Victoria Fox's Blog, page 250

Lamar Odom Invests in Rehab Centers 7 Years After Overdose

Lamar Odom is hoping to help others with their own sobriety journeys.

The former NBA star, who’s been open about his past struggles with substance abuse, has launched Odom Wellness Treatment Centers, a collection of facilities in Southern California that offer rehabilitation programs for those struggling with addiction, according to its website.

On April 3, Odom posted a photo of himself alongside his partners and staff at one of his three treatment centers. “So Blessed,” he captioned the image. “God saved me, so I can save others.”

The endeavor comes more than seven years after Odom’s near-fatal overdose at a Nevada brothel in 2015. The harrowing ordeal—during which Odom suffered a number of health issues, including kidney failure—led him to get sober.

“When God had saved me from that accident, I was trying to find my purpose—and I think I may have found it,” he explained of his decision to invest in the facilities during a recent appearance on TMZ Live. “I know I have found it.”

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Mod Sun Shares What “Saved” His Life After Avril Lavigne Breakup

Mod Sun is showing gratitude to his fanbase.

The “Karma” singer, who parted ways from Avril Lavigne in February after almost one year of being engaged, shared a message of thankfulness toward his fans during his April 2 performance at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles.

“Ya’ll f–king saved my goddamn life for the last six weeks,” Mod Sun said onstage, as seen in a video published by TMZ. “If any of y’all are going through some s–t right now, whether it be heartbreak, depression, addiction, anxiety, maybe you just have a negative voice in your head right now, I want you to know the one thing I have learned in the last almost four years: Do not be afraid to ask for help.” 

The 36-year-old added at the time, “So, thank you for helping me. It’s time for a new chapter.”

Mod Sun and Avril first met in 2020 before getting engaged in March 2022. Despite their original plans to walk down the aisle, Avril’s rep confirmed to E! News Feb. 21 that the former couple had broken up.

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Model SouKeyna Diouf turns her influence to health care

During THE time SouKeyna Diouf was studying biochemistry at Howard University ― and volunteering at hospitals in Senegal in the meantime ― she found that people really took an interest in her articles on beauty and fashion. A proponent of inclusion in the world of beauty, she examined what it really meant to see beauty outside of what the western world perpetuated. As her audience grew, she began thinking about how she could use her platform to direct resources towards a cause she already considered her life’s work.

“When we think of role models, we think of body types we aspire to have or certain physical characteristics we aspire to have,” said Diouf, a Senegalese-American model and public health advocate. “People give so much attention to those they look up to. What if everyone who had all that attention used it to channel attention to something much more important?”

Diouf feels energized by the changing role of models and influencers. Could we really go from just selling products and perpetuating westernized beauty standards to becoming agents of change where it really matters, she wondered?

At the start of the pandemic, United Nations Global Health Advocate began partnering more intentionally with brands, especially those that supported her in the fight to eradicate malaria, a deadly disease that can be prevented and treated but persists, especially in developing countries. Malaria advocacy has been her mission since she contracted it as a teenager after failing to use a bed net at night. “This net can literally be the difference between life and death for some people,” Diouf said.

Diouf recently participated in Hourglass Cosmetics’ Impact Day campaign, which donated a portion of the company’s earnings to organizations championed by its models. One of them is United to defeat malariaan initiative that provides mosquito nets and other life-saving supplies to communities in need.

Diouf remembers very well the fear that gnawed at her when she had malaria. Her health declined so rapidly that she said her last goodbyes to her family, she told me. “I am already relatively small, but I lost a lot more weight in the span of a week. I could see my ribs,” she said. She only had a robust recovery thanks to his access to good health care.The turbulent experience made him reflect on those who do not have that access.

The disease, transmitted by the bites of infected mosquitoes, once existed everywhere, but has been largely eradicated in the United States and other regions thanks to advances in sanitation and medicine. In 2021, the World Health Organization reported 247 million cases of the disease worldwide. Of these cases, 95% originated from parts of Africa. There have been 620,000 reported malaria deaths this year – and likely many more that have gone unreported. Many of those who survive the disease have severe cases that are both devastating and upsetting.

“It infuriates me. We have effectively eradicated malaria in places like the United States. Why is it still endemic in places like where I come from?” asks Diouf.

Of course, the simplest answer is privilege. The journey to dismantling white supremacist systems is different for every activist. For Diouf, it’s not just about tackling colorism in the beauty industry, but about shedding light on global health disparities. And it can be as simple as killing a red lip with a powerful message behind the look.

And so Diouf wants to work in her lane to encourage the fashion and beauty industries to actively engage with individuals from all demographics. She wants to see structurally marginalized communities in print ads, of course. But she also wants to be part of conversations about social issues like disparity in health outcomes and access.

“I had malaria and you can relate to me. I think eliminating all the ways we’re different…naturally increases empathy,” Diouf said. “And if we increase empathy, all the changes we want to see in the world will definitely happen.”

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Nashville school shooter plotted attack for months, according to newspapers found by police | American News

The assailant who shot six people at a Nashville school had been planning the massacre for months, police said.

Diaries found in Audrey Hale’s car and bedroom described plans to “commit mass murder at the Covenant School”, the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department said.

Three adults and three nine-year-old students were killed in the shootout at the private Christian school on March 27.

Police said Hale “considered the actions of other mass murderers” but did not yet establish a motive.

The writings remain “under close scrutiny,” the police department said.

Hale – a former student of the school – fired a total of 152 rounds during the incident, including 126 rifle rounds and 26 nine-millimeter rounds, before being killed by police.

Picture:
Tributes left outside the Covenant School. Photo: AP

THE three children who were killed in the shooting were Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney.

School principal Katherine Koonce, 60, Mike Hill, 61, and 61-year-old substitute teacher Cynthia Peak were also killed.

On Monday, Nashville students walked out of class to protest gun violence at the Tennessee Capitol. Parents and children have already marched to the Capitol on March 30, holding signs such as “Going to school shouldn’t be a death sentence.”

Picture:
Victim Evelyn Dieckhaus
Picture:
Hallie Scrugg

Bill Lee, the Governor of Tennessee, also unveiled proposals to allocate enough funds to place a school resource officer in every public school, as well as to strengthen safety in school buildings and strengthen mental health resources. .

His announcement on Monday marked the governor’s first public address since the shooting.

Learn more:
TV star helped children flee Nashville shooting
A video shows that the attacker was shot dead
What we know about the killer Audrey Hale

Picture:
Demonstration at the State Capitol on March 30. Photo: AP

Police said Hale was under a doctor’s care for an undisclosed “emotional disorder,” but did not say there was a connection between the medical care and the shooting.

In preparation for filming, Averianna Patton, a former Hale basketball teammate said the 28-year-old sent her Instagram messages in which they talked about not wanting to live anymore and said their family did not know what they were about to do.

Ms Patton said she saw the messages at 9.57am (3.57pm UK time) on Monday, less than 20 minutes before police said they had been informed of an attack at the Covenant School.

In their final message, Hale said something bad was about to happen and asked for forgiveness.

Social media accounts and other sources indicate that Hale has identified as a transgender man.

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Credit Suisse-UBS deal offers hope, but banking doubts persist

LONDON — Shares of Credit Suisse plunged on Monday after Swiss authorities struck a deal with biggest rival UBS to acquire the troubled bank at a cut price. But European bank stocks and the broader market gained ground as investors watch whether bank consolidation measures will stem further turmoil in the global financial system.

Shares of Credit Suisse, whose woes stem from questions over its internal controls, closed down nearly 56% a day after UBS announced it would buy its Swiss bank for a low price of 3 billion francs Swiss ($3.25 billion). Stocks are trading roughly at the level at which they are valued in the trade.

Swiss regulators orchestrated the purchase in a bid to stop further unrest after two US banks collapsed. In an indication of frantic behind-the-scenes negotiation to resolve the issue before markets open, the acquisition was announced on Sunday evening.

There are still uncertainties about how the deal will play out for the combined lender and what comes next for the wider banking system. Analysts say some previous forced bank mergers haven’t worked out well for long-term shareholders.

It may be that no banks are in trouble anymore, but it’s also possible that “we’re just going from one weak institution to another,” said Vicky Redwood, senior economic adviser at Capital Economics.

There are no other obvious candidates that could be singled out like Credit Suisse, but it’s “difficult to predict where the problems will emerge,” she said.

UBS shares initially fell on the Swiss stock exchange but closed up 1.3%. The deal mowed down other European banking stocks, which fell before some recouped their losses. German Deutsche Bank, French BNP Paribas and Italian UniCredit ended higher, while London-based Barclays fell 2.3%.

Swiss authorities have urged UBS to take over its smaller rival after a central bank plan for Credit Suisse to borrow up to 50 billion francs ($54 billion) last week did not reassure investors and customers.

Many of Credit Suisse’s problems were unique and different from the weaknesses that brought down Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in the United States, including high interest rates. These US failures have raised questions about other potentially weak global financial institutions, sweeping the already beleaguered Swiss bank.

Credit Suisse has faced a series of problems in recent years, including bad bets on hedge funds, repeated changes in its management and a spy scandal involving UBS.

Analysts and financial executives say collateral is stronger since the 2008 global financial crisis and banks around the world have ample liquidity and central bank support. But worries about the risks of the deal, some investors’ losses and Credit Suisse’s falling market value could reignite fears about the banks’ health.

Tobias Straumann, professor of economic history at the University of Zurich, said the merger was the right move as the US bank is collapsing and the danger for Credit Suisse was “an international banking crisis in the making”.

“The markets are very nervous, and I think an additional accident in Switzerland would have fueled a lot of problems,” he said.

Credit Suisse is among 30 financial institutions known as global systemically important banks, and officials were worried about the fallout if it failed.

UBS is bigger but Credit Suisse wields considerable influence, with $1.4 trillion in assets under management. It has major trading desks around the world, caters to the wealthy through its wealth management business and is a prominent M&A adviser. However, Credit Suisse weathered the 2008 financial crisis unaided, unlike UBS.

As part of the deal, around 16 billion francs ($17.3 billion) of junk Credit Suisse bonds will be wiped out, leaving investors to suffer heavy losses. Lawyers were already circling, considering possible legal action seeking compensation for bondholders amid concerns about the bond market and other banks holding them.

The combination of the two Swiss banks, each with histories dating back to the mid-19th century, is damaging the country’s reputation as a global financial center, putting it on the verge of having a single large national bank that would be too big for going bankrupt.

Some customers were caught off guard by the turmoil, belying Switzerland’s reputation as a stable banking haven.

Sahil Dua, an Indian software engineer living in Zurich, has a UBS account but opened one at Credit Suisse last Tuesday, the same day the lender flagged “material weaknesses” in internal financial controls that ultimately helped trigger its downward spiral.

“My impression as a customer,” Dua said, “that at least these two banks would be fine no matter what.”

Dua said he wanted the credit card that came with the Credit Suisse account and was considering changing his main bank account and bringing in his savings from UBS. No more.

He has an account at Credit Suisse “with a zero balance, and I’m glad it’s still zero because I haven’t added any money to it yet.” In the future, he plans to spread his money over more than one bank.

“I’m going to look at diversification more seriously now,” Dua said.

As the market tries to figure out what comes next after the merger, Straumann, the professor, said he would not be surprised to see problems for regional banks in Europe after further interest rate hikes, a much like what happened with medium-sized banks in the United States.

“The European banking system has not fully recovered from the crisis” of 2008, he said. “It’s better, of course, than before, but it’s vulnerable.”

___

Associated Press writers Courtney Bonnell in London and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany contributed.

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Seymour Stein, record executive who signed Madonna, dead at 80: NPR

Seymour Stein accepts his award at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Monday, March 14, 2005, in New York City.

Julie Jacobson/AP

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Julie Jacobson/AP

Seymour Stein accepts his award at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Monday, March 14, 2005, in New York City.

Julie Jacobson/AP

NEW YORK — Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launch the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others, died Sunday at the age of 80.

Stein, who helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and was himself a Rock Hall inductee in 2005, died of cancer in Los Angeles, according to a statement from his family.

Born in 1942, Stein was a New York native who as a teenager worked summers at Cincinnati-based King Records, the label of James Brown, and by his mid-twenties had co-founded Sire Productions, which would soon become Sire Records.

Obsessed with the Billboard music charts since childhood, he was known for his deep knowledge and appreciation of music and would prove a shrewd judge of talent during the 1970s New Wave era, a term he coined. helped popularize it, signing record deals with Talking Heads, the Ramones and the Suitors.

“Seymour’s musical tastes are always a few years ahead of everyone else’s,” Talking Heads manager Gary Kurfirst said at Rock Hall around the time of Stein’s induction.

His most lucrative discovery came in the early 1980s, when he heard the demo tape of a little-known singer-dancer from the downtown New York club scene, Madonna.

“I liked Madonna’s voice, I liked the feel and I liked Madonna’s name. I liked everything and I played it again,” he wrote in his memoir “Siren Song”, released in 2018, the same year he retired. Stein was hospitalized with a heart infection when he first heard of Madonna, but was so eager to meet her that he had her brought to his room.

“She was all dressed up in cheap punky gear, the kind of club kid who looked absurdly out of place on a heart ward,” he wrote. “She wasn’t even interested in hearing me explain how much I liked her demo. ‘The thing to do now,’ she said, ‘is to sign me a recording contract.’”

Sire artists also included Ice T, the Smiths, Depeche Mode, the Replacements and Echo and the Bunnymen, as well as the more established Lou Reed and Brian Wilson, who recorded with Sire later in their career.

Stein was briefly married to record promoter and real estate executive Linda Adler, with whom he had two children: filmmaker Mandy Stein and Samantha Lee Jacobs, who died of brain cancer in 2013. Sidney Stein and his wife divorced in the 1970s and years later he came out as gay.

“I am beyond grateful for every minute our family spent with him, and that the music he brought to the world had a positive impact on the lives of so many people,” Mandy Stein said in a statement Sunday. .

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Big Tech lobbyists are stuck in the UK’s landmark competition bill – POLITICO

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Expressed by artificial intelligence.

LONDON — As the UK prepares to overhaul its competition regime, a fierce lobbying battle has erupted between the world’s biggest tech companies and their challengers.

Ministers are preparing to publish new competition legislation at the end of April, giving regulators more power to prevent a handful of companies from dominating digital markets.

But concern over the influence of US tech giants in Westminster has prompted ministers close to the bill to warn that the new legislation could be watered down.

Two ministers have expressed concern that Big Tech companies are seeking to weaken the appeals process for decisions made by the country’s beefed-up competition regulator, according to multiple people who were present at those talks or whose organizations there. were represented. They requested anonymity to discuss private meetings.

One MP said a minister had also approached them to raise concerns, while at an industry roundtable two ministers raised concerns about Big Tech companies trying to influence the appeal mechanism.

An industry representative said, “There’s been a lot of lobbying from Big Tech, but I don’t know if they’ll be successful.”

Call who?

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Affairs Bill will give new powers to a branch of the Competition and Markets Authority called the Digital Markets Unit (DMU). Under this plan, the DMU will be able to fine a company 10% of its annual turnover for violating a code of conduct.

The code, which has not yet been published, would be designed to ensure that a company with “strategic market status” cannot “unfairly use its market power and strategic position to distort or undermine competition between users of the company’s services”. the government said.

Jonathan Jones, senior public law consultant at Linklaters and former head of the UK government’s legal department, wrote that the plan would have “very significant consequences” for Big Tech companies and could force them to “significantly change” their business models.

One of Big Tech’s concerns is that the bill will only allow companies to appeal decisions made by the DMU on whether or not the correct process was followed, known as the standard of judicial review. rather than the content or merit of the decision. This puts it in line with other regulators and should mean the process is faster, but it also makes it harder to appeal decisions.

Big Tech companies want to be able to appeal on “merit”, arguing that it is unfair that they cannot challenge whether a DMU decision was correct or not. They also argue that it will not necessarily be slower than the standard of judicial review.

One of the biggest fears of midsize businesses is that the biggest tech companies will use strategies to lengthen the appeal process or even delay the entire bill | iStock

Technology Minister Paul Scully, who is responsible for the bill, told POLITICO: “We want to make sure the legislation is flexible, proportionate and fair for big business and challengers. Any corrective action must be put in place quickly because digital markets are changing rapidly. »

A representative from a mid-sized tech company said, “This is the fundamental point of contention and it will determine whether the bill works for SMBs and challengers against Big Tech.

“The fear is that big companies with big lawyers will figure out how to handle themselves (during the appeals process) so that they maintain their edge in the market for years. We also heard from ministers expressing these concerns.

Consumer group Which? also urges the government to maintain its proposed appeal system. “For the DMU to work effectively, the government needs to stick to its guns and ensure that the decisions it makes are not tied to a lengthy appeals process,” said policy director Rocio. Concha.

“Investigator and Executioner”

But Jones argued the bill would make the DMU too powerful.

“The DMU will have the power to decide who it will regulate, set the rules that apply to them, and then enforce those rules,” he wrote. “That makes the DMU a legislator, investigator and executioner.”

On the appeal method, Jones argued that it is “simplistic” to think that the government’s proposed appeal standard would be faster than a merit-based standard.

Ben Greenstone, managing director of technology policy consultancy Taso Advisory, said: “I can understand the argument from both sides. The biggest tech companies have an incentive to oppose this, but I suspect the government will keep the appeals process as it is, as it keeps it in line with the broader competition regime.

However, he added that the bill would work better if some kind of compromise could be found with the biggest tech companies.

The International Playbook

One of the biggest fears of midsize companies is that the biggest tech companies will use strategies already proven overseas to lengthen the appeal process or even delay the entire bill.

In the United States, the Open App Markets Act failed to pass after huge lobbying expenditures.

Rick VanMeter, executive director of the Coalition for App Fairness, which is based in the US but has UK members, said: “In the US, we have learned that these guardians of mobile apps will stop at nothing to preserve the status quo and squash their contest.

“To succeed, policymakers everywhere must see through the efforts of these gatekeepers for what they are: selfish attempts to retain market power.”

Google and Microsoft declined to comment. Apple did not respond.

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Seymour Stein, the record executive who signed Madonna, is dead at 80

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Seymour Stein accepts his award during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Monday, March 14, 2005, in New York. Julie Jacobson/AP

Julie Jacobson/AP

NEW YORK — Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launched the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others, died Sunday at age 80.

Stein, who helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and was himself inducted into the Rock Hall in 2005, died of cancer in Los Angeles, according to a statement by his family.

Born in 1942, Stein was a New York City native who as a teenager worked summers at Cincinnati-based King Records, James Brown’s label, and by his mid-20s had co-founded Sire Productions, soon to become Sire Records.

Obsessed with the Billboard music charts since childhood, he was known for his deep knowledge and appreciation of music and would prove an astute judge of talent during the 1970s era of New Wave, a term he helped popularize, signing record deals with Talking Heads, the Ramones and the Pretenders.

“Seymour’s taste in music is always a couple of years ahead of everyone else’s,” Talking Heads manager Gary Kurfirst told the Rock Hall around the time of Stein’s induction.

His most lucrative discovery happened in the early 1980s, when he heard the demo tape of a little known singer-dancer from the downtown New York club scene, Madonna.

“I liked Madonna’s voice, I liked the feel, and I liked the name Madonna. I liked it all and played it again,” he wrote in his memoir “Siren Song,” published in 2018, the same year he retired. Stein was hospitalized with a heart infection when he first learned of Madonna, but was so eager to meet that he had her brought to his room.

“She was all dolled up in cheap punky gear, the kind of club kid who looked absurdly out of place in a cardiac ward,” he wrote. “She wasn’t even interested in hearing me explain how much I liked her demo. ‘The thing to do now,’ she said, ‘is sign me to a record deal.'”

Sire artists also included Ice T, the Smiths, Depeche Mode, the Replacements and Echo and the Bunnymen, along with the more-established Lou Reed and Brian Wilson, who recorded with Sire later in their careers.

Stein was married briefly to record promoter and real estate executive Linda Adler, with whom he had two children: filmmaker Mandy Stein and Samantha Lee Jacobs, who died of brain cancer in 2013. Sidney Stein and his wife divorced in the 1970s and years later he came out as gay.

“I am beyond grateful for every minute our family spent with him, and that the music he brought to the world impacted so many people’s lives in a positive way,” Mandy Stein said in a statement Sunday.

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Saudis, other oil giants announce surprise production cuts

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Saudi Aramco engineers walk in front of a gas turbine generator at Khurais oil field during a tour for journalists, 150 kilometers (about 93 miles) east-northeast of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 28, 2021. Amr Nabil/AP

Amr Nabil/AP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers on Sunday announced surprise cuts totaling up to 1.15 million barrels per day from May until the end of the year, a move that could raise prices worldwide.

Higher oil prices would help fill Russian President Vladimir Putin’s coffers as his country wages war on Ukraine and force Americans and others to pay even more at the pump amid worldwide inflation.

It was also likely to further strain ties with the United States, which has called on Saudi Arabia and other allies to increase production as it tries to bring prices down and squeeze Russia’s finances.

The production cuts alone could push U.S. gasoline prices up by roughly 26 cents per gallon, in addition to the usual increase that comes when refineries change the gasoline blend during the summer driving season, said Kevin Book, managing director of Clearview Energy Partners LLC. The Energy Department calculates the seasonal increase at an average of 32 cents per gallon, Book said.

So with an average U.S. price now at roughly $3.50 per gallon of regular, according to AAA, that could mean gasoline over $4 per gallon during the summer.

However, Book said there are a number of complex variables in oil and gas prices. The size of each country’s production cut depends on the baseline production number it is using, so the cut might not be 1.15 million. It also could take much of the year for the cuts to take effect. Demand could fall if the U.S. enters a recession caused by the banking crisis. But it also could increase during the summer as more people travel.

Even though the production cut is only about 1% of the roughly 100 million barrels of oil the world uses per day, the impact on prices could be big, Book said.

“It’s a big deal because of the way oil prices work,” he said. “You are in a market that is relatively balanced. You take a small amount away, depending on what demand does, you could have a very significant price response.”

Saudi Arabia announced the biggest cut among OPEC members at 500,000 barrels per day. The cuts are in addition to a reduction announced last October that infuriated the Biden administration.

The Saudi Energy Ministry described the move as a “precautionary measure” aimed at stabilizing the oil market. The cuts represent less than 5% of Saudi Arabia’s average production of 11.5 million barrels per day in 2022.

Iraq said it would reduce production by 211,000 barrels per day, the United Arab Emirates by 144,000, Kuwait by 128,000, Kazakhstan by 78,000, Algeria by 48,000 and Oman by 40,000. The announcements were carried by each country’s state media.

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak meanwhile said Moscow would extend a voluntary cut of 500,000 until the end of the year, according to remarks carried by the state news agency Tass. Russia had announced the unilateral reduction in February after Western countries imposed price caps.

All are members of the so-called OPEC+ group of oil exporting countries, which includes the original Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries as well as Russia and other major producers. There was no immediate statement from OPEC itself.

The cuts announced in October — of some 2 million barrels a day — had come on the eve of U.S. midterm elections in which soaring prices were a major issue. President Joe Biden vowed at the time that there would be “consequences” and Democratic lawmakers called for freezing cooperation with the Saudis.

Both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia denied any political motives in the dispute.

Since those cuts, oil prices have trended down. Brent crude, a global benchmark, was trading around $80 a barrel at the end of last week, down from around $95 in early October, when the earlier cuts were agreed.

Analysts Giacomo Romeo and Lloyd Byrne at Jefferies said in a research note that the new cuts should allow for “material” reductions to OPEC inventory earlier than expected and could validate recent warnings from some traders and analysts that demand for oil is weakening.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Gulf expert at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said the Saudis are determined to keep oil prices high enough to fund ambitious mega-projects linked to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan to overhaul the economy.

“This domestic interest takes precedence in Saudi decision-making over relationships with international partners and is likely to remain a point of friction in U.S.-Saudi relations for the foreseeable future,” he said.

Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil giant Aramco recently announced record profits of $161 billion from last year. Profits rose 46.5% when compared to the company’s 2021 results of $110 billion. Aramco said it hoped to boost production to 13 million barrels a day by 2027.

The decades-long U.S.-Saudi alliance has come under growing strain in recent years following the 2018 killing of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S.-based journalist, and Saudi Arabia’s war with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

As a candidate for president, Biden had vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the Khashoggi killing, but as oil prices rose after his inauguration he backed off. He visited the kingdom last July in a bid to patch up relations, drawing criticism for sharing a fistbump with Crown Prince Mohammed.

Saudi Arabia has denied siding with Russia in the Ukraine war, even as it has cultivated closer ties with both Moscow and Beijing in recent years. Last week, Aramco announced billions of dollars of investment in China’s downstream petrochemicals industry.

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An explosion at a Russian cafe kills a prominent military blogger and wounds 30 others

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Russian investigators work at the site of an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday. An explosion tore through a cafe in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on Sunday. AP

AP

An explosion tore through a cafe in Russia’s second-largest city Sunday, killing a well-known military blogger and strident supporter of the war in Ukraine. Some reports said a bomb was embedded in a bust of the blogger that was given to him as a gift.

Russian officials said Vladlen Tatarsky was killed as he was leading a discussion at the cafe on the bank of the Neva River in the historic heart of St. Petersburg. Some 30 people were wounded in the blast, Russia’s Health Ministry reported.

Russian media and military bloggers said Tatarsky was meeting with members of the public when a woman presented him with a box containing a bust of him that apparently blew up. A patriotic Russian group that organized the event said it had taken security precautions but acknowledged that those measures “proved insufficient.”

In remarks recorded on video, a witness said that a woman who identified herself as Nastya asked questions and exchanged remarks with Tatarsky during the discussion.

The witness, Alisa Smotrova, quoted Nastya as saying she had made a bust of the blogger but that guards asked her to leave it at the door, suspecting it could be a bomb. Nastya and Tatarsky joked and laughed. She then went to the door, grabbed the bust and presented it to Tatarsky.

He reportedly put the bust on a nearby table, and the explosion followed. Smotrova described people running in panic, some hurt by shattered glass and covered in blood.

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Russian blogger Vladlen Tatarsky speaks during a party in front of projection of an image of him, before an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday. AP

AP

Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that a St. Petersburg woman, Darya Tryopova, was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the bombing. It said that she had been previously detained for taking part in anti-war rallies.

A video posted on Russian messaging app channels showed the cafe after the explosion. Tables and chairs were broken and stained by blood, and shards of glass littered the floor.

Russian media said investigators were looking at the bust as the possible source of the blast but have not ruled out the possibility that an explosive device was planted in the cafe before the event.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, the state’s top criminal investigation agency, opened a probe on charges of murder.

Ukraine denied involvement

No one publicly claimed responsibility, but military bloggers and patriotic commentators immediately pointed a finger at Ukraine and compared the bombing to the killing last August of Darya Dugina, a nationalist TV commentator. She was killed when a remotely controlled explosive device planted in her SUV blew up as she was driving on the outskirts of Moscow.

Russian authorities blamed Ukraine’s military intelligence for Dugina’s death, but Kyiv denied involvement.

Reacting to the latest incident, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tatarsky’s activities “have won him the hatred of the Kyiv regime” and noted that he and other Russian military bloggers long have faced Ukrainian threats.

Dugina’s father, Alexander Dugin, a nationalist philosopher and political theorist who strongly supports the invasion of Ukraine, hailed Tatarsky as an “immortal” hero who died to save the Russian people.

“There must be no talks with the terrorists other than about their unconditional surrender,” Dugin said. “A victory parade must take place in Kyiv.”

Since the fighting in Ukraine began Feb. 24, 2022, Ukrainian authorities have refrained from claiming responsibility for various fires, explosions and apparent assassinations in Russia. At the same time, officials in Kyiv have jubilantly greeted such events and insisted on Ukraine’s right to launch attacks in Russia.

A top Ukrainian government official cast the explosion that killed Tatarsky as part of internal turmoil.

“Spiders are eating each other in a jar,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote in English on Twitter. “Question of when domestic terrorism would become an instrument of internal political fight was a matter of time.”

Tatarsky, who had filed regular reports from Ukraine, was the pen name for Maxim Fomin, who had accumulated more than 560,000 followers on his Telegram messaging app channel.

Born in the Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland, Tatarsky worked as a coal miner before starting a furniture business. When he ran into financial difficulties, he robbed a bank and was sentenced to prison. He fled from custody after a Russia-backed separatist rebellion engulfed the Donbas in 2014, weeks after Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Then he joined separatist rebels and fought on the front line before turning to blogging.

Tatarsky was known for his blustery pronouncements and ardent pro-war rhetoric.

After the Kremlin’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine last year that most of the world rejected as illegal, Tatarsky posted a video in which he vowed: “That’s it. We’ll defeat everybody, kill everybody, rob everybody we need to. It will all be the way we like it. God be with you.”

Military bloggers have played an increasingly prominent and influential role in the flow of information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They have almost universally championed the goals of the campaign but at times criticize Russian military strategy and tactical decisions.

At the same time, the Kremlin has squelched alternative voices opposing the war by shutting down news outlets, limiting the public’s access to information and jailing critics.

npr

Victoriafox