Bits n’ pieces from east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact.

A recent sampling:

President Biden recently signed his first veto: he rejected a bill that would have prevented managers of retirement funds to consider environmental impacts, such as climate change, CNN said.

If high credit card late fees ($41) are not lowered to $8, which is being pursued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, look to 17 Republican House members, says The Lever. They wrote to federal regulators opposing lower fees; those fees cost card-holders $12 billion in 2020, according to the CFPB.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s president and commissioner of children’s rights. They are accused of war crimes for kidnapping Ukrainian children. Russia claims their relocation of the children was patriotic and humanitarian.

Newsweek reported that a former Russian president is threatening retaliatory missiles against the ICC, located in the Netherlands.

South Carolina lawmakers have proposed executing women who have abortions (H. 3549), with no exceptions for rape or incest, various media said. One recorded comment: this is “your pro-life GOP.”

A Florida man was sentenced to 400 years but released after 34 years, ABC News said. The now-57-year-old man was convicted of being a driver in an armed robbery. In re-examining the case, the state’s Conviction Review Unit found “no evidence” connecting the man to the robbery.

The Biden Administration announced approval of the Willow ConocoPhillips oil drilling project in Alaska.

The Guardian called the project a “carbon bomb.” Pressure to approve Willow came from Alaskan native and Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola, who cited the need for jobs. As well, White House officials concluded the oil company would win in court to fulfill its lease. It would be an estimated six years before oil is produced. Given rapid increases in clean energy production, The Guardian said Willow is “weirdly incongruous,” like “investing big time in fax machines or cassette players.”

A perspective on oil and gas prices: while their profits surged, fossil fuel corporations increased production only 2%, despite Europe wanting to buy other than from Russia. Energy companies and their investors are not sure prices will stay high long enough for them to make a profit from drilling new wells, The New York Times reported.

According to a Federal Reserve Bank survey of 141 oil companies, 60% of those surveyed said “investors don’t want companies to produce a lot more oil” since it “will hasten the end of high oil prices.” And they need $56 a barrel to “break even.”

President Biden is encouraging Congress to allow regulators to impose stronger penalties on executives of failed banks, including recovering compensation for senior bankers of those banks, and simplifying their removal from the banking industry, AP reported.

The recently failed Silicon Valley Bank’s CEO sold $3 million worth of bank shares days before the bank collapsed.

Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she thinks Jerome Powell should not chair the Federal Reserve. Her reasons: he has sacrificed employment to lower inflation, did not hinder banking de-regulation and raised interest rates which were linked to the collapse of two banks.

Donald Trump wants people to protest criminal charges against him regarding hush money during his 2016 presidential campaign, Politico said.

Newsweek’s report on Georgia’s grand jury investigation of Trump’s electoral interference there included a juror saying “if every person in America knew every single word of information we knew, this country would not be as divided as it is right now.”

Fox News Corporation faces another defamation lawsuit for $2.7 billion by election tech company Smartmatic, according to The Guardian. The Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit asks for $1.6 billion.

A Fox News producer has also filed suit against Fox, saying she was coerced into giving misleading deposition testimony.

Smartmatic claims Fox News made over 100 false statements about their involvement with the 2020 election, using “actual malice,” which led to lost business.

With former President Jimmy Carter in hospice care, 85-year-old politician Ben Barnes recently decided to share a secret with The New York Times: he was part of a team in 1980 that delivered a message to Iranian leaders on behalf of Ronald Reagan’s campaign: do not release 52 American hostages until after fall’s presidential election. The goal was to make Carter appear ineffective and boost Reagan’s chances of gaining office.

Reagan won, and the hostages were let go upon his inauguration.

Blast from the past: Twenty years ago America’s Iraq occupation began. Iraq’s anger with the U.S. was illustrated when an Iraqi journalist threw a shoe at visitor Bush, saying “This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog!” He then lobbed another shoe: “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”

Today that journalist says that, while the Americans are gone, Iraq’s problems have compounded, and militias flourish. Bush’s presence in Iraq had purpose: a first-draft author of Bush’s autobiography told a reporter in 2004 that Bush told him “if I have a chance to invade Iraq…I’m not going to waste it.” He saw being a war-time commander-in-chief as key to a successful presidency. A Princeton human rights scholar says the U.S. being in Iraq was “disastrous aggression.”