Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud and Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak are seen at the beginning of an OPEC and Non-OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria December 6, 2019. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo
Reuters: OPEC+ meeting delayed as Saudi Arabia and Russia row over oil price collapse: sources
DUBAI/MOSCOW (Reuters) - OPEC and Russia have postponed a Monday meeting to discuss oil output cuts until April 9, OPEC sources said on Saturday, as a dispute between Moscow and Saudi Arabia over who is to blame for plunging crude prices intensified.
The delay came amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries led by Saudi Arabia and its allies, a group collectively known as OPEC+, to urgently stabilise global oil markets.
Oil prices hit an 18-year low on March 30 due to a slump in demand caused by lockdowns to contain the coronavirus outbreak and the failure of OPEC and other producers led by Russia to extend a deal on output curbs that expired on March 31.
OPEC+ is working on a deal to cut the production of oil equivalent by about 10% of world supply, or 10 million barrels per day, in what member states expect to be an unprecedented global effort including the United States.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: I agree. Oil prices are going to crater When the markets open on Monday .... Oil set to ‘crater’ Monday as OPEC meeting delayed, tensions flare between Saudi Arabia and Russia (CNBC).
One has to ask, which Democrat(s) has involved him or herself to see to it that the economic malaise intensifies and that the crash never ceases its downward dive?
ReplyDeleteTo put it past them to exacerbate - or even create - this catastrophic situation for political power is just extending them too much benefit of the doubt.
Governors and public health officials — including those on President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force — have spoken often about difficulties finding and processing Covid-19 tests. In a call with governors Monday, however, Trump said he has not heard about these issues.
ReplyDeleteIn audio of the call published by CBS News, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) details two problems with testing. First, that his state doesn’t have enough tests, saying “we’re one day away if we don’t get test kits from the CDC that we wouldn’t be able to do testing.” And second, that the federal government has depleted the tests available on the private market.
These are known issues, and are problems the Trump administration has been repeatedly criticized for not working harder to solve. But Trump respond to Bullock’s concerns by saying, “I haven’t heard about testing in weeks. We’ve tested more now than any nation in the world. We’ve got these great tests, and we’ll come out with another one tomorrow, that’s almost instantaneous testing. But I haven’t heard about testing being a problem.”
CBS News obtained audio of a call Monday between Pres. Trump and rural state governors about coronavirus. After Montana Gov. Steve Bullock discusses difficulty getting testing equipment, Trump says, "I haven't heard anything about testing being a problem" https://t.co/ScO2YbKZAq pic.twitter.com/YhFPpw7Gni
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 30, 2020
Opinion
ReplyDeleteHe Went to Jared
Heaven help us, we’re at the mercy of the Slim Suit crowd.
Maureen Dowd
By Maureen Dowd
Opinion Columnist
April 4, 2020
Jared Kushner, coronavirus sage, federal stockpile co-owner and presidential son-in-law.
Jared Kushner, coronavirus sage, federal stockpile co-owner and presidential son-in-law.Credit...Tom Brenner/Reuters
A few years ago, when some photos by Times photographers adorning our office walls were swapped out for others, I found one headed for the dumpster.
It captured the scene when Andy Card came over to whisper to George W. Bush, as he read “The Pet Goat” to schoolchildren in Sarasota, that a second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
It was such a pivotal moment in this country’s history, it seemed too important to toss. So I hung it in my office.
But then three days later, I had to get rid of it. The look in Bush’s eyes was so disturbing, I couldn’t bear to see it anymore.
He looked frightened, like a horrible bill had come due and he was utterly unprepared to pay it. He looked like what he was: a man who had been winging it for the first half of his life, playing and swaggering around while he relied on his daddy and daddy’s friends to prop him up.
W. was shaken to the core, and that left him vulnerable to being influenced by the older advisers around him with their own crazy agendas. America is still paying for the dreadful decisions that came after that moment. The same blend of arrogance and incompetence informed the Bush administration’s handling of Katrina — the earlier lash of nature that exposed the lethal fault line between the haves and have-nots. W. retreated to clinical states’ rights arguments as a beloved city drowned.
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Now we have another pampered scion in the Oval, propped up by his daddy for half his life, accustomed to winging it and swaggering around. And he, too, is utterly unprepared to lead us through the storm. Like W., he is resorting to clinical states’ rights arguments, leaving the states to chaotically compete with one another and the federal government for precious medical equipment.
Donald Trump is trying to build a campaign message around his image as a wartime president. But as a commander in chief, Cadet Bone Spurs is bringing up the rear.
“I would leave it up to the governors,” Trump said Friday, when asked about his government’s sclerotic response. Trouble is, when you leave it to the governors, you have scenes like we did in Florida with the open beaches — not to mention a swath in the middle of the country that, as of Friday night, still had not ordered residents to stay home.
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The Los Angeles Times reported that two months before the virus spread through Wuhan, the Trump administration halted a $200 million early-warning program to train scientists in China and elsewhere to deal with a pandemic. The name of the program? “PREDICT.”
It is said that nature abhors a vacuum, but this virus loves it.
The drugs have shown promise in lab studies as anti-virals. However, in human trials to treat flu, HIV and dengue – a viral infection spread by mosquitoes in the tropics – chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine failed to have an effect.
ReplyDeleteChinese researchers have looked at the possibility they may help patients with Covid-19, but one study showed no effect in severely ill patients.
It was in mid-March that French microbiologist Dr Didier Raoult published findings that, he said, heralded the coronavirus 'end game' – claiming he had proved chloroquine could 'cure' the disease. Yet his study featured just 26 patients, and quickly drew widespread criticism because his results omitted to mention those who had suffered worsening symptoms.
Despite these concerns, US TV channel Fox News carried stories about the findings and days later, in an extraordinary intervention, President Trump took to Twitter claiming the drugs could be 'one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine'. Both should be 'put to use immediately', he added.
Along with a surge in demand in the US, and now in the UK, there were subsequent reports of three people in Nigeria overdosing on the drugs, in an apparent attempt to prevent Covid-19. In response the UK's drugs watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, has now warned against using chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 symptoms or prevent infection, outside of clinical trials.
And the squirrel parrot hybrid regales us to a Maureen Dowd article, which must seem like a gem to the hybrid as they both have the same professional biases. They are both English majors of limited education and experience.
ReplyDeleteMaureen may have more money but parrot is a significant player on the world stage. I wouldn't go bragging about it since it is more by accident than design. Something seems a bit off.
The thing about people misusing hydroxychloroquine is very cute. If you OD on anything, bad things happen. It is not the fault of the drug by the cupidity of the user. Hybrid squirrel still won't be honest about this. Keep looking up those naked picture squirrel. It has done wonders for your mental health.
"Despite these concerns, US TV channel Fox News carried stories about the findings and days later, in an extraordinary intervention, President Trump took to Twitter"
ReplyDeleteConsider this. Many times a viral disease itself does not kill you but your bodies response does. Rabies is an example. This is almost common knowledge now. This is why anti-inflammatory drugs are truly game changers.
Or you could go on using your Elmers glue.