News round-up, April, 20, 2023
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Fox News Remains an Aberration in American Journalism
“People inclined to believe that all news organizations deliberately lie to build their audience may not consider Fox’s actions to be the least bit aberrant. But if that were true, there would be a lot more trials like the one that almost happened in this case. In fact, there have been very few media trials in recent years…
NYT By David Firestone, April 19, 2023, Mr. Firestone is a member of the editorial board.Climate: EU on track to meet Paris Agreement goals
On Tuesday, the European Parliament adopted several bills reforming the European carbon market. Some environmental aspects of the Green Deal are much less advanced.
LE MONDE By Virginie Malingre(Brussels, Europe bureau), Published yesterday at 3:01 pm (Paris)Why China’s police state has a precinct near you
Recently arrested New York City Chinese “police station” operators are the tip of a global iceberg of Beijing’s overseas repression operations.
POLITICO. com By PHELIM KINE, CRISTINA GALLARDO and JOSEPH GEDEON, 04/19/2023 G7 vows more effort on renewables but sets no coal phaseout deadline
Group aims to boost its solar power capacity by 1 terawatt and offshore wind by 150 gigawatts by 2030.
POLITICO.COM BY EDDY WAX, APRIL 16, 2023Oil prices at three-week low as strong dollar, rate hikes weigh
Following a 2% fall on Wednesday, both benchmarks are at their lowest since late March, just before a surprise OPEC+ production cut announcement.
Reuters By Shadia Nasralla, Editing by Germán & coNATO chief visits wartime Ukraine ahead of counteroffensive
On St. Michael's Square in the nation's capital, Stoltenberg lay a wreath in memory of Ukrainian service members who had died while engaged in combat in the country's east and looked over captured Russian armored vehicles.
REUTERS By Gleb Garanich, EDITING by Germán & Co
Andrés Gluski, CEO of energy and utility AES CorpHow can strategic investment achieve both economic growth and social progress?… What is the role of renewable energy and battery storage in achieving the goals of the low-carbon economy?…
The AES Corporation President Andrés Gluski, Dominican Republic Minister of Industry and Commerce Victor Bisonó, and Rolando González-Bunster, CEO of InterEnergy Group, spoke at the Latin American Cities Conferences panel on "Facilitating Sustainable Investment in Strategic Sectors" on April 12 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
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Image: NYT/Drew Angerer/Editing by Germán & CoFox News Remains an Aberration in American Journalism
“People inclined to believe that all news organizations deliberately lie to build their audience may not consider Fox’s actions to be the least bit aberrant. But if that were true, there would be a lot more trials like the one that almost happened in this case. In fact, there have been very few media trials in recent years…
NYT By David Firestone, April 19, 2023, Mr. Firestone is a member of the editorial board.The decision by Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday to settle its defamation suit against Fox News is no doubt a disappointment to the many people who have been viciously demeaned and insulted by the network’s hosts over the years and who now won’t get to see those hosts writhe on the witness stand as they are forced to admit their lies. But the settlement is also a lost opportunity for the profession of journalism.
A six-week trial, especially if it ended in a victory for Dominion, could have demonstrated to the public in painstaking detail what an abject aberration Fox has become among American news organizations. In-person testimony would have illustrated what the pre-trial evidence had begun to show: that Fox hosts and executives knew full well that the conspiracy theories they peddled about the outcome of the 2020 election were false, but they broadcast them anyway to hang on to viewers who didn’t want to hear the truth. A loss by Fox, with a staggering damage award, would have demonstrated that its behavior was so exceptional and outrageous that it had to be punished.
People inclined to believe that all news organizations deliberately lie to build their audience may not consider Fox’s actions to be the least bit aberrant. But if that were true, there would be a lot more trials like the one that almost happened in this case. In fact, there have been very few media trials in recent years — usually in the single digits each year, according to one study — compared with the thousands of civil trials each year. Most defamation cases are dismissed before they ever get near a trial, in part because the plaintiff could not come close to proving a news organization met the “actual malice” standard set out in the landmark New York Times v. Sullivan case of 1964, but also often because the plaintiff couldn’t even convince the judge that the defamatory material was false. News organizations also win dismissals by persuading judges that the material at issue was a legitimate opinion or was a “fair report” of allegations made at a public meeting or trial.
Fox couldn’t persuade a judge of any of those defenses. In fact, the judge in this case, Eric Davis, ruled in March that it “is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true” — a decision that was a huge setback for Fox and may have led to its eagerness to settle the case.
Most defamation cases that are not dismissed are settled before trial, and the Dominion case essentially fits that pattern even though a jury had already been selected. But the size of the monetary settlement that Fox must pay, $787.5 million, also makes it a huge outlier. The next-largest publicly disclosed settlement of a defamation case against a major news organization was reached in 2017, when ABC News settled a case for at least $177 million. (Alex Jones, who was ordered last year to pay over $1.4 billion to families of victims in the Sandy Hook shooting, is not part of a legitimate news organization.)
Still, nothing would have compared with a full-length trial in this case and a victory for Dominion, which many legal experts said was a strong possibility. That kind of defeat for a major news organization almost never happens, and the reason is that unlike their counterparts at Fox, journalists in conventional newsrooms don’t actually plot to deceive their audiences. They might make mistakes, they might be misled by a source or cast a story in a way they later regret, but with very rare exceptions they don’t deliberately lie.
The emails and text messages demonstrating Fox’s knowing deceit, which came out in pre-trial discovery, were shocking both in their cynicism and in their deviation from industry norms. Vociferous press critics on the right and the left will scoff at this notion, but the fact is that journalists in functional newsrooms want to tell the truth. And they do so not because they fear getting sued but because that’s why they got into the business. I’ve worked for more than four decades in six American newsrooms, large and small, and the pattern of behavior shown by Fox would have been unthinkable in any of them at any time.
That’s why a loss by Fox would not have raised significant press freedom issues, nor would it have increased the threat that journalists would regularly be sued for defamation. Because of the Sullivan case, news organizations are protected from libel judgments if they do not recklessly disregard the truth or engage in actual malice, which almost all newsrooms scrupulously avoid doing. Fox, however, sped right past those red lights, got caught and then spent an enormous amount of money to avoid the stain of a potential guilty verdict and the spectacle of its chairman, Rupert Murdoch, testifying to its dysfunction. (The company again demonstrated its disdain for the truth by issuing a statement on Tuesday afternoon saying the settlement demonstrated its “commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”) A second chance at clarity is coming with a libel suit against Fox by a different voting-technology company, Smartmatic. Maybe this time the opportunity to perform a public service by conducting a trial will outweigh the temptation of a Fox settlement offer.
Image: Rep. Mike Gallagher, chair of the House Select Committee on China, said in a statement that the Chinese police outposts raise the risk of the U.S. becoming “a hunting ground for dictators.” | Alex WongWhy China’s police state has a precinct near you
Recently arrested New York City Chinese “police station” operators are the tip of a global iceberg of Beijing’s overseas repression operations.
POLITICO. com By PHELIM KINE, CRISTINA GALLARDO and JOSEPH GEDEON, 04/19/2023 Beijing has been operating an overseas police station in New York. And London. And Rome. And Tokyo. And Toronto.
The Department of Justice’s indictment of two Chinese citizens this week for using the unlawful Chinese police station in Manhattan to go after dissidents highlights the growing tentacles of Beijing’s overseas operations, which it uses to harass and silence critics around the world.
The network also shows the extent to which Beijing has managed to conduct influence campaigns inside Western countries and violate others’ sovereignty while mostly evading law enforcement.
Security agencies across Europe and the Americas are investigating more than 100 facilities that an advocacy organization exposed in September as overseas outposts of China’s security apparatus. In the U.S., that includes at least two others besides the one targeted this week.
“These secret police stations reveal the CCP’s blatant disregard and disrespect for the American rules and privacy,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of House Foreign Affairs Committee, using the abbreviation for the Chinese Communist Party. McCaul urged the Biden administration to “root out these encroachments on U.S. sovereignty.”
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select Committee on China, said in a statement Tuesday that the Chinese police outposts raise the risk of the U.S. becoming “a hunting ground for dictators.”
Here’s what we know about the network of Chinese police stations across the world:
It’s a sprawling network
The Spain-based nonprofit advocacy organization Safeguard Defenders published data from China’s Ministry of Public Security in September that revealed that Beijing had announced its “first batch” of “30 overseas police service stations in 25 cities in 21 countries.” By December, Safeguard Defender’s tally of such facilities had grown to more than 100 in countries including the U.S., Canada, Nigeria, Japan, Argentina and Spain.
The stations appear to provide civilian cover for Chinese government operations deemed too risky for official Chinese diplomats to pull off. They provide toeholds in neighborhoods with large ethnic Chinese and Asian communities — the Manhattan facility was in Chinatown — that allow those operatives to function with relative anonymity.
They’re a “perfect platform to advance operations that are favorable to Chinese government interests, including misinformation and disinformation,” said Heather McMahon, a former senior director at the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which monitors the intelligence community’s compliance with the Constitution and relevant laws. Safeguard Defenders has reported that one of the purposes of these stations has been to “persuade” Chinese citizens who are implicated in crimes to return to China.
Authorities in at least five countries have confirmed that at least some of these are indeed Chinese government operations that violate laws barring the activities of foreign police personnel inside their borders. Investigations into other outposts are ongoing in countries including the United Kingdom, Japan and the Netherlands, but there have been no arrests of individuals connected with those operations.
It’s unclear how extensive the network is and whether the Safeguard Defenders’ report — and follow-up by individual governments confirming the existence of such outposts — has prompted Beijing to scale back the program to avoid detection.
The European offensive is underway, and embattled
Revelations about dozens of unlawful Chinese police facilities in Europe prompted Italian EU Parliament member Alessandra Basso to ask the European Commission in December if there was an EU-wide strategy “to close down these police stations and put an end to their activities.” The response: EU member states are on their own in probing “any alleged violation of their laws or … internal security occurring on their territory,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement published last month.
EU governments are doing precisely that, with limited success. The German government revealed last month that Beijing was refusing to comply with Berlin’s demands for the shutdown of two unlawful Chinese police stations in the country. Greek police announced in December that they were investigating a similar operation in downtown Athens. Dutch media reported in October the existence of two unlawful Chinese police outposts, prompting denials from Beijing and a Dutch government pledge to probe those allegations. That same month the Irish government ordered the closure of a similar facility in Dublin.
But activists say that’s inadequate given the scale of the problem. Many European governments are clearly “not taking this issue seriously at all,” argued Safeguard Defenders Campaign Director Laura Harth.
Harth criticized the “absence of a strong and unified public message” from affected countries “on the illegality of these operations and the measures or investigations in place to counter these activities.”
Complicating the situation: Chinese law enforcement has legal footholds in Italy, Croatia and Serbia through deals that allow for “the stationing and deployment of Chinese police officers” in those countries. Those Chinese police deploy on joint patrols with local counterparts in areas that attract large numbers of Chinese tourists. But that declaration — signed by EU lawmakers from countries including Germany, France, Denmark and Estonia — urged EU countries to reconsider such agreements “with a country disrespecting human rights, the rule of law and democratic values.”
In the U.K., where at least three alleged Chinese police stations are reportedly operating, police investigations continue, Home Office Minister Chris Philp said Wednesday.
Alicia Kearns, a Conservative MP who chairs the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, said she is “exasperated that six months since this issue was first raised in the House, that members are still needing to ask the government why Chinese police stations are operating in at least three locations on U.K. soil.”
“These stations are a very real example of transnational repression being conducted by an authoritarian state, and the government must take action to shut down these stations immediately,” she added.
U.S. officials and policymakers have been worried about American outposts for awhile
Gallagher, the House China committee chair, held a press conference outside the now-abandoned Chinese police outpost in New York in February and warned of “at least two more on United States’ soil.” Safeguard Defenders has reported the existence of a second such facility in an unidentified location in New York City and another in Los Angeles.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate hearing in November that he was aware of such an operation in New York City and was “very concerned” about it. That culminated with the arrest Monday of Chinese nationals Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping for conspiring to act as Chinese government agents.
That same day, the Department of Justice charged 44 individuals — including 40 members of China’s Ministry of Public Security and two officials from the Cyberspace Administration of China — with “transnational repression offenses targeting U.S. residents.” Those suspects “created and used fake social media accounts to harass and intimidate PRC dissidents residing abroad and sought to suppress the dissidents’ free speech,” said a DOJ statement published Monday.
'The time to act is now': Rep. Gallagher previews first House hearing on China
It’s an issue north of the U.S. border, too
Safeguard Defenders has reported four such locations in the Toronto area, three in the Vancouver area and two more were found unlisted in the Montreal area. And allegations last month that Beijing meddled in Canada’s federal elections in 2019 and 2021 have made China’s potential malign activities in the country a hot-button issue.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have since begun a nationwide investigation into foreign interference following the report’s findings, including into the Wenzhou Friendship Society in British Columbia.
Canada, unlike the United States, doesn’t force foreign agents to register with the government. But amid growing calls for change following the recent bombshell reports of China’s alleged interference, Canada’s Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino announced that the Liberal government has started consultations running until early May to consider establishing its own registry system.
Beijing is in denial mode
Beijing denies that it operates unlawful overseas police outposts. Instead it insists it operates “service centers” where Chinese people residing abroad can “get their driver’s licenses renewed and receive physical check-ups,” the spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Washington, D.C., Liu Pengyu, said in November.
On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the U.S. allegations “slanders and smears … There are simply no so-called ‘overseas police stations.’”
The FBI is on the hunt for more such facilities
There are concerns on Capitol Hill that the existence of such outposts goes beyond just one location in Manhattan.
“Today’s arrests are only the tip of the iceberg,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) tweeted on Monday.
The FBI is clearly not stopping at the arrests of Chen and Lu in New York City’s Chinatown. The agency has a dedicated transnational repression website where the public can report such unlawful activities.
“We’re increasingly conducting outreach in order to raise awareness of how some countries harass and intimidate their own citizens living in the U.S.,” the FBI said in a statement.
And the New York City and DOJ indictments Monday suggest that the authorities are closing in on any remaining Chinese unlawful police outposts.
Christopher Johnson, a former senior China analyst at the CIA, argued that the investigations simply need to be allowed to run their course.
The U.S. government should “not overly freak out about these police stations — where we discover them we should roll them up and prosecute,” said Johnson, now the head of the China Strategies Group political risk consultancy. “But there’s no need to paint [them] as an existential threat to U.S. freedom and democracy.”
Finding and shuttering these outposts is tricky
China’s unlawful police outposts aren’t easy to find.
Beijing positions them inside what appear to be legitimate businesses or organizations that provide them a front to conduct their operations. They operate discreetly and don’t advertise their actual purpose. Members of local communities who are aware of such facilities are hesitant to contact authorities for fear of possible Chinese government reprisals against them in the U.S. or against family members in China.
“I think there are definitely more, it’s just that they’re not listed on some public website,” said Human Rights Watch senior China researcher Yaqiu Wang.
Some in Europe hope the indictments in New York will help spur more action globally.
Reinhard Bütikofer, chair of the European Parliament’s China relations delegation, said Europe should “take advantage” of the opportunity that the U.S. action in New York offers to rally democracies together and “show China its limits.”
Image: Germán & CoClimate: EU on track to meet Paris Agreement goals
On Tuesday, the European Parliament adopted several bills reforming the European carbon market. Some environmental aspects of the Green Deal are much less advanced.
LE MONDE By Virginie Malingre(Brussels, Europe bureau), Published yesterday at 3:01 pm (Paris)The European Union has taken a crucial step on its road to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. In Strasbourg, the European Parliament on Tuesday, April 18, adopted several bills at the heart of the legislative package designed to bring Europe in line with the Paris Agreement. They still need to be validated by the member states on April 25, but, barring any surprises, this should be a mere formality.
On Tuesday, MEPs first ratified the reform of the carbon market (known as "ETS" for Emissions Trading System), in which energy companies and polluting industries (cement, steel and aluminum) trade allowances to pollute. When it was created in 2005, it was decided that emissions would decrease by 43% over the course of 25 years in order to raise the price of the ton of CO2 and encourage industries to emit less. It is now agreed that they will have to have fallen by 62% between 2005 and 2030 and that free allowances will eventually disappear.
What's more, the carbon market's scope will be expanded: It will eventually cover 65% of Europe's CO2 emissions, compared to 40% today. Not only will it be extended to the maritime sector and intra-European flights, but a second carbon market, known as "ETS 2," will also be created, which will affect consumers at the pump and on their electricity bill.
Opposition of the French Greens
Fearing that Yellow Vests would take hold of all European traffic circles as they did in France over a proposed carbon tax, some MEPs and member states, including France, nevertheless obtained changes to the Commission's initial proposal.buildings and road transport fuels, but with a cap set at €45 per ton of CO2 until 2030.
"Then the Commission will have to make a new proposal," said Pascal Canfin, MEP in the Renew group and chairman of the European Parliament's environment committee, who was opposed to the Commission's proposal. He said that "the amended scheme will have no impact on the purchasing power of the French" because the price of a ton of CO2 in France is €44.60.
The French Greens and their colleagues from La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) do not see things the same way and remain opposed to the final compromise. "Nothing has been learned from the Yellow Vests movement," said Manon Aubry (LFI), president of The Left group in the European Parliament. "The French Greens were the only Greens to vote against the reform of the carbon market," pointed out Canfin.
In order to help member states support households and micro-businesses in this transition, the Europeans have decided to create a Social Climate Fund in 2026, with a budget of €86.7 billion, which will be financed mainly by the revenues of the ETS 2.
'The first climate-neutral continent'
On Tuesday, MEPs also gave the green light for the carbon border tax starting in 2026, which will subject the most polluting imported products to a levy if they are not manufactured under the same environmental conditions as their European competitors. This unprecedented measure, which France has been calling for for a very long time – President Jacques Chirac (1995-2007) supported such a project – will provide European manufacturers and energy companies with the conditions for fair competition.
"Together, we will make Europe the first climate-neutral continent," said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen again on Tuesday. One thing is certain: The Europeans have shown a rare speed in fulfilling their commitment to the Paris Agreement. In less than two years, they have almost completed the legislative package presented by the Commission on July 14, 2021.
Of the 14 legislative proposals, 12 have now been adopted or are in the process of being adopted. Others are on the way: the development of renewable energies, a country-by-country description of the energy savings to be made by various sectors, and the phasing out of internal combustion engines for cars.
Ultimately, only the reform of energy taxation, which requires a unanimous vote by the 27 member states, is likely be left on the drawing board. "We have raised the level of ambition. The legislative package being adopted will allow us to reduce CO2 emissions by 57% by 2030, when the Commission was counting on a drop of at least 55%," said Canfin.
Devices dedicated to the environment
However, these bills, which focus on the fight against global warming, are only part of the European Green Deal, which brings together some 50 draft directives and regulations. The Commission's more recent proposals to improve the energy performance of buildings and to end the use of internal combustion engines in buses and trucks should also reduce CO2 emissions. The U-turn made by Germany, which, after having validated the end of combustion engines for cars in 2035, went back on its commitments before changing its mind once again, shows the sensitivity of these issues.
The Commission has also provided for a series of measures devoted to the environment, to fight against pollution and the decline in biodiversity. Some – such as legislation on nature restoration, air quality, animal welfare and packaging – are still under negotiation in the European Parliament and the Council. Others – on soil health, waste and the revision of the chemicals regulation (Reach) – are being written at the Commission. "We still have a mountain to climb," said the deputy director of the Commission's directorate-general for environment, Patrick Child, on March 22.
Several of these bills concerning agriculture, livestock and fisheries are particularly difficult to negotiate at the moment. "For these sectors, the debate remains very polarized. We have been able to make progress on the decarbonization of industry, energy and transport because we have been able to find a path with the economic actors concerned, a common roadmap," said Canfin.
Systematic obstruction
But that is not all. In the European Parliament, the conservatives in the European People's Party (EPP) are putting up more and more resistance. They argue that the war in Ukraine and the accompanying inflationary context justify a moratorium on a series of legislative projects. Some conservatives, led by the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Spanish People's Party (PP), are even systematically obstructing.
"The EPP's political project is to unite the right" with the far right, said Stéphane Séjourné, president of the liberal group Renew, on Tuesday. This weakens von der Leyen's parliamentary majority, which was built around the EPP, the Social Democrats (S&D) and Renew, and reduces its ability to adopt ambitious reforms on the environment.
This is especially true as the window of opportunity is narrowing, with the European elections, scheduled for May 2024, approaching. "Some member states may be tempted to delay negotiations and wait for the election of the next Parliament, in the hope that it will be less favorable to environmental protection," Spanish Socialist MEP Javi Lopez told the website Contexte on 22 March. The next few weeks will be crucial in this respect.
Seaboard: pioneers in power generation in the country
…Armando Rodríguez, vice-president and executive director of the company, talks to us about their projects in the DR, where they have been operating for 32 years.
More than 32 years ago, back in January 1990, Seaboard began operations as the first independent power producer (IPP) in the Dominican Republic. They became pioneers in the electricity market by way of the commercial operations of Estrella del Norte, a 40MW floating power generation plant and the first of three built for Seaboard by Wärtsilä.
Image: POLITICO.COM, Editing by Germán & CoG7 vows more effort on renewables but sets no coal phaseout deadline
Group aims to boost its solar power capacity by 1 terawatt and offshore wind by 150 gigawatts by 2030.
POLITICO.COM BY EDDY WAX, APRIL 16, 2023The Group of Seven richest countries set higher 2030 targets for generating renewable energy, amid an energy crisis provoked by Russia's war on Ukraine, but they set no deadline to phase out coal-fired power plants.
At a meeting hosted by Japan, ministers from Japan, the U.S., Canada, Italy, France, Germany and the U.K. reaffirmed their commitment to reach zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century, and said they aimed to collectively increase solar power capacity by 1 terawatt and offshore wind by 150 gigawatts by the end of this decade.
"The G7 contributes to expanding renewable energy globally and bringing down costs by strengthening capacity including through a collective increase in offshore wind capacity ... and a collective increase of solar ...," the energy and environment ministers said in a 36-page communiqué issued after the two-day meeting.
"In the midst of an unprecedented energy crisis, it's important to come up with measures to tackle climate change and promote energy security at the same time," Japanese industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told a news conference, according to Reuters.
The ministers' statement also condemned Russia's "illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked" invasion of Ukraine and its "devastating" impact on the environment. The ministers vowed to support a green recovery and reconstruction in Ukraine.
They also published a five-point plan for securing access to critical raw materials that will be crucial for the green transition.
Before the meeting, Japan was facing criticism from green groups over its push to keep the door open to continued investments in natural gas, a fossil fuel. The final agreed text said such investments "can be appropriate" to deal with the crisis if they are consistent with climate objectives.
The ministers' meeting in the northern city of Sapporo comes just over a month before a G7 leaders' summit in Hiroshima.
Crude oil storage tanks are seen in an aerial photograph at the Cushing oil hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, U.S. April 21, 2020. REUTERS/Drone Base/Editing by Germán & CoOil prices at three-week low as strong dollar, rate hikes weigh
Following a 2% fall on Wednesday, both benchmarks are at their lowest since late March, just before a surprise OPEC+ production cut announcement.
Reuters By Shadia Nasralla, Editing by Germán & coTOKYO, April 20 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell to their lowest in about three weeks on Thursday, depressed by a firmer dollar and rate hike expectations which outweighed lower U.S. crude stocks.
Brent crude futures were down $1.12, or 1.4%, to trade at $82.00 a barrel at 0819 GMT. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) futures dropped $1.02, or 1.3%, to $78.14 a barrel.
Both benchmarks, following a 2% fall on Wednesday, are at their lowest since late March, just before a surprise OPEC+ production cut announcement, although not all gains from that move have been wiped out yet.
The U.S. dollar index has moved up around 0.3% this week so far, on course for its strongest week since late February. A strengthening greenback makes oil more expensive for holders of other currencies.
U.S. economic activity was little changed in recent weeks, according to a Federal Reserve report.
Fed policymakers have signalled they are nearing the end of what has been the most aggressive spate of policy tightening in 40 years, with most pencilling one last quarter-percentage-point hike.
On the other side of the Atlantic, persistent double-digit inflation in Britain has bolstered expectations of a further Bank of England rate hike.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 4.6 million barrels as refinery runs and exports rose, while gasoline inventories jumped unexpectedly on disappointing demand, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). ,
The crude stockpile decline was far steeper than analysts' and the American Petroleum Institute's estimates.
On the supply side, oil loading from Russia's western ports in April is likely to rise to the highest since 2019, despite Moscow's pledge to cut output, trading and shipping sources said.
Pakistan has placed its first order for discounted Russian crude under a new deal which could cover 100,000 barrels per day, the country's petroleum minister said.
Image: Germán & CoCooperate with objective and ethical thinking…
Image: REUTERS/Christian Mang/Editing by Germán & CoNATO chief visits wartime Ukraine ahead of counteroffensive
On St. Michael's Square in the nation's capital, Stoltenberg lay a wreath in memory of Ukrainian service members who had died while engaged in combat in the country's east and looked over captured Russian armored vehicles.
REUTERS By Gleb Garanich, EDITING by Germán & Co[1/5] NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg visits the Wall of Remembrance to pay tribute to killed Ukrainian soldiers, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 20, 2023. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
KYIV, April 20 (Reuters) - NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg visited Kyiv on Thursday for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion, showing the military alliance's support for Ukraine as it prepares to launch a counteroffensive.
Stoltenberg laid a wreathe to honour Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed fighting in the east of the country, and reviewed captured Russian armoured vehicles on the capital's St Michael's Square.
Ukrainian leaders and NATO officials did not immediately make any announcements about the trip. Wartime visits by foreign officials are often shrouded in secrecy but top leaders visiting Kyiv often hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Stoltenberg began his unannounced trip at a vital juncture in Russia's almost 14-month-old invasion which has killed thousands, uprooted millions, destroyed cities and devastated the Ukrainian economy.
After weathering a Russian winter and spring offensive that has made only small advances in the east, Ukraine now hopes to retake land in its south and east in a counteroffensive in the coming weeks or months.
After paying his respects to Ukrainian soldiers, the NATO secretary-general got into a car and drove off after the event, a Reuters photographer said.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has supported Ukraine throughout the war, with member states sending weapons but not fighting troops. Kyiv has repeatedly called for more weapons from its allies.
Ukraine sees its future in the alliance and last September announced a bid for fast-track membership after the Kremlin said it had have annexed four Ukrainian regions that its troops have partially occupied.
Moscow regards NATO as a hostile military bloc bent on encroaching on what it sees as its sphere of influence. Ukraine gained independence from the Russia-led Soviet Union in 1991.
Russia did not immediately comment on Stoltenberg's visit.