The President's Daily Brief - January 3rd, 2023. Natural Gas Prices Plummet in Europe, Thanks to You

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

It’s January 3rd. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ A good day to you, ladies and gentlemen. I’ve got five briefs for you this morning that are shaping America — and the world. First, an update on the Natural Gas Wars in Europe. Plus a reminder of why it’s so important to all of us. Second, America’s not the only country facing an immigration crisis this morning. I’ve got an update from the United Kingdom on how bad things are getting there. Third, China’s president offered an apology — of sorts — for how he’s handled his country’s response to COVID. Fourth, efforts to combat the Fentanyl crisis in America just took a serious step backwards. I’ll explain why the US military is pulling out an important spy plane that was helping.  Finally, Democrats are offering up a new threat to America this morning. They’re talking about the Electoral College — again. Later, we close out the podcast with another look at the Twitter Files. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. A good day to you, ladies and gentlemen. I've got five briefs for you this morning that are shaping America and the world. First, an update on the natural gas wars in Europe, plus a reminder of why it's so important to all of us. Second, America is not the only country facing an immigration crisis this morning.

I've got an update from the United Kingdom on how bad things are getting there. Third, China's president offered an apology of sorts for how he handled his country's response to COVID. Fourth, efforts to combat the fentanyl crisis in America just took a very serious step backwards. I'll explain why the U.S. military is pulling out a very important spy plane that was helping. Finally, Democrats this morning are offering up a new threat to America. They're talking about the electoral college again. Later, we close out the podcast with another look at the Twitter files, which we discussed briefly yesterday.

But before we get to that, we got to get started with this. It's an update this morning on the natural gas wars, which, as PDB listeners know, is the struggle by European nations to find new sources of natural gas after cutting themselves off from their historical suppliers in Russia. Now, before we dive into the latest, let's brush up on why we care about this issue in the first place. So let's start with this. Europe is a critical trading partner of Americas. In fact, Germany is our most vital partner on the entire continent. So if those folks struggle economically, we struggle to include our factories and our farms and our workers. But there's also a second more personal reason that we ought to care. America has dramatically increased exports of natural gas to Europe to help them. But in doing so, it's driven natural gas prices here at home sky high. high. In other words, your utility bill is directly related to the natural gas wars thousands of

miles away. All right. So that's why we should care about this issue. And that takes us to our update. Europe's wholesale natural gas prices fell yesterday to their lowest level since Russia invaded Ukraine. Prices had been as high as 345 euro per megawatt hour, but fell on Monday to 73 euro. That's about a 78% drop. So what's driving this price collapse? Well, a few things. First, energy companies in America, Norway, and Algeria have dramatically scaled up natural gas deliveries to Europe.

So you combine that with less demand. And that's because Mother Nature has been very kind to Europe this winter, at least so far. In the United Kingdom, for instance, they've just wrapped up a record month of warmth. The same is actually true for France, Germany, and Eastern Europe, all closing out in December with a warm, spell. So let's put some numbers to that. European storage tanks for natural gas were at 83% full

yesterday. That compares to 54% full last year at this time. And by the way, some countries are doing even better than that 83% full category. Remember our very important trade partner, Germany? Well, their natural gas tanks are sitting at 90% full as of last week. Now, all this data, by the way, is according to the organization gas infrastructure of Europe. Now, there's one more thing that I want to flag here for you, and that's on this issue of demand. It's not just that it's getting warmer in Europe, and that's helping. Although that's true, it's also that there are some conservation efforts that are paying off.

In Finland, for example, they've cut back their natural gas usage by 10%. That's according to their grid operator, Fingrid. So, all in all, good news for Europe and bad news for Vlad's. Vladimir Putin, who had hoped for a very cold, very nasty European winner. And if that had happened these past months, it would or could have led to more natural gas usage by Europe and thus greater leverage by the Russians as they seek to end this war in Ukraine on their terms. So one final thing to note, while all of this is true and good, we need to talk about some

risks. First, Mother Nature, as we all know, is fickle. So if we see a sudden turn for cold, that's going to change the calculus of gas usage pretty quickly. Second, there are still very profound vulnerabilities in the medium to long term for European energy supplies. So that continent remains deeply dependent on natural gas imports, and that's not going to change. So if future winners get nastier than this one, then I will absolutely be briefing you on a very different set of challenges as early as next year. but no matter what, I will keep you posted. With that, let's actually stay in Europe for our next brief because we're going to talk about

another major trade partners of ours. That's the United Kingdom. Because it's not just America that's having an immigration crisis this morning. The UK is having one too. So last year, more than 45,000 illegal migrants crossed the channel from mainland Europe into the United Kingdom, and that is a record, up 36. 7% from last year, actually, which was in and of itself a record breaker too. Now, most of those illegals are from the country of Albania, which is a very small country

that borders Greece and sits on the Adriatic Sea. It's also a country that has its share of economic and political trouble, so that's driving the continued migration to the UK. So what's interesting, I think, to me about this crisis is how the UK plans on dealing with it. They've arranged a scheme with an African country called Rwanda to take these illegals in exchange for cash, about $120 million, give or take. So there was a lawsuit by immigration activists that tried to stop this deal, but the high court, sort of like our Supreme Court, ruled that, in fact, this plan is lawful. So that means that illegals in the UK will be shipped 4,000 miles away to an African country that may or may not be quite as nice, which I think is the point.

But anyway, by the way, King Charles, he is not a fan of this idea. He has called it appalling, at least in private. That's according to Reuters news. All right, my friends, from Europe, we go to China this morning. Let's talk about the president of that country apologizing, well, sort of, for how he and the Communist Party have handled their response. to COVID. Now, before I give you that update, let's refresh our memories a bit on this one. For the past two years, Beijing has openly mocked the rest of the world, especially Europe

in the United States, for having terrible COVID policies. Now, I said it was better to embrace something called zero COVID, meaning that even a single case could shut down an entire city until the outbreak, such as it was, squashed. Well, it turns out that zero COVID made zero sense. COVID, of course, is a respiratory virus. And trying to stop that is like trying to rope the wind. And yet, with every lockdown under this zero COVID policy, the people in China grew angrier and the economy went in the toilet. And that's why, as PDB listeners might remember, about a month ago, Beijing reversed course and decided to just let her a rip. They lifted COVID restrictions and stopped counting cases, deciding to just lean on natural immunity to just, well,

sort of do its thing. Well, as you would expect, much of the country has been or is being infected with COVID. The hospitals are strained, largely with the very elderly, but otherwise, it's going as we would anticipate the vast majority of people feeling pretty crummy for a week or so. And if you're wondering about vaccines, by the way, most Chinese citizens have refused to take them, even though they're locally produced. It turns out that they just don't trust them. Moreover, for China has actually banned Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines saying that those are not safe for human use. Meanwhile, as people are getting sick and recovering, there is a steady stream of very carefully crafted commentary on Chinese social media that the Chinese people are saying that they're shocked and frankly angry that their leadership. Well, they got it wrong on COVID.

And that takes us to our update this morning. President Xi of China delivered a New Year's address where he offered the most rare of acknowledgments of how hard it's been to deal with COVID, from the lockdowns to economic struggles, and now the entire nation is getting sick. He said, quote, it has not been an easy journey for anyone. And now everyone is holding on with great fortitude and the light of hope is right in front of us, end quote. He then very, very, gently acknowledge the failures of his own policies and that the fact that people are very angry about it, although it's not much of an apology or an admission. Judge for yourselves here.

Here it is. Quote, ours is a big country. It is only natural for different people to have different concerns or hold different views on the same issue. That's why we must find consensus through communication and consultation, end quote. All right, well, one final thing to note here. I mentioned earlier that China was and is facing some pretty tremendous economic headwinds because of their old zero-COVID policies, and that's part of why they reverse them. To give you a sense of how bad things are domestically for China's economy,

which, for better for worse, we have to care about as they are the world's factory, I want you to consider this. Hong Kong authorities reported a 24% drop of exports from that city in November year over year. So that's the worst fall off of trade since 1954. And it comes on top of another 10% drop in October year over year. That's all according to the South China Morning Post. So folks, America's major trade partner and, frankly, major enemy, is going through some very substantial pain this morning, both economic and otherwise.

Let's see how they're about with COVID impacts, both internal politics and more importantly, at least for us, their delivery of goods and medicines into this country. All right, with that, ladies and gentlemen, let's take our first quick break. When we come back, I've got two more critical pieces of news for you. So hang tight. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the PDB. I've got two more critical pieces of news for you this morning. For the next two briefs, we are going to leave China and we are going to come home to America.

talking about threats to the nation. The first is this country's war on fentanyl, which, as PDB listeners know, is the drug that originates in China as a series of chemicals and then gets bought and cooked up in Mexican drug labs and then floods into our streets here in America,

all by cartel members and local drug users. It's a battle that has cost over 100,000 American lives in just the past year. Well, during that very uphill fight against fentanyl, The U.S. Air Force contributed a very specific plane to the fight. It was a surveillance plane called the RC26. A number of National Guard units have flown this fleet of aircraft,

all to help U.S. Border Patrol and DEA agents bust fentanyl shipments on their way to America. Well, that fleet of planes is in trouble. They're getting grounded with no replacements. According to reports out from CNN and other news media outlets, the U.S. Air Force has moved up its time. line to scrap those planes, with the date of death, as it were, now being January this month. The plan is to quickly sell off the parts from these planes and toss whatever remains into the bone yard. If you're wondering why they're doing this, members of Congress on a bipartisan basis

are saying that the Air Force is doing it because they really don't want to be involved in a domestic drug war, so better that they trash these planes as quickly as possible in case Congress suddenly decides that, hey, you know what, we really should be still using these planes. Well, the Air Force, for its part, is saying that these planes aren't really needed. And plus, there are other solutions out there to help stop the flow of drugs. Well, critics respond by saying, come on, that's a bunch of baloney. Those planes have a very critical function that no other border tool has or had. Now, regardless, this is ultimately a decision that is supported by Joe Biden and his administration

to include the Secretary of Defense. So you all can make of that what you will, but frankly, by all reasonable assessments, to include those by the Board of Patrol and the DEA, this development about these planes means that we may well see more fentanyl coming into the United States of America. And as ever, if you are so moved by this and upset by it, you should contact your federal representatives and senators.

So go to house.gov or senate.gov, grab some emails and phone numbers and make some noise if you want a very different path for these very helpful planes. Finally, this morning, another update out of Washington, D.C., sticking with our themes of threats to the Republic. But this one's a little bit, well, odd. At least I think so. One week ago, a senior ranking Democrat named Jamie Raskin of Maryland said on CBS's face

in the nation that America is staring down a grave threat that must be addressed. And that threat, he said, is the Electoral College. Okay. So to understand this brief, folks, we should probably refresh our knowledge of U.S. history. So you probably remember that voters in America technically don't elect our president, not directly. So after we vote in the general election, our states then send electors to a meeting of sorts, the Electoral College, where those folks vote on who will be president and vice president. In other words, the electors technically decide who wins. So why do we do that? Well, many historians and legal scholars will generally say that the founding fathers set up this system because they were worried that voters might make a terrible mistake

in who they choose to lead the country. So this electoral college is a failsafe, a way to prevent what could be a national disaster. And also, it tends to give more proportionate. power to smaller states to help ensure that they don't lose their voices and representation. But all of that aside, the point here is that there is a legitimate reason to think that this electoral college is a rational system, even if you don't like it. But that's not what's on the minds of senior Democrats like Jamie Raskin. He said, quote, the electoral college has become a danger, end quote, adding that it was a seen on January 6th, referencing, of course, the protests at the U.S. Capitol,

although he offered no evidence for his reference. By the way, when he was asked if he would support some set of reforms to the electoral college, he said absolutely not, not sufficient. It must be abolished because it is so dangerous. That, by the way, echoes similar comments made by lots of other Democrats, like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. So as ever I will you decide if that's true. In a world full of threats by China and Russia, Islamic terror, and gain of function research authorized by Tony Fauci. Well, does the electoral college rise to the point of being an existential danger like those other things? Now, I don't think so, but I'll tell you what, that is the great joy of being the host of the PDB, because it doesn't

really matter what I think, does it? It is your decision. as always. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we conclude your morning brief. But I've got one more thing before I let you go. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the PDB folks. I've got one more thing before I let you go.

It's time for an update on the Twitter files. Now, maybe you've missed previous briefs on this and are wondering, what is this and why do I care? Which, by the way, totally fair questions. First, let's understand that Twitter is a very important. important social media company where, according to data from the Pew Research Center, 13% of Americans get their news from that site. That's more than newspapers, by the way.

Well, data has long shown that Twitter employees have had a political bias in favor of the Democrat Party, but it's never been clear how or if that bias has ever played out, all as 13% of Americans consume their news that these Democrats are actually choosing. Well, then a new owner took over Twitter. a man named Elon Musk. Now, he believed that he had proof of not just political bias, but illegality, election interference, and even unconstitutional banning of speech. So he has opened up the archives of old Twitter, of course, that being the era before he was CEO,

all in order to let independent journalists take a look at this old files and emails and so forth. So one of those journalists that he has allowed to look at this stuff is a man named David Zwick. and he has been digging into how old Twitter handled the issue of COVID. So yesterday I shared with you how the then general counsel of Twitter, former FBI official Jim Baker, was outraged that then-president Donald Trump told people via a tweet that they should not live in fear of COVID. That sort of audacious statement, Baker said, should get Trump banned. All right, well, Mr. Zwig has continued to report on this. And in fact, he shared something very important that I think that you should know about.

And this time, it's about Joe Biden. From the very month that Joe Biden was inaugurated through just last month, there are emails of Biden's team pressuring Twitter to ban accounts because they were allegedly spreading COVID misinformation or disinformation. In fact, the pressure got so great, so nasty, that Twitter's head of U.S. public policy said, quote, the phone calls with Biden's team were very angry in nature, end quote. And that's because Biden's people felt that Twitter wasn't banning accounts fast enough.

So the point, folks, is that this was a pressure campaign by the U.S. government against a company that gives 13% of Americans their news. Now, Joe Biden, his team, Fauci, the CDC, all of them will say, okay, sure, but he was stop COVID misinformation. As it turns out, that's not true. It was far more than that. It was a stomping on free speech and a crushing of reasonable debate. Let me give you but one example. There was a doctor in Rhode Island who had the audacity of saying that COVID in children is less deadly than the flu, which according to CDC data is true. And then the Rhode Island doctors said that we ought to take that into account, in other words, the risk, when

deciding whether to give a COVID vaccine to kids, especially because for boys, those vaccines come with an elevated risk of myocarditis. As ever, and to confirm, everything he said is both medically true and frankly a reasonable argument, even if you disagree with him. But for Biden and his crew, saying those facts and making that reasonable argument meant that Twitter meant that Twitter had to ban him. And guess what? They did. Now, that's frustrating for the doctor, no doubt about it.

But it is far worse than that. Because what Joe Biden and his team did and continue to do is ban that 13% of Americans from getting a second opinion. Which is sort of how medicine is supposed to work, right? Doctors are not gods. They are fallible. So, of course, we seek out multiple voices and then decide which one is best for us, for our bodies based on our risks so that we can make our own choice.

But what the Twitter documents are showing is that that is not acceptable for Joe Biden and his team. There is only one opinion that's allowed on COVID, and that is theirs. You know what? if I can switch to analysis and opinion here, that is dangerous. More dangerous than the virus itself. Because when there is no second opinion, when Joe Biden and his team decide that the only opinion that you are allowed to have is theirs, well, that's not just cracking the door open, just a little bit towards tyranny, medical and otherwise.

That's busting the door down and rushing right through it. And I'm telling you, my friends, I have seen this past. while I served abroad for the CIA. When governments decide that they are the truth and start silencing voices who challenge the truth, then there is no truth at all. At that point, it's just about power, an abuse of power. And if you leave that abuse unchecked, that is when freedom dies and tyranny is born. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your work.

morning brief. As always, we close out the show reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John, Chapter 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day.