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Silicon, not oil: Why the U.S. needs the Gulf for AI

✇Rest of World
By: Indranil Ghosh
The U.S. is tapping Gulf nations to win the artificial intelligence race. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are set to join Pax Silica, a U.S.-led initiative aimed at securing...

© Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 12: Undersecretary of State Jacob Helberg Convenes The Pax Silica Summit, the first convening of a high level, private gathering focused on economic security and the establishment of a new grouping of partners tailored for the AI economy at Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on December 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg)
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Will the Meta-Manus deal push more Chinese AI startups to Singapore — or shut the door?

✇Rest of World
By: Kinling Lo
Meta’s acquisition of Manus, a Chinese-origin artificial intelligence agent startup, has swiftly turned from celebration to complication. The Chinese government has said it will review the estimated $2 billion deal...

© Chesnot/Getty Images

PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 15: The logo of the U.S. company created by Mark Zuckerberg, Meta is displayed during the Viva Technology conference at Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles on June 15, 2023 in Paris, France. Viva Technology, the biggest tech show in Europe but also in a unique digital format, for 4 days of reconnection and relaunch thanks to innovation. The event brings together startups, CEOs, investors, tech leaders and all of the digital transformation players who are shaping the future of the Internet. The annual technology conference, also known as VivaTech, was founded in 2016 by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos and is dedicated to promoting innovation and startups. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)
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A global crackdown on online gambling

✇Rest of World
By: Hazel Gandhi
The online gambling industry has exploded in popularity since the pandemic. Estimates suggest that its total market value has more than doubled from $37.5 billion to $81 billion between 2015...

© Gordwin Odhiambo/AFP via Getty Images

Men gather in front of screens at an online gambling hall at the Kibera informal settlement in Nairobi, on May 18, 2025.
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The AI race is creating a new world order

✇Rest of World
By: Nick Srnicek
The outcome of the geopolitical struggles between silicon empires is uncertain, but some features are becoming clear. At its limits, this competition would entail a breakdown into fully decoupled hemispherical...

© iStock

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In Chinese data factories, workers teach humanoid robots boring tasks

✇Rest of World
By: Viola Zhou and Kinling Lo
Inside a brightly lit office in Shanghai, Kim’s task for the week was to pretend he was opening the door of a microwave. Wearing a virtual reality headset and exoskeletons...

© Zhejiang Daily Press Group/ Getty Images

Humanoid robots follow technicians to learn job skills at the data collection area of an embodied AI robot innovation center on September 14, 2025 in Shaoxing, of China.
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Why Venezuela’s political shock had MercadoLibre’s stock rallying

✇Rest of World
By: Ananya Bhattacharya
Donald Trump’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has unexpectedly boosted a Latin American e-commerce company’s stock. Shares of MercadoLibre have gained over 10% on Nasdaq between January 3 and...

© Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images

TOPSHOT - A supporter of ousted Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro carry his portrait during a rally outside the National Assembly in Caracas on January 5, 2026. Venezuela's parliament swore in Delcy Rodriguez as interim president on January 5, two days after US forces seized her predecessor Nicolas Maduro to face trial in New York. Members of the new National Assembly offered their full backing to Rodriguez -- who had been Maduro's vice president -- and reelected her brother Jorge Rodriguez as parliament head. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP via Getty Images)
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The day the cloud went out

✇Rest of World
By: Damilare Dosunmu
November 18 was supposed to be a routine workday for Rwanda-based entrepreneur Derrick Ikenga. But it turned out to be a nightmare he wasn’t prepared for. Cloudflare, a U.S.-based cloud...

© Alex Nabaum for Rest of World

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India gives Musk 72 hours as X floods with obscene images generated using Grok

✇Rest of World
By: Ananya Bhattacharya
Elon Musk’s Grok is under fire in India after its viral “bikini” trend. On January 2, India’s IT ministry issued a 72-hour ultimatum to X over its artificial intelligence chatbot...

WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 13: (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY - MANDATORY CREDIT - 'INDIAN PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU / HANDOUT' - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) and CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and X Elon Musk meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) at Blair House in Washington DC, USA on February 13, 2025. (Photo by Press Information Bureau / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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The year in charts

✇Rest of World
By: Rest of World
We at Rest of World love a good chart. So much so that this year we launched Charts, a page dedicated to preserving all the original charts we put into...

© Sebastian Cestaro for Rest of World

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Innovative ways the world used AI in 2025

✇Rest of World
By: Rest of World
2025 was yet another transformative year in the artificial intelligence boom. ChatGPT was the fifth most-visited website in the world, tech companies poured hundreds of millions into refining their models,...

© Sebastian Cestaro for Rest of World

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EVs hit a fork in the road in 2025

✇Rest of World
By: Rest of World
If a big story of the past few years has been the electric vehicle revolution, 2025 was something of a bifurcation. In China, EVs are now fully entrenched in power:...

© Sebastian Cestaro for Rest of World

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Governments welcomed data centers. Now they’re grappling with the fallout

✇Rest of World
By: Rest of World
Countries around the world are investing millions of dollars in building data centers to meet the growing demand for generative artificial intelligence, while also storing data within their own borders....

© Tamara Merino for Rest of World

Law student and activist Rodrigo Vallejos stands in front of Google's data center water storage tanks in the Quilicura district. The data center extracts water from the district's underground wells. Vallejos has been monitoring data centers in Santiago's metropolitan area for the past two years.
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