AFP

President Joe Biden hailed a breakthrough Wednesday in getting a major chunk of his seemingly doomed healthcare and climate crisis agenda through Congress after Senate Democrats overcame divisions.

“This is the action the American people have been waiting for. This addresses the problems of today — high health care costs and overall inflation — as well as investments in our energy security for the future,” Biden said in a statement.

The bill still has some way to go before becoming law but the multi-billion dollar package finally won crucial support from conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. His previous opposition had essentially killed Biden’s ambitious plans, because in the 50-50 Senate, where Republicans rarely back Biden on anything, Democrats can’t afford to lose a single vote.

For Biden, whose approval ratings hover below 40 percent, the truce with Manchin comes as a big political boost ahead of November midterms when his Democratic Party is forecast to lose control of Congress to the Republicans.

If passed, the bill will pour some $369 billion into clean energy and climate initiatives and $64 billion into state-funded healthcare, including a popular measure meant to lower ruinously high prescription medicine prices.

It would be paid for by raising $739 billion, with a major chunk coming from a 15 percent corporate tax rate. An extra $300 billion raised under the plan would go to paying off the federal deficit.

Biden, who has had to abandon even broader scale social and environmental spending ideas, got the good news of a reprieve for this bill on the same day he finished his five days isolating after a Covid-19 infection.

It also comes as Congress moves closer to passing another of his priorities — a $52 billion fund to encourage domestic production of semiconductors, the electronic brains in modern equipment ranging from washing machines to military weapons.

In his statement, Biden said prescription drug prices would drop and healthcare for Americans using the subsidized Affordable Care Act policy would also become $800 a year cheaper.

Funding for clean energy will “create thousands of new jobs and help lower energy costs in the future,” he said.

“We will pay for all of this by requiring big corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, with no tax increases at all for families making under $400,000 a year.”

Biden thanked Manchin, an often unpredictable partner in the Senate, for his “extraordinary effort.”

“If enacted, this legislation will be historic, and I urge the Senate to move on this bill as soon as possible, and for the House to follow as well.”

Mankind marks a dubious milestone Thursday, the day by which humanity has consumed all earth can sustainably produce for this year, with NGOS warning the rest of 2022 will be lived in resource deficit.

The date — dubbed “Earth Overshoot Day” — marks a tipping point when people have used up “all that ecosystems can regenerate in one year”, according to the Global Footprint Network and WWF.

“From January 1 to July 28, humanity has used as much from nature as the planet can renew in the entire year. That’s why July 28 is Earth Overshoot Day,” said Mathis Wackernagel, president of the Global Footprint Network.

He added: “The Earth has a lot of stock, so we can deplete Earth for some time but we cannot overuse it for ever. It’s like with money; we can spend more than we earn for some time until we’re broke.”

It would take 1.75 Earths to provide for the world’s population in a sustainable way, according to the measure, which was created by researchers in the early 1990s.   

Global Footprint Network said Earth Overshoot Day has fallen ever sooner over the last 50 years.

– Uneven burden –

In 2020, the date moved back three weeks due to the Covid-19 pandemic, before returning to pre-pandemic levels.

The burden is not evenly spread. If everyone lived like an American, the date would have fallen even earlier, on March 13, Wackernagel said.

The two NGOs point the finger at the food production system and its “considerable” ecological footprint.

“In total, more than half of the planet’s biocapacity (55 percent) is used to feed humanity,” the two NGOs said.

“A large part of the food and raw materials are used to feed animals and animals that are consumed afterwards”, said Pierre Cannet of WWF France.

In the EU, “63 percent of arable land… is directly associated with animal production”, he said.

“Agriculture contributes to deforestation, climate change by emitting greenhouse gases, loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystems, while using a significant share of fresh water,” the NGOs said.

Based on scientific advice, they advocate reducing meat consumption in rich countries. 

“If we could cut meat consumption by half, we could move the date of the overshoot by 17 days,” said Laetitia Mailhes of the Global Footprint Network.

“Limiting food waste would push the date back by 13 days, that’s not insignificant,” she added, while one-third of the world’s food is wasted.

Facebook-parent Meta reported on Wednesday its first quarterly revenue drop and a plunging profit as the social media powerhouse battles a turbulent economy and the rising phenomenon of TikTok. 

Meta had long delivered seemingly endless upward growth but after this income miss — and reporting earlier this year its first decline in global daily users — the company sounded a more modest tone.

“This is a period that demands more intensity, and I expect us to get more done with fewer resources,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts after the firm reported a 36 percent drop in profit to $6.7 billion.

Meta also said that revenue in the recently ended quarter ebbed a percent to $28.8 billion, its first such slip since the firm, then known simply as Facebook, went public in 2012.

“The year-over-year drop in quarterly revenue signifies just how quickly Meta’s business has deteriorated,” said analyst Debra Aho Williamson.

“The good news, if we can call it that, is that its competitors in digital advertising are also experiencing a slowdown.”

Meta however reported an increase in daily Facebook users to 1.97 billion, defying analysts’ predictions of a drop, but noted monthly users fell about two million to 2.93 billion.

Its shares were down around 3.5 percent in after-hours trading, continuing a decline in the firm’s stock since February that has erased about half of its value.

Meta has also faced steady scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators over not only its massive strength in the social media market, but also its impact on the health of its users.

The results came just hours after US regulators announced they would try to block Meta’s acquisition of virtual reality fitness app maker Within, a potential blow to the tech giant’s metaverse ambitions.

– US targets Meta VR purchase –

“This acquisition poses a reasonable probability of eliminating both present and future competition,” the FTC complaint said. “And Meta would be one step closer to its ultimate goal of owning the entire ‘Metaverse.'”

Meta is focused on building its metaverse vision for the internet’s future, betting heavily on the interactive virtual world that the company believes will ensure its powerful position.

The social media giant said the FTC’s move defied reality, and expressed confidence that its buy of Within would be good for VR users as well as developers who make apps in that market.

“The FTC’s case is based on ideology and speculation, not evidence,” Meta said in response to an AFP inquiry.

Meta has also faced turbulence as it tries to adapt its platforms to better battle short-video app TikTok, which is threatening the Silicon Valley giant’s primacy.

Meta-owned Instagram is attempting to quell complaints by users including celebrities Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian who say changes have made it too much like TikTok, including video recommendations.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri posted a video on Twitter addressing the complaint, saying a number of changes were being experimented with and promising not to abandon photo sharing at the service.

“We are going to continue to support photos, it is part of our heritage,” Mosseri said.

Earnings season has gotten off to a less than great start with disappointing reports from Netflix, Snapchat’s parent company and Microsoft.

Snap announced plans last week to “substantially” slow recruitment after bleak results wiped some 30 percent off the stock price of the tech firm, which is facing difficulties on several fronts.

Even juggernaut Google reported its profit and revenue slipped as the internet giant’s long sizzling ad revenue growth cooled, but the market seemed relieved the news wasn’t worse.

The big tech platforms have been suffering from the economic climate, which is forcing advertisers to cut back on their marketing budgets, and Apple’s data privacy changes, which have reduced their leeway for ad personalization.

Ukraine on Wednesday said it had restarted operations at its blockaded Black Sea ports as it moved closer to resuming grain exports with the opening of a coordination centre to oversee a UN-backed deal. 

Progress towards fulfilling the landmark agreement came as Kyiv’s artillery struck a key bridge in Moscow-controlled territory in south Ukraine, damaging an important supply route as Ukrainian forces look to wrest back the Kherson region.

And as German authorities said Russia drastically reduced gas deliveries to Europe in a move seen as revenge for Western sanctions over the invasion, Ukraine announced plans to increase its electricity imports to Europe.

Ukraine and Russia last week agreed a plan with the help of Turkey and the United Nations to allow grain stranded by Moscow’s naval blockade to be exported from three ports.

Kyiv has said it hopes to begin sending out the first of millions of tonnes of grain this week despite a missile strike by Russia over the weekend on the port in Odessa. 

Ukraine’s navy said “work has resumed” at the export hubs to prepare for ships to be escorted through the mine-infested waters to reach world markets.

As part of the deal, a coordination centre involving Ukrainian and Russian representatives opened in Istanbul to monitor the safe passage for shipping along established routes and oversee inspections for banned weapons. 

The blockage of deliveries from two of the world’s biggest grain exporters has contributed to a spike in prices that has made food imports prohibitively expensive for some of the world’s poorest countries.

– ‘Leave Kherson’ –

Fighting has continued to rage on the ground in Ukraine despite the push to get the grain out, and Kyiv struck back by hitting the vital Antonivskiy bridge over the Dnipro river in a move that threatens to cut supply lines to Russian troops. 

Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said on Twitter the strikes on bridges over the Dnipro created an “impossible dilemma” for Russia: “retreat or be annihilated by the Ukrainian army”.

Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian-installed regional administration in Kherson, confirmed the bridge had been hit overnight and traffic had been halted.

But he sought to downplay the damage, insisting that the attack would not affect the outcome of the hostilities “in any way”.  

Ukrainian forces in recent weeks have been clawing back territory in the Kherson region, which fell to Russian forces easily and early after their invasion launched on February 24.

Their counter-offensive, supported by Western-supplied long-range artillery, has seen its forces push closer to Kherson city, which had a pre-war population of under 300,000 people.

Russian forces “should leave Kherson while it is still possible. There may not be a third warning,” Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhaylo Podolyak said on Twitter after the attack.

Meanwhile the leader of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine called on Moscow to conquer key cities across the country. 

“Today the time has come to liberate Russian cities, founded by Russians: Kyiv, Chernigiv, Poltava, Odessa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lutsk,” Denis Pushilin said on Telegram.

Russia sought to capture the capital Kyiv in the early days of its invasion but later retreated, focusing its efforts on Ukraine’s east Donbas region. 

In the battered Donetsk region — part of the Donbas — AFP journalists saw a house hit in an intense artillery exchange around the ravaged frontline city of Bakhmut.

A worker was inside the courtyard when the shell hit and was saved by emergency rescuers who cut a hole in a steel fence using an axe. 

“I heard a whistle. And I don’t remember anything. It exploded and I was thrown into the barn by the explosion,” 51-year-old Roman told AFP.

Ukraine’s emergency services said that Russian artillery had hit a hotel in Bakhmut, leaving two people dead and five injured.

– Gas ‘power play’ –

Deepening an energy crisis in Europe sparked by the war, Germany’s energy regulator said flow of Russian gas via the key Nord Stream pipeline had dropped to 20 percent of capacity on Wednesday from 40 percent.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed EU sanctions for the limited supply, but Berlin has dismissed the explanation and government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann called the reductions a “power play” by Moscow.

The European Union has been bracing for energy cutbacks and on Tuesday agreed a plan to reduce gas consumption by 15 percent this winter to break its dependence on Russia.

Reacting to Europe’s energy concerns, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced plans to boost Ukrainian electricity supplies to European consumers.

“Our export not only allows us to generate foreign currency revenues, but also help our partners withstand the energy pressure from Russia,” Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation Wednesday evening.