What Happened Today: October 06, 2022
Biden looks to Venezuelan oil to ease energy crisis; U.S. stockpiles radiation-exposure treatments; Army is short 15,000 recruits
The Big Story
President Biden is set to lift sanctions against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian regime as part of an effort to open up access to the nation’s vast oil reserves for the United States and Europe. The move comes on the heels of Saudi Arabia leading the group of major oil producers who make up OPEC+ in a new agreement that will slash oil production and likely lead to higher U.S. gas prices—despite aggressive efforts by U.S. officials to thwart the deal ahead of the midterm elections.
“Saudi Arabia has set OPEC on a collision course with the free world. They have sided with Russia in the name of protective oil market management,” energy consultant Bill Farren-Price told The Wall Street Journal. Intensely critical of the Saudis when it came into office, the Biden administration has more recently tried to repair that relationship amid the worsening energy crisis, but to no apparent avail. Within hours of European leaders agreeing to a U.S. campaign to cut energy prices by way of a price cap on Russian oil, OPEC announced its supply cut, concerned that the Western plan would undermine oil revenues for OPEC nations.
The easing of sanctions on Venezuela isn’t a done deal yet, as it’s contingent on Maduro resuming talks with opposition leader Juan Guaidó to negotiate terms for a fair 2024 presidential election. In 2019, Guaidó was recognized by the United States and dozens of other nations as the legitimate president, but Maduro refused to step down, which prompted the United States to levy crippling sanctions.
Easing up on Venezuela is a political gamble for the White House, as the infusion of cash could invigorate Maduro’s repressive tactics, years before the next election. That risk might be worth it, however, as Chevron would resume pumping Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, which could eventually return Venezuela to its role as one of the biggest exporters of crude oil into the U.S. market. It would also open up potential gas field projects off the shores of Venezuela that would bring significant relief to Europe as it struggles to replace Russian gas supplies before winter.
Read More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-plans-to-ease-venezuela-sanctions-enabling-chevron-to-pump-oil-11665005719 https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-plans-to-ease-venezuela-sanctions-enabling-chevron-to-pump-oil-11665005719
In the Back Pages: The 2018 Super Bowl and the Meaning of Sukkot
The Rest
→ The U.S. federal government quietly spent $290 million this week to ramp up its emergency stock of Nplate, a radiation-exposure medication. Produced by Amgen, Nplate is used to treat blood cell injuries in both kids and adults after exposure to high doses of radiation. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced its $290 million purchase of the drug as part of the agency’s Strategic Preparedness and Response campaign. Though the agency hasn’t said explicitly what the purpose of the medication would be, all signs point to the increased possibility of nuclear war as Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing diminishing prospects in Ukraine, threatens nuclear retaliation.
Read More: https://aspr.hhs.gov/newsroom/Pages/ARS-Oct2022.aspx
→ Elon Musk and Twitter are said to be nearing an 11th-hour deal ahead of their Oct. 17 court hearing, albeit the same deal they struck in hour one, according to The Wall Street Journal, with Musk agreeing to the original terms to buy the social media platform. Musk had previously tried to walk away from his accepted bid to buy Twitter before the company sued him to complete the deal. Now that Musk is poised to finally take over Twitter, analysts expect a series of shakeups under his direction, not least of which include the dismissal of the current CEO and the return of Donald Trump and other prominent right-wing figures to the platform. Musk is also expected to change—if not eliminate altogether—Twitter’s current content moderation policies, a move that is sure to cause an uproar among many Twitter employees and the American pundit class.
→ Two boats carrying migrants across the Mediterranean Sea capsized off the coasts of Greece and Turkey on Wednesday, leaving dozens missing and more than 20 people dead. Overnight search and rescue missions surveyed the area, with teams pulling survivors from the wild waters at night and helping them climb the steep cliffs to safety. Crowded with migrants from all over Africa, the boats capsized in an area that’s at the center of a bitter territorial dispute between Greece and Turkey: Each country is claiming the maritime space of the other, and Greece is accusing Turkey of allowing migrants to enter the country and then travel to Greece in retaliation.
→ Former pro football player Herschel Walker raised half a million dollars in donations to his Senate campaign, following a Daily Beast report that the GOP candidate paid for a former girlfriend’s abortion in 2009. The contributions came after Walker denied the claim in a television interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity. While The Daily Beast cited several pieces of evidence it used to verify the source’s claim, the publication kept her identity out of the story, citing concerns for her safety. “It’s sort of like everyone is anonymous, or everyone is leaking, and they want you to confess to something you have no clue about,” Walker said. National Republicans have closed ranks behind Walker in the wake of the report as the staunch anti-abortion candidate could determine who controls the Senate in the midterm election. Following Walker’s denials, his son, Christian Walker, a breakout conservative social media star, lambasted his father in several Twitter posts, calling him a liar and a hypocrite.
→ Number of the Day: 15,000
The U.S. Army’s recruiting shortfall for the year, as the Army brought in 45,000 new recruits—well short of its goal of 60,000, and this despite using enlistment bonuses and admitting late applicants. “In the Army’s most challenging recruiting year since the start of the all-volunteer force, we will only achieve 75% of our fiscal year 22 recruiting goal,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told The Associated Press. “The Army will maintain its readiness and meet all our national security requirements. If recruiting challenges persist, we will draw on the Guard and Reserve to augment active-duty forces, and may need to trim our force structure.” The causes for this dismal recruiting year are manifold, from the COVID-19 pandemic putting a pause on campus recruiting, to the more enticing offers for college aid or career growth from companies like Walmart, to the fact that only 23% of young Americans meet the fitness criteria to be admitted into the military.
→ The Washington, D.C., metro is losing $40 million a year, and maybe quite a bit more, because of rampant evasion of fares on the rail and bus system. Following a decriminalization of fare evasion in D.C. about four years ago, police significantly reduced the number of tickets handed out to those caught avoiding the fare. In 2017, roughly 15,400 people received civil or criminal charges for fare evasion. In August 2022, the total number of tickets fell short of 300. Metro authorities say part of the issue is that people can’t afford the fare, and they hope a new program providing fare credits to low-income riders will reduce evasion. Authorities also cited a plan for fortified fare gates that should make evasion more difficult.
→ Graph of the Day:
A new report from the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology tracks the changing demographics and politics of the United States’ university and college students and notes that one of the key drivers of the leftward shift on campuses is a widening gender gap and the liberal drift of female students. “Males have inched up a few points in liberalism since the mid-1980s, but females have risen from around 25% liberal in the mid-1980s to 42% in 2016,” the report notes. Similarly significant, “female students are 33 points more liberal and 27 points less conservative than women in the [general] population.”
Read More:
→ Police in Edmonton, Canada, have circulated the image of a suspect in an unsolved 2019 sexual assault case. That image, however, is not a photograph or an artist’s rendering but rather a DNA phenotype: an image created using DNA found at the crime scene to create “scientific approximations of appearance.” Critics point out that DNA phenotyping creates generalized images that are more often than not wildly imprecise and likely to lead to racial profiling of suspects. “Following consultation with community stakeholders,” the Edmonton police noted in a statement, its department “is aware of the impact this release may have on a marginalized community.” Weighing that impact against the “severity of the occurrence,” law enforcement said the risk is worth it. “Investigators believe the release of this image based on DNA evidence is required in order to further the investigation.”
→ Sixty-six children in the West African country of Gambia have died after taking cough medicines imported from India, according to the World Health Organization, leading India to begin testing those medicines for safety. On Wednesday, tests of four products manufactured by Maiden, an Indian company, had “unacceptable” amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol—chemicals commonly used for brake fluid and antifreeze but also as inexpensive alternatives for some pharmacology products. The WHO’s findings come days after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated his country’s pharmaceuticals industry for its steady supply of coronavirus drugs to Africa and much of the globe, calling India “the pharmacy of the world.”
Additional reporting and writing provided by The Scroll’s associate editor, David Sugarman
TODAY IN TABLET:
The Giant by J. Hoberman
A new exhibit showcases the work of Diane Arbus, surrealist ethnographer and the greatest portrait photographer of her generation
The Etrog’s Storied Past by Jenna Weissman Joselit
A new collection looks at the history of the fruit that Sukkot made famous
We Defeat Helplessness by Helping by Ammiel Hirsch
In a Yom Kippur sermon, asking how one person can face the many challenges of our world
SCROLL TIP LINE: Have a lead on a story or something going on in your workplace, school, congregation, or social scene that you want to tell us about? Send your tips, comments, questions, and suggestions to scroll@tabletmag.com.
The 2018 Super Bowl and the Meaning of Sukkot
How repeated failures and setbacks paved the way for NFL quarterback Nick Foles’ greatest victory
By Stu Halpern
We live in an age of ageless Toms. While one is headlining high-flying sequels, another is letting fly with touchdown passes yet again. With the football season ramping up, and Tom Brady doing his wrinkle-free thing, let’s take this Sukkot as an opportunity to remember that in 2018 he was bested by someone who was better than him at one of the holiday’s major themes: quitting.
In a result that to this day remains a head-scratcher to millions, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles led his team to a stunning victory over the heavily favored Patriots, led by Brady. Brady, of course, would go on to win two out of the next three championships, adding to his record-setting total of seven victories in the sport’s biggest night. But that February evening in 2018, Foles—a second-string quarterback who only got the ball because his team’s first choice, Carson Wentz, was injured—defeated him. Why?
The answer, pored over by sports psychologists and scholars, is surprising. It turns out that Foles had tried his hand at baseball earlier in life. And he decided he wasn’t good enough. As a teen, he dabbled in karate but came to the realization that he wasn’t exactly headed for the Olympics. He had a deep passion for basketball. He even made his high school’s varsity team as a freshman. But he realized he just wasn’t improving enough to make it to the pros. Others would’ve been dissuaded by so many failures; Foles turned them into an engine.
As journalist David Epstein notes in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, some of the most successful athletes, like Foles, are ones who have tried, and realized when to move on from, other sports. Tom Brady himself was drafted into professional baseball before football. Investing so deeply in something that doesn’t last—spending physical and emotional energy to build something up only to tear it down, making something beautiful and meaningful only to pack it away in the garage, literal or metaphorical—would be inconceivable to many people. But not to some of our greatest champions, and not to anyone who internalizes the meaning of Sukkot.
You see, for eight days, you eat and sleep in a sukkah, or hut, a rickety structure, traditionally made of small metal pipes, canvass walls, and bamboo roofing. You’ve likely asked your oldest teenager or a friend down the block to help you build it, and it’s asymmetrical, has no floor other than the grass in your yard, and is decorated by your preschooler’s school-made paper decorations (which, by the way, Jewish law says you can’t repair if they break over the holiday). It’s no one’s idea of a stable, pristine home, and that’s exactly the point. Sukkot reminds us that insecurity is constant, perfection is unattainable, and knowing when and how to move on despite all this is essential for holding on to faith.
Read the rest here:
