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Hard Numbers: Qatar gets snubbed, Croatia gets Schengen nod, Nigerians get less cash, Indiana gets tough on TikTok

December 08, 2022
Carlos Santamaria
France fan inside the stadium before the World Cup 1/16 match against Poland.
France fan inside the stadium before the World Cup 1/16 match against Poland.
REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

765,000: That's how many visitors Qatar received during the first two weeks of the men's soccer World Cup, far less than the 1.2 million the host country was hoping for — with only eight out of 64 games left to play. Point the finger at political backlash, expensive tickets, almost no booze, and lack of hotel rooms.

3: The EU ruled Thursday on applications from three member states to join the Schengen Area, Europe’s ID-free travel zone. Brussels gave the thumbs-up to Croatia but told Bulgaria and Romania they'll have to wait a bit longer — likely because party-pooper Austria thinks they get too many non-EU migrants crossing over from the Balkans.

225: Nigeria has limited weekly cash withdrawals to $225 for individuals and $1,124 for corporations. The central bank believes that more digital payments will bring more Nigerians into the banking system, but critics warn it might have the unintended effect of pushing unbanked people — almost half the adult population — to hoard paper money.

2: Indiana filed two lawsuits against ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok. One complaint accuses ByteDance of violating the US state’s consumer protection laws, while the other takes aim at TikTok for allegedly failing to disclose whether China gets access to its users' private data.
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