Nelson de Sá: White House slams on the brakes against China and Russia to curb inflation

In Sunday’s New York Times, “Democrat fatalism intensifies” and the party talks of “limiting losses rather than winning” in November. “Inflation is the number one issue on voters’ minds,” says the paper.

And it is with inflation as a “capital concern” in the polls that the Treasury secretary and a White House adviser, according to Bloomberg and Reuters, have now come out saying they will “reduce tariffs on imports from China” to lower prices.

Both only spoke after Lawrence Summers, former Clinton and Obama administrations, defended the reduction days before, with an eye on inflation.

It’s not just China that the Treasury secretary wants to back down, ahead of the midterm elections. The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times point out that she has now urged the European Union to “caution” in banning Russia’s oil and gas.

It’s because it “could raise global prices”, says Janet Yellen, with “damaging impact on other parts of the world”, the US in particular.

Continuing act, in Reuters, “European Union sees way to pay for Russian gas without violating sanctions”, accepting Moscow’s proposal.

WESTERN NIGHTMARE

Bloomberg reported and the FT confirmed the “nightmare” of British Shell, which is negotiating to sell its stake in Russian gas to Chinese Cnooc, CNPC and Sinopec. They are “the only buyers available to Western oil and gas companies that disinvest in Russia”, as is the case of the American Exxon.

The Japanese government, as highlighted by the Asahi Shimbun, warns that it will not divest from Russian gas.

ROGAN VS. CNN

According to presenter Joe Rogan, pressure at the beginning of the year on Spotify to take its podcast off the air for having interviewed vaccine critics ended up increasing its audience by two million listeners.

It was on Friday’s show, when addressing the end of CNN’s streaming, when Rogan said, laughing, that in three weeks “they spent $300 million and got 10,000 subscribers.”