HARD NUMBERS: Rideshare drivers go on strike, Artist holds Picasso hostage for Assange, Putin’s Black Sea warships sink to new low, Porsches idle over Xinjiang abuses, Haiti’s gangs make bank

​A rideshare driver in Los Angeles holds a placard, as Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash drivers strike in multiple US cities on Valentine's Day.
A rideshare driver in Los Angeles holds a placard, as Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash drivers strike in multiple US cities on Valentine's Day.
REUTERS/Mike Blake
10: If you had trouble getting a ride or a meal delivered in the US on Valentine’s Day, it might have been because thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers, as well as delivery workers for Doordash, went on strike for better pay in at least 10 American cities. The apps’ drivers say the companies are taking too much of their fares. The move came in the wake of a $7 billion share buyback at Uber that drove the company’s shares to a record high.

45 million: An exiled Russian dissident artist in France is threatening to hit a “Dead Man’s Switch,” which will destroy $45 million worth of paintings by Picasso, Rembrandt, Warhol, and others if WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dies in prison. Andrei Molodkin says the threat is an act of protest for free speech. Assange is currently in a maximum security prison in Britain, but next week he faces possible extradition to the US, where human rights groups say his prosecution under espionage laws could pose a threat to freedom of the press.

1,000: About 1,000 Porsche sports cars and SUVs, along with thousands more Audis and a few hundred Bentleys, are currently impounded in US ports after the discovery that the luxury rides contain a small part produced in Xinjiang, a region of Western China where the Chinese government is accused of human rights violations. US laws prohibit the import of any products made with forced labor in Xinjiang.

33: Ukraine says it has now knocked out at least 33% of Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet, following a drone attack this week that sunk the Caesar Kunikov, a landing ship. That brings the total to more than two dozen Russian warships wrecked by Kyiv since Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

25 million: Haiti’s powerful gangs earn at least $25 million a year from kidnapping alone, says a new report. That, combined with some $20,000 a week in extortion fees and a brisk trade in human organs, have made the organizations “economically autonomous.” A UN-backed police force has yet to deploy to the Caribbean nation, in part because of constitutional obstacles in Kenya, which was tapped to lead the mission.

More from GZERO Media

The Puerto Princesa Forest Restoration Initiative is a project to plant more than 400,000 seedlings to restore Palawan forests destroyed by Super Typhoon Odette in the Philippines. It’s part of a larger global effort by the Priceless Planet Coalition, launched by Mastercard with Conservation International and the World Resources Institute, to fund the restoration of 100 million trees around the world. These projects extend beyond carbon sequestration — they’re aimed at creating economic opportunities for women in the region, enabling them to better provide for their families. Read more about how many local women and community members are leading the charge on nursery construction, maintenance, and seedling production.

- YouTube

Listen: The world is on the brink of one of the most fundamental demographic shifts in modern human history: populations are getting older, and birth rates are plummeting. By 2050, one in six people on Earth will be over 65, which will have a huge impact on the future of work, healthcare, and social security. On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Jennifer Sciubba, President & CEO of the Population Reference Bureau, to discuss declining fertility, the aging crisis, and why government efforts all over the world to get people to have more babies don’t seem to be working.

Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz speaks at a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump in Henderson, Nevada U.S. October 31, 2024.
REUTERS/Mike Blake

President-elect Donald Trump’s unconventional picks for a number of important Cabinet positions in his second administration have set him on a collision course with the GOP-led Senate.

Accompanied by tugs, the LNG tanker "Hellas Diana" transports a cargo of LNG to the "Deutsche Ostsee" energy terminal.
Stefan Sauer/Reuters

While other countries in Europe still import small amounts of Russian LNG under long-term contracts, the EU broadly is looking to import more of the stuff from the growing American market.

Luisa Vieira

Cabinet-building has long been crucial for both the success of a presidency and the direction of the United States. From the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln to Donald Trump, the team often tells the tale of power. Publisher Evan Solomon looks at what Trump’s Cabinet picks are telling us all.