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POLITICAL TALKSFollowing oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2019, Chevron received an exemption to trade its Venezuelan crude to recoup pending debts. Chevron's four PDVSA joint ventures produced about 200,000 barrels per day of crude oil and exported the crude around the world prior to the sanctions. It also allows the U.S. company to import supplies to help process the country's crude oil into exportable grades. That limits any wider expansion of Venezuelan oil production. Chevron and other U.S. oil refiners could benefit from supplies of Venezuela's heavy crude flowing to their U.S. Gulf Coast processing plants.

The decision allows Chevron to revive existing oil projects in the U.S.-sanctioned country and bring new oil supplies to refiners in the United States. However, it restricts cash payments to Venezuela, which could reduce the amount of oil available to Chevron. License terms are designed to prevent Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA from receiving proceeds from Chevron's Venezuelan petroleum sales, U.S. officials said. A Chevron spokesperson said the company was reviewing the license terms and declined immediate comment. Proceeds due Venezuela from Chevron's oil sales would go into a humanitarian fund rather than to PDVSA.

☆ No kissing in Qatar? Fears grow of crackdown on LGBTQ fans at World Cup
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Matt Lavietes | Matt Lavietes Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

More than a million soccer fans from around the world are expected to gather in Qatar for next month's FIFA World Cup, but as the global competition nears, concerns over how the Gulf nation will treat its LGBTQ visitors are rising. “These are the basic rights that should be afforded to all and will ensure continued progress in Qatar,” one of the players said. But for years, the Gulf nation's government and FIFA have sought to reassure fans that LGBTQ fans are welcome and will be safe attending the World Cup. Scrutiny over how Qatar treats its own LGBTQ people has also gained traction in the lead-up to the World Cup. Rasha Younes, a researcher who studies LGBTQ rights in the Middle East and North Africa for Human Rights Watch and author of the new report, said she hopes that the displays of LGBTQ solidarity will influence Qatar's domestic policies.

Almost six weeks after the death of Mahsa Amini, the unrest in Iran shows little sign of abating. Defying security forces, thousands marched to her grave in the northwestern city of Saqqez on Wednesday, as crowds clashed with security forces on the streets of the capital, Tehran, and several other major metropolitan areas. Wednesday was 40 days since Amini's death after she was detained by morality police last month. “Freedom, freedom! A crowd chants "Freedom, freedom!

☆ Analysis: Despite tax U-turn, UK's Hunt still faces tough budget choices
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( William Schomberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The screeching about-turn on tax cuts by finance minister Jeremy Hunt on Monday will not spare Britain from painful spending cuts and new tax hikes to fix the country's public finances. Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think-tank, said Monday's tax cuts U-turn was relatively simple compared with the balance Hunt must strike between more tax increases and spending cuts over the next two weeks. Hunt said the tax U-turns announced so far would raise about 32 billion pounds a year in extra revenues. That was 40 billion pounds above the level needed to cut debt as a share of the economy which currently is about 97%. "With tens of billions of spending cuts still to come, and a new energy support package needing to be devised, many of Jeremy Hunt's tough choices still lie ahead," Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said.

☆ U.K.'s new finance chief warns of 'difficult decisions ahead' amid political and market turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Leila Sackur | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON — The U.K.'s new finance minister warned of “difficult decisions ahead” on Saturday, the morning after he had replaced his predecessor who was only 38 days into the job. Warning of “difficult decisions ahead” Hunt told British broadcaster Sky News: “Some taxes will not be cut as quickly as people would want, some taxes will go up.” (Sky News is owned by Comcast, the parent company of NBC News.) Kwarteng became the second shortest-serving chancellor of the exchequer, as the British finance minister is known. Britain's Prime Minister Liz Truss at a news conference on Friday. Truss is Britain’s third prime minister in six years.

☆ After poll on the day of presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova
▼ + stars: | 2020-10-29 | by ( ) www.ipn.md time to read: +5 min

After poll on the day of presidential elections in the Republic of MoldovaPress releaseAfter poll on the day of presidential elections in the Republic of MoldovaThe WatchDog.md Community, the Institute for Public Policy (IPP) and an initiative group of civic activists initiated the holding of an exit-poll on the day of the presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova, of November 1. The project is financed by the European Endowment for Democracy and the Embassy of the Netherlands in the Republic of Moldova. The poll will be carried out on November 1, between 12:30pm and 9:30pm, among citizens aged 18 and up with the right to vote, who are in the Republic of Moldova. The organizers of the poll specify that they will not save respondents’ phone numbers in any database. Arcadie Barbăroșie, executive director of IPP: “For the first time the exit-poll was held in the Republic of Moldova at the parliamentary elections of 2005.

Persons: Barbăroșie, ” Vasile Cantarji, ” Victor Ciobanu, “, ” Ștefan, ” Valeriu, – Organizations: Republic of Moldova Press, Institute for Public Policy, European Endowment for Democracy, Embassy of, CBS, Research, of Sociological Investigations, Marketing, IPP, CEC, Red, of, Summit, Conference Center, IPN News Agency, IPN Locations: Republic of Moldova, Netherlands, Chisinau

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