July 18 2024
Biden has Covid; bad Biden poll; RNC watch; Secret Service subpoena; oil boom; Afghanistan in chaos
FLASH President Biden has Covid
1 2/3 of Dems want Biden to withdraw: poll
2 RNC Watch: Vance accepts GOP VP nomination, Navarro cheered, unions switch sides?
3 House Oversight Committee subpoenas Secret Service director
4 Oil industry booms
5 Al Qaeda and Islamic State reconstituted in Afghanistan
7/18/1969 Senator Ted Kennedy drives car off bridge at Chappaquiddick Islandens
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FLASH President Biden has Covid
1 2/3 of Dems want Biden to withdraw: poll
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new poll, sharply undercutting his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him. The new survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted as Biden works to salvage his candidacy two weeks after his debate flop, also found that only about 3 in 10 Democrats are extremely or very confident that he has the mental capability to serve effectively as president, down slightly from 40% in an AP-NORC poll in February. The findings underscore the challenges the 81-year-old president faces as he tries to silence calls from within his own party to leave the race and tries to convince Democrats that he’s the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump.
Article Source: AP
2 RNC Watch: Vance accepts GOP VP nomination, Navarro cheered, unions switch sides?
J.D. Vance, a born-again MAGA zealot whom Donald Trump named as his vice-presidential pick on Monday, introduced himself to the world at the Republican National Convention. The Ohio senator, until now a relative unknown, told the crowd of his journey from poverty in Ohio to the RNC stage. He accused Joe Biden of selling out American manufacturing to China and getting only Chinese fentanyl in return, and effusively praised Mr Trump—a man he once described as “cultural heroin”. Peter Navarro, Mr Trump’s former trade adviser, got some of the day’s biggest cheers. It was not his China-bashing views that stirred the crowd, but his four-month stint in prison for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the committee investigating the riots of January 6th 2021. “I went to prison so you won’t have to,” he said from the stage, hours after his release.
Economist
Unions switch sides?
White House officials, congressional Democrats and several labor leaders say they are angry about Teamsters President Sean O’Brien’s prime-time address to the Republican National Convention on Monday night, which marked a striking departure for a powerful union that for decades has supported Democrats. In a speech closely watched by other union officials, O’Brien praised former president Donald Trump — calling him “one tough SOB” after Saturday’s assassination attempt — as well as his running mate, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, for “truly [caring] about working people.” Breaking from nearly all other speakers at the Republican convention, O’Brien did not publicly endorse Trump. He also criticized corporate greed and took pains to emphasize that he would work with any lawmaker who would support union priorities, regardless of party affiliation. But his very presence in Milwaukee — among GOP lawmakers and a former president who have pushed a policy agenda sharply at odds with that of the unions — sent shock waves through labor and Democratic circles.
WaPo
Article Source: Economist, WaPo
3 House Oversight Committee subpoenas Secret Service director
The Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee issued a subpoena Wednesday to the Secret Service director compelling her to appear before the committee on Monday for what is scheduled to be the first congressional hearing into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. And even before the first hearing Republican calls for Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign intensified Wednesday with top Republican leaders from both the House and the Senate saying she should step down. The director has said she has no intention of resigning. Rep. James Comer said initially that the Secret Service committed to her attendance but that Homeland Security officials appeared to intervene and there has been no “meaningful updates or information” shared with the committee. Comer said the “lack of transparency and failure to cooperate” with the committee called into question Cheatle’s ability to lead the Secret Service and necessitated the subpoena.
Article Source: AP
4 Oil industry booms
For all of the focus on an energy transition, the American oil industry is booming, extracting more crude than ever from the shale rock that runs beneath the ground in West Texas. After years of losing money on horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the companies that have helped the United States become the leading global oil producer have turned a financial corner and are generating robust profits. The stocks of some oil and gas companies, such as Exxon Mobil and Diamondback Energy, are at or near record levels. The industry’s revival after bruising losses during the Covid-19 pandemic is due largely to market forces, though Russia’s war in Ukraine has helped. U.S. oil prices have averaged around $80 a barrel since early 2021, compared with roughly $53 in the four years before that. That the price and demand for oil have been so strong suggests that the shift to renewable energy and electric vehicles will take longer and be more bumpy than some climate activists and world leaders once hoped.
Article Source: NYT
5 Al Qaeda and Islamic State reconstituted in Afghanistan
Taliban efforts to solidify the group’s control over Afghanistan are bringing a measure of peace and stability to its residents, but intelligence gathered by United Nations member states suggests the reprieve is not likely to last. A report issued late Wednesday by the U.N. sanctions monitoring team warns that Afghanistan will almost certainly remain a source for insecurity with terror groups like al-Qaida and Islamic State either finding safe haven or finding ways to exploit the Taliban’s weaknesses. “The country continues to be perceived as permissive or friendly territory by terrorist groups,” the report warns. “Continued Taliban tolerance of a range of terrorist groups, based across many Afghan provinces, sets the conditions for terrorism to project into neighboring States.”
Article Source: VOA
7/18/1969 Senator Ted Kennedy drives car off bridge at Chappaquiddick Island
Sources
2. https://apnews.com/article/59eebaca6989985c2bfbf4f72bdfa112
3. https://www.economist.com/in-brief/2024/07/18/biden-fights-covid-and-his-own-party; https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/07/17/teamsters-rnc-union-biden/
4. https://apnews.com/article/045449b3e8f3ab7326cb779f416f83fd
5. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/16/business/energy-environment/oil-company-profits.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
6. https://www.voanews.com/a/tenuous-taliban-control-gives-life-to-al-qaida-islamic-state/7693555.html
Thanks for reading!
