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Joe Manchin won’t support a key climate program. Alternatives won’t be enough.

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A key climate policy designed to phase out fossil fuels will likely be cut from Democrats’ upcoming reconciliation package due to opposition from <a href="https://www.vox.com/22709379/moderate-versus-progressive-democrats-climate">Sen. Joe Manchin</a> (D-WV), who has reportedly refused to back the measure as negotiations over the budget bill continue.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/climate/biden-clean-energy-manchin.html">According to the New York Times’ Coral Davenport</a>, who first reported the news on Friday, Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, will not support the sweeping <a href="https://www.vox.com/22579218/clean-energy-standard-electricity-infrastructure-democrats">clean electricity program</a> that is widely seen as the centerpiece of the bill’s climate plan.
The <a href="https://www.vox.com/22579218/clean-energy-standard-electricity-infrastructure-democrats">$150 billion program</a> — officially known as the Clean Electricity Performance Program or CEPP — would reward energy suppliers who switch from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas to sustainable power sources like solar, wind, and nuclear power, which are <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=48896#">already in use</a> by about 40 percent of the industry, and fine those who do not.
Experts believe the program is the most effective way to slash US carbon emissions significantly enough to prevent the global temperature from rising by <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">1.5 degrees Celsius</a>, a threshold which would have <a href="https://www.vox.com/22613027/un-ipcc-climate-change-report-ar6-disaster">drastic consequences</a> for the planet if exceeded.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The Clean Electricity Performance Program is the most important part of the climate bill when it comes to cutting pollution. We need the CEPP to take on the climate crisis. It's just that simple.
No climate, no deal. <a href="https://t.co/YIl1jZRHWO">https://t.co/YIl1jZRHWO</a>
— Dr. Leah Stokes (@leahstokes) <a href="https://twitter.com/leahstokes/status/1449162002723586058?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2021</a></blockquote>
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A clean electricity standard, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22265119/biden-climate-change-renewable-energy-clean-electricity-standard-congress">Leah Stokes</a>, a climate policy expert at the University of California Santa Barbara, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/climate/biden-clean-energy-manchin.html?partner=slack&smid=sl-share">the New York Times</a> on Friday, “is absolutely the most important climate policy in the package. We fundamentally need it to meet our climate goals. That’s just the reality. And now we can’t. So this is pretty sad.”
Manchin’s rejection of the energy plan is the latest challenge to the beleaguered reconciliation package — also called <a href="https://www.vox.com/22577374/reconciliation-bill-biden-medicare-climate">the Build Back Better Act</a> — which is now likely to be pared down in response to demands from moderate Democrats like Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who have said they <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/14/politics/manchin-sinema-disagreements-biden-agenda/index.html">oppose</a> the $3.5 trillion in spending called for in the original plan for the bill.
Manchin’s home state of West Virginia is <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=69&t=2">one of the largest producers of coal</a> in the US, and Manchin himself <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/09/03/joe-manchin-coal-fossil-fuels-pollution/">benefits financially from the coal industry</a>.
Manchin’s spokesperson, Sam Runyon, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/climate/biden-clean-energy-manchin.html">told the New York Times</a> that Manchin opposed the CEPP because he couldn’t support “using taxpayer dollars to pay private companies to do things they’re already doing.”
In light of Manchin’s opposition to the clean electricity program, the White House is reportedly working to rewrite the bill and and find <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/15/politics/clean-electricity-program-cut-budget-bill-climate/index.html">alternative ways</a> to address greenhouse gas emissions.
But in trying to appease Manchin, the White House could alienate other Senate Democrats like Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), who was the <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/4-democrats-to-watch-during-budget-negotiations/">chief architect of the clean electricity program</a>.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Let’s be clear: the Build Back Better budget must meaningfully address climate change. I’m open to different approaches, but I cannot support a bill that won’t get us where we need to be on emissions.
There are 50 Democratic senators. Every one of us is needed get this passed.
— Senator Tina Smith (@SenTinaSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTinaSmith/status/1449212243376328705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2021</a></blockquote>
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“I’m open to different approaches, but I cannot support a bill that won’t get us where we need to be on emissions,” <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTinaSmith/status/1449212243376328705">Smith tweeted</a> Friday. “There are 50 Democratic senators. Every one of us is needed get this passed.”
As <a href="https://www.vox.com/22579218/clean-energy-standard-electricity-infrastructure-democrats">Vox’s Rebecca Leber wrote in August</a>, the clean electricity standard “is a bit of a misnomer because the actual policy being discussed is even more boring-sounding: a clean electricity payment program that pays utilities to clean up their act and fines them for missing deadlines.”
Boring though it may sound, however, experts say it’s crucially important for two reasons.
First, the proposed program provides a financial framework for energy companies to work within. Manchin is correct in saying that <a href="https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/buying-clean-electricity">some companies</a> are indeed changing over to sustainable electricity production; currently, almost <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3">40 percent of electricity</a> generated in the US comes from a clean energy source, either nuclear or renewable. But corporations are ultimately concerned about their bottom line, and the carrot-and-stick approach of the proposed clean electricity program incorporates that reality by incentivizing companies to make the drastic changes necessary to address climate change — and penalizing them if they don’t.
The other reason a clean electricity program could prove key to addressing climate change is that it creates a national standard, as opposed to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22579218/clean-energy-standard-electricity-infrastructure-democrats">patchwork</a> of municipal and state legislation and individual efforts currently in place. Among other impacts, the program would help bring lagging areas up to speed with the ambitious targets set by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/11/biden-administration-clean-energy-climate-crisis">Biden administration</a>, which call for 80 percent of the nation’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030, and 100 percent by 2035.
Ultimately, as Stokes and Sam Ricketts, a cofounder of <a href="https://www.evergreenaction.com/">Evergreen Action</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22265119/biden-climate-change-renewable-energy-clean-electricity-standard-congress">wrote for Vox in February</a>, a clean electricity program provides a framework for other industries to use sustainable power, too.
<blockquote>
Clean electricity is the backbone of the energy transition — the critical piece that all the other sectors will slot into. Not only will getting to 100 percent clean electricity directly cut <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks">more than a quarter</a> of US carbon pollution, it will also enable large parts of our transportation, building, and industrial sectors to run on clean power. Powering as much of these sectors as we can with carbon-free electricity would allow us to cut US emissions 70 to 80 percent. It would, in short, solve a huge chunk of our climate challenge.
</blockquote>
As Stokes and Ricketts argue, a clean electricity standard would not only be effective at heading off the worst impacts of climate change, but it could work within the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Full_Report_smaller.pdf">very limited timeframe</a> scientists have outlined to limit the rise of the global temperature.
It’s also <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/15/22723457/build-back-better-poll-democrats-bill-infrastructure-taxes">popular</a>: According to <a href="https://www.filesforprogress.org/datasets/2021/10/dfp-vox-bbb-oct12-toplines.pdf">a poll from Data for Progress and Vox</a> conducted in early October, 63 percent of voters support the clean electricity program — the same percentage as supports the reconciliation bill overall.
Despite widespread popular support for the program, however, Manchin has a great deal of influence over its fate: Not only does he hold particular sway as the head of the <a href="https://www.energy.senate.gov/2021/2/manchin-to-serve-as-chairman-of-senate-energy-and-natural-resources-committee">Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee</a>, but in an evenly divided Senate, his vote is crucial to passing any eventual reconciliation package.
The clean electricity program is not the only climate legislation on the table, but it is by far the biggest and most important, with the potential to bring the US in alignment its <a href="https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/ndcstaging/PublishedDocuments/United%20States%20of%20America%20First/United%20States%20NDC%20April%2021%202021%20Final.pdf">Paris agreement target</a>: carbon pollution at 50 percent of 2005 levels by 2030.
The <a href="https://www.vox.com/22598883/infrastructure-deal-bipartisan-bill-biden-manchin">$1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill</a>, which has already passed the Senate, includes provisions like funding for electric vehicle charging stations and for public transit and school buses to run on electricity, as well as $21 billion for environmental remediation — such as fixing the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-drilling-abandoned-specialreport/special-report-millions-of-abandoned-oil-wells-are-leaking-methane-a-climate-menace-idUSKBN23N1NL">3.2 million abandoned gas and oil wells</a> across the country leaking methane gas.
And even if Manchin succeeds in blocking a clean electricity program, the reconciliation bill will likely still include <a href="https://www.vox.com/22685920/democrats-infrastructure-build-back-better-climate-change">some measures to combat climate change</a>, including billions in clean energy tax credits and investments in public transit and electric vehicles.
But as David Roberts, a former Vox writer and current author of the Volts newsletter, <a href="https://twitter.com/drvolts/status/1449176252389068801?s=20">explained on Twitter Friday</a>, the CEPP is by far the most important piece of climate legislation in play right now, and it’s unlikely that any alternatives would bring about the kind of change necessary for the US to meet the renewable energy and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-sets-2030-greenhouse-gas-pollution-reduction-target-aimed-at-creating-good-paying-union-jobs-and-securing-u-s-leadership-on-clean-energy-technologies/">carbon pollution targets</a> outlined by the Biden White House.
Raising the stakes of Manchin’s objection to the CEPP is the the fact that reconciliation could also be one of the last chances Democrats have to pass a clean electricity program, or any major climate legislation. <a href="https://www.vox.com/22685920/democrats-infrastructure-build-back-better-climate-change">As Vox’s Leber pointed out earlier this month</a>, the party is in real danger of losing unified control of government in the 2022 midterms, and if that happens, the window of opportunity for climate action could close before Democrats regain majorities in both chambers.
Manchin’s push to cut the CEPP also comes as crunch time is bearing down on Democrats in Congress: Speaker Nancy Pelosi <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/13/new-deadline-pass-biden-agenda-is-coming-up-fast/">has set an October 31 deadline</a> to pass both the reconciliation bill and the infrastructure bill, which will be crucial as short-term funding for the highway infrastructure system runs out on that day.
October 31 is also the day that the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/conferences/glasgow-climate-change-conference">2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference</a> begins in Glasgow, Scotland, and without significant policy in place to address climate change — like, for example, a clean electricity standard — it could be difficult for the US to rally other nations at the conference to make similar policy changes.
As Rachel Cleetus, the clean energy policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22685920/democrats-infrastructure-build-back-better-climate-change">told Leber in October</a>, if Congress can get serious about climate change, other countries are likely to follow suit. But a lack of progress would slow forward momentum all around.
“There is this sense of exhaustion about how long is it going to take for one of the biggest emitters in the world to do its fair share,” Cleetus said.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/16/22729648/manchin-climate-change-reconciliation-clean-electricity-program">https://www.vox.com/2021/10/16/22729648/manchin-climate-change-reconciliation-clean-electricity-program</a>

vox Joe Manchin won’t support a key climate program. Alternatives won’t be enough.

A key climate policy designed to phase out fossil fuels will likely be cut from Democrats’ upcoming reconciliation package due to oppositio...

China Tested New Space Capability With Hypersonic Missile: Report

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="China Tested New Space Capability With Hypersonic Missile: Report" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-06/b6t3g4kg_china-flag-reuters_625x300_13_June_21.jpg" title="China Tested New Space Capability With Hypersonic Missile: Report" /></div>
China space mission: China launched a nuclear-capable missile in August.
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Beijing:
China has tested a new space capability with a hypersonic missile, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ba0a3cde-719b-4040-93cb-a486e1f843fb" target="_blank">the Financial Times</a> reported on Saturday.
The report, citing multiple sources familiar with the test, said Beijing in August launched a nuclear-capable missile that circled the Earth at low orbit before descending toward its target, which three sources said it missed by over 20 miles (32 kilometers).
FT sources said the hypersonic glide vehicle was carried by a Long March rocket, launches of which it usually announces, though the August test was kept under wraps.
The report added that China's progress on hypersonic weapons "caught US intelligence by surprise."
Along with China, the United States, Russia and at least five other countries are working on hypersonic technology.
Hypersonic missiles, like traditional ballistic missiles which can deliver nuclear weapons, can fly at more than five times the speed of sound.
But ballistic missiles fly high into space in an arc to reach their target, while a hypersonic flies on a trajectory low in the atmosphere, potentially reaching a target more quickly.
Crucially, a hypersonic missile is maneuverable (like the much slower, often subsonic cruise missile), making it harder to track and defend against.
While countries like the United States have developed systems designed to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles, the ability to track and take down a hypersonic missile remains a question.
China has been aggressively developing the technology, seeing it as crucial to defend against US gains in hypersonic and other technologies, according to a recent report by the US Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The reported test comes as US-China tensions have mounted and Beijing has stepped up military activity near Taiwan, the self-ruling US-aligned democracy that Beijing considers a province awaiting reunification.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on the FT report.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-space-mission-china-space-china-tested-new-space-capability-with-hypersonic-missile-report-2578051">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-space-mission-china-space-china-tested-new-space-capability-with-hypersonic-missile-report-2578051</a>

news world China Tested New Space Capability With Hypersonic Missile: Report

China space mission: China launched a nuclear-capable missile in August. Beijing: China has tested a new space capability with a hypers...

Bill Clinton To Spend One More Night In Hospital With Non-Covid Infection

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Bill Clinton To Spend One More Night In Hospital With Non-Covid Infection" src="https://i.ndtvimg.com/i/2016-09/bill-clinton_650x400_51474513560.jpg" title="Bill Clinton To Spend One More Night In Hospital With Non-Covid Infection" /></div>
Bill Clinton served as America's 42nd president from 1993 to 2001. (File)
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Washington:
Former US President Bill Clinton will spend another night at a hospital in California being treated for an infection, his spokesman said Saturday.
Clinton, 75, who led the United States from 1993 to 2001, was admitted Tuesday evening to the UCI Medical Center in Irvine, south of Los Angeles, with a non-Covid-related blood infection.
Spokesman Angel Urena said on Twitter that Clinton will remain at the hospital overnight "to continue to receive IV antibiotics before an expected discharge tomorrow."
Clinton is "in great spirits and has been spending time with family, catching up with friends, and watching college football," Urena tweeted.
The New York Times, quoting an aide, reported the former president developed a urinary tract infection that turned into sepsis.
Sepsis is an extreme bodily reaction to infection that affects 1.7 million people in America every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It kills 270,000 of those infected every year.
The infection was the latest health scare for America's 42nd president. In 2004, at age 58, he underwent a quadruple bypass operation after doctors found signs of extensive heart disease.
Six years later he had stents implanted in his coronary artery.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/former-us-president-bill-clinton-to-spend-one-more-night-in-hospital-with-non-covid-infection-2578046">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/former-us-president-bill-clinton-to-spend-one-more-night-in-hospital-with-non-covid-infection-2578046</a>

news world Bill Clinton To Spend One More Night In Hospital With Non-Covid Infection

Bill Clinton served as America's 42nd president from 1993 to 2001. (File) Washington: Former US President Bill Clinton will spend a...

Fugitive Businessman Close To Venezuela's Maduro Extradited To US

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Fugitive Businessman Close To Venezuela's Maduro Extradited To US" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2020-05/2a984nj8_nicolasmaduro650_625x300_07_May_20.jpg" title="Fugitive Businessman Close To Venezuela's Maduro Extradited To US" /></div>
Alex Saab was accused of acting as money launderer for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
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Miami:
A fugitive businessman accused of acting as a money launderer for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's regime was extradited Saturday to the United States from Cape Verde, his legal team told AFP.
Manuel Pinto Monteiro, a lawyer for Saab in Cape Verde, said "we were informed that Alex Saab was put on a US Justice Department plane and sent to that country."
Pinto Monteiro insisted the extradition was illegal because, he said, the legal process surrounding it in Cape Verde had not run its full course.
Saab and his business partner Alvaro Pulido are charged in the United States with running a network that exploited food aid destined for Venezuela, an oil rich nation mired in an acute economic crisis.
They are alleged to have moved some $350 million out of Venezuela into accounts they controlled in the United States and other countries. They risk up to 20 years in prison.
Saab, who also has Venezuelan nationality and a Venezuelan diplomatic passport, was indicted in July 2019 in Miami for money laundering, and was arrested during a plane stopover in Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa in June 2020.
Venezuela's opposition has described the Colombian national as a front man doing shady dealings for the populist socialist regime of Maduro.
The US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to an AFP query seeking confirmation of the extradition of Saab.
Colombian President Ivan Duque said he had in fact been extradited.
"The extradition of Alex Saab is a triumph in the fight against the drug trafficking, asset laundering and corruption that the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro has fostered," Duque tweeted.
"Colombia has supported and will continue to support the United States in the investigation of the transnational crime network led by Saab."
Heavy security at airport
Cape Verde agreed last month to extradite Saab to the US, despite protests from Venezuela.
Venezuela said Saturday that Saab, whom it called its "ambassador" -- he was also slated to be part of a government delegation to talks with the opposition -- had been abducted by the United States.
"Venezuela denounces the kidnapping of the Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab by the government of the United States in complicity with the authorities in Cape Verde," the Caracas government said in a statement.
On Sal, the Cape Verde island from which the plane carrying Saab took off, a state TV correspondent told AFP that a US Justice Department plane left from Amilcar Cabral International Airport in the afternoon.
The reporter said there was a heavy police presence on roads leading to the airport and some entrances to it were closed off.
Venezuela had called Saab's arrest in Cape Verde "arbitrary" and claimed he was suffering "mistreatment and torture" at the hands of the Cape Verde authorities.
Roberto Deniz, a journalist who has covered Saab's story for the Venezuelan investigative news site Armando.info, said last month that the regime in Caracas was desperate to get him released.
"It is clear that there is a lot of fear, not only because he may reveal information about bribes, about the places where money was moved and the inflated pricing," Deniz said, but also because Saab "was the bridge for many of these deals that the Maduro regime is beginning to carry out with other allied countries."
Venezuela's former attorney general Luisa Ortega, who broke with the regime and fled the country, said Saab was "the main figurehead of the regime," adding that she herself had passed on evidence in the case to some authorities.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/fugitive-businessman-alex-saab-close-to-venezuelas-maduro-extradited-to-us-2578043">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/fugitive-businessman-alex-saab-close-to-venezuelas-maduro-extradited-to-us-2578043</a>

news world Fugitive Businessman Close To Venezuela's Maduro Extradited To US

Alex Saab was accused of acting as money launderer for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Miami: A fugitive businessman accused of ac...

US Tycoon Robert Durst, Sentenced To Life, On Ventilator With Covid: Lawyer

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="US Tycoon Robert Durst, Sentenced To Life, On Ventilator With Covid: Lawyer" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2018-10/m2oheqbk_robert-durst-reuters-650_625x300_26_October_18.jpg" title="US Tycoon Robert Durst, Sentenced To Life, On Ventilator With Covid: Lawyer" /></div>
Robert Durst is an estranged member of one of New York's most powerful real estate dynasties. (File)
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Washington:
US real estate mogul Robert Durst, sentenced to life in prison for killing his best friend, has been placed on a ventilator after becoming infected with Covid-19, according to a US media report published Saturday.
Durst, 78, was given a life sentence this week with no possibility of parole after a jury found him guilty of killing his friend in 2000 at her Beverly Hills home to keep her from talking to police about the disappearance of his wife two decades earlier.
Durst's attorney Dick DeGuerin told the Los Angeles Times his client was in "very bad condition" during the sentencing hearing.
Durst has been hospitalized and put on a ventilator after catching the coronavirus, said DeGuerin.
"He was having difficulty breathing and he was having difficulty communicating," DeGuerin told the Times. "He looked worse than I've ever seen him and I was very worried about him."
Durst, a multi-millionaire who was the subject of an explosive HBO documentary entitled "The Jinx," has always denied the charges against him.
But he muttered to himself "Killed them all, of course" while the microphone remained switched on during a break in the recording of the final episode of the film.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-businessman-robert-durst-robert-durst-news-us-tycoon-robert-durst-sentenced-to-life-for-best-friends-murder-on-ventilator-with-covid-says-lawyer-2578034">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-businessman-robert-durst-robert-durst-news-us-tycoon-robert-durst-sentenced-to-life-for-best-friends-murder-on-ventilator-with-covid-says-lawyer-2578034</a>

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Robert Durst is an estranged member of one of New York's most powerful real estate dynasties. (File) Washington: US real estate mog...

18 Dead In Russia After Drinking Bootleg Alcohol

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="18 Dead In Russia After Drinking Bootleg Alcohol" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-10/6fs5235_bootleg-alcohol-russia_625x300_16_October_21.jpg" title="18 Dead In Russia After Drinking Bootleg Alcohol" /></div>
Such cases are not uncommon in Russia, where around 21 million people live below the poverty line.
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Moscow:
Russian authorities said on Saturday they had arrested two people as part of an investigation into the death of 18 people in the Urals who drank bootleg alcohol, in the second such incident in recent weeks.
Investigators said "several individuals sold people an alcohol liquid that was dangerous for their health" over the past two weeks in Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth-largest city.
"Eighteen people died after drinking the liquid," the statement said.
An investigation had been opened into the sale of sub-standard goods and death by negligence, which could entail prison sentences of up to 10 years, it said.
At the beginning of October, at least 36 people in the region of Orenburg died after drinking bootleg alcohol containing methanol, which is highly toxic.
Such cases are not uncommon in Russia, where around 21 million people live below the poverty line.
In 2016, more than 60 people died in Irkutsk in Siberia after drinking contraband bath oil that contained methanol.
Russia toughened its legislation after that incident.
However, the price of vodka is prohibitive for millions of Russians, particularly in rural areas with very low standards of living.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/18-dead-in-russia-after-drinking-bootleg-alcohol-2577958">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/18-dead-in-russia-after-drinking-bootleg-alcohol-2577958</a>

news world 18 Dead In Russia After Drinking Bootleg Alcohol

Such cases are not uncommon in Russia, where around 21 million people live below the poverty line. Moscow: Russian authorities said on ...