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  • Asian markets mixed ahead of US elections, inflation data

    Asian markets mixed ahead of US elections, inflation data

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    TOKYO — Asian stocks were mixed Tuesday ahead of the U.S. midterm elections with trading likely to stay bumpy in a week that brings new inflation data and other events that could shake markets.

    Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.3% to 27,876.20 on strong earnings reports. The Kospi in Seoul advanced 1.1% to 2,397.41 and Australia’s S&P/AXS 200 gained 0.4% to 6,958.90.

    Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sank 0.6% to 16,488.44, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 0.8% to 3,052.93. Thailand’s SET gained 0.7%. India’s markets were closed for a holiday.

    The week is full of potentially market-moving events, including U.S. inflation data and the election, which could leave the U.S. government split between Democrats and Republicans.

    For Tuesday, at least, “Look for markets to trade political headline spin rather than substance,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

    Every seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is up for election this year, along with about a third of the U.S. Senate. On the line is control of both houses of Congress, currently under Democratic leadership.

    Voters are also electing governors in most of the states this year. They’ll be in office in 2024 when the next presidential election happens and could affect election laws or vote certifications. Many state legislative and local authorities also are on the ballot.

    A divided government would likely bring gridlock rather than big, sweeping policy changes that could upset tax and spending plans. Historically, when a Democratic White House has shared power with a split or Republican Congress, stocks have seen stronger gains than usual.

    On Monday, the benchmark S&P 500 rose 1% to 3,806.80 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.3% to 32,827.00 and the Nasdaq composite added 0.9% to 10,564.52.

    Analysts say a strong performance by Democrats in the elections could lead to increased spending to help the economy that might fuel inflation and leave the Federal Reserve obliged to continue to hike interest rates to get prices under control.

    It may take a while to get clarity because of the process to count votes that came in through the mail.

    Economists expect a report Thursday to show the consumer price index rose 8% in October from a year earlier, slightly lower than September’s 8.2% inflation rate.

    Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s vote, “It is still all about inflation and while this report might not be as hot as the last few, it still should show that rents and the core-service sector part of the economy are still hot,” Edward Moya of Oanda said in a report.

    Higher rates put the brakes on the economy by making it more expensive to buy a house, car or anything else on credit, though they take time to take effect. Rate hikes could bring a recession, and they tend to drag on prices for stocks and other investments.

    A fourth straight month of moderating inflation from June’s 9.1% rate could afford the Federal Reserve leeway to loosen up a bit. The Fed has said that it may soon dial down the size of its increases to half a percentage point, after pushing through four straight mega increases of three-quarters of a point.

    Monday’s gains for Wall Street came despite a shaky showing for its most influential stock. Apple rose 0.4% after dropping earlier in the day. It had warned customers they’ll have to wait longer to get the latest iPhones after anti-COVID restrictions were imposed on a contractor’s factory in China.

    Earnings reports are also causing share prices to swing.

    The reporting season for summertime profits is roughly 85% done, and S&P 500 companies are on track to deliver growth of a little more than 2%. Analysts are forecasting a drop in S&P 500 profits for the final three months of the year, of nearly 1.5%. They had been forecasting growth of 4% at the end of September.

    In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 50 cents to $91.29 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost 82 cents to $91.79 per barrel on Monday.

    Brent crude, the international pricing standard, gave up 45 cents to $97.47 per barrel.

    The U.S. dollar was unchanged at 146.63 yen. The euro slipped to $1.0008 to $1.0016.

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  • Greek PM: Gas exploration to start off Crete in coming days

    Greek PM: Gas exploration to start off Crete in coming days

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    ATHENS, Greece — Exxon Mobil is poised to start a delayed gas prospecting project off southwestern Greece, the country’s leader said Monday amid tensions between Greece and Turkey over offshore rights and as Europe seeks alternative energy sources due to the war in Ukraine.

    The U.S. energy giant will start seismic exploration “in the coming days” southwest of the southern Peloponnese peninsula and the island of Crete, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told private Antenna TV.

    The project has been heavily criticized by environmental groups, which argue that the deep-sea prospecting would have “unbearable” consequences on endangered Mediterranean whales and dolphins. Critics also highlight the potential risk of spills, and say the project, if successful, would increase Greece’s use of fossil fuels amid the planet’s climate change crisis.

    Mitsotakis insisted Monday that Greece remains dedicated to “fast green transition.” But he added: “Our country … must ascertain whether it currently has the ability to produce natural gas, which would contribute not only to our own energy security but also to that of Europe.”

    European countries are scrambling to replace their former dependency on Russian fossil fuels following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent damaging of pipelines designed to bring natural gas from Russia to Germany.

    Meanwhile, Greece and Turkey are at loggerheads over offshore exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean, and Turkish prospecting east of Crete in 2020 prompted a military build-up and bellicose rhetoric.

    In 2019, Greece granted rights for exploration — which, however, didn’t go ahead — in two blocks of seabed south and southwest of the island of Crete to a consortium of TotalEnergies and Exxon Mobil with Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum.

    The areas include the Mediterranean’s deepest waters. The Hellenic Trench, at 5,267 meters (17,300 feet) is a vital habitat for the sea’s few hundred sperm whales, and for other cetaceans already threatened by fishing, collisions with ships and plastic pollution.

    These mammals are particularly sensitive to the underwater noise produced by seismic surveys for fossil fuels, in which sound waves are bounced off the seabed to locate potential deposits. Sonar used by warships has been shown to have deadly effects on whales, and experts say seismic surveys can do the same.

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    Follow all AP stories about climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

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  • China trade down on weak global demand, virus curbs

    China trade down on weak global demand, virus curbs

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    BEIJING — China’s trade shrank in October as global demand weakened and anti-virus controls weighed on domestic consumer spending.

    Exports declined 0.3% from a year earlier to $298.4 billion, down from September’s 5.7% growth, the customs agency reported Monday. Imports fell 0.7% to $213.4 billion, compared with the previous month’s 0.3% expansion.

    China’s global trade surplus edged up 0.9% from a year earlier to $85.2 billion.

    Forecasters expected Chinese trade to weaken as global demand cooled following interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to rein in surging inflation.

    At home, consumer demand has been hurt by a “Zero COVID” strategy that has repeatedly shut down large sections of cities to contain virus outbreaks. That has disrupted business and confined millions of people to their homes for weeks at a time.

    Economic growth picked up to 3.9% over a year earlier in the quarter ending in September from 2.2% in the first six months of 2022. But forecasters say activity is weakening as closures spread in response to a spike in infections.

    “The economy slowed again in October due to the tightened Covid controls as well as the slowing external demand,” said Larry Hu of Macquarie Group in a report.

    The downturn in Chinese demand hurts developing countries that supply oil, soybeans and other raw materials and the United States, Europe, Japan and other suppliers of consumer goods and microchips and other components and technology needed by manufacturers.

    Exports to the United States rose 35.3% over a year earlier to $47 billion despite lingering tariff hikes in a trade war over Beijing’s technology ambitions. Imports of U.S. goods rose $52.4% to $12.8 billion.

    China’s politically sensitive trade surplus with the United States swelled 29.9% to $34.2 billion.

    Imports from Russia, mostly oil and gas, more than doubled, rising 110.5% over a year ago to $10.2 billion.

    China can buy Russian energy exports without running afoul of sanctions imposed on President Vladimir Putin’s government by the United States, Europe and Japan. Beijing is stepping up purchases to take advantage of Russian discounts. That irks Washington and its allies by topping up the Kremlin’s cash flow and limiting the impact of sanctions.

    Exports to the 27-nation European Union edged up 5.5% to $44.1 billion while imports of European goods shrank 15.5% to $21.4 billion. China‘s surplus with the EU widened by 38.1% to $22.7 billion.

    For the first 10 months of the year, China’s exports rose 11.1% to $3 trillion while imports gained 3.5% to $2.3 trillion, the General Administration of Customs announced. The country’s trade surplus was $727.7 billion.

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  • Haiti gang leader to lift fuel blockade amid shortages

    Haiti gang leader to lift fuel blockade amid shortages

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    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A powerful gang leader announced Sunday that he was lifting a blockade at a key fuel terminal that has strangled Haiti’s capital for nearly two months.

    The announcement by Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer nicknamed “Barbecue,” followed government claims of at least some success in efforts to reclaim the terminal, as well as a United Nations resolution targeting Cherizier with sanctions. But it remained unclear who actually controls the terminal and the surrounding area, and there had been no evidence that any fuel had been able to leave.

    In a speech posted on social media, Cherizier called on truck drivers to come and fill their tanks.

    “Drivers can come to the terminal without any fear,” he said.

    If fuel can leave, that would ease a crisis that began when Cherizier’s G9 gang federation seized control of the area surrounding a fuel depot in Port-au-Prince on Sept. 12 to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

    The gang’s blockade cut off access to about 10 millions gallons of diesel and gasoline and more than 800,000 gallons of kerosene, forcing gas stations to close, hospitals to cut back on critical services and banks and grocery stores to operate on a limited schedule.

    It also hindered efforts to cope with a cholera outbreak that has killed dozens and sickened thousands. Clinics have warned they were running out of fuel and had difficulty accessing potable water.

    Gunfire echoed from the area around the terminal on Thursday as Haiti’s National Police fought to reassert control. Police Chief Frantz Elbé said in a voicemail shared with The Associated Press on Friday: “We won a fight, but it is not over.”

    Official police social media accounts posted a video on Sunday with no sound stating officers were still “busy” at the terminal and saying “an important provision is taken to secure the perimeters.”

    Cherizier stressed that neither the gang nor anyone working on its behalf has negotiated anything with the prime minister, despite claims by some politicians to have done so.

    “This is a fight for a better life,” he said of the gang’s actions. “The situation has worsened. … We are not responsible for what happened to the country.”

    Cherizier then asked whether Haitians are happy with their living conditions, whether they feel safe, whether their children can go to school without being kidnapped and whether they have food and medical care.

    Many in the country of more than 11 million people are living in even deeper poverty at a time of double-digit inflation. Meanwhile, kidnappings and gang violence has increased following the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.

    Spokespeople for Haiti’s National Police and the office of the prime minister could not be immediately reached for comment following Cherizier’s announcement.

    But some people on social media celebrated Cherizier’s announcement, referring to him as “Father” or “Mr. President.”

    In early September, Henry announced his administration could no longer afford to subsidize petroleum, leading to sharp increases in prices that unleashed large protests.

    On Oct. 7, almost a month after the blockade began, Henry requested the immediate deployment of foreign troops. The U.N. Security Council has yet to vote on the request, though it voted to impose sanctions on the gang leader himself.

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    Associated Press writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed to this report.

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  • Climate Questions: Does what I do matter?

    Climate Questions: Does what I do matter?

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    Can people’s individual actions make a difference in how much carbon dioxide is emitted on an international scale? International organizations like the United Nations have called on individuals to limit their carbon footprint and live more sustainably, along with governments and corporations.

    Some argue it would be more effective to focus on changing government and corporate policy to limit emissions from the energy and agriculture sectors than asking individuals to limit their carbon footprint, but experts say that while that’s true, every bit of emissions reduction helps.

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    EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of an ongoing series answering some of the most fundamental questions around climate change, the science behind it, the effects of a warming planet and how the world is addressing it.

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    “We should all be the most responsible citizens we can be in every sense of the word and contribute to a sustainable existence on this planet,” said University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann. He said that means, in part, minimizing our carbon footprints as individuals.

    And that can take a lot of different forms.

    The United Nations Act Now campaign for individual climate action suggests people can minimize their personal carbon footprint directly by changing their energy and transportation use and food consumption. Other, less direct methods for reducing carbon emissions include divesting from fossil fuel companies in retirement plans, protesting to support climate action and lobbying government officials to pass environmentally sustainable policies.

    Kim Cobb, a Brown University climate scientist, said there are consequences to individuals having “outsized” carbon footprints. And still there are people who engage in the environmental movement who don’t consider their personal carbon footprint.

    “I think we’re living in an anti-gravity moment where people are able to say, ‘I’m not concerned about my first, personal carbon footprint. Collective action matters the most,’” she said. In the future, though, “there will be a moral and social cost to bear by those individuals.”

    Still, there are some climate impacts that people aren’t individually responsible for and can’t change on their own. Over 70% of all greenhouse gas emissions produced between 1988 and 2015 came from 100 fossil fuel companies, according a 2017 report by CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project.

    And despite the United Nations’ warnings to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions, countries are planning on extracting double the amount of fossil fuels than what would be consistent with keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), even as they pledge to make ambitious cuts.

    So, although there are things individuals can do to minimize their personal carbon footprints, Mann said, “we must not allow … polluters to reframe the discussion so that it falls entirely upon individuals, which takes the pressure off of them.”

    “We can’t pass legislation ourselves that incentivizes renewable energy or that blocks new fossil fuel infrastructure. We can’t impose regulations on industry. We can’t negotiate directly with international partners. We need our policymakers to do that,” Mann said. “Those things can only be enacted at the systematic level, and that’s why we have to keep the pressure on policymakers and on corporations and those who are in a position to make the changes that we can’t make ourselves.”

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    Follow Drew Costley on Twitter: @drewcostley.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • As countries convene at climate summit in Egypt, reports show the world is wildly off track. Here’s what to watch at COP27 | CNN

    As countries convene at climate summit in Egypt, reports show the world is wildly off track. Here’s what to watch at COP27 | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    As global leaders converge in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for the UN’s annual climate summit, researchers, advocates and the United Nations itself are warning the world is still wildly off-track on its goal to halt global warming and prevent the worst consequences of the climate crisis.

    Over the next two weeks, negotiators from nearly 200 countries will prod each other at COP27 to raise their clean energy ambitions, as average global temperature has already climbed 1.2 degrees Celsius since the industrial revolution.

    They will haggle over ending the use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, which has seen a resurgence in some countries amid the war in Ukraine, and try to come up with a system to funnel money to help the world’s poorest nations recover from devastating climate disasters.

    But a flood of recent reports have made clear leaders are running out of time to implement the vast energy overhaul needed to keep the temperature from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius, the threshold scientists have warned the planet must stay under.

    Reports from the United Nations and the World Meteorological Association show carbon and methane emissions hit record levels in 2021, and the plans countries have submitted to slash those emissions are beyond insufficient. Given countries’ current promises, Earth’s temperature will climb to between 2.1 and 2.9 degrees Celsius by 2100.

    Ultimately, the world needs to cut its fossil fuel emissions nearly in half by 2030 to avoid 1.5 degrees, a daunting prospect for economies still very much beholden to oil, natural gas and coal.

    “No country has a right to be delinquent,” US Climate Envoy John Kerry told reporters in October. “The scientists tell us that what is happening now – the increased extreme heat, extreme weather, the fires, the floods, the warming of the ocean, the melting of the ice, the extraordinary way in which life is being affected badly by the climate crisis – is going to get worse unless we address this crisis in a unified, forward-leaning way.”

    Here are the top issues to follow at COP27 in Egypt.

    Developing and developed countries have for years tussled over the concept of a “loss and damage” fund; the idea which suggests countries causing the most harm with their outrageous planet-warming emissions should pay poorer countries, which have suffered from the resulting climate disasters.

    It has been a thorny issue because the richest countries, including the US, don’t want to appear culpable or legally liable to other nations for harm. Kerry, for instance, has tiptoed around the issue, saying the US supports formal talks, but he has not given any indication of what solution the country would sign on to.

    Meanwhile, small island nations and others in the Global South are shouldering the impact of the climate crisis, as devastating floods, intensifying storms and record-breaking heat waves wreak havoc.

    The deadly flooding in Pakistan this summer, which killed more than 1,500 people, will surely be an example the countries’ negotiators point to. And since September, more than two million people in Nigeria have been affected by the worst flooding there in a decade. At this very moment, Nigerians are drinking, cooking with and bathing in dirty flood water amid serious concerns over waterborne diseases.

    It is likely loss and damage will have space on the official COP27 agenda this year. But beyond countries committing to meet and talk about what a potential loss and damage fund would look like, or whether one should even exist, it is unclear what action will come out of this year’s summit.

    “Do we expect that we’ll have a fund by the end of the two weeks? I hope, I would love to – but we’ll see how parties deliver on that,” Egypt’s chief climate negotiator Ambassador Mohamed Nasr recently told reporters.

    Former White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy told CNN she thinks loss and damage will be the top issue at the UN climate summit this year, and said nations including the US will face some tough questions about their plans to help developing nations already being hit hard by climate disasters.

    “It just keeps getting pushed out,” McCarthy said. “There’s need for some real accountability and some specific commitments in the short-term.”

    Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, left, and John Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.

    People will be watching to see if the US and China can repair a broken relationship at the summit, a year after the two countries surprised the world by announcing they would work together on climate change.

    The newfound cooperation came crashing down this summer when China announced it was suspending climate talks with the US as part of broader retaliation for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

    Kerry recently said the climate talks between the two countries are still suspended and will likely remain so until China’s president Xi Jinping gives the green light. Kerry and others are watching to see whether China fulfills the promise it made last year to submit a plan to bring down its methane emissions or updates its emissions pledge.

    The US and China are the world’s two largest emitters and their cooperation matters, particularly because it can spur other countries to act, too.

    Separate from a potential loss and damage fund, there is the overarching issue of so-called global climate finance; a fund rich countries promised to push money into to help the developing world transition to clean energy rather than grow their economies with fossil fuels.

    The promise made in 2009 was $100 billion per year, but the world has yet to meet the pledge. Some of the richest countries, including the US, UK, Canada and others, have consistently fallen short of their allocation.

    President Joe Biden promised the US would contribute $11 billion by 2024 toward the effort. But Biden’s request is ultimately up to Congress to approve, and will likely go nowhere if Republicans win control of Congress in the midterm elections.

    The US is working on separate deals with countries including Vietnam, South Africa and Indonesia to get them to move away from coal and toward renewables. And US officials often stress they want to also unlock private investments to help countries transition to renewables and deal with climate effects.

    Ships carry coal outside a coal-fired power plant in November 2021 in Hanchuan, Hubei province, China.

    COP27 is intended to hold countries’ feet to the fire on fossil fuel emissions and gin up new ambition on the climate crisis. Yet reports show we are still off-track to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius.

    A UN report which surveyed countries’ latest pledges found the planet will warm between 2.1 and 2.9 degrees Celsius. Average global temperature has already risen around 1.2 degrees since the industrial revolution.

    Records were set last year for all three major greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

    There is a spot of encouraging news: the adoption of renewable energy and electric vehicles is surging and helping to offset the rise in fossil fuel emissions, according to a recent International Energy Agency report.

    But the overall picture from the reports shows there is a need for much more clean energy, deployed swiftly. Every fraction of a degree in global temperature rise will have stark consequences, said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program.

    “The energy transition is entirely doable, but we’re not on that pathway, and we have procrastinated and wasted time,” Andersen told CNN. “Every digit will matter. Let’s not say ‘we missed 1.5 so let’s settle for 2.’ No. We must understand that every digit that goes up will make our life and the life of our children and grandchildren much more impacted.”

    The clock is ticking in another way: Next year’s COP28 in Dubai will be the year nations must do an official stocktake to determine if the world is on track to meet the goals set out in the landmark Paris Agreement.

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  • Biden stumps on job growth, as voters dread inflation

    Biden stumps on job growth, as voters dread inflation

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    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has notched an envious record on jobs, with 10.3 million gained during his tenure. But voters in Tuesday’s midterm elections are far more focused on inflation hovering near 40-year highs.

    That’s left the president trying to convince the public that the job gains mean better days are ahead, even as fears of a recession build.

    Presidents have long trusted that voters would reward them for strong economic growth, but inflation has thrown a monkey wrench into the already difficult probability of Democrats’ retaining control of the House and Senate.

    Economic anxieties have compounded as the Federal Reserve has repeatedly hiked its benchmark interest rates to lower inflation and possibly raise unemployment. Mortgage costs have shot upwards, while the S&P 500 stock index has dropped more than 20% so far this year as the world braces for a possible downturn.

    Biden is asking voters to look beyond the current financial pain, saying that what matters are the job gains that he believes his policies are fostering. The government reported Friday that employers added 261,000 jobs in October as the unemployment rate bumped up to 3.7%.

    Roughly 740,000 manufacturing jobs have been added since the start of Biden’s presidency, a figure that the president says will keep rising because of his funding for infrastructure projects, the production of computer chips and the switch to clean energy sources.

    “America is reasserting itself — it’s as simple as that,” Biden said in a Friday speech. “We also know folks are still struggling with inflation. It’s our number one priority.”

    Yet the president is also warning that a Republican majority in Congress could make inflation worse by seeking to undo his programs and treating payments on the federal debt as a bargaining chip instead of an obligation to honor.

    His challenge is that the party in power generally faces skeptical voters in U.S. midterms and inflation looms over the public mindset more than job growth.

    “If you have a job, it’s small comfort to know that the job market is strong if at the same time you feel like every paycheck is worth less and less anyway,” said pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson. “Inflation is such political poison because voters are reminded every day whenever they spend money that it is a problem we are experiencing.”

    As Biden tries to fend off fears that inflation is causing the country to slide into a recession, his chief evidence of the economy’s resilience is the continued job growth.

    “As we see the economy as a whole, we do not see it going into a recession,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in anticipation of the latest jobs report.

    Going into the election, Biden and Democrats are already at a disadvantage. Voters generally favor the party out of the White House in midterms, giving Republicans an automatic leg up. When Yale University economist Ray Fair looked at past elections, his model forecast that Democrats would get just 46.4% of the national vote largely because Biden was in the Oval Office.

    Fair’s analysis suggests that inflation basically erased the political boost that Democrats could have gotten from strong economic growth during three quarters in 2021. Even if the economy is top of mind for many voters, the conflicting forces of past growth and high inflation cancel out each other.

    This makes the Democrats’ vote share roughly the same as suggested by the historical trend, Fair concluded.

    But inflation compounds the obstacles for a president who has tried to convey optimism as he tours the country in the run-up to the elections. Research in social psychology and behavioral economics generally shows that people often focus on the negatives and can block out the positives.

    “People pay more attention to bad news than to good news and are more likely to retain and recall bad news,” said Matthew Incantalupo, a political scientist at Yeshiva University.

    Incantalupo’s research looks at how voters absorb economic news. When unemployment is low, as it is now, he said, voters generally think about jobs as a personal issue — rather than a systemic one involving government policies. But most think about inflation as a social problem beyond any person’s control, unless that individual happens to run the Fed.

    “When it is high, everyone experiences it at least a little bit, and there really is no individual way to avoid it,” Incantalupo said. “Voters are going to look to government for remedies under those circumstances, and in many cases that will result in them punishing incumbents, even in the presence of other positive news about the economy.”

    Republican candidates have specifically said Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package last year overheated the economy, causing prices to rise alongside the job gains that they claim would have happened anyway as the pandemic receded. They have also said that Biden should have loosened restrictions on oil production, in order to increase domestic output and lower gasoline prices.

    House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy — who could become speaker if the GOP wins a House majority — has hammered Biden on high prices. As Biden has warned that Republicans who deny the outcome of the 2020 election are a threat to democracy, the California congressman countered that what voters care about are the costs of gas and groceries.

    “President Biden is trying to divide and deflect at a time when America needs to unite — because he can’t talk about his policies that have driven up the cost of living,” McCarthy tweeted this past week. “The American people aren’t buying it.”

    Still, inflation is not solely a domestic issue. After Russia invaded Ukraine, energy and food costs rose and suddenly flipped the global dynamics as inflation rose faster in parts of the world with less aggressive coronavirus relief than the U.S. Annual inflation in the euro zone is a record 10.7%, much higher than the 8.2% in the U.S.

    Meanwhile, growth has slowed in China, the pace of world trade is slipping and Saudi Arabia-led OPEC+ has cut oil production in order to prop up prices. And because the Fed is raising rates to lower domestic inflation, the dollar has increased in value and essentially exported higher prices to the rest of the world.

    This has left U.S. voters in the curious position of not necessarily blaming the president for inflation, even as they disapprove of his economic leadership.

    An October poll by AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs captured this split. More than half of voters say that prices are higher because of factors beyond Biden’s control. But just 36% approve of his economic leadership.

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  • Tourists held by Peruvian indigenous group protesting oil spill will be released, says official | CNN

    Tourists held by Peruvian indigenous group protesting oil spill will be released, says official | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A group of tourists traveling in the Peruvian Amazon, who were detained on Thursday by an indigenous community demanding government action over an oil spill, will be released Friday, Abel Chiroque, head of the ombudsman office in Loreto, told CNN.

    “We have been in touch with the leader of the Cuninico community… and they have accepted our request to release the passengers onboard the boats,” Chiroque said.

    An estimated 150 tourists, believed to include American and British citizens, were traveling down the Marañon river in Cuninico of the Loreto region, Angela Ramirez told Peruvian local media RPP. The 28-year-old Peruvian is one of the tourists being held by the indigenous community.

    Wadson Trujillo, leader of the Cuninico community, confirmed to RRP that his community stopped the boats in a bid to pressure the government to take action over the oil spill, which has disrupted their water supply. They are demanding the government declare a state of emergency over the oil spill.

    Chiroque said three boats were being held by the community. While the passengers will be let go, the other boats carrying food and animals will stay, he added.

    Ramirez told RRP the detained group included Spanish, French, American and British citizens. Children, pregnant women and the elderly were also being held, she told CNN. CNN has contacted Peru’s Interior Ministry for comment.

    Estimates for the number of people detained have ranged from 70 to 150. Among those held are 20 foreigners, said Peru’s National Police.

    Peru’s ombudsman office in Lima announced the release on social media, while also calling for the continued dialogue between the Cuninico community and government’s representatives.

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  • Stocks end lower as the Fed continues to fight inflation

    Stocks end lower as the Fed continues to fight inflation

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    NEW YORK — Stocks racked up more losses on Wall Street and Treasury yields again rose to multiyear highs Thursday as investors looked ahead to a closely watched job market report from the government that could influence the Federal Reserve’s next move in its fight to bring down inflation.

    Technology stocks led the market pullback, which came a day after the central bank raised its benchmark rate for the sixth time this year and signaled that it may need to keep hiking rates for some time before its can successfully squash the highest inflation in decades.

    The S&P 500 fell 1.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite closed 1.7% lower. The declines extended the major indexes’ losing streak to a fourth day. They’re each on pace for a weekly loss.

    Expectations of higher rates helped push up Treasury yields, weighing on stocks. The two-year Treasury note, which tends to track expectations for future Fed moves, rose to 4.72% from 4.61% late Wednesday and is now at its highest level since 2007, according to Tradeweb.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.15% from 4.09% late Wednesday. The rise in the 10-year Treasury yield has prompted mortgage rates to more than double this year and it continues putting pressure on stocks.

    The Fed on Wednesday added another jumbo rate increase and suggested that the pace of rate hikes may slow. The central bank also indicated that interest rates might need to ultimately go even higher than previously thought in order to tame the worst inflation in decades.

    The central bank’s latest three-quarters of a percentage point raise brings short-term interest rates to a range of 3.75% to 4%, its highest level in 15 years. Wall Street is evenly split on whether the central bank ultimately raises rates to a range of 5% to 5.25% or 5.25% to 5.50% next year.

    Higher rates not only slow the economy by discouraging borrowing, they also make stocks look less appealing compared to lower-risk assets like bonds and CDs.

    Stubbornly hot inflation has been prompting central banks around the world to also raise interest rates. On Thursday, the Bank of England announced its biggest interest rate increase in three decades. The increase is the Bank of England’s eighth in a row and the biggest since 1992.

    European and Asian markets closed mostly lower.

    In the U.S., the S&P 500 fell 39.80 points to 3,719.89. The Dow lost 146.51 points to close at 32,001.25. The Nasdaq slid 181.86 points to 10,342.94. Smaller company stocks also lost ground. The Russell 2000 fell 9.41 points, or 0.5%, to 1,779.73.

    Technology and communication services stocks were among the biggest weights on the market. Apple fell 4.2% and Warner Bros. Discovery slid 5.6%.

    Those losses kept gains in industrial, energy and other sectors in check. Boeing jumped 6.3% and Marathon Petroleum rose 3%.

    Investors had been hoping for economic data signaling that the Fed might ease up on rate increases. The fear is that the Fed will go too far in slowing the economy and bring on a recession.

    Hotter-than-expected data from the employment sector this week has so far signaled that the Fed has to remain aggressive. On Friday, Wall Street will get a broader update from the U.S. government’s October jobs report.

    So far, hiring and wage growth have not fallen fast enough for the Fed to slow its inflation-fighting efforts. If the October data shows a stronger-than-expected rise in hiring or wages, that could put pressure on the Fed to keep raising interest rates.

    The Labor Department is expected to report that nonfarm employers added 200,000 jobs last month. That would be the worst showing since December 2020, when the economy lost 115,000 jobs.

    Investors will also be looking ahead to the latest data on inflation at the consumer level. That report, the consumer price index, is due out next week.

    “The next two or three quarters are incredibly important in assessing how far the Federal Reserve will need to go to achieve their objective of bringing down inflation,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “Why the CPI data is so important, why the labor report is so important, is because they feed into that next six-month cycle.”

    Wall Street has also been closely watching the latest company earnings reports. The reports have been mixed and many companies have warned that inflation will likely continue pressuring operations.

    Booking Holdings rose 2.7% after reporting strong third-quarter financial results. Robinhood Markets climbed 8.2% after the investing app operator reported third-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street’s forecasts. Chipmaker Qualcomm fell 7.7% after giving investors a weak profit and revenue forecast.

    ——

    Joe McDonald and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

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  • Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years

    Bank of England makes biggest interest rate hike in 30 years

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    LONDON — The Bank of England made its biggest interest rate increase in three decades Thursday, joining the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks worldwide in rapid hikes as it tries to beat back stubbornly high inflation fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the disastrous economic policies of former Prime Minister Liz Truss.

    The central bank boosted its key rate by three-quarters of a percentage point, to 3%, after consumer price inflation returned to a 40-year high in September. The aggressive move comes even as the bank predicted a two-year economic contraction through June 2024, which would be the longest recession since at least 1955, according to the Office for National Statistics.

    “If we don’t take action to bring inflation down, it gets worse,” Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey told reporters. “There’s no easy outcome in this sense.”

    Even so, the central bank should not increase its key rate too far, he said, but with uncertainties ahead, policymakers will “respond forcefully” if needed.

    The interest rate decision is the first since Truss’ government announced 45 billion pounds ($52 billion) of unfunded tax cuts that sparked turmoil on financial markets, pushed up mortgage costs and forced Truss from office after just six weeks. Her successor, Rishi Sunak, has warned of spending cuts and tax increases as he seeks to undo the damage and show that Britain is committed to paying its bills.

    “High energy, food and other bills are hitting people hard. Households have less to spend on other things. This has meant that the size of the UK economy has started to fall,” the bank said in its November monetary policy report.

    The rate increase is the Bank of England’s eighth in a row and the biggest since 1992. It comes after the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced a fourth consecutive three-quarter point jump as central banks worldwide combat inflation that is eroding living standards and slowing economic growth.

    Central banks have struggled to contain inflation after initially believing that price increases were being fueled by international factors beyond their control. Their response intensified in recent months as it became clear that inflation was becoming embedded in the economy, feeding through into higher borrowing costs and demands for higher wages.

    The war in Ukraine boosted food and energy prices worldwide as shipments of natural gas, grain and cooking oil were disrupted. That added to inflation that began to accelerate last year when the global economy began to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Europe has been particularly hard hit by a jump in natural gas prices as Russia responded to Western sanctions and support for Ukraine by curtailing shipments of the fuel used to heat homes, generate electricity and power industry and European nations competed for alternative supplies on global markets.

    The U.K. also has struggled as wholesale gas prices increased fivefold in the 12 months through August. While prices have dropped more than 50% since the August peak, they are likely to rise again during the winter heating season, worsening inflation.

    The British government sought to shield consumers with a cap on energy prices. But after the turmoil caused by Truss’ economic policies, Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt limited the price cap to six months instead of two years, ending on March 31.

    Meanwhile, food prices have jumped 14.6% in the year through September, led by the soaring cost of staples such as meat, bread, milk and eggs, the Office for National Statistics said. That pushed consumer price inflation back to 10.1%, the highest since early 1982 and equal to the level last reached in July.

    Increases in the cost of tea bags, milk and sugar mean that even the “humble” cup of tea, which people across the country turn to when they need a break from the pressures of daily life, is getting more expensive, the British Retail Consortium said Wednesday.

    “While some supply chain costs are beginning to fall, this is more than offset by the cost of energy, meaning a difficult time ahead for retailers and households alike,” said Helen Dickinson, the consortium’s chief executive.

    Truss’ failed economic plan made things worse, driving the pound to a record low against the dollar, threatening the stability of some pension funds and triggering predictions that the Bank of England would boost interest rates higher than expected. That increased mortgage costs as lenders repriced their products.

    The economic turmoil is putting homeownership further out of reach for many young people, according to research released this week by Hamptons, a U.K. real estate agency.

    Mortgage rates average around 6.5%, compared with 2% a year ago.

    That means the average first-time homebuyer would have to make a down payment equal to 41% of the purchase price to keep their monthly repayments at the same level as a similar buyer who made a 10% down payment last year, Hamptons said.

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  • Stocks end lower as hot jobs data signals aggressive Fed

    Stocks end lower as hot jobs data signals aggressive Fed

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    NEW YORK — Stocks gave up early gains and ended lower on Wall Street after an unexpectedly strong report on the job market raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will need to keep the pressure on inflation with aggressive interest rate increases. Those high rates are intended to slow the economy, and the fear is the Fed may go too far and cause a recession. Several companies rose after reporting solid earnings or outlooks, including Pfizer and Uber. The S&P 500 fell 0.4% Tuesday. Long-term Treasury yields reversed course from an early slide and rose back near multiyear highs.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

    Stocks on Wall Street gave up early gains and turned lower in afternoon trading Tuesday after an unexpectedly strong report on the job market raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will need to keep the pressure on inflation with aggressive interest rate increases.

    The S&P 500 fell 0.4% as of 3:31 p.m. Eastern. It had been up as much as 1% shortly after trading opened. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 72 points, or 0.2%, to 32,660 and the Nasdaq fell 0.8%.

    Big technology stocks were the biggest weights on the market. The companies, with their big valuations, have more heft in pushing the broader market up or down. Also, rising interest rates tend to make the sector look less attractive because of its those high valuations. Apple fell 1.6%.

    Small company stocks held up better than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 rose 0.4%.

    The Labor Department reported that U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in September, suggesting that the labor market is not cooling as fast as the Fed hoped for as it tries to slow economic growth.

    The latest jobs data, which comes ahead of a broader employment report on Friday, is disappointing for investors who are looking for signs that inflation is easing and that the Fed might consider tempering its interest rate increases.

    “That really fuels the expectation that the Fed has to do more hiking,” said Jason Draho, head of asset allocation for the Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management. “The labor market is still too tight for the Fed.”

    Wall Street is concerned that the central bank is being too aggressive in slowing the economy, running the risk that it could bring on a recession.

    Long-term Treasury yields turned higher after the report in job openings came out and rose back near multiyear highs. Those high rates have helped push mortgage rates above 7% this year.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.06% from 3.93% earlier in the morning.

    The yield on the two-year Treasury, which tends to reflect market expectations of future moves by the Federal Reserve, rose to 4.53% from 4.40%.

    “The issue for investors is figuring out how long the hiking cycle will last,” Draho said. “(Fed Chair Jerome) Powell will want to leave all options on the table.”

    Stocks are coming off a strong rally in October that resulted in big monthly gains for some of the major indexes. Even so, they remain in the red for the year, including the S&P 500, which is down 19%.

    Several big companies made solid gains following encouraging earnings reports and forecasts.

    Pfizer rose 3.3% after reporting strong results and raising its profit forecast for the year. Uber surged 12.4% after giving investors a strong forecast for future bookings. Rival Lyft rose 4.5%.

    Earnings remain a big focus for investors this week. CVS reports its results on Wednesday and Starbucks reports earnings on Thursday.

    Outside of earnings, Abiomed surged 50.1% after health care giant Johnson & Johnson said it will pay $16.6 billion for the heart pump maker. Johnson & Johnson fell 0.1%.

    The Fed is beginning a two-day policy meeting that’s expected to result in its sixth interest rate increase of the year as the central bank fights the worst inflation in four decades. The widespread expectation is for the Fed to push through another increase that’s triple the usual size, or three-quarters of a percentage point.

    For its final policy meeting of the year, in December, opinions are currently split among investors as to whether the Fed will make another three-quarters point move or dial back to a half-point increase.

    “The big focus is not so much on what the rate hike is going to be, but really what the comments are coming out of this week’s meeting in terms of any indications of whether there’ll be a little bit of softening as we move into early next year,” said Greg Bassuk, CEO at AXS Investments.

    ———

    AP Business writers Joe McDonald, Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

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  • Oil giant Saudi Aramco has $42.4B profit in third quarter

    Oil giant Saudi Aramco has $42.4B profit in third quarter

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Oil giant Saudi Aramco on Tuesday reported a $42.4 billion profit in the third quarter of this year, buoyed by the higher global energy prices that have filled the kingdom’s coffers but helped fuel inflation worldwide.

    The oil firm’s profits will help fund the kingdom’s assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plans for a futuristic city on the Red Sea coast, but also comes as the U.S. grows increasingly frustrated by higher prices at the pump chewing into American consumer’s wallets.

    Those tensions yet again have chilled relations between Riyadh and Washington before the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

    In a note to investors, the predominantly state-owned oil company said its average barrel of crude sold for $101.70 in the third quarter — up from $72.80 at the same point last year. It’s Aramco’s second-largest quarterly profit in its history, just before its second-quarter results this year saw a profit of $48.4 billion.

    It put its profits so far in 2022 at $130.3 billion, compared to $77.6 billion in 2021.

    “While global crude oil prices during this period were affected by continued economic uncertainty, our long-term view is that oil demand will continue to grow for the rest of the decade given the world’s need for more affordable and reliable energy,” Aramco CEO Amin H. Nasser said in a statement.

    Aramco will keep its dividend this quarter at $18.8 billion, the world’s highest.

    Benchmark Brent crude traded just shy of $95 a barrel Tuesday. The sliver of Aramco that the kingdom has put on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock market stood at $9.29 a share before trading Tuesday — putting its valuation at just over $2 trillion. Only Apple’s valuation, at $2.44 trillion, is higher.

    OPEC and a loose confederation of other countries led by Russia agreed in early October to cut its production by 2 million barrels of oil a day, beginning in November.

    OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, has insisted its decision came from concerns about the global economy. Analysts in the U.S. and Europe warn a recession looms in the West from inflation and subsequent interest rate hikes, as well as food and oil supplies being affected by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

    In Washington, anger has grown with Saudi Arabia, particularly from President Joe Biden, who traveled to the kingdom in July and shared a fist bump with Crown Prince Mohammed. Biden recently warned the kingdom that “there’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done.”

    Saudi Arabia lashed back, publicly claiming the Biden administration sought a one-month delay in the OPEC cuts that could have helped reduce the risk of a spike in gas prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.

    Biden on Monday separately accused oil companies of “war profiteering” as he raised the possibility of imposing a windfall tax on American energy companies if they don’t boost domestic production.

    ———

    Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

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  • 4 sickened by apparent gas leak at Los Angeles airport

    4 sickened by apparent gas leak at Los Angeles airport

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    LOS ANGELES — Four people were sickened by a release of carbon dioxide at a Los Angeles International Airport baggage area early Monday, authorities said.

    One person was in grave condition and three were in mild distress, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Brian Humphrey said in a statement that noted the information was preliminary. There was no information on their identities.

    The source of the gas in the Terminal 8 baggage area was “unspecified,” the statement said.

    “Though no escalating or off-site hazard has been identified, an LAFD Hazardous Materials team has been assigned pursuant to protocol,” it said.

    The airport tweeted that Terminal 8 was being cleared of passengers due to an apparent gas leak, and passengers were being sent to Terminal 7 for screening.

    The terminal serves United Airlines and United Express, according to the airport website.

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  • Cholera overwhelms Haiti as cases, deaths spike amid crisis

    Cholera overwhelms Haiti as cases, deaths spike amid crisis

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    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The sun shone down on Stanley Joliva as medical staff at an open-air clinic hovered around him, pumping air into his lungs and giving him chest compressions until he died.

    Nearby, his mother watched.

    “Only God knows my pain,” said Viliene Enfant.

    Less than an hour later, the body of her 22-year-old son lay on the floor wrapped in a white plastic bag with the date of his death scrawled on top. He joined dozens of other Haitians who have died from cholera during a rapidly spreading outbreak that is straining the resources of nonprofits and local hospitals in a country where fuel, water and other basic supplies are growing scarcer by the day.

    Sweat gathered on the foreheads of staff at a Doctors Without Borders treatment center in the capital of Port-au-Prince where some 100 patients arrive every day and at least 20 have died. Families kept rushing in this week with loved ones, sometimes dragging their limp bodies into the crowded outdoors clinic where the smell of waste filled the air.

    Dozens of patients sat on white buckets or lay on stretchers as IV lines ran up to bags of rehydrating fluids that gleamed in the sun. So far this month, Doctors Without Borders has treated some 1,800 patients at their four centers in Port-au-Prince.

    Across Haiti, many patients are dying because say they’re unable to reach a hospital in time, health officials say. A spike in gang violence has made it unsafe for people to leave their communities and a lack of fuel has shut down public transportation, gas stations and other key businesses including water supply companies.

    Enfant sat next to her son’s body as she recalled how Joliva told her he was feeling sick earlier this week. She had already warned him and her two other sons not to bathe or wash clothes in the sewage-contaminated waters that ran through a nearby ravine in their neighborhood — the only source of water for hundreds in that area.

    Enfant insisted that her sons buy water to wash clothes and add chlorine if they were going to drink it. As Joliva grew sicker, Enfant tried to care for him on her own.

    “I told him, ‘Honey, you need to drink the tea,’” she recalled. “He said again, ‘I feel weak.’ He also said, ‘I am not able to stand up.’”

    Cholera is a bacteria that sickens people who swallow contaminated food or water, and it can cause severe vomiting and diarrhea, in some cases leading to death.

    Haiti’s first major brush with cholera occurred more than a decade ago when U.N. peacekeepers introduced the bacteria into the country’s biggest river via sewage runoff at their base. Nearly 10,000 people died and thousands of others were sickened.

    The cases eventually dwindled to the point where the World Health Organization was expected to declare Haiti cholera-free this year.

    But on Oct. 2, Haitian officials announced that cholera had returned.

    At least 40 deaths and 1,700 suspected cases have been reported, but officials believe the numbers are much higher, especially in crowded and unsanitary slums and government shelters where thousands of Haitians live.

    Worsening the situation is a lack of fuel and water that began to dwindle last month when one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs surrounded a key fuel terminal and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Gas stations and businesses including water companies have closed, forcing an increasing number of people to rely on untreated water.

    Shela Jeune, a 21-year-old hot dog vendor whose 2-year-old son has cholera, said she buys small bags of water for her family but doesn’t know if it’s treated. She carried him to the hospital where he remains on IV fluids.

    “Everything I give him to eat, he just throws it up,” she said.

    Jeune was among dozens of mothers seeking treatment for their children on a recent morning.

    Lauriol Chantal, 43, recounted a similar story. Her 15-year-old son would vomit as soon as he finished eating, prompting her to rush him to the treatment center.

    While at the center, her son, Alexandro François, told her he felt hot.

    “He said to me … ’Mama, could you take me outside to wash me or pour water over my head?’” she said.

    She obliged, but suddenly, he collapsed in her arms. The staff ran over to help.

    Children younger than age 14 make up half of cholera cases in Haiti, according to UNICEF, with officials warning that growing cases of severe malnutrition also make children more vulnerable to illness.

    Haiti’s poverty also has worsened the situation.

    “When you are unable to get safe drinking water by tap in your own home, when you don’t have soap or water purifying tablets and you have no access to health services, you may not survive cholera or other waterborne diseases,” said Bruno Maes, Haiti’s UNICEF representative.

    Perpety Juste, a 62-year-old grandmother, said one of her three grandchildren became ill this week as she fretted about how their situation might have led to her sickness.

    “We spent a lot of days without food, I cannot lie,” she said. “Nobody in my house has a job.”

    Juste, who lives with her husband, five children and three grandchildren, said she used to work as a house cleaner until the homeowners fled Haiti.

    The increasing demand for help is squeezing Doctors Without Borders and others as they struggle to care for patients with limited fuel.

    “It’s a nightmare for the population, and also for us,” said Jean-Marc Biquet, a project coordinator with the organization. “We have two more weeks of fuel.”

    Life is paralyzed for many Haitians, including Enfant, as she mourned her son’s death. She wants to bury him in her southern coastal hometown of Les Cayes, but cannot afford the 55,000 gourdes ($430) it would cost to transport his body.

    Enfant then fell quiet and gazed into the distance as she continued to sit next to her son’s body — too stunned, she said, to stand up.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.

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  • EU approves ban on new combustion-engine cars from 2035

    EU approves ban on new combustion-engine cars from 2035

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    BRUSSELS — The European Parliament and EU member countries have reached a deal to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars and vans by 2035.

    EU negotiators sealed on Thursday night the first agreement of the bloc’s “Fit for 55″ package set up by the Commission to achieve the EU’s climate goals of cutting emissions of the gases that cause global warming by 55% over this decade.

    The EU Parliament said the deal is a “clear signal ahead of the UN COP27 Climate Change Conference that the EU is serious about adopting concrete laws to reach the more ambitious targets set out in the EU Climate Law.”

    According to the bloc’s data, transport is the only sector where greenhouse gas emissions have increased in the past three decades, rising 33.5% between 1990 and 2019. Passenger cars are a major polluter, accounting for 61% of total CO2 emissions from EU road transport.

    The EU wants to drastically reduce gas emission from transportation by 2050 and promote electric cars, but a report from the bloc’s external auditor showed last year that the region is lacking the appropriate charging stations.

    “This is a historic decision as it sets for the first time a clear decarbonization pathway — with targets in 2025, 2030 and 2035 and aligned with our goal of climate neutrality by 2050,” boasted Pascal Canfin, the chair of the environment committee of the European Parliament. “This sector, which accounts for 16% of European emissions at the moment, will be carbon neutral by 2050.“

    World leaders agreed in Paris in 2015 to work to keep global temperatures from increasing more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and ideally no more than 1.5 degrees C (2.7 F) by the end of the century. Scientists even the less ambitious goal will be missed by a wide margin unless drastic steps are taken to reduce emissions.

    Greenpeace said the 2035 deadline is too late to limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

    “The EU is taking the scenic route, and that route ends in disaster,” said Greenpeace EU transport campaigner Lorelei Limousin. “A European 2035 phase-out of fossil fuel-burning cars is not quick enough: New cars with internal combustion engines should be banned by 2028 at the latest. The announcement is a perfect example of where politicians can bask in a feel-good headline that masks the reality of their repeated failures to act on climate.”

    The EU Parliament and member states will now have to formally approve the agreement before it comes into force.

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  • Crisis-stricken Cuba torn between ally Russia, neighbor U.S.

    Crisis-stricken Cuba torn between ally Russia, neighbor U.S.

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    HAVANA — When Hurricane Ian tore through western Cuba in late September, causing an island-wide blackout, it left the government grappling with a deepening energy crisis and simmering discontent among Cubans.

    It also once again thrust the Caribbean island into the middle of an escalating tug-of-war between its seaside neighbor, the United States, and ally, Russia.

    At a time when Cuba is urging the Biden administration to ease U.S. sanctions that it says stifle hurricane recovery efforts, Russian oil has flooded into the island, providing relief to debilitating blackouts.

    Russia has shipped an estimated $352 million in oil to Cuba since the start of the Ukraine war, the biggest inflow from Russia this century and enough to cover about half the shortfall in the island’s supplies, according to independent estimates. The sales also potentially alleviated the weight of international sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

    In an increasingly complex geopolitical situation, the island nation has been left with its hands tied.

    “(It leaves them) between a rock and a hard place,” said Richard LeoGrande, a professor at American University who has tracked Cuba for years. “Cuba can’t afford to alienate either side in what is shaping up to be a new Cold War.”

    But this time, 60 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba’s tough spot lies not in nuclear weapons, but rather its deepening energy crisis.

    Cuba has depended on foreign oil as its primary energy source for decades.

    Until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Soviets sold Cuba oil well below market price. Later, Cuba hatched a similar deal with socialist ally Venezuela at the height of its oil boom, sending Cuban medics in exchange for discounted petroleum.

    Since Venezuela has fallen into its own crisis, though, Cuba has been left short on both oil and a way to pay for it.

    Despite speculation that Venezuela may be fronting part of the costs, Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Cossío told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that “Cuba, of course, pays for the petroleum.”

    “Cuba has to buy petroleum for the well-being of the economy, and it’s willing to buy it from whoever sells it to us,” Cossío said.

    Meanwhile, key power plants slowly decayed over years of deferred maintenance. The Cuban government struggled to bolster its own energy sector and harness the island’s potential for solar and wind energy.

    The lack of investment is something the Caribbean nation blames on American sanctions meant to cripple the nation’s economy.

    “The blockade deprives Cuba of indispensable financial resources,” Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodríguez said at a recent news conference. “The national electric energy system is passing through an extremely grave situation that’s the result of these limitations.”

    The American embargo stretches back to the Cold War, though Cuba had a brief respite during the Obama administration. Restrictions came back into full force under the Trump administration, exacerbating economic turmoil caused by COVID-19.

    While President Joe Biden has eased certain sanctions, many of the measures have stayed in place. Rodríguez says that they have cost Cuba $3 billion in seven months.

    American officials and critics blame Cuba’s economic woes on mismanagement and failures to bolster its private sector.

    Preexisting economic turmoil and blackouts came to a head this fall when Cuba’s power grid took a double hit.

    In August, a crucial oil storage facility east of Havana caught fire, and in late September, Hurricane Ian tore through western Cuba, throwing the entire island into a blackout.

    The Category 3 hurricane left three dead, at least 14,000 homes destroyed and the energy system with long-term damage.

    Sporadic hours-long blackouts have fueled discontent, sparking small protests across the island, the first since larger protests in 2021. Many demonstrators last year were detained and issued harsh sentences.

    Meanwhile, the island is facing its biggest migratory exodus in decades.

    Cuba has found some respite in oil shipped in from Russia, which has been looking for new markets as international sanctions imposed for its invasion of Ukraine have cut it off from many other customers.

    Increased sales to China, India and even Cuba have helped Russia ease the economic brunt of sanctions. It’s likely also helped Cuba stay afloat, explained Jorge Piñon, senior research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Center, which tracks the shipments.

    “We know that Russian storage tanks are full. … They need to move that stuff,” Piñon said. “So good news for Cuba, and good news for Russia that Cuba is in that situation.”

    Russia has sent at least eight shipments totaling 4.3 million barrels of oil, mainly crude, to Cuba since the beginning of the Ukraine war, according to Piñon’s center. And Piñon noted two more shipments are on their way.

    Since the turn of the century, Russia had sent only two shipments to Cuba: one in 2017 worth $35.3 million and another in 2018 worth $55.8 million, according to U.N. Comtrade data.

    Russia has offered sharp discounts to other nations, though it’s unclear how much Cubans are paying or how they are doing so in the midst of their economic crisis.

    Cuba has also contracted at least four floating power plants from a Turkish company. They can be plugged into a power grid for an extra boost of energy. That helped ease the worst of the blackouts, but LeoGrande noted the ships were a patchwork investment, likely expensive, and not a long-term solution.

    At the same time, Cuba is among just a handful of countries in the United Nations to avoid condemning Russia for annexation of four regions of Ukraine. Rather, the Caribbean nation abstained from voting.

    “They need to maintain a good relationship with Russia,” said LeoGrande. “It’s just too important and a lifeline for them to put it at risk.”

    But Cuba’s hesitancy to denounce Russia on a global stage could complicate the slow thawing of its icy relationship with the U.S.

    While the Biden administration has not followed through on campaign promises to reverse Trump-era restrictions, both the August fire and the hurricane have opened up a conversation between the two governments.

    The Biden administration announced this month it would provide $2 million in hurricane relief to Cuba, following a Cuban appeal for assistance — though the administration made clear that the resources would be distributed through independent aid organizations instead of the Cuban government.

    In August, the American government also provided 43 fire suits to Cuba following the blaze in the oil storage facility.

    Rodríguez, Cuba’s foreign affairs minister, thanked the U.S. for the October offer over Twitter, saying it “will add up to our recovery efforts in support of the victims” of the hurricane.

    He was quick to add, however, that sanctions have hampered recovery efforts, calling them “a constant hurricane.”

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  • Inflation, gas prices looming over sports biz, concessions

    Inflation, gas prices looming over sports biz, concessions

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    CHICAGO — Dan Coyne makes an annual trip from his Pennsylvania home to watch the Chicago Bears with his brother, Dave, who has season tickets.

    The brothers got something to eat a couple hours before the game. Dave Coyne, 47, normally stays away from the concessions at Soldier Field, but “I only had to pay for myself tonight,” he said. “I didn’t have a kid or my wife with me.”

    That’s the calculus in play as fans balance their favorite sporting events — the games they missed desperately during the COVID-19 pandemic — with persistently high inflation and gas prices that loom over everything these days.

    U.S. inflation jumped 8.2% in September from a year ago, the government reported this month. That’s not far from a four-decade high of 9.1% in June. Higher prices for housing, food and medical care were among the largest contributors to the rise.

    Given the industry’s reliance on disposable income, the inflation numbers are a troubling sign for sports business leaders.

    “What’s historically accurate for teams is that they tend to try to take less on the ticketing side because once somebody comes in they typically will make up for it once they are inside,” said Ron Li, a senior vice president at Navigate, a data-driven consulting firm in sports and entertainment. “But with costs rising pretty much across the board after the turnstile, I think they have some decisions they need to make.”

    According to Team Marketing Report, the average cost for a family of four to attend a 2022 Major League Baseball game was $256.41, an increase of $3.04 from the previous season. The main engine behind the rise was the cost of tickets, with the average general ticket price increasing 3.6% to $35.93.

    Despite the jump in prices, Americans have largely kept up their spending, particularly on entertainment and other services like travel that they missed out on during the pandemic. Still, there are signs the solid spending won’t last: Credit card debt is rising and savings have declined as consumers, particularly low-income ones, have taken hits to their finances from the spike in inflation.

    Sitting on a bench in front of Soldier Field, about to watch his beloved Bears play in person, money wasn’t exactly a big concern for Corey Metzger.

    Or any concern, really.

    “This trip has been a long time in the making, and I’m splurging whatever I got to spend to make it happen,” said the 45-year-old Metzger, who works in law enforcement in Fargo, North Dakota.

    Casey Lynn, 43, a low-voltage technician from Minneapolis, and his wife, Lori, 44, a commercial lender, aren’t big football fans, but they decided to check out the Bears on a trip to Chicago. While Casey Lynn said he is bothered by the ticket surcharges, the couple didn’t want to pass on the opportunity to see the game.

    “The gas is a necessity. Electric’s a necessity. The sports isn’t a necessity,” he said. “But when in Rome, why not?”

    Of course, the cost of games often includes a trip to the concessions stands for a hot dog or a beer. Concessions typically have a higher profit margin for sports teams and providers, but increased costs for goods, transportation and labor have cut into those margins.

    The changes come after concessions companies were already profoundly impacted by the pandemic.

    “The whole model has been kind of disrupted in a pretty big way as we’re dealing with inflation of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30% when we have typically underwritten 2 or 3%,” said Jamie Obletz, president of Delaware North Sportservice. “And you can imagine the impact that that’s had on us and what it’s forced us to think about and do over the past six to 12 months, like a lot of companies.”

    Paul Pettas, a vice president with Sodexo Live!, estimated overall costs are up 10% to 15% over the past 12 to 24 months.

    “In reality, costs are up across the board, but we certainly try to do as much as we can to keep that down and not have that affect the average fan or guest who comes to our events,” he said.

    Concessions companies also are experiencing lingering issues with their supply chains, which have improved recently but remain a factor. Obletz recalled his company running out of peanuts midway through the 2021 World Series in Atlanta, so two workers drove a truck to another venue, loaded up and then drove through the night to get back to Truist Park.

    “Things are not great,” Obletz said. “They’re better than they were, it feels like, three to six months ago, and our hope is that it continues to improve.”

    The issues have forced concession companies to get creative in an effort to address the rising costs with minimal effect on consumers in terms of culinary options and price.

    Chefs are redesigning menus to replace items that face significant cost increases and consolidating other options. They are using analytics to examine portion sizes — do consumers need six chicken fingers or will five work instead? — and taking a closer look at their vendors.

    “There’s dozens of things like this that we’ve tried to do and are doing as we speak, trying very desperately to offset those pricing increases that we’re seeing,” Obletz said.

    Alison Birdwell, the president and CEO of Aramark Sports + Entertainment, said the company is leaning on analytics and its data science team “more than ever” when it comes to menu strategies and new concessions items.

    “With that guidance, we are working to give fans the items they’re looking for while simultaneously being efficient with our product and mitigating significant increases in cost,” Birdwell said in a statement to AP.

    ———

    AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

    ———

    For more AP coverage of the impact of inflation: https://apnews.com/hub/inflation And for more AP sports coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • California carbon emissions fell 9% in pandemic’s 1st year

    California carbon emissions fell 9% in pandemic’s 1st year

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s planet-warming emissions dropped nearly 9% in 2020 compared to the year before as pandemic restrictions kept people at home, out of their cars and away from the workplace for much of the year.

    The data released Wednesday marks California’s largest single-year emissions drop and tracks with a similar reduction nationwide. An official cautioned that the data can’t be used as a marker for future trends because the pandemic caused unprecedented yet temporary economic changes.

    “This year will be looked at as an outlier,” Steven Cliff, executive officer for the California Air Resources Board, told reporters ahead of the data’s release.

    Indeed, data from the Global Carbon Project pointed to a rebound in global emissions 2021 once pandemic restrictions across the world began to ease.

    Much of the drop came from fewer people driving in the first months of the pandemic, when schools and office buildings shut down and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered people to stay home. Emissions from passenger cars, delivery trucks and other forms of transportation are by far California’s largest source and the most stubborn to crack. But they fell by 16% in 2020, according to the air board.

    Miles driven in light-duty passenger cars dropped a steep 44% in April 2020 compared to the same month the year before, said Nicole Dolney, head of the air board’s emissions inventory branch.

    Elsewhere, industrial emissions fell 9% as demand for oil and gas production and refining fell. Residential and commercial emissions fell 4%, likely because warmer weather meant homes and businesses turned their heaters on less, she said.

    California is at the forefront in many areas of U.S. climate policy, adopting some of the earliest and most aggressive targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change. By 2045, the state has committed to carbon neutrality, to be achieved by drastically lowering emissions from vehicles, buildings and other sources, and relying on technology to suck the remaining carbon out of the air.

    At Newsom’s direction, the air board recently passed a policy to end the sale of most new gas-powered cars in the state by 2045.

    Altogether, California has some of the lowest per capita emissions among states. In 2020, the state accounted for about 6% of total U.S. emissions, based on comparisons to EPA data. But the state, with roughly 39 million people, is home to 12% of the country’s population.

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  • Saudi oil giant Aramco unveils $1.5B sustainability fund

    Saudi oil giant Aramco unveils $1.5B sustainability fund

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    Saudi oil and gas company Aramco unveiled a $1.5 billion fund on Wednesday for sustainable investments, part of efforts to burnish the state-owned company’s green credentials in an announcement ahead of the U.N. climate conference next month in Egypt.

    Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said at an investment conference in Saudi Arabia that the fund will focus on “breakthrough technologies that are important and startups that will help us to address climate change.”

    Nasser billed the fund as one of the world’s biggest sustainability-focused venture capital funds and said it would invest globally and launch immediately. He spoke at Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative meeting, sometimes known as “Davos in the Desert,” a comparison to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting of corporate bigwigs and world leaders in the Swiss Alps.

    Aramco is one of the largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters. Environmentalists have long accused oil and gas companies of using climate-friendly pledges to “greenwash” their polluting activities.

    One area Aramco’s fund will focus on is carbon capture and storage, which involves sucking heat-trapping carbon dioxide from factory smokestacks and storing it underground.

    Climate experts, however, warn the technology is risky, unproven and expensive and could be used to delay the phaseout of fossil fuels. Others say all untested solutions should be pursued given how little time there is left to meet U.N. emissions-cutting goals.

    Other investment themes the fund will target include greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, nature-based climate solutions, digital sustainability, hydrogen, ammonia and synthetic fuels.

    Aramco has committed to reaching net zero operational emissions by 2050, but that only accounts for a fraction of the company’s total emissions. It does not include the carbon dioxide released by the burning of fossil fuels that the company produces.

    Oil companies have been using “green-sounding ‘net-zero by 2050’ pledges” to justify technological fixes that will allow them to “keep on digging up and selling oil and gas,” said Pascoe Sabido, a researcher specializing in the energy and climate sector at Corporate Europe Observatory, which investigates European Union business lobbying.

    “Aramco’s sustainability fund has nothing to with fighting climate change and everything to do with extending the life of its fossil fuel business,” he said.

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been trying to diversify the economy away from oil revenue, though the government continues to rely heavily on crude exports.

    The U.N. climate conference, known as COP27, will hold negotiations aimed at limiting global temperature increases next month in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

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    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • Six takeaways from the Pennsylvania Senate debate between Fetterman and Oz | CNN Politics

    Six takeaways from the Pennsylvania Senate debate between Fetterman and Oz | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The first and only debate between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz quickly devolved into a series of personal and biting attacks in what has become the highest stakes Senate race in the country.

    Throughout the night, Fetterman’s delivery was at times halting and repetitive, with the Democrat – who suffered a stroke in May – dropping words during answers and occasionally losing his train of thought. Much of the attention heading into the debate was on Fetterman’s ongoing recovery and how his struggle with auditory processing and speech could impact a debate against someone who rose to national prominence hosting a syndicated television show.

    But the debate also emphasized the deep policy differences between the candidates, with the two candidates sparring over energy policy, abortion and the economy.

    Oz clearly entered the debate hoping to cast Fetterman as someone too extreme to represent Pennsylvania, using the term “extreme” countless times to describe several the Democrat’s positions. And Fetterman, in an effort to quickly negate many of criticisms, used the phrase the “Oz rule” to describe his opponent’s relationship with the truth.

    Here are six takeaways from Tuesday night’s debate:

    Fetterman struggled to detail his position on fracking, given he once said he never supported the industry and “never” will.

    Oz came prepared on the issue, hitting Fetterman when asked about it.

    “He supports Biden’s desire to ban fracking on public lands, which are our lands, all of our lands together,” Oz said. “This is an extreme position on energy. If we unleashed our energy here in Pennsylvania, it would help everybody.”

    When Oz raised Fetterman’s comments about fracking, Fetterman pushed back.

    “I absolutely support fracking,” Fetterman said. “I believe that we need independence with energy and I believe I have walked that line my entire career.”

    He added, “I have always supported fracking and I always believe independence with our energy is critical.”

    But that isn’t true – Fetterman has a long history of antipathy toward the practice of injecting water into shale formations to free up deposits of oil and natural gas that were not economically accessible before.

    “I don’t support fracking at all and I never have,” Fetterman told a left-wing YouTube channel in 2018 when running for lieutenant governor. “And I’ve, I’ve signed the no fossil fuels money pledge. I have never received a dime from any natural gas or oil company whatsoever.”

    When the moderators noted that position, Fetterman appeared at a loss for words.

    “I do support fracking and I don’t, I don’t, I support fracking and I stand and I do support fracking,” Fetterman said.

    Oz has declined for weeks to give a firm answer about how he would vote on a bill proposed South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

    And this debate was no different.

    “There should not be involvement from the federal government in how states decide their abortion decisions,” Oz said when asked about abortion, before turning the issue on Fetterman and calling him “radical” and “extreme.”

    But when directly asked how he would vote on the Graham bill, Oz declined to answer, claiming he was giving a bigger answer by saying he was “not going to support federal rules that block the ability of states to do what they wish to do.”

    The lack of an answer gave Fetterman an opening.

    “I want to look into the face of every woman in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said. “You know, if you believe that the choice of your reproductive freedom belongs with Dr. Oz then you have a choice. But if you believe that the choice for abortion belongs with you and your doctor, that’s what I fight for. Roe v Wade for me is, should be the law.”

    Fetterman, however, went beyond that position during the primary.

    When asked by CNN whether he supported “any restrictions on abortion,” Fetterman said he did not. He took a similar position during a primary debate.

    Oz used the moment, again, to call Fetterman out, saying it was “important” for Fetterman to “at least acknowledge” that he had taken another position on abortion.

    But it was an Oz comment that Democrats, including the Fetterman campaign, have seized on after the debate.

    Oz said he thought the debate about abortion should be left to “women, doctors, local political leaders,” a continuation of his argument that states, not the federal government should decide the issue.

    Top Democrats see the comment as an opening to link Oz with Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, a state senator who introduced a 2019 bill that would require physicians to determine if a fetal heartbeat is present prior to an abortion and prohibit the procedure if a heartbeat is detected.

    Their argument: Oz thinks politicians like Mastriano – either as state senator or possibly as governor – should decide the issue.

    The Fetterman campaign announced after the debate it would put money behind an ad highlighting the Oz comment.

    The Fetterman campaign went to great lengths to avoid debating – until the criticism from editorial boards, the Oz campaign and others became too untenable to keep resisting.

    After watching the debate in Harrisburg, even though Fetterman’s speech has shown signs of considerable improvement with every passing week since his May stroke, it’s an open question whether it was a wise decision to put him on the stage with Oz. It was, at many points, difficult to watch.

    Most, if not all, Democrats will almost certainly give him the benefit of the doubt, but it’s an open question whether voters will.

    Fetterman struggled to prosecute a consistent case against Oz and to keep up with the speed of the hourlong debate. Oz, for his part, rarely talked about his rival’s recovery from a May stroke. Of course, he didn’t have to.

    If any Pennsylvania voters missed the debate, not to worry.

    There’s sure to be millions of dollars’ worth of new ads – replaying many of the uncomfortable moments – from the top Republican super PAC that doubled down on the race earlier Tuesday.

    Do debates matter? In less than two weeks, Pennsylvania voters will help answer that question. But this one will certainly reverberate for the rest of the campaign.

    In an age when politicians are being careful about how they embrace President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, that caution was not on display Tuesday night.

    When asked if he would back Trump in 2024, Oz – who received Trump’s endorsement during the contentious Republican primary in the commonwealth – said, “I will support whoever the Republican party puts up.”

    “I would support Donald Trump if he decided to run for president, but this is bigger than one candidate,” Oz said.

    And for his part, Fetterman did not run away from Biden, who has made Pennsylvania – which he flipped back to Democrats in 2020 – one of the few states he has repeatedly visited during the 2022 midterms.

    “If he does choose to run, I would absolutely support him, but ultimately, that’s ultimately only his choice,” Fetterman said. “At the end of the day, I believe Joe Biden is a good family man, and I believe he stands for the union way of life.”

    It was clear Oz was more comfortable than Fetterman on the debate stage – something Fetterman aides expected and attempted to highlight ahead of time with a pre-debate memo noting, “Dr. Oz has been a professional TV personality for the last two decades.”

    But the differences were apparent from the outset.

    Democratic Pennsylvania candidate Lt. Gov. John Fetterman participates in the Nexstar Pennsylvania Senate at WHTM abc27 in Harrisburg, Pa., on Tuesday, October 25, 2022.

    Fetterman appeared nervous on stage, drawing a sharp contrast with Oz, who was at ease, often smiling and seemingly comfortable.

    Fetterman attempted to hit back at Oz’s near constant barbs, at times interrupting while the candidate was answering – most noticeably during the closing arguments.

    “You want to cut Social Security,” Fetterman interjected as Oz was speaking about meeting seniors worried about their Social Security checks.

    Oz kept speaking, as moderator WPXI anchor Lisa Sylvester chimed in, “Mr. Fetterman, it’s his turn for his closing.”

    Oz avoided attacking Fetterman’s stroke recovery, a move that was out of step with his campaign, which at times used a mocking tone to attack the Democrat. But Oz did point out that his opponent only agreed to take the debate stage once.

    “This is the only debate I could get you to come to talk to me on, and I had to beg on my knees to get you to come in,” Oz said.

    Fetterman again declined to release more medical information beyond the two letters his primary doctors have put out. Most recently, Fetterman’s doctor wrote that the Democrat “has no work restrictions and can work full duty in public office.”

    Fetterman said he deferred to his “real doctors” on whether to release more medical information, a subtle dig at Oz, and stressed his presence on the stage and activity on the campaign trail was proof enough that he was fit for the job.

    “Transparency is about showing up. I’m here today to have a debate. I have speeches in front of 3,000 people in Montgomery County, all across Pennsylvania, big, big crowds,” Fetterman said. “You know, I believe If my doctor believes that I’m fit to serve, and that’s what I believe is appropriate.”

    When pressed by moderator WHTM abc27 News anchor Dennis Owens, Fetterman replied, “My doctor believes I’m fit to be serving.”

    This story has been updated with more from the debate.

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