| 4 takeaways from a less abrasive — but more revealing — debate between Trump and Biden Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:10 PM PDT  On Thursday evening, President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden met in Nashville for the second — and final — socially distanced debate of the 2020 presidential campaign.
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| 'A flat-out lie': Breonna Taylor attorneys seek new prosecutor after jurors speak out Posted: 23 Oct 2020 12:47 PM PDT  The two anonymous grand jurors in the Breonna Taylor case who spoke out this week about the deliberations had no agenda other than to pursue the truth, their lawyer said. But their disclosures have spurred calls for a new prosecutor in the case.
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| Fact check: Obama administration approved, built temporary holding enclosures at southern border Posted: 23 Oct 2020 07:33 AM PDT  A meme about a recent speech is true. The facilities were built during the Obama era -- and were intended to hold migrant children for up to 72 hours.
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| Ex-CIA Director Brennan: 'Outrageous' for Trump to talk of inviting Saudi crown prince to D.C. Posted: 24 Oct 2020 12:58 PM PDT 
On the Yahoo News "Skullduggery" podcast, former CIA Director John Brennan said it is "outrageous" for President Trump to talk about inviting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Washington.
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| Watch a man in a garbage bag ‘suit’ set fire to garbage trucks at Broward waste center Posted: 23 Oct 2020 01:04 PM PDT  A man wearing goggles and a garbage bag "suit" was caught on camera breaking into a waste management center and setting several garbage trucks on fire. Deputies are asking for help in finding the arsonist.
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| Letters to the Editor: How Pope Francis' support for civil unions gives cover to mariage equality opponents Posted: 24 Oct 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Marriage equality opponents may now argue in court that same-six civil unions are just as good legally as marriages. Of course, they are not.
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| Turkey's Armenians 'cannot breathe' as Karabakh rhetoric rages Posted: 23 Oct 2020 02:18 AM PDT  Turkey's support of Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh is loud and intensely partisan, and the tiny Armenian community in Turkey is feeling under pressure.
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| Nigeria’s police order massive mobilization to ‘dominate the public space’ after unrest over SARS Posted: 24 Oct 2020 11:54 AM PDT  Nigeria's top police official on Saturday ordered the immediate mobilization of all officers to "reclaim the public space from criminal elements masquerading as protesters" after days of unrest and demonstrations over police abuses that left at least 69 people dead. The police order could further heighten tensions in Africa's most populous country after some of its worst turmoil in years. Nigeria's inspector general of police, M.A. Adamu, ordered colleagues to "dominate the public space" while announcing that enough is enough, a statement said.
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| Suicide bombing in Kabul kills at least 18, including children Posted: 24 Oct 2020 09:00 AM PDT  The death toll from the suicide attack Saturday in Afghanistan's capital has risen to at least 18 killed and 57 people wounded, including schoolchildren, the interior ministry said. The explosion struck outside an education center in a heavily Shiite neighborhood of western Kabul, Dasht-e-Barchi. The interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian says that the attacker was trying to enter the center when he was stopped by security guards. According to Arian, the casualty toll may rise further as family members of victims of the suicide bombing are still searching the several different hospitals where the wounded have been taken. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing on Saturday, but gave no evidence to support their claim. The Taliban rejected any connection with the attack.
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| ‘Urban Warfare’ as Europe’s Second Wave Spins Out of Control Posted: 24 Oct 2020 05:37 AM PDT  ROME—A few hours after the regional governor of the Italian region of Campania where Naples is located announced he would be locking down the entire province to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Neapolitans took to the streets Friday night to defy the order. The situation quickly turned into what one police official likened to urban warfare with protesters lighting dumpsters and ducking teargas being lobbed by police. All the while, the mostly maskless, yelling crowd undoubtedly spread coronavirus even more.Europe is very much out of control when it comes to its second wave, with every single nation in the 27-member zone struggling in a race against time as hospitals fill up and death tolls—which are substantially less than the first wave so far— continue to rise. Millions of people are facing harsh new restrictions as governments play what amounts to whack-a-mole to try to stop the spread of the virus they thought just a few months ago they had defeated. Improved testing in many countries has painted a clearer picture of just how widespread the pandemic is, but because of the number of new infections, systems to contact trace have been overwhelmed, making the spread impossible to control.The U.S. is in Denial Over the Coronavirus Pandemic as Europe Struggles With Second WaveFrance has expanded its Draconian curfew that has stifled Parisian nightlife and put a massive dent in the hospitality sector economy of one of the most vibrant cities in the world. Now 46 million French people will have to be home by 9 p.m. In Wales, a two-week "firebreak" started Friday, meaning everyone but essential workers has to be home by 6 p.m. The Czech Republic has just reached the dubious honor of having the most cases per capita in Europe with 1,148 cases per 100,000 residents, with Belgium and the Netherlands close behind. Ireland is under a six-week lockdown and Slovakia has vowed to test every single citizen to try to mitigate the spread. The Polish president has just tested positive and Germany reached 10,003 COVID-related deaths as the infection rate continues to rise. Filming of Mission Impossible 7 with Tom Cruise has been suspended in Venice as cases there reach record levels. And the Italian government is facing calls by 100 top scientists to mandate strict new measures in the next two or three days, or the outcome could be catastrophic.And it is still only October.Europe's problems are dire, and citizens are angry that their governments have not been able to come up with any better plan than locking down, which puts already weak economies that were so badly hurt in the first wave of the pandemic at even greater risk of collapse. Ludovic Subran, the chief economist at Allianz warned last week of a high risk serious recession across Europe as new restrictions are put in place. "We see an elevated risk of a double dip recession in countries that are once again resorting to targeted and regional lockdowns," he said, adding that the European Union's first bailout $880 billion won't likely go to growth but be used by many countries like Italy, Spain and Greece to just stay afloat.On Saturday, the group Save Our Rights U.K. is holding a massive demonstration in London to protest not only restrictions being enforced by the British government, but the overall handling of the pandemic, pointing to contact tracing and other means to track the spread of the coronavirus as an affront to privacy. "We believe that the coronavirus regulations that are in place are not proportionate and appropriate, and are causing more harm than good," Louise Creffield, the group founder told the Guardian. "We are very concerned with protecting people's human rights: right to privacy, family life, bodily autonomy, medical freedoms, and so on. We are not just concerned with lockdowns per se, we are concerned with the infringements with our privacy by having this track and trace everywhere."Similar sentiments are now common across Europe, where pandemic fatigue is now evident. And with lack of a feasible containment plan anywhere, the people are angry, desperate and increasingly ambivalent about what is really at stake: thousands of lives.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Opposition leader flees Venezuela, heads towards Spain and the United States Posted: 24 Oct 2020 02:46 PM PDT  Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López escaped from the South American country and was traveling on Saturday to Spain, where he will spend time with his family before eventually heading towards the United States to continue the efforts to outs the Nicolas Maduro regime, sources close to the former political prisoner told el Nuevo Herald.
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| George Floyd death: A city pledged to abolish its police. Then what? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 01:13 PM PDT  Minneapolis has struggled to keep a promise that made global headlines after George Floyd's death.
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| Snow due to hit Colorado wildfire areas Posted: 24 Oct 2020 03:07 PM PDT  "We don't anticipate it will be a season-ending event, but we do believe it will help us a great bit," said a fire incident spokesman.
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| ‘Shy’ Trump voters will power his win, says pollster who called 2016 race Posted: 23 Oct 2020 01:34 PM PDT  Thanks to the hidden support from voters who are embarrassed to admit they will vote for Donald Trump, the president will be narrowly reelected on Nov. 3, says one of the few pollsters who correctly predicted his 2016 victory.
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| France reacts after Erdogan questions Macron's mental health Posted: 24 Oct 2020 12:31 PM PDT  France recalled its ambassador to Turkey for consultations after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said President Emmanuel Macron needed mental health treatment and made other comments that the French government described as unacceptably rude. Erdogan questioned his French counterpart's mental condition while criticizing Macron's attitude toward Islam and Muslims. "What is the problem of this person called Macron with Islam and Muslims?" Erdogan asked rhetorically during his Justice and Development party meeting in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri.
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| Evo Morales leaves Argentina for Venezuela: report Posted: 23 Oct 2020 07:31 PM PDT  Bolivia's former president Evo Morales left Argentina for Caracas late Friday in an official Venezuelan aircraft, the official Argentine news agency Telam said.
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| Wall Street Journal’s News Side Releases A Piece Debunking Opinion Side’s Hunter Biden Screed Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:22 PM PDT  A pro-Trump writer at the Wall Street Journal's opinion section published a convoluted column Thursday evening asserting that newly released text messages proved that former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter was involved in an alleged pay-for-play scheme with his dad and a Chinese energy company.But just hours later, Wall Street Journal reporters published their own story that seemed to emphatically dismiss the opinion piece's conclusions, saying a review of documents by the paper revealed "no role for Joe Biden."Both the Journal's opinion section and straight news operation published their dueling stories based on text messages shared with the paper by Tony Bobulinski, a businessman who was involved in a scuttled venture with Hunter Biden in 2017 involving a Chinese oil company.In a press conference on Thursday before the second and final presidential debate, Bobulinski claimed that he had text messages on multiple phones showing that Joe Biden was a part of a discussion with his son about a business venture with a Chinese energy company.Pete Buttigieg Deftly Shuts Down Fox News' Hunter Biden SmearIn her opinion piece on Thursday, Kim Strassel argued that despite the fact that the messages were sent after Joe Biden had left office, and before he launched his presidential campaign, the texts showed that Hunter Biden "was cashing in on the Biden name" and that "Joe Biden was involved" in the plan."The former vice president is running on trust and good judgment. The Hunter tale is at best the story of a wayward son and indulgent father. At worst, it is an example of the entire Biden clan cashing in on its name with a U.S. rival," she wrote.Strassel wrote that according to the messages, one of Hunter Biden's business partners in the venture told Bobulinski, "don't mention Joe being involved, it's only when u are face to face." She also said that some messages that referred to an unnamed business partner were references to the former vice president.But according to the Wall Street Journal's own reporting, the text messages did not show the pay-for-play scheme that Strassel outlined."Text messages and emails related to the venture that were provided to the Journal by Mr. Bobulinski, mainly the spring and summer of 2017, don't show either Hunter Biden or [Joe's brother] James Biden discussing a role for Joe Biden in the venture," Journal reporters Andrew Duehren and James T. Areddy wrote.The Journal did note that Bobulinski said Hunter Biden appeared to reference his father as a potential business partner in one set of text messages, allegedly referring to him as the "big guy." Biden's team has denied that the former vice president ever was involved in business ventures with his son, and has released his tax returns, which the campaign says show no business dealings with foreign companies.The push to put the spotlight on Hunter Biden's scuttled business dealing with a Chinese energy firm has been part of a last-ditch attempt by the Trump campaign and its allies to recreate the drama of the Clinton email scandal that helped propel Trump to the White House.Earlier this week, the New York Post published a story with the alleged contents of Hunter Biden's laptop, which was provided to the tabloid by Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. As The New York Times reported, the piece so thoroughly lacked credibility that one Post reporter refused to put his name on the story over such concerns.Giuliani acknowledged to the Times that the Post lacks certain journalistic standards, explaining that he specifically opted to give the story to the tabloid because they wouldn't "spend all the time they could to try to contradict it before they put it out." And later this week, the president's lawyer admitted that even if his claims about Hunter Biden are not accurate, "the American people are entitled to know it."While other outlets have steered clear of the story because of questions about the validity of the text messages and how they were obtained, earlier this month, Trump hinted that the Wall Street Journal was preparing to drop a major story about Hunter Biden, sparking rumors about the contents of the Journal's story.Thursday's dust-up wasn't the first time in recent months that the paper's reporting staff has seemed to be at odds with its right-leaning opinion section.In June, 280 Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones staffers sent a letter to the publisher of the paper saying the opinion section's "lack of fact-checking and transparency, and its apparent disregard for evidence, undermine our readers' trust and our ability to gain credibility with sources."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Fox host Lou Dobbs says 'I don't know why anyone' would vote for Sen. Lindsey Graham Posted: 24 Oct 2020 11:25 AM PDT  The conservative commentator slammed the South Carolina senator for what he feels is a lack of oversight regarding anti-conservative bias.
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| Hundreds of protesters clash with police over coronavirus restrictions in Naples Posted: 23 Oct 2020 08:47 PM PDT  Hundreds of protesters in Naples threw projectiles at police and set rubbish bins on fire late on Friday during a demonstration against coronavirus restrictions in the southern Italian city. Calls were issued on social media to challenge a curfew that took effect in the Campania region ahead of the weekend, enacted in response to a spiralling second wave of infections that saw nearly 20,000 new cases detected in the last 24 hours. A mostly young crowd marched through the streets of the regional capital and chanted as the curfew started at 11pm, with some lighting smoke bombs. One carried a makeshift sign that read: "If you close, you pay."
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| Armenian-Americans march in Miami Beach to condemn Azerbaijan, demand Artsakh liberty Posted: 23 Oct 2020 06:09 PM PDT  As voters inside Miami Beach City Hall used the ballot box to decide their country's future, a group of Armenian-Americans took part in a more public display of patriotism right outside.
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| Letters to the Editor: Trumpism is a dangerous way of doing politics. Let's hope it ends with Trump Posted: 24 Oct 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Trumpism is nothing but governing based on instinct and self-interest. If it has a future in the Republican Party, we should be very scared.
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| Belarus and Russia will respond to external threats, Lukashenko tells Pompeo: agencies Posted: 24 Oct 2020 08:39 AM PDT  Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a phone call on Saturday that Belarus and Russia were ready to respond jointly to external threats, Russian agencies quoted Belarus state media as saying. Lukashenko, who is holding on to power despite major protests in recent weeks calling for him to resign, is facing the prospect of a national strike that could begin on Monday following an ultimatum set by opposition leaders.
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| Kansas Man Snatched Daughters From Home Where Boys Were Found Dead: Cops Posted: 24 Oct 2020 03:31 PM PDT  Kansas police are hunting for a man they say abducted his two young daughters from a home where two boys were found dead.Donny Jackson, 40, is believed to be driving a black Honda accord, according to an Amber Alert that was issued Saturday. Cops actually had him in their grasp. Around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, police stopped his vehicle on Highway 169 near the Oklahoma border, while the girls were in the car, but let him drive on.The reason for the traffic stop wasn't specified but it wasn't related to the abduction. It wasn't until 45 minutes later—when cops got a call from a home in Leavenworth—that they discovered the slain boys and learned that 7-year-old Nora and 3-year-old Aven were missing.The relationship between the boys and the girls is not known, but Jackson's Facebook page contains photos of two brothers posing for first day of school photos.His account is also full of postings denying the usefulness of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and mocking the Black Lives Matter movement, religious aphorisms, conspiracy theories, and cryptic comments."When you have to lie to the mother's body to carry your seed, do not expect the abomination to succeed," one Sept. 10 comment read."Why do they call it the bible belt?" he wrote on Aug. 31. "Disciplinary action requires a belt occasionally."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Can Sen. Thom Tillis come from behind and beat Cal Cunningham in crucial NC Senate race? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 04:09 PM PDT  Democrats stick behind Cal Cunningham, focusing on issues instead of infidelity, as they try to seize the majority in the US Senate.
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| Two face masks may be more protective than wearing one, but it depends on the type and fit Posted: 23 Oct 2020 08:45 AM PDT  Doubling up on single-layer cloth masks may be better than one, but the safest homemade masks have three layers, including a nonabsorbent outer one.
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| More heavy rain is coming to South Florida and the Keys. Why, when and how much? Posted: 24 Oct 2020 06:05 AM PDT  South Florida woke to bright skies and a comfy 79 degrees.
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| Trump news: President calls out ‘Barack Hussain Obama’ as supporter at Florida rally appears to make ‘white power’ symbol Posted: 23 Oct 2020 05:57 PM PDT  Follow the latest updates
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| Pentagon condemns Turkish missile system test, warns of 'serious consequences' Posted: 23 Oct 2020 12:15 PM PDT  The Pentagon on Friday strongly condemned the test of a Russian-made S-400 missile defense system by NATO ally Turkey and warned of "serious consequences."
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| With Our Lady of Guadalupe, a California priest brings hope to farmworkers amid Covid-19 Posted: 23 Oct 2020 12:49 PM PDT  "I can't put in words the emotion that I'm feeling," said farmworker Yolanda Camacho. "I never thought that the Virgin of Guadalupe would ever come visit me at work."
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| Despite rhetoric, GOP has supported packing state courts Posted: 24 Oct 2020 06:57 AM PDT  Republican claims that Democrats would expand the U.S. Supreme Court to undercut the conservative majority if they win the presidency and control of Congress has a familiar ring. It's a tactic the GOP already has employed in recent years with state supreme courts when they have controlled all levers of state political power. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia have signed bills passed by GOP-dominated legislatures to expand the number of seats on their states' respective high courts.
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| Colorado wildfires have forced the closure of Rocky Mountain National Park. These photos show orange skies, towering smoke. Posted: 22 Oct 2020 06:50 PM PDT  The pollution may be masking the spread of COVID-19, Gov. Jared Polis warned. Meanwhile, Rocky Mountain National Park has completely closed.
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| A US Navy training aircraft crashed into an Alabama neighborhood, killing both crew members on board Posted: 24 Oct 2020 03:15 AM PDT  The T-6B Texan II plane crashed in Foley, Alabama, around 5 p.m. local time on Friday. It had flown from NAS Whiting Field, Florida.
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| A man reportedly confessed to his 4-year-old daughter that he killed his pregnant girlfriend whose body was found in his freezer Posted: 24 Oct 2020 09:47 AM PDT  23-year-old Selena Ann Bradley was pregnant with her third child when her body was discovered in William James Hernandez's freezer on Monday.
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| Trump’s Fracking Fixation Is Not Landing in Pennsylvania Posted: 23 Oct 2020 01:39 AM PDT  PITTSBURGH—Mike Baltzer comes from a blue-collar family in western Pennsylvania. But he barely hears anyone talk about fracking—long hyped as a local economic engine—positively anymore.For his part, Baltzer, 42, staunchly opposes fracking, the drilling and high-pressure injection of liquid into rocks to collect oil and gas, because of its potential to harm the environment."I'm not coming at this from a tree-hugger, hippy background," Baltzer told The Daily Beast. "I'm a Yinzer. And I know better."Donald Trump has taken on a hardline pro-fracking stance against Democrat Joe Biden in their final, frenetic push to capture the Keystone State's 20 electoral votes, which flipped red as part of the president's shock 2016 victory. At a rally in Erie on Tuesday and again at the final debate on Thursday, Trump tore into the former vice president, mocking what he described as the Democrat's flip-flop on the practice."You know what Pennsylvania? He'll be against it very soon, because his party is totally against it," Trump said Thursday.Video Exposes Proud Boys and 'Extra-Friendly' Philly CopsBiden has carefully avoided bashing fracking for some time, saying that he doesn't want to ban it, but has opposed it on federal land. That seems to reflect a stubborn consensus among the Democratic political class that the issue is some kind of third-rail in the state. And it still is important to some voters, especially in more rural parts of a state infamously described by Democratic strategist James Carville as "Paoli and Penn Hills, with Alabama in between."But conversations with actual residents, local politicians, and a comb of public opinion data suggest perspectives on fracking in Pennsylvania are changing faster than top Democrats—and the president who seems to think it will save him—realize.According to the NPR project StateImpact Pennsylvania, the state has nearly 8,000 active natural gas wells, and many—more than 1,100—are in Washington County, which is south of Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania's natural gas and oil industry employs about 26,000 people, according to advocacy group Food and Water Watch.Recent polls show Pennsylvanians generally are mixed on the practice. A joint CBS and YouGov poll from August showed 52 percent of Pennsylvanians oppose fracking with 48 percent approving. Another August poll prepared by Democratic firm Global Strategy Group for the advocacy group Climate Power 2020 showed that while 61 percent of Pennsylvanians had a favorable view of the natural gas industry, only 32 percent had a favorable view of the fracking industry, compared to 50 percent unfavorable.According to Andrew Baumann, a researcher for Global Strategy Group, the same poll showed similar numbers for Pittsburgh, the largest city in western Pennsylvania: 38 percent favorable compared to 51 percent unfavorable. Statewide, only 8 percent are "very" favorable toward the fracking industry, Baumann added—and that number was just 9 percent for Pittsburgh in his firm's data.Despite this, top Democrats around the country and in Pennsylvania have been cautious about supporting a ban on fracking, long pushed by environmentalists as a way to combat climate change and promote clean water. Pennsylvania Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, often heralded as a progressive, and Pittsburgh Democratic Mayor Bill Peduto both told The New York Times in January that they feared a presidential candidate running on banning fracking could crush Democrats' chances of winning Pennsylvania in November.But Bethany Hallam, Democratic councilperson-at-large in Allegheny County, supports a ban on fracking—and believes positive sentiment toward it has dwindled in the past five years or so."For forever, it was positioned as, you either have clean air and a healthy environment, or you have good paying jobs," Hallam told The Daily Beast. "And folks have started to realize that's just a propaganda manipulation tactic by folks in the natural gas industry."Hallam thinks presidential candidates would have a better chance of impressing Pennsylvanians by talking more about union jobs and renewable energy. Most recent surveys show Biden—who talks about both and whose plan ultimately does likely mean phasing out fracking—leading statewide."I can tell by the way that both candidates are talking that they understand Pennsylvania is going to decide this presidential election," Hallam said. "And so they're speaking what they think is important, but I believe that they are both out of touch with what people in Pennsylvania actually want to see."Michael Oehling, a 28-year-old Republican resident in Butler county, north of Pittsburgh, who works in sales and serves as a Buffalo Township Supervisor, does not support a ban on fracking. He also believes it's important for Pennsylvania because of the jobs and money provided to municipalities.However, Oehling acknowledges the environmental damage that can come from the practice."I've seen those videos of people and their water being tainted," Oehling told The Daily Beast. "I think fracking is good if it's done correctly."Eric Garland, 37, a Republican Allegheny County resident who runs a landscaping business, said he's all for fracking because it helps the economy."It's pretty much gotten my family through the late 90s and early 2000's for work," Garland said. "Both my father, brother and sister worked in the industry for a little while, and my dad's still in the industry on the chemical side now."But even Garland doesn't believe fracking could swing the election in Pennsylvania, and, if anything, he said, the issue might help Biden."A lot of people are more environmentally active right now than they were," Garland said. "It's hard, because a lot of times, they're either under-informed or misinformed about certain things. And I'm sure it goes both ways."Allegheny County resident Nicole Vukovich, 40, doesn't like fracking. She's concerned about what it could do to the air. That being said, it's not one of her top issues as a voter either."I just feel like there are so many other super-important issues," Vukovich said. Issues like social justice, the pandemic, and voter suppression jump out as more important to her at this moment.Julie Theaker, a 52-year-old in Westmoreland County, feels similarly."It's just utterly ridiculous to destroy the environment and cause earthquakes and Lord knows what for a couple dollars a barrel," she said.Though Theaker supports a ban on fracking, she understands that Biden fears he could lose votes running on one. But she believes the votes to be lost are in states like Texas and Oklahoma, not Pennsylvania.When some voters hear Trump going to bat so strongly for fracking, they get confused. To them, it seems like a now-irrelevant talking point."I don't know, realistically, long-term, how much longer that industry will have the power that they do," Baltzer said, adding, "It's not going well for them."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Last Rites for Venezuela’s State-Owned Oil Company Posted: 23 Oct 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Venezuela is in the throes of an unprecedented economic collapse. Oil, Venezuela's lifeblood, is being mismanaged by Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the country's state-owned oil company. Faced with dwindling revenue from PDVSA, the government has relied on its central bank to finance public expenditures. To satisfy these demands, the Banco Central de Venezuela has turned on the printing presses, and, as night follows day, hyperinflation has reared its ugly head again.In total, there have only been 62 episodes of hyperinflation in history. Venezuela, along with Lebanon, is one of only two countries currently experiencing hyperinflation. Today, Venezuela's annual inflation rate is 2,275 percent per year, the highest in the world.How could this be? After all, Venezuela has the largest proven crude-oil reserves in the world. At 303.81 billion barrels, they are larger even than Saudi Arabia's, which stand at 258.6 billion barrels. Considering the extent of the country's resources, it might strike most people as surprising that Venezuela's hyperinflation is linked to the mismanagement of PDVSA, a state-owned enterprise (SOE). But PDVSA dominates the Venezuelan economy and accounts for 99 percent of Venezuela's foreign-exchange earnings. In a sense, PDVSA is the Venezuelan economy, and even by SOE standards, the company is grossly mismanaged.Under the direction of Luis Giusti in the 1994–98 period, PDVSA's production soared. This trend changed in 1999, when Hugo Chavez became Venezuela's president and introduced Chavismo as the country's guiding economic doctrine. Venezuela's oil output began to stagnate, a situation that worsened further after the coup attempt of April 2002. Chavez responded with mass purges of PDVSA's employees, replacing them with "reliable" hands — those loyal to Chavez's socialist regime.After the 2002–03 output plunge, Venezuela's oil production temporarily recovered. However, with the death of Chavez and Nicolas Maduro's assumption of the presidency in March 2013, another output plunge began. This trend has left Venezuela's output drastically lower than when Chavez took power in 1999 (see the chart below).In addition to the reduction in PDVSA's crude oil output, its physical capital has been consumed at an unsustainably rapid rate, with capital expenditures far below the value of equipment that is being consumed each year by depreciation and amortization.There has also been a drop in the stock and quality of PDVSA's human capital. In 2017, President Nicolas Maduro named a National Guard general, Manuel Quevedo, the leader of PDVSA, despite his having no industry experience. Quevedo was soon ousted by Asdrubal Chavez, a cousin of Hugo Chavez, in late April 2020 despite the new leader's international reputation as a drug lord.Unsurprisingly, PDVSA's chronic mismanagement has been accompanied by a recent collapse in the number of operational oil-drilling rigs in the field (see the chart below). Indeed, it has been reported that, as of August 2020, PDVSA has no operational oil rigs.If all that isn't bad enough, equipment breakdowns and increased accident rates have contributed further to long downtimes and output declines. As of October 1, 2020, PDVSA had reported 42 accidents and incidents since 2003, costing the SOE approximately 580 days of production. Because many of PDVSA's blunders go unreported, and many of the mismanagement incidents (such as the sinking of the natural gas exploration rig "Aban Pearl") cannot be quantified in terms of days lost, the true number of days in which PDVSA's production has been hampered due to mismanagement is undoubtedly much higher than reported figures.PDVSA's decreased output is not due to dwindling oil reserves, but instead due to a reduction in its depletion rate. The depletion rate — the rate at which oil companies are depleting their proven reserves — provides the key to understanding the economics of an oil company and the value of its reserves.Venezuela's depletion rate has been falling rapidly since 2007 (see the first chart). In 2019, it sat at 0.121 percent per year, indicating that it would take 569.41 years for PDVSA to tap half of its reserves.This has noteworthy economic implications. Because of positive time preference and discounting, the value of a barrel of oil produced today is higher than the value of a barrel of oil produced in the future, provided the price of oil remains the same. Given Venezuela's incredibly low depletion rate, its reserves are essentially worthless because they are left in the ground for too long.To put Venezuela's depletion rate into perspective, consider Exxon, one of the world's largest oil companies. At the end of 2019, Exxon's depletion rate was 6.53 percent per year —comparable to that realized by most major oil companies. That rate implies that it would take 10.25 years for Exxon's oil reserves to be halfway depleted. That is 559.16 years earlier than when PDVSA would deplete half of its reserves. If we discount at 10 percent, the median value of Exxon's reserves is worth 37.65 percent of their wellhead value (the value that the producer would receive if the oil was sold at the wellhead and not distributed further downstream) — not zero, as is the case for PDVSA.Thanks to Venezuela's embrace of socialism and Chavismo, PDVSA has probably destroyed more economic value than any institution in world history. This brings back memories of President George W. Bush's infamous remark that "this sucker could go down." It's no surprise that the clergy are preparing to administer PDVSA's last rites.
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| 'Nothing was unethical': Biden responds to questions about his son Hunter Posted: 22 Oct 2020 07:14 PM PDT 
During the final presidential debate on Thursday, Joe responded to questions about his son Hunter Biden.
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| Meat from animals not stunned before they are slaughtered must be labelled, vet association says Posted: 24 Oct 2020 04:48 AM PDT  Meat that comes from animals which are not stunned before they are killed must be labelled, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) has said. Without new labelling rules, consumers risk unwittingly eating meat from animals suffering "unnecessary pain" before their death. Until now the BVA, which represents 18,000 vets, has campaigned for an outright ban on the "cruel practice" of religious slaughter - which involves killing live animals with a sharp knife before allowing them to bleed to death. A ban remains their goal but the professional body has adopted a new pragmatic approach believing it has more chance persuading ministers to introduce "no stun" labels. James Russell, new BVA president, said: "Our concern is that every animal should have a good life with the highest welfare through life up to the point of death. "But we just don't know the destination of meat from some of this we animals that are killed without stunning and we believe it should be labelled. "We don't know where fresh meat on sale at counters and butchers' shops comes from and we don't know whether 'no stun' meat is used in some pies, ready meals or other meat products." Meat sold under certified assurance labels such as the Red Tractor, Quality Meat Scotland, RSPCA Assured and the Soil Association requires animals to be stunned before slaughter. But as there is no legal requirement to label this meat, it is unclear how much meat from animals that aren't stunned goes on general sale. A Food Standards Agency report last year however suggested some was entering the wider food chain. Dr Amir Masoom, chief executive the Halal Food Authority, supporting the BVA said: "We would like to see all halal meat and meat products labelled 'stun' or 'no stun' so that consume can make an informed choice when they buy in shops." While Schechita UK, which represents the Jewish community, supports the consumer rights to know, spokesman Shimon Cohen criticised the proposed labelling as "one-dimensional." He said: "If consumer information is the goal, consumers should be informed of the manner of stunning at slaughter - captive bolt shooting, asphyxiation by gas, electrocution by tongs or electric water bath, or any other approved methods, including Jewish and Muslim slaughter." The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: "We respect the rights of Jewish and Muslim communities to eat meat prepared in accordance with their beliefs and expect the food industry to provide consumers with all the information they need to make informed choices. "The Government has committed to a serious and rapid examination of the role of labelling in promoting high food and animal welfare standards across the UK market and to consult on this at the end of the transition period."
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| Israel 'will not oppose' advanced US arms sales to UAE Posted: 23 Oct 2020 04:16 PM PDT  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his country would not oppose US sales of advanced weapon systems to the UAE, apparently referring to F-35 fighter planes.
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