News
CNN, – March 31, 2022
President Joe Biden on Thursday announced an unprecedented release of oil from US reserves and several steps his administration is taking to punish oil companies for not increasing production from unused leases on federal land.
The steps are an attempt to reduce gas prices while also putting an onus on oil companies to increase supply. The dramatic step, which Biden announced from the White House, confronts what has become a looming political problem months ahead of the midterm elections.
“Our prices are rising because of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s actions. There isn’t enough supply. And the bottom line is if we want lower gas prices we need to have more oil supply right now,” Biden said.
The President added: “Your family budgets to fill a tank — none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war.”
Russian forces have withdrawn from Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, the state enterprise overseeing Ukraine’s nuclear power plants said on Thursday.
“It was confirmed that the occupiers, who seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other facilities in the Exclusion Zone, marched in two columns towards the Ukrainian border with the Republic of Belarus,” said Energoatom in a statement published on Telegram.
On April 26, 1986, an explosion ripped through the No.4 reactor at Chernobyl, killing 30 people immediately. Countless others died from radiation symptoms in the years that followed
March 31, 2022
March 31, 2022
Vote counting has begun in a union election, in which an independent group formed by former and current Amazon workers is trying to organize a company warehouse in New York City, a David and Goliath scenario that could lead to the retail giant’s first unionized facility in the U.S.
Workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island will determine whether or not they want to form a union. The vote count began Thursday afternoon. It is unclear when the results will be revealed. Counting could potentially carry into Friday.
The count for a separate worker organizing effort began simultaneously Thursday in Alabama, where the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union faces a tough challenge in a re-do election to unionize Amazon workers in the city of Bessemer. The union said that election had a turnout rate of about 39 percent, with only 2,375 of the nearly 6,100 eligible workers voting through mail-in ballots. Amazon provides the list of eligible workers to the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees the process.
Politico, – March 31, 2022
When news broke last week that Virginia Thomas, known as Ginni, had texted White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, imploring him to overturn the 2020 election results to keep Donald Trump in power, it sent shockwaves through Washington, D.C.
But not quite as much so for veterans of the Trump administration.
Thomas, a conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was a familiar name among staffers in the Trump West Wing. Part gadfly, part name dropper, and a major D.C. fixture, she was known by Trump officials for sharing the names of people she wanted hired and fired by the president. Among them were friends of the couple, members of her right-wing network of activists and operatives at Groundswell, and people Thomas believed would be unfailingly loyal to Trump. She occasionally visited with Trump at the White House, officials said, and would offer words of flattery. More than anything, she was eager to help connect people in the White House with her vast conservative network, according to multiple former White House aides.
A raft of punishing sanctions sent Russia’s currency crashing in the weeks after the invasion of Ukraine. Barely a month later, the ruble has staged a dramatic recovery — putting pressure on the Biden administration and its allies to deploy even tougher measures to undercut the Kremlin’s ability to finance the war.
The Russian currency, which was trading at about 84 rubles to the dollar on Feb. 23, the day before President Vladimir Putin launched the attack, had plunged roughly 70 percent by March 7. As of Wednesday, the ruble was nearly back to its prewar level. That’s partly because a surge in oil and gas prices — commodities that were explicitly carved out of the initial sanctions — has boosted Russia’s energy revenue.
PBS NewsHour – March 31, 2022 (07:11)
