Hard Numbers: Romania as COVID epicenter, Taliban tackle polio, Ukrainian hacker gets hacked, states embellish climate credentials

Masks used in the COVID-19 ICU unit at Giurgiu County Emergency Hospital are backdropped by an icon with a Christian orthodox depiction of Jesus Christ, in Giurgiu, Romania, November 4, 2021.

7: Romania now has the highest per capita death toll from COVID-19 in the world, recording a death rate seven times as high as the United States. Vaccine skepticism is rife in Romania, and it doesn't help that the country's government collapsed last month, hampering efforts to expand the vaccine rollout.

10 million: The Taliban has kicked off a speedy polio vaccination campaign, aiming to vaccinate 10 million Afghan children under the age of 5 in just four days. For years, the Taliban blocked UN agencies from carrying out inoculation drives, but now they want to prove they are willing to cooperate with international organizations.

6 million: US law enforcement agencies have seized $6 million in ransom payments to a Ukrainian cybercriminal after his hack of a Florida-based software company this summer affected more than 1,500 companies around the world. Washington has begun proceedings to have the hacker, Yaroslav Vasinskyi, extradited to the US from Poland, where he was arrested.

2.1 billion: Many countries fibbed about their greenhouse gas emissions to the UN in the lead up to the COP26 summit, according to a bombshell Washington Post investigation. Looking at individual nations' data reports, the Post concludes that up to 2.1 billion more tons of carbon dioxide emissions are currently being released into the atmosphere than the filings show.

More from GZERO Media

Five years ago, Microsoft set bold 2030 sustainability goals: to become carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste—all while protecting ecosystems. That commitment remains—but the world has changed, technology has evolved, and the urgency of the climate crisis has only grown. This summer, Microsoft launched the 2025 Environmental Sustainability Report, offering a comprehensive look at the journey so far, and how Microsoft plans to accelerate progress. You can read the report here.

Punjab, Pakistan - Photos show flood-hit areas in Punjab, Pakistan, on August 26, 2025. Pakistan has evacuated tens of thousands of people to safer areas after neighboring India released water from overflowing dams and swollen rivers into low-lying border regions, officials said Tuesday.

150,000: Pakistan has evacuated at least 150,000 people from areas around three rivers of the Punjab province. Flooding risks are driving the evacuations, as monsoon rains continue to batter large portions of South Asia.

Graph of new college graduate unemployment compared to the national average, with new graduate unemployment surpassing the national average for the first time in 2022, when ChatGPT was released and the AI revolution began.
Eileen Zhang

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- YouTube

The world is shifting from an “Age of Impunity” to an “Age of Cruelty,” says David Miliband on GZERO World, where power is exercised without accountability, human rights are ignored, and civilians increasingly suffer the consequences.

- YouTube

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College graduate unemployment rate.
Eileen Zhang

“Pain and agony and suffering,” wrote Sam Angel, about his job hunt. He recently graduated with a masters in Cold War military history from Columbia University in New York, having decided to go right into a masters program after finishing undergrad.