Washington ends bond payments waiver, pushing Russia towards a technical default
The US Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that it would not extend the sanctions waiver that allowed Russia to make sovereign debt payments to Americans, in a move officials previously said would cause Moscow to be in technical default of its debt obligations.
The general license waiver, which is set to expire at 12:01 on Wednesday, will not be extended, said a notice posted on the Treasury website. It was a widely expected move, reported as likely by several US outlets last week and all but confirmed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Washington had blocked Russian accounts over the conflict in Ukraine, but issued a debt waiver because Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo argued such payments would divert funds from the military. Moscow’s payment of debts represented a “sign of success” for US sanctions policy, Adeyemo had argued.
Russia also anticipated the move, with the finance ministry announcing last Friday it had made early payments – for a total of $99.25 million – on two outstanding Eurobonds due on May 26. This leaves Moscow with $2 billion worth of external bond payments due before the end of 2022.
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US move to block debt payments will not affect Russia’s reputation – Medvedev
As of April 1, Russia had $57.143 billion worth of external public debt. It also has plenty of money to service it, with oil and gas revenues amounting to $28 billion in April alone, according to Reuters. The US move seeks to put Moscow in a “technical default,” harming Russia’s reputation on international financial markets.
“Russia is capable of repaying any of its obligations in any currency, as long as no artificial problems are created,” so the US obstacles “will not affect the real financial reputation of our country in any way,” former Russian president and current security council deputy chair Dmitry Medvedev said last week. “Everyone understands that this is a political default, not a financial one.”
If the US creates technical obstacles to Russian payments, they should be considered by courts as either the fault of the creditor or force majeure, Medvedev added. This has been the position of the Russian Finance Ministry, which said in case the US does not extend the waiver, investors should seek judicial remedy from states that “illegally create obstacles to making payments.”
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Debt default will hardly impact Russia – US Treasury
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has repeatedly said that Moscow can prove in court it had done everything possible to pay the debt. Investors holding Russian bonds can also take payments in rubles and convert them to other currencies as soon as Western governments unblock frozen Russian accounts, the ministry added.
Medvedev also said Russia was willing to pay the debt in rubles, but noted it might choose “not to pay at all and use the unspent money for precisely those purposes that those senile Americans will not like very much.”
MIAMI — Robert Williams returned to action Monday night after a one-game knee-related absence in Game 3, his fifth miss in the last eight games, and the difference was immediate.
With Williams in the paint, the heads of Heat players go on a swivel, and the fact they shot 29 percent in the Celtics’ Game 4 win was very much a credit to his defensive presence.
As usual, the Celtics listed Williams as questionable for Game 5 Wednesday night in Miami, and the drill is the same. The center is dealing with a bone bruise in his surgically-repaired left knee, and there’s been recurring swelling and soreness. But as of Tuesday, the evaluation continued.
“He copes with it well in the game last night. You never know until the next day or two,” said Ime Udoka “A lot of times the second day, which is obviously game day, where he has some of the pain. But he only played 18 and a half (minutes). But he played 19 in Game 2, so we truly don’t know until today when he lets us know how he feels, tomorrow as well. With swelling and pain it’s literally day to day. Hopeful for the best, but never know how his body responds to it.”
Williams had 12 points and nine rebounds in his 19-minute stint in Game 4.
“Obviously a great feeling being out there, being back with my guys. The knee felt great, feels good. Obviously just take a look at it tomorrow and see how it’s feeling recovery-wise,” he said. “It’s just swelling a little bit, stiffening up on me a little. Taking it day by day, spending a lot of time with the trainers, obviously, throwing a lot of scenarios at it, see how it responds.
“We usually just wait until the next day to see if it’s swelling or anything. Like I said, though, coming out of this game, no doubts in my head. I feel good for it. But like I said, we’ll keep doing everything we can to make sure I get out there.”
In addition to Williams, Marcus Smart was also listed as questionable after missing Game 4 with a right ankle sprain. The designation is actually an upgrade, considering that Smart’s last designation was “out.”
Battle of wits
Udoka has been locked in a chess match with one of the league’s great masters – friend and fellow Portland, OR native Erik Spoelstra – in this series.
“Spo is a coach that you have to be prepared for a lot of things,” said Udoka. “The first part is the physicality, toughness, a well-coached team that’s not going to beat themselves, and so you kind of have to go out there and try to take it even more so and hope they’re going to make mistakes. And so, we want to be aggressive on both sides of the ball and he prepares this team extremely well for that. That’s what he’s built over all these years in Miami.
“That’s the first piece, but at the same time, he’ll do a lot of stuff; throw a lot of zones out there, presses, different things to get you off-kilter and you have to prepare for those things. So it’s a good back and forth. They’re a versatile team defensively that can do some different things and you have to be prepared for a bunch of different coverages.”
Scoring swings
The series has been marked by some big swings, but such is the nature of the 3-pointer era,
“I would say a big part of it is the scoring nowadays. Teams go on crazy runs. Defense, depending on the team, is more of a luxury at times,” said Udoka. “It’s not always a premium with every team, so a lot of times there’s these shootouts and they can get ugly pretty quickly. But with that being the NBA, long games, guys know they have a chance to get back in it.
“And so you’ve seen a lot of those so far. We try to pride ourselves on being consistent on the defensive end, which always gives us a chance. But like I said, we’ve been having these bad quarters in this series where the lead is stretched and then we fight our way back into it. But I would attribute it to that, more so the 3-point shooting, the streaks that people go on and kind of the progression of the game offensively for why you’re seeing some of these big leads and these big blowouts.”
In releasing “Exhausted! Workers Confront Extreme Heat and Wildfire Smoke in California,” Non-profit organization Climate Resolve places the spotlight back on essential workers and how climate change is affecting their lives. File photo: Logoboom, Shutter Stock, licensed.
LOS ANGELES, CA – During the COVID-19 pandemic, essential workers took the spotlight as they served households across the United States. However, essential workers today work in conditions that threaten their health. With the increasing frequency of hot days, essential workers can fall vulnerable to heat stress, heat strokes, dehydration, even death. And as an added burden, farmworkers endure inhaling contaminants and smoke from wildfires, and warehouse workers are exposed to air contaminants made more potent by extreme heat.
In releasing Exhausted! Workers Confront Extreme Heat and Wildfire Smoke in California, Climate Resolve places the spotlight back on essential workers and how climate change is affecting their lives.
The authors review the laws and regulations designed to protect workers – as well as the latest research on the economic, physical, and psychological impacts of working in extreme conditions.
Climate Resolve discovered profound gaps in the social systems intended to protect workers. The authors also made 18 recommendations for immediate action. These include:
Protecting both indoor and outdoor workers:
Create new insurance products for hazard pay and unworkable conditions
Design and build large-scale cooling projects in the built environment
Make home a safe haven
State agencies must coordinate their approach on extreme heat
Cal/OSHA must be sufficiently resourced in both funds and technical support
Improve communication on drinking-water
Expand independent monitoring
Fix Cal/OSHA’s communications problem
Environmental organizations must prioritize worker health and safety
Develop a Cal/OSHA database on heat-related workplace incidents
Improve air quality monitoring at the workplace
Fund organizations to assist workers
Specifically protecting outdoor workers:
Provide clean air refuges during wildfire smoke events
Make growers liable
Specifically protecting indoor workers:
Prioritize adoption of the Indoor Heat Illness Prevention Standard
Update the California Building Code to protect warehouse workers
Update international standards to include real-time indoor temperature and humidity monitoring
Prioritize research into worker productivity and absenteeism
“The best approach to ensuring worker health is to take the whole person into account. While it’s essential to improve conditions at the workplace, it is also vital to consider the worker’s home and community,” said David Eisenman M.D., Professor of Medicine and Public Health Director at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters. “People recover from extreme heat days at night. Workers need to be able to cool down their bodies overnight before returning to work the following day.”
In researching Exhausted! Workers Confront Extreme Heat and Wildfire Smoke in California, the authors interviewed the Warehouse Workers Resource Center and California Rural Legal Assistance, and workers themselves, who told story after story about employers who failed to help employees adapt to severe weather.
“We heard anecdotes of employers placing water far away and failing to provide adequate shade or cooling,” said Natalie Delgado of Climate Resolve. “Unfortunately, many employers have failed to comply with the law by failing to provide adequate shade or cooling.”
“Workers must have access to cool environments, water to stay hydrated, proper ventilation, and other safety measures if we want goods delivered and food to remain accessible in the United States,” said Marc Futernick M.D., Managing Editor of The Journal of Climate Change and Health.
The report was underwritten by Resilient Cities Catalyst and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation through the California Resilience Partnership.
About Climate Resolve
Climate Resolve (www.climateresolve.org) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that builds collaborations to champion equitable climate solutions. We connect communities, organizations and policymakers to address a global problem with local action. We inclusively develop practical initiatives that reduce climate pollution and prepare for climate impacts. Using our collective power to tackle climate change, we are creating a thriving California and inspiring others to act. Our purpose is a just and resilient future.
The City Limits Accountability Reporting Initiative for Youth (CLARIFY) is now accepting applications for its 2022 summer internship. This is a paid journalism training program for New York City high school students who will be entering either their junior or senior year of high school (11th and 12th grades) in the upcoming fall 2022 semester. Students graduating from high school this June are also eligible.
Launched by City Limits in 2014, CLARIFY teaches participants the ins-and-outs of reporting and news writing. Interns will spend five weeks learning a variety of skills: research, interviewing techniques, story structure, media ethics, photojournalism and more. They’ll apply these skills as they report on important issues impacting their own communities, with the goal of getting their reporting published in City Limits and in a student-created email newsletter, The CLARIFY Report. For the first time this summer, CLARIFY will be offering a pilot program for bilingual participants who will produce work for City Limits’ Spanish-language news initiative, Una Ciudad sin Límites.
Our previous youth interns have investigated implementation of the city’s plastic bag ban, examined the impact of the planned Second Avenue Subway expansion, and revealed how a key law in the city’s Vision Zero efforts failed to meet expectations. They’ve reported on persistent “litter hot spots” in the Bronx, the problems posed by the uptick in delivery truck traffic and the challenges New York faced in planning a COVID-19 vaccination program. They’ve covered community board meetings, press conferences at City Hall and interviewed countless lawmakers, advocates, activists and everyday New Yorkers. Click here to read more of our previous interns’ work.
The summer 2022 program will run for five weeks, from July 11 to Aug. 11. The Deadline to apply is June 10.
For more information and to submit an application, click here.
