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Hard Numbers: Tongan emergency fundraising, EU docks Poland pay, new Colombian presidential hopeful, Turkey gets UAE lifeline

January 19, 2022
Carlos Santamaria
Hard Numbers: Tongan emergency fundraising, EU docks Poland pay, new Colombian presidential hopeful, Turkey gets UAE lifeline
Tokyo, Japan; Tonga flag bearers Malia Paseka and Pita Taufatofua during the opening ceremony for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games at Olympic Stadium.
Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports

345,000: As of Wednesday afternoon ET, Tonga's Olympic flag-bearer has raised more than $345,000 online to help the victims of Saturday's volcanic eruption and tsunami. Pita Taufatofua, a taekwondo fighter and cross-country skier, has not yet heard from his father, governor of the main Tongan island of Haapai.

500,000: The EU will dock Poland 500,000 euros ($567,000) per day from its regular payments from Brussels until it complies with an EU court order to close an open-pit coal mine near the Czech border. The Czechs say the mine is polluting the groundwater on their side of the border, but the Poles insist Brussels has no authority to shut it down.

20: Former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt will run again for the top job in the May election. The centrist Betancourt — kidnapped 20 years ago by FARC rebels who held her for more than six years — will face frontrunner Gustavo Petro, the leftist former mayor of Bogotá and ex-member of M-19, another left-wing rebel group.

5 billion: Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to a $5 billion currency swap in order to prop up the ailing Turkish lira. It's the latest sign of détente between the Turks and Emiratis, who have long been on opposite sides of conflicts such as the Libyan civil war and the Qatar blockade.

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