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Biden Administration Pauses Federal Permitting for Oil, Gas- Cancels Keystone

Written on . Posted in PT Global Economy.

Breitbart: The Biden Department of Interior has paused oil and gas leasing and permitting on federal lands for 60 days as part of an effort to review the program’s policy ramifications, according to an agency memo obtained by Reuters.

The move comes after a newly-sworn-in Biden signed executive orders aimed at combating climate change, including placing the U.S. back into the Paris accord and pausing oil leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Additionally, Biden has canceled the highly lucrative Keystone XL pipeline and ordered agencies to review over 100 other environment directives by the Trump administration.

The 1,700-mile (2,735-kilometer) pipeline was planned to carry roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.

“The Permit is hereby revoked,” Biden’s executive order says. “Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration’s economic and climate imperatives.”

Keystone XL President Richard Prior said over 1,000 jobs

Additionally, Biden has canceled the highly lucrative Keystone XL pipeline and ordered agencies to review over 100 other environment directives by the Trump administration.

The 1,700-mile (2,735-kilometer) pipeline was planned to carry roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.

“The Permit is hereby revoked,” Biden’s executive order says. “Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration’s economic and climate imperatives.”

Keystone XL President Richard Prior said over 1,000 jobs

Additionally, Biden has canceled the highly lucrative Keystone XL pipeline and ordered agencies to review over 100 other environment directives by the Trump administration.

The 1,700-mile (2,735-kilometer) pipeline was planned to carry roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.

“The Permit is hereby revoked,” Biden’s executive order says. “Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration’s economic and climate imperatives.”

The Strategic Importance of Keystone XL – Mother Jones

Keystone XL President Richard Prior said over 1,000 jobs the majority unionized, will be eliminated in the coming weeks. Read More

 

‘If Biden adopts Obama’s plan, there’s nothing to talk about’: Israel gears up for clash on Iran

Written on . Posted in PT Middle East.

World Israel News: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Israeli government officials are gearing up for a possible clash with newly inaugurated President Joe Biden over his promise to re-enter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal.

Netanyahu is reportedly planning meetings on strategy with the National Security Council, Defense Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Israel Defense Forces and the Mossad to discuss disrupting Iran’s nuclear program.

A senior Israeli security official didn’t mince words, telling Channel 12 News, “If Biden adopts Obama’s plan, we will have nothing to talk about with him.” Read More

Biden to reverse transgender military ban imminently, White House says

Written on . Posted in PT World Order.

NBC News: President Joe Biden will soon reverse the ban on transgender people serving openly in the military, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Wednesday.

Image: Anti-Trump protesters in Times Square

(Dozens of protesters hold “Resist” signs in New York’s Times Square near a military recruitment center to show their anger at President Donald Trump’s decision to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving in the military.)

While the reversal was not one of the 15 actions the new administration announced it would take Wednesday, Day One of the Biden presidency, Psaki said it would be among the “additional executive actions” that will be taken “in the coming days and weeks.”

Biden had previously vowed to reverse the Trump administration’s transgender military policy “on Day One” of his administration. However, his nominee for secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, is still going through the confirmation process, though it is not known whether this is the reason the reversal is not part of the president’s Day One agenda. Read More

Biden Appeared To Signal Shift On Israel After Claiming In Speech That He Would ‘Repair Our Alliances’

Written on . Posted in PT Middle East.

Daily Wire: The new Biden administration appeared to signal a shift in U.S. policy towards Israel on Wednesday immediately following Joe Biden being sworn in as the nation’s 46th president.

The Biden administration changed the name of the U.S. Ambassador to Israel’s Twitter account to state, “the official Twitter account of the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza,” which marks a shift away from the Trump administration’s pro-Israel policies.

“The change in title marks a significant shift in policy toward Israel,” The Washington Free Beacon reported. “The United States has for decades declined to take a policy position on the West Bank and Gaza territories, maintaining the Israelis and the Palestinians must decide in negotiations how the areas will be split up for a future Palestinian state.

By including Gaza and the West Bank in the ambassador’s portfolio, the Biden administration appears to be determining that neither area is part of Israel—a move that is certain to rile Israeli leaders,” the outlet continued. “The incoming administration’s move also signals that it will elevate the next ambassador’s role to include conducting direct diplomacy with Palestinian leaders, including in the Gaza Strip, where the Hamas terror group maintains control.

What drove Hamas to take on Israel? - BBC News

“This is the only ambassador tasked with conducting diplomacy in a region controlled by a U.S.-designated terror group.”

The move by Biden came just shortly after he said during his inauguration speech that he would “repair our alliances and engage with the world once again.” Israel is largely considered to be one of America’s greatest allies and the top U.S. ally in the region.

Critics immediately began pushing back on the move on social media and commentators noted that it likely signaled a shift in U.S. policy toward Israel.

Ted Cruz: Joe Biden Amnesty Would Protect Illegals at ‘Expense’ of ‘American Workers’

Written on . Posted in PT Global Economy.

Breitbart: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said in a statement Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s move to enact amnesty would protect illegal immigrants at the “expense” of “American jobs and workers.”

“It is deeply troubling that most of Joe Biden’s first acts as president were to protect illegal immigrants and encourage illegal immigration at the expense of American jobs and workers,” Cruz said after Biden announced plans to pass legislation that would provide amnesty for illegal immigrants that arrived before January 1, 2021.

DHS chief marks first section of Trump's border wall. (But it kinda looks like a fence.)

Not only has he chosen to halt construction of a wall on America’s southern border and to continue [former President] Barack Obama’s illegal executive amnesty by preserving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but he is promoting open-borders legislation that would gift citizenship to over 11 million illegal immigrants, roll back immigration enforcement, and promote and increase foreign labor at a time when many Americans desperately need work.”

“These actions illustrate that today’s Democratic Party puts people here illegally — or attempting to come here illegally — before American workers,” Cruz emphasized. Read More

Twitter States that Child Porn Video ‘Didn’t Violate Policies’

Written on . Posted in PT World Order.

Breitbart: Twitter repeatedly told the victim of child sexual abuse that a video of his ordeal circulating on the platform didn’t violate the platform’s policies, according to a lawsuit filed on the victim’s behalf by the  National Center on Sexual Exploitation.

The victim, anonymized in the lawsuit as John Doe, alleges that Twitter allowed the video of his abuse — filmed when he was 13 years old — to accumulate hundreds of thousands of views.

According to the lawsuit, Twitter only eventually complied after an agent from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) got involved with the case.

By that time, according to the allegations, the video had already accumulated over 165,000 views on the platform.

The lawsuit further states that Twitter knowingly allows pedophiles to use the platform to exchange material depicting child sex abuse, and profits from their activity, which includes use of the ads system. The lawsuit also alleges that Twitter made money from the video of the victim’s abuse. Read More

Rapid Rise in Blockchain Patent Filings in China

Written on . Posted in PT Global Economy.

Lexology: Research in blockchain technology continues to expand with Chinese companies dominating the number of patents filed for applications in 2020.

Blockchain technology has been used in financial technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), digital property, domain name registry, and supply chain management.

Chinese Companies Lead Blockchain Patent Filings for 2020

China's Central Bank Says Digital Yuan Will Not Raise Inflation | Blockchain News

In a bid to increase development in the blockchain industry, Chinese President Xi Jinping encouraged Chinese companies to intensify their blockchain-related projects. Blockchain research can require establishment of funding programs that can help small companies pursue promising projects, and local companies in China that cannot finance their own research on blockchain can tap into a $1.6-billion fund available for startups. The Xiong’An Global Blockchain Innovation Fund is partly funded by the city of Hangzhou. Innovators that want to avail of the funding can also set-up their businesses in the Blockchain Industry Park in Hangzhou.

The President’s endorsement, as well as the availability of public funds for blockchain-related projects, has been productive as it resulted in an increase in the filing of blockchain patents by Chinese companies in 2020. Read More

Israel’s COVID contagion rate drops for first time in 2 months

Written on . Posted in PT Middle East.

Israel Hayom: After a few consecutive days of over 10,000 positive COVID tests, the Health Ministry reported Thursday morning that 8,174 people had tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. Of the 93,283 tests processed in that 24-hour period, 9% came back positive, the ministry said.

In slightly more encouraging news, a report prepared by the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate said that Israel’s rate of coronavirus contagion, the number of people infected by a single confirmed carrier, has dropped below 1 for the first time in some two months, a factor that could signal that the latest outbreak of coronavirus is being checked.

Since midnight between Wednesday and Thursday, 14,620 COVID tests were process, resulting in the identification of 984 new carriers, or a positive rate of 6.7% (compared to the total 9% of all tests processed Wednesday).

As of Thursday morning there were 82,401 active of symptomatic COVID patients in Israel, 1,901 of who were hospitalized. Of the hospitalized patients, 1,132 were listed in serious condition. A total of 367 hospitalized patients were listed in critical condition, and 317 were on ventilators.

The virus or complications from the virus have killed 4,179 Israelis since the pandemic reached the country in early 2020, including 21 who succumbed on Wednesday. Read More

Activists: Biden’s Embrace of Transgender Athletes a Blow to Women’s Rights

Written on . Posted in PT World Order.

Breitbart: President-Elect Joe Biden’s promise to embrace transgender ideology will likely include supporting biological men who say their gender identity is female to compete in sports against biological women.

Attorneys representing transgender athletes and women athletes expect Biden’s Department of Education to reverse course in two lawsuits in Idaho and Connecticut that the Trump administration had backed to protect women’s rights.

The Associated Press (AP) reported on the ongoing legal battles:

Transgender athletes are getting an ally in the White House next week as they seek to participate as their identified gender in high school and college sports — although state legislatures, Congress and the courts are all expected to have their say this year, too.

Debate is also expected in statehouses. Last year, bills to restrict transgender athletes’ participation to their gender assigned at birth were brought up in 17 states, although only one, Idaho’s, became law.

It may ultimately fall to Congress to clarify once and for all whether Title IX, the civil rights law that guarantees equal opportunities for women and girls in education, protects or bars the participation of transgender females in women’s sports, said Elizabeth Sharrow, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Massachusetts. Read More

Title IX

Wall Street Declares “The Beginning Of The End Of The COVID Crisis”

Written on . Posted in PT Global Economy.

A Hero on Day 1.

One month ago, we said that the beginning of the end of the covid pandemic would mysteriously coincide with the Biden inauguration, and sure enough that’s precisely what has just happened. As BofA’s Ethan Harris writes overnight in his daily COVID news wrap, “with COVID cases falling and vaccines accelerating, this is probably the beginning of the end of the COVID crisis”, echoing similar notes from a variety of other banks published today.

What has sparked BofA’s optimism? Harris explains:

  • Renewed restrictions and the end to the holiday season seem to be bending the cases curve.
  • The vaccine rollout should continue to accelerate as new resources and effort is put into the project.
  • There is one major caveat: new more contagious strains have arrived in the US. Bending the curve

The BofA economist then argues this point with his chart of the day, which shows that the US is now clearly over the hump, with 142,000 COVID cases in the US on Monday, down 32% from the prior Monday.... the seven day average has also dropped, to 209,000, down 16% from the peak on January 8th. In another good sign, Harris notes that “testing is increasing and the share of tests that come back positive is falling” and cheerfully adds that “It seems clear that an end to the holiday season, a modest increase in restrictions and a small increase in herd immunity is bending the COVID curve.” Read More