Biden taps fuel reserves to lower gas prices – National & International News – TUE 23Nov2021

Biden taps fuel reserves to lower gas prices. Wis. parade crasher tried to run woman over earlier this month. Iran nuclear stakes rising.

NATIONAL NEWS

Biden taps fuel reserves to lower gas prices

President Biden has ordered the release of 50 million barrels from the country’s strategic oil reserves in hopes of making a dent in rising gas prices. In recent months, soaring fuel costs have been one of the biggest contributors to inflation across the board. In combination with other supply chain bottlenecks, gas price hikes have fueled rising transportation and goods costs across nearly all sectors of the economy.

Multiple factors have contributed to rising fuel costs. During the early days of the pandemic, demand for fuel dropped sharply, leading to supply gluts. In response, oil producing countries lowered production, and have been hesitant to ramp production back up again now that the world’s economies are reopening. The resulting complications in fuel delivery bring it full circle, causing fuel prices to rise even more.

Fuel prices have risen sharply across the world. In some European countries, the price of gas, heating oil and other products have tripled compared with this time last year. China has recently had to slow down or even temporarily shut down production in some factories due to the resulting power shortages.

Last week, Biden also announced the release of several billion dollars in aid to help low-income families pay for winter heating and utility bills. The funds were already appropriated through February’s $1.9 trillion CARES bill.

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Wis. parade crasher tried to run a woman over earlier this month

Darrell Edward Brooks Jr, 39 of Milwaukee, killed 5 people and injured more than 40 others when he rammed his vehicle through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, WI, Sunday evening. Police have released the identities of the 5 people who lost their lives, whose ages range from 52 to 81. Several more adults and 18 children were also seriously injured and remain in hospital.

Brooks will be charged with 5 counts of intentional homicide. Witnesses say he “weaved from side to side” through the parade targeting people. Police have only said Brooks’ actions were intentional but have not released any information as to motive. Apparently, Brooks was fleeing the scene of a domestic dispute involving a knife when he rammed into the parade marchers.

Earlier this month, Brooks had been released on $1000 bail after his child’s mother claimed he had run her over at a gas station on November 5. Brooks also has a social media presence as a rapper going by the name MathBoi Fly.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

High-stakes ‘chicken’ game in Iran nuke talks

U.S. and Iranian negotiating teams are sizing each other up at renewed negotiations to restore the 2015 nuclear deal. The talks have been on hold for months following elections in Iran which brought a new hardline government to power.

UN nuclear inspectors have raised concerns about the lack of access to Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran has been demanding sanctions relief in exchange for extending access and drawing down its uranium refinement. Israel is threatening military action to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapons capabilities.

Vali Nasr, professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University, says the fears of Iran’s nuclear capabilities are being overhyped by both sides, but for different reasons. “Iran is obviously accumulating sufficient amount of enriched uranium that would allow it to build at least one bomb. But building one bomb does not make a country a nuclear power,” Nasr says. “Iran is getting closer to a threshold to have material enough for a bomb. But to actually build a bomb and have capability of delivering it, et cetera, is much farther away”.

Iran sees its nuclear program as its sole bargaining chip in its mission to get relief from crippling economic sanctions. On the U.S. and Israeli side, the threat of a nuclear Iran is a powerful rallying cry in other regional disputes. In addition to nuclear tensions, there has been an ongoing tit-for-tat between Iranian and U.S. naval forces over passage and access to the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, which the Iranian navy patrols.

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