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Oil prices gain as US inventory withdrawals point to strong demand
By Katya Golubkova TOKYO (Reuters) -Oil prices gained slightly on Thursday as larger-than-expected declines crude oil and fuel inventories in the U.S., the world's biggest oil user, supported expectations for steady demand. Brent crude futures were up 13 cents, or 0.19%, to $66.97 a barrel at 0055 GMT, after gaining 1.6% in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 15 cents, or 0.24%, to $62.86, after climbing 1.4% on Wednesday. U.S. crude inventories fell by 6 million barrels last week to 420.7 million barrels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, versus analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.8 million-barrel draw. Gasoline stocks dropped by 2.7 million barrels, versus expectations for a 915,000-barrel draw, the EIA said, indicating steady driving demand during the summer travel season. That was also seen in a jump in the four-week average for jet fuel consumption to its highest since 2019. "Crude oil prices rebounded as signs of strong demand in the U.S. boosted sentiment," Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ, said in a note on Thursday. Still, Hynes cautioned that some "bearish sentiment remains evident as traders continue to monitor negotiations to end Russia's war against Ukraine." Russia said on Wednesday attempts to resolve security issues relating to Ukraine without Moscow's participation were a "road to nowhere," as U.S. and European military planners have begun exploring post-conflict security guarantees for Ukraine. The drawn-out efforts to secure peace in Ukraine mean that Western sanctions on Russian oil supply continue to remain in place. The possibility of further U.S. sanctions and tariffs on Russian oil buyers also hang over the market. Russia, however, remains adamant it will keep providing crude to willing buyers, with Russian diplomats in India saying on Wednesday the country expects to continue supplying oil to India despite warnings from the U.S. U.S. President Donald Trump has announced an additional tariff of 25% on Indian goods from August 27 because of their Russian crude purchases. The European Union has also sanctioned Indian private refiner Nayara Energy, which is backed by Russian oil company Rosneft. Indian refiners initially backed off their Russian buying but company officials at state-run Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum have bought Russian oil for September and October delivery, resuming purchases after discounts widened. Sign in to access your portfolio
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Union Station should be safe for all Americans, says Katie Pavlich
'Special Report' panelists Juan Williams, Katie Pavlich and Josh Kraushaar discuss the Trump administration's crime crackdown in the nation's capital.
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UPDATED: Yankees rookie Cam Schlittler making perfect game bid facing Rays
TAMPA, Fla. — Yankees manager Aaron Boone was asked before Wednesday night's game against the Rays if the plan is to continue having rookie right-hander Cam Schlittler working five-innings starts. 'Just depends,' Boone said. 'If we can get him deep into a game, great. Those are decisions that kind of happen in the moment depending on the game and how it's unfolding and where you are.' A bid at making history was all it took. Making his seventh career start since a first MLB call-up on July 9, Schlittler was perfect through six innings in the Yankees' series finale against the Rays. The Yankees led the Rays 2-0 through five on the strength of two solo home runs, Trent Grisham's to lead off the game and Austin Wells' with one out in the fifth. Retiring 18 in a row, Schlittler's pitch count was at just 66 heading into the fifth inning, 51 of them strikes. Schittler threw first-pitch strikes to 13 of the 18 batters and fell behind 2-0 only in the fourth to Yandy Diaz, who strike out swinging on six pitches on a 98.6-mph fastball. He fanned six through six innings — one in each frame — and nobody came close to getting a hit. The Yankees took a quick 1-0 lead when Grisham homered off Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen before Schlitter began his mastery. Schlittler started his outing with Chandler Simpson striking out looking on three pitches, then he retired Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lower on flyballs in an 11-pitch inning. Heading into the game, Schilling was 1-2 with a 3.94 ERA. He worked five innings in four starts, a career-long 5.1 innings in his debut and 4.1 in another. 'I'm really encouraged by the way he continues to throw the ball,' Boone said. Here are other recent Yankees posts to check out: -- Austin Wells opens up on losing starts to Ben Rice: 'I get it ... (but) I'm one of the best catchers' -- Yankees reliever likely done for season with flexor strain -- Yankees add pitcher for series finale with Rays -- Yankees make prediction after 9-homer onslaught -- Yankees' 9 homers traveled almost a mile; Here's blow-by-blow -- Aaron Judge, Aaron Boone have difference of opinion on his throwing arm -- Yankees lose reliever to IL, another headed for MRI -- Yankees add impact bat to active roster ahead of Rays series -- Yankees added a hated pest, and now it's true love -- Why is Rob Manfred trying so hard to ruin MLB? | Klapisch --Why Doc Gooden won't ever cut his Yankees ties | Klapisch -- What Max Fried, Yankees make of his 6-week slump that just got worse -- Elton John has nothing on Yankees' Jazz Chisholm Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription. Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@
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Texas county cuts over 100 polling sites as Trump attacks mail-in voting nationally
Officials in a large North Texas county decided this week to cut more than 100 Election Day polling sites and reduce the number of early voting locations, amid growing concern about GOP efforts to limit voting access ahead of next year's midterm elections. The 3-2 vote on Tuesday by commissioners in Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth, came one day after President Donald Trump vowed to end the use of mail-in ballots. The president lacks the unilateral power to decide how individual states run elections, but his declaration speaks to long-brewing and unfounded claims by some conservatives that the country's electoral system is insecure and vulnerable to widespread fraud. Trump has repeatedly and falsely asserted that he won the 2020 presidential election instead of Joe Biden. Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare, who heads up the commissioners court, has also raised numerous questions about the security of local elections, helping to launch an electoral integrity unit in the county after he became judge in 2022. As of last summer, however, the unit had received fewer than 100 allegations of voter fraud. He and fellow Republican commissioners also cut funding to provide free bus rides to the polls for low-income residents. 'I don't believe it's the county government's responsibility to try to get more people out to the polls,' O'Hare said at the time. And commissioners prohibited outside organizations from registering voters inside county buildings after Tarrant County GOP leaders raised concerns about what they said were left-leaning groups holding registration drives. (ProPublica and The Texas Tribune have previously written about O'Hare's political influence in North Texas.) On Tuesday, O'Hare voted with the two Republican commissioners on the court to reduce the number of polling sites in the county to 216, down from 331 in 2023. The decision also cut down the number of early voting sites. County officials said the move was to save money, as they historically see low voter turnout in nonpresidential elections. Throughout the meeting, O'Hare repeatedly emphasized that the cuts were intended to make the election more efficient. He argued that both the switch to county-wide voting in 2019, which allows voters to cast a ballot at any polling site in the county, and the expected low turnout made the cuts appropriate. "I would venture to guess 99% of the public cannot name a single thing on (the 2025 ballot),' he said during the meeting. Fewer voting sites means fewer voters, Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, told the Report. 'If you move a polling place farther away from someone's house, then they're less likely to vote because you've increased the cost of voting,' said Rottinghaus, who has studied poll placement and its impact on turnout. 'The cost can be your time. It can be your gas.' The county's move falls in line with a national trend that generally sees Republican-led states and localities 'restrain and restrict' how voting operates — often in the name of discouraging illegal voting or, in Tarrant County's recent case, cutting costs, Rottinghaus said. This could look like reducing voting locations or shortening early voting hours, he said. Texas has led multiple efforts to make going to the polls more difficult, he said, such as making mail-in ballots harder to obtain and requiring photo IDs when casting a ballot. No single law dramatically impacts voter turnout, Rottinghaus said, rather, it's the collective of ever-changing policies that can discourage people from voting. 'The more you move around how voting occurs, like the hours and the locations, the harder it is for voters to understand exactly what they're supposed to do and when,' he said. 'A confused voter is usually a nonvoter.' This is not the first time Tarrant County has been at the forefront of changing political headwinds. Earlier this summer, the commissioners, led by O'Hare, voted along party lines to redraw the county precincts; such changes usually happen after the decennial census rather than in the middle of the decade. O'Hare admitted the goal of the redrawn maps was to favor Republican candidates. 'This is about Republican versus Democrat, period,' O'Hare told Dallas television station WFAA ahead of the commissioners' June 3 vote. 'If it passes with one of the maps that I would want to see pass, it's a very strong likelihood that we will have three Republicans on the Commissioners Court.' In July, Gov. Greg Abbott added redistricting to the agenda of a special legislative session — a step he was apparently reluctant to take until he received a call from Trump to discuss the issue, the Tribune reported. The proposal has sparked a national fight over the redrawing of congressional maps. On Wednesday, the GOP-led Texas House took an initial vote adopting a new map designed to increase the number of Republican seats in the U.S. Congress. Abbott has also fanned concerns about allegations of illegal voting, last year announcing the removal of more than 1 million ineligible voters from the state's rolls, including more than 6,500 potential noncitizens. An investigation by ProPublica, the Tribune and Votebeat, however, found that the number of alleged noncitizens the governor cited was likely inflated and, in some cases, wrong. Concerns about the cuts More than three dozen speakers at Tuesday's meeting denounced the move to cut polling sites and early voting locations, with some raising concerns that it amounted to the suppression of Black, Hispanic and college-age voters. Several speakers called the cuts a more extreme version of O'Hare's failed effort to remove eight early voting locations at colleges last year. Only one person spoke in favor of the reductions. Sabrina Ball, who opposed reducing the polling sites, said she has worked as an election judge in Republican Commissioner Manny Ramirez's district in northwest Tarrant County. She said she's seen firsthand people working hard to find the time to get to a polling location and vote. 'You're not saving money. You're sacrificing democracy to save a buck,' she said. The two Democratic commissioners, Roderick Miles Jr. and Alisa Simmons, voted against the changes after unsuccessfully trying to delay the decision. 'Everybody deserves the right to have a place that they are comfortable with and familiar with to go and to cast their vote,' said Miles, who represents predominantly Black neighborhoods that saw a reduction in voting locations. He later added, 'To dismantle or take those rights away from us that we worked hard to get is unacceptable at any level.' Simmons said it was inappropriate to reduce voting locations as Tarrant County's population grows. She pointed out that the Republican members of the Commissioners Court used that growth as a reason to redistrict the county's precincts midcycle this year — a change that would significantly increase the chances of a GOP candidate defeating her in 2026. A Texas law passed in May reduces the county's minimum Election Day voting locations to 212 — rolling back a 2023 requirement of 347. Tarrant County Election Administrator Clinton Ludwig said the sites meet the state's new 'bare minimum,' with 'a little bit of wiggle room' in case certain planned locations fall through. He told commissioners that the initially proposed cuts aimed to save about $1 million. He said he based the reductions on voter turnout in 2023, which saw about 12.5% registered voters cast ballots, he said. Locations' accessibility and ability to securely store voting information were also considered, Ludwig said. He said that no commissioner had any influence on the list and that no partisan analysis was taken into account. Ludwig and O'Hare's office did not immediately respond to requests to comment following the vote. O'Hare has also not responded to ProPublica and the Tribune's previous reporting about him, declining multiple interview requests and refusing to answer questions, though a spokesperson sent the newsrooms a list of eight of his major accomplishments, including cutting county spending and lowering local property tax rates. Rottinghaus said some counties 'yo-yo' year to year in the number of polling places they have. Elections such as November's typically have fewer locations than presidential and midterm ones, he said. Still, Tarrant County's reduction seems 'aggressive,' he said. Once the number of polling places goes down, it usually stays down, Rottinghaus said. 'You're going to generally see that same number continue for at least the near term,' he said. Though he ultimately voted to reduce polling locations, Ramirez pushed back on the initial list of cuts to early voting sites, some of which he said were established and popular with voters. Ramirez said the county must balance access and efficiency. Commissioners then added back nine early voting locations. O'Hare was the lone vote against that move, saying some of those sites had historically low turnout. 'The formula for where you put these voting sites has to be scientific,' Ramirez told the Report ahead of the vote. 'It should be population-based and proximity to additional site-based.' Several Fort Worth City Council members urged their constituents to speak against the effort in the lead-up to the vote. Council member Carlos Flores, who represents parts of northwest Fort Worth, issued a statement against the vote, saying fewer sites negatively impact diverse communities. In a statement to the Report, he added that limited polling locations and inconvenient voting procedures contribute to low turnout. Mia Hall, who represents southwest Fort Worth, sent a news release to her district on Monday, decrying the proposed cuts in parts of her district that are predominantly Black or Hispanic. 'These communities have long fought for equitable access to the ballot box, and removing their polling locations is simply unacceptable,' Hall wrote. 'While I understand the pressures of state regulations and budgetary constraints, disenfranchising entire communities is not an acceptable response.' Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at Disclosure: The University of Houston has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. More all-star speakers confirmed for The Texas Tribune Festival, Nov. 13–15! This year's lineup just got even more exciting with the addition of State Rep. Caroline Fairly, R-Amarillo; former United States Attorney General Eric Holder; Abby Phillip, anchor of 'CNN NewsNight'; Aaron Reitz, 2026 Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General; and State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin. Get your tickets today! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
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Apple Supplier BIEL Crystal Unveils "Witch Cloak" Ultra-Hard Coating Smartphone Glass Cover
HONG KONG, Aug. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- BIEL Crystal, a key Apple supplier and global leader in smart device components, has launched its revolutionary ultra-hard coating smartphone glass cover – "Witch Cloak". This breakthrough cover glass is now featured on Honor's latest Magic V5 foldable smartphone. According to official Honor mobile phone data, devices equipped with Witch Cloak glass demonstrate: 10x improvement in drop resistance 15x enhancement in scratch prevention 3x increase in abrasion durability significantly reducing screen cracks and breakages from everyday impacts. About WITCH CLOAK ultra-hard coating The Witch Cloak ultra-hard coating glass utilizes a glass-ceramic substrate coated with precisely alternating layers of silicon nitride (SiN) and silicon oxynitride (SiON). BIEL Crystal offers customizable coating solutions ranging multilayer to meet specific durability requirements. About BIEL Crystal Founded in 1989, BIEL Crystal is a leading global provider of exterior structure and module solutions for smart devices. Our products are widely used in smart digital devices, smart wearable devices, AR/VR glasses and automotive industry. Our long-term cooperation customers include Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, vivo, Meta, ByteDance, Tesla, Google and so on. With more than 30 years of technological innovation and excellent management, BIEL Crystal has become a large technology innovation group with 9 advanced production bases worldwide, with a total investment of over HK$42 billion, covering a total area of about 4.3 million square meters, employing more than 90,000 people and with an annual production capacity of 2.2 billion pieces. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE BIEL Crystal Sign in to access your portfolio
