The Group of Seven (G7) nations and Australia on Friday said they had agreed a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil after European Union members overcame resistance from Poland and hammered out a political agreement earlier in the day.

The EU agreed the price after holdout Poland gave its support, paving the way for formal approval over the weekend.

The G7 and Australia said in a statement the price cap would take effect on Dec. 5 or very soon thereafter.

The nations said they anticipated that any revision of the price would include a form of grandfathering to allow compliant transactions concluded before the change.

“The Price Cap Coalition may also consider further action to ensure the effectiveness of the price cap,” the statement read. No details were immediately available on what further actions could be taken.

The price cap, a G7 idea, aims to reduce Russia’s income from selling oil, while preventing a spike in global oil prices after an EU embargo on Russian crude takes effect on Dec. 5.

Warsaw had resisted the proposed level as it examined an adjustment mechanism to keep the cap below the market price. It had pushed in EU negotiations for the cap to be as low as possible to squeeze revenues to Russia and limit Moscow’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine.

Polish Ambassador to the EU Andrzej Sados on Friday told reporters Poland had backed the EU deal, which included a mechanism to keep the oil price cap at least 5% below the market rate. U.S. officials said the deal was unprecedented and demonstrated the resolve of the coalition opposing Russia’s war.

A spokesperson for the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency and oversees EU countries’ negotiations, said it had launched the written procedure for all 27 EU countries to formally greenlight the deal, following Poland’s approval.

Details of the deal are due to be published in the EU legal journal on Sunday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the price cap would significantly reduce Russia’s revenues.

“It will help us stabilise global energy prices, benefiting emerging economies around the world,” von der Leyen said on Twitter, adding that the cap would be “adjustable over time” to react to market developments.

The G7 price cap will allow non-EU countries to continue importing seaborne Russian crude oil, but it will prohibit shipping, insurance and re-insurance companies from handling cargoes of Russian crude around the globe, unless it is sold for less than the price cap.

Because the most important shipping and insurance firms are based in G7 countries, the price cap would make it very difficult for Moscow to sell its oil for a higher price.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the cap will particularly benefit low- and medium-income countries that have borne the brunt of high energy and food prices.

“With Russia’s economy already contracting and its budget increasingly stretched thin, the price cap will immediately cut into Putin’s most important source of revenue,” Yellen said in a statement.

A senior U.S. Treasury Department official told reporters on Friday that the $60 per barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil will keep global markets well supplied while “institutionalizing” discounts created by the threat of such a limit.

The chair of the Russian lower house’s foreign affairs committee told Tass news agency on Friday the European Union was jeopardising its own energy security.

The initial G7 proposal last week was for a price cap of $65-$70 per barrel with no adjustment mechanism. Since Russian Urals crude already traded lower, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia pushed for a lower price.

Russian Urals crude traded at around $67 a barrel on Friday.

EU countries have wrangled for days over the details, with those countries adding conditions to the deal – including that the price cap will be reviewed in mid-January and every two months after that, according to diplomats and an EU document seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The document also said a 45-day transitional period would apply to vessels carrying Russian crude that was loaded before Dec. 5 and unloaded at its final destination by Jan. 19, 2023.

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If you had asked me, on Oct. 8, the day Kanye West tweeted that he wanted to go “death con 3” on Jews, how long I’d be writing about the rapper’s antisemitism, I would’ve said maybe a week. I figured that, like most public figures who have made public antisemitic statements, there would be enormous backlash — which there was — and West would feel pressured to give a halfhearted apology and shut up, and we’d all move on.

Nearly two months later, West, who legally changed his name to Ye — a seven-word phrase I’ve written more than seven times — is still making headlines every few days with increasingly bald antisemitism.

It’s exhausting to continue to watch him praise Hitler and invoke age-old antisemitic conspiracies, all while framing himself as a maverick and a truth-teller. Everyone I know is tired of hearing about West; it’s not like anything he says is surprising at this point. But it’s my duty, as a journalist, to continue to cover the rapper — right?

Maybe not. West has been repeatedly pushed off of mainstream platforms in an attempt to quell his tweets and Instagram posts about Jewish power or manipulation. But even as his deplatforming has forced him to more and more fringe platforms, none of that has shut him up, or reduced the spread of his message — because we, the media, keep covering him.

Covering extremism and conspiracy theories requires a delicate balancing act. When celebrities and public figures expose their antisemitic beliefs, it’s certainly newsworthy, and it’s important to track, call out and condemn growing extremism in an attempt to prevent mainstreaming. But any coverage of a conspiracy theory also serves to repeat it and thus, in a way, to elevate it, and spread it to a new audience.

So can we all finally shut up about Kanye West?

Is West’s antisemitism newsworthy?

West is an enormously influential figure, a titan in the music industry and — at least until companies such as Adidas and Balenciaga broke their deals with him — a wealthy business and fashion magnate. So when someone like him, with legions of fans and admirers and a massive platform, begins to spout virulent, blatant antisemitism, it’s dangerous, and definitely newsworthy.

But at this point, West has made it clear that he holds numerous antisemitic beliefs, and that he has no intention of changing his mind or educating himself on the history of the Holocaust or the dangers of conspiracy theories. We’re not learning anything new with each article about his claims. We get it.

There are plenty of people who say antisemitic things all the time. Tucker Carlson promotes the “great replacement theory” conspiracy regularly, and he has an audience of millions. Yet we don’t write an article every time, because it’s a given at this point.

“He’s been saying these things for quite some time,” said Michael Broschowitz, a visiting fellow researching antisemitism at Middlebury College’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism. “It’s like getting up in arms because David Duke said something racist. You can’t keep reporting on it.”

West is exposing more and more antisemitic views each time he speaks in public — it wasn’t until he went on Infowars that he so publicly admitted his fondness for Hitler. But it’s still not really news; we’ve known how he feels about Jews since his first tweet about that.

Still, West draws clicks. People email us and comment on our social media posts asking why we keep covering him; my friends and colleagues say they’re tired of the story. But we all keep reading — and in the attention economy that drives digital news, this makes West and his antisemitism hard to stop covering.

Repeating the conspiracy

Still, not everyone has heard the antisemitic ideas that West is sharing. And news articles that detail his tirades run the risk of exposing new audiences to dangerous ideas.

“It can expose them to something that can confirm a bias or get them looking into it,” said Broschowitz.

Broschowitz worried that many news articles didn’t fully contextualize West’s statements. “To the extent that they do, it’s ‘we need to learn about the Holocaust.’ And I’m not sure that’s a great method for teaching the particularities of antisemitism,” he said. “The problem with just talking about the Holocaust is that it doesn’t really explain what the beliefs are, where they came from, why they are politically useful.”

But even articles that do seek to provide context for conspiracy theories such as those promoted by West risk spreading them.

“A lot of the time, debunking information repeats the false information itself,” Alice Marwick, professor of media and technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told me last year when I spoke to her about online extremism.

Deplatforming

In the early days of Donald Trump’s first campaign, very few people took him seriously. Nevertheless, the media covered him, and all of his sexist comments and unhinged tweets. And he got elected.

During the 2020 election, social media platforms attempted to moderate users as they spread disinformation about COVID-19 and voter fraud. But none of them censored Trump when he spread disinformation, echoed white supremacist rhetoric and rallied his supporters to take back the government.

Facebook allows politicians to lie; Twitter allowed politicians to break its content restrictions even before Elon Musk took over and got rid of most content moderation. Anything they say is considered newsworthy, and social media companies hold that there is “significant public interest” in knowing and discussing whatever they say, however horrible — a loophole in most social media moderation policies.

It was only after a mob literally stormed the Capitol that Twitter and Facebook suspended the former president’s accounts. But it worked — once Trump left the White House, without Twitter or Facebook at his fingertips, he struggled to continue to connect with his movement.

There’s no longer a flurry of articles every time he tweets — because he couldn’t. While devout supporters continued to follow him, Trump’s attempt to start his own social media platform, Truth Social, has largely flopped, and he has ceased dominating the discourse.

Deplatforming works. White supremacist Richard Spencer, one of the featured speakers at the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, claimed he couldn’t afford a lawyer for his trial due to his deplatforming.

Even figures such as Alex Jones or Nick Fuentes, who have founded their own sites after the mainstream internet banned them for hate speech or inciting violence, have had their reach enormously curtailed. People can still seek them out, but they’re much harder to find — most people aren’t familiar with noted white supremacist hangouts.

West has been deplatformed — Elon Musk suspended his Twitter account again on Thursday. The rapper’s major partnerships have dropped him. His agent dropped him. His lawyers dropped him.

Infowars is not a mainstream outlet. West’s followers might have largely missed his statements praising Nazism and Hitler, or his conspiracies about Jewish power on various podcasts and internet talk shows, if not for the numerous news outlets that covered them — and if West fell out of headlines, his influence might begin to ebb.

What’s the point of covering him?

West’s antisemitic tirades have emboldened antisemites to speak freely. Across the country, at baseball games and highway overpasses, antisemitic groups have held signs saying “Kanye is right.”

West’s statements have shaped the conversation around antisemitism in the past two months. Educating people who might otherwise believe what West has said about Jewish power and control is essential to the journalistic mission.

But that doesn’t mean reporting every single tirade West goes on. It means writing in-depth explainers of the history of antisemitism, connecting conspiracies about Jewish power to Nazi propaganda to demonstrate why they’re harmful.

That would mean fewer articles, but better ones. It would also mean that maybe the end is in sight — maybe, soon, I’ll be able to stop writing about Kanye.

The post Can we all please shut up about Kanye West now? appeared first on The Forward.

The Democrats have picked their House leadership roles! They did it quickly, smoothly, and efficiently. That’s what a good, hardworking political party does. The Republicans, on the other hand, are in a state of chaos. And at the heart of it is the fly — Kevin McCarthy.

I call him a fly because of a poem. Some poems can be beautifully uplifting, and others can be eerie. One of my favorites from childhood is “The spider and the fly.” You have likely heard it. The first line goes: “Will you walk into my parlour?’ said the spider to the fly.”

And it never fails me make me think of Kevin McCarthy. Because, in a sense, he walked right into the spider’s web his party laid out for him. As of the time of this writing, Kevin still does not have the votes. Many reportedly don’t want him — and they’re serious.

Matt Gaetz said some in the House would “rather be waterboarded by Liz Cheney” than vote for Kevin McCarthy. Ah, Matt — he always did have a rather vulgar way with words. But the fact remains that Kevin is despised. And I want to point a few things out about this situation.

It shows the incompetence of the Republicans that they knew they might win the House and yet did not have an alternative candidate ready. Perhaps it’s mere incompetence. One would think they would have thought through the ramifications of such a decision. But this bunch does not appear to have done that.

Of course, Kevin may yet still win. There’s time. But several of Kevin’s critics, including Gaetz, appear serious. And it’s ripping the Republican spider’s web into pieces.

Conservative Host Mark Levin went crazy the other day and labeled Kevin’s critics “five boneheads.” Nice. Only there might well be more than five. I don’t know how many oppose McCarthy.

But one person who has been a bit quieter than usual is Donald Trump. Trump — Kevin’s hero. Kevin defended him on everything. And in the true spirit of non-friendship, Trump has been blissfully silent on Kevin’s nightmare struggle.

The silly little fly. Silly little Kevin. Believing that anyone gave a damn — believing he had it in the bag, that Trump would perhaps order the others to stand by him. Kevin McCarthy walked right into the web of the spider, and I must admit, it is fun watching him try to untangle himself.

The post Kevin McCarthy gets squeezed appeared first on Palmer Report.

Los Angeles County is poised to reinstate indoor mask mandates if a recent surge in COVID-19 cases continues, county public health director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday.

The average of new cases for L.A., the most populous county in the United States, rose 180 percent since November 1, bringing it to about 2,700 cases per day. Hospitalizations rose to a 192 daily average for the county of more than nine million residents. These numbers move the county’s COVID-19 activity level to “medium,” as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ferrer fears the city is on track to reach a “high” level by next week, which would trigger a mask mandate.

Wearing masks, particularly cloth masks, has little effect on the spread of COVID-19, studies show. Nearly half of parents, meanwhile, say forcing children to wear masks at school has hurt their educational, relational, and mental development, a poll found earlier this year.

Ferrer nevertheless said that masking, along with “being up to date on vaccines and boosters,” are “common-sense mitigation strategies.”

“There is this common line of thinking that the pandemic is over and COVID is no longer of concern, but these numbers clearly demonstrate that COVID is still with us,” Ferrer said.

No county in the United States mandates masking at this time.

The post Los Angeles Poised To Reinstate Indoor Mask Mandate appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) heaped praise on Democratic megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried ahead of her committee’s hearing about the collapse of the crypto mogul’s firm.

Waters asserted Friday that Bankman-Fried has been “candid” about the demise of his company, FTX. Bankman-Fried has given a series of interviews this week as part of an apparent image rehabilitation tour after FTX declared bankruptcy, wiping out billions of dollars from customers’ portfolios. Bankman-Fried has said he mismanaged the company but has denied committing fraud. Waters invited the former billionaire to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Dec. 13.

Waters’s remarks could raise concerns that lawmakers will give Bankman-Fried the kid-glove treatment as they investigate what went wrong at FTX. Bankman-Fried donated more than $40 million to Democratic groups and lawmakers during the 2022 election cycle, including $300,000 to nine members of the House Financial Services Committee, the Washington Free Beacon reported. He has also rubbed shoulders with Waters, appearing with her on a panel discussion on cryptocurrency at the Democratic Party’s retreat in Philadelphia earlier this year.

Bankman-Fried met privately with Waters prior to his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee last December. The disgraced entrepreneur praised Waters at the time, saying that her “open mind” on the issue of cryptocurrency was “heartening.”

Waters has dismissed concerns about Bankman-Fried’s extensive political donations and dodged questions last month about whether lawmakers should return his money.

Bankman-Fried’s massive political giving opened doors for him in Washington. Bankman-Fried, who contributed $5 million to a group supporting President Joe Biden in 2020, met three times with Biden advisers at the White House earlier this year. Bankman-Fried was accompanied in two of those meetings by lobbyists for FTX.

Bankman-Fried has ties to two other Democrats on the Financial Services panel. His brother, Gabriel, worked until last year as an aide to Rep. Sean Casten (D., Ill.), who serves on the committee’s Digital Assets Working Group. Bankman-Fried cohosted a fundraiser in June for Rep. Ritchie Torres (D., N.Y.), another committee member who is on the Digital Assets Working Group.

Waters’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The post House Dem Praises ‘Candid’ Crypto Kingpin Ahead of Congressional Hearing appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Taken together, they can convey the feeling of a world convulsing — 150 Associated Press images from across 2022, showing the fragments that make up our lives and freezing in time the moments that somehow, these days, seem to pass faster than ever.

Here: a man recovering items from a burning shop in Ukraine after a Russia attack. Here: people thronging the residence of the Sri Lankan president after protesters stormed it demanding his resignation. Here: medical workers trying to identify victims of a bridge collapse in India. And here: flames engulfing a chair inside a burning home as wildfires sweep across Mariposa County, Calif.

As history in 2022 unfolded and the world lurched forward — or, it seemed sometimes, in other directions — Associated Press photographers were there to bring back unforgettable images. Through their lenses, across the moments and months, the presence of chaos can seem more encircling than ever.

A year’s worth of news images can also be clarifying. To see these photographs is to channel — at least a bit — the jumbled nature of the events that come at us, whether we are participating in them or, more likely, observing them from afar. Thus do 150 individual front-row seats to history and life translate into a message: While the world may surge with disorder, the thrum of daily life in all its beauty continues to unfold in the planet’s every corner.

There is grief: Three heart-shaped balloons fly at a memorial site outside the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed by a gunman.

There is determination: Migrants in a wooden boat float across the Mediterranean sea south of an Italian island, trying to reach their destination.

There is fear: A man looks skyward over his shoulder, an expression of trepidation on his face, as he walks past homes damaged by a rocket attack in Ukraine.

There are glimpses into calamity: Villagers gather in northern Kenya, in an area stricken by climate-induced drought.

There is perseverance: A girl uses a kerosene oil lamp to attend online lessons during a power cut in the Sri Lankan capital.

Don’t be blinded by all of the violence and disarray, though, which can drown out other things but perhaps should not. Because here, too, are photos of joy and exuberance and, simply, daily human life.

A skier soaring through the air in Austria, conquering gravity for a fleeting moment. Chris Martin of the band Coldplay, singing toward the sky in Rio de Janeiro. A lone guard marching outside Buckingham Palace days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. An 8-year-old Afghan girl, her eyes locked with the camera, posing for a photo in her classroom in Kabul, days after a bombing attack at her school. Women taking a selfie at a ski resort in Lesotho.

Finally, allow a moment to consider one of those pauses in humanity’s march: a boy drenching himself in a public fountain in a heat wave-stricken Vilnius, Lithuania, reveling in the water and the sun and the simple act of just being. Even in the middle of a year of chaos on an uneasy planet, moments of tranquility manage to peek through.

— By Ted Anthony, AP National Writer