WTF Just Happened Today

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

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1/ Biden banned all imports of oil and natural gas from Russia, punishing Russia for its “vicious war of choice” in Ukraine. “The United States is targeting the main artery of Russia’s economy,” Biden said. “We will not be part of subsidizing Putin’s war.” Biden, however, warned that the decision would mean higher prices for energy and at the gas pump, saying “defending freedom is going to cost […] It’s going to cost us as well, in the United States.” 79% of Americans, meanwhile, said they favored a ban on Russian oil imports even if it increased energy prices in the U.S., while 13% said they opposed it. The U.S. move was matched in part by the U.K., which announced that it’ll phase out the import of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022. The European Union also took steps to scale back imports of Russian energy by approximately two-thirds this year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, said the House plans to vote today on legislation to ban U.S. imports of Russian fossil fuels, calling it “an urgent imperative – both morally and for our security interests.” In addition to banning Russian oil, the bill would empower Biden to impose tariffs on other Russian products, take steps to suspend Russia from the World Trade Organization, and reauthorize and strengthen the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allows the U.S. to impose sanctions on countries in response to human rights abuses. (Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / Associated Press / CNN / CNBC / NPR)

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2/ Poland offered to transfer all of its Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets “immediately and free of charge” to a U....

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