
1,170: The number of high-rise buildings in Kyiv that were left without heating following a barrage of Russian attacks last night on Ukraine’s capital and its energy facilities, per Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hold up signed documents regarding securing the supply of critical minerals and rare earths, at a bilateral meeting at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan, October 28, 2025.
Representatives from the European Union, United Kingdom, Japan, and others will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategic alliance on critical minerals.
80,000: The number of people estimated to be in the streets of Czechia on Sunday to show their support for President Petr Pavel after he blocked the nomination of an environmental minister who performed the Nazi salute and posted Nazi memorabilia.
The US has started handing $1,000 to the bank accounts of newborn babies. But can policies like this one help boost sagging birthrates in advanced democracies?