Hard Numbers: UK fishing licences, Afghan aid unfrozen, Nigeria hits back at travel bans, Modi’s Twitter hacked

Hard Numbers: UK fishing licences, Afghan aid unfrozen, Nigeria hits back at travel bans, Modi’s Twitter hacked
Gabriella Turrisi

83: The UK has issued 83 licenses for French fishing vessels to operate in the English Channel, a significant concession by London in its ongoing fight with Brussels and Paris over post-Brexit fishing rights in the contested waters. Still, French fishers said they would go ahead with plans to block British goods at some ports next week because London had not met all of Paris’ demands.

280 million: After months of wrangling about whether to allow Afghanistan access to funding, donor countries have agreed to release $280 million from a frozen trust fund, giving the money to the World Food Program and UNICEF. UNICEF estimates that some 18.4 million Afghans now require humanitarian assistance.

4: Nigeria will ban flights from four countries — Argentina, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and the UK — in retaliation for being put on their no-travel lists over the detection of the omicron variant. The World Health Organization has repeatedly warned that “blanket bans” won't stop the spread of the new COVID variant.

73 million: Indian PM Narendra Modi’s Twitter account was hacked Sunday, with the hackers posting to his 73 million followers that Bitcoin would become legal tender in the country — and that the government would distribute the currency to all its citizens. The tweet has since been deleted, and comes as the Indian parliament prepares to crack down on the country’s booming cryptocurrency trade.

More from GZERO Media

German Chancellor and chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Angela Merkel addresses a news conference in Berlin, Germany September 19, 2016.
REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Angela Merkel was elected chancellor of Germany on November 22, 2005, becoming the first woman to hold that job. During that time Merkel was arguably the most powerful woman in the world, presiding over one of its largest economies for four terms in the Bundesregierung. Twenty years on, the anniversary is a reminder of how singular her breakthrough remains. It’s still the exception when a woman runs a country.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers the State of the European Union address to the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, September 10, 2025.
REUTERS/Yves Herman

While the European Union has never been more critical, it is also facing a trifecta of divisive challenges.

In this episode of “Local to global: The power of small business,” host JJ Ramberg sits down with Chapin Flynn, Senior Vice President of Transit and Urban Mobility at Mastercard, and Mark Langmead, Director of Revenue & Compass Operations at TransLink in Vancouver, to explore how cities are making transit easier, faster, and more seamless for riders–an approach known as frictionless urban mobility.