It all kicked off when MAGA pundit Scott Jennings accused a guest of being a 'liar.'
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Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Factbox-Russian energy export disruptions since start of Ukraine war
(Reuters) -When U.S. President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, one of his bargaining chips to encourage Putin to make progress toward a ceasefire in Ukraine will be to ease U.S. sanctions on Russia's energy industry and exports. Trump has also threatened tougher sanctions if there is no progress. Here is how sanctions have impacted Russian energy exports since the start of the conflict. NATURAL GAS AND LNG Russia was the top supplier of natural gas to Europe before the war. Most gas travelled through four pipeline routes: Nord Stream running under the Baltic Sea, the Yamal line crossing Poland, transit via Ukraine, and the Turkstream line. Europe also imports Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG). In 2021, total Russian gas imports to the EU totalled 150 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year, or 45% of its total imports, and have fallen to 52 bcm or 19% since, according to the European Commission. While the EU has not imposed sanctions on Russian pipeline gas imports, contract disputes and damage to Nord Stream caused by an explosion, have cut supplies. As part of a fresh round of sanctions announced in July, the European Union has now banned transactions including any provision of goods or services related to Nord Stream, which albeit damaged could be revived as a gas supply route. Transit via Ukraine ended at the end of 2024, leaving just Turkstream as a functioning route for Russian pipeline gas to Europe. The European Commission has also proposed a legally binding ban on EU imports of Russian gas and LNG by the end of 2027, but this has not been passed into legislation yet. The U.S. in 2024 imposed sanctions on companies supporting the development of Russia's Arctic LNG 2 project, which would become Russia's largest plant with an eventual output of 19.8 million metric tons per year. OIL The U.S., UK, and EU all prohibited the import of seaborne crude oil and refined petroleum products from Russia during the first year of the war in Ukraine. In addition to the embargoes, the G7 group of countries (including the US, UK, and EU) imposed a price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil for third countries at $60 per barrel in December 2022, and a cap on fuels the following February. The EU and UK altered the crude price cap level in June 2025 to $47.60, or 15% below the average market price, but the U.S. did not back the move. The price cap aims to reduce Russia's revenues from oil sales by prohibiting shipping, insurance and reinsurance companies from handling tankers carrying crude traded above the cap level. Western powers have also imposed sanctions on more than 440 tankers belonging to the so-called shadow fleet that transports sanctioned oil outside of Western services and the price cap. Russia's leading shipper Sovcomflot is also under sanctions in the West. The U.S. has also sanctioned major Russian oil companies including Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegaz. The measures banning Russian oil imports in the west and restricting Russian oil trade elsewhere have redirected Russian oil flows towards Asia, with China, India, and Turkey emerging as the major buyers for Russian crude. The price cap was meant to keep Russian oil flowing to prevent a spike in global oil prices which would have followed a halt or severe drop in Russian exports. Trump has, however, signalled a change in policy in recent weeks by threatening to impose secondary sanctions on India and China for buying Russian oil to put pressure on Putin to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine. COAL The European Union banned imports of Russian coal in 2022, seeing volumes drop from 50 million metric tonnes in 2021 to zero by 2023, according to data from Eurostat.
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump and Putin Have Different Goals for Anchorage Summit
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will measure success at their summit in Alaska very differently, even as both leaders are already looking toward a second meeting. The US president sees any kind of ceasefire in Ukraine as a key objective of the talks. For the Russian leader, getting face time with Trump on American soil without having made any concessions on the war is already a win. The US-Canadian Road Safety Gap Is Getting Wider Festivals and Parades Are Canceled Amid US Immigration Anxiety To Head Off Severe Storm Surges, Nova Scotia Invests in 'Living Shorelines' Five Years After Black Lives Matter, Brussels' Colonial Statues Remain Princeton Plans New Budget Cuts as Pressure From Trump Builds Those are the contrasting stakes as both leaders head to Anchorage for their first summit since 2018 in Helsinki. The imbalance points to the perils and opportunities for Trump, who has long cast himself as the only one who can end the war. Putin has little incentive to stop the fighting as Russia's military slowly grinds out gains in Ukraine, but can ill afford to alienate a president with whom he's long cultivated a relationship. En route to Anchorage on Friday morning, Trump didn't rule out that Ukraine might get some form of security guarantees from western nations, or that it might have to agree to swap land with Russia. But he said it wasn't his place to decide. 'I've got to let Ukraine make that decision,' Trump said of the idea of the two countries trading land. 'And I think they'll make a proper decision. But I'm not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I'm here to get them at the table.' By invading Ukraine in 2022, Putin began Europe's biggest war for 80 years and became an international pariah. The summit with Trump helps him to chip away at the isolation the US and its Group of Seven allies have sought to impose on the Russian leader over his aggression. Even more symbolically potent is the decision to host the encounter at a military base, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in the US. By that metric, Putin has scored a victory simply by showing up. The meeting also marks a repudiation of former President Joe Biden's approach of 'nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,' a mantra that made sure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy always had a seat at the table. 'Russia wants to continue to pursue its objectives, which are to dramatically weaken Ukraine and essentially undermine its independence and sovereignty,' Richard Haass, a former senior State Department official, said in an interview. 'So Russia sees negotiations not as an alternative to that, but as a means toward that end.' The perils for Trump account for the White House's strategy of tamping down expectations for the meeting. Trump described it as a 'feel-out meeting,' a message reinforced by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who called the summit 'a listening exercise for the president.' Trump is already looking ahead to a potential second summit that would include Zelenskiy — and perhaps European leaders — which he anticipated would be 'more productive than the first.' The Kremlin, anticipating that move, has invited Trump to come to Russia next. It's a far cry from Trump's boasts on the campaign trail that he could end the war within a day of taking office. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was 'abundantly clear' that a breakthrough was only possible with involvement of Trump and Putin. The new framing gives Trump room to maneuver during the actual meeting, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. That will allow him to make decisions in the moment as he relies on his instincts, which aligns with his preference for personal diplomacy over traditional bureaucratic deliberations. In one optimistic scenario, the two leaders could leave Alaska with an agreement to halt the fighting — at least temporarily or partially, for instance by agreeing to pause Russian air attacks. Trump could boost Putin's proposal to take Ukrainian territory that his forces have captured. Or they could come away with nothing at all, something Trump was happy to accept after he walked out of talks with North Korea's Kim Jong Un in 2019. Trump said in an interview with Bret Baier on Friday that if the meeting does not go well, 'I would walk,' according to Fox News. 'I think it's going to work out very well and if it doesn't, I'm going to head back home real fast,' he told Baier. For his part, Putin is eager to widen cracks between the US and Europe while seeking relief from sanctions that have crippled Russia's economic growth. The list of attendees reflects the importance both sides attach to the meeting. Trump will be joined by Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, as well as his CIA director, John Ratcliffe. There's a concern among governments in Europe that rather than focus on Ukraine's interests, the meeting could pivot to improving the US-Russia economic relationship. That might provide Putin a lifeline to continue the war, according to a European diplomat who asked not to be identified without authorization to speak to publicly. 'Once he gets into the room with Vladimir Putin, and Putin is able to make his case, I think he will be malleable, and the inclination will be to get along with Putin,' Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told reporters on Thursday. 'I think a lot of the goodwill and agreement with the Europeans may very well go right out the door.' Trump told reporters on Air Force One he belived Putin would also include economic officials in his delegation. 'I noticed he's bringing a lot of business people from Russia, and that's good I like that because they want to do business,' Trump said. 'But they're not doing business until we get the war settled.' Putin brings his longtime foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, as well as his defense and finance ministers. That suggests Russia wants to discuss the potential for increased economic cooperation — an idea that appeals to Trump. Trump and Putin are expected to speak alone ahead of a lunch with their delegations and a joint press conference is planned afterward. That raises the specter of a repeat of the now-infamous news conference in Helsinki where Trump publicly sided with Putin in rejecting US intelligence assessments that Russia had meddled in the 2016 presidential election. --With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron. (Updates with Trump comment in 17th paragraph. A previous version of this story corrected that Vice President JD Vance is not expected to attend the summit.) Americans Are Getting Priced Out of Homeownership at Record Rates What Declining Cardboard Box Sales Tell Us About the US Economy Bessent on Tariffs, Deficits and Embracing Trump's Economic Plan Dubai's Housing Boom Is Stoking Fears of Another Crash Twitter's Ex-CEO Is Moving Past His Elon Musk Drama and Starting an AI Company ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Boston Globe
3 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Draft of major MAHA report calls for more education, less regulation — and offers few policies
While the document, titled 'Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy,' retreads key MAHA ground like the need to cut artificial food dyes and encourage physical activity, it also offers a more expansive view of where Kennedy plans to steer his agency. Details of the report, which was delivered to the White House on Tuesday but not made public, were first published by The New York Times. They have yet to be authenticated by White House officials. Childhood vaccine schedule reform is on the agenda, though the report offers no details on how Kennedy will change the list of recommended childhood vaccines, if at all. He has for years cast suspicion on vaccines, often citing flawed research, and promoted the idea that early shots are harming children. The report similarly calls for 'addressing vaccine injuries.' Advertisement 'Together, this strategy will translate the work of the MAHA movement to policies that make a transformative and lasting impact for Americans and end the childhood chronic disease crisis,' says a draft document, dated Aug. 11 and published by Politico. Advertisement The strategy notably avoids mention of the 'This report has one overriding implied message: More research needed,' Marion Nestle, a leading nutrition researcher and professor emeritus at New York University, said via email. But, she said, 'we already know the problems. It's way past time to start addressing them.' Perhaps the most forceful regulatory proposals in the report have to do with marketing. One recommends the Health and Human Services Department work with other federal agencies to enforce direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs, including among social media influencers and telehealth companies. The move falls short of the full ban Kennedy previously talked about. A separate recommendation would create new industry guidelines to 'limit the direct marketing of certain unhealthy foods to children,' though it seems those rules would still be voluntary. (Some of the largest food and beverage companies currently self-regulate under a 'Though still light on specifics, these draft recommendations are a bit of a mixed bag,' said Andrew Binovi, director of government affairs for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Advertisement Among the ideas is Nestle says the first Trump administration tried to implement a similar plan with pre-packed food boxes distributed through food banks and other organizations, which was 'a disaster for small farmers initially recruited to do these labor intensive and perishable boxes. It makes much more sense to make sure people have enough money to buy food.' Trump's recent tax cut bill The report also suggests the government should incentivize more breastfeeding, either through the WIC program or other routes. There is little mention of ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, which are expected to be a focus of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, due later this year. HHS is also crafting a definition of what constitutes a UPF.'It appears that big food lobbyists have been busy and successful,' said Jerold Mande, CEO of the nutrition nonprofit Nourish Science, who previously held senior policymaking roles at the FDA and USDA under the George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and Obama administrations. 'Who expected the MAHA report to do more to get whole milk in schools than to get UPF out?'The report also says that the USDA will 'prioritize precision nutrition research,' a line of research that aims to provide people with more personalized recommendations by taking into account their body's individual needs and responses to certain foods. Former NIH nutrition researcher Kevin Hall Advertisement The draft report is 'the most ambitious federal plan yet to confront childhood chronic disease,' said Marty Irby, president and CEO at Capitol South and Competitive Markets Action, who previously lobbied for ranchers and farmers. 'Still, there are gaps: the USDA school lunch program continues to force dairy on many children — particularly kids of color — who are lactose intolerant, with little to no alternatives, and the plan offers little to promote local, farm-to-table food in schools.' Aviva Musicus, science director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, criticized the report as embodying 'the idiosyncratic beliefs' of one person, Kennedy. 'He might be right about food dyes, but the report's recommendations to alter our vaccine framework, restructure government agencies, and promote meat and whole milk are going to promote disease, not health,' Musicus said. While the draft report is not a budget document, it is unclear how much funding would be needed for the various efforts or where it would come from. Already, Congress Advertisement Many of the proposals involve Medicaid, WIC, Instead of regulation, the administration plans to run public awareness and education campaigns aimed at adolescents about physical fitness, screen time, substance use, vaping and 'root cause issues that impact adult infertility.' Another initiative aims to train school and library workers on how to handle overdoses, and expand their access to the overdose-reversal medication Narcan, per the report. States will be encouraged to re-adopt the Presidential Fitness Test, which grades students on their ability to do things such as complete a mile run. HHS will also establish an 'infertility training center,' though the report offers limited details on precisely what services would be offered at such a facility. (Kennedy allies have been pushing for widespread use of what's called Medical schools, which have already been pushed by the administration to Advertisement Elsewhere in the department, National Institutes of Health officials plan to launch two new offices, one focused on developing alternatives to animal testing, such as organ-on-a-chip technologies, and another to organize chronic disease research. NIH will also start a new task force on children's health, and create a database of researchers' funding sources, similar to the OpenPayments system run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, per the draft report. The commission's recommendations, while largely centered at Kennedy's HHS, also affect the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency — though not as severely as some in the food and agriculture industries feared. Unlike While calling for more 'innovative growing solutions,' the report also says the government ought to 'ensure that the public has awareness and confidence in EPA's robust pesticide review procedures.' When it comes to air quality — a 'The commission has a historic opportunity to protect America's kids, but only if it resists corporate influence and turns bold ideas into real, accountable action,' Irby told STAT. Here are other highlights from the document: Mental health: More prior authorization Pediatric mental health remains a key focus for Kennedy and his MAHA allies. In February, a White House executive order called mood stabilizers and antipsychotic drugs a ' The draft echoes this language, highlighting the overmedicalization of children as a key challenge to overcome and calling for HHS to form a working group that will evaluate prescription patterns for SSRIs, antipsychotics, stimulants, and other drugs that children take. They also ask the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to work with states to increase prior authorization requirements and tighten prescribing safeguards particularly for ADHD. The draft says the Veterans Administration will provide NIH with de-identifiable data on ADHD, diabetes, and pharmaceutical usage among spouses, dependents and survivors of veterans under 18. It's true that kids can be overmedicalized, said Jennifer Mathis, deputy director for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. But it was 'disheartening, however, that the leaked draft strategy makes no mention of well-established services that are critical for children with significant mental health needs, such as intensive care coordination, intensive behavior support, and mobile crisis services,' Mathis said. Rates of anxiety, depression and ADHD in the U.S. are increasing, but the scientific explanation for their rise is Although the scientific literature on screen use offers Notably absent from the report, however, was the startling rise of youth suicide over the last two decades. Suicide is one of the leading causes of deaths in this demographic and is particularly pronounced among Black teenagers. One in five high school students Fluoride: New scrutiny of water standards In discussing the importance of water quality, the document focuses on one element: fluoride. The document does not directly name other contaminants, like PFAS or lead. The report states that the CDC and USDA will 'educate Americans on the appropriate levels of fluoride, clarify the role of EPA in drinking water standards for fluoride under the Safe Drinking Water Act, and increase awareness of the ability to obtain fluoride topically through toothpaste,' Experts largely agree that fluoridation at the level currently recommended by the CDC is safe, despite some growing concern that higher levels of fluoride intake could be The draft of the report also states the FDA will evaluate liquid drops and tablets. This process has already begun, with a Electromagnetic radiation: Studies ahead The report also says HHS plans to study electromagnetic radiation and health research 'to identify gaps in knowledge, including on new technologies to ensure safety and efficacy.' The report doesn't explain what sources of electromagnetic radiation its authors consider possible cause for concern. But Kennedy has claimed — contrary to scientific consensus — on The But while there's not evidence of a link between cell phones and cancer, it's true that the devices have changed dramatically since the advent of smartphones and that kids' usage has skyrocketed, said Emanuela Taioli, director of the Institute for Translational Epidemiology at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine, via email. 'Perhaps a new study on kids specifically is worth doing.' Daniel Payne and Chelsea Cirruzzo contributed reporting. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 or chat . For TTY users: Use your preferred relay service or dial 711 then 988.
