Month: June 2022

The average cost of a gallon of gas, or petrol, is hovering near $5 (£4), up from roughly $3 a year ago.

With national elections for Congress coming in November, Mr Biden is under pressure to respond.

Analysts say that removing the levy would have a limited impact on household petrol and diesel costs.

Political support for the gas tax holiday, which would require an act of Congress, is also uncertain.

A top Republican senator on Wednesday dismissed it as a “gimmick,” saying that the proposal is “dead on arrival”, while members of Mr Biden’s own party have voiced concerns that the move would primarily benefit oil and gas firms.

Mr Biden said policymakers should do what is in their power to try to ease the strain on families, calling on companies to pass on “every penny” in savings to the public.

“I fully understand that a gas tax holiday alone is not going to fix the problem,” he said. “But it will provide families some immediate relief, just a little bit of breathing room as we continue working to bring down prices for the long haul”.

Currently, the US imposes a tax of roughly 18 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24 cents on diesel, using the money collected to help pay for highway infrastructure.

Eliminating the levy through September, as Mr Biden has proposed, would cost the government an estimated $10bn.

The move is the latest effort from countries around the world to address the soaring energy costs.

Oil prices have surged since last year, as demand outstrips supplies constrained by cuts that many firms made after the pandemic hit in 2020 and prompted demand to crater.

As the war in Ukraine pushes Western countries to shun oil from Russia – a major energy producer – that has also contributed to the crunch.

The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers industry group said a gas tax holiday would provide “near-term relief but it won’t solve the root of the issue – the imbalance in supply and demand for petroleum products”.

For American consumers, the holiday would likely yield just “a few cents” in savings, economist Jason Furman, who advised former president Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter ahead of the president’s announcement.

“Whatever you thought of the merits of a gas tax holiday in February, it is a worse idea now,” he said, adding that any price reduction would likely boost demand, pushing prices back up.

New Yorker Daniel Moran was at the gas pump on Wednesday, filling up his RV ahead of this weekend when he is taking his family on a camping trip.

Normally, his family plans at least two or three such excursions over the summer. But this year, he said, the surging gas prices will likely limit them to just one. He handed over $80 to the station attendant, shaking his head.

“That’s not even half a tank,” the 52-year-old said. “It’s so difficult.”

Mr Moran, who owns a tire shop in Brooklyn, said he was sceptical that suspension of the national gasoline tax would make a difference, noting that New York had already put in place a similar policy for its state gasoline tax.

“It’s still going higher,” he said, nodding toward the station sign, where prices were posted well north of $5 a gallon. “I would like to see some prices getting reduced but I know it’s almost impossible.”

Mr Biden has already taken steps like releasing unprecedented amounts of oil from national stockpiles and lifting taxes on imports of solar panels.

As well as suspending the national gasoline tax, Mr Biden is urging similar steps by state governments, which typically impose their own taxes, often higher than the federal government’s.

Some states, including New York, have already suspended those charges.

The president, who has intensified his criticism of oil and gas companies in recent weeks, also called on the industry to increase output and refining capacity, while directing some of his pleas to gas station owners across the country.

“These are not normal times,” he said, pointing to the war in Ukraine and noting that oil prices have retreated from earlier highs. “Bring down the cost at the pump to reflect the price you are paying for the product. Do it now, do it today”.

There is little political momentum in the US for funding relief for households through something like the UK’s recently announced windfall tax on energy company profits.

In a note, Goldman Sachs analyst Alec Phillips said Mr Biden’s proposal was interesting “for what it omits”, pointing to alternative moves – such as easing regulation for refining firms or easing rules to allow foreign ships to transport fuel between ports within the US – that might bring down costs.

“We note that these likely would have met opposition from environmentalists, labour unions, and/or the agricultural sector, whereas a tax suspension does not affect any particular constituency,” he wrote.

The price of gasoline in the US is already lower than in many other countries, amounting to about $1.32 per litre or 108p per litre, compared to more than 180p per litre in the UK.

More than 1,000 people have been killed and at least 1,500 injured. Unknown numbers are buried in the rubble of ruined, often mud-built homes.

South eastern Paktika province has been worst-hit and the UN is scrambling to provide emergency shelter and food aid.

Rescue efforts are being hampered by heavy rain and lack of resources.

Survivors and rescuers have told the BBC of villages completely destroyed near the epicentre of the quake, of ruined roads and mobile phone towers – and of their fears that the death toll will rise further.

The deadliest earthquake to strike the country in two decades is a major challenge for the Taliban, the Islamist movement which regained power last year after the Western-backed government collapsed.

The earthquake struck about 44km (27 miles) from the city of Khost and tremors were felt as far away as Pakistan and India.

Afghanistan is in the midst of a humanitarian and economic crisis, and Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a senior Taliban official, said the government was “financially unable to assist the people to the extent that is needed”.

Aid agencies, neighbouring countries and world powers were helping, he said, but added: “The assistance needs to be scaled up to a very large extent because this is a devastating earthquake which hasn’t been experienced in decades.”

The head of the United Nations, António Guterres said the agency had “fully mobilized” over the disaster. Health teams, medical supplies, food, and emergency shelters were en route to the quake zone, UN officials said.

Read more about Afghanistan

Most of the casualties so far have been in the Gayan and Barmal districts of Paktika. A whole village in Gayan has reportedly been destroyed.

“There was a rumbling and my bed began to shake”, one survivor, Shabir, told the BBC.

“The ceiling fell down. I was trapped, but I could see the sky. My shoulder was dislocated, my head was hurt but I got out. I am sure that seven or nine people from my family, who were in the same room as me, are dead”.

A doctor in Paktika said medical workers were among the victims.

“We didn’t have enough people and facilities before the earthquake, and now the earthquake has ruined the little we had,” the medic said. “I don’t know how many of our colleagues are still alive.”

Communication following the quake is difficult because of damage to mobile phone towers and the death toll could rise further still, a local journalist in the area told the BBC.

“Many people are not aware of the well-being of their relatives because their phones are not working,” he said. “My brother and his family died, and I just learned it after many hours. Many villages have been destroyed.”

Afghanistan is prone to quakes, as it is located in a tectonically active region, over a number of fault lines including the Chaman fault, the Hari Rud fault, the Central Badakhshan fault and the Darvaz fault.

Over the past decade more than 7,000 people have been killed in earthquakes in the country, the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports. There are an average of 560 deaths a year from earthquakes.

Most recently, back-to-back earthquakes in the country’s west in January killed more than 20 people and destroyed hundreds of houses.

Even before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan’s emergency services were stretched to deal with natural disasters – with few aircraft and helicopters available to rescuers.

But more recently, the country has experienced a shortage of medical supplies.

According to the UN, 93% of households in Afghanistan suffer food insecurity. Lucien Christen, from the Red Cross, said Afghanistan’s “dire economic situation” meant “they’re [Afghan families] not able to put food on the table”.

Remaining paper £20 or £50 notes should be spent or deposited by the end of September, the Bank of England said.

An estimated 163 million paper £50 banknotes and about 314 million £20 paper notes were still in circulation, the Bank said.

These notes are being replaced with plastic versions, just like the £5 and £10 note, which are more durable.

The Bank said the newer, polymer notes are also harder to counterfeit.

“The majority of paper banknotes have now been taken out of circulation, but a significant number remain in the economy, so we’re asking you to check if you have any at home,” said the Bank’s chief cashier, Sarah John, whose signature is on the new notes.

From October, people with a UK bank account will still be able to deposit the paper notes into their account or at the Post Office, but spending them will be impossible.

Paper £20 and £50 notes issued by Clydesdale Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland will also be withdrawn on the same date.

The paper £20 notes issued by Bank of Ireland, AIB Group, Danske Bank, and Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland will also be withdrawn after 30 September.

The Bank of England’s paper £20 featuring economist Adam Smith has been in circulation since 2007, but has been gradually replaced by the plastic version which includes the work and portrait of artist JMW Turner.

Also being withdrawn is the paper £50 note which shows the manufacturers Matthew Boulton and James Watt. This entered circulation in 2011 but is now substituted for the polymer note featuring Alan Turing.

He helped accelerate Allied efforts to read German Naval messages enciphered with the Enigma machine, and so shortening World War Two and saving lives. He was also pivotal in the development of early computers, first at the National Physical Laboratory and later at the University of Manchester.

Turing was gay at a time when homosexuality was illegal and he was convicted for having a relationship with a man.

His appearance on the new £50 note has been welcomed by parts of the LGBT+ community as a symbol of a country facing up to the way gay men were persecuted.

The polymer fiver featuring Winston Churchill launched in 2016, and the plastic £10 note including the portrait of Jane Austen was first issued in 2017.

All old paper banknotes can be exchanged by the Bank of England at any time.

The speaker of Arizona’s statehouse, Rusty Bowers, told the committee probing last year’s Capitol riot that the harassment continues to this day.

A Georgia voter counter said she was afraid to leave home after ex-President Donald Trump specifically targeted her.

The House of Representatives panel accuses Mr Trump of an attempted coup.

The select committee has conducted a nearly yearlong investigation into how Trump supporters invaded Congress on 6 January 2021 to disrupt lawmakers as they certified Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.

On Tuesday, in the fourth public hearing so far, the panel heard from election workers in the states of Arizona and Georgia. Mr Biden defeated Mr Trump in both states, which had previously backed Republicans for the White House.

“We received… in excess of 20,000 emails and tens of thousands of voice mails and texts, which saturated our offices and we were unable to work, at least communicate,” Mr Bowers, speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, told the select committee.

The witness – who campaigned for Mr Trump in 2020 – said the threats and insults have continued with protesters outside his house attempting to smear him as a paedophile.

“It was disturbing, it was disturbing,” Mr Bowers said.

He recalled Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani at one point telling him: “We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence.”

The panel also heard testimony from Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who became the targets of conspiracy theories in their jobs as election workers in Fulton County, Georgia.

Although Mr Biden won the state by nearly 12,000 votes, Mr Trump and his supporters spread unfounded claims of mass voter fraud.

In recorded messages, Mr Trump had called Ms Moss “a professional vote-scammer and hustler”, alleging the mother-daughter duo cheated to help Democrats.

“I’ve lost my name, I’ve lost my reputation, I’ve lost my sense of security,” Ms Freeman said through tears, in video presented by the committee on Tuesday.

“Do you know what it feels like to have the president of the United States target you?”

Ms Moss said she faced “a lot of threats wishing death upon me”, and that the harassment – including racial abuse – had “turned my life upside down”.

“I no longer give out my business card. I don’t want anyone knowing my name.”

Ms Moss said she is reluctant to go anywhere, including the supermarket, and has gained about 60lb (27kg) in weight.

She told the committee that Trump supporters had visited her grandmother’s home, looking for her and hoping to make a “citizen’s arrest”.

Lawmakers also heard from Republican poll organisers in Georgia about their difficulty in stamping out conspiracies fanned by Mr Trump.

Gabriel Sterling, a top election official in Georgia, told the committee that fighting the election scam claims “was like a shovel trying to empty the ocean”.

His boss – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom Mr Trump repeatedly pressed to “find” the votes he needed to win the state – ticked through a laundry list of allegations made by the Trump team in legal action against the state.

“In their lawsuits, they alleged 10,315 dead people [voted],” Mr Raffensperger said, but a thorough review found a total of only four.

The secretary said further investigation had debunked other claims about illegal votes by underage and non-registered voters, as well as convicts.

“We had many allegations and we investigated every single one of them.”

The hearings have attempted to tie the former president directly to the efforts to overturn the election.

At Tuesday’s hearing, the committee chairman Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, said: “A handful of election officials in several key states stood between Donald Trump and the upending of American democracy.”

His deputy on the committee, Liz Cheney, a Republican, said: “We cannot let America become a nation of conspiracy theories and thug violence.”