While the war in Ukraine grinds on, Western countries have been debating how to curb Russia’s oil revenue without causing massive disruptions to energy markets, in which Russia is a big player.

They think they landed on an innovative solution: Starting today, the G-7 (a group of major democracies) and Australia will apply a price cap of $60/barrel on Russian oil.

How does that accomplish their goals?

1. It keeps Russian oil flowing to countries that still buy it (India, China, Turkey), which helps stabilize energy markets that have been on a roller coaster this year.
2. Russia is forced to sell its oil for cheaper than it wants to, which could dent Vladimir Putin’s ability to fund his war in Ukraine. Sales of oil and gas are estimated to account for 42% of Russia’s total revenue this year.

But one does not simply put a “price cap” on oil, and Western countries had to get creative to establish a mechanism for enforcement. What they decided on: Western countries dominate the maritime industry that Russia relies on to ship its oil. So, the G-7 is telling Western companies that they can’t insure, finance, or ship Russian oil that’s more than $60/barrel.

What are the drawbacks to this plan?

1. Russia’s response. Russia said it would not accept the price cap and pledged to cut off oil exports to countries that comply with it, a threat that could cause energy prices to shoot higher (but hasn’t so far). Russia has also been assembling a “shadow fleet” of more than 100 ships to help it move oil without relying on Western maritime companies.
2. The price may not be right. One of the sticking points to negotiations was figuring out the sweet spot for the price cap. Ukraine, for one, believes it’s far too high and that it won’t be effective in draining Putin’s war chest.

Big picture: Right now, the oil market is more directionless than the Lost writers. Prices are being tugged in both directions by geopolitical forces (slowing global economy, the war in Ukraine, China’s shifting Covid policies), and the general vibe at an OPEC+ meeting this weekend was “Let’s not do anything drastic and see how this thing develops.”

Iran official says morality police will be disbanded. In what would be a major concession to protesters, Iran’s attorney general signaled the country will abolish its morality police, a unit that enforces a strict Islamic dress code in public spaces (although no other government entity confirmed the plan to abolish the morality police). That unit and the government more broadly have been the target of widespread protests after a young woman died while in the custody of the morality police.

The US was eliminated from the World Cup. The Netherlands took advantage of their goal-scoring opportunities and the US did not, which resulted in the Dutch booting the young Americans from the World Cup on Saturday by a score of 3–1. In the other knockout round games, Argentina got past Australia, France defeated Poland, and England easily handled Senegal.

Attack leads to power outages in North Carolina. Tens of thousands of people in NC lost power this weekend due to an “intentional” attack on the grid, officials said. Two electrical substations were damaged by gunfire, causing 95% of Duke Energy customers in Moore County to be left without power. County officials declared a curfew overnight on Sunday, telling residents to avoid going out in the below-freezing, extremely dark streets.

On Friday night, Substack writer Matt Taibbi posted a thread showing former Twitter employees debating the decision to restrict sharing of a NY Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. Twitter CEO Elon Musk hyped the release of the so-called “Twitter Files,” saying they would expose how the company, under its previous leadership, engaged in “free speech suppression.”

The screenshots of internal communications reveal that Twitter employees were worried that the Post article could be the result of a Russian hacking operation. Their ultimate decision to suppress the story drew outcry from conservatives, and former CEO Jack Dorsey has said it was a mistake, noting that the company changed its policy on hacked materials as a result.

But Taibbi’s thread did not provide any direct support for Musk’s suggestions that Democrats conspired with Twitter to block the article. Taibbi wrote, “There’s no evidence — that I’ve seen — of any government involvement in the laptop story.” Furthermore, the thread exposed the names of ex-Twitter employees and the apparent email addresses of Dorsey and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (who criticized Twitter’s decision on the Hunter Biden story). On Saturday, Musk acknowledged that posting some emails was a mistake.

Elsewhere in the Twitter-verse…

• While Musk banned Ye’s account for tweeting a swastika on a Star of David, he allowed neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin, who created the white supremacist website The Daily Stormer, back on the platform.
• Musk seems to have dropped his feud with Tim Cook over App Store rules, and said that Apple has “fully resumed” advertising on Twitter.
• Twitter is still hurting financially, though. Its US ad revenue was reportedly 80% below expectations during the first week of the World Cup.

Georgia runoff: Georgia residents have had to endure more weeks of political ads than the rest of us, but that’ll end on Tuesday when a runoff election is held between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. If Warnock holds, he’ll give the Democrats 51 seats in the Senate.

World Cup: Round of 16 matches will continue through tomorrow, until the final eight teams are determined and the quarterfinals kick off Friday. Time to figure out who you’re going to root for now that the US isn’t in it anymore.

SCOTUS takes on consequential cases: Today, the Supreme Court will hear a case about a Colorado web designer who refused to provide services to a same-sex couple on religious grounds. Then on Wednesday, the court will hear a pivotal case concerning the power state lawmakers have in elections.

Everything else:

• More than 1,000 members of the New York Times union are threatening a walkout on Thursday.
• The 81st anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack is on Wednesday.
• Trevor Noah will end his seven-year run as host of The Daily Show on Thursday.

Stat: The music producer Diplo has about $3 million in his bank account—but how we know that is more interesting than the number itself. At Art Basel in Miami, one of the most talked-about installations was an ATM that ranked the bank balances of everyone who used it (Diplo came in at No. 1). The ATM was the brainchild of mischievous Brooklyn art collective MSCHF, whose co-founder called it an “extremely literal distillation of wealth-flaunting impulses.”

Quote: “He made millions of people happy. What a run.”

Jonathan Graziano, the owner of Noodle the pug, revealed on Saturday that the dog died at 14 years old. Noodle provided much-needed entertainment during the pandemic by predicting whether it would be a “Bones Day” or a “No Bones Day.”

Read: TikTok’s viral challenges keep luring young kids to their deaths. (Bloomberg Businessweek)

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Dive back into the week.

• Shallow dive: I wanna be friends with them.
• Medium dive: A chatbot explains that Santa isn’t real (sorry for the spoiler).
• Deep dive: The guy who invented fondue.
• Cannonball: Tom Whitwell’s “52 things I learned in 2022.”

Gifts for the chefs in your life. Here’s the perfect list of gifts for that person who got really into cooking during the pandemic and has now made it a part of their identity.

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Turntable: We got a “q” in the jumble today if you’re looking for a challenge . Play Turntable here.

Name that show

This chart shows the IMDb ratings of a comedy TV show over its five-season run. Can you name the show?

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