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Hard Numbers: Dutch farmers roar, Biden offers Griner swap, EU gas prices soar, Teva’s opioid settlement, carnage in Haiti
Dutch farmers block food distribution sites with tractors in Woerden, Netherlands.
24.6 billion: Dutch farmers resumed protests Wednesday over the government’s plan to rein in emissions produced by livestock, which they say will decimate the agriculture industry. The Netherlands has earmarked $24.6 billion to help reduce emissions, but the farming sector says it is being unfairly targeted while the aviation, construction, and other industries are getting off scot-free.
25: The Biden administration has reportedly offered to exchange Viktor Bout — a Russian arms dealer currently serving a 25-year sentence in the US — in exchange for the release of two US citizens. WNBA player Brittany Griner has been held in Moscow on drug charges since February and faces a decade behind bars, while Paul Whelan, a former US marine, has been locked up since 2018 for alleged spying. Will Putin take the deal?
2: European gas prices rose by as much as 2% Wednesday after Russia further slashed natural gas output to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. This comes after EU countries agreed to voluntarily cut natural gas consumption by 15% until April 2023. But some experts say that EU countries will need to make further cuts as winter approaches.
4.25 billion: Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva reached a whopping $4.25 billion settlement with US local and state governments — and tribes — over its role in fueling the country’s deadly opioid crisis. Teva’s opioid output in recent decades reportedly dwarfed that of better-known companies like Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin.
200: More than 200 people have been killed in just 10 days in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince according to the UN, as two gangs battle it out for control of a key neighborhood. Gang violence has exploded in crisis-ridden Haiti since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by mercenaries last summer.