week ending Jun 5

 Fed’s Reverse Repos Surge to Historic $485 Billion: What’s Wall Street Afraid of This Time? – Pam Martens - The chart above has been compiled by the St. Louis Fed using the New York Fed’s data for its issuance of Reverse Repurchase Agreements, otherwise known as Reverse Repos. What’s a Fed Reverse Repo? According to the New York Fed, it is when counterparties loan the Fed money in exchange for collateral, which is typically Treasury bills.In the most recent action, we’re talking about the New York Fed, acting on behalf of the Federal Reserve, selling U.S. Treasuries to Wall Street banks, trading houses, mutual funds and government-sponsored enterprises in overnight and weekend deals and paying zero or next to zero as an interest rate when it buys back the securities.Why would the smartest guys on Wall Street, who never let a loose dime slip through their fingers in order to get a larger cut of the annual bonus pool, be willing to loan the Fed money at zero percent interest? These are, after all, some of the same guys making 10-to-1 margin loans to dodgy family office hedge funds like Archegos in order to maximize fee income. One of the frequently expressed theories is that there’s a surplus of cash swashing around Wall Street as a result of the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill passed by Congress in March and the attendant surge in deposits into banks and money market funds. There’s a problem, however, with that thesis. According to the New York Fed’s Excel spreadsheet of its daily Reverse Repos, the dollar amounts went from a low of $3.45 billion on April 5 – the month after the stimulus bill was passed and stimulus checks went out – to a high of $173 billion on April 30.The gargantuan surge in the Fed’s Reverse Repos occurred in May, not April, and has continued into the first days of June. During the last week of May, the Fed’s overnight Reverse Repos ranged from $369 billion on May 21 to an all-time historic high of $485 billion on May 27. In the case of the May 21 Reverse Repo, which fell on a Friday, that deal was not an overnight operation but lasted throughout the weekend, maturing on Monday, May 24. The counterparties who took Treasury collateral from the Fed and loaned it $369 billion for the weekend, earned zero interest according to the data at the New York Fed.Another theory making the rounds is that corporations are wary of parking their idle cash in money market funds holding securities other than U.S. government paper. That’s because the Fed had to create a bailout facility for those non-government paper money market funds during the March 2020 market crisis.Since Treasury money market funds, that so many corporations and institutions are flocking to, typically cannot hold anything longer than a one-year instrument, there may be a surge in demand to get one’s hands on one-year Treasury bills.Whatever is causing the rising fear on Wall Street, there is no question that the fear is spreading to more firms that do business with the New York Fed.In April, the number of counterparties engaging in these Reverse Repos with the Fed went from a low of four on April 5 to a high of 38 on April 29. During the last week of May, the number of daily counterparties ranged from 54 on May 24 to 50 counterparties on May 27, the day the Fed’s Reverse Repos hit an historic high of $485 billion.

Fed’s Taper Talk Is Pre-Emptive Strike Against Inflation Fears - - Inflation readings are coming in hotter than Federal Reserve officials expected and could accelerate the timing of when they debate scaling back their massive bond-buying campaign. Fed Vice Chairs Randal Quarles and Richard Clarida both declared this week that policy makers could begin this discussion at “upcoming meetings.” That echoes a line from minutes of the Fed’s April gathering but carries more weight coming from Chair Jerome Powell’s leadership team. Clarida called April’s consumer prices report an “unpleasant surprise.” On Friday, a key gauge of prices targeted by the Fed rose 3.6% from a year earlier, the biggest jump since 2008. “We are talking about talking about tapering,” San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said in a CNBC interview on May 25, while cautioning that there were no plans to do anything now. The post-pandemic economic-growth surge, which has pushed up prices on everything from bicycles to lumber, has Fed officials on alert. While calling inflation “transitory,” they are also starting to wonder whether a slow response by the economy’s supply side -- the millions of companies and people who make things and provide services -- could result in several quarters of high inflation readings that start to creep into consumer psychology. “Inflation will be 2.5% or higher this year -- mostly temporary -- but inflation could well be above 2% next year,” said former Fed Governor Laurence Meyer, who sees them tapering as soon as December. “Risk management may be called for to avoid inflation expectations creeping upward, which would not be easily reversible.” The public conversation officials are having about tapering is a surprising shift because only a month ago, Powell was skeptical that actual inflation or expectations would move up in a lasting way “while there was still significant slack in the labor market.” “The fear they have is that this gets built into inflation expectations,” said William English, a former senior Fed staff economist. “There is tremendous uncertainty and the models that look at history to inform your forecast are much less useful because we have no history of something like this.”Risks are two-sided, said English, because an inflation scare could also cause officials to reel in stimulus too aggressively and slow the recovery, especially if fiscal support wanes. The agility Fed officials are showing now hearkens back to former Chair Alan Greenspan’s view that risk management was essential because the economy’s structure is always shifting. Asset purchases are the most flexible tool the Fed has now because they can be gradually adjusted as necessary. Raising interest rates, currently near zero, is a much more momentous decision.

US financial system awash with Fed money The extent of the wave of money surging through the US financial system flowing from the ongoing massive financial asset purchases by the Fed, running at an annual rate of more than $1.4 trillion, was underscored last week. Last Thursday, it was revealed that a facility that allows money market funds to place their surplus cash with the Fed came in at $485.3 billion—an all-time record that eclipsed the previous high of $474.6 billion recorded on New Year’s Eve in 2015. The parking of nearly half a trillion dollars with the Fed at zero interest was the result of a fall in yields on short-term Treasury bonds to below zero. The yield on short-term Treasury debt had moved into negative territory because the price of the assets has been pushed so high an investor would make a loss if they held them to maturity. Treasury bills with a maturity of less than one month were reported to be trading at yields of between minus 0.01 and 0.02 points, making the Fed’s reverse repurchase program (RRP) paying zero the better option. John Canavan, an analyst at Oxford Economics, told the Financial Times (FT): “The surge in demand for the Fed’s RRP operations has been incredible. It is also not over yet.” Gennadiy Goldberg, a senior analyst at TD Securities in New York said the RRP facility was “the only safety valve” for the pressure building up in money markets and was “just holding back the flood of cash coming.” The central role of the Fed in the operations of the money markets was highlighted by Priya Misra, the global head of rates strategy at TD Securities. “The Fed’s role in markets is only growing,” she told the FT. “Clearly the market is not functioning on its own.” A major component in the massive build-up of dollars in the money markets is the Fed’s asset purchasing program of $120 billion a month, comprising $80 billion of government debt and $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities, that was implemented after the market meltdown in March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is now growing pressure on the Fed to begin winding back its asset purchases in order to try to restore some degree of “normalcy” to financial markets. The rise in inflation is adding to this pressure but at this stage the Fed is insisting that its extraordinary interventions will continue until it begins to see “substantial improvement” in the economic outlook. Critics of this stand maintain this improvement is already visible as evidenced by the rise in inflation and a tightening in the labour market. They warn that if the Fed continues with its present policies it will be forced to slam on the monetary brakes, prompting a crisis in the financial markets and possibly triggering a recession.

Sixty Years of Money, GDP and the Price Level --Menzie Chinn - Looks like this:  Figure 1: M2 to real GDP ratio (blue, left scale), and Personal Consumption Expenditure deflator, 2012=100 (red, right scale). NBER defined recession dates shaded gray, assumes last trough at 2020Q2. Source: Federal Reserve via FRED, BEA, NBER and author’s calculations.As noted in this December post, the explanatory power of the M2 to GDP ratio is essentially zero for the price level at the year horizon.In logs, the relationship appears similarly tenuous.Figure 2: M2 to real GDP log ratio (blue, left scale), and log Personal Consumption Expenditure deflator, 2012=100 (red, right scale). NBER defined recession dates shaded gray, assumes last trough at 2020Q2. Source: Federal Reserve via FRED, BEA, NBER and author’s calculations.For an examination of the instability of the quantity theory coefficients, see Sargent and Surico (2011), written in the wake of post-Great Recession quantitative easing.

Real Borrowing Costs for the US Treasury: May 2021 -- Menzie Chinn - As of May 2021, the nominal 10 year Treasury rate is 1.6%. The real rate is -0.9%.  Figure 1: Nominal 10 year Treasury yield (blue), 10 year TIPS (red), both in %. NBER recession dates shaded gray; latest recession assumed to end 2020M04. Source: Federal Reserve via FRED, Treasury, and NBER.  It’s noteworthy that — despite the runup in real and particularly nominal rates — May 2021 real rates are still below anything experienced in the the recovery from the Great Recession, and only slightly higher than the all time lows recorded in August 2020 and January 2021 (monthly averages of daily data).  Hence, this seems  an ideal time for the Federal government to lock in interest rates.

Fed's Beige Book: "National economy expanded at a moderate pace" -- Fed's Beige Book "This report was prepared at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland based on information collected on or before May 25, 2021." The national economy expanded at a moderate pace from early April to late May, a somewhat faster rate than the prior reporting period.  The effects of expanded vaccination rates were perhaps most notable in consumer spending in which increases in leisure travel and restaurant spending augmented ongoing strength in other spending categories. Light vehicle sales remained solid but were often constrained by tight inventories. Factory output increased further even as significant supply chain challenges continued to disrupt production. Manufacturers reported that widespread shortages of materials and labor along with delivery delays made it difficult to get products to customers. Similar challenges persisted in construction. Homebuilders often noted that strong demand, buoyed by low mortgage interest rates, outpaced their capacity to build, leading some to limit sales. Nonresidential construction increased at a moderate pace, on balance, even as contacts in several Districts said that supply chain disruptions pushed costs higher and, in some cases, delayed projects. Demand for professional and business services increased moderately, while demand for transportation services (including at ports) was exceptionally strong. Lending volumes increased modestly, with gains in both household and business loans. Overall, expectations changed little, with contacts optimistic that economic growth will remain solid. ...Staffing levels increased at a relatively steady pace, with two-thirds of Districts reporting modest employment growth over the reporting period and the remainder indicating employment gains were moderate. As the spread of COVID-19 continued to slow, employment growth was strongest in food services, hospitality, and retail. Manufacturers also added workers in several Districts. It remained difficult for many firms to hire new workers, especially low-wage hourly workers, truck drivers, and skilled tradespeople. The lack of job candidates prevented some firms from increasing output and, less commonly, led some businesses to reduce their hours of operation. Overall, wage growth was moderate, and a growing number of firms offered signing bonuses and increased starting wages to attract and retain workers. Contacts expected that labor demand will remain strong, but supply constrained, in the months ahead.

Fed’s Beige Book reports pickup in recovery, price pressures -The pace of the U.S. recovery picked up somewhat in the past two months, sparking price pressures as businesses contended with worker scarcity and rising costs, the Federal Reserve said. “The national economy expanded at a moderate pace from early April to late May, a somewhat faster rate than the prior reporting period,” the U.S. central bank said in its Beige Book survey released on Wednesday. “Overall price pressures increased further since the last report. Selling prices increased moderately, while input costs rose more briskly.” The report was based on information collected by the Fed’s 12 regional banks on or before May 25 and compiled by the Cleveland branch.   Fed officials are considering how quickly to trim monetary policy support with an increased pace of vaccinations brightening the U.S. outlook. The Federal Open Market Committee will update its quarterly forecasts for interest rates, growth, unemployment and inflation at its June 15-16 gathering. The Beige Book reported that some businesses were able to take advantage of stronger demand to pass along higher input costs to customers. “Looking forward, contacts anticipate facing cost increases and charging higher prices in coming months,” the survey said. Several policy makers including Vice Chair Richard Clarida have said central bankers may be able to begin discussing the appropriate timing of scaling back their bond-buying program at upcoming policy meetings. Patrick Harker, president of the Philadelphia Fed, said earlier on Wednesday that officials should get that debate underway. Supply disruptions The report cited multiple anecdotes of companies struggling with higher input prices, supply chain disruptions and a shortage of workers. In St. Louis, for example, a group of restaurants held a job fair to fill more than 100 positions — but only a dozen applicants showed up. Leisure and hospitality firms saw increased business as vaccinated Americans sought to travel more frequently. In New York, hotel occupancy topped 50% for the first time since COVID-19 began and nightly room rates rose, while museums and restaurants saw a rebound. The FOMC has committed to only begin scaling back the $120 billion monthly pace of its asset purchases after there’s “substantial further progress” on inflation and employment. U.S. central bankers will get a fresh update on the status of the labor market on Friday.  U.S. consumer prices showed hotter-than-expected inflationary pressures in April. Fed officials have largely written them off as owing to transitory factors associated with supply-chain bottlenecks and the reopening of service industries as the pandemic recedes. The Fed’s forecasts released in March showed officials don’t expect to raise interest rates from near zero before the end of 2023, even as they sharply upgraded projections for growth and employment this year.

 Business Cycle Indicators as of June 1 --Menzie Chinn -Monthly GDP figures were released by IHS-Markit today, showing a rebound in April. In the context of key macro indicators followed by the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee: Figure 1: Nonfarm payroll employment from March release (dark blue), Bloomberg consensus as of 6/1 for May nonfarm payroll employment (light blue +), industrial production (red), personal income excluding transfers in Ch.2012$ (green), manufacturing and trade sales in Ch.2012$ (black), consumption in Ch.2012$ (light blue), and monthly GDP in Ch.2012$ (pink), all log normalized to 2020M02=0. Source: BLS, Federal Reserve, BEA, via FRED, IHS Markit (nee Macroeconomic Advisers) (6/1/2021 release), NBER, and author’s calculations. The monthly GDP is only slightly below peak levels recorded in 2020M02. For a comparison against the official (2nd release) figure and the current IHS-Markit (formerly Macroeconomic Advisers) nowcast, see the below figure.  Figure 2: GDP from advance release (blue bar), IHS-Markit monthly GDP (black line), and IHS-Markit nowcast of 6/1 (brown bar). Source: BEA 2021Q1 2nd release, IHS-Markit.

 Energy expenditures as a percentage of PCE --Note: Back in early 2016, I noted that energy expenditures as a percentage of PCE had hit an all time low. Here is an update through the recently released April PCE report. Below is a graph of expenditures on energy goods and services as a percent of total personal consumption expenditures through April 2021.This is one of the measures that Professor Hamilton at Econbrowser looks at to evaluate any drag on GDP from energy prices. Data source: BEA.The huge spikes in energy prices during the oil crisis of 1973 and 1979 are obvious. As is the increase in energy prices during the 2001 through 2008 period.In general, energy expenditures as a percent of PCE have been trending down for years. At the beginning of the pandemic, energy expenditures as a percentage of PCE, fell to a record low of 3.3% in May 2020.In April 2021, energy expenditures as a percentage of PCE had rebounded somewhat and were at 3.8% of PCE.  This is about the same level as in early 2020 (pre-pandemic).

Biden's new $1 trillion infrastructure offer reportedly swaps in 15 percent minimum corporate tax for tax hike - President Biden didn't just lower the proposed price tag for his American Jobs Plan to $1 trillion, from $1.7 trillion, in a Wednesday meeting with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the GOP point person on infrastructure negotiations. He also said he's open to dropping his proposal to fund the bill by raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, from 21 percent, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post report, citing people familiar with the talks. Instead, the package would create a new 15 percent minimum corporate tax rate.Republicans insist any bipartisan infrastructure bill not touch their 2017 $1.5 trillion tax cut package, their crowning legislative achievement of the past decade. A 15 percent minimum tax wouldn't technically change that 2017 law, and according to a White House document from earlier this year, only about 180 of the largest U.S. corporations would qualify for the minimum tax and just 45 would have to pay, the Journal reports."Corporations have paid a declining share in federal taxes since the 2017 GOP tax law dramatically slashed the corporate tax rate," the Post reports, and 55 Fortune 500 corporations paid no federal income tax in 2020, according to the left-leaning Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy. Biden's minimum tax proposal was originally part of a second package, the American Families Plan, and the White House says Biden is still committed to raising the corporate tax rate through other legislation, if need be.The latest GOP offer is $257 billion in new infrastructure spending over eight years, plus clawed-back COVID-19 relief funds and increased user fees and gas taxes. Biden reportedly offered to include about $75 billion in repurposed coronavirus funds in the package. Biden and Capito are scheduled to talk again on Friday, and "Republican leaders are still deciding whether to put forward another counteroffer or to walk away from the negotiations entirely," the Post reports. Progressive groups, convinced Republicans will ultimately vote against any package and frustrated at the slow pace and concessions by Biden, hope Republicans walk away, letting Democrats pass their own bill through budget reconciliation. "We are rooting for them to be dumb," one top consultant to several progressive groups tells Politico. "If they were smart they would take it. They'd box Biden in on it. And, not just that, he would legitimately be fine with it. And the left would be livid."

Biden rejects new GOP infrastructure offer but will meet with Sen. Capito again Monday - President Joe Biden rejected a new Republican infrastructure counteroffer on Friday, but will continue talks with Republicans next week as the White House considers whether it should abandon hopes for a bipartisan deal.During a conversation with the president Friday, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., proposed adding about $50 billion in spending to the GOP's framework, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. Republicans last put forward a $928 billion plan. Biden most recently proposed a $1.7 trillion package.Biden signaled the "current offer did not meet his objectives to grow the economy, tackle the climate crisis, and create new jobs," she added. Though he shot down the latest proposal, Biden will meet with Capito again Monday and plans to engage with senators from both parties about a "more substantial package," according to Psaki.As the talks continue, Democrats have also moved ahead with a surface transportation bill in the House. The legislation could serve as the means to approve major pieces of Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure package through a series of must-pass spending bills.House Transportation Committee Chair Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., unveiled the bill on Friday. It would invest $547 billion over five years in roads and bridges, as well as rail and other public transport.DeFazio has scheduled a committee mark up the bill Wednesday, a date which could serve as the closest thing to a real deadline for Biden and Senate Republicans to reach a deal on infrastructure. Biden separately spoke to DeFazio to "offer his support" for the hearing on the legislation.The parties have tried to forge a compromise for weeks but appear far from agreement on how much money to spend on infrastructure and how to pay for the investments. Monday marks the date by which Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the White House wanted to see a "clear direction" in the talks.

 The Senate Parliamentarian Just Ripped The Heart Out Of The Democrats' Agenda -With Democrats' slim majority in both houses in Congress and two of their own moderate members unwilling to sign off on the party's ambitious progressive agenda, there's yet another Democrat who may have just killed any chance of railroading legislation through Congress without casting a single vote; Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough.And as Red State reports, she may have just "ripped the heart out of the Democrat agenda (emphasis ours):While the Democrats have high, if not delusional hopes of fundamentally changing every aspect of American life, fromfederal voting dictates to essentially outlawing sub-contracting, the actual rules of the Senate have stood in their way. The filibuster, which Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (among others who are laying low) have pledged to not touch, means that Chuck Schumer and his merry band can’t force through things on a simple 50-50 vote.The Democrats were given a shot of life a few months ago, though, in the form of a parliamentarian ruling that Schumer claimed greenlit most of his agenda. I expressed skepticism at the time in an article discussing the infrastructure package.Chuck Schumer recently claimed the Senate parliamentarian gave him free rein, yet that decision has not been made public, and there’s probably a reason for that.Well, it appears my skepticism was warranted. In what is claimed as a “new ruling,” the parliamentarian effectively rips the heart out of the Democrat agenda.Reconciliation is a very narrow process, and the Byrd Rule requires that anything included in a reconciliation bill must deal with taxes and budgetary issues. You also have stipulations about deficit offsets that must be taken into account. You can not pass regularly legislative items under the guise of reconciliation. Given that, this ruling essentially defeats HR1, the ProAct, and much of what is included in the current “infrastructure” bill. Of course, none of those bills were likely getting support from Manchin anyway, but with reconciliation off the table to get this stuff passed, Schumer is now officially out of options.

Biden’s back door to wage hikes - President Joe Biden’s pledge to offer American workers a path to higher income and more jobs is getting a boost from an unlikely source: the country’s struggle to fully emerge from the pandemic..Labor shortages in key industries are giving many workers their best shot in years to bargain for substantial wage increases, with some companies ramping up pay to attract employees, particularly restaurants.Biden, who in April cheered worker advocates by renewing his call on Congress to nearly double the federal minimum wage to $15, is likely to benefit politically from the trend if it continues.“The ‘shortages’ we are seeing in lower-wage jobs and the accompanying wage pressures are an early sign of success” for the president's agenda, said Julia Coronado, founder of MacroPolicy Perspectives.That success may be short-lived. Higher wages could be among the biggest factors in pressuring the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates if clear signs of an inflation spike appear. They also risk slowing hiring for those who will increasingly seek to return to the workforce as the pandemic subsides, as companies try to keep costs down. That’s why workers’ pay was a major focus for Fed officials in Friday's U.S. employment report for May. They want to see wage gains for the workforce — but what’s behind those raises matters.Wage growth “is positive if it reduces hardship, reduces inequality and is not eaten away or reversed by higher inflation,” said Tim Duy, an economics professor at the University of Oregon and a former U.S. Treasury economist. “But we should be cognizant of the possibility that we’re inducing more inflation.”Income growth has been relatively strong, particularly in the last couple of months, despite disappointing overall job growth. Wages were up about 2 percent in May compared to the year before, and that number likely underestimates the real amount of income growth for technical reasons; lower-wage workers disproportionately lost jobs last year, making the overall average for those who kept their positions look higher then, and the opposite effect is now occurring as Americans return to the labor market. "Anyone looking at the 2.0% increase in yr/yr wages is missing the story," Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and former top economic adviser to President Barack Obama, said in a tweet. "Nominal wages up 1.2% in April/May. That is a 7.4% annual rate. That is huge."

A favored Biden timeline for politically charged decisions: Later — As public pressure to uncover the origin of Covid-19 gained momentum, President Joe Biden did what many of his predecessors have done in the face of a political firestorm: He ordered a review.When a powerful wing of his own party demanded he back an expansion of the Supreme Court, he responded by establishing a commission to study changes to that institution.And while he promised as a candidate to ban new oil and gas permits on public lands, as some of his key supporters advocated, Biden has slow-walked that pledge with a temporary halt on new leases, a suspension of his predecessor’s last-minute leases in a sensitive Arctic refuge and an Interior Department review of the issue announced nearly five months ago.“We’re going to review and reset the oil and gas leasing program,” Biden said at the time.The bureaucratic review of major policies or events has been a go-to presidential tactic since the summer of 1953, when President Dwight Eisenhower tackled a political divide over how to contend with Soviet power by convening an extensive internal analysis of the issue. Presidents ever since have parked politically charged issues in a government process in hopes that the passage of time would take the sting out of a heated debate or allow them to mount support for their preferred position.Biden appears to have reached for the tool at a rate that outpaces his predecessors.Halfway through his first year in office, roughly a dozen politically contentious policies remain under review — from U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and arms sales to the Middle East to whether former President Donald Trump should receive intelligence briefings.“Biden is probably doing this more than other presidents have, but it’s the same approach,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss. “And the approach is, you take an issue that is very politically divisive and you try to cool it off by taking some time and bringing in some experts.”“This is something that presidents do all the time,” he added, “and it has actually worked.”The White House declined to comment for this story.

 China threatens nuclear war, expanding arsenal in case of ‘intense showdown’ with US --The media mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist government touted the country’s “urgent” goal to expand its arsenal of long-range nuclear missiles in anticipation of an “intense showdown” with the US. “As the US strategic containment of China has increasingly intensified, I would like to remind again that we have plenty of urgent tasks, but among the most important ones is to rapidly increase the number of commissioned nuclear warheads, and the DF-41s, the strategic missiles that are capable to strike long-range and have high-survivability, in the Chinese arsenal,” wrote Hu Xijian, the editor of the Global Times. “The number of China’s nuclear warheads must reach the quantity that makes US elites shiver should they entertain the idea of engaging in a military confrontation with China,” he said in the opinion piece. “On this basis, we can calmly and actively manage divergences with Washington to avoid a minor incident sparking a war. US hostility toward China is burning. We must use our strength, and consequences that Washington cannot afford to bear if it takes risky moves, to keep them sober,” Hu wrote, adding that Beijing must be ready for the “intense showdown.”​​  The threat from the editor of the Global Times comes as President Biden​ ordered the US intelligence community to take another look at whether the coronavirus leaked from a Chinese lab.

Blinken to meet officials in Costa Rica amid migrant crisis --Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Central American officials during a two-day visit to Costa Rica beginning Tuesday to discuss the “root causes” of immigration — a visit that comes as the Biden administration is still grappling with t​he dramatic surge of illegal immigrants arriving in the US. ​Since President Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to oversee the immigration crisis in March, the vice president has held virtual calls with leaders of some Central American countries — and will travel to Mexico and Guatemala this month — but still hasn’t visited the border. ​The White House has stressed that Harris’ focus is on the “root causes” of migration but not the border security breakdown caused by the record number of illegal immigrants and unaccompanied migrant children flooding to the US. ​ Speaking at the Washington Conference on the Americas last month, Harris pointed to “corruption” as one of the main reasons people are leaving their homes for America.“Citizens of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras are leaving their homes at alarming rates,” she said.​ ​“No matter how much effort we put in on curbing violence, providing disaster relief, on tackling food insecurity — on any of it — we will not make significant progress if corruption in the region persists.​” While in San Jose, Blinken will meet with President Carlos Alvarado Quesada and Minister of Foreign Affairs Rodolfo Solano Quiros​ about US-Costa Rica relations, and later take part in a meeting with senior leaders of countries — including Mexico — involved in the Central American Integration System​, the State Department said.

Biden administration taps groups to pick which asylum-seekers to allow into the country - The Biden administration has quietly tasked six humanitarian groups with recommending which migrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. instead of being rapidly expelled from the country under federal pandemic-related powers that block people from seeking asylum.The groups will determine who is most vulnerable in Mexico, and their criteria has not been made public. It comes as large numbers of people are crossing the southern border and as the government faces intensifying pressure to lift the public health powersinstituted by former President Donald Trump and kept in place by President Joe Biden during the coronavirus pandemic.Several members of the consortium spoke to The Associated Press about the criteria and provided details of the system that have not been previously reported. The government is aiming to admit to the country up to 250 asylum-seekers a day who are referred by the groups and is agreeing to that system only until July 31. By then, the consortium hopes the Biden administration will have lifted the public health rules, though the government has not committed to that.So far, a total of nearly 800 asylum-seekers have been let in since May 3, and members of the consortium say there is already more demand than they can meet.The groups have not been publicly identified except for the International Rescue Committee, a global relief organization. The others are London-based Save the Children; two U.S.-based organizations, HIAS and Kids in Need of Defense; and two Mexico-based organizations, Asylum Access and the Institute for Women in Migration, according to two people with direct knowledge who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not intended for public release.Asylum Access, which provides services to people seeing asylum in Mexico, characterized its role as minimal.

More Than 30 House Democrats Join Calls for Biden Administration to Restore Immigration Judges Union - A group of 36 House Democrats on Thursday became the latest to urge Attorney General Merrick Garland to recognize a union of immigration judges that was busted by the Trump administration last year. Last November, the Federal Labor Relations Authority voted 2-1 along party lines to decertify the National Association of Immigration Judges, ruling that the Justice Department’s administrative judges were management officials. That decision overruled the findings of the FLRA’s regional director who found there were not enough changes to their duties since a 2000 FLRA decision that found them not to be managers. Last month, the Democratic membership of the Senate Judiciary Committee urged Garland to request the FLRA reverse its decision, saying the 2020 decision was “politically motivated.” On Thursday, the House Labor Caucus followed suit, citing the effort to bust the judges union as part and parcel with the Trump administration’s broader hostility toward labor unions in the federal government. “Elections have consequences,” they wrote. “One of President Biden’s first actions was to rescind the Trump anti-union executive orders. Now it is up to you to rescind former Attorney General Barr’s anti-union petition with the FLRA.” The immigration judges union has filed a motion to reconsider the FLRA’s ruling, although that remains pending. Although Biden elevated Ernest DuBester from member to FLRA chairman earlier this year, the president has not yet nominated new members to the body, meaning DuBester remains in the minority. But if the Justice Department rescinds its petition to decertify the union, the decision would be nullified. The House lawmakers argued that if the decision remains in place, it could be used as precedent for future administrations to bust unions across the federal government. “Should the FLRA’s decision be allowed to stand, the ramification and the legal basis for the decision will have an immediate negative effect on NAIJ and all its bargaining unit members,” they wrote. “But it will have an equally, if not far more, profound impact on federal employees’ right to form and join a union. Any professional employee will be vulnerable to being characterized as a manager because the FLRA decision is so broad and provides no rationale for the departure from its prior precedent.”M

 Email Shows Researcher Who Funded Wuhan Lab, Admits Manipulating Coronaviruses, Thanked Fauci For Dismissing Lab-Leak Theory -Dr Fauci’s emails have been released via a Freedom of Information Act request, and there is some pretty interesting stuff in them, particularly one email where a researcher who funded the Wuhan Institute of Virology thanks Fauci for publicly dismissing the lab leak theory early on during the pandemic.The email from Dr. Peter Daszak, President of the EcoHealth Alliance, a group that has extensive ties to the Wuhan lab gain of function research, sent the email to Fauci on April 18, 2020, roughly six weeks after the outbreak had taken hold.The email states:“As the Pl of the ROl grant publicly targeted by Fox News reporters at the Presidential press briefing last night, I just wanted to say a personal thank you on behalf of our staff and collaborators, for publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for COVID-19 from a bat-to-human spillover, not a lab release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.From my perspective, your comments are brave, and coming from your trusted voice, will help dispel the myths being spun around the virus’ origins. Once this pandemic’s over I look forward thanking you in person and let you know how important your comments are to us all.”Daszak, who also works for the World Health Organisation, is on record admitting that he was involved with manipulating coronaviruses. Here is a video of him talking in DECEMBER 2019 about how ‘good’ the viruses are for messing around with in a lab:Daszak notes that “coronaviruses are pretty good… you can manipulate them in the lab pretty easily… the spiked proteins drive a lot about what happens. You can get the sequence you can build the protein, we work with Ralph Baric at UNC to do this, insert into the backbone of another virus and do some work in a lab.”Elsewhere, the emails show that Fauci also knew very early on, before the WHO even declared a pandemic, that researchers suspected the virus had been ‘potentially engineered’ in a lab, as this exchange with Kristian G. Andersen of the Scripps Research Institute from January 2020 shows:The emails with Fauci show that Daszak had already dismissed the lab leak notion nearly a year before that ‘investigation’ began, and despite other researchers saying it looked potentially engineered.Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this is that Daszak was one of the lead “investigators” on the WHO panel tasked with looking into the origins of the pandemic.Is it any surprise that this guy, whose organisation has shovelled at least $600,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the past few years to play around with coronaviruses inside the lab, determined within 3 hours of visiting the lab in February 2021 that there was ‘nothing to see here’?

Joe Biden Says He's 'Very Confident' in Dr. Anthony Fauci, Despite Email Backlash -President Joe Biden says he isn't bothered by Dr. Anthony Fauci's Republican critics who have called for the nation's most prominent COVID-19 expert's firing after a trove of his emails made headlines this week."I'm very confident in Dr. Fauci," Biden told reporters on Friday, his first public defense of his chief medical adviser, who has come under renewed scrutiny this past week over his response to the coronavirus pandemic and its origins.Questioned later in the day during a briefing with reporters, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said there is no circumstance in which she could see Biden firing Fauci."Dr. Fauci is a renowned career civil servant. He's overseen management of multiple global health crises, and attacks launched on him are certainly something we wouldn't stand by," she said.Republican lawmakers have been combing over thousands of Fauci's emails—first obtained by BuzzFeed and The Washington Post via requests through the Freedom of Information Act—for any missteps or inconsistencies from Biden's medical adviser during the early months of the pandemic. In addition to serving a key role in the coronavirus response in the Donald Trump and Biden administrations, Fauci has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NAID) for nearly four decades. During the height of the pandemic, polls consistently showed that the public viewed Fauci positively and trusted his guidance. He also won praise from many celebrities and made the rounds on late-night talk shows and other popular programs.

What If the “Big Lie” Is the Big Lie? - Kunstler - Maybe now that Dr. Tony Fauci has begun to spill the beans on his doings in service to the Wuhan virology lab, the phrase “conspiracy theory,” flogged by the media as jauntily and incessantly as by the soviet kommissars of yore, will have worn out its welcome.In a sane polity, Dr. Fauci would be cooked. He looks circumstantially like an epic villain of history, who promoted and funded dangerous research activities knowingly, which led to an international disaster that killed millions of people and destroyed countless livelihoods and households, perhaps even the whole global economy, when all is said and done — and he appears to have lied at every step along the way.As a practical matter, what is the “Joe Biden” admin going to do about him? Throw him under the bus? I don’t think they can at this point. Dr. Fauci has come to represent not just the falsehoods employed around the Covid-19 fiasco but more generally the long campaign against truth itself by a grossly illiberal Jacobin Democratic Party seemingly out to punish and destroy Western Civ.Whether the Covid-19 pandemic was an overt tactic in that campaign, or just the result of Dr. Fauci’s catastrophic bad judgment, remains to be revealed. But at least half the country will conclude that there’s some connection between the terrible losses suffered in the pandemic year and the political bullshit they were force-fed in the four-year effort to defenestrate Donald Trump. All Joe Biden’s handlers can do now is fade Dr. Fauci out, keep him off the cable channels, and hope the public can be distracted with some new nonsense. You also have good reason to doubt that Merrick Garland will do anything but look the other way and whistle.

Fauci and Biden administration asking China for medical records of sick lab workers and miners -Dr. Anthony Fauci and members of the Biden administration are asking China to release medical records of lab workers and miners who fell ill prior to the coronavirus outbreak, as they may provide clues about the origins of the virus, according to reports.“I have always felt that the overwhelming likelihood — given the experience we have had with SARS, MERS, Ebola, HIV, bird flu, the swine flu pandemic of 2009 — was that the virus jumped species,” Fauci told the Financial Times. “But we need to keep on investigating until a possibility is proven.”The medical records in question are from three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who reportedly fell ill in November 2019 and six miners who got sick after entering a bat cave in 2012. Two of the miners died.Scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology later visited the cave to collect samples from the bats.“It is entirely conceivable that the origins of SARS-CoV-2 was in that cave and either started spreading naturally or went through the lab,” Fauci said.President Biden’s chief medical adviser called on China to release the medical records, according to the Financial Times report. China’s foreign ministry declined to say whether it would consider releasing the records at a press briefing on Friday.Biden last week ordered U.S. intelligence to come to a conclusion within 90 days about what started the pandemic. Speculation about a lab leak has ramped up in recent weeks, but public health professionals have said it is highly unlikely.Last month, the World Health Organization released a report in which it stated a lab leak, “was considered to be an extremely unlikely pathway.”Fauci has said several times he believes coronavirus was first transmitted to humans via animals.

 Facing his July 4 vaccination deadline, Biden touts a major campaign, including free child care through big providers. - President Biden, facing a self-imposed July 4 deadline to have 70 percent of U.S. adults at least partly vaccinated against the coronavirus, tried Wednesday to rally the nation to meet that goal, announcing an offer of free child care for parents and caregivers while they receive their shots and a national canvassing effort resembling a get-out-the-vote drive.Declaring June a “National Month of Action,” Mr. Biden appeared at the White House to implore Americans not only to get vaccinated, but also to help persuade their friends and neighbors to do so.He laid out an aggressive campaign that will include incentives from sports leagues, like free tickets to the Super Bowl and to Major League Baseball games, and from private companies. United Airlines is offering a year of free flights in a sweepstakes open only to vaccinated Americans, and Anheuser-Busch has promised free beer to adults on Independence Day if the nation meets the president’s goal. “That’s right, get a shot and have a beer,” Mr. Biden declared. “Free beer for everyone 21 years and over to celebrate the independence from the virus.”

Will Biden Pack the Supreme Court? -  Jerri-Lynn Scofield - President Biden’s Supreme Court Commission had its first meeting earlier this month.In the eyes of this observer, the 36-member Commission looks to have been carefully constructed to produce gridlock.in slo-mo. From the NYT:President Biden’s commission to evaluate proposed overhauls to the Supreme Court held its first public meeting on Wednesday, approving its bylaws, announcing the formation of a series of subcommittees and promising to hold hearings from expert witnesses in June and July.The 36-member, ideologically diverse panel of scholars, lawyers, political scientists and former judges, which Mr. Biden named in April, was formed after calls by some Democrats to expand the number of Supreme Court justices. But the public meeting, conducted over videoconference and streamed live on the White House website, showed that the commission’s aspirations go beyond scrutinizing court expansion — or “packing” — proposals.…The commission, as The New York Times reported in April, will be made up of committees that will develop research for the full panel to consider. In addition to a working group examining the court’s size, it will have groups on other possible changes to the court, including creating term limits or a mandatory retirement age; placing greater restrictions on the court’s ability to strike down laws as unconstitutional; expanding the number of cases the court is required to hear; and limiting its ability to decide major issues without a full briefing and arguments.I don’t believe Biden has much appetite for a Court-packing fight. Even if he did,  I doubt he could at this time muster sufficient Senate votes to enact a change.Note that changing the Court’s composition wouldn’t require any constitutional amendment. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution states there shall be a Supreme Court , but is silent on its composition.  And unlike provisions that specify when a super majority is necessary – the two-thirds treaty ratification requirement,  for example, the Constitution’s silence here too  means a simple majority of both houses of Congress would sufficeHere’s the relevant section:The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office. Under what  scenario might Biden decide to engage in  a Court packing battle? I’d like to discuss one possibility.

The Secret Service is reportedly spending nearly $35,000 to rent portable toilets at Trump's Bedminster golf club The Secret Service is spending $34,140 to rent portable toilets in Bedminster, New Jersey, where former President Donald Trump is staying over the summer, according to federal data obtained by The Daily Beast. The expense report reviewed by the news outlet says the rental bathroom trailers are from Imperial Restrooms of Saugerties, New York, cost about $8,500 a month, and will remain in Bedminster through September. Trump, who spent his first few months out of the White House at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, plans to stay at his Bedminster golf club until the fall, Trump advisors told Insider in April.The Washington Post reported in January that Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner did not allow their Secret Service detail to use any of the six bathrooms at the couple's home in the wealthy Kalorama neighborhood in Washington, DC. The report said that since September 2017, taxpayers spent about $140,000 to rent a nearby basement studio apartment so the agents could use the bathroom.  While former US presidents enjoy Secret Service protections for the rest of their lives, it's uncommon for them to charge rent to their security details.Since he left office, Trump has charged the US government at least $40,000 for Secret Service agents to use a single room at his Mar-a-Lago resort, The Washington Post reported.

QAnon Has a Disturbing Takeover Plot to ‘Eliminate’ Elected Officials --A known grifter and QAnon supporter who claims she can time-travel has amassed an army of thousands of loyal followers to carry out a plot to oust elected officials across the country and replace them with QAnon believers—and she’s using game-streaming platform Twitch to do it.Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman has spent the last four months building an intricate network of groups in all 50 states, urging followers to dig up information about elected officials and cough up hundreds of dollars to take part in her scheme.Maras-Lindeman has promised her followers that the plot will bring about “retaliation” for what she believes was a stolen election last November, and ultimately see the return of former president Donald Trump to the White House. All the while, Maras-Lindeman, who streams under the name Tore Says, has grown her subscriber base massively, raking in tens of thousands of dollars since the beginning of the year. She even managed to convince her supporters to cough up over $87,400 in a crowdfunding campaign, which she used to buy a new Tesla. Maras-Lindeman is part of a growing ecosystem of grifters and hucksters who are leveraging the widespread belief that Trump’s election loss was somehow orchestrated by shadowy figures and companies tied to the Democrats. This so-called “Big Lie” has taken hold within the mainstream Republican Party, and fringe figures like Maras-Lindeman have succeeded in carving out a niche that’s proving to be highly lucrative.A week after Biden’s inauguration, Maras-Lindeman outlined an audacious plan to oust sitting lawmakers across the country and replace them with Q believers who were tired of having elections stolen from them.And they were going to begin with Ohio.“Ohio’s gonna be lit, next week we’re gonna be setting some serious fires,” she told viewers on her Twitch channel, ToreSays, on Jan. 29. Then, she issued a warning to the lawmakers: “You want a great reset? Here it is. We’re gonna do it our way, and that’s by eliminating you.”

Interview with Dennis Kucinich on his new book, "The Division of Light and Power" - Matt Taibbi --I first met Dennis Kucinich in 2003, when he was running for president. I’d been assigned to write a feature about him for The Nation and didn’t know what to expect. The press take on him was two caricature terms: nutty leftist.When I began following him around in New Hampshire, I didn’t find him to be nutty or even particularly a leftist. Mainly, he was just interesting. Ask other candidates about various issues and they would vomit rehearsed positions back at you, an experience that was like being handed a series of index cards. Kucinich treated the campaign like a conversation, and what you got from him were not positions but thoughts.To the campaign press, Kucinich was a punchline and an annoyance. I have vivid memories of an exchange in Houston, Texas between reporters who one after the other declared how furious they were that Kucinich had not yet dropped out of debates, so that “real” candidates like John Kerry and John Edwards could have more airtime. In the years since, many of those erstwhile centrist reporters and pundits have adopted his politics, while Kucinich himself has been painted as a kind of neoconservative.That label isn’t correct, either. The problem is that popular political media doesn’t know what to do with a politician who doesn’t define himself by sides, or who’d do something like speak at a CPAC convention in modern America and announce, “I feel comfortable anywhere.” We no longer allow politicians to be comfortable “anywhere.” Early this week, I spoke with Dennis about all this, about his new book, The Division of Light and Power (review to come), about what his fight to save Cleveland’s power company meant then, and what it means now:

• Matt Taibbi: In the book you describe when you first arrive in the City Council, and immediately the reader is greeted with shocking details: members talking about how “all I want is a little ice cream,” and “you’ve gotta to vote right,” and so on. It’s made clear that it’s a racket, that the legislatures are there to be servants of the financial interests.
  Dennis Kucinich: Of course, as the reader is well aware, it’s not just in Cleveland we’re talking about. This goes on everywhere. And when you’re new and you come in, many people are impressionable. They’re looking for cues about — what am I supposed to do now?  Some people make no bones about why they were there. It was looked at as a business, and they were part of the business interests. It wasn’t hidden. It was out in the open. That was the reality that people participated in, and to go against it invited risk.. You get elected to City Council, and some of the people elected to Council are lucky if they could afford a ticket to a game. And suddenly, you’ve got utility lobbyists who are providing members of Council with season tickets or prime box seats to key sports events or to other community events. The lobbyists, as I wrote, become some of the best friends that these lonely Council representatives had. This is the system. People move into the system, and suddenly instead of changing the system, the system changes them. I’ve seen it happen over and over again. You wonder why things don’t change. Well, the system changes people. The perks that are available for people in public office and the recognition and the honor is often such that once you get there, who wants to give that up?You mean, all you need to do is give a vote here and a vote there? Big deal. Well, actually it is a big deal. After a while, you give up a vote, and then maybe a little bit later you give a piece of your soul. You just keep on that, and after a while you just become inured to how that causes you to view things, change the way you look at things.

 Interim OCC chief has full plate — but acknowledges limited authority — Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu has a full policy plate a little more than three weeks since taking the job, but he stresses that the interim nature of his role means he will likely leave key decisions for his Senate-confirmed successor. “If it can wait, it should wait," Hsu said. In an interview with American Banker, Hsu discussed several issues he may have to confront before a permanent comptroller comes aboard. Those include a pending review by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency of decisions made during the Trump era, regulatory policies for the post-pandemic recovery, and the OCC's framework for chartering fintech firms. Yet he noted "a difference between an acting comptroller and a confirmed comptroller.” Somewhat in contrast to former acting Comptroller Brian Brooks, who advanced numerous initiatives that divided various stakeholder groups, Hsu said he views his job as setting up a future, Senate-confirmed comptroller for success. “If there are pressing issues that have to be dealt with, they have to be dealt with. It would be a disservice to both the agency, the banking system, to the future comptroller, not to deal with those things,” Hsu said. “Beyond that, I think that those things are for a confirmed comptroller to weigh in on.” Still, Hsu has not shied away from taking positions that shift the OCC's focus away from priorities laid out in the Trump era. He testified last week that he was concerned that some fintech policy moves made by the OCC during the Trump administration had not been made in “full coordination with all stakeholders”. “I think it’s really hard to do, because the holistic view — everything is changing rapidly, and there’s a lot of different agencies with a lot of different perspectives, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying,” Hsu said in the interview. In other areas, Hsu is more circumspect. For example, he demurred on whether he believed cryptocurrencies have a place in the national banking system. “I'm not sure my belief matters,” Hsu said. “Let me start with that. Crypto exists. It's out there, there are people who are trading it, there are businesses that are basing their business models on how to interact with it.” At the same time, Hsu praised the approach to cryptocurrency embraced by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.  The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

OCC not reviewing Trump-era 'valid when made' rule, Hsu says— While Congress is poised to unwind an Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rule enabling loan sales to fintech firms, the agency's interim leader signaled that a separate companion rule is safe for the time being. Democrats in the Senate voted last month to nullify the "true lender" rule under the Congressional Review Act. It designates a bank as the true lender in a sale to a nonbank — preserving the bank's authority to export interest rates — but critics said it allows fintech firms to engage in rent-a-bank schemes. The House is expected to block the rule as well. Meanwhile, Congress missed the legislative window to block an earlier OCC rule written in the Trump era that similarly reinforced a legal principle that a bank loan is "valid when made." On Wednesday, Michael Hsu, appointed by the Biden administration as acting comptroller, suggested that the agency has no plans to unwind it either. "That’s not under review,” Hsu said on a call with reporters, referring to the valid-when-made rule. Hsu touched on a range of topics, though he stressed a desire “not to get too far in front of” ongoing reviews by OCC staff of actions taken under the Trump administration.

 States dealt setback in effort to block OCC fintech charter — A panel of appeals court judges on Thursday delivered a blow to efforts by state regulators to challenge the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s fintech charter. The three judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a 2019 lower court victory by the New York State Department of Financial Services, which had argued the OCC lacked authority under the National Bank Act to offer the charter. Yet the ruling released Thursday may only be a temporary victory for the OCC, which has had to navigate state legal challenges against the special-purpose charter for years. Echoing past rulings by other courts, the judges said the New York regulator could not claim any harm from the charter because no firm has applied or been approved to receive it. The Second Circuit declined to weigh in on the case’s thornier legal questions. “Having determined that [NYDFS] lacks ... standing, and that its claims are not constitutionally ripe, we lack jurisdiction to decide the remaining issues on appeal,” Judge Joseph F. Bianco wrote in the decision. “Specifically, we do not address the district court’s holding, on the merits, that the ‘business of banking’ under the NBA unambiguously requires the receipt of deposits.” The judges found that NYDFS lacked sufficient standing “because it failed to allege that the OCC’s decision caused it to suffer an actual or imminent injury in fact,” according to court filings. For state advocates, the reason for the ruling — the absence of any fintech charter recipients — is a familiar one. Two rulings throwing out lawsuits by the Conference of Bank Supervisors — one in 2018 and another in 2019 — cited the lack of applicants. Another suit brought by NYDFS, from 2017, was dismissed for the same reason. “We find" that the New York deparment "lacks Article III standing" and that its Administrative Procedure Act claims "are constitutionally unripe,” Bianco wrote, “because no non-depository fintech has filed a formal [special-purpose nonbank] charter application, nor is it known whether such an application will be granted if filed.” The legal fight between the OCC, the New York agency and other state bank regulators centers around the National Bank Act and what’s known as the “business of banking” — taking deposits, facilitating payments and making loans. With a special-purpose charter, first introduced by former Comptroller Thomas Curry in late 2016, the OCC said it could authorize charter recipients to do just one or two banking activities, rather than all three. A charter for a fintech firm not interested in taking deposits could, in theory, avoid supervision by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The Second Circuit decision Thursday reverses the 2019 ruling from U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York, who wrote that the National Bank Act’s “business of banking” clause “unambiguously requires that, absent a statutory provision to the contrary, only depository institutions are eligible to receive national bank charters from the OCC.”

Bank of America fixes ordered after hacked customers ‘go hungry’ - Bank of America was ordered by a judge to change its practices after thousands of unemployed California customers receiving public benefits complained that when their prepaid debit cards were hacked, the bank made matters worse by treating them like criminals. In response to allegations to that the bank was refusing to investigate account holder claims and in some cases freezing accounts that weren’t affected by fraud, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria on Tuesday directed the bank to take several steps to improve its processes. The reforms were finalized in an agreement between the bank and lawyers for the customers who sued in January.“As California’s unemployment program faced billions of dollars in fraud, Bank of America’s No. 1 goal always has been to ensure legitimate recipients could access their benefits,” the bank said in a statement. “With this agreement, we are committing to additional measures to help those entitled to unemployment benefits receive those benefits as quickly as possible.” The San Francisco-based judge concluded last month that the account holders suffered “irreparable harm” after Bank of America used a faulty screening process to freeze accounts needed to “feed their families and keep a roof over their heads” through the pandemic. “Just as companies can establish irreparable harm by showing that losing money will likely cause them to shut down, human beings can establish irreparable harm by showing that losing wages or benefits will likely cause them to be evicted, go hungry, or be denied necessary medical care,” Chhabria wrote in May. Lawyers representing the account holders said in an emailed statement that the case will move forward with pre-trial information sharing, and that they’ll seek an order requiring the bank to make permanent changes to its practices as well as monetary damages. The case is Yick v. Bank of America, 21-cv-00376, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

Deutsche Bank Orders Bankers Back To The Office After Labor Day - JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs were the first megabanks to recall their employees to the office (most of their full-time white-collar staff started back at the office a few weeks ago, though most are still working on a rotation). And although their European rivals have been much slower to follow suit, it appears Deutsche Bank, which employs 1,500 investment bankers in the US (mostly in NYC), has finally put its workers on notice. According to an internal memo cited by the FT, Drew Goldman, Deutsche's head of investment banking coverage and advisory, and James Davies, the head of US investment banking, have informed staff that all of the bank's American teams should aim to resume working in the office no later than the Labor Day holiday on Sept. 6."If you are currently working remotely, please begin to plan accordingly with your team and manager to re-establish a presence in the office before or by that date," Goldman and Davies wrote in the memo seen by the Financial Times.Still, as the FT points out, Deutsche's timetable is closer to the "gradual" approach favored by European banks than the accelerated approach favored by Wall Street. HSBC and SocGen are following a similar path.That American banks are returning to the office more quickly than their European peers isn't exactly a surprise. The US vaccination rate has far outpaced that of the EU.Fortunately for DB's back-office bankers, the memo outlines which type of employees will be required back at the office five days a week, and which will still be able to enjoy "a greater degree of freedom."So-called risk takers that invest the bank’s capital will probably return to Deutsche’s offices full-time, whereas “client-facing” staff will be permitted to work remotely about one day a week. Support staff also will be allowed to work remotely sometimes.

 Fed proposes rules for funds transfers on faster payments platform — The Federal Reserve Board proposed a new set of rules Tuesday dealing with how funds transfers will be carried out over the central bank’s real-time payments service that is expected to become available in 2023. The Fed said the measure governing transfers on the new FedNow service would have similarities with the existing framework for the current Fedwire Funds Service. The proposal includes terms and conditions for how the Fed’s regional banks will process transfers over FedNow, and authorizes the regional banks to provide more detailed terms and conditions. The rule would also include a provision requiring FedNow participants that serve as the beneficiary’s bank to make funds available immediately, among other changes. In 2019, the Fed announced plans to create FedNow following the launch of other real-time payments platforms, such as the RTP network developed by The Clearing House. “The FedNow Service will operate alongside similar services provided by the private sector to provide core infrastructure supporting instant payments in the United States,” the Fed said in the proposal unveiled Tuesday. The public will have 60 days to comment from when the proposal is published in the Federal Register.

 Fed isn't seeking to make climate policy, Powell says - — The Federal Reserve is well positioned to assess climate change risk to the financial system but should steer clear of setting actual climate-related policy, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday. Powell said Friday at a virtual event that elected officials need to determine climate policies, while the Fed can ensure that the financial system can weather shocks to the system as a result of climate change. “Central banks clearly can play an important role in building data and analysis to understand the macroeconomic consequences of climate change to quantify the risk to the financial system, through scenario analysis, for example, and to ensure the resilience of the financial sector to climate change,” he said at the event, sponsored by the Bank for International Settlements, Bank of France, International Monetary Fund and Network for Greening the Financial System. “We will communicate all of that publicly," he added. "But we are not and we do not seek to be climate policymakers.” Powell’s comments come in the midst of growing political tensions in the U.S. over financial regulators’ role in mitigating the impact of climate change. Democrats have pushed regulators to take a more active role in protecting banks and other firms from losses tied to extreme weather events. Republicans have argued that climate policy is outside financial regulators’ jurisdiction. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, has criticized regional Federal Reserve banks for their research related to climate change, describing it as "mission creep." Powell said the Fed can play a role in educating the public about the risks associated with climate change to help inform elected officials' policy decisions. “We should avoid trying to fill in public policy where governments haven't done so yet,” Powell said. “That's not up to us. But nonetheless, I do think our work can indirectly help educate the public on what's going on and … inform other parts of the government in the actions that they are assigned to assess.” Powell weighed in on a number of actions that U.S. regulators are currently considering as they determine their role in addressing climate change, including climate scenario analysis and climate risk disclosures. Powell said that the Fed hasn’t determined whether it will move forward with a climate scenario analysis regime, but that climate scenario analysis provides valuable information to financial institutions. “If you look across central banks, and actually what large regulated financial institutions are doing, climate scenario analysis is emerging as one of the principal tools for assessing the risks of climate change … and highlighting risks,” Powell said.

How Fed aims to help banks spot synthetic identity fraud— The Federal Reserve has embarked on a multipronged effort to alert financial institutions about the threat of synthetic identity fraud, which has already cost lenders an estimated $6 billion in losses and drained resources from the Paycheck Protection Program. Some analysts say fraud committed by creating fake personas is now the fastest-growing crime in the U.S. However, defining and identifying synthetic identity fraud has proved challenging for risk managers and law enforcement that historically have been more focused on stopping fraud from more traditional identity theft. After publishing three white papers on the topic, the Fed in September launched a focus group of 12 industry experts to agree on a standard definition for synthetic identity fraud. In April, the group defined it as the use of a combination of personally identifiable information to fabricate a person or entity in order to commit a dishonest act for personal or financial gain. The idea is to focus bankers' efforts on flagging instances of fraud that are distinct from the more garden-variety instances of when a person steals another's identity. One common approach by synthetic fraudsters is to create a fake persona with a made-up name and address that are combined with someone's actual social security number, often stolen through a data breach. “It's a fantastic first step,” Greg Woolf, a member of the working group and CEO of the fraud detection software provider FiVerity, said of the standardized effort to define synthetic identity fraud. “The definition is a start, and as this unfolds, the Fed is looking to educate the market and implement this in a way that will help the financial industry.” Growth in criminals committing synthetic identity fraud began to catch the attention of Fed officials in 2018, said Jim Cunha, senior vice president for secure payments at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. “Synthetic identity came in as something that appeared to be growing dramatically,” he said. “We felt like this was an area where the Fed, as a leader catalyst, could provide value.” Although there is scant and varying data on synthetic identity fraud, the associated losses for banks are generally expected to climb. Aite Group has estimated that by 2023, synthetic identity fraud could account for $2.42 billion in unsecured credit losses, up from approximately $1.63 billion in 2019. Officials said part of the Fed's aim is to highlight the risk of fraudsters creating fake businesses, instead of just fake individuals, that then try to apply for credit. “Our definition is sort of precise, in that it talks about personally identifiable information, and it talks about an individual and an entity,” said Mike Timoney, vice president of secure payments at the Boston Fed. “Most of what we saw in original definitions was really focused around an identity, but it really didn't take into the side that it could be a business or an entity that actually has a fake identity as well.”

American Express links to three anti-fraud platforms - American Express is integrating its Enhanced Authorization fraud detection system with platforms operated by Accertify, Microsoft and Riskified. The integrations allow the companies to share payment data at the time the transaction is taking place, said Tina Eide, senior vice president of global fraud risk at American Express. "Digital data is so incredibly valuable, and we find that it works well for all types of online fraud," Eide said. "There is no specific type of fraud in which we see a gap or a hole, as we are finding the Enhanced Authorization data captures it all. Without it, there are some gaps, but with it we have closed them." Amex is using application programming interfaces to link into Accertify’s Fraud and Abuse Protection Platform, Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection and Riskified’s Fraud Management Platform. Accertify is a unit of Amex. The integrations are an important boost for the Enhanced Authorization platform, considering retailers and e-commerce merchants have seen the cost of fraud increase as much as 7.3% year over year during the pandemic. With the API, the platform becomes part of the online fraud prevention products that merchants may already be using to protect their businesses. Merchants have been able to provide extra data to Amex in the past by sending incremental information right in the ISO message along with the transaction data, or separately through the Enhanced Authorization API. Now, the merchants don't need to do anything if they are already providing that sort of information to a provider partnering with Amex. "There are many data fields available, and you think about addresses and important numbers for the customer, but the merchant can also indicate how long the customer has been registered and information about past purchases," Eide said. American Express e-commerce merchants can expect up to a 60% reduction in fraud through the more accurate authorization process, as well as increased approval rates, Eide said. The online customer will not notice any change in their shopping experience, as the enhanced data capture occurs in the background during the transaction process.

 Why more banks are weaning themselves off overdraft fees --For several decades, U.S. banks reaped huge revenues from fees charged to customers who spent money they didn’t have, while also enduring a consumer backlash that tarnished their reputations. Now the calculus is changing at a growing number of large and mid-sized banks. These firms are reducing or eliminating their reliance on overdraft fees at a time when regulatory scrutiny seems likely to increase, and as competition from lower-cost alternatives is on the rise. The latest moves are by Ally Financial and Huntington Bancshares. Ally’s online-only bank announced Wednesday that it will permanently stop charging overdraft fees. One day earlier, Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington launched a line of credit for emergency expenses that figures to erode its overdraft fee revenue. Those banks joined PNC Financial Services Group and Cullen/Frost Bankers, both of which announced changes earlier this year that are expected to reduce their haul from overdraft fees. The moves reflect a greater focus at banks on the financial health of customers. “Industry is sending a clear message: it is time to move on from overdraft,” said Aaron Klein, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. While larger banks are getting out in front of what could be a more aggressive stance from Biden-era regulators, it could take time for smaller firms to move on, Klein said. “For those smaller banks and maybe a few credit unions that are so intertwined in overdraft, it would be difficult for them to let the product go and still survive. It will be quite a difficult transition,” he said. Ally’s decision to ditch overdraft fees permanently grew partly out of customer feedback that the company received during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Diane Morais, president of consumer and commercial banking at Ally Bank. In March 2020, as businesses were shuttered, Ally waived overdraft fees for 120 days. “These are things we did last year that we learned a lot from,” Morais said in an interview. Ally Bank, which has a large online savings franchise, collected $5 million in overdraft fees for all of last year, according to regulatory filings. That is a far smaller percentage of its deposit base than is the case at many other banks. While the fees have not been a major revenue source for Ally, Morais noted the stress that overdraft charges can put on households. Black and Hispanic customers, in particular, have been impacted extensively by the practice, she said. Research by the nonprofit Financial Health Network found that roughly 56% of the estimated $12.4 billion in overdraft fee revenue collected by banks last year came from households that were classified as “vulnerable,” meaning that they struggle in almost all areas of their financial lives. Another 40% of the revenue came from “coping” households, which struggle with some aspects of their finances. While 35% of U.S. households were classified as “healthy,” they only accounted for about 4% of overdraft fee revenue.

BankThink Legacy systems are banks’ Achilles' heel - All over the modern economy, legacy businesses have been upended by the digital revolution: The old travel agencies have been destroyed, print news verges on extinction, and main street stores are on their knees. In banking, too, there are fears. Bank CEOs have expressed public concern. A 2019 report by MIT Sloan Management Review showed that over 40% of bank revenue is at risk of digital disruption. Incumbent banks are at crossroads. On the one hand, they are heavily regulated and need to have extensive internal control systems. On the other, they are being disrupted by fintechs who are agile, innovative, less regulated, and are eating into their revenue streams and client base. But banks have a chance to thrive, if they remain vigilant and smart — and if they embrace fintech, along with the products, services, and ideas it brings to the table. That’s because legacy banks have an advantage other industries do not: People have trusted them for centuries with their worldly financial assets. When the stakes are that high, many naturally prefer to talk to a person, not an app. That trust is what is keeping banks on Main Street and, crucially, buying them time to catch up to their new rivals. Banks must use their time wisely by leveraging their internal governance and controls to accelerate their AI transformation in a manner that will satisfy their regulators. And the need for action is urgent. Fintech startups and their artificial intelligence are already disrupting key areas like retail banking, capital markets, and wealth management, and in specific use cases like fraud detection, compliance risk, and conduct and credit risk. Efforts by legacy banks to build their own AI require time, energy and innovation that their complex bureaucracies cannot easily adapt to. Their Achilles' heel is their fragmented and inflexible legacy systems, and their data sits in silos — all of which considerably slows the pace of their digital transformation.

Tesla Failed to Oversee Elon Musk’s Tweets, SEC Argued in Letters – WSJ -Securities regulators told Tesla Inc. TSLA -3.82% last year that Chief Executive Elon Musk’s use of Twitter had twice violated a court-ordered policy requiring his tweets to be preapproved by company lawyers, according to records obtained by The Wall Street Journal. Tesla and the Securities and Exchange Commission settled an enforcement action in 2018 alleging that Mr. Musk had committed fraud by tweeting about a potential buyout of his company. Mr. Musk paid $20 million to settle that case—Tesla also paid $20 million—and agreed to have his public statements on social media overseen by Tesla lawyers. In correspondence sent to Tesla in 2019 and 2020, the SEC said tweets Mr. Musk wrote about Tesla’s solar roof production volumes and its stock price hadn’t undergone the required preapproval by Tesla’s lawyers. The communications, which haven’t been previously reported, spotlight the running tension between the nation’s top corporate regulator and Mr. Musk, who publicly mocked the SEC even after settling fraud claims with the agency. The SEC told Tesla in May 2020 that the company had failed “to enforce these procedures and controls despite repeated violations by Mr. Musk.” The letter, signed by Steven Buchholz, a senior SEC official in its San Francisco office, added: “Tesla has abdicated the duties required of it by the court’s order.” Tesla, Mr. Musk, and the SEC didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Journal obtained the records under a federal Freedom of Information Act request. Mr. Musk’s skirmish with the SEC is part of a pattern by him and Tesla of sidestepping rules or averting enforcement attempts, the Journal reported in April. The preapproval requirement was an unusual condition of the SEC enforcement action that the regulators touted as a way to improve Tesla’s corporate governance in the wake of the 2018 investigation. The deal also called for Mr. Musk to relinquish his chairman’s role and for Tesla to appoint two independent directors. Mr. Musk and Tesla resolved the SEC investigation without admitting or denying wrongdoing.

The Archegos scandal is making banks rethink their ties to the secretive world of family offices. Industry insiders told us why the days of easy money are gone for the $6 trillion sector. - A few months ago, bankers from the world's largest institutions were devising creative strategies to ingratiate themselves with asset managers and communications firms within the family office nexus. After all, it would be hard to find someone in the financial industry uninterested in tapping into this $6 trillion global asset pool that is largely unregulated. In the last six weeks, a deal worth $500 million fell through for a large family office that was looking to diversify its custodian base and prime brokerage connection, according to Vikash Gupta, co-founder and managing director of VAR Capital. His firm -- which is an independent family office and asset manager overseeing over $1.4 billion in assets for its client base that hails from Europe, the Middle East and Asia -- is responsible for overseeing and managing big banks' relationships with clients, including this family office. "This American bank told them outright that we're not taking on new clients and we're managing the clients that we have already and [will] make them more conservative," Gupta said. "So it was quite a shock to the existing family office because they are a proper professional outfit" As a result, Gupta said he's working with the family office to look at alternative options. "There are a lot of tier-two banks who don't have enough family office business," he said. "So, we are now looking at other custodians who might be moving into this space. We're happy to talk to them." In the wake of the Archegos scandal, the lid has been lifted on this secretive world. After decades of operating with scant regulatory oversight, lawmakers and consumer advocates are putting pressure on governments to keep a closer eye on the deals family offices are involved in, especially those businesses operating in capital markets. Late March was a moment of reckoning for the industry as famed hedge fund manager Bill Hwang's Archegos Capital Management hit rock bottom - once spinning assets of $200 million in 2013 into around $20 billion this year. The firm that was not on any regulators' radar used a highly leveraged portfolio that was concentrated in a few stocks.  The obscure, but seemingly profitable fund, also led to an embarrassing barrage of criticism for the large banks that enabled Archegos, including Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Nomura. UBS reported it faced an unexpected $774 million in loss from the collapse of Archegos, bringing the total loss to the banks that were involved with the fund  to $10 billion.  But the pain extends beyond the balance sheet to wider reputational damage, leading Wall Street reform advocates to call for greater scrutiny of the banks that facilitated these deals. Despite a wider acceptance that the days of light-touch regulation have passed, the industry isn't giving up without a fight. "The lobbyists are all over Washington already for the family offices,''  "When you listen to the lobbyists, you would think that family offices had glowing halos over their heads.”

 Crypto: Congress Dawdles as $1.7 Trillion Con-Game Goes Unregulated, Threatening Reputation of U.S. Markets -Pam Martens - If you want to get your hair cut outside of your home in the United States, the job has to be done by a licensed worker at a regulated business. The same thing applies to plumbers, electricians, home inspectors, real estate and insurance agents. They all require a license and are subject to regulatory scrutiny.  But, for reasons that have yet to be explained to the American people, when it comes to the $1.7 trillion cryptocurrency market – which is effectively a con-game based on the greater fool theory, nothing is regulated. Not the crypto currency; not the promoters; not the crypto exchanges; and not the firms that are providing as much as 100 times leverage to fuel this “rat poison squared,” as the legendary investor Warren Buffett has characterized Bitcoin. (See The Smartest Guys in the Room Call Bitcoin “Rat Poison Squared,” “a Colossal Pump-and-Dump Scheme” and “a Big Criminal Scam” but Federal Regulators Look the Other Way.)At a May 6 hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, newly-seated Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler testified as follows: “Right now, the exchanges trading in these crypto assets do not have a regulatory framework, either at the SEC or our sister agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.” Gensler added: “Right now, there’s not a market regulator around these crypto exchanges, and thus there’s really not protection against fraud and manipulation.”The U.S. now has the dubious distinction of being the capitol of innovation for every conceivable type of fraud surrounding cryptocurrencies – a “currency” backed by nothing and regulated by no one.Just last Friday, the SEC brought charges against hustlers for the crypto exchange, BitConnect. According to the SEC complaint, “BitConnect, an unincorporated organization, raised approximately $2 billion by conducting an unregistered offering and sale of securities in the form of investments into BitConnect’s ‘lending program.’ Defendants Brown, Grant, Maasen, and Noble, along with BitConnect itself and others, offered and sold the lending program as securities without registering the offering with the SEC as required by the federal securities laws and without a valid exemption from this registration requirement.”On May 17 the Federal Trade Commission reported that crypto scams are skyrocketing. It wrote: “Reports to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel suggest scammers are cashing in on the buzz around cryptocurrency and luring people into bogus investment opportunities in record numbers. Since October 2020, reports have skyrocketed, with nearly 7,000 people reporting losses of more than $80 million on these scams.” As of this morning, according to the website coinmarketcap.com, Bitcoin had a market cap of $724.5 billion. That’s more than the combined market cap of two of the largest banks in the United States, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. It’s also more than the combined market cap of Boeing, General Motors, Ford, AT&T, and General Electric. The trading in all of these companies is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission; they must publish audited financial statements; and they must disclose all material facts to the public. None of that is true when it comes to the $1.7 trillion cryptocurrency market.

 Crypto Will Be Put Under the Microscope at June 30 House Hearing - Pam Martens -The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Congressman Al Green of Texas, will hold a hearing on June 30 titled:  “America on ‘FIRE.’ Will the Crypto Frenzy Lead to Financial Independence and Early Retirement or Financial Ruin?”The announcement of the hearing came yesterday, the same day that Wall Street On Parade reported that the Federal Trade Commission was witnessing a skyrocketing increase in crypto scams. The FTC wrote on May 17:“Reports to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel suggest scammers are cashing in on the buzz around cryptocurrency and luring people into bogus investment opportunities in record numbers. Since October 2020, reports have skyrocketed, with nearly 7,000 people reporting losses of more than $80 million on these scams.”The Subcommittee has not yet posted its lineup of witnesses for the hearing. Republicans, who are the minority party in the House at present, can be expected to call at least one of the shills for crypto. Democrats will likely call witnesses from academic and investment circles.One of the biggest crypto critics has been Nouriel Roubini, Chairman of Roubini Macro Associates and a former senior economist for international affairs in the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration. Roubini has also worked for the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve, the World Bank, and was Professor of Economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business from 1995 to 2021.In a Bloomberg TV interview in April, Roubini gave this scathing critique of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies:“Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies – currency is a misnomer, they’re not a unit of account, they’re not a scalable and widely-used means of payment. With Bitcoin you can do five transactions per second; with the Visa network you can do 25,000 transactions per second.“It’s not a stable store of value over wealth or goods and services. And it’s not a single numero as you have thousands of tokens and, therefore, it’s like going back to barter. There’s not a single numero to have price transparency.“So, they’re not currencies. And if and when soon they’ll be central bank digital currencies, they’re going to dominate for payment services – not only cryptocurrencies but also private forms of money like deposits in the banking system or online payment services.“The question is whether they are assets. You know, for something to be an asset, it has to provide you some income, like stocks or bonds or loans or real estate. They don’t provide you any income. Residential real estate provides you housing services. Gold provides you, not income, but used as an industry or jewelry as utility. While Bitcoin is not having any income, doesn’t have any uses, doesn’t have any liquidity services, doesn’t have any utility. What’s the intrinsic value of it? It’s just a self-fulfilling bubble.”

The Best Hedge Fund Performance in History; Now Clients Can’t Get Access to their Money -By Pam Martens: June 1, 2021 ~  If something sounds too good to be true, you can bet your discolored Bernie Madoff account statements that it will inevitably end badly. Quietly, at the start of a three-day weekend, Bloomberg News published this titillating news item about the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, known as RenTech or RenTec on Wall Street: “Credit Suisse Group is temporarily barring clients from withdrawing all their cash from a fund that invests with Renaissance Technologies…The fund lost about 32% last year, in line with the decline in the Renaissance Institutional Diversified Alpha Fund International fund that it invests into, the people said. Renaissance, regarded as one of the most successful quant investing firms in the world, was rocked by billions of dollars in redemptions earlier this year after unprecedented losses in 2020.” Put the above paragraph together with the paragraph below from a Bloomberg report on February 8 and you can see why tongues are wagging across Wall Street:“RIEF [ Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund], lost 19% in 2020, the letters show. That fund got the biggest chunk of the redemptions. The Institutional Diversified Alpha fund dropped 32% and the Institutional Diversified Global Equities fund fell 31%. Medallion gained 76%, according to Institutional Investor.”Here’s the thing: the Renaissance Medallion fund is only available to current and former partners and employees of Renaissance Technologies. To put it another way, insiders are getting super rich while outside investors lose their shirts.Am I suggesting that Renaissance is giving its best trades to its own insiders? Absolutely not. But I am suggesting that if someone were nefariously inclined, it wouldn’t be hard to engineer performance results.The Medallion fund has been restricted to just insiders since the end of 2005. Other folks are also getting curious about its lopsided results. Cornell Capital Group studied its performance and wrote the following eyebrow-raising analysis: “The performance of Renaissance Technologies’ Medallion fund provides the ultimate counterexample to the hypothesis of market efficiency. Over the period from the start of trading in 1988 to 2018, $100 invested in Medallion would have grown to $398.7 million, representing a compound return of 63.3%. Returns of this magnitude over such an extended period far outstrip anything reported in the academic literature. Furthermore, during the entire 31-year period, Medallion never had a negative return despite the dot.com crash and the financial crisis. Despite this remarkable performance, the fund’s market beta and factor loadings were all negative, so that Medallion’s performance cannot be interpreted as a premium for risk bearing. To date, there is no adequate rational market explanation for this performance.”

Exclusive: Private equity bet on troubled Caribbean refinery blows up on retirement funds (Reuters) – U.S. private equity firm Arclight Capital Partners LLC, which invests the retirement savings of Maine teachers, NFL football players and Mayo Clinic doctors, lost hundreds of millions of dollars betting on a troubled Caribbean oil refinery, according to sources and documents reviewed by Reuters. Boston-based Arclight’s Energy Partners Fund VI, which held a majority stake in the Limetree Bay refinery on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, shed more than a quarter of its value in the year ended March 31, according to financial disclosures by a limited partner in the fund. The fund has since removed the refinery from its portfolio, while investors holding hundreds of millions of dollars of common and preferred equity in the facility have been forced to write it off as worthless, according to pension fund officials and financial disclosures. Arclight declined to comment on the performance of the investment. Arclight had been winding down its ownership in the refinery since last year and sold its remaining stake in April, a source familiar with the matter said. Arclight added the refinery to its Energy Partners Fund VI portfolio after purchasing it out of bankruptcy in 2016 for $190 million, hoping to renovate and restart it, along with other investors. But the refinery, mothballed since 2012, never ran smoothly. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered the plant shut for at least 60 days after the refinery sprayed nearby neighborhoods with a petroleum mist. The ownership company Arclight formed to oversee the refinery, Limetree Bay Ventures LLC, is now being dissolved, according to pension fund executives and documents viewed by Reuters. Contractors hired to help restart the refinery also claim they are still owed millions of dollars for their work, according to liens filed with the U.S. Virgin Islands Recorder of Deeds. Linda Woods, 69, a retired English teacher in Maine, said she never liked the idea of her retirement dollars funding investments in fossil fuels. But she said she hopes the problems at Limetree Bay will encourage the state legislature to limit oil and gas investments by the pension plan in the future.

 AMC Tumbles After Announcing It Will Sell 11.55 Million Shares Directly To The Public Last Friday, when meme stocks AMC and (to a lesser extent) Gamestop were soaring after the latest Reddit-raid decided to snuff out any remaining shorts while piling into the two legacy retail names, we said that the only question is "whether AMC management will surprise the Reddit army today or if it will wait until after the long weekend to unveil the latest dilution."Well, a few days later, we learned that AMC did in fact wait until Tuesday to unveil that it had sold 8.5 million AMC shares to Mudrick Capital - which bought the shares at a premium the previous close just to aggravate the short squeeze - which we then learned immediately turned around the dumped the new share to Reddit at a profit.In any normal world, this would have been sufficient to send the stock plunging, but not in this one, because the sale to Mudrick actually sent AMC stock surging 150%!Predictably, emboldened by the sheer idiocy of Reddit, AMC CEO Adam Aron was not content with abusing the broken market, and one day after it launched a shareholder goodies program urging the company's millions of retail shareholders to "self identify" through the company's website, where they will receive "special offers" and "company updates" (including an initial offer of a free large popcorn at any AMC-owned theater in the US)...  Update: finally, the stock is tumbling. Perhaps even retail investors realized that when AMC is pulling a Boiler Room-type "deal" to dump as much stock as it can, it will only end badly.

 GOP senator wants to cut deal on GSE reform. Will Democrats listen-- — More than a decade after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed under government control, another senior lawmaker has come forward willing to craft a bipartisan deal on housing finance reform. Yet once again, legislative progress may be elusive. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the Banking Committee, has adopted an optimistic tone on reforming the government-sponsored enterprises. He has remarked at recent industry conferences and hearings that he thinks the two parties aren't that far apart, and released GSE reform principles in March that echo ideas supported by Democrats. But many say Toomey may be an outlier in his focus on GSE reform and that Democratic leadership in the House and Senate appear to be focused on other things. Whereas Democrats had gotten behind reform frameworks in the years following the financial crisis, today they sound less interested in changing the status quo. "The reality is [Democrats] have other housing priorities that they consider more important" than GSE reform, said a financial services lobbyist who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Some said Democrats might have been motivated to focus on a comprehensive GSE overhaul had the Trump administration made more progress on its plan to release Fannie and Freddie from their government conservatorships. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon in a case deciding whether President Biden can fire Federal Housing Finance Director Mark Calabria, who was appointed by then-President Donald Trump. “If you’ve got Calabria in place, then maybe the need for legislative GSE reform from a Democratic perspective is more pressing,” said Jim Parrott, a fellow at the Urban Institute. “But if you've got a progressive FHFA director in place, then I think you're going to want to give them some time to figure out what a progressive FHFA and thus a progressive GSE channel looks like.” As the economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown of Ohio and House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters of California have advocated for expanding access to affordable housing. Issues like emergency rental assistance and a broader infrastructure plan "are clearly much higher on their housing priority list than GSE reform,” the lobbyist said. Former Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who chaired the House Financial Services Committee from 2013 until 2019, said at a Mortgage Bankers Association conference in May that he wouldn’t expect any changes to the conservatorships of the GSEs with Brown at Waters atop the banking committees in the Senate and House.

MBA Survey: "Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Slightly Decreases to 4.18%" --Note: This is as of May 23rd. From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Slightly Decreases to 4.18%: The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 1 basis point from 4.19% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 4.18% as of May 23, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 2.1 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 2 basis points to 2.19%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 4 basis points to 5.55%, while the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) increased 11 basis points to 8.37%. The percentage of loans in forbearance for independent mortgage bank (IMB) servicers decreased 2 basis points to 4.36%, and the percentage of loans in forbearance for depository servicers declined 1 basis point to 4.34%.“The share of loans in forbearance slightly declined, dropping by only 1 basis point, due to a slower pace of forbearance exits. This was the 13th straight week of declines,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “Forbearance re-entries increased to almost 5.6 percent, as more homeowners who had canceled forbearance needed assistance again. There was also an increase in the share of PLS and portfolio loans in forbearance, while the share for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae loans decreased.”, “Housing market data continue to paint a picture of strong demand and constrained supply. The resulting rapid growth in home equity will benefit homeowners, whether they choose to retain or sell their properties.”   This graph shows the percent of portfolio in forbearance by investor type over time.  Most of the increase was in late March and early April 2020, and has trended down since then. The MBA notes: "Total weekly forbearance requests as a percent of servicing portfolio volume (#) remained the same relative to the prior week at 0.05%."

 MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest Weekly Survey - From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey:Mortgage applications decreased 4.0 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 28, 2021. This week’s year-over-year results are being compared to the week of Memorial Day 2020.... The Refinance Index decreased 5 percent from the previous week and was 6 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 5 percent compared with the previous week and was 2 percent lower than the same week one year ago.“Mortgage applications decreased for the second week in a row, with the overall index reaching its lowest level since February 2020,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “Tight housing inventory, obstacles to a faster rate of new construction, and rapidly rising home prices continue to hold back purchase activity. The government purchase index declined to its lowest level in over a year and has now decreased year-over-year for five straight weeks. Purchase applications were down almost 2 percent from a year ago, but that was compared to the week of Memorial Day 2020.” Added Kan, “Refinance activity dropped for the second straight week, even as the 30-year fixed rate decreased slightly to 3.17 percent. Even though rates have been below 3.20 percent over the past month, they are still around 20-30 basis points higher than the record lows in late 2020.”..The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($548,250 or less) decreased to 3.17 percent from 3.18 percent, with points increasing to 0.39 from 0.35 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans.The first graph shows the refinance index since 1990.With low rates, the index remains elevated, but below recent levels since mortgage rates have moved up from the record lows. The second graph shows the MBA mortgage purchase index

CoreLogic: House Prices up 13% Year-over-year in April -  The CoreLogic HPI is a three month weighted average and is not seasonally adjusted (NSA). From CoreLogic: Multi-Generational Demand: US Home Prices Post Third Month of Double-Digit Growth in April, CoreLogic Reports CoreLogic® ... released the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI™) and HPI Forecast™ for April 2021. Sparse inventory and high demand continues to place upward pressure on home prices, creating challenges across generations as buyer preferences shift. Younger millennials continue to enter the market in droves while older millennials look to upgrade and upsize their homes. In a recent CoreLogic consumer survey, the need for more space was noted as the top driver (64%) for demand among these cohorts. The increased competition among buyers may cause a ripple effect and create affordability challenges for baby boomers interested in downsizing or relocating. Notably, 72% of this cohort list the desire for a new location as the main reason for wanting to purchase a new home. However, in response to rising prices, baby boomers — who own 54% of the nation’s homes — may wait to sell, creating further inventory pressures for older millennials seeking move up-purchases. “As older homeowners become more comfortable with listing their homes, they are faced with the reality that if they sell, they may get a smaller home for the same price as what they already have,” said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Rather than decreasing their financial burden and cashing out equity to support their retirement, baby boomers may choose to stay put — which could exacerbate inventory challenges.” ... Nationally, home prices increased 13% in April 2021, compared with April 2020. On a month-over-month basis, home prices increased by 2.1% compared to March 2021. At the state level, Idaho and Arizona continued to have the strongest price growth at 27.2% and 20.4%, respectively. South Dakota also had a 19.3% year-over-year increase as new home buyers seek out more affordable options, space and low property taxes.

The Atlantic: "Why You Should Wait Out the Wild Housing Market" – McBride - I'm quoted several times in this article from Derek Thompson at the Atlantic: Why You Should Wait Out the Wild Housing Market “In my time studying housing markets, I’ve seen bubbles and I’ve seen busts,” says Bill McBride, an economics writer who famously predicted the 2007 housing crash. “But I’ve never seen anything quite like this. It’s a perfect storm.”  ... “It’s not clear at all to me that things are going to slow down significantly in the near future,” he said. “In 2005, I had a strong sense that the hot market would turn and that, when it turned, things would get very ugly. Today, I don’t have that sense at all, because all of the fundamentals are there. Demand will be high for a while, because Millennials need houses. Prices will keep rising for a while, because inventory is so low.” In the article, I suggested waiting ... but I'd like to add, if you do buy now, be careful about location (like near a busy street) because that can't be fixed. Also bad layouts are difficult and expensive to fix. Defective homes will make you unhappy, and they are also hard to sell in a normal market (you might have to wait for the next boom).  Hot markets are when the defective homes (bad location, bad layout, etc.) are sold. Don’t buy one of those!

Construction Spending increased 0.2% in April -From the Census Bureau reported that overall construction spending increased: Construction spending during April 2021 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,524.2 billion, 0.2 percent above the revised March estimate of $1,521.0 billion. The April figure is 9.8 percent above the April 2020 estimate of $1,387.9 billion. Private spending increased and public spending decreased:Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,180.7 billion, 0.4 percent above the revised March estimate of $1,175.4 billion. ...  In April, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $343.5 billion, 0.6 percent below the revised March estimate of $345.6 billion. This graph shows private residential and nonresidential construction spending, and public spending, since 1993. Note: nominal dollars, not inflation adjusted. Residential spending is 7% above the bubble peak (in nominal terms - not adjusted for inflation). Non-residential spending is 9% above the previous peak in January 2008 (nominal dollars), but has been weak recently. Public construction spending is 6% above the previous peak in March 2009, and 31% above the austerity low in February 2014. The second graph shows the year-over-year change in construction spending. On a year-over-year basis, private residential construction spending is up 29.7%. Non-residential spending is down 4.8% year-over-year. Public spending is down 2.2% year-over-year. Construction was considered an essential service in most areas and did not decline sharply like many other sectors, but it seems likely that non-residential will be under pressure. For example, lodging is down 21.8% YoY, multi-retail down 28.4% YoY, and office down 1.6% YoY. This was below consensus expectations of a 0.6% increase in spending, however construction spending for the previous two months combined, was revised up slightly.

Update: Framing Lumber Prices Down from Recent Peak, Up Sharply Year-over-year Here is another monthly update on framing lumber prices.   This graph shows CME framing futures through June 1st. Lumber price are up 240% year-over-year.There are supply constraints, for example, sawmills cut production and inventory at the beginning of the pandemic, and the West Coast fires in 2020 damaged privately-owned timberland.  And there has been a huge surge in demand for lumber. Note that the tariffs on Canadian lumber were reduced late last year from 20% to 9%, but last week, the Commerce Department released a preliminary report that might lead to raising the tariffs again.

 SoftBank-Funded Silicon Valley Unicorn Katerra, Which Was to “Transform” the Construction Industry, Collapses --“Incremental progress isn’t enough – we are pursuing transformational change on a massive scale,” says the LinkedIn profile of Katerra, a six-year-old Silicon Valley unicorn startup. “Katerra exists to help transform construction through technology – every process and every product,” it says. It had received about $2.2 billion in funding, largely from SoftBank’s Vision Fund, to disrupt the commercial construction industry “through technology,” as it says.But it’s shutting down and will lay off the remaining employees – it once had as many as 8,500 employees before the layoffs started – and abandon numerous construction projects that it had agreed to build, according to sources cited by The Information.The executive that informed employees on June 1 in a video call of the shutdown and layoffs told them that the company didn’t have enough cash for severance packages or unused paid time off. The executive blamed the out-of-money moment on the effects of the Pandemic and the rising costs of labor and construction materials, according to The Information.Katerra was in the business of modular commercial construction – apartment buildings, office buildings, and other commercial buildings, with the goal of “transforming construction through innovation of process and technology,” as it still says on its website.This type of big commercial building is where modular construction is the most promising, but with enormous pitfalls.So it says that its “Katerra Building Platforms take the risk out of construction by applying the principles of repeatable manufacturing to entire buildings. Katerra buildings are made from manufactured assemblies and components; including wall and floor panels, casework, bathroom and kitchen kits, and more,” it says. But the risks are not at all taken out.Michael Marks, Katerra’s co-founder and CEO was fired in May 2020. Paal Kibsgaard, former CEO of Schlumberger, and the COO of Katerra at the time, was named the new CEO. He stepped down in May 2021. And Katerra is currently being run by folks from the consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, according to The Information. This is the second major SoftBank backed company to collapse this year before reaching the IPO window; the first being Greensill, the supply-chain finance giant that collapsed and filed for insolvency in March. Its German bank was taken over by banking regulators, amid allegations of missing funds.

Hotels: Occupancy Rate Down 4% Compared to Same Week in 2019 - Note: The year-over-year occupancy comparisons are easy, since occupancy declined sharply at the onset of the pandemic.  So STR is comparing to the same week in 2019. The occupancy rate is down 4.2% compared to the same week in 2019 (skewed by timing of Memorial Day), but the 4-week average is still down significantly compared to normal.From CoStar: STR: US Weekly Hotel Occupancy Reaches Highest Level Since Late-February 2020: Boosted by the Friday and Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, U.S. weekly hotel occupancy reached its highest level since late-February 2020, according to STR‘s latest data through 29 May.
23-29 May 2021 (percentage change from comparable week in 2019*):
• Occupancy: 61.8% (-4.2%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$122.06 (-1.6%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$75.42 (-5.7%)
Percentage changes were skewed more to the positive because the 2019 comparable was the week after Memorial Day. Regardless, this past Saturday’s 83.0% occupancy level was the country’s highest since October 2019. Weekly ADR and RevPAR were boosted to pandemic-era highs as well. STR analysts note that while the positives around leisure demand are obvious headed into the summer, the path to recovery remains a rollercoaster with a lack of business travel, both domestic and international, preventing hotels in many markets from making up more of the ground lost in 2020.The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four week average. The red line is for 2021, black is 2020, blue is the median, dashed purple is 2019, and dashed light blue is for 2009 (the worst year on record for hotels prior to 2020).  Occupancy is now above the horrible 2009 levels and weekend occupancy (leisure) has leisure has been solid.

Inflation rises to 13-year high in US -- The personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index, a primary measure of the cost of living in the United States, rose 3.6 percent in April, the highest rise in 13 years, according to a report released by the Commerce Department last week. The increase in the index, which was larger than economists had expected, underscores a global problem of rising costs, especially for consumer staple goods and basic components of such products. The impact is disproportionately borne by working people.  The cost of living in the United States, as in most countries around the world, is on a steep upward curve. To give some examples:

• Meat prices rose by 1.5 percent just in April and have risen 4 percent this year, driven by price increases for animal feed grains like soybeans and corn.
• Lumber costs have risen by 300-400 percent over the last year, driven by disruptions and mismatches in the supply chain due to COVID-19.
• Used car prices jumped 10 percent in April and are up by 21 percent since a year ago. The average cost of a used car broke $25,000 for the first time in the US.
• In the last year, fuel prices have increased by over 50 percent, going from a national average of about $2.00 to $3.00.
• Fruits and vegetables were up 3.3 percent in April compared to the same month in 2020. Food prices as a whole were up 2.4 percent.
• Electricity prices were 3.6 percent higher compared to the same period last year, jumping 1.2 percent in April from the previous month.
• Less-densely populated areas in the interior of the United States have seen surging home prices, as residents from larger, often coastal, cities move. Boise, Idaho, for example, has seen a 32 percent increase in home prices over the last year.

Another major US index, the consumer price index (CPI), increased even more than the PCE, rising by 4.2 percent in April. The CPI puts more weight on costs workers bear out of pocket, such as housing, utilities, consumer goods and insurance payments. The PCE is a more abstract measure of inflation in the economy, including the cost of services not necessarily directly impacting most consumers.

Meat Buyers Scramble After Cyberattack Hobbles JBS – WSJ -- Meatpacker JBS was hit by a ransomware attack that took a big chunk of U.S. beef-and-pork processing offline, sending buyers scrambling for alternatives and raising pressure on meat supplies. The attack ratcheted up pressure on a food-supply chain already under strain from labor shortages, production constraints and high transportation costs. Late Tuesday, a company executive said JBS was making progress toward restoring its systems, and that the majority of its meat plants would be operational Wednesday. Brazil-based JBS, the world’s biggest meat company by sales, told the Biden administration that it was the victim of a ransomware attack, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday. She said JBS reported that the attack originated from a criminal group likely based in Russia. “The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. JBS didn’t comment on the White House’s description of the attack. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday declined to comment on the attack, saying he had no information about it but that there were ongoing contacts between Russia and the U.S. through diplomatic channels. The attack is the latest is the latest in a growing number to hit a range of businesses and institutions, including hospitals, the oil industry and local water supplies. At JBS, the attack halted operations at meat plants that are among the largest in the U.S., according to worker representatives and notices shared with JBS employees. JBS facilities in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and Texas were among those affected. JBS operations in Australia and Canada were affected as well as operations in the U.S., according to the company and individual plants’ social-media posts. Meat-market analysts said plant closures resulting from the JBS hack could soon lead to higher consumer prices, which have climbed for many cuts this year because of high demand and a tight labor market. “Even one day of disruption will significantly impact the beef market and wholesale beef prices,” wrote analysts for Steiner Consulting Group, which researches the meat industry. Suzanne Rajczi, chief executive of New York-based restaurant supplier Ginsberg’s Foods, said she was looking for a new source for chicken she usually buys from a West Virginia plant operated by Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., which is majority-owned by JBS. Pilgrim’s canceled a fresh chicken delivery to Ginsberg’s on Tuesday as a result of the attack, Ms. Rajczi said. She said Pilgrim’s told her it was trying to add back production lines in coming days but couldn’t say if or when her deliveries would resume. “There’s a lot of frenzied buying going on right now,” said Ms. Rajczi. “The whole fresh-commodity supply chain has been stretched to the max.”

 The great private jet shortage? --As we have written about a couple of times recently, used cars are currently mooning because of a combination of pent-up demand and supply-chain disruption.And it turns out that automobiles aren’t the only used vehicles that are in short supply: the number of second-hard private jets for sale is also at an all-time low. According to the International Aircraft Dealers Association (IADA), just 1,130 — about 5 per cent of the world’s fleet — of private jets are currently for sale. That’s less than half of what is normally available, we’re told, and compares with about 17 per cent during the financial crisis. And when it comes to the less rusty ones — which we imagine the ESG set who use them to fly between climate change conferences would prefer due to considerations for their own lives — the shortage is even more acute. According to research from AMSTAT, a company that provides data on business aircraft in the US, “of 252 large, long-range jets currently for sale, just 20 of these are less than five years old”.With so few jets available in the US, potential buyers are having to look to Asia for possible jets. As Chad Anderson, president at Jetcraft — another private jet market research firm — sombrely puts it:It is no longer a case of picking the best from the litter but taking opportunities when you find them.Gosh. The heart really does bleed doesn’t it?And not only are buyers (or their staff, to be more precise) having to look for jets in different continents, but the current buying process seems to have about as much dignity as a late-night eBay bidding war. Anderson tells us:  Private jets are selling within hours of being listed. Buyers have to act very quickly, they can’t hesitate.Now of course you might be asking why billionaires can’t just buy new private jets, but there is a shortage of those too. Manufacturers are accelerating production but apparently it will take six to nine months to speed up the supply chain. Until then, buyers have to look at older models. It’s not just the supply chain that’s limiting the number of jets on sale either. It turns out that cryptoland is not the only place in which people HODL. Anderson tells us that some clients are holding on to their aircraft in case prices rise further. But what’s driving the higher demand? Well it turns out that private jets provide quite a good way of making sure you’re not breathing in, say, a scary virus. Anderson says the number of first-time buyers has doubled over the past year.The pandemic has raised awareness of the flexibility, security and degree of control that flying privately provides. Owning your own business jet means you can reduce your ‘touch points‘ at the airport significantly, protecting your family and work ‘bubble‘. Flying privately also offers you the ability to reach your destination much more easily while airline schedules are still disrupted.  Just when you thought the pandemic had been good for climate change action . . .

May Vehicles Sales decreased to 16.99 Million SAAR - The BEA released their estimate of light vehicle sales for May this morning. The BEA estimates sales of 16.99 million SAAR in May 2021 (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate), down 9.5% from the April sales rate, and up 40% from May 2020.  This was below the consensus estimate of 18.0 million SAAR. This graph shows light vehicle sales since 2006 from the BEA (blue) and the BEA's estimate for May (red).The impact of COVID-19 was significant, and April 2020 was the worst month.Since April  2020, sales have increased, and are now close to sales in 2019 (the year before the pandemic).   Sales-to-date are up 1.5% compared to the same period in 2019. The second graph shows light vehicle sales since the BEA started keeping data in 1967.  Note: dashed line is current estimated sales rate of 16.99 million SAAR.Sales in May were likely impacted by supply issues.

AAR: May Rail Carloads down, Intermodal Up Compared to 2019 --From the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Rail Time Indicators. U.S. rail volumes in May 2021 were encouraging. Total originated carloads averaged 241,089 per week, the most since October 2019 and up 30.4% over May 2020...Meanwhile, intermodal averaged 287,956 originated containers and trailers per week in May 2021. That’s down a bit from April — when the weekly average of 293,488 set a new all-time record — but it’s still the seventh most for any month in history and by far the most ever for May.This graph from the Rail Time Indicators report shows the six week average of U.S. Carloads in 2019, 2020 and 2021: In May 2021, total U.S. rail carloads averaged 241,089 per week — up 30.4% over May 2020 and the most for any month since October 2019....Carloads excluding coal were up 26.6% in May 2021 over May 2020 and down 1.2% from May 2019.The second graph shows the six week average of U.S. intermodal in 2019, 2020 and 2021: (using intermodal or shipping containers):For intermodal, volumes in May 2021 were up 26.2% over May 2020, averaging 287,956 containers and trailers per week. That’s down a bit from April 2021 — when the weekly average of 293,488 set a new all-time monthly record — but it’s still the seventh most for any month in history and by far the most ever for May.

Cover Story: How a perfect storm created a global chip shortage - A chip shortage that has squeezed global automakers since late last year offered a snapshot of how the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical uncertainties have distorted supply chains in the highly globalized semiconductor industry.The question is: Will it lead to a reshaping of the industry’s global landscape? It’s a multibillion-dollar question involving massive investment flows and potentially sweeping economic and geopolitical consequences. As technology has advanced, semiconductors have come to dominate not only the auto industry but also almost every part of consumer goods manufacturing as the tiny electronic devices supply the brains for products ranging from computers to mobile phones to toothbrushes.

ISM® Manufacturing index Increased to 61.2% in May -- The ISM manufacturing index indicated expansion in May. The PMI® was at 61.2% in May, up from 60.7% in April. The employment index was at 50.9%, down from 55.1% last month, and the new orders index was at 67.0%, up from 64.3%.  From ISM: May 2021 Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business®: “The May Manufacturing PMI® registered 61.2 percent, an increase of 0.5 percentage point from the April reading of 60.7 percent. This figure indicates expansion in the overall economy for the 12th month in a row after contraction in April 2020. The New Orders Index registered 67 percent, increasing 2.7 percentage points from the April reading of 64.3 percent. The Production Index registered 58.5 percent, a decrease of 4 percentage points compared to the April reading of 62.5 percent. The Backlog of Orders Index registered 70.6 percent, 2.4 percentage points higher compared to the April reading of 68.2 percent. The Employment Index registered 50.9 percent; 4.2 percentage points lower than the April reading of 55.1 percent. The Supplier Deliveries Index registered 78.8 percent, up 3.8 percentage points from the April figure of 75 percent. The Inventories Index registered 50.8 percent, 4.3 percentage points higher than the April reading of 46.5 percent. The Prices Index registered 88 percent, down 1.6 percentage points compared to the April reading of 89.6 percent. The New Export Orders Index registered 55.4 percent, an increase of 0.5 percentage point compared to the April reading of 54.9 percent. The Imports Index registered 54 percent, a 1.8-percentage point increase from the April reading of 52.2 percent.” This was close to expectations. This suggests manufacturing expanded at a slightly faster pace in May than in April.

May Markit Manufacturing: Survey Record in Orders, Supply Chain Still Affected -The May US Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index conducted by Markit came in at 62.1, up 0.5 from the 60.5 final April figure.Here is an excerpt from Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at IHS Markit in their latest press release:“US manufacturers are enjoying a bumpe r second quarter, with the PMI hitting a new high for the second month running in May. Inflows of new orders are surging at a rate unsurpassed in 14 years of survey history, buoyed by reviving domestic demand and record export sales as economies reopen from COVID-19 restrictions. However, elevated levels of other survey indicators are less welcome: prices charged by manufacturers are also rising at an unprecedented rate, linked to soaring input costs and unparalleled capacity constraints.“Not only is operating capacity being curbed by record supply chain delays so far in the second quarter, but firms have also been increasingly unable to hire sufficient staff. Hence backlogs of work are building up at an unprecedented rate, as firms struggle to meet demand.“These backlogs of orders should support further production growth in the next few months, adding to signs of impressive economic expansion over the summer. But manufacturers’ expectations further ahead have moderated, hinting that the growth rate is peaking, linked to worries about capacity limits being reached, rising prices hitting demand and a peaking of stimulus measures.” [Press Release]Here is a snapshot of the series since mid-2012.

May manufacturing continues white hot; April construction spending shows signs of being constrained by materials and costs --It’s the first of the month, which means we get our first look at May data in the form of the ISM manufacturing index, as well as April construction spending. The questions we are looking for information to answer from these two leading sectors of the economy, manufacturing and residential construction, are: (1) is the Boom still ongoing, and is it likely to continue in the coming few months; and (2) is there evidence that inflation is creating a bottleneck on growth?The answers for the two sectors appear to be different.First, the May ISM manufacturing index increased slightly from 60.7 to 61.2. The new orders component of the index, which is the most leading, increased even more, up 2.7 from 64.3 to 67.0, very close to its December and March highs: The boom in manufacturing is continuing, with no evidence of a slowdown in the near future.Residential construction spending is not quite as leading as new home sales or permits, but it has the virtue of having very little noise and almost all signal. But there is a quandary, because for the first time in 20 years, the direction of this indicator differs sharply depending on whether or not one factors in the prices of construction materials.The below graph shows residential construction spending unadjusted for inflation (red), which made another all-time high in April; compared with the same but adjusted for the cost of building materials (blue), which has turned down by 11.5% since December (red); and single family permits (gold), which have turned down by 9.5% since January: This looks like a bottleneck putting the brakes on growth. Spending is growing, but only because the price of materials has gone up sharply. That the downturn in construction permits and spending adjusted for the cost of materials occurred nearly simultaneously and by similar percentages looks like it is the cost of materials which is decisive - I.e., costs - due to shortages in materials - are driving the numbers.

May Dallas Fed Manufacturing - This morning the Dallas Fed released its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey for May. The latest general business activity index came in at 34.9, down 2.4 from 37.3 in April. All figures are seasonally adjusted.Here is an excerpt from the latest report:Texas factory activity expanded but at a slower pace in May, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, fell 18 points to 15.7, a reading still well above average and indicative of healthy output growth. Other measures of manufacturing activity also pointed to slower but still-solid growth this month.Expectations regarding future manufacturing activity remained highly positive in May. The future production index held steady at 47.6, and the future general business activity index slipped five points to 31.4. Other measures of future manufacturing activity showed mixed movements, but all remained solidly in positive territory.Monthly data for this indicator only dates back to 2004, so it is difficult to see the full potential of this indicator without several business cycles of data. Nevertheless, it is an interesting and important regional manufacturing indicator.

May Regional Fed Manufacturing Overview - Five out of the twelve Federal Reserve Regional Districts currently publish monthly data on regional manufacturing: Dallas, Kansas City, New York, Richmond, and Philadelphia. Regional manufacturing surveys are a measure of local economic health and are used as a representative for the larger national manufacturing health. They have been used as a signal for business uncertainty and economic activity as a whole. Manufacturing makes up 12% of the country's GDP. The other 6 Federal Reserve Districts do not publish manufacturing data. For these, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book offers a short summary of each districts’ manufacturing health. The Chicago Fed published their Midwest Manufacturing Index from July 1996 through December of 2013. Five out of the twelve Federal Reserve Regional Districts currently publish monthly data on regional manufacturing: Dallas, Kansas City, New York, Richmond, and Philadelphia. The latest average of the five for May is 27, down from the previous month.

 Chicago PMI Up Again in May, Highest Since 1973 -- The Chicago Business Barometer, also known as the Chicago Purchasing Manager's Index, is similar to the national ISM Manufacturing indicator but at a regional level and is seen by many as an indicator of the larger US economy. It is a composite diffusion indicator, made up of production, new orders, order backlogs, employment, and supplier deliveries compiled through surveys. Values above 50.0 indicate expanding manufacturing activity. The latest Chicago Purchasing Manager's Index, or the Chicago Business Barometer, jumped to 75.2 in May from 72.1 in April, which is in expansion territory and its highest since 1973. Values above 50.0 indicate expanding manufacturing activity. Here is an excerpt from the press release:The Chicago Business BarometerTM, produced with MNI, jumped to 75.2 in May, the highest level since November 1973. Demand provided a boost to business activity, but supply chain constraints remain. Among the main five indicators, New Orders and Order Backlogs saw the largest gains, while Employment recorded the only decline [Source] Let's take a look at the Chicago PMI since its inception.

 The Southwest Is America’s New Factory Hub. ‘Cranes Everywhere.’ – WSJ --Companies producing everything from steel to electric cars are planning and building new plants in Southwest states, far from historical hubs of American industry in the Midwest and Southeast. The lure is open land, local tax breaks and a growing supply of tech-savvy workers. The Southwest, comprising Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, increased its manufacturing output more than any other region in the U.S. in the four years through 2020, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal of data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Those states plus Nevada added more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs from January 2017 to January 2020, representing 30% of U.S. job growth in that sector and at roughly triple the national growth rate, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Executives say the region’s growing population makes for plenty of available labor, and its lower cost of living is a draw for new talent. “I was surprised how straightforward a choice it was,” said Peter Rawlinson, chief executive for Lucid Motors Inc., an electric-vehicle startup that plans to open a $700 million vehicle factory this year in Arizona, where state officials rolled out the red carpet. “There was only one logical conclusion.” The company had looked at more than 60 sites in 13 states before settling on the 590-acre site in Pinal County, Ariz., a rural area dotted with dairy and cotton farms. The company’s roughly 1 million-square-foot plant will be the state’s first auto-assembly operation. Manufacturers in the Southwest have been relatively insulated from pandemic shutdowns and layoffs, and job growth there is expected to continue. More than a year of global supply chain disruptions are nudging more manufacturers to reshore or expand U.S. production, likely benefiting Southwest states the most, said Eric Stavriotis, the head of location incentives for CBRE Group, a Dallas-based real-estate company. “If they are going to locate another facility, where does it need to be?” Mr. Stavriotis said. “The Southwest has won a lot of those analyses.” Chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. last year selected Arizona for a new 1,600-worker factory near Phoenix, a $12 billion facility that ranked as the single largest capital investment announced in the U.S. last year. A hiring website for the company seeks to lure workers by promoting the area’s affordable housing as well as rock climbing, river rafting and other outdoor recreation. “It doesn’t hurt that Phoenix enjoys an average of 299 sunny days each year,” the website said. Intel Corp. said in March it would invest $20 billion to expand its manufacturing in Arizona and pledged to add 3,000 high-tech jobs. The company said last month it would spend another $3.5 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in New Mexico, adding 700 jobs. Tesla Inc. is opening a new assembly plant and battery factory in Texas, more than 1,400 miles from its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

ISM® Services Index Increased to Record High 64.0% in May - The May ISM® Services index was at 64.0%, up from 62.7% last month. The employment index decreased to 55.3%, from 58.8%. Note: Above 50 indicates expansion, below 50 contraction.From the Institute for Supply Management: May 2021 Services ISM® Report On Business®: “The Services PMI® reached another all-time high in May, registering 64 percent, which is 1.3 percentage points higher than April’s reading of 62.7 percent. The previous record high was 63.7 percent in March. The May reading indicates the 12th straight month of growth for the services sector, which has expanded for all but two of the last 136 months.“The Supplier Deliveries Index registered 70.4 percent, up 4.3 percentage points from April’s reading of 66.1 percent. (Supplier Deliveries is the only ISM® Report On Business® index that is inversed; a reading of above 50 percent indicates slower deliveries, which is typical as the economy improves and customer demand increases.) The Prices Index registered 80.6 percent, which is 3.8 percentage points higher than the April reading of 76.8 percent, indicating that prices increased in May, and at a faster rate. The last time the Prices Index was this elevated was when it registered 77.4 percent in July 2008; the all-time high is 83.5 percent in September 2005.“According to the Services PMI®, all 18 services industries reported growth. The composite index indicated growth for the 12th consecutive month after a two-month contraction in April and May 2020. There was continued growth in the services sector in May. The rate of expansion is very strong, as businesses have reopened and production capacity has increased. However, some capacity constraints, material shortages, weather-related delays, and challenges in logistics and employment resources continue,” says Nieves. The employment index decreased to 55.3% from 58.8% in April.

March Markit Services PMI: "Business activity growth rate accelerates to record high in May" The May US Services Purchasing Managers' Index conducted by Markit came in at 70.4 percent, up 5.7 from the final April estimate of 64.7 and a record high.Here is the opening from the latest press release:Commenting on the latest survey results, Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at IHS Markit, said:“The US economic recovery shifted up a gear in May, with output of the combined manufacturing and service sectors surging past all prior peaks by an impressive margin. The strong correlation between the PMI and GDP means the economy looks set to enjoy rapid – potentially double-digit – growth in the second quarter.“Further robust expansions are indicated for the summer months, with an improving order book situation accompanied by elevated levels of business confidence and the further easing of virus restrictions both at home and abroad. But the survey’s price gauges have also climbed to unsurpassed levels, which will add to inflation worries. These unprecedented output and price growth rates will inevitably lead to speculation about an earlier than previously expected tapering of Fed policy.” [Press Release] Here is a snapshot of the series since mid-2012.  Here is an overlay with the equivalent PMI survey conducted by the Institute for Supply Management, which they refer to as "Non-Manufacturing" (see our full article on this series here). Over its history, the ISM metric has been significantly the more volatile of the two.

Services Surveys Signal Stagflation As Firms Increasingly "Pass On Higher Costs To Clients" - Following the stagflationary signals from this week's Manufacturing survey data, ISM and Markit were expected to show further gains in the Services sector even as the 'hard' data continues to serially disappoint, and both surveys significantly beat expectations, rising to new record highs...The data was, for once, in somewhat of an agreement - though Markit respondents are notably more excited than ISM's...

• Markit US Manufacturing up in May to 62.1 - a record high
• Markit US Services up in May to 70.4 - a record high
• ISM US Manufacturing up in May to 61.2 - well below the March highs
• ISM US Services up in May to 64.0 - a record high

Markit notes that service providers stepped up their efforts to pass on higher costs to clients, with the pace of charge inflation quickening to the steepest in the survey’s history.Companies mentioned that greater costs were being progressively passed through to customers amid burgeoning demand.Stagflation fears persist as ISM notes that similar to the group’s manufacturing survey, the report showed elevated price pressures, growing order backlogs and softening in the pace of hiring.Limited availability of both materials and skilled workers risks tempering the pace of economic growth.The US Composite PMI posted 68.7 in May, up from 63.5 in April, to signal the steepest upturn in business activity since data collection began in October 2009.Once again, inflationary pressures intensified in May.The rate of cost inflation was unprecedented amid substantial supplier shortages and delays. As a result, firms sought to pass on greater costs to their clients, with the pace of charge inflation quickening to a new series high.US Composite PMI is leading the world...

Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims decrease to 385,000 -The DOL reported: In the week ending May 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 385,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000. The previous week's level was revised down by 1,000 from 406,000 to 405,000. The 4-week moving average was 428,000, a decrease of 30,500 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020 when it was 225,500. The previous week's average was revised down by 250 from 458,750 to 458,500. This does not include the 76,098 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that was down from 93,559 the previous week. The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since 1971. The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims decreased to 458,750.The previous week was revised down.Regular state continued claims increased to 3,771,000 (SA) from 3,602,000 (SA) the previous week.Note: There are an additional 6,368,301 receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) that decreased from 6,515,657 the previous week (there are questions about these numbers). This is a special program for business owners, self-employed, independent contractors or gig workers not receiving other unemployment insurance.  And an additional 5,293,842 receiving Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) up from 5,191,642. Weekly claims were lower than the consensus forecast.

ADP: Private Employment increased 978,000 in May - - From ADP: Private sector employment increased by 978,000 jobs from April to May according to the May ADP® National Employment ReportTM. Broadly distributed to the public each month, free of charge, the ADP National Employment Report is produced by the ADP Research Institute® in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics. The report, which is derived from ADP’s actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally-adjusted basis. “Private payrolls showed a marked improvement from recent months and the strongest gain since the early days of the recovery,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist, ADP. “While goods producers grew at a steady pace, it is service providers that accounted for the lion’s share of the gains, far outpacing the monthly average in the last six months. Companies of all sizes experienced an uptick in job growth, reflecting the improving nature of the panemic and economy.” This was well above the consensus forecast of 650,000 for this report. The BLS report will be released Friday, and the consensus is for 650 thousand non-farm payroll jobs added in May. The ADP report has not been very useful in predicting the BLS report.

May Employment Report: 559 Thousand Jobs, 5.8% Unemployment Rate -- From the BLS: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 559,000 in May, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.3 percentage point to 5.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, in public and private education, and in health care and social assistance. . The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for March was revised up by 15,000, from +770,000 to +785,000, and the change for April was revised up by 12,000, from +266,000 to +278,000. With these revisions, employment in March and April combined is 27,000 higher than previously reported. The first graph shows the year-over-year change in total non-farm employment since 1968. In May, the year-over-year change was 11.900 million jobs. This was up significantly - since employment collapsed in April 2020. Total payrolls increased by 559 thousand in May. Private payrolls increased by 492 thousand. Payrolls for March and April were revised up 27 thousand, combined. The second graph shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession, in percentage terms. The current employment recession was by far the worst recession since WWII in percentage terms, but currently is not as severe as the worst of the "Great Recession". The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate. The Labor Force Participation Rate decreased to 61.6% in May, from 61.7% in April. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force. The Employment-Population ratio increased to 58.0% from 57.9% (black line). The fourth graph shows the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate decreased in May to 5.8% from 6.1% in April. This was below consensus expectations, however March and April were revised up by 27,000 combined.

May jobs report: almost all positive, but not good enough -- HEADLINES:

• 559,000 jobs added: 492,000 private sector plus 67,000 government. The alternate, and more volatile measure in the household report indicated a gain of 444,000 jobs, which factors into the unemployment and underemployment rates below.
• The total number of employed is still 7,629,000, or 5.0% below its pre-pandemic peak.  At the rate jobs have grown this year, it will take another 12 months for employment to completely recover.
• U3 unemployment rate declined -0.3% to 5.8%, compared with the January 2020 low of 3.5%.
• U6 underemployment rate declined -0.2% to 10.2%, compared with the January 2020 low of 6.9%.
• Those on temporary layoff declined -291,000 to 1,823,000.
• Permanent job losers declined -295,000 to 3,234,000.
• March was revised upward by 15,000, while April was revised upward by 12,000, for a net gain of 27,000 jobs compared with previous reports.
• the average manufacturing workweek increased 0.1 hour to 40.5 hours. This is one of the 10 components of the LEI.
• Manufacturing jobs gained 23,000. Since the beginning of the pandemic, manufacturing has still lost -509,000, or 4.0% of the total.
• Construction jobs declined -20,000. Since the beginning of the pandemic,  -225,000 construction jobs have been lost, or 2.9% of the total.
• Residential construction jobs, which are even more leading, rose by 4,400. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 32,400 jobs have been gained in this sector, or 3.9%.
• temporary jobs rose by 4,400. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have still been -294,100 jobs lost, or 10.0% of all temporary jobs.
• the number of people unemployed for 5 weeks or less declined by -391,000 to 2,023,000, which is  -59,000 *less* than just before the pandemic hit.
• Professional and business employment increased by 35,000, which is still -708,000, or about 3.3%, below its pre-pandemic peak.
• Average Hourly Earnings for Production and Nonsupervisory Personnel: rose $0.14 to $25.60, which is a 2.4% YoY gain. This contrasts with the 5%+ YoY gains recently seen, and reflects the rehiring of low-wage workers in sectors like food and beverage serving.
• the index of aggregate hours worked for non-managerial workers rose by 0.2%, which is a  loss of 4.3% since just before the pandemic.
• the index of aggregate payrolls for non-managerial workers rose by 0.7%, which is a gain of 2.2% since just before the pandemic.
• Leisure and hospitality jobs, which were the most hard-hit during the pandemic, increased 292,000, but is still -2,538,000, or 15.0% below its pre-pandemic peak.
• Within the leisure and hospitality sector, food and drink establishments gained 186,000, but is still -1,480,400, or 12.0% below its pre-pandemic peak.
• Full time jobs increased 223,000 in the household report.
• Part time jobs increased 178,000 in the household report.
• The number of job holders who were part time for economic reasons rose by 28,000 to 5,271,000, which is an increase of 873,000 since before the pandemic began.

SUMMARY: This was a very positive report, but still one which shows how far we still have to go.  Negatives were almost non-existent, consisting of declines in nonresidential construction jobs and temporary jobs (but the latter may be temps transitioning to permanent employment). The more consistent theme, though, was that while there were gains, they weren’t nearly of the order we need for a quick recovery to pre-pandemic levels. Overall jobs are still 5% below where they were in February 2020, and the hard hit leisure and hospitality sector is 15% below its pre-pandemic peak! The upward revisions in March and April were tepid, confirming my suspicion that March may have been as much as or more of an outlier than April. This month’s number was close to the combined March and April average.Further, the YoY gains in hourly wages have been more than eaten up by inflation. As the stimulus payments wear off, I suspect we are going to see a faltering in sales, which would not be good.The brightest spot was the new low in short-term unemployment, which was even lower than before the pandemic, and among the 10 lowest months in the past 10 years.  In essence, this report showed that there are very few new layoffs, but not enough new hires to keep the new expansion growing robustly.

May jobs report is a promising sign that the recovery is on track: Initial comments from EPI economists -EPI Blog -EPI economists offer their initial insights on the May jobs report below. While they see strong growth in employment, including in leisure and hospitality, the U.S. labor market is still facing a large jobs shortfall. Relief and recovery measures—including expanded unemployment benefits—should be sustained for workers and their families as the economy continues to recover. From senior economist, Elise Gould (@eliselgould): Read the full Twitter thread here.

• +559k jobs in May is slightly better than the average growth of the prior 3 months. If this pace continues over the next year, we will likely get down to 4% unemployment by mid-2022 and will be fully recovered before the end of 2022, fully absorbing losses plus population growth.— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) June 4, 2021
• The labor market is down 7.6 million jobs since February 2020, but the total jobs shortfall should take into account pre-pandemic labor market trends or at least growth in the working age population. When those are included, the jobs shortfall is in the range of 8.6-10.7 million.pic.twitter.com/njpUX7KGPx — Elise Gould (@eliselgould) June 4, 2021

From senior economist and director of policy, Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz): Read the full Twitter thread here.

• The labor market added 559,000 jobs in May, very strong growth in line with expectations. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.8%, and most of that drop was for “good” reasons, people getting jobs. 1/— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) June 4, 2021
• Employment in leisure and hospitality (l&h) grew by 292,000. Over the last two months, l&h has added 620,000 jobs, roughly three-quarters of the economy-wide jobs added over that period. Folks this is just not signaling a massive labor supply shortage. 5/— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) June 4, 2021

Comments on May Employment Report – McBride - The headline jobs number in the April employment report was below expectations, however employment for the previous two months was revised up slightly.    Leisure and hospitality gained 292 thousand jobs.  In March and April of 2020, leisure and hospitality lost 8.2 million jobs, and are now down 2.54 million jobs since February 2020.  So leisure and hospitality has now added back almost 70% of the jobs lost in March and April 2020. Construction employment declined 20 thousand in May, and State and Local education added 103 thousand jobs.  Manufacturing added 23 thousand jobs.  Earlier: May Employment Report: 559 Thousand Jobs, 5.8% Unemployment Rate.  In April, the year-over-year employment change was 11.900 million jobs. This turned positive in April due to the sharp jobs losses in April 2020. This graph shows permanent job losers as a percent of the pre-recession peak in employment through the May report. (ht Joe Weisenthal at Bloomberg). These jobs will likely be the hardest to recover. This data is only available back to 1994, so there is only data for three recessions. In May, the number of permanent job losers decreased to 3.234 million from 3.529 million in April. Since the overall participation rate has declined due to cyclical (recession) and demographic (aging population, younger people staying in school) reasons, here is the employment-population ratio for the key working age group: 25 to 54 years old. The prime working age will be key in the recovery. The 25 to 54 participation rate was unchanged in May at 81.3% from 81.3% in April, and the 25 to 54 employment population ratio increased to 77.1% from 76.9% in April. Part Time for Economic Reasons The number of persons working part time for economic reasons increased slightly in May to 5.271 million from 5.243 million in April. These workers are included in the alternate measure of labor underutilization (U-6) that decreased to 10.2% from 10.4% in April. This is down from the record high in April 22.9% for this measure since 1994. Unemployed over 26 Weeks This graph shows the number of workers unemployed for 27 weeks or more. According to the BLS, there are 3.752 million workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks and still want a job, down from 4.183 million in April. This does not include all the people that left the labor force. This will be a key measure to follow during the recovery. Summary: The headline monthly jobs number was below expectations, however the previous two months were revised up by 27,000 combined. The headline unemployment rate decreased to 5.8%, but the participation rate declined slightly. There are still 7.6 million fewer jobs than in February 2020, and 3.2 million people have lost jobs permanently.

 Half of US states end enhanced pandemic unemployment benefits -Half of the states in the U.S., all led by Republican governors, have announced plans to cut off billions of dollars in federal unemployment benefits for residents, as the number of Americans who have been vaccinated continues to increase.The enhanced weekly checks were at one point hailed as a key part of the country’s response to the pandemic. As the vaccination effort in the U.S. progresses, however, the payments have become the focus of a political battle among lawmakers over how to propel the country out of the current economic decline.Maryland, led by GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, became the 25th state to announce an end to the weekly $300 COVID-19 unemployment benefits on Tuesday, according to Reuters.Hogan said that while the program provided “important temporary relief” during the pandemic, it is no longer needed because “vaccines and jobs … are in good supply,” according to Reuters.A chorus of GOP state leaders and business lobbying groups are now saying that the checks should come to an end because they are causing people to decline good jobs, which is leaving companies without the staff needed to reopen. The Biden administration, Democrats, workers, activists and a handful of economists however, disagree with that analysis. They say a chunk of the workforce remains unemployed because of a lack of child care, fear of infection and low wages.Additionally, White House officials are reportedly concerned that ending the benefits too quickly, before mass vaccination efforts are completed, could hurt workers and the economy, both of which are still recovering from the negative effects of the pandemic.When asked why the White House thinks there is currently a shortage of workers in the U.S., White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday said “it’s going to take time for workers to regain confidence in the safety of the workplace.”Alaska, Iowa, Mississippi and Missouri will stop sending benefits on June 12, according to Reuters. For the other 21 GOP-led states, checks will phase out through July 10.Reuters noted that while unemployed workers may still be entitled to regular state unemployment benefits, those guidelines vary.Approximately 2.8 million people were receiving pandemic benefits in the 25 states set to stop them as of May 8, according to Department of Labor records cited by Reuters.A new working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published last month determined that the additional $300 in emergency unemployment benefits likely only has a small effect on recipients’ decision to take jobs. Last month, however, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for states to stop offering the weekly checks, after April’s below-expectations jobs report.

Crowds return to US stadiums, airports, in a series of super-spreader events -  More than 135,000 people packed into the grandstands of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday, in the largest single crowd assembled in one place since the coronavirus pandemic began. Despite the false reassurances of the Biden administration and state governments, however, the crowds assembled at sporting events over the holiday weekend that traditionally marks the beginning of the American summer are likely to be so many superspreader events, triggering a further upsurge in the pandemic. In the grossest of symbolic gestures, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the game at Saturday’s baseball game in Fenway Park, Boston. The state has rescinded its mask mandate and Republican Governor Charlie Baker declared, “the great majority of the state-mandated COVID-19 restrictions that have shaped life in Massachusetts since last March will no longer be in effect starting Saturday.” The state ranks fourth, with 53.4 percent of the population fully vaccinated.  Baker added, “Unless something very odd happens, I would say that it is pretty much over.” However, health officials are raising concerns that across many states, vaccinations are slowing drastically, and death and infection tolls remain unacceptably high in many states. Dr. Walensky, at the helm of the national public health agency, has been instrumental in rapidly navigating the country back to “normalcy,” all while the pandemic has continued to kill more than 500 people per day indiscriminately. In her usual attempt to talk out of both sides of her mouth, she told reporters, “I’m cautiously optimistic, and yet, I’m not declaring victory. What I would say is we in America are doing better than we had been, for sure, yet no one is safe until everyone is safe.” In three short months, the CDC has abandoned all COVID-19 public health measures, abdicating any role as the nation’s public health protector. The CDC has step-by-step dismissed the social distancing guidelines at schools, relaxed restriction guidelines for vaccinated individuals, essentially abandoned the need for mask usage by those fully vaccinated, relying on “the honor system” for those that aren’t, and, most recently, discontinued tracking all breakthrough infections, which focus on those that develop severe illness, hospitalization or death after being fully inoculated.

Air travel hits a pandemic peak, but more passengers are resisting mask mandates. - Memorial Day weekend is typically the start of the busy summer travel season, but this year it represents something more: the end of one of the roughest chapters in U.S. airline history.Passenger traffic has been climbing for much of this year and hit a pandemic peak on Friday, when more than 1.95 million passengerspassed through security checkpoints in the nation’s airports, according to the Transportation Security Administration. That level was last reached in early March 2020, as the coronavirus was just beginning its devastating spread across the United States.However, with the return of passengers and the prospect of an end to billion-dollar losses, airlines have also seen a surge in disruptive and sometimes violent behavior — and a frequent flash point is theT.S.A.’s mandate that passengers remain fully masked throughout their flights.Since Jan. 1, the Federal Aviation Administration has received about 2,500 reports of unruly behavior by passengers, of which about 1,900 involved refusals to comply with the mask mandate. The agency said that in the past it did not track reports of unruly passengers because the numbers had been fairly consistent, but that it began receiving reports of a “significant increase” in disruptive behavior starting in late 2020.“We have just never seen anything like this,” Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said during an online meeting with federal aviation officials on Wednesday. “We’ve never seen it so bad.”Two major airlines, American and Southwest, have postponed plans to resume serving alcohol on flights because of such incidents. American Airlines specified that alcohol sales — except in first and business class — would remain suspended through Sept. 13, when the T.S.A. mask mandate is set to expire.Both airlines announced the shift after a woman punched a flight attendant in the face on a Southwest Airlines flight from Sacramento to San Diego a week ago, an assault that was captured on a widely watched video.The flight attendant lost two teeth, according to her union, and the passenger has been charged with battery causing serious bodily injury and barred for life from flying Southwest.

Striking coalminers in Alabama energize support across the south - About 1,100 coalminers represented by the United Mine Workers of America in Brookwood, Alabama, have been on strike since the start of April against Warrior Met Coal amid new union contract negotiations.As the strike heads into its third month, workers are fighting for improvements to wages and benefits after they say several concessions were made by workers under the previous contract in 2016 when Warrior Met Coal took control of the mines in the wake of a bankruptcy filing by Walter Energy.The strike has energized support across the state and other parts of the south, in an area that has traditionally been hostile to labor disputes.Last month supporters held a concert to raise money for striking miners that included Mike Cooley of the Drive-By Truckers and comedian Drew Morgan. Labor leaders from around the US, including the AFA-CWA president, Sara Nelson, and the AFL-CIO secretary treasurer, Liz Shuler, have visited the striking miners to lend their support. “Warrior Met still refuses to engage in meaningful negotiations with the UMWA at the bargaining table,” the UMWA international president, Cecil E Roberts, said in a recent press release. “But they are clearly on the wrong side of history. Community support for the strikers is growing, and now their struggle is gaining nationwide attention.”Strikers say they are suffering the impacts from the lost income, which makes it difficult to make ends meet and afford basic necessities like food and rent or home payments. They have also carried out acts of civil disobedience outside the company’s main offices.James Traweek has worked at Warrior Met Coal for four years at the No 7 mine in Brookwood. He explained miners accepted a $6-an-hour pay cut and reduction in health insurance and retirement benefits during the bankruptcy process five years ago, while adhering to a strict attendance policy. “We were required to work six, sometimes seven days a week, for 12 hours a day. We worked on a four-strike system, which meant missing four days in a year resulted in termination,” said Traweek. “The only thing that was accepted as an excuse was a death in the immediate family. We had to work sick with the flu and many other illnesses in fear of losing our jobs.”

What if it’s not a labor shortage, but just the return of tipping customers driving wage growth in restaurants? – EPI - One of the most widely discussed data points from last month’s jobs report was the rapid acceleration in wage growth for the leisure and hospitality (L&H) sector, particularly among production and nonsupervisory workers. This sector-specific wage acceleration (not seen in other sectors), combined with disappointing economywide job growth for the month, launched a huge debate about potential labor shortages. We wrote previously about why concerns over labor shortages were largely misplaced. Among other things, the rapid wage growth in L&H was accompanied by very fast sectoral job growth, so there was no evidence that any labor shortage was impinging on overall growth.Further, this acceleration of wages in L&H might provide less evidence of even a sector-specific labor shortage than previously thought. When economists or other analysts express concerns about labor shortages, they generally mean a shortfall of potential employees that forces employers to gouge deeper into their profit margins to raise wages to attract workers. At some point this gouging will become unsustainable and so hiring will lag.However, there is compelling evidence that the wage acceleration in L&H in recent months is not driven by employers raising base pay to attract workers, but instead by just an increase in tips stemming from restaurants filling back closer to pre-COVID capacity. Put another way, since December 2020, the rise in tip income, not an increase in base wages, can likely entirely explain the acceleration of wages for production and nonsupervisory workers in restaurants and bars. If this is the case, the wage acceleration will stop when restaurants get back to normal capacity. The evidence that the L&H wage acceleration is largely just a resurgence in tip income is as follows:

• Full-service restaurants and drinking places—two sectors in which tips constitute a very large portion of overall wages—are a significant part of the overall L&H sector, accounting for over a third of overall hours worked by production and nonsupervisory workers.
• Full-service restaurants and bars accounted for all the recentacceleration in wages in L&H through March.
• The rise and fall of sales in restaurants and bars have matched wage trends for production and nonsupervisory workers in these subsectors very tightly.
• When the jobs report data for these subsectors’ wages are released for April, it will likely show another big step up in wage growth. But this is likely because restaurant sales in April increased sharply as well, allowing tips to provide another big boost to wage growth in this sector.

Below, we expand a bit on each of these points.

Only one in five workers are working from home due to COVID: Black and Hispanic workers are less likely to be able to telework --EPI Blog -Key takeaways:

• At the beginning of the pandemic, we showed that not everybody can work from home, with the ability to telework differing enormously by race and ethnicity.
• As with the pre-pandemic period, there remains a large disparity between the share of Black and Hispanic workers who are able to telework during the pandemic, compared with white and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers.
  • Specifically, only one in six Hispanic workers (15.2%) and one in five Black workers (20.4%) are able to telework due to COVID, compared with one in four white workers (25.9%) and two in five AAPI workers (39.2%).
• According to April monthly data, the disparity in teleworking across educational level still persists. About one in three workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher still teleworked as a result of COVID (33.8%), compared with about one in 20 workers with a high school degree or less (4.8%).

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated underlying disparities in the health and economic wellbeing of people across the country. Segregated cities and neighborhoods have devastated many—disproportionately Black and Hispanic communities—under the weight of the pandemic and the ensuing recession, while others have been less impacted. Some families have seen multiple family members and friends become seriously ill or lose their jobs, while others have come away relatively unscathed (and in some cases, prospered). Millions of workers have risked their health and the health of their families by going to work in-person, while others have been able to work from home and don’t regularly encounter those facing the pandemic’s wrath. The bottom line: disparities persist between who can safely stay home and get a paycheck and who cannot.

Driver’s License Suspensions for Failure to Pay Fines Inflict Particular Harm on Black Drivers --Imagine being unable to pay a US $50 traffic ticket and, as a result, facing mounting fees so high that even after paying hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars toward your debt you still owe money.Imagine being fired from your job because you’ve been forced to use unreliable public transportation instead of your car.And imagine going to jail several times because, even though your license is suspended, you had to drive to work.These are some of the situations facing millions of Americanswho were unable to pay fines – and whose lives were turned into a nightmare by overly punitive policies in response.Most cities and states have policies that allow them to suspend a driver’s license for nonpayment of fines and fees, most commonly traffic fines.These policies are so popular that judges have described them as “the most valuable tool available to the municipal courts for inducing payment on past due accounts.”Studying the effects of these policies can be difficult because there is no uniform national reporting of crime statistics.Anecdotal evidence suggests that failure to pay fines – not dangerous driving – is the most common reason for driver’s license suspensions in the United States.And research indicates that these burdens are primarily borne by low-income people and people of color.As a public affairs scholar who has written extensively about labor markets and criminal justice systems, I’ve conducted research with Joanna Carroll supports these conclusions.But it also illuminates a previously unknown racial inequality of the policy.

JBS Shutters All US Meat Plants As Cyber Attack Jeopardizes Food Supply -Bloomberg News reports an official at the United Food & Commercial Workers has indicated all JBS' US meat plants have been shuttered due to a ransomware attack over the weekend.  According to CBS News, JBS has halted operations at 13 of its processing facilities. A complete list of the plant closings is shown below. Update (2002 ET): The USDA has released an important update about the Biden administration's steps to mitigate potential supply constraints and price surges following JBS' ransomware attack. As noted earlier today by the White House, USDA is aware of the ransomware attack against JBS, which is affecting the company's operations, including its facilities in the United States. USDA continues to work closely with the White House, Department of Homeland Security, JBS USA and others to monitor this situation closely and offer help and assistance to mitigate any potential supply or price issues. As part of that effort, USDA has reached out to several major meat processors in the United States to ensure they are aware of the situation, encouraging them to accommodate additional capacity where possible, and to stress the importance of keeping supply moving.USDA has also been in contact with several food, agriculture and retail organizations to underscore the importance of maintaining close communication and working together to ensure a stable, plentiful food supply. USDA will continue to encourage food and agriculture companies with operations in the United States to take necessary steps to protect their IT and supply chain infrastructure so that it is more durable, distributed and better able to withstand modern challenges, including cybersecurity threats and disruptions.

JBS Reopens All Meat Plants Thursday As Crisis Averted  -JBS SA, the world's largest meat producer, announced: "they are on schedule to resume production at all of their facilities on Thursday." Employees began returning to JBS' shuttered meat plants on Wednesday, a day after the company's beef operations were halted across the country following a ransomware attack over the weekend. The FBI released a statement Wednesday night, naming a Russia-linked hacking group as behind the ransomware attack. "JBS USA and Pilgrim's continue to make significant progress in restoring our IT systems and returning to business as usual," said Andre Nogueira, JBS USA CEO. "Today, the vast majority of our facilities resumed operations as we forecast yesterday, including all of our pork, poultry and prepared foods facilities around the world and the majority of our beef facilities in the US and Australia." "Given the progress our teams have made to address this situation, and we anticipate operating at close to full capacity across our global operations Thursday," Nogueira added.Brazil's JBS controls nearly a quarter of the slaughtering capacity for US cattle and hogs, and concerns of a meat shortage were seen earlier this week as the company had to close all of its US meat processing plants. Google Search Trends shows Americans panic searched "meat shortage" between Tuesday and Wednesday. The ransomware attack followed a cyberattack three weeks ago by another Russian group that managed to paralyze Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the US. Fuel stopped flowing up and down the East Coast, resulting in shortages at gas stations and prices ramped to multi-year highs.

The Hacks Keep On Comin': Mass. Ferry Service Suffers Cyberattack; New York's MTA Admits April Breach - In what is certain to be a recurring theme that has already been thrust into prominence with recent ransomware hacks of theColonial Pipeline and JBS, the world's largest meat producer, cybercriminals struck yet another target on Wednesday: the US state of Massachusetts ferry system. Additionally, the MTA admitted this week that it was the target of an April attack.Service between several upscale northeastern coastal communities was disrupted as a result of the ferry system attack, according to AFP. The attack was reported by The Steamship Authority of Massachusetts, which offers ferry service between Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.The Authority tweeted out: "There is no impact to the safety of vessel operations, as the issue does not affect radar or GPS functionality."'However, the hack did hit the Authority where it could arguably hurt worse: its payment system. The ferry was temporary limited to cash (gasp) after it lost its ability to process credit cards. On Facebook, the Authority wrote that it was "...unable to release or confirm specific details of what occurred," but that it was working with local, state, and federal officials to figure out the incident. In keeping with the theme of mass transit, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) revealed on Wednesday that it was also hacked on April 20. The group believed to be responsible for the MTA hack is said to have links to the Chinese government, the NY Times reported Wednesday. A follow up audit after the attack revealed "no signs that the operating systems had been affected, or that the hackers accessed information of clients or employees". "The hackers did not gain access to systems that control train cars and rider safety was not at risk," transit officials said, according to the NY Times. However, there was residual concern that these systems could be breached through a back door, according to MTA documents.

Texas governor to veto state legislature funding after Democrats walk out over election bill -- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday said he will veto funding for the state legislature, after Democrats staged a walkout the day before to prevent the passage of a sweeping elections bill.Texas Democrats walked off the state House floor late Sunday night to block the passage of legislation that would add new obstacles for voting in future elections, and limit the availability of certain forms of voting that are largely used by low income and handicapped people.Democrats slowly left the floor as the night progressed until 10:30 p.m., when the remaining members exited the chamber.The walkout left the state House without enough members present to reach a quorum, preventing Republicans from passing the legislation before the midnight deadline.The move came after house of debate and procedural objections to Senate Bill 7, which passed the state Senate early Sunday morning and looked to be sent to Abbott’s desk for signature.Abbott, in a tweet on Monday, announced his intention to veto funding for the legislature.   “I will veto Article 10 of the budget passed by the legislature. Article 10 funds the legislative branch. No pay for those who abandon their responsibilities. Stay tuned,” he wrote.

Organizer cuts off veteran's mic when he discusses role Black people played in origins of Memorial Day - The audio was cut on a veteran’s microphone at a Memorial Day event in Hudson, Ohio, shortly after he began discussing the role Black people played in the holiday’s origins in an incident that local media report was no accident. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, the incident occurred during an event marking the holiday at a local cemetery on Monday, just minutes after retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter started to deliver remarks. During his speech, Kemter, whom the Journal reported was the keynote speaker for the event, discussed the history of the holiday, including the discovery of newspaper clippings and handwritten notes that showed a group of freed Black people were among the first to commemorate the holiday following the surrender of the Confederacy. Memorial Day 2021 from Hudson Community Television on Vimeo. “In recent years, the origins of how and where 'Decoration Day' began has sparked lively debate amongst historians. However, Yale historian David Blight, asserting the holiday is rooted in a moving ceremony, [said it] was conducted by freed slaves on May 1, 1865, at the tattered remains of a Confederate prisoner of war camp,” he stated. “It was a Charleston Washington Race Course and Jockey Club today known as Hampton Park.” “The ceremony is believed to have included a parade of as many as 10,000 people, including 3,000 African American schoolchildren singing the Union marching song, ‘John Brown's Body,’ ” he said. “They were carrying armfuls of flowers and went to decorate at the graves.” But about a minute after, Kemter’s microphone was cut roughly halfway through his address. The veteran could be seen trying to alert someone off-camera about his microphone after realizing something was wrong, continuing to address the audience. According to the Journal, an organizer for the event confirmed to the outlet that either she or another organizer had the audio cut. The organizer, Cindy Suchan, told the paper that the portion of Kemter’s speech in which the audio was cut “was not relevant to our program for the day” and that the “theme of the day was honoring Hudson veterans.” Suchan, whom the paper reported also headed the local Memorial Day parade committee and the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, told the Journal that she or another organizer, Jim Garrison, had Kemter’s audio turned down, but wouldn’t confirm who.

State of Arizona planning to execute death row inmates with Zyklon B gas - The State of Arizona is working feverishly to refurbish its mothballed gas chamber to execute death row inmates and has purchased the ingredients contained in the poison gas Zyklon B that was used at Auschwitz by the Nazis to murder more than 1 million people. The Guardian report accompanying the documents that were obtained through a public records request shows that the Arizona department of corrections has purchased more than $2,000 to procure the ingredients to make cyanide gas.According to receipts among the documents, the department paid $1,530 to buy a block of potassium cyanide in December 2020 along with two other ingredients, sodium hydroxide pellets and sulfuric acid. The documents also show that the state has taken extensive measures to refurbish its gas chamber that is housed at the Arizona State Prison Complex at Florence (ASPC—Florence) and built in 1949. The Arizona gas chamber has been idle for the past 22 years.The purchase of the elements of Zyklon B and the revitalization of the ASPC—Florence gas chamber are part of a drive by the Republican-controlled state government to resume the execution of death row inmates. No one has been put to death in Arizona since the horrific bungled lethal injection of Joseph Wood in 2014. Wood was injected 15 times and his execution lasted for approximately two hours on July 22-23, 2014. As he gasped and gulped for air for an estimated 660 times, lawyers filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court stating, “This execution has violated Mr. Wood’s Eighth Amendment right to be executed in the absence of cruel and unusual punishment.”  The last inmate to be gassed to death by Arizona was Walter LaGrand, a German national, for a 1982 armed bank robbery in which a man was killed. LaGrand was executed in 1999 and, according to a published eyewitness account, he exhibited “agonizing choking and gagging” for 18 minutes and his head and arms twitched, and his hands were “red and clenched” before he died.

Scientists say active early learning shapes the adult brain --An enhanced learning environment during the first five years of life shapes the brain in ways that are apparent four decades later, say Virginia Tech and University of Pennsylvania scientists writing in the June edition of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.The researchers used structural brain imaging to detect the developmental effects of linguistic and cognitive stimulation starting at six weeks of age in infants. The influence of an enriched environment on brain structure had formerly been demonstrated in animal studies, but this is the first experimental study to find a similar result in humans. "Our research shows a relationship between brain structure and five years of high-quality, educational and social experiences," said Craig Ramey, professor and distinguished research scholar with Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and principal investigator of the study. "We have demonstrated that in vulnerable children who received stimulating and emotionally supportive learning experiences, statistically significant changes in brain structure appear in middle age." The results support the idea that early environment influences the brain structure of individuals growing up with multi-risk socioeconomic challenges, said Martha Farah, director of the Center for Neuroscience and Society at Penn and first author of the study.The study follows children who have continuously participated in the Abecedarian Project, an early intervention program initiated by Ramey in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1971 to study the effects of educational, social, health, and family support services on high-risk infants.Both the comparison and treatment groups received extra health care, nutrition, and family support services; however, beginning at six weeks of age, the treatment group also received five years of high quality educational support, five days a week, 50 weeks a year.When scanned, the Abecedarian study participants were in their late 30s to early 40s, offering the researchers a unique look at how childhood factors affect the adult brain.

Oregon teen Destini Crane severely burned attempting TikTok challenge --A 13-year-old Oregon girl was hospitalized after she suffered severe burns while trying to attempt a TikTok challenge, her family said. Destini Crane, of Portland, had brought a candle, lighter and rubbing alcohol into her family’s bathroom to try to recreate a popular video in which someone uses flammable liquid on a mirror to draw a shape and then lights it on fire, ABC News reported Saturday.“I was in the living room talking with my mom, and I heard her scream my name,” her mother, Kimberly Crane, told the outlet. “So I went and opened the bathroom door and everything was on fire. Destini was on fire. Things in the bathroom were on fire.”She pulled the teen into the living room where she ripped off her shirt, while her neighbor called 911, the outlet reported.The teen was brought to the hospital, where she has been in the intensive care unit since the May 13 incident to receive treatment for her third-degree burns.

 Shocking video shows baby-faced bandits who opened fire on Florida cops -- Dramatic police bodycam footage shows the moment a baby-faced “Bonnie and Clyde” opened fire on cops in Florida with an AK-47 and a shotgun — before the 14-year-old runaway is struck by deputies and screams out in pain.The newly released video shows Volusia County sheriff’s deputies outside the home where 12-year-old Travis O’Brien and 14-year-old Nicole Jackson were holed up Tuesday after breaking out of the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home, a juvenile group home, KRNO-TV reported.The pint-sized outlaws opened fire on the deputies as they approached the house following a report of a break-in.“Female has a shotgun in her hand, stand by,” a sheriff’s deputy is heard telling a dispatcher.“Put the gun down now!” he yells. A shot then rings out.  “They’re shooting at me,” the deputy says. “Hold the air. I’m code 4. She’s re-racking a round inside the shotgun.”“Let’s not engage them anymore,” the dispatcher responds. “Let’s not challenge them.”“She’s racked a round in the shotgun,” the deputy shoots back. “The windows is busted on the patio side. If she’ comes out she’s going to have the shotgun.”Moments later the teen girl is hit with return fire from the officers as she steps out of the house with the shotgun — and is heard shrieking in pain.“I think the female’s down,” a deputy says. “Call in the units. Female’s on the ground behind the car.” The footage then shows the boy surrendering and being taken into custody.

Chicago school officials announce mandatory in-person attendance in the fall --- At a school board meeting on May 26, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) officials announced plans to require full-time, in-person learning starting in the fall, with few exceptions. The move to end remote learning in Chicago and throughout the state, even while large numbers of parents continue to keep their children learning safely at home, is part of a national campaign to declare an end to the pandemic and send both children and workers back to unsafe buildings to increase the wealth of the superrich. A report in the Chicago Sun-Times about the plans, which have not been finalized, suggests in-person attendance will be mandatory for all students, except for those who are “medically fragile and immunocompromised.” This is in line with comments made in early May by CPS CEO Janice Jackson, who said she was “looking to the state … to get us back to normal from a schooling perspective where everyone is expected to go to school in a brick-and-mortar building every single day unless there are extenuating circumstances, medical circumstances, that prevent them from coming to school.” Orders from the state to reopen came on May 19, as the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) voted unanimously to endorse a declaration by State Superintendent Carmen Ayala, which stated, “Beginning with the 2021-22 school year, all schools must resume fully in-person learning for all student attendance days,” with only those children, who remain ineligible to receive a vaccine and remain “under a quarantine order by a local public health department or the Illinois Department of Public Health,” being granted the option of remote learning. Given the speed at which all levels of government around the country have been shedding public health measures, it is unlikely any such quarantine orders will remain. This means unvaccinated children, even those under 12, who are not expected to be eligible until September at the earliest, will be expected to attend, putting themselves, their family and friends at risk of contracting COVID-19.

Critical race theory is under attack  -- One hundred years ago today, mobs of armed white supremacists violently attacked and killed Black residents and destroyed Black businesses in Tulsa, Okla., in the Greenwood District. The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the most devastating and egregious instances of anti-Black violence in American history. Despite this, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt recently signed House Bill 1775, which prohibits public school teachers from discussing critical race theory (CRT), a theoretical framework that helps anyone interested in meaningful examination of race and racism, specifically white supremacy and anti-Blackness, and the enduring impact of the operationalization of these social constructs in American politics, law and society.Sitt claims the bill denounces notions that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another,” and that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive.” In reality, the bill will do the exact opposite by barring meaningful, fact-based discussions that are informed by what critical race theorists call “counter narratives” to paint more vivid pictures about race and privilege in America.  As applied to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, the bill would force educators to frame this poignant, historical display of white supremacy as (isolated) bad actors, without also acknowledging how their actions were both shaped by and, as a result, shape the world we live in today. The supremacists who engaged in the Tulsa Race Massacre murdered dozens of Black people and destroyed more than 1,200 buildings in the Black Greenwood neighborhood, obliterating decades of accumulated Black wealth. This continues to have massive implications on American society today. The ongoing debate about whether educators should be allowed to teach critical race theory speaks to the enduring power and privilege of whiteness. Among other things, critical race theory emphasizes how the concept of race was invented to suppress Black people and their access to equal rights. That people in positions of power are attempting to erase or hide historical facts that can be more fully appreciated with the application of tools like CRT speaks to the enduring power of white privilege to obfuscate the role and power of whiteness. 

Bill that would mandate Asian-American history lessons in Illinois schools heads to governor's desk - A bill that would require Asian American history lessons be taught in Illinois schools cleared the final hurdle in the state legislature on Monday, and will now head to the governor’s desk for signature.The bill, dubbed the Teaching Equitable Asian-American History Act (TEAACH), would mandate that beginning in the 2022-2023 school year, history curriculums in public elementary and high schools must include “a unit of instruction studying the events of Asian American history,” including the history of Asian Americans in Illinois and the Midwest and their contributions toward advancing civil rights from the 19th century forward.The legislation also says the State Superintendent of Education can prepare and make available instructional materials for all school boards that can be used as a “guideline” for developing units of instruction.The regional superintendent of schools will monitor school districts’ compliance with the curriculum requirements, according to the bill.The state House passed the final version of the bill on Monday in a 108 to 10 vote, after the Senate unanimously approved the legislation last week. If Gov. JB Pritzker (D-Illinois) signs the bill into law, Illinois would be the first state to mandate a unit of Asian-American history be taught in schools, according to Reuters.

Texas valedictorian goes viral after giving unapproved speech blasting state's anti-abortion bill - A Texas high school valedictorian has gone viral for ditching her approved graduation speech to instead denounce the state's anti-abortion bill, which was signed into law last month. Paxton Smith, the valedictorian at Lake Highlands High School, had planned to deliver a speech about television and the media, which was approved by school administrators. When she was called to the podium at her school’s graduation ceremony, however, she said it “feels wrong” to speak about anything else other than the state’s “heartbeat bill.” “Today I was going to talk about TV and media and content, because it's something that's very important to me. However, under light of recent events, it feels wrong to talk about anything but what is currently affecting me and millions of other women in the state,” Paxton said. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed legislation in May, dubbed by some as a heartbeat bill, which bans virtually all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can occur as early as six weeks after a woman becomes pregnant. While the law makes an exception for medical emergencies, it does not exempt pregnancies caused by rape or incest. Additionally, the law, which goes into effect on Sept. 1, allows most private citizens to sue an abortion provider if they suspect the provider has violated the new ban. Paxton, who plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin, said the dreams, hopes and ambitions of her and her fellow female graduates have been “stripped away” because of the bill. “I have dreams, and hopes, and ambitions, every girl graduating today does, and we have spent our entire lives working towards our future. And without our input, and without our consent, our control over that future has been stripped away from us,” Paxton said, which elicited cheers from the audience. “I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail, I am terrified that if I am raped, then my hopes and aspirations and dreams and efforts for my future will no longer matter,” Paxton added. She said those feelings were “gut-wrenching” and “dehumanizing.” “I hope that you can feel how gut-wrenching that is. I hope you can feel how dehumanizing it is to have the autonomy over your own body taken away from you,” Paxton said. She called the bill “a problem that cannot wait,” and said she decided to voice her concerns on a day “where you are most inclined to listen to a voice like mine, a woman’s voice.”“I cannot give up this platform to promote complacency and peace when there was a war on my body and a war on my rights. A war on the rights of your mothers, a war on the rights of your sisters, a war on the rights of your daughters. We cannot stay silent," she concluded.

Class action lawsuit filed against company pushing unsafe ionizers to reopen classrooms across the US - In the interest of reopening schools as soon as possible, hundreds of K-12 school districts, private schools, and universities across the US have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in federal relief funding provided by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to purchase Needle Point Bipolar Ionizers (NBPIs), supposedly to clean indoor air and kill coronavirus particles.Despite their lofty claims to neutralize virus particles, recent independent studies show that NBPIs do not improve indoor air quality. A recently filedclass action lawsuit consolidates the science by air quality experts and puts forward strong refutations against the claims made by manufacturers, and echoed by hundreds of districts and campuses across the country, that NBPIs are safe and remove pathogens including SARS-CoV-2 from the air.Michael Mills, one of the attorneys on the case, told the World Socialist Web Site, “The evidence is overwhelming. We are convinced we are right. I don’t know how districts can continue to use these products. If teachers or students get sick, these districts have zero protection.”The lawsuit was filed last month against Global Plasma Solutions (GPS), a top selling manufacturer of NBPIs. The suit charges the company with fraud and claims the company used false, deceptive and misleading claims to sell its products and capitalize from the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the mad dash to reopen schools, ionizers have been installed in classrooms, school buses, offices, gymnasiums and cafeterias, providing a false sense of protection from COVID-19. Furthermore, harmful byproducts produced by the technology place the health and safety of millions of students and staff at heightened risk.

Virginia gym teacher fighting suspension after opposing transgender preferred pronoun policies  --A gym teacher in northern Virginia is fighting against his suspension that was issued after he protested against proposed school policies that would allow transgender students to use their preferred pronouns.Leesburg Elementary teacher Tanner Cross was suspended after saying during a school board meeting on May 25 that he would not abide by rules that would require teachers to use students' preferred pronouns, The Associated Press reports.Cross employed the aid of a Christian conservative legal group called Alliance Defending Freedom and sent a letter to Loudoun County Public Schools demanding his reinstatement.The school district is reviewing its policies in light of a state mandate that requires all school systems to update their policies regarding transgender students. The regulations being circulated by the state recommend requiring students to be referred to by their preferred pronouns.In Wisconsin, the Madison Metropolitan School District wassued by a group of parents last year for allowing students to use their preferred pronouns and names. Although students require parental permission before their name and pronouns are changed on official documents, the school district allowed students to go by their preferred names and pronouns without permission in their everyday interactions.

Canton McKinley head football coach, 6 assistants fired — The Canton City School District has fired head high school football coach Marcus Wattley and six of his assistants following an investigation into misconduct against a player.After meeting for more than an hour in executive session, the board of education unanimously voted to terminate Wattley's contract, along with the following other coaches:

• Josh Grimsley - Defensive coordinator
• Cade Brodie - Defensive ends coach
• Zach Sweat - Defensive backs coach
• Frank McLeod - Linebackers coach
• Tyler Thatcher - Freshman head coach
• Romero Harris - Weight room coach and baseball assistant

Wattley and the remaining six coaches were originally on administrative leave following an accusation that they forced a student to eat pepperoni pizza after he showed up late to a non-mandatory practice on May 24th. According to the district, the coaches knew the teen was a member of the Hebrew Israelite faith, and that consuming pork was in violation of his religion's practices.A district investigation found the charges against the coaches to be true, and Superintendent Jeff Talbert called their actions "inappropriate, demeaning, and divisive." He later called the special board meeting that resulted in the] group of coaches losing their jobs."The football program, which has a long and proud history, is an important part of our school culture and our community," Talbert added in a statement that was read by Board President John M. Rinaldi Thursday. "This incident does not reflect the Canton City School District's culture of protecting the physical and emotional wellbeing of our students." An attorney representing Marcus Wattley told 3News Investigates that there's more to this story that hasn't been told. "This young man is one of the most talented members of the team and he’s let the team down, not showing up to practices, not communicating with his team, not fulfilling the role of a team leader," attorney Peter Pattakos said. "The idea was okay young man, you’re so special, you want special treatment, are you hungry? I'll buy you a pizza and we can all watch you eat. You’re the king, you’re the prince. It was along those lines. And the kid knew he was being disciplined. The coach was trying to teach a lesson."

“Badass Teachers” Facebook group administrators uphold ban on WSWS writer Evan Blake -Administrators for the national Facebook group “Badass Teachers Association” (BATs) have voted in secret to uphold their ban on World Socialist Web Site writer and Socialist Equality Party (SEP) member Evan Blake. This decision was made without any personal communication with Blake himself and was only made public in a comment by BATs administrator Michael Flanagan on a post in the Facebook group “Teachers Against Dying.”Responding to the post, which encouraged members to express their views on the banning, Flanagan commented: “I appreciate the enthusiasm in BATs and the publicity of a second article in WSWS. I did advocate for Evan’s reinstatement but it was a vote and the vote was no, not at this time. We are not here to be demanded of. You got the wrong people for that. But best of luck. Peace.”Flanagan is the same administrator who wrote an article that falsified what led to the banning and sought to smear Blake using language associated with sexual predators. He also allowed a slanderous post to be made in BATs, which smeared the WSWS and Teachers Against Dying as racist and sexist, which he then “liked” and defended. It was a transparent lie to say that he advocated for Blake’s reinstatement.The ban on Blake was clearly a politically motivated act of censorship. It took  place within days of him posting an article he wrote that was deeply critical of American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten, which provoked a flood of opposition and calls for her immediate resignation as the national union president. Weingarten herself remains a member of BATs and faces no criticism from the group’s leadership, who are themselves tied to the union bureaucracies and support the Democratic Party.

“Unshakeable Burden of Student Loans” - run75441 --“Americans stress over ‘unshakeable burden’ of student loan payments,” The Guardian, Michael Sainato, May 2020 The nation can alleviate one person of their debt multiple times; but, it can not do so for the younger contingent consisting of minorities and white former students who would add to the growth of the economy if freed. Much ofd this debt consists of usurious penalties, the interest on those penalties, forbearance interest and the interest on top of the interest. Forbearance interest and penalty interest must be paid first before payment is applied to principal. No commercial loan to citizens exists with these types of restrictions. Student loans were made as impossible to pay off as they could.Michelle Kajikawa of Portland and her husband currently owe more than $150,000 in student loans from his law degree and her social work and teaching degrees, obtained between 1995 and 2003. She is an elementary school teacher, and her husband works as a public defender, while caring for two children .Michelle: “The yoke of student debt has completely overshadowed every aspect of our finances. We have always lived paycheck to paycheck, even as our salaries grew.” The couple relied on assistance from family to buy a home, because their debt-to-income ratio prevented them from qualifying for a mortgage. Their credit suffers regularly when hit with unexpected bills, mostly for medical care. Now the couple is starting to worry about putting their two children through college while wondering how they will be able to afford to eventually retire, especially when their federal student loan payments have to start being paid again after the Covid-19 pause on federal student loan payments expires on 30 September.  Michelle: “There is a psychological cost to this unshakable burden. We are facing having to put our own children through college, and eventually our own retirement, all with the burden of $1,500 to $2,000 payments every month, seemingly forever. We internalize a feeling of failure, even though we have accomplished a lot, personally and professionally. I am dreading the point at which we will start paying again.”Student loan borrowers are awaiting relief from the Biden administration amid calls to cancel $50,000 in federal student loan debt from Democratic members of Congress, though Biden has only expressed support for $10,000 in student debt forgiveness. His administration also omitted student debt cancellation from the annual White House budget while awaiting a report from the US Department of Justice and US Department of Education reviewing Biden’s legal authority to cancel student loans through executive action.

 Corruption in healthcare worsens the health of patients and the quality of nutrition -  Bribery in the public healthcare does not solve the problem of poor quality of services, and even exacerbates it, researchers argue. The same can be said about the well-being of patients and their own assessment of health. In other words, bribes in the healthcare do not provide good quality services and do not pay off. Such conclusions were reached by an international team of researchers, including Olga Popova, the article's co-author, an associate professor at the Ural Federal University (UrFU, Russia).Researchers examined survey data on 41,000 citizens from 28 post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the former Soviet republics, including Russia (information provided by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development). The research results were published at the Journal of Comparative Economics."In general, the corruption mechanism that undermines people's health is as follows," said Olga Popova. "As everyday practice shows, the poorest strata of the population have the greatest health problems. They are also the ones who most often use medical services and, as a result, are more inclined than others to solve their problems with the help of bribes."Corruption is also fueled by the fact that healthcare workers can deliberately reduce the quality of service in order to receive informal remuneration, the researchers presume. "However, the plight in public health together with dismissive and irresponsible attitudes toward the poor population groups lead to the fact that giving a bribe does not solve such problems," said Olga Popova. "The other problems, including the frequent and unjustified absence of doctors, long waiting times for services, disrespectful treatment by the staff, unavailability of medicines, and uncleaned premises are not solved as well. The mismatch between the consequences of bribery and expectations while giving a bribe as well as the risk of disclosure lead to a deterioration in the well-being of patients who bribe."

What if there was a way to detect fraud for SUD facilities? -Millions of Americans struggle with substance use disorder, with estimates suggesting as many as 1 in 13people needed treatment in 2018. Between high demand for services and lack of regulation, this is an area of health care already rife with predatory behavior. Substance use disorder fraud was a significant problem before the COVID-19 pandemic, and it could potentially get even worse.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more individuals reported an increase in substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic, and overdose deaths have gone up significantly. Now that vaccination rates are increasing and social distancing measures are being lifted throughout the United States, well-intentioned individuals or concerned family members may view rehabilitation facilities or treatment centers as a logical next step to address some of these issues.But it’s not as easy as Googling “substance use disorder rehab facility near me” to find treatment centers that can provide appropriate — or even genuine — treatment. The amount of fraudulent behavior that has occurred in the past decade can make it feel as if there are equal numbers of results for substance use disorder treatment facilities and horror stories.In some cases, individuals have been sent out-of-state as part of elaborate and profitable patient brokering schemes that do not actually connect them to treatment. Some treatment facilities have profited off patients by overbilling for unnecessary drug tests. Treatment facilities with a known history of violations have continued to operate, resulting in the deaths of patients. In Florida, a man running sober homes was found to have coerced residents into prostitution.Using news articles and publicly available legal filings, it might be possible to identify potential warning flags for facilities by looking at their websites or asking certain informational questions, such as:

1. What is included on a facility’s website? References to accreditation can indicate a facility has met certain standards set by an outside organization (i.e., the Joint Commission).
2. What’s not included on a facility’s website? Does it omit what kind of treatment plans are provided?
3. What treatments or services does the facility provide? Medication assisted treatment is evidence-based, but equine therapy is less so.
4. Who is going to provide treatment? For example, are staff members named and licensed?
5. Are there clear policies in case of emergency (i.e., overdose)?
6. Is recovery guaranteed? (This is not possible for a facility to guarantee.)
7. Is there any financial assistance offered to help offset paying for care at the facility? A sliding scale financial assistance payment model can be helpful but offers of being paid (in cash or in kind) should be viewed with skepticism.

COVID-19 cases and deaths are down but rate of infection is the same as it was in December for unvaccinated - Coronavirus cases, deaths, and hospitalizations have been on the decline as more and more Americans get vaccinated against the virus, but rates have not shifted significantly for those unvaccinated,The Washington Post reported. More than 62% of US adults have had at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, with over 51% being completely vaccinated. Out of the entire US population, 40.5% of all people are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In an analysis, the Post found that if vaccinated people are removed from assessing the data, the case rate for unvaccinated Americans is similar to the case rate for all residents on December 31.In the past week, the US has averaged a little over 20,000 cases per day, the CDC reported. The Post found that the rate among those unvaccinated is 73% higher than figures being publicized. Their analysis found that in states with high unvaccinated populations, the pandemic is ongoing at the same pace it was during the last surge. Taking into account the adjustments for vaccinated people, cases are still going down but the national death rate would actually be the same as it was two months ago, while hospitalizations are as high as they were three months ago. Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University told the Post that unvaccinated people are mistakenly thinking it's safe for them to not wear masks because the numbers are low.  “It looks like fewer numbers, looks like it's getting better, but it's not necessarily better for those who aren't vaccinated," Goldman said.

COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Infections --With the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continuing, there is an aspect of the vaccine that has not received much coverage in the mainstream media. Here is the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: […]As background, according to the CDC, as of April 30, 2021, approximately 101 million Americans have been fully vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.  Up to April 30, 2021, a total of 10,262 SARS-CoV-2 infections had been detected and reported in individuals that had been fully vaccinated from 46 states.  This means that (at least) one out of every 9,842 vaccinated individuals has experienced a breakthrough COVID-19 infection in the United States. The data can be further broken down as follows:

• Females - 6,446 cases (63 percent)
• Median patient age - 58 with a range of 40 to 74 years
• Asymptomatic cases - 2,725 (27 percent)
• Hospitalizations - 995 (10 percent)
• Hospitalizations for other reasons - 289
• Deaths - 160 (2 percent)
• Deaths median age - 82 years
• Sequencing data available - 555 cases (5 percent)
• Infections with variants of concern (of the 555 cases) - 356 cases

While the number of breakthrough infections may appear to be relatively minor (unless you have the misfortune of being one of those who experiences COVID-19 after vaccinations), the CDC notes that there are at least three limitations to the data:

• 1.) the number of reported COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases is likely a substantial undercounting of all SARS-CoV-2 infections among fully vaccinated persons given that the national vaccine surveillance system relies on voluntary reporting.
• 2.) Many persons with vaccine breakthrough infections (particularly those who have mild cases or are asymptomatic) may not seek out testing.
• 3.) As noted above, SARS-CoV-2 sequencing data is only available for 555 cases or 5 percent of the total vaccine breakthrough cases reported to the CDC.

To confuse the issue further, beginning on May 1, 2020, the CDC transitioned from monitoring all COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections to investigating only the cases of patients that are either hospitalized or die since the CDC claims that these are the cases that are of the highest clinical and public health significance.  This means that, ultimately, there will be no reporting of the actual COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases making it difficult for researchers to determine an accurate assessment of the vaccine's effectiveness.Nonetheless, the CDC states that:  “The number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths that will be prevented among vaccinated persons will far exceed the number of vaccine breakthrough cases."

Little-Known Illnesses Turning Up in Covid Long-Haulers --The day Dr. Elizabeth Dawson was diagnosed with Covid-19 in October, she awoke feeling as if she had a bad hangover. Four months later she tested negative for the virus, but her symptoms have only worsened. Dawson is among what one doctor called “waves and waves” of “long-haul” Covid patients who remain sick long after retesting negative for the virus. A significant percentage are suffering from syndromes that few doctors understand or treat. In fact, a yearlong wait to see a specialist for these syndromes was common even before the ranks of patients were swelled by post-Covid newcomers. For some, the consequences are life altering.Before fall, Dawson, 44, a dermatologist from Portland, Oregon, routinely saw 25 to 30 patients a day, cared for her 3-year-old daughter and ran long distances.Today, her heart races when she tries to stand. She has severe headaches, constant nausea and brain fog so extreme that, she said, it “feels like I have dementia.” Her fatigue is severe: “It’s as if all the energy has been sucked from my soul and my bones.” She can’t stand for more than 10 minutes without feeling dizzy.Through her own research, Dawson recognized she had typical symptoms of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS. It is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary functions such as heart rate, blood pressure and vein contractions that assist blood flow. It is a serious condition — not merely feeling lightheaded on rising suddenly, which affects many patients who have been confined to bed a long time with illnesses like Covid as their nervous system readjusts to greater activity. POTS sometimes overlaps with autoimmune problems, which involve the immune system attacking healthy cells. Before Covid, an estimated 3 million Americans had POTS.Many POTS patients report it took them years to even find a diagnosis. With her own suspected diagnosis in hand, Dawson soon discovered there were no specialists in autonomic disorders in Portland — in fact, there are only 75 board-certified autonomic disorder doctors in the U.S.Using contacts in the medical community, Dawson wrangled an appointment with a Portland neurologist within a week and was diagnosed with POTS and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). The two syndromes have overlapping symptoms, often including severe fatigue. Dr. Peter Rowe of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, a prominent researcher who has treated POTS and CFS patients for 25 years, said every doctor with expertise in POTS is seeing long-haul Covid patients with POTS, and every long-Covid patient he has seen with CFS also had POTS. He expects the lack of medical treatment to worsen.“Decades of neglect of POTS and CFS have set us up to fail miserably,” said Rowe, one of the authors of a recent paper on CFS triggered by Covid.

Coronavirus mutated 32 times inside South African HIV-positive woman over course of seven months --A 36-year-old woman with advanced HIV carried the novel coronavirus for 216 days, during which the virus accumulated more than 30 mutations, a new study has found. The case report, which has not been peer-reviewed, was published as a preprint on medRxiv on Thursday. The woman, who has not been named, was identified as a 36-year-old living in South Africa. The coronaviruses gathered 13 mutations to the spike protein, which is known to help the virus escape the immune response, and 19 other mutations that could change the behaviour of the virus. It is not clear whether the mutations she carried were passed on to others, the Los Angeles Times reported. If more such cases are found, it raises the prospect that HIV infection could be a source of new variants simply because the patients could carry the virus for longer, Tulio de Oliveira, a geneticist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban and the study’s author, told the Times. But it is probably the exception rather than the rule for people living for HIV, because prolonged infection requires severe immunocompromise, Dr Juan Ambrosini, associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Barcelona, said. Indeed, the woman in the case study was immunosuppressed.

Expert warns of 'COVID-32' if origins of COVID-19 not found - A full investigation into the origin of COVID-19 in China is “absolutely critical” in order to prevent future pandemics — and avoid “COVID-32,” an expert warned Sunday.“There’s going to be COVID-26 and COVID-32 unless we fully understand the origins of COVID-19. This is absolutely critical,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”Hotez said that he believes the US needs to do more than launch an intelligence investigation into theories that the virus emerged naturally from animals or escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.“I’m personally of the opinion that we’ve pushed intelligence as far as we can,” Hotez said, saying that the US needs to send experts to the original epicenter of the pandemic in Wuhan.“We need a team of scientists, genealogists, biologists, bat ecologists in the Hubei province for six months to a year-long period and fully unravel the origins of COVID-19.”Hotez, however, acknowledged that China may be resistant to a full investigation. A World Health Organization team probing the site earlier this year was stymied from independent digging due to interference from Beijing.“I think we have to really put a lot of pressure on China, including possible sanctions to allow a team of outstanding epidemiologists and virologists in China with unfettered access to the animals, the people, to samples [and] the lab,” Hotez said.He warned that without “full access,” the origins may never be uncovered. “I think you really need to have detailed analysis about the bat populations — all of the possible reservoir animals and people — and without that, it’s going to be really hard to work this out,” he said.

Debate over origin of COVID highlights catastrophic systemic risks -I do not claim to know where the COVID-19 virus originated. And, I don't think we will ever know for sure. But claims and counterclaims about its origin highlight a systemic problem that goes far beyond the details of this debate. In this case, those positing a possible laboratory origin believe that scientists manipulating coronaviruses for research purposes may have carelessly let one of their altered viruses infect them. The scientists then unknowingly carried the virus out of the lab into the streets of China.What's important about this scenario—and again, we have no definitive evidence it happened—is that it could occur in any of the special laboratories worldwide which study dangerous infectious diseases. A recent report highlighting the problem listed 59 biosafety level 4 labs (the highest level), a tally that includes those planned and under construction. Some 42 are believed to be currently operating. These labs "are designed and built to work safely and securely with the most dangerous bacteria and viruses that can cause serious diseases and for which no treatment or vaccines exist." (For a very brief primer on biosafety levels, read this.)So, how closely are these labs monitored? The report continues, "There is, however, currently no requirement to report these facilities internationally, and no international entity is mandated to collect such information and provide oversight at a global level. Moreover, there are no binding international standards for safe, secure, and responsible work on pathogens in maximum containment labs."Only one lab needs to make one mistake with a serious and easily communicable disease for which there is no treatment to inflict a catastrophe on the world population.The key element not present in other risky pursuits is that viruses and bacteria self-propagate, that is, they reproduce themselves independently of our efforts, thus spreading themselves in human populations. And, that spread is something that we've made so exceptionally efficient in our hyperconnected world that infectious micro-organisms will be forgiven for believing that our modern societies were designed by a virus for the convenience of viruses and other infectious agents.In all the furor over laboratory safety, few people understand that we have taken other organisms genetically altered by humans and intentionally spread them worldwide with virtually no safety testing beforehand. These organisms are called genetically engineered crops and animals. We are now undergoing a global uncontrolled experiment to see how they affect 1) the health of humans and animals to which we are feeding these crops and 2) habitats which are impacted by the spread of novel engineered genes to wild and domesticated plants through pollen. The champions of this kind of unbridled risk-tasking cannot guarantee that there will not be any catatrophic consequences. But they do say that the risk of any real and significant problem is a million to one—or some such number.

Covid-19 Update -- May 30, 2021 --Link here.  The Sunday report: vaccinations continue to drop precipitously.

• Today's report: 1,223,790 vaccinations given in past 24 hours;
• Last Sunday: 1,779,363 vaccinations given in same time period.
• Previous Sunday, May 16, 2021: 2,712,865 vaccinations given.
• Prior to that, Sunday, May 9, 2021: 2,369,784 vaccinations given.

1,223,790 / 2,369,784 = 52%. Exactly what the LA Times reported today.

US COVID-19 vaccination campaign drastically slowing - President Joe Biden has set July 4 as his goal to see 70 percent of all adults in the United States with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines. However, he is confronting a lagging vaccination rate that has been declining week to week since the peak in vaccinations in mid-April. In a plea to all unvaccinated people last month, he declared, “This is your choice. It’s life and death.” On June 3, the seven-day average of reported vaccine doses administered fell below the threshold of one million doses per day. On June 2, only a half-million doses were given. There has been a 33 percent decline from the previous week. With 2.05 billion doses of the vaccines thus far administered across the globe, almost 298 million doses (14.5 percent) have been given just in the US, a rate of 90 doses per 100 people. More than 368 million doses have been distributed throughout the country, indicating 70 million doses waiting for recipients. In a sleight of hand, the more than 60 percent vaccinated figure being heavily promoted by the White House does not reflect the population as a whole but only those over 18 with at least one dose. In reality, 50.9 percent of the population has received at least one dose and only 41.2 percent have been fully vaccinated. Of those 18 years or older, 63 percent have received at least one dose and it is this figure that is being advertised. According to the White House’s calculations, another 20 million more adults need to be inoculated for Biden to reach his goal in the next month. However, this is a meaningless figure in that the theoretical herd immunity threshold of 70 percent would require 70 percent of the population to be vaccinated and this does not account for the new strains of the more transmissible coronavirus that are quickly becoming dominant, which would raise this threshold. In reality, the herd immunity threshold remains unknown and scientists speculate it may be unattainable. Breakthrough infections with the new variants such as the B.1.617.2 Delta variant may be considerable among individuals with only a single dose, according to recent studies on neutralization antibodies against variants. Though full vaccination is critical to prevent serious disease, breakthrough infections may be much higher with these newer variants. Recent reporting indicated new variants of interest have also been detected in Vietnam. Also, those 18 years old and younger can very well become infected, become very ill and die, as well as transmit the contagion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Friday through their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) that there has been an increase in the rates of hospitalizations among teenagers in March and April. Dr. Rochelle Walensky remarked, “I am deeply concerned by numbers of hospitalized adolescents and saddened to see the number of adolescents who required treatment in intensive care units or mechanical ventilation.” The Delta variant has been estimated to be 50 to 70 percent more transmissible than the B.1.1.7 Alpha variant. Individuals infected with the Delta variant also have a 2.7 times higher risk of needing hospitalization than those with the Alpha variant. While the Delta variant is now the dominant strain in India and the UK, genetic sequencing is demonstrating a sharp rise in this variant in the United States.

Biden administration rolls out new vaccine incentives - About 63% of Americans have gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The Biden administration would like to get that number up to 70% by July 4. One way it’s trying to do that is through incentives.There are lots of incentives now to get the vaccine, aside from the fact that it’ll protect you from getting COVID-19. Free baseball tickets, gift cards, donuts, beer. Also the chance to win a free cruise, or a year of free flights, or $1 million.First things first: There are some people who, no matter what, are not going to get vaccinated. So incentives will not work on them. “And in fact, for people who philosophically believe that vaccines are problematic, and the government is not trustworthy, [incentives] may even make them more suspicious,” said Jennifer Chatman, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. But there are also people who wanted to wait a little longer or just haven’t gotten around to getting vaccinated yet.“It’s generally believed that these kinds of incentive approaches could help sway many of those people in the middle,” said Kevin Volpp, director of the Penn Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics.He said there is early data from Ohio that its vaccine lottery with a million-dollar prize is working. The state says it saw a 44% jump in first doses among people 16 and older in the week after the lottery was announced. Volpp said lotteries and sweepstakes might be particularly effective. “They capture people’s imaginations. People start dreaming about how my life would be changed if I won this lottery.” Even though the chance of winning is pretty small.

New York City will offer Covid vaccines at some public schools. -New York City, with the nation’s largest school district, is hoping to increase vaccination rates among children age 12 to 17 before they close their books and head out for the summer on June 25.“We want to make schools a place where kids can get vaccinated,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in announcing the plan Wednesday during a news conference at City Hall. Later, he added, “We’re going to get the most done we can between now and the end of school later this month.”Mr. de Blasio said that the program would start on Friday with mobile vaccination vehicles at four schools in the Bronx.Meisha Porter, the city’s schools chancellor, said on Twitter on Thursday that the mobile vaccination clinics would be available on Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Bronx Writing Academy; Junior High School 22; Junior High School 118; and Middle School 180.Ms. Porter added that mobile clinics would be stationed at an additional three schools from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday and Monday: Intermediate School 90 in Manhattan; Middle School 88 in Brooklyn; and Public School 214 in the Bronx.According to city data, the Bronx has the lowest rate of fully vaccinated residents, with 35 percent, below the citywide rate of 44 percent. (Brooklyn has 38 percent, Staten Island 41 percent, Queens 48 percent and Manhattan 55 percent.)This data echoes what officials have seen nationwide suggestingthat vaccines have been given disproportionately in areas with wealthy and white residents, even though the pandemic hit low-income communities of color the hardest. The program is being conducted in collaboration with the city’s education and health departments, as well as the teacher’s union, the mayor said.

 Ejected from a troubled plant, AstraZeneca is in talks about producing vaccine for U.S. government at another site. -The British-Swedish company AstraZeneca is negotiating with the federal government to shift production of its coronavirus vaccine from a troubled plant near Baltimore to a factory owned by the pharmaceutical company Catalent, according to people familiar with the government’s plans.Catalent already produces AstraZeneca’s vaccine for export at a factory in Harmans, Md., south of Baltimore. It is now in discussions to retrofit a production line there to make the vccine for the federal government, taking over for Emergent BioSolutions, which was forced to stop manufacturing AstraZeneca’s vaccine more than six weeks ago after a major production mishap.While it is unclear when the new line could begin operating, any extra doses that Catalent produces for the government are also likely to be exported because the United States has not yet authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine for domestic distribution and has enough of other vaccines to meet demand.AstraZeneca has been searching for a new manufacturing partner since the federal authorities decided that Emergent, which has received hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to manufacture vaccines, was not capable of producing the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines simultaneously. The decision came after Emergent workers accidentally contaminated a batch of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, ruining 15 million doses.That episode has led to cascading problems for Emergent, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. Federal regulators asked Emergent to halt all production at its plant while they inspected it. Inspectors returned on Wednesday for another on-site review, according to people familiar with the process. Regulators are also insisting that Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca provide extensive proof that batches of their vaccines produced by Emergent meet regulatory standards before allowing them to be released either for domestic use or for export. While no doses of any vaccine produced by Emergent have been distributed in the United States, the Biden administration had been counting on tens of millions of AstraZeneca doses to fulfill its promise to help other countries in need.

Anti-vaxxer hospitalised with Covid after saying vaccines would wipe out ‘stupid people’ -- Rick Wiles, a right-wing Christian talk show host and anti-vaxxer has been hospitalised with Covid-19 after saying vaccines would wipe out “stupid people”.Less than a month ago, Mr Wiles said he would never get vaccinated. His website, TruNews, announced over the weekend that had been infected and taken to hospital where he had been given oxygen. The announcement was reported by Right Wing Watch.TruNews has pushed conspiracy theorists considered to be racist, antisemitic, homophobic, and Islamophobic. The outlet has called President Obama a “demon from hell” multiple times. Mr Wiles has said that Mr Obama “spiritually sodomised the nation”.The right-wing broadcaster told his audience last month that he wasn’t getting vaccinated because he believed the vaccines were being used to commit a “genocide,” to kill hundreds of millions of people.“I am not going to be vaccinated,” Mr Wiles said. “I’m going to be one of the survivors. I’m going to survive the genocide ... The only good thing that will come out of this is a lot of stupid people will be killed off. If the vaccine wipes out a lot of stupid people, well, we’ll have a better world.”TruNews has said that eternal damnation would await anyone mocking Mr Wiles’s affliction.“Already, the naysayers and mockers have started with their taunts,” the website said. “Let them speak their foolish words and let them mock. It will only serve to be used to fuel their flames of torment in hell unless they repent.”TruNews suddenly suspended its broadcast last week, announcing that it was “experiencing a sudden cluster of flu and COVID among some employees and their relatives”. The outlet then said on Sunday that Mr Wiles had been hospitalised.

 Highly contagious India COVID variant spreads rapidly in US -- The highly contagious COVID-19 variant that first emerged in India is spreading at a rapid rate in the US — and now makes up 7 percent of new cases, data shows.The dramatic rise of the B.1.617.2 variant comes after it accounted for only 1 percent of new cases stateside at the start of May, according to a report from Outbreak.info.The data revealed that the variant, which experts suspect is 60 percent more transmissible, reached its high of 7 percent of samples sequenced on May 26.The World Health Organization last week classified the variant as being one of global concern and requiring heightened tracking and analysis.“There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on COVID-19, told reporters.It is now predominant in some parts of India and believed to be a driving factor in the country’s devastating second wave.The cases have overwhelmed the health care system, forcing patients to wait for beds in some regions.Footage emerged this week of the disastrous conditions at a hospital in the eastern district of Mayurbhanj, where patients were seen naked in their beds and collapsed on the floor waiting for assistance from staffers.

 Coronavirus dashboard for June 2: most of US approaches herd immunity threshold; COVID still spreading among the remaining idiots --  In the past week new COVID-19 cases declined almost 30%, by about 7,000 to 17,289/day; however, deaths actually increased by about 10% to an average of 589/day, mainly due to a data dump by California 5 and 6 days ago - thus I expect a new low in deaths within the next several days: Total deaths are 595,213. Over 60% of all adults have received at least one dose, and over half are fully vaccinated. Slightly over half of the US population, including all children, has received at least one dose. But the overall situation masks a large divergence between States where there have been the most vaccinations vs. States with the least. Here is the map of vaccination administration by State as of one week ago: In the Northeast, only NY, at 67.9%, is slightly below 70% of all adults who have received at least one dose of vaccine. California also is over 70%. And here are the results: cases in the Northeastern States have rapidly declined to their best levels since the beginning of the pandemic. Only Maine and Pennsylvania, while still showing sharp declines, are lagging: Meanwhile California has also seen over a 95% decline in cases since winter, when they averaged over 110 new cases per 100,000 population daily: At the other end, there are 8 States which have seen *no* meaningful declines in cases over the past 8 weeks: Four of them - WA, WY, LA, and AZ - are among the 10 worst States for new cases, which MO close behind. AR, MS, and AL are roughly in the middle of the pack. Note that with the exception of Washington State*, all of them are among those with the lowest rate of vaccinated population. *A perusal of news sources in Washington State suggests that the recent increase in new cases is due to the admission of unvaccinated new residents to long term care facilities. When the disease is re-introduced into the facility, with close quarters and recirculated air among the most immune-compromised population, the disease spreads even among the vaccinated (although there is no indication of increased deaths among that group). Basically, most of the US is at least very close to achieving herd immunity, while the disease continues to spread among those with recalcitrant populations, and if the new cases are all or virtually all among those who have voluntarily decided not to get vaccinated, then the disease is spreading among them at rates similar to last spring and summer, with little decline at all.

Americans are partying again. But elsewhere, the pandemic is getting worse. - - In the United States, life is returning to normal. Restaurants and bars are filling up again, vacations are being booked and flights are selling out. A majority of Americans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and daily new infections and deaths are at their lowest levels in almost a year. The pandemic is slowly receding from the daily lives of many Americans as businesses open up and local authorities ease restrictions.  “Throughout history, pandemics have ended when the disease ceases to dominate daily life and retreats into the background like other health challenges.” But the pandemic is hardly in retreat elsewhere. The emergence of more virulent variants of the virus in countries like Brazil and India and the slowness of vaccination efforts in many places outside the West have contributed to deadly new waves. Coronavirus case counts worldwide are already higher in 2021than they were in 2020. The death toll almost certainly will be. Southeast Asia, once a bastion of resistance to the virus as it ravaged Western countries, is in the grip of a harrowing spike in infections. Cases in Thailand and Vietnam rose dramatically over the past month. Malaysia is now registering more new infections per million people than any medium- or large-size country in Asia, surpassing India, which remains a global hot spot. On Tuesday, the Malaysian government implemented a nationwide lockdown that will last for the next two weeks. “The economy will certainly suffer. The people will suffer even more, those who live. Many are dying and will die,” wrote columnist Munir Majid in the New Straits Times. “We are staring at the abyss.” In Africa, concerns are growing over the possible arrival of a new wave powered by a more transmissible variant of the virus, with the health systems in many countries at risk of being quickly subsumed by a surge of infections. A recent study found that the continent has the world’s highest death rate of patients critically ill with covid-19, thanks to limited intensive care facilities and reserves of vital medical supplies like oxygen. In parts of Latin America, the virus rages on, largely unabated. Peru, according to its own government-adjusted data, now has the worst covid-19 mortality rate per capita in the world. The country is slated to stage a closely contested presidential runoff election this weekend.Even in East Asia, where a handful of nations set the gold standard in preventing community spread, the virus is on the march. Taiwan has seen an explosion of cases over the past month. In Japan, which still intends to host the Summer Olympics, numerous areas including Tokyo remain under a state of emergency. It’s a sign, argue some public health experts, that the strict methods that kept places like Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore safer than their counterparts in the West for all of last year may not be sustainable in the long term.

Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones granted whistleblower status -- Rebekah Jones, a former Florida Department of Health employee, has been granted whistleblower status a year after being fired for speaking out against the state government’s campaign to reopen schools and workplaces amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspector General Michael J. Bennett informed Jones’ attorneys May 28 that she met the criteria set down in state law for whistleblower status, which begins a process of investigation to determine whether her complaints are justified by the evidence. The Miami Herald reported Bennett said Jones’ complaints demonstrate “reasonable cause to suspect that an employee or agent of an agency or independent contractor has violated any federal, state or local law, rule or regulation.” Under the state’s whistleblower rules, Jones could be reinstated to her previous job or be eligible for compensation if an investigation finds her firing was in retaliation for the concerns she raised. In the complaint, filed July 17, 2020, Jones alleged she was fired for “opposition and resistance to instructions to falsify data in a government website.” She described being asked to bend data analysis to fit predetermined policy and delete data from public view after questions from the press—actions she claimed “represent an immediate injury to the public health, safety, and welfare, including the possibility of death to members of the public.” Jones, a geographer specializing in Geographic Information System (GIS) data science, who helped build Florida’s online presentation of its COVID-19 data, garnered national attention for refusing to strategically manipulate the information to minimize the severity of the pandemic. At the time, Florida was an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who had been pushing to reopen the state for commerce, bitterly denounced Jones and claimed she displayed “insubordination” and “blatant disrespect” for her colleagues. DeSantis said he felt “that it was best to terminate her employment.” Within a few weeks of being fired, Jones launched her own website to keep track of Florida’s COVID-19 information. Her website, COVID Monitor, uses the same data science software and data extraction techniques Jones had used to build the Florida Department of Health dashboard. Jones’ new website included an enhanced metric with hospital bed availability by facility, something that was not being publicly reported. Jones also continued to raise doubts about the official figures reported by the Health Department and challenge the drive to reopen schools and workplaces. The Florida Department of Health filed a complaint against Jones on November 10 alleging she gained unauthorized access to a department messaging system. The message urged health officials to “speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don’t have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it’s too late.” On December 2, Jones and two colleagues published an article in US News & World Report critical of the reopening of schools across the country. The article noted that more than 1 million children had been infected with COVID-19 by that time.

Montana State University researchers find coronavirus variant that originated in Bozeman last year -Researchers at Montana State University discovered a variant that originated in Bozeman early in the pandemic. The Bozeman variant, a strain that actually weakened the effectiveness of the virus, was found by postdoctoral researchers Anna Nemudraia and Artem Nemudryi. The pair published a study on their findings last month in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.. They began the study in March 2020 and finished research in February. Nemudraia and Nemudryi are part of the research team in the lab of Blake Wiendenheft at MSU and did other other work in the height of pandemic, including measuring the county’s viral load of coronavirus through wastewater samples. Nemudraia and Nemudryi analyzed 55 samples from people who had tested positive for COVID-19 between April and July 2020, recording the entire genome of each coronavirus sample. Among those 55 samples, five had the same mutation — a change in the virus’s genome — which was significant enough to signal a variant, the researchers said. “We only saw five samples, but it doesn’t mean there were only five people in the community that had it,” Nemudryi said. Researchers compared the results against a global database of coronavirus samples and found similar mutations had already been observed elsewhere, solidifying the idea that these samples were their own strain. Without testing every single COVID-19 sample, there’s no way of knowing how many strains exist, said Dr. Neil Ku, an infectious disease specialist at the Billings Clinic. Some variants have made headlines across the globe for easier transmission or more severe symptoms. However, coronavirus mutations occur about once every two weeks, Ku said.

Ohio reports fewer than 50 COVID cases per 100,000 residents for first time since last year (WJW) — Ohio has reported a two-week statewide average of fewer than 50 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents, Governor Mike DeWine announced Saturday. The Ohio Department of Health reported a case average of 49.5 per 100,000 residents for the period between May 22 and June 4. Prior to Saturday, the last time Ohio fell below 50 cases per 100,000 residents was on June 25, 2020. “Ohioans have shown our resilience and grit, and by continuing to get vaccinated we are coming through this pandemic stronger than ever,” DeWine said in a press release. “When I announced this goal on March 4th, I said that reaching 50 cases per 100,000 would mean we were entering a new phase of this pandemic. Vaccinations are working. That’s why cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are down. But that doesn’t mean we can let our foot off the gas. If you’re not vaccinated against COVID-19, continue to wear a mask in public and Ohioans that are able to get vaccinated should.” The governor adds that more than 5.3 million Ohioans have started the vaccination process and 4.7 million are fully vaccinated. Although DeWine says this data shows “a positive indicator in the fight against COVID-19,” he reiterates that “the threat of the virus remains” and encourages Ohioans to continue taking proper preventative measures to prevent further spread. While masking is no longer mandated, health experts say unvaccinated people should continue wearing masks indoors or in crowded settings where social distancing is not possible. Ohio businesses and organizations also may continue to require masks regardless of an individual’s vaccination status. Meanwhile, the state is still trying to encourage vaccinations through the Vax-A-Million lottery program.

WHO renames COVID variants with Greek letter names to avoid stigma -The World Health Organization has created a new system to name COVID-19 variants, getting away from place-based names that can be hard to pronounce, difficult to remember and stigmatizing to a country.  The new system, which was announced Monday, is based on the letters of the Greek alphabet. The United Kingdom variant, called by scientists B.1.1.7, will now be Alpha. B.1.351, the South Africa variant will be Beta, and the B.1.617.2 variant discovered in India will now be known as Delta. When the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet are used up, WHO will announce another series.   "It's the right thing to do," said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco.   It may also make countries more open to reporting new variants if they're not afraid of being forever associated with them in the mind of the public.   In a release. WHO said that while scientific names have advantages, they can be difficult to say and are prone to misreporting. "As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing and discriminatory," WHO said.

As the U.S. starts a return to normal, some countries have their worst outbreaks yet -- The authorities in Malaysia have barred people from venturing more than about six miles from home. Covid-19 patients are spilling into the hallways of overcrowded hospitals in Argentina. In Nepal, 40 percent of coronavirus tests are positive, suggesting that the virus is racing through the population.All three nations are experiencing their worst coronavirus outbreaks since the start of the pandemic, joining countries across Asia and South America where infections have surged to record levels — a stark counterpoint to the optimism felt in the United States as summer dawns.Deep into the second year of the pandemic, the emergence of coronavirus variants and the global gaps in access to vaccineshave plunged parts of the world back into the anxious stages of Covid-19. Argentina, Malaysia South Africa and others have reimposed lockdowns. Thailand and Taiwan, which kept the virus in check for much of 2020, have closed schools and nightspots in the face of new waves.Scores are dying daily in Paraguay and Uruguay, which now have the highest reported fatality rates per person in the world, according the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. India’s catastrophic second wave has killed more than 3,000 people every day for the past month, according to official statistics, and experts believe the true toll is far greater.The reasons for the surges vary across countries, but together they reflect “the challenge of maintaining vigilance against a highly transmissible, airborne virus for long periods of time, balanced against economic and social considerations,” said Claire Standley, an assistant research professor at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University.Globally, new infections have declined from their peak of more than 800,000 recorded cases a day in late April. Still, half a million people are reported infected with the virus daily. And countries that have kept cases low for more than a year, such as Australiaand Singapore, are seeing small pockets of infections that have prompted partial lockdowns and delayed plans to reopen borders.

Hundreds of coronavirus outbreaks in schools as new variant spreads across UK -- Schools throughout Britain are reporting cases of Covid-19. This accelerated from May 17, when Boris Johnson’s Conservative government lifted most restrictions as part of stage three of its roadmap to reopen the economy completely next month. The number of outbreaks is increasing daily, despite the rollout of the vaccination programme. Most worrying is the fact that the more transmissible B.1.617.2 variant first identified in India has become the dominant strain. Department of Education figures show school attendance figures in England are falling, associated with the spread of the virus. On May 20, 91 percent of state school pupils were in class compared to 92 percent on May 12. That week, 87 percent of pupils were in secondary schools, a fall from 89 percent the previous week. In primary schools, attendance fell from 95 percent on May 12 to 94 percent. On May 20, 82,000 pupils were sent home after contact with a coronavirus case compared to 65,000 the previous week. Falling attendance in schools follows the government’s decision to lift the requirement to wear face coverings—the main protection afforded to educators and pupils since schools reopened early March. The government took this decision despite prior knowledge that the new variant was spreading in schools. Previously, teachers and pupils in secondary schools were required to wear masks in classrooms. In primary schools, mask wearing was optional but not recommended for pupils. Mask wearing is now limited to communal areas excluding classrooms. Eight hotspots have been identified across the UK: North Tyneside, Bolton in Greater Manchester and Blackburn and Burnley in the north west of England, Kirklees in West Yorkshire, Leicester in the East Midlands, Bedford in south England and Hounslow in London. Outbreaks in schools, however, are not confined to these areas, suggesting that the new variant is endemic across the UK and out of control. According to the parent-led advocacy group SafeEdForAll, between March 8 and May 24, Greater Manchester had 104 outbreaks in primary and secondary schools, the highest in the UK. Hampshire followed with 94. The outbreaks were slightly higher in primary than secondary schools.

Britain already in third wave of pandemic as Indian variant surges ahead of June 21 reopening The UK has already entered a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Professor Ravi Gupta, from the University of Cambridge. Speaking on Monday to the BBC Radio Today programme, Gupta, a member of the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) said, “Of course the numbers of cases are relatively low at the moment—all waves start with low numbers of cases that grumble in the background and then become explosive, so the key here is that what we are seeing here is the signs of an early wave.” Gupta called for a delay in the “irreversible” roadmap to reopen the entire economy announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, culminating in an end to all legal limits on social contact in just three weeks, on June 21. A dramatic escalation in identified cases is underway due to the spread of the highly transmissible Indian variant (B.1.617.2) nationwide, since first being detected in the UK on April 1. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) published data on May 27 recording figures up to May 22 that included the number of Indian variant cases for the first time. Detected cases of this strain have doubled in the past week and by last Thursday B.1.617.2 accounted for more than half and possibly up to three quarters of all new cases. The rise of the strain to dominance in the UK has been facilitated by the Conservative government’s reckless reopening of the economy. Much of the economy has already been reopened since May 17, including pubs, cafes, restaurants, shops and non-essential retail. Nearly every day over the last week, over 3,000 new cases of Covid were recorded and last Friday 4,182 were reported. As of 9am yesterday, there had been a further 3,383 lab-confirmed cases of Covid. Separate figures published by the ONS show there have now been 153,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. The spread of the Indian variant has resulted in an increase of the R (Reproduction) value of the virus from between 0.8-1.1 to between 0.9-1.1—a level allowing a further exponential rise in cases. In England, the virus is spreading fastest in the capital, London, and the North West, with daily growth rates of 0-3 percent and 0-4 percent every day respectively. In Croydon, 94.1 percent of positive Covid cases resulted from the Indian variant in the two weeks to May 22. A surge in Indian variant cases is responsible for driving coronavirus cases upwards in Hounslow and Hillingdon. By last week, hospital admissions for the several variants of Covid in circulation had increased 20 percent week-on-week across the UK. The North West of England saw a 25 percent rise. In Scotland, a surge of cases has seen the R rate reach 1.3 and Glasgow remains under Level 3 restrictions (with levels 2, 1 and 0 less restrictive).

Dominic Cummings: How the UK Ignored Evidence That the Virus is Airborne --“I think we are absolutely fucked. I think this country is heading for disaster. I think we’re going to kill thousands of people.” According to Dominic Cummings, those were the words spoken by the then deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara on March 13 2020 when she realised that the UK had no plan for dealing with the unfolding COVID crisis.  And it’s not over yet. The UK’s tally of COVID-19 cases – undoubtedly an underestimate – is now4.5 million, with over 127,000 COVID deaths. Between half and 1 million people, including 122,000 healthcare workers and 114,000 teachers – give or take a few tens of thousands – remain too sick to work full time. Highly contagious mutant variants, which entered the country recently through ineffective border controls, are spreading exponentially, causing new local outbreaks. Effective prevention measures, such as mask mandates in secondary schools, are being prematurely rolled back. The UK’s third wave is predicted to be small but could yet dwarf the previous two waves. Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser’s warts-and-all account of political backstage events during February and March 2020, raises political questions, such as what the prime minister knew and when, as well as scientific ones, such as how the UK government’s Infection Prevention and Control team could have denied for so long that SARS-CoV-2 is airborne, thereby delaying the introduction of effective measures to contain its spread.At what point, for example, would it have been reasonable to conclude, as Cummings did this week, that hand-washing and surface cleansing would be ineffective unless accompanied by additional measures to control airborne virus? The day before the alleged quote from a senior UK government official, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. What scientific evidence was there at that time that the virus spreads through the air?  Two days earlier, on March 9 2020, the Japanese government had introduced its “3Cs policy”: avoid closed spaces, crowded places and close contact, especially when talking or singing. These three measures were based on detailed analysis of outbreaks using not just prospective contact tracing (to identify people who may have caught the disease from an infected individual) but retrospective tracing (to find how that individual became infected). This allowed public health experts to hypothesise about a possible airborne route of transmission. The Japanese government was honest with the public, explicitly invoking the precautionary principle.

Vietnam detects highly contagious new coronavirus variant as infections surge --Vietnam’s Health Ministry announced Saturday that it had detected a highly transmissible new variant of the coronavirus that has helped fuel a recent wave of infections in the country.Genetic sequencing indicated that the new variant was a mix of the coronavirus strains first detected in the United Kingdom and India, said Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long, according to the VnExpress newspaper.The minister said the new variant was particularly contagious via air and viral cultures have revealed it replicates extremely quickly, the newspaper reported.“The new variant is very dangerous,” Long said in a statement.The Health Ministry didn’t return a Saturday afternoon request for comment.Scientists said further study was needed to determine the effect of a variant in “real-world settings.”“A lot of different mutations happen as the virus is transmitted and most of them are not of clinical significance,” said Todd Pollack, a Hanoi-based infectious-disease expert for Harvard Medical School. “Just because they say [the new variant] has features of one and the other … doesn’t mean they got together in one patient and spit out some combined hybrid ‘supervirus.’ ”There were seven known coronavirus variants in Vietnam before Long’s announcement, according to Reuters. Vietnam, which has reported around 6,400 coronavirus infections and 47 deaths, has been one of the world’s coronavirus containment success stories. A well-run public health-care system, quarantine camps operated by the military and strict, targeted lockdowns kept case numbers low until late April, when a spike in infections began.

New COVID-19 variant in Vietnam highlights global danger -- Vietnam’s government reported last Saturday that a highly-infectious new COVID-19 strain, a hybrid between the Indian and UK variants, is responsible for a sudden rapid spread of the disease across many parts of the country. Until recently, Vietnam was regarded as successful, in avoiding the global pandemic, as were other countries in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia and Thailand, which also are now suffering serious outbreaks. Vietnam’s announcement highlights the reality that no country is “safe” from the worldwide resurgence of the virus. New, more transmissible and deadly mutations, which may not be effectively curtailed by existing vaccines, have been able to emerge because governments around the world have repeatedly prioritised corporate profit over public health and lives. The rush to satisfy the demands of big business, by prematurely lifting public health restrictions and fully reopening workplaces, combined with inadequate vaccination programs and quarantine facilities, has created the conditions for millions more people to die, or suffer severe illness in coming months. Vietnam’s Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long told an online media conference on Saturday that the new hybrid strain had taken the number of variants active in Vietnam to eight. The previous seven were B.1.222, B.1.619, D614G, B.1.1.7—the variant first identified in the UK—B.1.351, A.23.1 and B.1.617.2—the one detected in India. Long said recent outbreaks had seen the virus spreading quickly in the air, particularly in narrow, unventilated spaces. “The new variant is very dangerous,” he said. Laboratory cultures of the variant showed the virus replicated itself very quickly, possibly explaining why many new cases had appeared in a short period of time in 30 of the country’s 63 municipalities and provinces. More than half of the 6,396 COVID-19 cases reported in Vietnam, since the pandemic began, have been found in the past month, according to Johns Hopkins University. So far, there have been 47 deaths—12 of them during May. Industrial workers are being worst affected. Most of the new transmissions were found in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang, two provinces with numerous industrial zones, where hundreds of thousands of people work for major companies, including Samsung, Canon and Luxshare, a partner in assembling Apple products. One company in Bac Giang discovered that one fifth of its 4,800 workers had tested positive for the virus.

Delta variant of COVID-19 dominant in UK, spreading rapidly with millions still unvaccinated - The highly contagious variant of COVID-19 which originated in India, now named the Delta variant by the World Health Organisation, is officially the dominant strain in Britain and is spreading rapidly. On Thursday, Public Health England announced that the number of laboratory-confirmed Delta coronavirus cases had risen by 79 percent over the last week to 12,431 and overtaken the number of cases of the Kent, or Alpha, variant. The government has gone into overdrive to portray the virus as under control, claiming that its vaccine rollout means everything must still be allowed to return to normal. But not only is the Delta variant on the rampage, on Thursday the government admitted that a Nepalese strain of the Delta variant which has acquired a new mutation is present in the UK. Delta was first detected in Britain on April 1, but the government did not make its existence public until April 15, of a piece with its overriding aim of doing nothing to prevent a further opening of the economy. This reckless reopening, ongoing for months and set to be completed in less than three weeks on June 21, has allowed a comparatively successful vaccination rollout to be derailed by the spread of a highly contagious variant. On May 17, most of the economy was reopened, including cafes, restaurants, gyms, cinemas and most non-essential sectors. Cases of Delta infections and deaths have been steadily increasing from a base of just a few infections. For the last seven days there have been at least 3,000 cases daily. On Friday May 28 this reached 4,000 cases and by Thursday had reached nearly 6,000 daily cases (5,774)—the highest number since the UK was still under a limited national lockdown in late March. On Friday, new cases reached a new high of 6,238. Deaths from Covid have also begun to rise again from the zero deaths reported on Monday—a figure the media insisted justified ending remaining lockdown restrictions without delay. Twelve deaths were reported on Wednesday, 18 on Thursday and 11 Friday. More dramatically at this point, coronavirus cases are on the increase in all but three regions of Britain, with the R (reproduction) rate rising to between 1 and 1.2—up from between 1 and 1.1 last week. Delta cases are rising at among their fastest rate in London, with the Evening Standard reporting Friday that more than two thirds of Covid-19 cases in the capital are believed to be the Delta strain. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there was a 76.5 percent surge in coronavirus cases nationally in the week to May 29. Announcing its weekly survey yesterday, the ONS said that one in 640 people (86,000) in private households in England had COVID-19 in the week to May 29—up from one in 1,120 (48,500) in the previous week. Cases appear to be rising even faster among Scotland’s 5 million population. On Thursday, Scottish National Party First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced another 992 people had tested positive—the highest daily figure since February 17—with new Covid cases more than tripling in the last month. All the evidence shows that the Delta variant is, as feared, far more transmissible than the Alpha (Kent) variant discovered last year, which quickly became dominant in the UK and spread rapidly around the globe.

Prison inmates in India refuse parole over COVID-19 fears on outside -Inmates are refusing pandemic-prompted parole from prisons in India, saying that they feel better protected from COVID-19 behind bars, according to reports.The world’s second-most populous nation has been ravaged by the coronavirus in May, with daily death tolls in the thousands.The grim reality on the outside has left some prison inmates clinging to the relative safety of their cells — to the point that 21 jailbirds recently refused temporary release aimed at reducing overcrowding, according to reports.One such inmate, according to the Indian Express, is Ashish Kumar, a former teacher serving a six-year sentence in a Meerut prison for driving his wife to suicide.“We had sent his request to the government for the approval. We have received the nod, which means that Ashish Kumar will remain in the jail ’til he completes his sentence,” the facility’s senior superintendent, BP Pandey, told the outlet.China reports sudden surge in COVID-19 cases causing flight cancellations A sudden surge of COVID-19 cases in the southern region of China has caused a spate of flight cancellations.On Sunday, 27 new cases were reported by China’s national health authority, out of which only seven were imported, with the rest originating domestically in the Guangdong province, Reuters reports. Out of the 20 that originated in China, 18 were reported in the city of Guangzhou. The other two cases were reported in Foshan.Nineteen asymptomatic cases were also reported in China, though the country does not count those as confirmed cases. By the afternoon, more than 500 flights had been canceled at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. These account for more than a third of total flights that were scheduled for Monday, Reuters reports.The outlet notes that the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has been among the busiest airports in the world during the pandemic, carrying more than 43.8 million passengers last year.On Saturday, the Guangzhou government ordered residents living on five streets in the city of Liwan to stay at home and to stop any nonessential activities. Local health officials told media that recent infections in Liwan were stemming from the fast-spreading coronavirus variant that was first detected in India

Doctors prepare to ration care as covid surge leaves Malaysia in ‘total lockdown’ - Coronavirus cases are soaring. Hospitals are growing crowded. And officials are warning that doctors may soon have to decide who lives.While India’s covid-19 crisis is far from over, the number of new coronavirus infections per million people in Malaysia has overtaken that of the more populous South Asian country. Malaysia, with its roughly 32 million people, now registers more new cases per capita than any medium- or large-sized country in Asia, according to Our World in Data, which tracks publicly available figures.Facing a record number of new cases, Malaysia’s prime minister announced a two-week “total lockdown” starting Tuesday.“There is no time to lose,” wrote one local columnist. “We are staring at the abyss.” On Saturday, Malaysia reported 9,020 new coronavirus cases — a national record for the fifth day running. Although the number fell slightly the next day, it is registering almost as many new cases as the United States — a country with 10 times its population. At least 98 covid-19 deaths were reported Saturday, setting another daily record.The outbreak is bad enough that a top health official warned over the weekend that doctors may have to allocate scarce intensive-care beds to patients with higher chances of recovery.“The number of ICU beds at covid hospitals, quarantine and treatment centers is declining and may be inadequate,” Health Director General Noor Hisham Abdullah said, according to Bloomberg News. The Health Ministry “has warned of possible situations where doctors will have to make difficult choices to prioritize ICU beds for patients with higher recovery potential.”

Death of young student on hospital floor lays bare Argentina’s COVID-19 crisis -The death of a young student in Argentina last week laid bare a health care system that is totally devastated by the coronavirus pandemic now sweeping that nation. Lara Arreguiz, a 22-year-old veterinary student from the northeastern city of Santa Fe on the Parana River, died of COVID-19 on May 21 following a tragic chain of events that lasted eight days and left her lying for many hours on a hospital floor, while waiting for a bed to become available. She died two days later, drowning with fluid-filled lungs. A photograph of her lying on the floor before being admitted to the hospital—taken by Claudia Sanchez, her mother—went viral on social media.Lara’s death adds to the list of young adult victims of the Manaus and South African variants of the COVID-19 virus, which are more virulent, more transmissible and more likely to severely affect the lungs. Among the latest young victims are not just those with underlying risk factors, such as Lara, but otherwise healthy and young individuals. On April 26, 35-year-old Joel Rutigliano, a rugby player, died in the city of La Plata, after a 19-day battle with the disease. In early May two sisters, Aldana, 21, and Marina, 29, both biology students died within days of each other in Entre Ríos, across the Uruguay River. Sol Casella, 23, a journalism student at Lomas de Zamora University near Buenos Aires, died on May 1. Lara began showing symptoms of the disease on May 13. Yet she was not diagnosed with a COVID-19 infection until May 17; given antibiotics and sent home. The antibiotics were ineffective, and two days later, her parents took her to Iturraspe Hospital in Santa Fe. Attempting to explain this chain of events, the head of Iturraspe Hospital, Francisco Villano, said that the Lara’s photo revealed only an aspect of what was going on. Villano insisted that Lara had been under constant medical supervision.

Covid Updates: Peru Says Its Death Toll Is Triple the Official Number - Peru says that its Covid-19 death toll is almost three times as high as it had officially counted until now, making it one of the hardest-hit nations relative to its population. In a report released on Monday that combined deaths from multiple databases and reclassified fatalities, the government said that 180,764 people had died from Covid-19 through May 22, almost triple the official death toll of about 68,000. The new figure would mean that more people have died in Peru relative to its population than in Hungary and the Czech Republic, the countries with the highest official death tolls per person, according to a New York Times database. The report landed at a precarious moment for Peru’s government, just days before the second round of a closely watched presidential election.  Peru has struggled to contain the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and its official death toll before the revised estimate was already the ninth highest per capita in the world. As early as last June, far more deaths were occurring there than would be expected in a normal year, and the gap — a figure known as excess deaths — was much larger than the number of deaths officially attributed to Covid-19, according to New York Times data. That was a warning sign to experts that Covid deaths were being undercounted. William Pan, who teaches global environmental health at Duke University, said the pandemic had underscored the deep inequality and corruption in Peru. “Long before the stories of oxygen shortages in India and Manaus, Iquitos experienced this sad reality of Covid,” said Dr. Pan, referring to the largest Peruvian city in the Amazon. “Thousands of people were being turned away last April and May due to lack of oxygen, lack of space, medical staff being totally overwhelmed and more.”Peru could be the first of several nations forced to reckon with a re-evaluation of the pandemic’s true impact. The World Health Organization said in May that deaths from Covid-19 globally were probably much higher than had been recorded. Peru’s government will start publishing more accurate daily tallies of cases and deaths based on new guidelines laid out in the report, said Oscar Ugarte, the health minister.  The virus is spreading faster in South America than on any other continent, according to official data, with five nations among the top 10 globally for new cases reported per person. Its worst outbreak is in Argentina, which was supposed to host the Copa América soccer tournament, before organizers announced that they were moving it to Brazil.

Australian government belatedly moves to vaccinate aged home residents, workers - When the Australian state of Victoria re-entered a state of lockdown on May 27 after a spate of new COVID-19 infections, 29 nursing homes remained unvaccinated, despite a target date for completion of the first round of vaccinations passing six weeks earlier. The situation highlights the fiasco that is the vaccination program in Australia. Thousands of aged care residents and workers are now at risk of serious health complications and death through coronavirus infection. The elderly in aged care homes are the most vulnerable to the disease—during Victoria’s second wave of infections in 2020, 655 aged care residents died in for-profit homes. Federal Liberal-National government health minister Greg Hunt hastily tried to head off the political damage by announcing that vaccinations would be finalised in the homes within two days. It remains to be seen whether this will be enacted, or if it will represent yet another failed vaccination target. An aged care worker at a home in Melbourne’s western suburbs Arcare Maidstone was diagnosed with COVID on May 29. Her infection threw the state Labor government into a quandary, as they struggled to “confirm the nature” of her contamination. The commander of the state’s response team, Jeroen Weimar, said her case was of “significant concern,” because it could be a “mystery case” without a known link to previously identified infections. The worker had received a first but not a second dose of a coronavirus vaccine. On May 31, another worker at Arcare and at least one resident tested positive. Only one-third of the 110 staff, and 53 of the 76 residents had received their first vaccination shot—and none their second. Yesterday it was revealed that one of the positive staff members had also worked shifts at BlueCross Western Gardens nursing home in the outer working-class suburb of Sunshine while potentially infectious. The dangerous practice of low-paid casual staff being forced to work at multiple facilities resumed in November after the federal government lifted prohibitions imposed on it during last year’s pandemic.

Australia's Victoria Extends Melbourne COVID-19 Lockdown for 2nd Week (Reuters) - Australia's Victoria state on Wednesday extended a snap COVID-19 lockdown for a second week in Melbourne in a bid to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious virus strain first detected in India, but will ease some restrictions in other regions. Victoria, Australia's second-most populous state, was plunged into lockdown last Thursday, initially until June 3, after the first locally acquired cases were detected in three months, infections rose steadily and close contacts reached several thousand. "If we let this thing run its course, it will explode," Victoria state Acting Premier James Merlino told reporters in Melbourne on Wednesday. "This variant of concern will become uncontrollable and people will die." "No-one ... wants to repeat last winter," he said, referring to one of the world's strictest and longest lockdowns imposed in Victoria last winter to contain a second wave of COVID-19. More than 800 people died in the state's outbreak, accounting for roughly 90% of Australia's total deaths since the pandemic began. Snap lockdowns, regional border restrictions and tough social distancing rules have largely helped Australia to suppress all prior outbreaks and keep its COVID-19 numbers relatively low at just over 30,100 cases and 910 deaths. Though Victoria has been reporting daily cases in single digits since the lockdown was imposed, officials fear the strain of the virus in the latest outbreak could be spread even through minimal contact. Six new locally acquired cases were reported on Wednesday, versus nine a day earlier, taking the total infections in the latest outbreak to 60. Health authorities have said the strain could only take one day to pass from person to person, compared with earlier strains where transmission could take about five or six days of contact. For now, Melbourne's five million residents face a second week of only being allowed to leave home for essential work, healthcare, grocery shopping, exercise or to get a coronavirus vaccination. 

Malaysia reverses course, locking down for two weeks as virus cases surge.- Malaysia will begin a two-week national lockdown on Tuesday that will shut most of the economy and limit the movement of people, in an effort to contain the country’s worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic.Essential services like supermarkets and hospitals will be allowed to continue operating, but offices, most retailer stores and malls, and most factories will be closed, Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a televised address. The number of people at work in the country will fall to 1.5 million from 15 million, the minister said.The country’s schools were closed earlier in May.Malaysia is now reporting about 24 new coronavirus cases a day for every 100,000 people, a higher rate than any other country in Asia outside the Middle East, according to a New York Times database.New case reports have surged in recent weeks and reached more than 9,000 on Saturday; Monday’s count was about 6,800. Over the course of the pandemic, Malaysia has reported more than 570,000 cases and nearly 2,800 deaths — more than three-quarters of them have come this year.Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the “total lockdown” on Friday evening, saying he was worried that the rapid increase in infections would overwhelm health care facilities in the nation of nearly 33 million.“With the latest rise in daily cases showing a drastically upward trend, hospital capacity for Covid-19 patients across the country is getting more limited,” he wrote on Facebook.Less than a week earlier, he had rejected the idea of a lockdown on economic grounds. “We have learned over the last year, we cannot close the economy,” he said on May 23. “We have to balance life and livelihoods.”As he reversed course, Mr. Muhyiddin said he was motivated in part by the presence of “more aggressive variants with higher and faster infectivity.” Health Minister Adham Baa told reporters on Monday that three dangerous variants that were first identified in India, Britain and South Africa were present in Malaysia. B.1.351, the variant seen first in South Africa, appeared to be spreading the most rapidly of the three, he said. Under the lockdown, which is scheduled to end June 14, no more than two people will be allowed to leave a household, and only for specified activities like buying food and medicine, or going to work for those with jobs deemed essential. No one will be allowed to travel farther than six miles from home except to receive medical services.

Pfizer vaccine produces less antibodies against Delta variant of coronavirus: Lancet study- People fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are likely to have more than five times lower levels of neutralising antibodies against the Delta variant first identified in India compared to the original strain, according to research published in The Lancet journal. The study also shows that levels of these antibodies that are able to recognise and fight the virus are lower with increasing age, and that levels decline over time, providing additional evidence in support of plans to deliver a booster dose to vulnerable people. It supports current plans in the UK to reduce the dose gap between vaccines since they found that after just one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, people are less likely to develop antibody levels against the B.1.617.2 variant as high as those seen against the previously dominant B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant, first found in Kent. The team, led by researchers from the Francis Crick Institute in the UK, noted that levels of antibodies alone do not predict vaccine effectiveness and prospective population studies are also needed. Lower neutralising antibody levels may still be associated with protection against Covid-19, they said. The study analysed antibodies in the blood of 250 healthy people who received either one or two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, up to three months after their first dose.

Coronavirus outbreak: Mutations that can dodge vaccines - The novel coronavirus has gained “strategic” mutations that may allow it to escape immune responses and vaccines, researchers in India and the US have said in a study that they say underscores the need for continual vaccine redesign. Their study has found that the emergence of these mutations, which represent subtle changes in a viral protein structure that some scientists view as the virus’s Achilles heel, has coincided with sharp surges in infections in 12 countries, including India. The prevalence of one such mutation among coronavirus samples from Covid-19 patients in India increased 13-fold — from 1.1 per cent in February this year to 15 per cent in April — coinciding with a 15-fold surge in daily infections during the country’s second wave. Similar surge-associated mutations have been detected in at least 11 other countries, rising 38-fold in Chile, 82-fold in the UK and 114-fold in France over two or three While mutations are expected to occur over time and drive biological evolution, the study suggests the virus is also accumulating strategic mutations that alter a key protein structure called the “antigenic supersite”. This is the virus’s Achilles heel and is a common target for multiple antibodies that neutralise the virus. “This evolutionary trait appears strongly with infection surges, suggesting some immune-evasive mechanisms in play that aid rampant human-to-human transmission,” Venky Soundararajan, the scientist who led the study, told The Telegraph. Soundararajan and his colleagues at nference, a biomedical data science company with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Bangalore, working with doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, analysed over 1.3 million coronavirus genomes from 178 countries and looked for patterns between mutations and epidemic surges. Their study, not yet peer-reviewed but posted on medRxiv, an online preprint server, is the first to connect the epidemic’s features — measured through the test positivity rate (the proportion of positive results among those tested) in specific geographic regions — with virus mutations. Their findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, may be relying on mutations that accumulate on the antigenic supersite as a novel escape strategy to evade immune responses resulting from natural infections or mass vaccination campaigns.

Over 1K Coronavirus Mutation Cases Detected in Russia, Official Says - Over 1,000 coronavirus infections in Russia involve one of three variants believed to be more contagious, the head of Russia’s consumer protection watchdog said Thursday. The World Health Organization lists the SARS-CoV-2 mutations originating from Britain, India and South Africa as variants of concern but has not said that any of them are deadlier than the original SARS-CoV-2 strain. Out of over 1,000 identified Covid-19 mutation cases in Russia, 70% are the British strain, 24% the Indian strain and 6% the South African strain, Rospotrebnadzor head Anna Popova was quoted as saying at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. This means that Russia has at least 700 British strain infections, 240 Indian strain infections and 60 South African strain infections. Russian authorities have claimed that the domestically-developed Sputnik V vaccine is effective at preventing the Indian strain. A U.S. study meanwhile has said that Sputnik V is significantly less effective against the South African variant. In April, Sputnik V’s official Twitter account said the vaccine’s developer, the Russia-based Gamaleya Institute, would publish a peer-reviewed study on Sputnik’s efficacy against Covid-19 mutations by May, but it has not yet done so. Popova has previously said that patients infected with the new coronavirus strains have not experienced different symptoms than those infected with the original SARS-CoV-2 strain. Russia last month confirmed its first cases of the mutation that originated in India among a group of 130 first-year medical students from India who had arrived in Ulyanovsk in April. The Indian strain has since been found in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Pskov region, the Izvestia newspaper reported, citing an epidemiological official.

Canada will soon allow vaccine mixing for second doses. - Facing vaccine shortages, Canada’s immunization advisory body is recommending that some Canadians follow up their AstraZeneca shots with a different vaccine on the second dose. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization said on Tuesday that people who had received a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine could be given either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines as their second dose. It also said that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines could be used interchangeably, although it recommended sticking with a single brand when possible. While Canada’s health care system has generally been efficient in dispensing shots, no vaccines are manufactured in the country and larger shipments did not begin arriving until the past several weeks. To ensure that the maximum number of Canadians have some protection, Canada focused on getting at least one dose to as many people as possible. While 62 percent of Canadian adults have been given at least one shot, only 5.7 percent are fully vaccinated. The advisory panel’s recommendation came as many provinces are starting to ramp up second doses, and it may resolve a potential headache. Most of the increased shipments of vaccine have come from Pfizer, while supplies of the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines have been in much shorter supply. To date, 19.3 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine have come to Canada, compared with 5.7 million doses of Moderna and 2.8 million Astra Zeneca shots. The ability to substitute Pfizer’s vaccine for second doses eliminates concerns about limited supplies. The advisory panel said that its recommendation followed similar advice from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Spain and Sweden. Several studies have shown that mixing vaccines is safe and effective, the committee said. Seven of Canada’s 10 provinces, whose health care systems perform the vaccinations, have said they will allow people to change course between doses.

Vaccine efforts for low-income nations get an extra $2.4 billion in promises. - Financial support for Covid-19 vaccination efforts in lower-income nations received a $2.4 billion lift on Wednesday when world leaders met at a virtual summit hosted by the Japanese government and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The funds were pledged by wealthier countries, foundations and private companies. Five countries — Belgium, Denmark, Japan, Spain and Sweden — also announced plans to share a total of 54 million doses from their domestic supplies with countries in need. The support is primarily designated for Covax, a year-old initiative promoting equity in the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. It has shipped more than 77 million doses to 127 countries and is led by Gavi, the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. The funds were sought to buy additional vaccine doses for the countries least able to afford them and to invest in new vaccine candidates. “Ability to pay should not determine whether someone is protected from this virus,” said Dr. Seth Berkley, the chief executive of Gavi. To date only 0.4 percent of all Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in low-income countries, according to the World Health Organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who spoke at the meeting. In many countries, even the most vulnerable adults and health care workers have not received vaccinations. Dr. Berkley said that on average, wealthy countries had vaccinated more than a third of their populations, whereas low income countries had vaccinated less than 1 percent. How quickly wealthier countries deliver on their promises to share doses remains to be seen; most previously announced gifts have yet to be delivered.

A man in China is found to have H10N3 bird flu, a reminder of a continued ‘concern for pandemic flu.’ - A 41-year-old man in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province is the first known human to be infected with a strain of bird flu known as H10N3, China’s National Health Commission said on Tuesday — a development that experts said merited close monitoring because of an underlying continued risk of pandemic flus.Avian viruses do not typically spread among humans, but they can pose a danger if they mix with a human virus, said Raina MacIntyre, the head of the biosecurity program at the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales in Australia.“If someone has human flu and is infected with bird flu, the two viruses can swap genetic material,” she said. “That’s why you see the concern for pandemic flu arising in countries where humans and livestock have very close contact.”The Health Commission’s announcement said that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission in the Jiangsu case. Contact tracing and surveillance have not uncovered any other infections, officials said.  Influenza viruses differ from coronaviruses, and the World Health Organization is working with the Chinese government to monitor the case, according to a statement from the W.H.O. division in Beijing.The man began feeling feverish at the end of April and was hospitalized on April 28, the Chinese government statement said. On May 28, genome sequencing by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention determined that he had been infected with H10N3. The government announcement did not say how the man had been infected, and the W.H.O. said the source of infection was still unknown. Professor MacIntyre said that usually the people infected by avian viruses are those who are in prolonged close contact with the birds, such as poultry handlers. “As long as avian influenza viruses circulate in poultry,” WHO said, “sporadic infection of avian influenza in humans is not surprising, which is a vivid reminder that the threat of an influenza pandemic is persistent.”

A man in China may be the world's first human to be infected with H10N3 strain of bird flu. What we know. -- A man in eastern China may be the first confirmed human case of infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said Tuesday. The 41-year-old man from Jiangsu province, located northwest of Shanghai, was hospitalized April 28 after developing fever and other symptoms.He was diagnosed with the infection on May 28, according to Reuters, but is now stable and ready to be discharged from the hospital.The health commission said the infection was a result of accidental cross-species transmission. The risk of widespread transmission is low, Chinese officials said, and there are no other human cases of H10N3 reported elsewhere in the world. Avian influenza Type A viruses infect the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts of birds and have been found in more than 100 different species of wild birds around the world, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While these viruses don’t normally infect humans, birds can shed virus in their saliva, mucous and feces, the CDC says. Human infections can occur if enough virus gets into a person’s eyes, nose, or mouth.The CDC says two strains of bird flu viruses have been mostly responsible for human infection and mortality: H7N9 and H5N1. Symptoms of avian influenza A virus infections can range from mild to severe and include conjunctivitis and influenza-like illness such as fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches. Symptoms can also be accompanied by nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and severe respiratory illness, according to the CDC.

UCalgary study shows BPA exposure below regulatory levels can impact brain development - Humans are exposed to a bath of chemicals every day. They are in the beds where we sleep, the cars that we drive and the kitchens we use to feed our families. With thousands of chemicals floating around in our environment, exposure to any number is practically unavoidable. Through the work of researchers like Dr. Deborah Kurrasch, PhD, the implications of many of these chemicals are being thoroughly explored. The latest study out of Kurrasch's lab, published in Science Advances, suggests that continued vigilance is needed. A postdoctoral researcher in her lab, Dr. Dinu Nesan, PhD, examined the impact of low levels of BPA exposure to pregnant mice and the brain development of their offspring. "Our goal was to model BPA levels equivalent to what pregnant women and developing babies are typically exposed to," says Kurrasch. "We purposefully did not use a high dose. In fact, our doses were 11-times and nearly 25-times lower than those deemed safe by Health Canada and the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), respectively. Even at these low levels, we saw effects on prenatal brain development in the mice." Using this BPA exposure model, Nesan found striking changes to the brain region responsible for driving circadian rhythms, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, located in the hypothalamus. When prenatally exposed to these low levels of BPA, the suprachiasmatic nucleus failed to develop properly. This change can have implications for sleep, activity levels, and other behaviours. "Previously we showed embryonic exposure to low-dose BPA can affect the timing of when neurons develop in zebrafish, but it was unclear whether a similar effect would be observed in a mammalian model with more similarities to humans," says Nesan, first author on the study. When neurons develop, they rely on proper signals to guide them. If neurons develop too early, the cues they experience are different, which can lead to developmental errors such as migrating to the wrong location, becoming the wrong type of neuron, or forming inappropriate connections. These errors can lead to altered behaviors later in life. "Our study shows that in pregnant mice, prenatal exposure to BPA affects the timing of neuron development in the fetal brain, which has lasting effects on behaviours. Offspring that are exposed to BPA during gestation are awake longer and exhibit hyperactivity. The prenatal BPA exposure seems to change the brain's circadian cues, causing the animals to have elevated energy levels and spend less time resting," says Nesan.

Food Additive in Starbursts, Sour Patch Kids, Skittles, +3,000 Others No Longer Considered Safe - A study conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has deemed that titanium dioxide, an additive found in more than 3,000 ultra-processed foods, including Starbursts, Sour Patch Kids, Skittles, Jello, and Little Debbie snack cakes, may cause cell mutations and damage DNA.This conclusion came after the review of hundreds of scientific studies. Titanium dioxide is a synthetic white pigment used to color processed foods. It's extracted through a chemical process that utilizes sulfate or fluoride.Titanium dioxide consists of nanoparticles that not only exist in certain food products but also topicals, such as sunscreen that we put on our skin. The additive has the ability to give foods a smooth texture on the tongue, Arizona State University professor Paul Westerhoff said.Even though titanium dioxide is in many processed foods, particularly sugary, processed foods that attractchildren, the pet store, Petco, banned the sales of pet foods that contain titanium dioxide in May of 2019."It's sometimes hard to stomach that my 9-year-old cat is more protected than my 9-year-old son," Aurora Meadows, licensed dietician and nutritionist at The Environmental Working Group said. The EFSA is currently reviewing the safety of all food additives, in addition to titanium dioxide. Researchers could not determine a safe level of exposure of the additive, coming to the opinion that it is not safe to use in foods.In 1969, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of titanium dioxide as a food colorant — this approval hasn't been reevaluated since. Unlike the FDA, every five years the USDA reviews synthetic ingredients added to USDA Organic products. The Environment Working Group called on the FDA to reevaluate the safety of using titanium dioxide as new research from the EFSA has emerged. Currently, the FDA allows more than 10,000 chemicals to be added to foods, without requiring reevaluation of using certain additives, even when new research emerges.

Forever Chemicals Found in Home Fertilizers - From the looks of it, "forever chemicals" could also be called "everywhere chemicals." Toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have shown up in everything from drinking water to mothers' milk. And, most recently, in the fertilizers home gardeners use to grow food.A report published last week by the Ecology Center and the Sierra Club tested home fertilizers made from sewage waste for PFAS and found the chemicals in all nine of the fertilizers they tested. Further, eight of the nine fertilizers contained PFAS levels greater than the limit set by the state of Maine, which currently has the toughest regulations for PFAS concentration in agriculture."Spreading biosolids or sewage sludge where we grow food means some PFAS will get in the soil, some will be taken up by plants, and if the plants are eaten, then that's a direct route into the body," report co-author and Ecology Center senior scientist Gillian Miller told The Guardian.PFAS are chemicals used by a variety of industries to make products resistant to stains, water or grease. Their wide use is a problem, however, because they persist in the environment for an extended period of time and have been linked to health impacts including cancer, birth defects and liver disease.One of the ways that PFAS can enter the environment is through wastewater, as companies in most states are not prevented from flushing PFAS-containing wastewater into treatment plants, the report explained. Wastewater treatment plants, however, do not remove the chemicals, which then adhere to solid waste.This waste, known as sewage sludge, is often used as fertilizer for agriculture because it contains nutrients like nitrogen. In fact, almost half of U.S. sewage is spread on farms, pastures or wild areas. It also ends up in home fertilizers under the ingredient name "biosolids," as a Sierra Club press release explained.The report tested nine fertilizers containing "biosolids" that are sold at nationwide chains including Lowe's, The Home Depot and Ace Hardware. The researchers tested the products for 33 PFAS compounds and found 24 of these in at least one product. Further, between 14 and 20 different PFAS compounds were found in every fertilizer.

Lakes Are Losing Oxygen, Major Global Study Finds -- Climate change is contributing to falling oxygen levels in lakes across the world, according to a study published in the journal Nature Wednesday.Previous studies have shown falling oxygen levels in individual lakes, but this study is the first to look at so many lakes globally, as researchers gathered data from nearly 400 lakes in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and South America. The study found that in the past 40 years, oxygen levels have fallen nearly 19% in deep waters and 5% in surface waters, which is up to nine times faster than the oxygen loss in oceans.Low oxygen levels in lakes can suffocate wildlife and threaten drinking water quality. In some lakes, oxygen levels increased at the surface, likely because warmer temperatures can drive algal blooms, which temporarily release oxygen. This oxygen increase does not benefit deep waters, though, and algal blooms can release toxic chemicals and produce methane, further contributing to climate change."This study proves that the problem is even more severe in fresh waters [than in oceans], threatening our drinking water supplies and the delicate balance that enables complex freshwater ecosystems to thrive," said Curt Breneman, dean of science at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which led the study.As reported by The Associated Press: The authors said their findings suggest that warming temperatures and decreased water clarity from human activity are causing the oxygen decline."Oxygen is one of the best indicators of ecosystem health, and changes in this study reflect a pronounced human footprint," said co-author Craig E. Williamson, a biology professor at Miami University in Ohio.That footprint includes warming caused by climate change and decreased water clarity caused in part by runoff from sewage, fertilizer, cars and power plants.

Monarch Sequoias Can Live 3,000 Years, But Earth Lost 10% of Them All in 2020 – Scientists have known last year's Castle Fire was probably the most destructive for California's famously fire-resilient sequoias in at least 700 years, but a draft National Park Service report obtained by the Visalia Times-Delta puts a quantitative measurement on that fire's climate-fueled toll.Between 7,500 and 10,000 monarch sequoias — about 10% to 14% of the world's mature sequoia population — perished in the fire. "I cannot overemphasize how mind-blowing this is for all of us. These trees have lived for thousands of years. They've survived dozens of wildfires already," Christy Brigham, chief of Resources Management and Science at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, told the Times-Delta.Redwood forests are some of the world's most efficient when it comes to removing carbon from the atmosphere, and also provide critical wildlife habitat and watershed protection for farmers and communities in the San Joaquin Valley. The loss numbers, derived from satellite data, will be confirmed visually when scientists are able to hike the high-elevation groves still covered in snow."Not much in my life in the natural world has made me cry, but this did," Nate Stephenson, a research ecologist for the U.S. Geological Survey who works in the park and has been studying sequoias for years, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It hit me like a ton of bricks."

Biden administration pitches $2.8 billion in funding for outdoor recreation and conservation projects - — The Biden administration on Thursday proposed funding for dozens of conservation and recreation projects across the country as it allocates $2.8 billion in grants and programs authorized by a landmark conservation law enacted last year. Congress approved the Great American Outdoors Act by wide, bipartisan majorities with a mandate to support rural economies, boost outdoor recreation and improve access to public lands. The law authorizes $900 million per year — double previous spending — for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and $1.9 billion per year on improvements at national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and rangelands. Projected spending in the next fiscal year includes $19.4 million to rehabilitate the popular Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite National Park in California, and $91.3 million at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming to replace the Yellowstone River Bridge and upgrade the wastewater treatment system at the park’s famed Old Faithful geyser. On the other side of the country, the National Park Service is set to spend $27.4 million to repair historic structures at the Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts, and $32.8 million to improve the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Minute Man is among those that will be featured in upcoming commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the United States. The Interior Department also plans to spend a total of $77 million at Big Bend National Park in Texas to rehabilitate a water system and repair the Chisos Mountain Lodge, and $24.9 million at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio to stabilize its riverbank and support its well-used towpath trail. All are popular tourist destinations that expect to see an increase in visitors as restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic ease.

15 Elephants Are on a Mysterious, Epic Journey Across China - Fifteen Asian elephants are in the middle of an epic journey across a Chinese province, and no one knows why. The herd of elephants first left their home in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in the spring of last year. Since then, they have covered a distance of more than 300 miles in what experts say is the longest-ever trek made by elephants in China."It makes me think of the movie 'Nomadland,'" Zoological Society of London consultant Becky Shu Chen toldThe New York Times.The elephants have been traveling northward through the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, Al Jazeera reported. Along the way, they have captured the hearts and attention of Chinese social media users, but also gotten into their fair share of trouble. They have eaten more than $1 million worth of crops, and there are reports that at least one of the elephants got drunk on fermented grain, BBC News reported.The herd set out with 17 or 16 elephants originally, but over the more-than-a-year journey, two have turned back and one was born. As of 9:55 p.m. Wednesday, they had made it to the outskirts of the city of Kunming, which has a population of 8.5 million people, according to The New York Times.One social media user joked that the elephants might have headed towards the city to attend the UN Biodiversity Conference slated to take place in Kunming in October, as BBC News reported. While this was said in jest, the elephants might have serious grievances to bring to such a gathering. Some argue that the unusual journey was set off by habitat loss."The main driver is the decrease and fragmentation of the rainforest, where they live," Pan Wenjing of Greenpeace East Asia told Al Jazeera." And the reason is because of the expansion of human activities such as plantations, for example, tea and rubber as well as constructions."

As Tourism Returns, We Can’t Allow Cruise Companies to Destroy Coral Reefs for Profit -As summer approaches, reports of the return of leisure travel are beginning to emerge following the unprecedented shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic. Many of the world's most popular tourism destinations have begun to plan an eventual reopening, exploring what their "new normal" will look like. In April 2020, the global pandemic shut down Grand Cayman Island's port, which normally saw the arrival of dozens of cruise ships and thousands of tourists every month. The Cayman Islands was the only Caribbean nation to voluntarily halt its cruise economy, prioritizing the safety of its residents. Local businesses, hurt by the loss of tourism dollars, have already started going under; iconic local spots that make up much of the community's social fabric, for tourists and locals alike, are being lost. Soon, though, the ban on cruise ships will undoubtedly lift, and tourism will slowly return. And when that happens, the residents of Grand Cayman and nearby islands may find themselves worrying about another major threat posed by these cruise companies, one that runs the risk of being drowned out by the disruption caused by the pandemic. In 2019 the Cayman Islands government announced a plan to move forward on a massive new port project in George Town Harbor, supported by two major cruise-ship operators. Without this project, cruise ships visiting the island must anchor offshore and shuttle passengers back and forth with smaller vessels — an important aspect of the local economy with historic roots in the coastal community. The new project, estimated to cost $200 million, would allow cruise ships to come all the way to shore by building deep new docks capable of accommodating four cruise ships at a time, each of which could bring thousands of additional visitors to the island, according to the cruise companies and government supporters. But getting to this point would require dredging 22 acres of George Town Harbor's seabed, destroying 10 to 15 acres of fragile coral reefs in the process. If that happens, another vital part of the fabric of Grand Cayman life would be lost.

Climate Crisis and Negligent Policymakers Blamed for 'Record Sickening Levels' of Manatee Deaths in Florida --Conservation advocates in Florida are warning that 1,000 manatees in the state's water could die this year — hundreds more than in recent years — due to starvation driven by water pollution, the climate crisis, and other man-made harms to the mammals' ecosystem.As The Guardian reported Monday, 749 manatees died between January 1 and May 21, compared with 637 deaths in all of 2020, qualifying as an "unusual mortality event" according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).Experts in the state point to the death of seagrass, manatees' primary food source, including the majority of 80,000 acres of the plants in the Indian River Lagoon due to blue-green algae blooms — "which have themselves been caused by decades of human nutrient pollution from wastewater and runoff that continues unabated to this day," Bob Graham, a former Democratic Florida governor and co-founder of Save the Manatee, wrote in the Tampa Bay Times last month.Runoff containing fertilizers, microplastics, and other chemicals has been linked to the growth of blooms.Warmer water temperatures linked to the climate crisis have also been known to foster the growth of algae, which cover the water's surface and deprive sea grasses of sunlight. In response, manatees overgraze the remaining seagrass.As The Guardian reported, toxic wastewater leaks into Tampa Bay from the Piney Point fertilizer plant in Manatee County, Florida has led to water-poisoning red tide algae blooms, with the FWC linking at least 12 manatee deaths to the algae.A study by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) in March also found traces of pesticides in more than 55% of the manatees the group tested."Our beloved chubby sea cows are dodging boat strikes, reeling from red tide and starving in the Indian River Lagoon because of water pollution," Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director for the CBD, told The Guardian. "It's heartbreaking to add chronic glyphosate exposure to the list of factors threatening manatee survival." With just 7,500 manatees remaining, the unabated threats could mean the species is wiped out within a few years, as well as killing off other marine species and causing disaster for Florida's beaches and tourism industry.

Record cold grips eastern U.S. over the Memorial Day weekend - Numerous cold temperature records have been broken in parts of the eastern U.S. over the Memorial Day weekend while a heat wave is forecast to reach dangerous levels for some locations in the west, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). In addition to the unseasonal cold in the east, some of the highest elevations saw fresh snow. Meanwhile, in the west, Excessive Heat Warnings and Heat Advisories are in place for areas where heat-related illnesses are possible.Much of the eastern half of the United States, particularly the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, experienced a cold Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday, May 29, numerous locations in the east set records for their coldest high temperatures or came very close."More than two dozen locations from Ohio and Kentucky, eastward to southern New England either broke or tied daily records for lowest high temperature on May 29," AccuWeatherreported."In addition, record low temperatures were broken or tied across portions of the Great Lakes, Northeast and other areas in the northern tier of the country."Boston's 10 °C (50 °F) was colder on Saturday, May 29 than it was on either Christmas or St. Patrick's Day.Washington's 15 °C (59 °F) was the second coldest on record for May 29 and the coldest high temperature this late in the spring since 1997, when the temperature was 14.4 °C (58 °F) on June 3.Baltimore's 14.4 °C (58 °F) was its coldest on record (since the late 1880s), as well as Philadelphia's 12.2 °C (54 °F) and Pittsburgh 10.6 °C (51 °F). New York City's 10.6 °C (51 °F) tied the coldest temperature on record, while Albany's 10 °C (50 °F) was its coldest.Several areas in the Northeast also had record cold minimum temperatures, while the snow was observed in the mountains of Vermont."In addition to the unseasonable chill and rain, some of the highest elevations in the Northeast even woke up to a fresh coating of slushy snow to start the holiday weekend," AccuWeather added.By Sunday, May 30, the cold was diminishing over the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, centering around Washington and Baltimore."A cool, damp northeasterly flow that wrapped around a storm tracking through the Northeast is generally to blame for the cold and gray weekend," said AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham."As moisture-laden air from the Atlantic Ocean wrapped around the storm, it tended to get wedged in areas from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Coast, resulting in cloudy skies, drizzle, and in some cases, a steady rainfall," he explained.

Memorial Day heat breaks records in Northern California -— The unofficial start to summer brought record heat to the Sacramento Valley.For the first time this year, highs warmed to the 100s for many places in Northern California. The quick warm up into the triple digits came as a high pressure system set up over much of the West Coast.A record high at Sacramento Executive was set with a high of 104°, breaking the old record of 103° set back in 2011. Downtown Sacramento tied the record for the date at 106°, falling just short of the monthly record high of 107° set on May 28, 1984.Even more extreme highs were reached in the northern Sacramento Valley.Redding hit a record high of 109° which broke the daily and monthly record. Red Bluff reached highs of 108° breaking the daily record. That temperature in Red Bluff also tied the highest monthly temperature record of 108°, set back on May 28, 1984.

Western States Sizzle Under Triple-Digit Temperatures – NY Times - Temperatures in parts of California could reach well above 100 on Wednesday, and areas across Nevada and Washington State will continue to see sweltering conditions. Dangerously hot conditions and triple-digit temperatures are forecast for the Western United States this week, leading to a wave of excessive-heat warnings and heat advisories from Central California and Nevada up to Washington. Temperatures were forecast to hit 107 on Wednesday in the San Joaquin Valley in the center of California, according to the National Weather Service. While temperatures in Fresno were 16 to 18 degrees above normal for this time of year, they fell short of breaking records. The high temperature in Fresno on Tuesday was 104 and was forecast to reach similar heights on Wednesday. In Redding, in Northern California, temperatures reached 107 on Tuesday, a day after peaking at 109 and breaking the previous record of 103 set in 2016, meteorologists said. An excessive-heat warning will remain in place over portions of the valley and foothills through Thursday with highs around 100 to 105. In Nevada, Las Vegas saw its first 100-degree day of the year on Monday, followed by another triple-digit day — 103 — on Tuesday. It’s forecast to hit 105 on Wednesday and 106 on Thursday. Areas around the city and just across the California state line in Death Valley will be under an excessive heat warning through Friday night, the Weather Service said. Temperatures may climb up to 119 in Death Valley. An expanded heat advisory is also in effect through Thursday night for the central and southeastern portion of Washington, the Weather Service said. High temperatures could reach the upper 90s or lower 100s. Similar sweltering conditions are forecast forportions of Oregon, where temperatures could reach 105. Hot weather is also forecast for Montana over Wednesday and Thursday with high temperatures climbing into the upper 80s and upper 90s. High temperatures could reach 15 to 25 degrees above normal, meteorologists said. Warmer-than-average temperatures have been the trend in recent memory. Last year tied 2016 as the hottest year on record, according to European climate researchers. To complicate matters, a severe drought is ravaging the entire western half of the United States, from the Pacific Coast, across the Great Basin and desert Southwest, and up through the Rockies to the Northern Plains. A recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change suggested that more than a third of heat-related deaths in many parts of the world can be attributed to the extra warming associated with climate change. The research found that heat-related deaths in warm seasons were boosted by climate change by an average of 37 percent, in a range of a 20 to 76 percent increase.

Parts of southeast Australia shiver through coldest May mornings on record - Parts of southeast Australia saw record cold temperatures on Sunday and Monday, May 30 and 31, 2021, with many inland areas plunging below freezing temperatures. Temperatures in Melbourne City, Victoria, plunged to 1.7 °C (35 °F)-- its coldest May morning for 71 years. Renmark and Adelaide in South Australia also recorded their coldest May morning since 1927, with temperatures dipping to 3.5 °C (38.3 °F).It was a frosty Sunday across southeast Australia, with temperature records tumbling across the region. Residents in the city of Melbourne woke up to their coldest May morning for 71 years and 364 days, with the mercury dropping to 1.7 °C (35 °F). The area's coldest ever recorded May morning was -1.1 °C (30 °F) set on May 29, 1916.In Victoria, Adelaide dipped to 3.5 °C (38.3 °F)-- the equal coldest May morning since 1927. Some of the lowest overnight minimums included Mt. Hotham with 6.2 °C (43.2 °F), Yunta with 4.8 °C (40.6 °F), Rutherglen with 4.7 °C (40.5 °F), and Horsham with 4.3 °C (39.7 °F).Other areas in states such as New South Wales, ACT, and Tasmania also saw their lowest minimums, including 5.2 °C (41.4 °F) at Mount Hope, 4.1 °C (39.4 °F) at Canberra, 3.9 °C (39 °F) at Fingal, and -0.3 °C (31.5 °F) at Launceston.In South Australia, the town of Renmark recorded its coldest May morning as the mercury dropped to a chilling -5.1 °C (22.8 °F). The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) declared a record-breaking low for the town's airport before 21:00 UTC on Sunday (07:00 LT on Monday).Early Monday morning, May 31, the towns of Loxton and Lameroo registered below freezing temperatures of -3.5 and -1.1 °C (25.7 and 30 °F), respectively. Near Adelaide, Nuriootpa hit exactly 0 °C (32 °F), while Strathalbyn plummeted to 0.3 °C (31.5 °F).  "

Rare Level 5 warning for disruptive snow issued for parts of South Africa - The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has issued a rare Orange Level 5 warning for disruptive snow over the Drakensberg regions for June 2, 2021, with mountain passes expected to be closed. A Yellow level 2 warning for disruptive rain is expected over extreme eastern parts of the Eastern Cape and the southern half of KZN on June 2. Flooding of susceptible roads, informal settlements as well as low-lying bridges can be expected.There is a likelihood of a significant impact to occur due to the accumulation of snow combined with extremely cold weather which may include the following: Danger to life and property due to hypothermia and the collapsing of infrastructure, widespread loss of livestock and crops, closure of all major routes. Melting snow towards the end of the event will cause small streams and rivers in the low-lying areas to flood. Freezing overnight temperatures will cause water to freeze on road surfaces resulting in extremely hazardous driving conditions.A week of very cold temperatures is expected across the majority of South Africa from today, June 1, lasting well into the coming weekend, SAWS said in a media release.The cold temperatures follow in the wake of a cold front that moved over the eastern parts of the country on Sunday evening, sustained by the development of a cut-off low pressure system over the south-eastern parts of the country.The cut-off low pressure system will be responsible for the majority of adverse weather expected over the next three days.This includes snowfall accumulation of between 5 to 15 cm (2 to 6 inches) over Lesotho and the southern Drakensberg mountains in the Eastern Cape, rainfall of a disruptive nature along the Wild Coast and northeastern KwaZulu-Natal as well as wet conditions accompanied by very cold temperatures over the high lying areas of the Eastern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal.

Ushuaia hit by heaviest snowfall in more than 20 years, Argentina - A snowstorm has been pummeling Ushuaia City in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, since May 24, 2021. According to the Civil Defense, the storm dumped more than 0.5 m (1.6 feet) of snow over the weekend alone, an amount not seen for more than two decades."For more than two decades we have not had a record of such a large and prolonged snowfall," said Cristian Elias, the region's Civil Defense coordinator.Elias added that if the heavy snow continues, they would be "facing a historical weather phenomenon for the city's records."Since late May, snow has been falling continuously in the area. More than 30 cm (12 inches) have fallen in a 24-hour period to May 30.The accumulated snow caused traffic disruptions, but the municipal government said they are carrying out "immense work to allow passability through the most traveled circuits."The Civil Defense advised residents to avoid going out unless necessary, and if they should, travel with utmost caution and comply with the current regulations amid the severe weather.The snow is accompanied by unseasonal cold temperatures, with some areas recording -9 °C (15.8 °F).

 Delhi sees coldest June day amid streak of record-breaking weather since August 2020, India –(videos) India's capital Delhi has seen its coldest June day on record on Tuesday, June 1, 2021, with temperatures plummeting to 17.9 °C (64.2 °F). The city has been on a streak of breaking weather records since August 2020, with at least one major record busted each and every month.On Tuesday, a dust storm and late-night rain brought Delhi's temperature down to 17.9 °C (64.2 °F)-- the city's coldest day recorded in June.  According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the previous coldest minimum temperature in Delhi for the month of June was 18 °C (64.4 °F), set on June 17, 2006.The recent temperature continued the city's trend of breaking historical weather records every month since last year. As Hindustan Times called it, the capital was "on a weather barrier-breaking streak for at least the last nine months."In August 2020, Delhi registered 236.5 mm (9.3 inches) of rain-- the highest for the month since 2013. In September, the city registered its warmest month in nearly 20 years, with the average maximum temperature hitting 36.2 °C (97.2 °F). It broke the previous record of 36.1 °C (97 °F) set in 2015. The last time Delhi registered a higher average maximum temperature in September was in 2001 when the temperature shoots up to 36.3 °C 97.3 °F). In October, the capital smashed a 58-year-old record by registering a mean minimum temperature of just 17.2 °C (63 °F). In November, Delhi busted an even older record as the month's mean minimum temperature pummeled to 10.2 °C (50.4 °F). It was a level last witnessed in 1949. A cold wave then gripped the city for eight days in December, the longest streak since 1965. In January 2021, a cold snap lingered over the capita for seven days-- the highest number of cold wave days since 2008. During the same month, the city was drenched by 56.6 mm (2.2 inches) of rain, which was the highest January rain in 21 years. The weather abruptly changed in February, when the city recorded its second warmest in 120 years as the mean maximum temperature in the month hit 27.9 °C (82.2°F). The all-time record was 29.7 °C (85.5 °F) set in 2006. Delhi then continued to swelter through warm temperatures in March as it recorded 40.1 °C (104.2 °F) on the 29th-- its hottest day in 76 years. Weather conditions suddenly changed again in April, with the capital recording 11.7 °C (53 °F) on the 4th-- the lowest minimum temperature in at least a decade. In May, due to the impact of Cyclone Tauktae, Delhi busted the record for the highest single-day rainfall for the month with 119.3 mm (4.7 inches) on May 19 and 20. Now, in June, a new record has been set.

Brazil experiencing worst dry spell in 91 years, prompting emergency drought alert – video - Brazil is experiencing its worst dry spell in 91 years, government agencies warned and declared an "emergency drought alert" for June to September as rains are forecast to remain scarce during that period. The country’s Electricity Sector Monitoring Committee (CMSE) said that water regulator ANA should recognize a situation of "water scarcity" in the Parana River Basin as central and southern Brazil are suffering from the country's worst drought in nearly a century."As highlighted by the National Electricity System Operator, in May 2021, significant values ​​of precipitation were not observed, typical behavior of the dry season, a condition that should continue in the coming months, especially in the southeast/midwest region," the CMSE said in a statement.Separately, a weather monitoring agency linked to the Agriculture Ministry issued its first emergency drought alert for five Brazilian states, from June to September.The lack of rain across much of the country is feared to have negative impacts on livestock, grain cultivation, and electricity generation, as the nation heavily depends on hydro dams for its power.Scientists also warned that the dry spell could spark more severe fires in the Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetlands.On Friday, May 28, the Ministry of Mines and Energy said it has sought to expand the supply of energy in Brazil, but decided on conducting an emergency process for hiring capacity."The current situation is challenging. There is no provision for emergency energy contracting," it said in a statement, citing lower than normal reservoirs.Among the worst-hit sectors in Brazil were sugar and coffee production, which led to price hikes for the commodities. The country is the world's largest supplier of the said products.

Drought Fuels Conflict in Klamath Basin - The massive drought parching the American West has reached a (dry) boil in the Klamath Basin along the California-Oregon border as climate change drives conflict between Native American tribes, farmers, regulators, and conservationists. Earlier this year, federal officials shut irrigation outflow gates from Klamath Lake, Oregon's largest, in order to slow catastrophic salmon die-offs. Those salmon are protected by federal law and the federal government guaranteed Klamath Tribes they would be able to fish for them and other native species. Shutting the outflow gates has infuriated farmers, whose crops require irrigation from the Klamath. Twenty years ago, during a similar drought-induced water shortage, three men were charged after going on a racist shooting spree through the town where Klamath Tribes' offices are located. This year, notorious anti-government militant Ammon Bundy has threatened violence against law enforcement if the gates are not opened for farmers. "These are not things that are going to get better if climate change continues to give us more uncertainty and less reliable supplies of water," William Jaeger, an economics professor at Oregon State University who specializes in environmental, resource and agricultural policy issues, told The New York Times.

California’s Epic Drought Is Parching Reservoirs and Worrying Farmers (photos)  California is an infamously thirsty place. But this year, even by its own standards, the state is shockingly, scarily parched. So far in 2021, the state has received half of its expected precipitation; that makes it the third driest year on record according to California’s Department of Water Resources.This past week, as temperatures from Sacramento up to the Oregon border topped 100º Fahrenheit, the intense heat evaporated the remaining water at an astonishing pace, creating scenes more reminiscent of Hollywood-manufactured dystopias like Mad Max than the lush paradise Americans are used to envisioning on their West Coast.At Folsom Lake, the enormous reservoir that supplies both drinking and irrigation water in the middle of the state, surface levels suddenly dropped to 68 feet below what they were at this time last year. By last week, boat slips that once floated were sitting on a dry lake bed with grass sprouting around them. Folsom is hardly alone in its extremity. The long-lasting lack of precipitation is taxing reservoirs state-wide. On April 21, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency in two northern counties, Mendocino and Sonoma, where water levels had reached record lows. On May 10, Newsom extended the emergency declaration to encompass 41 of the state’s counties, which are home to roughly 30% of the state’s population. And still the water supply shrinks. Nicasio Reservoir outside of San Francisco has been reduced to a cracked dried mud flat, while green algae grows at the edges of the San Luis Reservoir, just south of San Jose. While California has experienced dry spells before, scientists say this one has been amped up by climate change. Drought has afflicted the America Southwest for nearly two decades—the period from 2000 to 2019 was the second-driest in the area since at least 800 C.E. Researchers from Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory estimated that man-made changes to the climate were responsible for 47% of the drought’s severity, in a study published in the journal Science last year. Worse, the researchers predicted that the Southwest could be entering an era of mega-drought, a period when extreme water scarcity lasts for decades rather than years. For agriculture-heavy California that spells big trouble, especially the water-intensive crops such as lettuces and almonds the state is famous for producing.

Fallow Land Plagues California Farmers Hit By Drought - We've documented (read here & here) this spring of a "megadrought" sweeping through the western half of the country and could be one of the worst in decades. This is troubling news because major water reservoirs have already dropped to dangerously low levels, cutting off access to farmers. The latest US Drought Monitor map shows nearly the entire western half of the nation is experiencing some level of drought at this moment. Parts of the Southwest could be undergoing their second Dust Bowl as conditions continue to deteriorate.  According to Reuters, for farmers like Joe Del Bosque, located in Firebaugh, California, a third of his 2,000-acre farm is unseeded this spring due to extreme drought and the inability to source water. About 40% of California's 24.6 million acres of farmland is irrigated. State and federal agencies that regulate reservoirs and canals across the state do not have enough water to allocate to farmers. Many of them are leaving their fields unplanted as a result of the water shortage. We've explained before, La Nina conditions are turbocharging droughts in North and South America. Agriculture in the state counts for 2% of its GDP and employs hundreds of thousands of workers. The state is a top producer of berries, dairy products, nuts and vegetables. Del Bosque told Reuters he's "taking a big risk in planting crops and hoping the water gets here in time." Others are reducing crop acreage as there is simply no water to go around:"I'm going to be reducing some of our almond acreages. I may be increasing some of our row crops, like tomatoes," said Stuart Woolf, who operates 30,000 acres in Western Fresno County.  Woolf said about 30% or 9,000 acres would be fallow this growing season because of water shortages.

Drought ravages California reservoirs, record low levels expected this summer - Severe drought has caused California's reservoirs to run low, with Lake Oroville expected to reach a record low later this summer. Nearly three-quarters of the state is suffering from the extreme dry spell, with other areas facing a dire water supply situation and fears of wildfires.Each year, Lake Oroville helps water a quarter of the nation's crops and sustain endangered salmon beneath its dam. However, the lake is seen to be shrinking at a surprising speed amid a severe drought.According to AP, state officials are forecasting it will reach a record low as hot summer looms.If the lake drops below 195 m (640 feet), which is possible by late August, officials would have to close down a major power plant for the second time ever due to low water levels that will strain the electrical grid during the hottest part of summer. The lake's record low is 197 m (646 feet).While dry spells are common in California, this year is much drier than the previous seasons, with waters quickly evaporating from reservoirs.

The Southwest's climate warning: Drought, wildfire risk and rising temperatures - One of the fastest-warming regions of the U.S. is the Southwest — and that region, plus the broader West, is stuck in its most expansive and intense drought of the 21st century.  Studies show that a warming climate is exacerbating the drought, and in some ways may be triggering it in the first place. That means the Southwest is drying out — and California's large wildfires could start as soon as next month. And one climate researcher says California's Sierra Nevada Mountains saw one of the fastest snow melt-outs in history this year. The drought situation is particularly severe in the Colorado River Basin and northern California. Scientists and public officials are warning that the California wildfire season is likely to be severe, due to the combination of dry vegetation and above-average temperatures.  This one comes on the heels of the worst fire season in state history, which turned the skies above San Francisco a "Blade Runner" orange last year.: Some parts of the world are already getting close to, or have slipped beyond, the Paris agreement's temperature limit thatscientists warned about in a report last week. As Earth's temperatures tick upwards, closer to the Paris guardrail of 1.5°C (2.7°F) above preindustrial levels, some parts of the world are already warming by much greater amounts, from the Southwestern U.S. to the Arctic. These areas are seeing destructive impacts that are mounting. California's Sierra Nevada Mountains show what climate change can do as it worsens. The mountain snowpack, which provides 30% of the state's water supply annually, has vanished about two months ahead of schedule.Water runoff from snow melt has been paltry, and major reservoirs like Lake Oroville are running even lower than they did during the record drought from 2012-2016.   The worsening drought and potentially devastating wildfire season is not an isolated occurrence for California and other Southwestern states. Climate studies have consistently shown that as the world continues to warm, the Southwest will become drier and hotter. This is worrisome, given the likelihood of increased stress on water resources amid a population boom in states such as Arizona and Nevada.  Although it's interspersed with short intervals of wetter years, parts of the West, including California, are suffering through an emerging, human-caused "megadrought" that began in 2000. Studies show this drought, measured using soil moisture data and tree rings, is the second-worst in the past 1,200 years.

 Significant flooding sweeps through parts of New Mexico - Significant flooding swept through parts of New Mexico on Sunday, May 30, 2021, leading to damage and  disruptions. Police reported at least one person died after her vehicle got caught in floodwaters in Hondo.Significant flooding hit parts of the state after Sunday night's storms. Images and videos of the event show water dragging debris through streets."I started packing up the most important papers and just some things we can put into backpacks in case we had to get out of here," resident Danielle Thompson told local media. Floodwaters washed away their stairs to the house and damaged the foundation. "We just thank God that the house didn’t really take off and float with this storm," her husband Blake Thompson added.Other homes and businesses in the southeast region have started dealing with the aftermath of the storms. Asian Market and Taqueria Hagerman, two of the affected businesses, had to close because of the flooding.Some volunteer groups said they hope sandbags can prevent floodwaters from getting inside their establishments. The National Weather Service placed a severe thunderstorm watch for Socorro, Ruidoso, Roswell, Artesia, Carlsbad, and Hobbs through Monday, May 31.  The State Police confirmed at least one fatality identified as 47-year-old Heather Garrett of San Patricio. The woman was riding her vehicle when it got swept away by floodwaters in Lincoln County. Rescue crews found her body downstream of Alamo Canyon Road.

Historic rainfall hits New Zealand, causing severe flooding - Hundreds of residents in north Canterbury in New Zealand have been evacuated amid severe flooding fuelled by a one-in-100-year heavy rain over the weekend. According to NIWA, the rainfall was 200 to 400 percent of normal for the month of May, causing rivers to rise and flood. A state of emergency has been declared on Sunday, May 30, 2021, as flooding threatened thousands of homes. The New Zealand MetService has issued a rare Red Warning for Heavy Rain for the Canterbury region prior to the deluge. "This is only the second red warning issued by MetService [for the Canterbury region] and this will be a significant weather event," the service said in a statement. Heavy rains began soaking the region on Saturday, May 29, causing rivers to rapidly rise, damaging roads and bridges, and flooding many properties. About 300 people have been forced to evacuate in Waimakariri and Timaru, while thousands of others in Ashburton were advised to prepare in case they need to flee. Timaru District Council Civil Defence issued an emergency alert to people living in the Coopers Creek catchment, urging residents to evacuate. In the low-lying areas of Pines Beach, authorities also told residents to evacuate as a stuck floodgate raised the risk of further inundations. According to NIWA, many districts in the region faced two to three months' worth of rain in just two to three days. Meanwhile, Lismore saw 238 mm (9.4 inches) in the past two days, which was the same amount it had received in the last 187 days. Akaroa registered 188 mm (7 inches) in the previous two days, which was more than the total rainfall for the entire year so far. The New Zealand Herald called the event a one-in-100-year deluge. Authorities have declared a state of emergency and around 75 schools have been closed on Monday.As of Monday, May 31, the Red Warning has been lifted but an Orange Rain Warning remains in place for the far north of Canterbury and southern Marlborough. According to severe weather forecaster, William Nepe, the rain no longer met the criteria for a red warning as it was no longer widespread, but rivers in the region will remain swollen for some time and floodwaters will take time to subside.

 At least 4 people dead as heavy rains trigger floods and landslides in Nepal – videos - Heavy rains over the previous days, including rain during the onslaught of Tropical Cyclone Yaas, caused flooding and landslides in parts of Nepal, resulting in at least four fatalities.On May 22, 2021, downpours caused damage in Chautara in Naubahini Rural Municipality, Pyuthan District. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) reported at least three people dead and one house destroyed.As heavy rains continued, flash flooding swept through streets, damaging homes and other buildings. On May 28, authorities reported property damage in Chame Rural Municipality, Manang District. A landslide struck Phidim Municipality in Panchthar on the same day, destroying two houses.  The fourth fatality occurred in Vyas Municipality, Tanahu District after a house collapsed in a landslide due to heavy rainfall on May 29. During the same period, floods destroyed at least one house in Lumbini Sanskritik Municipality, Rupandehi District.

 Tropical Storm "Blanca" forms well to the southwest of Mexico- Tropical Storm "Blanca" formed at 21:00 UTC on May 31, 2021, as the second named storm of the 2021 Eastern Pacific hurricane season. This is the first time that 2 named storms have formed in the eastern North Pacific (to 140°W) prior to June 1 since 2013. Blanca is expected to remain over open waters and weaken into a tropical depression over the next three days.At 09:00 UTC on June 1, Tropical Storm "Blanca" was located about 965 km (600 miles) south of the southern tip of Baja California, and about 530 km (330 miles) south-southeast of Socorro Island.Blanca's maximum sustained winds were 95 km/h (60 mph) at the time, with gusts up to 110 km/h (70 mph). The minimum barometric pressure was 998 hPa, and the system was moving northwest at 11 km/h (7 mph).A slower west-northwestward motion is expected during the next couple of days, followed by a slow westward motion. Strengthening is possible today, followed by gradual weakening beginning tonight and continuing through late this week. This is a small tropical cyclone with tropical-storm-force winds extending outward up to 75 km (45 miles) from the center.

Powerful tornado hits Shangzhi, damaging 168 homes and wreaking havoc on farmlands, China's Heilongjiang Province (video) A powerful tornado ripped through Shangzhi, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Harbin, the capital of China's northeast province of Heilongjiang on June 1, 2021. The twister was accompanied by damaging hail.  According to Chinese state media, the tornado was on the ground for around 30 minutes, from 17:30 to 18:00 LT, damaging 168 homes and wreaking havoc on farmlands.At least one person was killed and 16 injured. One person was critically injured and is undergoing care. The others had only minor injuries.More than 240 people were evacuated. The total economic loss was estimated at US$800,000 (5.12 million yuan).

Tropical Cyclone "Choi-wan" (Dante) to make landfall over Batangas Province, Philippines - Tropical Cyclone "Choi-wan" will make landfall over Batangas Province, Philippines at around 09:00 UTC (17:00 LT) on June 2, 2021, and traverse western and central Luzon over the next 2 days. Prolonged heavy rains have already flooded parts of Mindanao, leaving 3 people dead and one missing. DOST-PHIVOLCS has issued lahar advisory for Mayon volcano on June 1, and Taal and Pinatubo volcanoes on June 2, 2021.Tropical Storm "Choi-wan" -- known as Dante in the Philippines -- formed at 00:00 UTC on May 31 as the third named storm of the 2021 Pacific typhoon season.The storm made its first landfall at 12:30 UTC on June 1 over Sulat, Eastern Samar as a minimal tropical storm. JTWC downgraded it to a tropical depression at 15:00 UTC, two hours before its second landfall over Cataingan. Heavy rains produced by the storm have already flooded parts of Mindanao, leaving at least 3 people dead and one missing on June 1. Classes and government work for parts of Davao de Oro, Eastern Samar, Leyte, and Surigao del Sur were suspended. At 06:00 UTC on June 2, Tropical Cyclone "Choi-wan" (Dante) was about 255 km (160 miles) southeast of Manila, Philippines. Its maximum 10-minute sustained winds were 65 km/h (40 mph) at the time, with gusts up to 95 km/h (60 mph).

Tropical Storm "Blanca" forms well to the southwest of Mexico- Tropical Storm "Blanca" formed at 21:00 UTC on May 31, 2021, as the second named storm of the 2021 Eastern Pacific hurricane season. This is the first time that 2 named storms have formed in the eastern North Pacific (to 140°W) prior to June 1 since 2013. Blanca is expected to remain over open waters and weaken into a tropical depression over the next three days.At 09:00 UTC on June 1, Tropical Storm "Blanca" was located about 965 km (600 miles) south of the southern tip of Baja California, and about 530 km (330 miles) south-southeast of Socorro Island.Blanca's maximum sustained winds were 95 km/h (60 mph) at the time, with gusts up to 110 km/h (70 mph). The minimum barometric pressure was 998 hPa, and the system was moving northwest at 11 km/h (7 mph).A slower west-northwestward motion is expected during the next couple of days, followed by a slow westward motion. Strengthening is possible today, followed by gradual weakening beginning tonight and continuing through late this week. This is a small tropical cyclone with tropical-storm-force winds extending outward up to 75 km (45 miles) from the center.

Slow-slip earthquake occurring off the east coast of North Island, New Zealand --A large, slow-slip earthquake is occurring off the east coast of North Island, New Zealand. The event began off the coast of Porangahau last week in the same area as the one that occurred shortly after the massive M7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake of November 2016. Based on past events there, the event might last for a week or two. Dr. Laura Wallace of GNS Science said the location of the current slow slip event offshore Porangahau is in the same place that they've seen slow-slip events before, and they appear to occur in that area approximately every five years. "The event has so far caused about 2 cm (0.8 inches) of eastward displacement to 3 continuously-operating GNSS sites near the slow earthquake," Wallace said. "Past slow slip events in this area have involved movement on the plate boundary equivalent to that which occurs in magnitude 6.5 to 7.0 earthquakes, and this one looks like it is shaping up to be similar to previous slow slip events observed near Porangahau." Luckily, GNS scientists can now make a better analysis of the event taking place as, for the first time ever, they have a network of 26 sensors offshore the Porangahu., "This is the first time that we have had offshore sensors in-place and recording during a Porangahau slow slip event, so it will be very exciting to see that data when we return to retrieve the instruments later this year," Wallace told the NZ Herald. "Our team also deployed several additional seismometers in the area a few months ago, to be able to detect small earthquakes that tend to occur during these slow slip events." Dozens of slow-slip events (also known as "silent" earthquakes) have been detected in New Zealand since 2002. They occur up to 60 km (37 miles) below the earth’s surface where the Pacific Plate meets the Australian Plate, along the Hikurangi Subduction Zone (marked by the orange zone on the image below). Slow-slip events can move faults the equivalent of magnitude 6+ earthquakes over a period of weeks to months. Movements caused by these slow-slip events are so slow that they are undetectable by both humans and GeoNet's seismographs. GeoNet, in partnership with LINZ run a network of GPS stations around the country that are able to detect land movement as little as a few millimeters resulting from slow-slip events.

Massive sinkhole opens in southeastern Mexico - A giant sinkhole measuring 80 m (262 feet) in diameter has opened up on a field in southern Mexico on Saturday, May 29, 2021. No damage or injuries were reported, but a nearby home is at risk of being swallowed as the gaping hole continues to expand rapidly each day. Scientists are considering several hypotheses as the possible causes, including variations in the soil's water content. The sinkhole appeared in the town of Juan C. Bonilla, Puebla State, in the southeastern region, according to state officials. It is estimated to be about 15 m (50 feet) deep.Authorities said there were no reports of damage to structures or injuries, but a nearby home is at risk of being swallowed. The residents have been evacuated while the public was warned to stay away from the hole.The homeowners said they heard a loud boom that sounded like thunder before the sinkhole appeared. They then saw the ground started sinking and water bubbling."We have nothing. We're not from here. We have no relatives. We're alone," said homeowner Heriberto Sanchez, who was originally from Veracruz State.According to Beatriz Manrique, Puebla's environmental secretary, the sinkhole started at about 5 m (15 feet) in diameter, and then expanded over 24 hours. The hole then rapidly grew to 60 m (197 feet) on Monday, May 31.As of Tuesday, June 1, the sinkhole measured 80 m (262 feet) in diameter.The exact cause is under investigation, but local media reported that the sinkhole lies on what's known as the Alto Atoyac geological fault, which is also being looked into by authorities.Puebla governor Miguel Barbosa said the situation "is a matter of enormous risk." "It is a geological fault that must be addressed with great care, with technique, and with all the precautions and we are doing it.""It will grow until nature decides when the water stops exerting pressure. The important thing now is public safety"

Large mud volcano eruption in Colombia injures 1 person and forces 150 to evacuate – video - A large mud volcano eruption took place in the municipality of Necocli, Antioquia Department, Colombia, on May 30, 2021, injuring 1 person and forcing 150 to evacuate. This is the strongest eruption of this mud volcano since 2005.According to the municipal risk management authority, the eruption forced the evacuation of the entire village of Los Palmares Cenizosa -- around 150 people or 26 families. They are temporarily housed in a rural school in the Piedrecita village, where humanitarian care is provided.One person was injured after falling from his horse near the eruption site. The Volunteer Fire Department and the Civil Defense responded to the emergency, after the volcano expelled ash and boiling mud, as seen in some videos shared by the inhabitants of the area on social networks.An eruption of this strength wasn't reported since 2005, an official said, adding that villagers will not be able to return to their homes because they are settled in the direct impact zone.Numerous cracks appeared in the village and several homes and a road to their farms were damaged.

Lahar advisory for Mayon volcano under Tropical Storm "Choi-wan" (Dante), Philippines -Prolonged and heavy rainfall produced by Tropical Storm "Choi-wan" -- known as Dante in the Philippines -- may generate post-eruption lahars on major channels draining Mayon Volcano by incorporating loose material from remnant pyroclastic density current (PDC) deposits from the January - March 2018 eruption, PHIVOLCS said on June 1, 2021.Based on the Tropical Cyclone Bulletin # 11 issued at 03:00 UTC on June 1, 2021 (11:00 LT) by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the province of Albay has been placed under Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No. 2 due to Tropical Storm "Choi-wan."Choi-wan is expected to be over the coastal waters of Eastern Albay Province by the morning or early afternoon (LT) of June 2, 2021.Due to its trajectory, and potentially heavy to at times intense rainfall, Choi-wan can be expected to generate volcanic sediment flows or lahars, muddy streamflows or muddy run-off in rivers and drainage areas of Mayon Volcano.On the forecast track, the center of the tropical storm is forecast to make its initial landfall over Eastern Samar between tonight and tomorrow early morning, June 2 (LT). "Prolonged and heavy rainfall may generate post-eruption lahars on major channels draining Mayon Volcano by incorporating loose material from remnant pyroclastic density current (PDC) deposits from the January-March 2018 eruption," PHIVOLCS said. In addition, older and erodible eruption deposits occupy the watershed areas on the eastern and western slopes of the edifice and can be remobilized as non-eruption lahars by erosion of banks and channel beds.Potential lahars and sediment-laden streamflows may occur along the Miisi, Binaan, Anoling, Quirangay, Maninila, Masarawag, Muladbucad, Nasisi, Mabinit, Matan-ag, and Basud, Bantayan Channels in Albay Province.Mayon lahars can threaten communities along the middle and lower slopes and downstream of these channels with inundation, burial and wash away.DOST-PHIVOLCS strongly advises the communities and local government units of the above identified areas of risk to continually monitor the typhoon conditions and take pre-emptive response measures for their safety.

Lahar advisory for Taal and Pinatubo volcanoes, Philippines  --Due to potentially high-volume rainfall produced by Tropical Storm "Choi-wan" -- known as Dante in the Philippines" -- and its trajectory, DOST-PHIVOLCS has issued lahar advisories for Taal and Pinatubo volcanoes on June 2, 2021.Based on DOST-PAGASA Tropical Cyclone Bulletin No. 18 issued at 00:00 UTC (08:00 LT) on June 2, 2021, Choi-wan will make landfall over Batangas Province today at 09:00 UTC (17:00 LT) and traverse western and central Luzon over the next 2 days.Due to its trajectory and potentially high-volume rainfall, Choi-wan (Dante) can be expected to generate volcanic sediment flows or lahars, muddy streamflows or muddy run-off in rivers and drainage areas on the monitored active volcanoes of Taal and Pinatubo. DOST-PHIVOLCS thus strongly recommends increased vigilance and readiness of communities in pre-determined zones of lahar and related hazards on these volcanoes.Prolonged and intense rainfall may generate non-eruption lahars on major rivers draining western Pinatubo Volcano where significant erodible pyroclastic flow deposits of the 1991 eruption remain on the watershed.Pinatubo lahars will likely be channel-confined and occur on the upper to middle reaches of the Sto. Tomas- Marella and Bucao River systems but may transition to muddy streamflows and floods on the lower reaches and affect adjacent communities of San Marcelino, San Narciso, San Felipe, and Botolan, Zambales Province.Muddy streamflows may likewise be generated along the O’Donnell and Pasig-Potrero River systems draining the Pinatubo edifice to the north and southeast, respectively, and affect downstream communities in Tarlac and Pampanga Provinces.Prolonged and heavy rainfall may also generate muddy streamflow and muddy runoff around Taal Volcano, particularly on the slopes west of Taal Lake where thin remnant ash can be remobilized in streams and roads and overland of the lakeward slopes.In particular, muddy streamflow and runoff can recur on previously affected communities of Agoncillo and Laurel, Batangas Province.DOST-PHIVOLCS strongly advises the communities and local government units of the above-identified areas of risk to continually monitor the tropical storm conditions and take pre-emptive response measures for their safety from the storm.

Nearly 416 000 people displaced after eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, DR Congo - The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has estimated the total number of displaced people linked to the volcanic eruption of Mount Nyiragongo on May 22, 2021, to be 415 700, with 47% of them children. In the city of Goma, more than 500 000 people have been left without access to clean drinking water while some 350 000 people are estimated to be in urgent need of assistance. A mass evacuation order was issued on May 27 after seismicity and soil deformation data indicated the presence of magma under the urban area of Goma with an extension under Lake Kivu.While some residents are starting to return to the city of Goma, the total number of displaced people due to the deadly eruption of Nyiragongo and subsequent seismicity was estimated at 415 700 as of June 1.  Residents are spread across more than 10 areas in the interior of the country (Bukavu Ville, Idjwi, Kalehe (Minova), Kabare, Masisi (Sake), Rutshuru, Nyiragongo, Lubero, Goma, Butembo) and in neighboring Rwanda. Displaced persons in some areas are having difficulty finding housing, UN OCHA said.IOM said it's particularly concerned by the health hazards linked to the eruption itself, the displacement to areas with pre-existing outbreaks, the lack of access to clean water, and the increased burden placed on health facilities.  To address the risk of outbreaks – in particular cholera – and mental health and psychosocial needs, IOM is boosting disease surveillance efforts among displaced and host communities, looking for ways to scale up services, and supporting health facilities through donations, training, and more.The UNHCR spokesperson Jackie Keegan said at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva that some 350 000 people in Goma are estimated to be in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.The city has experienced more than a thousand earthquakes and tremors following the eruption, most of them small, but some strong enough to level buildings.Many people’s houses were destroyed by the lava flow, but many more had to leave following the evacuation order for the eight areas of Goma that are most at risk if another eruption hits the city."The earthquakes have become less intense, but there are still questions about magma streams under the city. If and when a return to Goma will be possible, rebuilding will be challenging – the city is at the foot of an active volcano and on a shifting rift," Keegan said.

Health effects of the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo will be felt for a long time -The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, an active volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), led to the deaths of at least 30 people. There could however be longer term health implications for residents of the area. Patrick DMC Katoto, who has studied the health effects of volcanoes in the DRC, provides insights into the health risks that a volcanic eruption brings.Volcanic eruptions can cause catastrophic destruction. They are responsible for human casualties, infrastructural devastation and can pollute the environment for thousands of kilometers around the eruption sites.There are various attributes that a volcano has that makes it dangerous to human health. During the eruption, lava, gas and volcanic ash are released. The eruption can also cause, or lead to, earth tremors and quakes.The hot lava that erupts from a volcano is lethal. It can move fast and directly cause death or injury. It can also destroy homes and other important structures including electricity and petrol stations (risking massive explosions) and water tanks.Nyiragongo is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of its particularly fast-moving lava. It can flow at a speed of about 100km per hour. It's reported that, in this recent eruption, about 30 people died when more than 500 houses were flattened by the lava flow. Because of the devastation, there could be mental health challenges for the people affected.Volcanic ash—composed of tiny particles of rocks, minerals, and volcanic glass—is a major health concern. When inhaled it can cause lung damage, for instance one long-term effect of volcanic ash is silicosis a disease that can cause lung impairment and scarring. Inhaling volcanic ash can also cause suffocation, leading to death.In addition, volcanic ash contains strong acids, such as hydrogen fluoride and hydrochloric acid. In small concentrations they can cause skin irritation and eye problems.If the volcanic ash were to land in natural water sources, it would deposit toxic minerals. If ingested these can cause neurological disorders.Ash can also trap toxic gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide and fluorine. This can affect crops or lead to animal and human illness or death.Alongside the ash and lava, volcanic eruptions release toxic gases.Mount Nyiragongo is one of the most prolific sources of sulfur dioxide on earth. Since September 2002, this volcano has had a permanent lava lake whichpersistently releases a plume of gases rich in sulfur dioxide and carbon. It therefore produces suplhur dioxide during and after eruption.Sulfur dioxide can irritate the skin and the tissues and mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, and throat. It can also aggravate chronic conditions including asthma and cardiovascular diseases.

A burning ship covered beautiful beaches in plastic ‘snow.’ Now Sri Lanka faces an environmental disaster. Sri Lanka is facing one of the worst environmental crises in its history as tons of potentially toxic debris from a fire aboard a container ship blanket miles of its western coastline. The South Asian country’s military said it had subdued the blaze aboard the MV X-Press Pearl over the weekend, after more than a week of raging flames and billowing black smoke. But officials and scientists warn that the maritime disaster is far from over, with billions of plastic pellets washing up on beaches up to 75 miles to the south. As Sri Lankan sailors scrape the debris from beaches and the ship smolders, scientists are trying to determine how far the flotsam will travel and what the damage will be. “It’s an environmental disaster,” Sri Lankan marine biologist Asha de Vos told The Washington Post. She said she worries currents could eventually carry the plastic pellets as far as the other side of the island nation, killing wildlife and damaging sensitive ecosystems. The crew of the X-Press Pearl first spotted smoke rising from the cargo hold on May 20 while anchored not far from the port of Colombo, according to X-Press Feeders, the company that operates the Singapore-flagged ship. They tried to extinguish the fire by releasing carbon dioxide in the hold, but the fire grew and an explosion rocked the recently built ship on May 22, the company said.The 25-person crew was evacuated as the Sri Lankan navy tried to suppress the blaze, with help from the Indian Coast Guard and firefighting tugs belonging to a Dutch company. Infrared footage of the ship taken over the weekend showed the fires had almost gone out.Sri Lankan authorities suspect the fire was caused by a leak from the ship’s containers, which were carrying 25 metric tons of nitric acid. (The chemical is used in fertilizers as well as explosives.)In an interview with shipping industry publication Splash, X-Press Feeders Executive Chairman Tim Hartnoll said poor packaging was responsible for the leak, which the crew had detected while in the Arabian Sea.According to an X-Press Feeders statement, the ship applied to the western Indian port of Hazira and the Qatari port of Hamad to offload the leaking container, but the requests were denied. “The advice given was there were no specialist facilities or expertise immediately available to deal with the leaking acid,” the company said.

3,000 Shipping Containers Fell Into the Pacific Ocean Last Winter - You're right if you think you've been hearing a lot about container ships lately. One off the coast of Sri Lanka that was carrying 25 tons of nitric acid and other cargo suffered an explosion after containers caught fire on May 20 and burned for more than a week, littering the beaches with plastic pollution. And in March all eyes were on the Suez Canal, where a 1,300-foot-long container ship turned sideways and gummed up international trade with a six-day-long traffic jam.  But less attention surrounded a spate of container-ship accidents in the Pacific Ocean this past winter. It included one of the worst shipping accidents on record, which occurred near midnight on Nov. 30 as towering waves buffeted the ONE Apus, a 1,200-foot cargo ship delivering thousands of containers full of goods from China to Los Angeles. In remote waters 1,600 miles northwest of Hawai'i, the container stack lashed to the ship's deck collapsed, tossing more than 1,800 containers into the sea. Some of those containers carried dangerous goods, including batteries, fireworks and liquid ethanol. "This is a massive spill," says oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer, who has tracked marine debris from container spills for over 30 years. The ONE Apus lost more containers in a single night than the shipping industry reports are lost worldwide in an entire year. It was also only one of at least six spills since October that dumped more than 3,000 cargo containers into the Pacific Ocean along shipping routes between Asia and the United States. They include the loss of 100 containers from the ONE Aquila on Oct. 30 and 750 containers from the Maersk Essen on Jan. 16. Both ships encountered rough weather while delivering goods to the United States. Experts say these types of spills, which tend to fly under the public's radar, put containers into the sea that pose potential hazards to the health of the ocean and put everything from mariners to wildlife at risk. "They're like time capsules of everything we buy and sell, sitting in the deep seaThose lost containers may harm wildlife and ocean health, he says, by crushing aquatic habitats or introducing new seabed features that change biological communities or even aid the spread of invasive species. They can also release hazardous cargo such as the 6,000 pounds of sulfuric acid that went into the sea when theMaersk Shanghai lost containers off of the North Carolina coast in 2018.

Arctic sea ice thinning faster than expected - Sea ice in the coastal regions of the Arctic may be thinning up to twice as fast as previously thought, according to a new modelling study led by UCL researchers. Sea ice thickness is inferred by measuring the height of the ice above the water, and this measurement is distorted by snow weighing the ice floe down. Scientists adjust for this using a map of snow depth in the Arctic that is decades out of date and does not account for climate change. In the new study, published in the journal The Cryosphere, researchers swapped this map for the results of a new computer model designed to estimate snow depth as it varies year to year, and concluded that sea ice in key coastal regions was thinning at a rate that was 70% to 100% faster than previously thought. Robbie Mallett (UCL Earth Sciences), the Ph.D. student who led the study, said: "The thickness of sea ice is a sensitive indicator of the health of the Arctic. It is important as thicker ice acts as an insulating blanket, stopping the ocean from warming up the atmosphere in winter, and protecting the ocean from the sunshine in summer. Thinner ice is also less likely to survive during the Arctic summer melt." "Previous calculations of sea ice thickness are based on a snow map last updated 20 years ago. Because sea ice has begun forming later and later in the year, the snow on top has less time to accumulate. Our calculations account for this declining snow depth for the first time, and suggest the sea ice is thinning faster than we thought." To calculate sea ice thickness researchers used radar from the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite. By timing how long it takes for radar waves to bounce back from the ice, they can calculate the height of the ice above the water, from which they can infer the ice's total thickness. Co-author Professor Julienne Stroeve (UCL Earth Sciences) said: "There are a number of uncertainties in measuring sea ice thickness but we believe our new calculations are a major step forward in terms of more accurately interpreting the data we have from satellites. "We hope this work can be used to better assess the performance of climate models that forecast the effects of long-term climate change in the Arctic—a region that is warming at three times the global rate, and whose millions of square kilometres of ice are essential for keeping the planet cool."

Global warming already responsible for one in three heat-related deaths -Between 1991 and 2018, more than a third of all deaths in which heat played a role were attributable to human-induced global warming, according to a new article in Nature Climate Change.The study, the largest of its kind, was led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the University of Bern within the Multi-Country Multi-City (MCC) Collaborative Research Network. Using data from 732 locations in 43 countries around the world it shows for the first time the actual contribution of man-made climate change in increasing mortality risks due to heat. Overall, the estimates show that 37% of all heat-related deaths in the recent summer periods were attributable to the warming of the planet due to anthropogenic activities. This percentage of heat-related deaths attributed to human-induced climate change was highest in Central and South America (up to 76% in Ecuador or Colombia, for example) and South-East Asia (between 48% to 61%).

If countries implement Paris pledges with cuts to aerosols, millions of lives can be saved -Aerosol reductions that would take place as countries meet climate goals could contribute to global cooling and prevent more than one million annual premature deaths over a decade, according to a new study from the University of California San Diego.The landmark Paris Agreement of 2016 does not address emissions of aerosols--fine particulates like soot that cause pollution. Nonetheless, findings from the recent study authored by researchers at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the School of Global Policy and Strategy suggests that aerosol accounting should be explicitly incorporated into international climate policy.It is crucial because as countries implement their greenhouse gas reduction targets under the Paris climate agreement, their choices about which sectors to target will also reduce aerosols that are co-emitted, which will have major impacts to public health and global temperatures."Joint consideration of greenhouse gases and aerosols is critical," said Pascal Polonik, a Ph.D. student at Scripps Oceanography and first author of the paper published in Earth's Future. "Polluting particles, known as aerosols, are emitted in tandem with greenhouse gases but aren't accounted for. While all greenhouse gas emissions might be thought of as unambiguously harmful, aerosols are more complicated. All aerosols are harmful to human health but they also often help counteract global warming by cooling the Earth's surface."It is estimated that emissions of aerosols from burning fossil fuels like coal and diesel are responsible for nine million premature deaths worldwide. Though most aerosols have a cooling effect because they reflect sunlight, certain types, such as black carbon have a warming effect.The UC San Diego team wanted to explore the tradeoffs countries would face by taking aerosols into consideration while concurrently making CO2 cuts to implement Paris pledges. Their model provides a country-by-country breakdown of the impacts of aerosol reductions across the eight economic sectors which cause emissions. For each country, the authors consider three scenarios. The first scenario prioritizes air quality, targeting aerosol cuts to the "dirtiest" sectors that emit the most solid particles. The second prioritizes temperatures by targeting industries that emit aerosols that most contribute to warming and the third, dubbed the "politically expedient" approach, reduces emissions from all economic sectors equally.

South Korea to Plant 3 Billion Trees to Help Reach Carbon Neutrality by 2050 -World Economic Forum's global initiative the Tree Trillion campaign aims to plant one trillion trees by 2030. The South Korean Forest Service is planning to contribute to this initiative by planting 3 billion trees over the next 30 years.Minister Park Jong-ho of the Korea Forest Service (KFS) announced this plan, intended to help the country reach its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. In 2016, South Korea ranked 11th in greenhouse gas emissions.The estimated cost for the project is around 6 trillion won, about $5.3 billion. Restoring Korean forests by planting new trees could help seize around 34 million tons of carbon emissions, according to The Korea Herald. According to KFS, trees that are over 30 years old are not as effective at removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The last period of intensive forest planting in Korea was in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Newsworld. KFS noted that native trees like the Korean Pine don't absorb carbon as well as other species, so it plans to plant yellow poplars and other non-native trees. The trees planted will cover around 2.34 million hectares, equivalent to almost 6 million acres, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.

Substantial carbon dioxide emissions from northern peatlands drained for crop cultivation - A new study shows that substantial amounts of carbon dioxide were released during the last millennium because of crop cultivation on peatlands in the Northern Hemisphere. Only about half of the carbon released through the conversion of peat to croplands was compensated by continuous carbon absorption in natural northern peatlands. Peatlands are a type of wetland which store more organic carbon than any other type of land ecosystem in the world. Due to waterlogged conditions, dead plant materials do not fully decay and carbon accumulates in peatlands over thousands of years. Therefore, natural peatlands help to cool the climate by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and trapping carbon in soils. However, artificial drainage of peatlands for agriculture aerates the soil and enhances the decay of organic matter, rapidly releasing carbon into the atmosphere. Peatlands are a missing piece of the carbon cycle puzzle; little is known about how much carbon has been released due to drainage and conversion of peatland to cropland during the historical sprawl of agriculture, and about the role of cultivated peatlands versus natural peatlands. The new international study, led by INRAE and LSCE, and including the University of Exeter, quantified CO2 fluxes in natural and cultivated peatlands between 850 and 2010. The study provides the first detailed estimates of historical carbon losses from cultivated northern peatlands. "We incorporated peatland hydrological and carbon processes into a process-based land surface model," "This model is one of the first to simulate natural peatland and the conversion of peatland to cropland and resultant CO2 emissions. "We also looked at how the carbon emission rates of cultivated peatlands vary with time after conversion. "High CO2 emissions can occur after the initial drainage of peatland, but then, the emission rates decrease with time because of depletion of labile carbon and increasing recalcitrance of the remaining material." "This study highlights how much carbon is lost if you drain peatlands, as we have done to many peatlands in Europe, but it also reminds us how important it is to make sure we manage peatlands appropriately."  "Carbon emissions from drainage of peatlands are a source of concern for national greenhouse gas budgets and future emission trajectories,"  "However, we have only a very few observations, and peatland drainage and cultivation are not explicitly considered by bookkeeping models and dynamic global vegetation models used to compute the annual carbon budget.

Big Oil’s Green-Spending Boost Isn’t Enough, IEA Says - The oil and gas industry is set to boost investments in clean energy this year, but that still won’t be enough to put the world on a path to limit a dangerous rise in global temperatures. That’s the view of the International Energy Agency, which expects traditional fossil-fuel companies to increase climate-friendly investments to at least 4% of their capital spending, up from just 1% last year, according to a report Wednesday. The figure underscores both the rapid pace that investment is tilting toward low-carbon sources as well as the scale of the challenge. The IEA said earlier this year that the world needs to stop development of new oil and gas fields as well as coal mines to limit global temperature increases. “Much greater resources have to be mobilized and directed to clean energy technologies to put the world on track to reach net-zero emissions by 2050,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director. “The rebound in energy investment is a welcome sign, and I’m encouraged to see more of it flowing toward renewables.” Overall, the IEA expects global investment in energy to reach $1.9 trillion in 2021, a nearly 10% gain that will almost make up for the decline caused by the fallout from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. Spending on power generation will increase about 5% this year to a record of more than $820 billion globally. Renewable power sources including solar and wind will make up about 70% of new capacity. Despite the pressure to cut emissions, the IEA expects less than 45% of global investment in the sector to go toward clean energy. That includes spending on renewables, transmission infrastructure, nuclear power, batteries, carbon capture and energy efficiency. Investments in clean energy need to more than triple this decade to maintain the possibility of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. As more pressure comes on private companies to limit their climate impact, state-owned businesses will make up a greater proportion of fossil-fuel investments, the IEA said. Much of the shift that’s set to lead oil and gas companies’ overall investments in clean energy is driven by European firms that have been under the most pressure to cut emissions.

Company proposes carbon-capture pipeline across Midwest, including Nebraska, Iowa -(WOWT) - A Dallas-based company wants to build a 1,200-mile pipeline system across five Midwestern states — including Nebraska and Iowa — that would carry liquefied carbon dioxide to permanent storage sites.Navigator CO2 said in a statement Tuesday the project would provide its industry partners a “holistic” approach” to shrinking their carbon footprints.Navigator said in the statement it had a partnership with BlackRock Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Fund to develop the pipeline across Minnesota, Illinois, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska.The company said its ultimate goal is to expand capacity to 12 million metric tons, or about 26 billion pounds, of the liquified CO2.

With Trump Gone, Old Fault Lines in the Climate Movement Reopen, Complicating Biden’s Path Forward - -As President Joe Biden works to enact his plan for cutting greenhouse gases, a long dormant rift among climate action activists is surfacing.On one side are those who believe that renewable energy—especially solar, wind, and hydroelectricity—will be sufficient to fuel the economy and get the world to zero emissions. On the other side are those who, like the Biden administration, think fossil fuels are likely to have a role in the nation’s energy future, making it important to invest in technology to capture carbon emissions.  This dispute was largely buried in recent years, as progressives and moderates bonded together to oppose President Donald Trump’s wholesale unraveling of environmental protections. But now it threatens to complicate the already difficult job that Biden faces in getting his $2 trillion American Jobs Plan through Congress. “These are divisions that reflect, I think, on one side an ideological crusade of the far left versus a pragmatic approach by the Biden administration that is focused on what’s politically possible,” said Paul Bledsoe, a strategic consultant for the Progressive Policy Institute who worked on climate change in President Bill Clinton’s White House.But a series of recent Biden administration decisions have disappointed environmentalists, including  the defense of a huge Trump-approved oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope;, the issuing of Western oil and gas leases sold during Trump’s final days; and the refusal to shut down controversial oil pipelines. And as Biden searched for Republican support in Congress for his climate plan, tensions among environmentalists were running high.The climate action movement united behind Biden last year after he became the Democratic presumptive nominee. And Biden’s ambitious goals—especially his commitment to put the United States on a path toward 100 percent clean electricity by 2035—came out of a joint task force he established with his chief rival and avatar of the progressive movement, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) But there is fierce disagreement about what “clean electricity” means.The White House is convinced it is necessary to take an expansive approach in reducing carbon pollution, both to secure the needed votes and to get the nation on track to net zero emissions. That approach would include investments in carbon capture, a technology that pulls carbon dioxide from smokestacks or even directly from the air and buries it underground or diverts it to other uses. Although carbon capture technology already exists, it is expensive, and billions have been spent in the United States on failed efforts to deploy “clean coal” carbon capture power plants. Biden’s American Jobs Plan includes carbon capture demonstration projects, focused on large steel, cement, and chemical production facilities, sectors that are seen as more difficult to decarbonize than utilities.

More Americans believe in climate change but still can’t quit fossil fuels - Nearly two-thirds of Americans now believe that climate change is an urgent problem to address, but they aren’t nearly as enthusiastic about giving up oil and gas, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.Only one-third of people surveyed supported completely phasing out fossil fuels. Less than half of respondents are okay with phasing out new gas-powered vehicles. Taking those steps might seem drastic, considering fossil fuels currently make up about 80 percent of the US energy mix. But phasing out most, if not all, fossil fuels is pretty much in line with what’s needed to meet the scale of the climate crisis, according to climate experts.Now that many Americans are taking the threats posed by climate change seriously, the next hurdle for climate activists and policymakers is getting more of them on board for the swift action it will take to limit the damage.  “Attitudes towards climate change are hardly a predictor of policy support or pro-environmental actions.”A more gradual shift away from fossil fuels may be something most Americans can get on board with. About 70 percent of people surveyed agreed that future fossil fuel expansion should take a back seat to developing alternative energy sources.Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels need to drop dramatically by the middle of the century, according to leading climate scientists. They’re aiming for “net-zero” — the point where global emissions match up with the amount of greenhouse gases removed from the atmosphere, after making major reductions to fossil fuel use. Otherwise, say goodbye to 99 percent of the world’s coral reefs and hello to more extreme heat, hunger, and flooded coastlines. In most scenarios, meeting the net-zero goal involves using less energy and swapping out most or all fossil fuels for renewables like wind and solar or carbon-free energy like nuclear.There’s a little more allowance for continued emissions from heavy industry like steel and for ships and planes that are hard to electrify. Those sources of pollution might be paired withemerging technologies that can capture and store the planet-heating CO2 they produce. But reaching net-zero greenhouse gas pollution requires no new fossil fuel development past 2021 and no more sales of gas-powered vehicles past 2035, a major report from the International Energy Agency recently found.

Biden administration, Gov. Newsom open California coast to offshore wind farms - — California and the U.S. government announced an agreement Tuesday to open up areas off the state’s central and northern coasts to the first commercial wind energy farms on the Pacific Coast. The pact that would float hundreds of turbines off the coast of Morro Bay and Humboldt Bay was touted as a breakthrough to eventually power 1.6 million homes and help the state and federal government reach ambitious climate change goals through clean energy production. “California, as we all know, has a world-class offshore wind resource, and it can play a major role in helping to accelerate California’s and the nation’s transition to clean energy,” National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said. The plan includes floating 380 windmills across a nearly 400-square-mile (1,035-square-kilometer) expanse of sea 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Morro Bay. The site could be finalized next month and could be put up for lease next year. The announcement is part of President Joe Biden’s plan to create 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. The new projects — if approved and built — would provide a major expansion of offshore wind power in the U.S. Currently, there are just two working offshore wind farms — off Block Island in Rhode Island and off Virginia — but more than two dozen others are in development. The projects will require several stages of approval — from an early review by the Coastal Commission to federal and state environmental reviews after a lease sale, said Sandy Louey of the California Energy Commission.

First US-made ship for offshore wind farm construction is coming to New England - Among the challenges facing the country’s nascent offshore wind industry is the lack of a US-made turbine installation ship. That’s because of a century-old federal law requiring that goods shipped between American ports be moved on vessels built in the United States. But that’s about to change. New England utility Eversource Energy and Danish energy company Ørsted on Tuesday announced they reached an agreement to charter the first American-made turbine installation vessel, for two adjacent wind farms that the two companies are developing between Long Island, N.Y., and Martha’s Vineyard.  The $500 million vessel, being built by a consortium led by Dominion Energy in a Texas shipyard, will enable Eversource and Ørsted to be the first wind farm developers to use a ship that is qualified under the Jones Act to install offshore turbines. The ship, which can carry up to six turbines at one time, is expected to be ready by the end of 2023.

New England offshore wind could shift Canada-US power trade balance | S&P Global Market Intelligence -- A flood of cheap power generated by planned U.S. offshore wind projects could find its way onto Canada's power grid, reversing a long-standing trend of mostly one-way trade that sees massive exports of Canadian hydropower to the U.S.The Biden administration's recent approval of the first major wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts kick-started a plan for 30 GW of offshore wind capacity to be installed by 2030. Vineyard Wind LLC's 800-MW Vineyard Offshore Wind Project and subsequent projects could upset a captive clean energy market for province-owned Hydro-Québec, which has for decades exported power from its network of dams to New York and New England. Infrastructure expansions are already underway to meet renewable portfolio standards in U.S. states, including Central Maine Power Co.'s New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line, which would carry Quebec-generated power to Massachusetts. Central Maine is a subsidiary of Avangrid Inc., which itself is a partner in the Vineyard Offshore project.Even if offshore wind does not reach President Joe Biden's ambitious goals, with 30 projects proposed in U.S. waters, there will likely be enough power sources to disrupt the traditional import-export market with Canada, industry experts said. Although Bloomberg NEF's forecast of 23 GW offshore wind installations by 2030 falls short of the U.S. government's prediction, Melina Bartels, an associate for Bloomberg NEF, said the volume of power flowing onto the Northeastern U.S. grid will be high enough to drive down winter prices and create opportunity to send power north of the border. The extra power in New England could send winter power prices 40% below those seen in the last few years in five years, Bartels said, and multiple transmission connections could create favorable conditions to send power to Canada."Traditionally, when we think of this connection relationship with Canada, we think of hydropower coming from Quebec and fueling these two different markets in the U.S.," Bartels said during a recent virtual conference by the Canadian Renewable Energy Association. "I think as this offshore wind begins to flood New England, we actually might see power flowing in the opposite direction as well."The level of exports would depend on daily price signals, said Bartels, who spearheads Bloomberg NEF's North American mid- and long-term power system forecasting, but the amount of offshore wind that would be available would be enough to upset the supply-demand balance in certain months. Exports would require coordination between regulators in both countries.

World’s largest offshore wind farm developer to recover, reuse or recycle turbine blades  - Denmark's Orsted said Thursday it would "reuse, recycle, or recover" all turbine blades in its worldwide portfolio of wind farms once they're decommissioned.  The world's largest offshore wind farm developer said it had "a clear responsibility to help find solutions to the challenge of recycling blades."The issue of what to do with wind turbine blades when they're no longer needed is a headache for the industry. This is because the composite materials blades are made from can be difficult to recycle, with Orsted noting that "most" blades, once decommissioned, were landfilled.As governments around the world attempt to ramp up their renewable energy capacity, the number of wind turbines globally looks set to increase.The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said that in the offshore sector alone it wants capacity to hit at least 60 gigawatts by 2030 and 300 GW by the middle of the century.The U.K., which left the EU at the end of January 2020, wants its offshore wind capacity to reach 40 GW by 2030. The U.S. is also looking tosignificantly increase its offshore wind capacity this decade.Given the above, the problem of what to do with turbine blades will become even more pressing going forward. For its part, Orsted explained it would "temporarily store" decommissioned blades if finding a solution to recycling them took "longer to solve than anticipated." A number of companies involved in the sector have attempted to find solutions to the issue in recent years. In January 2020, wind energy giantVestas said it was aiming to produce "zero-waste" wind turbines by the year 2040.Last December, GE Renewable Energy and Veolia North America signed a "multi-year agreement" to recycle blades removed from onshore wind turbines in the United States. More recently, it was announced that a collaboration between academia and industry would focus on the recycling of glass fiber products, a move that could eventually help to reduce the waste produced by wind turbine blades.

Senate passes bill creating new hurdles for wind, solar development - -The Ohio Senate passed legislation Wednesday granting new powers to county commissions to scuttle wind and solar development projects.Senate Bill 52 would require the green energy developers — before filing a separate application with the state Power Siting Board that currently exists in law — to hold a public hearing with advance notice to local officials.County commissions could then pass resolutions to ban wind or solar projects outright or limit them to certain “energy development districts” in the county.The bill passed on a 20-13 vote, with five Republicans joining all eight members of the Democratic caucus in opposition.A fellowship of unlikely allies opposed the bill, including the green energy industry and its advocates, utility companies like American Electric Power, oil drillers like BP, the Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Farm Bureau, and the Ohio Manufacturing Association.The bill’s critics argued the Ohio Power Siting Board already imposes a rigorousapplication process that spans pricey submissions, environmental reviews, public hearings, staff investigations and a decision from seven voting board members (comprised mostly of the governor’s cabinet heads). SB 52, they said, is simply another layer of bureaucracy that doesn’t apply to coal or natural gas. This is likely to chill interest in potential development. The bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, said fossil fuels like natural gas and coal are more necessary for the reliability of the grid than wind and solar. He said the legislation is about giving the localities a voice. “I think when you’re looking at, for example, a natural gas plant: a natural gas plant is going to be confined within one area, a natural gas plant is not going to affect nearly as many acres in most places as these solar and wind projects are. They’re not as transformative, and they’re not being put primarily in residential areas in rural parts of the state,” he said.

Opponents Say Renewable Energy Referendum Bill Creates Too Much Regulation | The Statehouse News Bureau --The Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee plans to hold a hearing on SB52 Wednesday that would allow local voters the ability to deny a renewable energy project through a referendum. Opponents say it creates unfair regulation on the clean energy industry.A pair of Republican Senators are sponsoring the bill saying they want to allow communities to hold a referendum on wind or solar energy projects, giving voters more of a voice in the process.But Dan Sawmiller, Ohio energy policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, says there's already a rigorous process in place through the Ohio Power Siting Board that includes ample time for public input."If there is a sort of double regulatory scheme that's designed in a way that makes it easy to kill these projects, all the way up to the eleventh hour, it just makes Ohio a state that's not friendly to that kind of investment," Sawmiller says.Along with environmental advocates, business groups and energy companies have also opposed the bill saying it creates more barriers to entry for development.The bill is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday when lawmakers could introduced changes to the legislation and possibly hold a vote.

Analysis suggests climate policy in Ohio could save the world as much as $1 trillion - A recent analysis puts a price tag on climate policy in Ohio.Adopting any of three major climate policies in the state — a renewable portfolio standard, cap-and-trade system, or a carbon tax — would help society avoid up to $1 trillion in costs over the next three decades.The figure comes from Scioto Analysis, an Ohio public policy research group thatcalculated the economic stakes of the three policies in the state.Without policy action, the range of expected climate change impacts from Ohio’s energy production include pollution- and temperature-related health problems, costs for infrastructure repairs and upgrades, and agricultural productivity losses.Ohio is vulnerable but wouldn’t bear all or necessarily even most of those costs. Climate impacts are not equitably distributed, and many communities least responsible for global emissions face the most consequences from a warming world. At the same time, emissions from other states affect Ohio.In any case, a federal carbon policy could ultimately force Ohio to reckon with some or all of the economic impacts if the state does not.Scioto Analysis Principal Rob Moore argued that it is in the state’s best economic interest to start considering policies to address its greenhouse gas emissions.“They’re all very effective, and they’re three great choices for policymakers in Ohio to choose from,” he said.    The study looked at strong and weak options for each policy choice. The report used Energy Information Administration data from 2008 to 2018 to project annual carbon dioxide emissions from Ohio’s energy production through 2050 under current law, as well as expected emissions under each policy scenario.The team used $30 per metric ton as a conservative estimate for the social cost of carbon and $51 per metric ton as the upper limit. The latter was based on an interim estimate this year from the Biden administration. Cumulative societal benefits by 2050 ranged from low estimates of $650 billion to expected values of $850 billion to $920 billion, with high estimates of $1 trillion for all policy choices.

Texas lawmakers pass emergency pricing, weatherization, oversight body changes - In a flurry of last-minute activity, Texas lawmakers approved eight power-sector-related bills in time for the May 31 regular session deadline, affecting scarcity pricing during emergencies, weatherization of gas and power facilities, and bodies overseeing the state's power grid. The work was designed to address issues arising during and after the deadly mid-February winter storm that left about 4 million Texas power customers in the dark. Twenty-three other bills were left dead in committee, but 16 of those had their issues addressed in one of the bills that have been signed into law or await Governor Greg Abbott's signature. Most of the power grid's systemic and market changes were included in Senate Bill 3, "relating to preparing for, preventing, and responding to weather emergencies and power outages; increasing the amount of administrative and civil penalties." The legislation that emerged from the conference committee and was passed by both houses May 30 establishes an emergency pricing program to take effect if the $9,000/MWh "high systemwide offer cap" has been in effect for 12 hours in a 24-hour period, ensuring generators are reimbursed for reasonable, verifiable operating costs that may exceed the emergency cap. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas' existing scarcity pricing rules requires the HCAP until a "circuit-breaker" threshold is reached —when a hypothetical gas-powered plant has accumulated profit of $315,000, three times the estimated cost of new entry. Once that threshold is reached, the "low systemwide offer cap," which is the higher of either $2,000/MWh or 50 times the current spot fuel index price, is to be used. During the mid-February winter storm, the "50-times-FIP" LCAP would have topped $17,000/MWh, but the PUC instead suspended the rules to set the cap at $9,000/MWh through the end of the energy emergency. Giuliano Bordignon, a power market analyst at S&P Global Platts Analytics, said the emergency pricing program cap "introduces some uncertainties around price spikes, as its cap is not allowed to exceed the nonemergency high system-wide cap." "Furthermore, the low non-emergency system-wide cap is not allowed to exceed the high system-wide cap, making the high system-wide cap the de facto maximum price that a generator can capture in the wholesale market," Bordignon said June 1. Senate Bill 3 also included the  following provisions:

• Weatherization of electricity generation facilities and gas facilities to supply electricity generation, with penalties for noncompliance
• Designation of certain natural gas facilities as critical infrastructure
• Notification to electric customers about load-shedding procedures
• Establishment of the Texas Energy Reliability Council
• Registration for distributed generation at the level of the local utility with penalties for noncompliance
• Creation of a power outage alert
• The setting of emergency preparedness standards for water utilities

Texas Power Grid Changes May Not Be Enough To Prevent Blackouts : NPR -- Texas state lawmakers had just started a legislative session when deadly blackoutsgripped the state in February. The timing was fortunate. In Texas, legislators typically meet only once every two years. The fact that they were already in Austin meant they could act quickly, and many vowed to shore up the state's electric grid and create safeguards against future power outages.This week lawmakers approved a sweeping package of measures to address specific problems that threaten electric reliability — some of them despite opposition from the oil and gas industry. But many electric grid specialists, policy analysts and state politicians themselves said they've failed to do enough to prevent another blackout disaster.Ever since another major freeze and blackout 10 years ago, experts have said Texas needed to "winterize" or "weatherize" not only its power plants but its oil and gas infrastructure as well. The reason is that cold weather can freeze wellheads and other components in the natural gas supply chain, stopping gas from getting to power plants. Despite February's deadly disaster, it was not clear that would happen this time either. Industry lobbyists, and regulators often seen as cozy with them, rejected winterization Christi Craddick, the elected Republican chair of the state's oil and gas regulatory agency, the Railroad Commission of Texas, even denied the large role oil and gas failures played in the blackout."My industry resolved the problem and didn't really create it," she told lawmakers soon after the blackout.Given such pushback, it was a big deal when state Rep. Chris Paddie, a Republican from Marshall, managed to get a sweeping blackout response bill through the Texas House of Representatives. The legislation, known as Senate Bill 3, now awaits Gov. Greg Abbott's signature."It is the bill that addresses those fundamental issues that we identified early on ... with oversight, accountability, communication failures and weatherization," Paddie said as he brought the bill for an initial vote.That weatherization part of Senate Bill 3 allows regulators to determine which parts of the natural gas supply chain are critical to electricity production and then requires that they be protected from the cold.Most agree it is progress. But it only applies to equipment linked directly to power plants. Experts said it ignores the interconnectedness of the gas infrastructure. "What I fear, that it's just not going to be enough," He said if there's another big freeze, "whoever has those direct lines into the power plants and winterizes those is going to point upstream and say, 'Well, those upstream people couldn't get us enough gas.' So yeah, it's hard to see how this is going to provide us full coverage."

DTE CEO: Michigan could need more electricity generation for EVs - DTE Energy Co. expects electric vehicles could represent a 3% to 4% increase in demand in the 2030s, CEO Jerry Norcia told The Detroit News on Wednesday. Key to the Detroit-based utility’s plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 is decreasing electricity demand by 2% each year. EVs, however, are expected to offset much of those decreases, Norcia said. That means Michigan could need more electric generation in the coming decades even as DTE and other utilities are retiring their coal-fired power plants. “I think the EVs, the electric vehicles, will be a game-changer in terms of demand for the electric industry, and there’s also a push to electrify other uses of energy today in industrial processes,” Norcia said during a meeting with The News’ editorial board. “The demand will be in flux, and that could create incremental needs for generation and certainly incremental needs on the grid and wire system to accommodate all this new load. We’ve been getting ready so that we will be ready.” This comes as DTE saw an 8% to 10% increase in demand from residential customers over the past year when many workers were sent home to work remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Norcia said. With many companies, including DTE, adopting a hybrid model allowing employees to continue to work remotely for some days of the week, that demand is likely to remain heightened. DTE has had to beef up certain areas where capacity already was strained and exacerbated by the pandemic. The company also will have to make updates to much of the grid to accommodate EV charging at home, Norcia said.

Virginia advocates seek path forward for electric school buses despite lack of state funds -- An ambitious measure to convert Virginia’s fleet of 17,000 diesel-powered school buses to quieter and cleaner electric models over a decade was praised by health and environmental advocates when it passed the General Assembly at the end of February. But transitioning from yellow to green is expensive. And that hefty price tag became more daunting when House Bill 2118, signed into law by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, was left unfunded. Still, proponents of a bill that drew bipartisan support are optimistic that they can figure out how to tap into state, federal or even private dollars to ensure that fleet turnover is executed in a speedy and equitable fashion. The bill that became law was stripped of its original funding source, a tax on dyed diesel fuel, which is used in farm machinery and other non-highway vehicles. The substitute version creates a grant fund and directs the state Department of Environmental Quality to lead a workgroup to figure out the details.

Abu Dhabi to begin household collection of cooking oil for new biofuel plant - Abu Dhabi's waste management centre will start recycling waste cooking oil from homes and restaurants to produce biofuels. Abdul Mohsin Al Katheeri, acting director of projects and facilities at Tadweer, said the doorstep project is expected to start in Q1 2022. Residents will be provided with secure containers to safely dispose of their used oil. A licensed recycling company will take these containers to Tadweer’s Waste to Energy Plant, which is currently under construction. The processing unit is being set up with the help of Emirates Water and Electricity Company, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Power Corporation. “The used cooking oil is treated using fatty acid to produce biodiesel. Imagine turning the used cooking oil in your kitchen to biodiesel,” Mr Al Katheeri said. The project’s investors will reach out to restaurants and hotels and ask them to recycle their waste cooking oil. “And for people’s homes, we will have a collection centre with containers to dispose of the oil waste,” he said. Tadweer has already been recycling used lubricant oil to base oil since 2010.

Lawmakers Are Firing Back At Fossil Fuel Divestors --As divestment from emissions-heavy fossil fuels and boycotting of the oil sector gain traction in both the public and private sector, a major backlash is brewing around the United States. Lawmakers in more than a dozen red states around the nation are attempting to push through laws that would pull funding from state-run and large financial institutions that take steps to decarbonize their own investment portfolios. In short, the message is simple: “if you divest from coal and oil, we divest from you.”While there are many economies and communities reliant on fossil fuels in the United States whose current livelihoods are under threat from divestment trends, the latest movement to keep it in the ground may in fact be too little, too late according to experts. Just a couple of weeks ago, the International Energy Agency (IEA) issued yet another warning that if the world has any chance of avoiding the most devastating effects of climate change, the world’s remaining fossil fuels need to remain unextracted. “The pathway to net zero is narrow but still achievable,” Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA was quoted by Reuters last month. “If we want to reach net zero by 2050 we do not need any more investments in new oil, gas and coal projects.”These calculations are built on the baseline as agreed upon by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s premiere body of experts on global warming, as well as the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. According to experts, avoiding the very worst effects of catastrophic climate change will necessitate capping the Earth’s rising temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages. Keeping warming to 1.5 degrees (ideally) or 2 degrees (unfortunately more realistically) will require the global community to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by just 2050. All of this is to say that divestment, while divisive, is urgently necessary to reach that goal. “To achieve net zero, global investment in fossil fuel supply should fall from $575 billion on average over the past five years to $110 billion in 2050, with upstream fossil fuel investment restricted to maintaining production at existing oil and natural gas fields,” a Reuters report summarized. One of the most vocal state treasurers among the 15 that are ready to put their weight behind defending fossil fuels from divestment is that of West Virginia, a state that still relies on coal, one of the most emissions-intensive fossil fuels and therefore public enemy number one for climate activists, for a huge portion of the state economy. Other states included in the movement include North Dakota, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, all of which depend on fossil fuels to a large degree to keep their economies afloat. These 15 state officials sent an open letter to John Kerry last Tuesday stating their intention to pull state funding from fossil fuel divestors and their overall stance against the federal government’s efforts to downsize the domestic fossil fuel industry.

US coal-fired power output decline continues with last PSEG coal plant retirement --Public Service Enterprise Group said June 1 that it had retired its last remaining coal-fired power plant, the 400-MW Bridgeport Harbor Station Unit 3 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which operated since 1968, and is part of a continued US trend toward coal plant retirements. Originally designed to be fueled with oil or coal, Unit 3 was converted to a full-time coal unit in 2002 and provided 400 MW of peaking capacity to southern Connecticut, meaning the plant only operated during times of peak energy demand like extreme heat or extreme cold, the company said in a statement. Subsidiary PSEG Power operated the plant. "For PSEG, the retirement of BHS 3 marks the end of our company's coal era, reflecting a nationwide trend toward the use of cleaner fuels to generate the electricity we need to power our lives," Ralph Izzo, PSEG president and CEO, said in the statement. The company is still working to sell its remaining mostly natural gas-fired fossil fuel assets by the end of 2021. The natural gas-fired Bridgeport Harbor Station Unit 5 remains operating at the site and is one of the plants the company is looking to sell as part of its shift to being a regulated utility. Following the sale, PSEG Power's fleet will consist almost entirely of carbon-free electricity, including nuclear plants in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and new investments in offshore wind generation. Interestingly, the coal plant was only dispatched to operate for two days in 2020, and not at all in 2019, before running for nearly two uninterrupted months to supply additional power to the grid during an extended period of cold weather in January and February of 2021, PSEG said. "That remarkable run, even as the unit was just weeks from retiring permanently, reflects the readiness and determination of the entire Bridgeport Harbor 3 team, with support from BHS 5, New Haven and the entire PSEG Fossil organization," Izzo said.

N.H. now has the region's last coal-burning electricity plant - Granite Geek -- Bridgeport Harbor Station Unit 3 in Connecticut shut Monday, as had long been planned. The 400-MW unit had been in operation for 53 years. That leaves Merrimack Station in Bow as the last coal-burning plant producing electricity in New England. There are still some coal-burning homes,, though!

Wetzel County coal miner dies in accident -— Trenten J. Dille, 26, of Littleton in Wetzel County, was fatally injured overnight Wednesday while working in the underground section of a Marion County Coal Resources mine, according to the office of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice.“It is an absolute tragedy to lose this hardworking, dedicated young man,” Justice and his wife, first lady Cathy Justice, said in an emailed statement Wednesday after learning of Dille’s death. “Cathy and I are heartbroken for his loved ones and fellow miners. We ask that you please keep this man in your prayers during this difficult time.” The West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training continues to investigate the accident. Initial information indicates the edge or rib of a coal support pillar fell and struck Dille, a section foreman, according to the governor’s release.

Mitchell coal-fired plant supporters dominate Public Service Commission public comment hearing - Marshall County residents, workers, union and government officials sent a clear message to West Virginia utility regulators Wednesday: Keep the Mitchell power plant open as long as possible. Proponents of saving the Mitchell coal-fired generating facility from being closed 12 years ahead of schedule in 2028 dominated the West Virginia Public Service Commission’s videoconference hearing to take public comments on Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power plans to make federal environmental upgrades to three coal-fired generating facilities required to keep them operating through the end of their lifespans. “Please keep it open and let these families survive,” 15-year Mitchell plant employee Edward R. Sincavich of Wheeling pleaded, one of two dozen commenters urging the commission to consider what they said would be catastrophic economic consequences for the upper Ohio Valley if the plant were to close in 2028.The American Electric Power subsidiaries told the commission in a Dec. 23 filing that they could shutter the Mitchell facility rather than invest in it to comply with federal wastewater guidelines.But West Virginia lawmakers argued to the commission that it’d be worth rate increases to pay for compliance work to keep the Mitchell facility from joining the swelling ranks of retired coal-fired generating plants across the state.  “I’ve heard from hundreds of constituents about saving the plant and the jobs, and not one person has expressed concern about the rate increases to me,” state Delegate Lisa Zukoff, D-Marshall, said.

West Virginia governor liable for $700M coal company loan (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice confirmed on Tuesday that he is personally liable for $700 million in loans taken by his coal companies from a lender in the United Kingdom that went bankrupt. The Republican governor took shots at the bankrupt Greensill Capital U.K. and said “it is a burden on our family beyond belief.” The Wall Street Journal first reported Justice’s debt on Monday. Justice’s businesses face several other woes, including penalties totaling $3.2 million from the federal government and lawsuits over claims his companies failed to deliver coal. Greensill sold the loans to investment funds managed by Credit Suisse Group AG, which froze the funds in March and is in talks with Justice’s Bluestone Resources Inc. and other borrowers to get paid, the Journal reported. Justice said at his regularly-scheduled pandemic news conference that the loans were acquired to rebuild Bluestone after a period of decline. The Roanoke, Virginia-based company is involved in mining metallurgical grade coal used for steel making. Bluestone sued Greensill, a supply chain finance firm, after it went under in March over allegations of fraud. The Financial Conduct Authority, Britain’s financial regulatory body, has announced a formal investigation into Greensill’s collapse after receiving allegations that it said were “potentially criminal in nature.” “If you knew all the details you’d know that evidently Greensill is a bad, bad actor, and you know almost in partnership with the Credit Suisse people,” Justice told reporters. He said he had not read the story in the Journal. “Our companies are good and they’ve done the right stuff,” he added. “It’s very unfortunate and truly it’s a pain, that’s all there is to it.”

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice Is Personally Liable for $700 Million in Greensill Loans - West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is personally on the hook for nearly $700 million in loans his coal companies took out from now-defunct Greensill Capital, according to people familiar with the loans and documents described to The Wall Street Journal.Mr. Justice’s personal guarantee of the loans, which hasn’t been reported, puts financial pressure on the popular Republican governor. He is also dealing with unrelated lawsuits alleging parts of his sprawling network of coal companies breached payment contracts or failed to deliver coal.Greensill packaged the loans and sold them to investment funds managed by Credit Suisse Group AG . Credit Suisse and Greensill ran $10 billion in supply-chain finance funds that extended financing to a range of borrowers.The Swiss bank froze the investment funds in March and is in talks with Mr. Justice’sBluestone Resources Inc. and other borrowers to recoup money to make investors whole, according to the people familiar with the discussions. Credit Suisse is under pressure to recover money quickly and has named Bluestone as one of three large borrowers from the Greensill funds that it has identified in its recovery efforts.Bluestone hadn’t expected to begin repaying the Greensill loans until 2023 at the earliest, it said in a lawsuit brought in March in a New York federal court alleging Greensill committed fraud in its lending practices.

Devaughn: Apco wants customers to pay more for coal - Virginia is among a crop of leading states committed to reducing their carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and all credit belongs to the Virginians who demanded climate action and made their voice and votes heard. And right now, Appalachian Power Company (APCo) is dead-set on powering Virginian homes with dirty coal through 2040 despite a bevy of cheaper and cleaner options more in line with the Commonwealth’s climate commitments. And here’s the even dirtier truth about APCo’s plan: they wantyou to pay a steep price for burning this coal.Columbus, Ohio, headquartered APCo has requested from the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) a rate increase on Virginian customers in order to make pollution control updates at two coal plants over the border in West Virginia.The utility wants to make these upgrades in order to keep the plants running for another two decades. How much are we talking about? According to an energy economist who submitted testimony before the SCC, keeping both plants running through 2040 as APCo wants to do would cost ratepayers up to $1 billion.The economics simply do not make sense. And the prospect of burning the dirtiest fuel for another couple decades goes counter to the direction that not only Virginia is taking on energy and the climate but the rest of the country and the world.Coal is too expensive and too dirty compared to clean energy alternatives that are already more affordable and are only becoming cheaper by the day.The Staff to the SCC recently filed their own testimony on the request, and appear to agree. While officially taking “no position” on whether or not the Commission should approve the upgrades, these experts concluded that “it would appear to be inconsistent with market and industry trends to assume that the Amos and Mountaineer Plants will be able to operate economically in the market through 2040.” And further, that this assumption is “central to the Company’s analysis,” which means it’s fatally flawed.Additionally, this rate increase would come on top of some of the highest electricity bills in the nation. It’s beyond bold for APCo to make this request at a time when working families are struggling to make it through the pandemic and its economic impact.  This is deeply unfair and attempting to prop up uneconomic and polluting coal plants is not sustainable. Virginians should not be made to subsidize this $1 billion denial of reality.

As Illinois Strains to Pass a Major Clean Energy Law, a Big Coal Plant Stands in the Way - After more than a decade of controversy, a move to force the closing of a Southern Illinois coal plant owned by municipal utilities across eight states is one of the final sticking points in the Illinois Legislature over a major energy bill. If the Prairie State plant is forced to shut down by 2035, as legislators have proposed, it would begin the final chapter of a saga that led to the construction of one of the country’s last new coal plants, one that became a major source of air pollution. “Prairie State, by itself, makes up a significant portion of the power-sector emissions in our state,” said J.C. Kibbey, a clean energy advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Illinois. Beside being dirty, the plant left the operators of some locally owned electric utilities in the area furious over unfulfilled promises of competitive prices. In exchange for the guarantee of reliable power with predictable pricing, the utilities took ownership in the massive plant, signing up for decades of debt. If the plant is forced to close, they, as owners, will have to continue repaying the debt even as they have to find and pay for replacement sources of electricity that could lead to much higher electricity bills, a scenario that is fueling reluctance by some to pass the bill. Over the past week, the plant emerged as an obstacle to passage of key energy legislation in Springfield—a bill that would include an expansion of subsidies for nuclear plants, more funding for renewable energy projects and a ramping-up of climate targets that would include a phaseout of coal power. Going beyond a May 31 deadline to finish their work, lawmakers are trying to find a way to respond to concerns about the financial ramifications of closing Prairie State. Environmental advocates say the state can’t afford to let the plant continue to operate if Illinois is to meet its climate goals. Lawmakers backed by environmental groups also are considering a state bailout of more than $600 million of three Exelon nuclear plants. Tensions are high because many participants see past clean energy legislation as having fallen short of promises.

Can mining agency keep Biden's promise to coal country? -- President Biden has made the cleanup and restoration of abandoned mines a cornerstone of his effort to reinvigorate the economies of coal communities, earning praise from advocates of a fair transition away from fossil fuels.But while Biden has big ambitions to tackle mine reclamation, he hasn't yet nominated a director of the cleanup agency, the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement."Right now, we just really need a leader at OSMRE," said Shannon Anderson, attorney at the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a landowner advocacy group based in Wyoming."We need somebody who's going to take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and really get a handle on abandoned mine land issues and the opportunities this administration wants to put forward."Between Biden's infrastructure plan and his preliminary budget outline, the White House has proposed spending nearly $17 billion on abandoned mines and orphaned oil and gas wells.Biden's full budget proposal released last week would see OSMRE receive a $50 million bump for its grant program to create economic activity on former mine lands, such as converting them into commercial spaces or outdoor recreation opportunities (Greenwire, May 28).Activists say these measures could help bridge the gap for workers hurt by coal's downturn and assist whole communities dealing with the industry's legacy of degraded land and dirty water.But it is a big task at a pivotal point. Although the White House has created an interagency working group to focus on the needs of coal communities — and appointed Brian Anderson, an Energy Department official, to spearhead it — advocates say strong leadership at OSMRE also will be crucial (Energywire, April 23).

Plunging Payouts on Top U.S. Power Grid Slam Coal, Nuclear  --Coal plants, nuclear reactors and other generators will take a hit next year on the biggest U.S. power grid as payments designed to ensure the lights remain on from New Jersey to Illinois plunge 64%.Suppliers to PJM Interconnection LLC’s grid, which serves more than 65 million people, will get $50 a megawatt-day to provide backup capacity for the year starting June 2022, according to the results of an auction released Wednesday. It’s the lowest price in 11 years.The results are an especially harsh blow for coal plants and nuclear reactors already struggling to compete. The PJM auction is the single most important event for generators across the eastern U.S., including Calpine Corp., NRG Energy Inc. and Exelon Corp., because it dictates a big chunk of their future revenue. It also plays a pivotal role in shaping the region’s electricity mix, determining how  much the region is willing to stick with coal and natural gas plants or replace then with wind and solar.  “I can’t imagine how nuclear is going to be able to cover all their fixed costs with such a low price,” said Brianna Lazerwitz, an analyst for BloombergNEF. Analysts had expected the price to fall, but not nearly so much. A confluence of factors led to the plunge. The demand forecast was lower. Transmission capacity was higher. And a crush of new, cheaper-to-build power plants entered the market, pushing down bids, PJM officials said.. The lower prices could be especially painful for Exelon’s nuclear plants in Illinois, putting pressure on lawmakers to grant them bailouts.Bloomberg Intelligence Analyst Kit Konolige said in aresearch note that Exelon could face a $900 million pretax hit. On Thursday, Exelon issued astatement saying it planned to close two more of its reactors in Illinois unless the state offers subsidies.

Oyster Creek radioactive water splashes on Holtec employee - A Holtec employee was splashed with radioactive water in late February when a lid popped off a storage cask at the defunct Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, the company and nuclear regulators said. The employee, who was wearing protective gear at the time of the incident, was checked for contamination, then returned to work, officials said. The plant, undergoing decommissioning, was cited by federal regulators for a low-level safety violation. While moving spent fuel out of the plant's cooling pool and into concrete and steel casks for storage, a test of a lid seal resulted in a spill through a cask's vent, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A device, used to test the lid seals on casks, became disengaged after snap rings failed, resulting in radioactive water escaping through the vent, he said. The contaminated water splashed onto a worker and spread to two levels of the reactor building, Sheehan said. The employee's clothes became contaminated and the worker received a radiation dose of less than 10 mrem, or millirem.

 Bill Gates And Warren Buffett Team Up To Build Advanced Nuclear Plant In Wyoming -For the first half of the year, Zero Hedge has been especially constructive on the uranium sector (read: here, here, here), which we believe uranium companies will get a boost as ESG euphoria takes hold. In some of the first signs of a nuclear revival in the US after decades of neglect, billionaire Bill Gates' advanced nuclear reactor company TerraPower LLC and Warren Buffett's PacifiCorp have been chosen by Wyoming to build the first Natrium reactor project, according to Reuters.  Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon announced Wednesday that the state has partnered with TerraPower, Rocky Mountain Power, and PacifiCorp to build a Natrium reactor at a retiring coal plant within seven years. The nuclear plant will replace one of PacifiCorp's coal-fired plants, Gordon said. He said the ability to use nuclear power would allow the state to maintain its future goals of becoming carbon negative while using fossil fuels.  "I am not going to abandon any of our fossil fuel industries. It is absolutely essential to our state," Gordon said.Chris Levesque, president and CEO of TerraPower, said, "together with PacifiCorp, we're creating the energy grid of the future where advanced nuclear technologies provide good-paying jobs and clean energy for years to come. The Natrium technology was designed to solve a challenge utilities face as they work to enhance grid reliability and stability while meeting decarbonization and emissions-reduction goals."

Columbia Gas of Ohio to seek first rate increase since 2008 -- Columbia Gas of Ohio is preparing to ask for an increase in base rates for the first time since 2008. The natural gas distribution company has filed a notice with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio that it intends to seek a rate increase for its distribution service. The increase wouldn't go into effect until at least next year. The increase would raise the average customer's monthly base fee about $11 per month to $46 per month. The cost of gas, along with other fees and taxes, would be in addition to that. The rate increase is for pipelines and the system used to distribute natural gas. It does not apply to the commodity itself; Columbia Gas doesn't profit from the sale of gas. Columbia Gas says a rate increase is necessary to ensure the continued safe and reliable delivery of natural gas and to meet the compliance deadlines for new federal pipeline safety rules. Its work includes upgrading aging pipes and other infrastructure and technology used to inspect and detect pipeline leaks. Columbia Gas says it will continue to invest in programs to help customers save energy and become more efficient. Columbia said it understands the strain of higher bills on customers, but it said now is a good time to make these investments since natural gas prices remain low. Columbia maintains more than 20,000 miles of natural gas pipelines and facilities that serve its 1.4 million customers in 61 of Ohio's 88 counties. In September 2018, a natural gas explosion in Massachusetts killed one person, injured several others and damaged homes and businesses in three Boston suburbs. The explosion occurred as Columbia Gas of Massachusetts was overhauling its natural gas lines, replacing old cast-iron pipes with new plastic pipes.

Legislators, watchdog want requirement for utility refunds -Two bills in Ohio’s legislature are furthering the push by the state’s consumer watchdog to require the utilities commission to refund millions to customers who paid for charges later deemed improper by the state Supreme Court.Electric customers, since 2009, have paid $1.5 billion in such charges that the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio failed to make subject to refunds, Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Bruce Weston said.In a statement, Weston said it’s a “travesty of justice for consumers.” “It would be understandable if Ohioans think the system is rigged against them in favor of utilities with their undue influence,” he said. According to the Office of the Consumers’ Counsel, Dayton Power & Light collected $548 million, AEP Ohio $526 million and FirstEnergy Corp. $456 million in customer charges deemed improper over the last decade. Jenifer French, during a recent confirmation hearing for her appointment as the new chair of the utilities commission, said the Legislature would have to pass a law allowing the commission to include refund provisions. ”I think the Supreme Court was very clear on that,” French said.But Republican Sen. Mark Romanchuk, of Ontario, disagreed, saying the Supreme Court already gives the commission the power to order refunds. “That’s $1.5 billion that has been pulled out of our economy, which I would argue is not a good thing,” he said during the hearing. The confusion about what charges are subject to refund is largely a group effort by the utility commission, the court and the Legislature’s arcane state utility laws. The court in a 5-2 vote in 2014 cited a 1957 decision that said improper charges by a Cincinnati telephone company were not subject to a refund. AEP Ohio was allowed to keep $368 million customers paid to recover costs associated with environment-related spending. Fast forward to a 2019 Supreme Court ruling that said the commission improperly gave Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. the authority to collect around $160 million a year for upgrades that both the company and the commission acknowledged would be used to bolster FirstEnergy’s credit rating, not new equipment.The $456 million was placed into a “credit” pool from which FirstEnergy companies, including those located outside Ohio, could borrow from.The PUCO said in its original order that requiring a refund would be counterproductive and defeat its purpose. The ruling said the $456 million could not be refunded because the commission failed to include a requirement for paying back customers.Months later, the utility commission, based on the court’s earlier ruling, ended Dayton Power & Light’s ended charges for a rider similar to FirstEnergy’s from which the company had charged customers $218 million. No refunds were ordered.

SELLING OUT IN THE STATEHOUSE - A timeline deep dive inside HB 6 and the biggest government scandal in Ohio state history.  The investigation into Ohio's largest corruption scheme is all about money and power. The owner of two nuclear power plants in northern Ohio wanted a $1 billion bailout to keep its plants running. A Republican lawmaker hoping to make a comeback wanted help returning to power.The result was a nearly $61 million bribery scheme to elect Perry County Rep. Larry Householder to lead the Ohio House of Representatives, pass House Bill 6 to subsidize the nuclear plants and defend that law against a ballot initiative to block it. In July 2020, Householder and four allies were arrested on racketeering charges and now face up to 20 years in prison for their alleged crimes. In the months since, Akron-based FirstEnergy has fired executives, a state utility regulator has resigned following a FBI search of his home and federal investigators have continued asking questions. How far did the quest for money and power go? (excerpts)

• Nov 2016: FirstEnergy report to shareholders paints grim future and in an earnings call, executives discuss advocating for Ohio’s support for its two nuclear plants.
• Jan. 2017: Householder and one son ride on FirstEnergy’s private jet to DC for President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
• Generation Now and an entity described in court documents as “Energy Pass-Through” are incorporated as 501(c)(4) organizations and start receiving millions of dollars from FirstEnergy and affiliated companies.
• January 10, 2018  The FBI starts recording calls between key targets. It’s unclear if they were listening in before this.
• March 28, 2018 - FirstEnergy Solutions announces it will close two northern Ohio nuclear power plants by 2021. Three days later it files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. FirstEnergy proposes separating from FirstEnergy Solutions.
• April 10, 2018: Republican Cliff Rosenberger resigns as Ohio House speaker. The FBI searches his property May 23. 
• Money is wired from Generation Now to a political action committee that supports Householder allies running for legislative seats.
• July 24, 2018$215,000 is wired from the accounts of Jeff Longstreth, a political aide to Householder, to settle a personal lawsuit against Householder.
• Aug. 1, 2018Householder meets with FirstEnergy executives in Columbus; Franklin County court releases and discharges judgment against Householder and Householder Ltd. 
• Sept. 21, 2018Dark Money Group 1 incorporated by an Ohio lobbyist. Within days, Generation Now wired $670,000 to Dark Money Group 1.
• Oct 2018-Feb 2020$1 million in FirstEnergy is transferred to a PAC account to a coalition to benefit Team Householder candidates for the 2020 primary election. 
• Oct. 10, 2018 - Gov. Mike DeWine attends the Republican Governors Association fundraiser at the Columbus Club, meets with FirstEnergy officials. The next day, FirstEnergy Solutions contributes $500,000 to the RGA. https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/firstenergy-pumped-1m-into-backing-dewine-records-show/ZHCCGM5E6JB4RDNKUKZK7KYKEQ/ 
• Jon Husted (left) and Mike DeWine celebrate the win for their Republican gubernatorial ticket at the GOP celebration at the Sheraton Hotel on Capitol Square on Nov. 6, 2018.
• Dec 18, 2018 DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and FirstEnergy executives Chuck Jones (pictured) and Mike Dowling have dinner at the Athletic Club of Columbus.
• Jan 6, 2019 Householder wins speakership in a 52-46 vote. The next day he pledges to create a special committee on energy generation.
• Jan. 17, 2019 Sam Randazzo applies for a seat on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
• Feb. 4, 2019 DeWine appoints Randazzo as PUCO chair.
• April 12, 2019 Householder unveils House Bill 6, which would provide subsidies for nuclear power plants and overhaul the state’s energy policy, to the press.
• April-May 2019. FirstEnergy sends more than $9 million to Generation Now to run a pressure campaign to pass House Bill 6. 
• May 29, 2019 HB6 passes House 53-43 July 17, 2019 \HB6 passes Senate 19-12.
• July 23, 2019 House concurs with Senate changes, 51-43. DeWine signs it into law.
• July 30, 2019 Ohioans for Energy Security, described as “Front Company” in federal documents, is organized as a for-profit entity in Ohio. Carlo LoParo is listed on media buy forms as the president.
• July 24 to Oct 22, 2019 FirstEnergy sends more than $38 million to Generation Now. Aug. 5, 2019 Former Ohio Republican Party chairman Matt Borges incorporates 17 Consulting Group, which receives cash from Generation Now.
• Fall 2019 DeWine asks FirstEnergy to contribute to contribute to help his daughter Alice DeWine run for Greene County prosecutor.
• Sept 1 & 2, 2019: Borges contacts Tyler Fehrman and tries to get him to give insider information on the referendum campaign. Fehrman declines and then goes to the FBI.
• Sept 10, 2019: Fehrman wears a wire while meeting with Borges. Days later, Borges gave him a $15,000 check.
• Sept. 23, 2019: Federal officials secretly record Householder, lobbyist Neil Clark (pictured) and others at a dinner club meeting about the referendum.
• Oct 22, 2019 House Bill 6 takes effect. Energy Pass Through sends another $7.3 million in FirstEnergy cash to Generation Now.

Network of companies looking to move fracking wastewater in barges up and down Pittsburgh's rivers -  Mil­lions of gal­lons of briny, toxic, waste­wa­ter from shale gas drill­ing and frack­ing op­er­a­tions could soon be loaded onto barges and pushed down the Al­le­gheny, Mo­non­ga­hela and Ohio riv­ers. A loose net­work of river tank ter­mi­nal and barge com­pa­nies has floated plans to be­gin ship­ping waste­wa­ter con­tain­ing pe­tro­leum con­den­sates, can­cer-caus­ing chem­i­cals and ra­dio­ac­tive ma­terial, be­tween as many as seven river ter­mi­nal sites spread out over hun­dreds of miles of the re­gion’s ma­jor wa­ter­ways. The barg­ing of waste­wa­ter on riv­ers has been dis­cussed for at least a dozen years, but like a tow on a sand­bar, the in­dus­try ini­tia­tive has been re­peat­edly side­lined due to per­mit­ting is­sues, en­vi­ron­men­tal con­cerns and the risk of con­tam­i­na­tion of pub­lic wa­ter sup­plies that draw from the riv­ers. Although shale gas well drill­ing and frack­ing have been in a trough due to low nat­u­ral gas prices, in­ter­est in barg­ing waste­wa­ter has re­kin­dled in re­cent years as trans­port and dis­posal of the mixed liq­uid wastes have be­come cost­lier for the drill­ing in­dus­try. In meet­ings, let­ters and emails with reg­u­la­tors, barge com­pa­nies and ter­mi­nal own­ers have pressed reg­u­la­tory agen­cies to is­sue au­tho­ri­za­tions, ap­prov­als and per­mits. And drill­ing in­dus­try pub­li­ca­tions are tout­ing the pub­lic safety and eco­nomic ben­e­fits of mov­ing waste­wa­ter by tanker barge. Last month, in the first pub­li­cized ac­knowl­edge­ment that the idea of waste­wa­ter barg­ing is start­ing to move again, Belle Ver­non-based Gutt­man Realty Co. re­ceived a grant of al­most $500,000 from the Penn­syl­va­nia Depart­ment of Com­mu­nity and Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment’s Com­mon­wealth Financ­ing Au­thor­ity to ret­ro­fit the ex­ist­ing tank and barge load­ing ter­mi­nal along the Mo­non­ga­hela River in Speers, Wash­ing­ton County, 43.5 river miles above Pitts­burgh’s Point. The changes would al­low the Speers ter­mi­nal to ac­cept tanker truck­loads of waste­wa­ter, also known by the shale gas in­dus­try term “pro­duced wa­ter,” ac­cord­ing to an April news re­lease tout­ing the grant from State Rep. Bud Cook, R-Belle Ver­non. “The fa­cil­ity will be mod­i­fied,” the re­lease stated, “to ac­cept waste wa­ter from the nat­u­ral gas in­dus­try by truck to be stored in ex­ist­ing tanks and ul­ti­mately trans­ported by barge to the treat­ment fa­cil­ity in Ohio.” Using barges to trans­port waste­wa­ter also will re­duce truck traf­fic, die­sel ex­haust, truck-auto col­li­sions and road dam­age, the re­lease stated.But mul­ti­ple en­vi­ron­men­tal or­ga­ni­za­tions from the tri-state area have strong con­cerns and many ques­tions about those plans, say­ing river waste­wa­ter trans­port is poorly reg­u­lated and in­creases risks of chem­i­cal and ra­dio­ac­tive spills, and those spills can con­tam­i­nate wa­ter­ways that are drink­ing wa­ter sources for mil­lions of peo­ple, and, in­creas­ingly, rec­re­ational ven­ues. They say drill­ing and frack­ing waste­wa­ter con­tains salty brines, drill­ing and frack­ing chem­i­cals and nat­u­rally oc­cur­ring ra­dio­ac­tive ma­terial flushed from shale for­ma­tions thou­sands of feet un­der­ground. Ra­dium-226 and ra­dium-228, both found in brine waste, are known car­cin­o­gens and can cause bone, liver and breast can­cer in high con­cen­tra­tions, ac­cord­ing to the U.S. Centers for Dis­ease Con­trol and Preven­tion. The waste­wa­ter can also con­tain other ra­dio­ac­tive com­po­nents, in­clud­ing Po­tas­sium 40, Tho­rium 232, and Ura­nium 238.

America Is Building Mountains of Radioactive Fracking Waste & the One in Joe Biden's Hometown Is Under Criminal Investigation - A Public Herald Exclusive Podcast (with transcript)A community group’s letter about a landfill accepting fracking’s radioactive waste caught the attention of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes Unit. In the heart of President Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, theFriends of Lackawanna are fighting the massive expansion of Keystone Sanitary Landfill, a waste dump that accepts radioactive material created by fracking for oil and natural gas.“This is the future of our community at stake,” said Michele Dempsey from Friends of Lackawanna. “Our community lives or dies on this [expansion] decision, and so we gave it our hearts and souls.” Dempsey’s community is just one of many across America where, since fracking began, state and federal regulators have sent radioactive material to residual waste sites. As this waste piles up in public and private landfills, the size and risk of these “TENORM Mountains” looms large.In Dunmore, according to resident Sharon Cuff, three new anti-landfill candidates were newly elected in the May 2021 primary: Mark Conway (Mayor), William O’Malley (City Councilor) and Katherine Oven (City Councilor).Dempsey, Cuff, and Maloney are part of Friends of Lackawanna, a non-profit group dedicated to protecting the health  and safety of Lackawanna County from a proposed165-foot vertical expansion of Keystone across 435 acres, which includes a 145-million cubic yard capacity increase. Any day now, the expansion could be approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), dramatically increasing the amount of radioactive material from fracking waste accepted at Keystone until it becomes higher than the Statue of Liberty. Keystone has a dirty history of contaminating groundwater, alleged illegal dumping, and other faulty operations that have led to federal investigation and litigation. The latest is its trouble with landfill leachate, the contaminated liquid that leaches out of landfill debris after rainfall.In December 2020, Keystone was punished by the DEP for contaminating groundwater with leachate and for storing it above regulatory limits, in violation of the Solid Waste Management Act. But records reviewed by Public Herald show that during the leachate investigation DEP did not require radiological testing of the leachate, despite outcry from Friends of Lackawanna. Radioactive material within the fracking waste buried at Keystone and other landfills is water soluble, which means that when it rains, radionuclides like cancer-causing radium-226 end up in landfill leachate. After receiving little help from Pennsylvania DEP about radioactivity and other concerns, the Friends of Lackawanna stopped hearing from DEP all together. So the group reached out to their District Attorney, who referred them to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Environmental Crimes office.

Behind Pennsylvania's “Green” Activists: Pennsylvanians Against Fracking - Capital Research Center - Pennsylvanians Against Fracking is a front for the far-left Food and Water Watch (FWW), one of the country’s leading anti-fracking groups. FWW zealously opposes all forms of carbon-based fuels. Its website states that “we must end fossil fuels” and “a national ban on fracking is key.” FWW practices a kind of environmental fundamentalism, warring on “fake climate solutions” put forward by Democratic politicians and corporations who pay lip service to global warming. Most recently, the group attackedCalifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a leftist luminary, for supposedly shilling for Big Oil because his executive order banning future sales of gasoline-burning cars by 2035 didn’t go far enough.This sometimes has the amusing effect of putting FWW at odds with the larger environmental activist movement, with the group calling cap-and-trade a “drastic and ineffective” “scheme” for putting a price on carbon that’s “ultimately paid by consumers.” FWW has pressured Biden to “keep his public lands fracking ban promise,” issuing a March 2021 press release noting that “On the campaign trail, Joe Biden was crystal clear aboutending fracking on public lands.” This clashes with repeated reassurances from many on the professional Left and the media that the Biden administration isn’t interested in banning fracking on federally owned lands and Biden’s own campaign promises that he wouldn’t push for such a policy.Naturally, Pennsylvanians Against Fracking (PAF) has goals that are just asradical as the national organization: a ban on all new oil and gas wells and a statewide moratorium on fracking.Because PAF isn’t a standalone nonprofit but a website owned and operated by FWW, it doesn’t file its own IRS Form 990 report. Donations to the group are directed toward its parent and individual donors are impossible to identify, although a number of major grantors to FWW have been identified. Among them is Heinz Endowments, which isn’t a major donor to FWW but granted it $160,000 in 2019 “to strengthen community protections from shale development.” FWW’s top donors over the last two decades include:

• $33 million from the Greater Kansas Community Foundation;
• $30 million from the Columbus Foundation, an Ohio-based funder of environmental groups;
• $15 million from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation;
• $6 million from the Jewish Communal Fund;
• $4.3 million from Schwab Charitable Fund, a donor-advised fund provider (a kind of charitable savings account for anonymous donors);
• $2.4 million from Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, a donor-advised fund provider; and
• $1.6 million from the Park Foundation, an anti–natural gas funder.

Why Biden Isn’t Cracking Down on Fossil Fuels - Picture this predicament, described by our climate reporter Lisa Friedman in her latest article as “a paradox worthy of Kafka”: In order to break through the earth and tap the oil in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, ConocoPhillips must install “chillers” into the thawing permafrost.And why is it thawing in the first place? Because of global warming, brought on by burning the very sort of fossil fuels that ConocoPhillips is extracting.With Joe Biden’s election in November, environmental advocates had hoped that such drilling on U.S. soil might become a thing of the past. But as Lisa documents in her article, ConocoPhillips’s work in Alaska is just one of several drilling and pipeline projects that Biden’s administration has recently gotten behind. Rather than turn back the Trump administration’s support for fossil fuels, Biden is in some cases defending it.The reasons are complicated — and have a lot to do with the tricky politics of governance while Democrats have only the narrowest control of Congress. To help us understand what’s been going on, and what the consequences might be for the environment, I caught up with Lisa today. Here’s what she told me.Hi, Lisa. On the campaign trail last year, Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration for continuing the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. But this month, Biden’s administration has taken a number of steps to endorse actions taken by Trump that would increase drilling on U.S. land and allow a major pipeline project to go forward. Catch us up on what’s happening.When Joe Biden was campaigning for president, he said he wanted to see the United States “transition” away from oil and other fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy, and yes, he also criticized many of his predecessor’s moves that locked in oil, gas and coal development in the United States.Since he’s taken office, Biden has put climate change front and center. He’s set an ambitious goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent from 2005 levels by the end of this decade, and he’s made a huge push on things like electric vehicle charging stations, offshore wind development and other clean energy production.Over the past month, though, his administration has also taken some steps that really worry environmental groups. In at least three cases, the Biden administration has offered support in court or declined to block oil and gas projects that could lock in decades more of the fossil fuel pollution that is heating the planet. The most recent is the administration’s support for ConocoPhillips’s multibillion-dollar oil drilling project in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, known as the Willow project, which was approved by the Trump administration and is slated to produce more than 100,000 barrels of oil a day for about 30 years.

More MU Cos. Join ONE Future Low Methane Emissions Group - A coalition of upstream (drilling), midstream (pipeline), and downstream (utility) companies formed an industry group called ONE Future back in 2014. The aim of the group is to lower methane emissions across all aspects of the natural gas infrastructure system nationwide and to emit (lose into the atmosphere) no more than 1% by 2025. A number of Marcellus/Utica companies have joined (see our previous ONE Future stories here). Since March, nine more companies have joined, including Blue Racer Midstream, Tug Hill Operating, and Banpu. It’s a stampede!  Blue Racer joined on April 1: Our Nation’s Energy Future (ONE Future) today announced the addition of three new members to its Coalition – Blue Racer Midstream, DTE Energy (Gas), and Jonah Energy LLC. These new members bring the Coalition to 41 companies strong. Blue Racer Midstream operates a natural gas gathering system, as well as processing plants and fractionation facilities in the Utica Shale and Marcellus Shale. Their facilities process and separate wellhead production into natural gas residue, ethane, propane, isobutane, normal butane, mixed butane, and natural gasoline. Blue Racer’s lean gas gathering pipelines connect producers to downstream pipelines and markets. They will report within the Gathering & Boosting and Processing Sectors. Detroit-based DTE Energy’s natural gas utility is one of the nation’s largest gas utilities, safely delivering natural gas to 1.3 million Michigan families and businesses in over 500 communities within Michigan. DTE Gas will report its methane intensity associated with their distribution sector of its utility. Jonah Energy is one of the nation’s leading sustainable natural gas producers. Jonah’s leadership challenges the status quo by providing extremely low emission natural gas and industry-leading wildlife conservation measures, while evaluating new technology and future opportunities to lead in a cleaner and low carbon economy. Jonah Energy will report its methane intensity within the Production sector.

W. Cornwall supervisors hear public comment on pipeline pump station application - The latest local skirmish in the nearly decade-long, litigation-filled saga of the Mariner East Pipeline took place Wednesday, June 2, at the Quentin Fire Hall, where local residents addressed the West Cornwall Township Board of Supervisors. The board is considering a permit application that would allow the pipeline’s owner to operate two pump station buildings on Route 322.The supervisors heard from eight township residents who expressed concerns that the pump station could release dangerous gasses – colorless, odorless, and combustible – either through a leak or an explosion, and that Sunoco wasn’t adequately planning for such an event. They also cited the multiple violations committed by Sunoco while constructing the pipeline through the county and what they described as Sunoco’s failure to adequately communicate with residents throughout the project. None of the speakers asked the supervisors to outright deny Sunoco’s application, but all asked that a series of conditions be placed on the use of the buildings.

Brookline Tries Again For A Fossil-Free Future -On June 2 Brookline voted, again, to become the first municipality in Massachusetts with an ordinance designed to keep fossil-fuel hookups out of new buildings. This was the town’s second attempt to get builders to go all-electric in future construction.Brookline’s first attempt, which was overwhelmingly approved in Town Meeting in 2019, was declared unlawful by Attorney General Maura Healey because it superseded state authority. Healey said she supported Brookline’s clean-energy goals, however.This time, instead of banning fossil-fuel installations in future construction, Town Meeting members proposed two carefully-worded warrant articles. Instead of a ban, the proposals require that people applying for special construction permits agree to go fossil-free in exchange for permit approval. Both proposals passed by margins of more than 200 to 3.Brookline Town Meeting member Lisa Cunningham, one of the leaders of the effort, says municipalities must take action because the state, which is legally obligated to reduce climate emissions to net zero by 2050, has no mechanism for limiting fossil fuel use. Buildings account for 27% of the state's greenhouse gas emissions.Brookline’s new ordinances "won’t get us where we have to go,” Cunningham said, “but it is a first step and we really need to stop making this problem worse; we need to make it better.”

What Cimarex-Cabot deal may say about the Marcellus Shale - The pending merger of Cabot Oil & Gas with Cimarex, a Denver-based shale producer, helps to rewrite the story of Marcellus and Utica Shale development, although analysts say it won’t change much in the near-term. Cabot is one of the largest natural gas producers in Pennsylvania, a pure-play dry gas operator that sits close to the potentially strong markets of New York and New England but, like all the others, are constrained by a lack of pipeline development. Its regional headquarters is in Pittsburgh but most of its drilling is in Susquehanna County. The northeastern part of Pennsylvania has received a lot of attention lately, not only with the $17 billion all-stock merger of Cabot and Cimarex but also the $3 billion pending acquisition of Alta Resource Development’s northeastern Pennsylvania acreage by EQT Corp.  While a major center of the Marcellus and Utica shale is located in southwestern Pennsylvania, both north and south of Pittsburgh, data shows the top county in the state for natural gas production remains Susquehanna. So what happens there helps determine the course of the state’s natural gas industry. Cimarex is involved in shale production in two basins far west of Pennsylvania, including the Permian Basin that is oil-rich but whose natural gas production has limited pricing and markets for the Marcellus and Utica energy companies. Executives were upbeat on the prospects of the Marcellus, and called it “underappreciated.” “They see additional M&A opportunities on the horizon, some of which would presumably be in the Appalachian Basin given their core focus on the area and enthusiasm around the play as a source of gas and the importance of maintaining both gas and oil production in their portfolio,” said Enverus senior M&A analyst Andrew Dittmar. Rystad Energy’s Head of Shale Research, Artem Abramov, doesn’t see any immediate challenges for the Marcellus but sees the potential for the combined company’s interest being moved elsewhere if pipelines continue to be a problem to build. “It is possible that with the persistent infrastructure challenges in the northeast, the new entity will have opportunities to prioritize Delaware (basin) instead of fighting hard for transportation agreements in the Marcellus region,” Abramov said. “So if anything, the new outlook is a slight upside for the Delaware part of the portfolio and a slight downside for the Marcellus.” 

How Southwestern's Haynesville acquisition diversifies its portfolio --Three years ago, Southwestern Energy went all-in on the Appalachian basin by selling off its Fayettesville shale assets for $1.8 billion. Wednesday, Southwestern announced a $2.7 billion deal that will move it from being a pure-play Marcellus and Utica Shale producer to a second shale basin in northern Louisiana. Southwestern is one of the 10 biggest natural gas producers in Pennsylvania. It has a large presence in Washington County, acquired in 2014 along with wells elsewhere in Pennsylvania from Chesapeake Energy. It's grown even further, in West Virginia and Ohio, buying Montage Resources in November 2020 for $193 million. Southwestern has about 3 billion cubic feet of natural gas production in the Marcellus and Utica shales. Indigo Natural Resources will bring 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas production per day in the Haynesville and Bossier shales, one on top of the other in what is called stacked pay. Unlike the Cabot Oil & Gas Corp/Cimarex merger announced last month that will diversify by not just basin but by type — oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids — Southwestern and Indigo combined will be centered on natural gas and natural gas liquids. "It's a very logical move for us, being a leading natural gas company to focus on the two leading natural gas basins in the United States," Bill Way, president and CEO of Southwestern Energy, told analysts Wednesday. Way ticked off what Southwestern considered to be the benefits of the merger: Indigo's strong balance sheet, the production accretive to free cash flow by about 30% in 2022, giving Southwestern better access to the Gulf Coast LNG and industrial markets, and about 1,000 new locations to drill for dry natural gas. Southwestern and Indigo together will have about 85% of its 4 billion cubic feet of combined daily production as natural gas.

Water quality impact to be key consideration as Mountain Valley Pipeline hangs in limbo -The Mountain Valley Pipeline faces a consequential summer. So do the streams and wetlands that the pipeline’s developers are seeking permission to cross. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will decide by July 2 whether to grant or deny additional time to West Virginia and Virginia environmental regulators to consider water permit requests from the joint venture that owns the pipeline, according to Corps Huntington District spokesman Brian Maka. Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC, the joint venture that owns the pipeline, still has applications pending with West Virginia and Virginia state environmental regulators for about 300 water crossings while it seeks approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to tunnel under 120 additional waterbodies. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection asked last month for an additional 90 days beyond the 120 days the Corps of Engineers gave the agency to review Mountain Valley Pipeline’s water permit request. In March, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality requested an additional year to review the pipeline permit application. Both departments previously said that they hadn’t heard back from the Corps. The Mountain Valley Pipeline is designed to be a 303-mile natural gas system traveling from Northwestern West Virginia to Southern Virginia crossing Wetzel, Harrison, Doddridge, Lewis, Braxton, Webster, Nicholas, Greenbrier, Fayette, Summers and Monroe counties in the Mountain State. Pipeline developers have proposed a 125-foot-wide temporary right-of-way to construct the pipeline and a 50-foot-wide permanent right-of-way to maintain and operate the pipeline once in service. Mountain Valley anticipates that the project will have temporary effects on more than 21,000 linear feet of streams and 10 acres of wetlands in West Virginia during the construction phase. The pipeline already has had adverse impacts on West Virginia’s waters. State environmental regulators proposed a consent order earlier this year requiring Mountain Valley to pay a $303,000 fine for violating permits by failing to control erosion and sediment-laden water. That penalty followed a $266,000 fine from the same regulators in 2019 for similar erosion and water contamination issues. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality fined Mountain Valley $2.15 million that same year for water quality violations. “Based on what I’ve seen thus far, I don’t know how they can permit this activity knowing that there are going to be additional impacts to water resources because of MVP’s track record,” West Virginia Rivers Coalition staff scientist Autumn Crowe said. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality reissued a denial of a water quality permit for the planned Southgate extension of the project in April. The Rivers Coalition has staunchly opposed the Mountain Valley Pipeline, joining legal challenges against it. The nonprofit has argued that the planned disturbance of wetlands would permanently alter the soil and hydrology of affected wetlands and that the buried pipeline within streambeds would create an increased risk during flooding.

Gas leak causes massive fire in the middle of Massachusetts street - A dozen homes were evacuated after a gas leak caused a massive fire in the middle of a Massachusetts street Saturday morning.The Marshfield Police Department reported the gas leak near Plain Street around 9:24 a.m. ET and closed off the street where large flames shot up 30 to 40 feet into the sky.The police reported no injuries but residents had to be evacuated while firefighters fought to control the blaze. Marshfield fire Chief Jeffrey Simpson told ABC affiliate WCVB that no utility crews were working in the area at the time the fire started, but firefighters found a downed power line which they think may have ignited the leaking gas from a 6-inch underground main. Firefighters kept the flame going to prevent the gas from pooling in the area and causing a bigger explosion, Simpson said.  "First time in my career I want to see a fire burn, burn, burn," he said. By 7:02 p.m., the authorities said crews were able to isolate the gas line and shut it down, and the fire was put out. Three dozen homes were left without gas, according to the Marshfield police.

'We Won't Pay:' North Brooklyn Pipeline Opponents Launch Gas Bill Strike --  If you don’t want to pay for National Grid’s controversial North Brooklyn Pipeline, don’t pay. That’s the message of the No North Brooklyn Pipeline Coalition, which announced a gas bill strike at midday today, in protest of the pipeline. The pipeline, which is already built, will carry fracked gas under Brownsville, Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, Williamsburg and Greenpoint, ending at a National Grid Depot on Newtown Creek. The coalition is encouraging Brooklynites and others opposed to the pipeline to withhold $66 of their National Grid gas bills, until the state rejects a recent rate hike proposal. They say that’s how much the utility wants to raise Brooklynites’ bills to pay for its controversial pipeline. If 15,151 ratepayers take up the bill strike pledge, National Grid would be short $1 million. National Grid told BK Reader protestors were setting “a dangerous precedent” by telling people not to pay their bills. But strike organizer Lee Ziesche said the people had done everything possible to oppose the pipeline “in the right way,” but it seemed the utility and state didn’t hear them. “We submitted thousands and thousands of comments, we had people who never get involved in these things getting involved, and they just ignored us. “We know they listen to money, so we’re withholding money, because that’s the only thing they care about.”

Battle Brews Over Banning Natural Gas to Homes – WSJ - A growing fight is unfolding across the U.S. as cities consider phasing out natural gas for home cooking and heating, citing concerns about climate change, and states push back against these bans. Major cities including San Francisco, Seattle, Denver and New York have either enacted or proposed measures to ban or discourage the use of the fossil fuel in new homes and buildings, two years after Berkeley, Calif., passed the first such prohibition in the U.S. in 2019. The bans in turn have led Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kansas and Louisiana to enact laws outlawing such municipal prohibitions in their states before they can spread, arguing that they are overly restrictive and costly. Ohio is considering a similar measure. The outcome of the battle, largely among Democratic-led cities and Republican-run states, has the potential to reshape the future of the utility industry, and demand for natural gas, which the U.S. produces more of than any other country. Proponents of phasing out natural gas say their aim is to reduce planet-warming emissions over time by fully electrifying new homes and buildings as wind and solar farms proliferate throughout the country, making the power grid cleaner. Homes and businesses account for about 13% of the nation’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, mostly because natural gas is used in cooking, heating, and washers and dryers. Climate activists say reducing that percentage is critical for states with goals to slash carbon emissions in the coming decades. Opponents in the gas industry counter by citing the higher costs of making many homes fully electric, and pointing to the added security of having a second home energy source to heat and cook with during extreme weather events. They also highlight the preference many home and professional chefs have for using gas-fired stoves. New all-electric homes are cost-competitive with those that use gas in many parts of the country, but retrofits can be considerably more expensive, depending on the existing heating and cooking systems and the cost of effectively converting them. A recent study by San Francisco found that retrofitting all housing units that now use natural gas would cost between $3.4 billion and $5.9 billion, costs that would fall on residents, the city or both. Induction ranges, which use magnets to heat pots and pans directly, can be more expensive to buy than gas ranges, especially in professional kitchens. Restaurant associations across the nation have raised concerns about going electric. Utilities that supply both electricity and natural gas could face more muted impacts if the shift accelerates. But those that supply only natural gas face the prospect of slower growth or even a reversal of demand, especially if momentum builds to electrify both new and existing homes.

Emails: Utilities drafted talking points against gas bans -- Tuesday, June 1, 2021 --  Lawmakers in roughly a dozen states are using strikingly similar talking points as they unleash a wave of legislation aimed at forbidding municipalities from banning natural gas in buildings. A Pennsylvania legislator wants to forbid municipalities from restricting gas hookups because he says it's fossil fuel discrimination. In Georgia, the sponsor of similar legislation said it would protect "freedom of choice." The leader of a Texas bill says, "If a citizen wants to have gas in their home they can." That's no coincidence. Documents obtained by E&E News show how the natural gas industry has honed a unified message as it rushes to block efforts in a small but growing number of cities that seek to limit gas consumption in buildings. Talking points, crafted by a consortium of gas utilities, encourage energy companies and their allies to extol the dangers of limiting gas hookups. They argue such measures threaten to lock homeowners and businesses into costly energy options and stress the importance of fuel diversity. They also tout the environmental benefits of gas, which has elbowed out coal in the power sector and helped reduce carbon emissions. The industry has even coined a term for the pro-gas fight: "energy choice." The gas industry's message has been echoed in statehouses across America since the start of 2020. Eighteen states have passed laws prohibiting municipalities from restricting gas hookups on new construction. A handful of others, including North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, are weighing similar plans. Industry representatives have often partnered with builders' associations, restaurant groups and real estate agents to make their case. The race to enact legislation is a response to local mandates restricting gas hookups in new buildings. These energy entry points at new residential structures can dictate which fuels will be used to heat rooms and water and for cooking over the lifetime of a home. More than 40 California cities have adopted measures restricting gas hookups, and cities in other parts of the country have started to mimic those policies as a way to address climate change. Seattle enacted similar restrictions earlier this year, and the New York City Council introduced a proposal to limit new gas hookups last week.

NCSU study finds vulnerable bear brunt of gas pipelines - NC Health News --For years, individual case studies have found that natural gas pipelines traverse primarily through socially vulnerable communities, resulting in cries of environmental injustice and lawsuits against big gas companies.Now, researchers at N.C. State University have taken those studies a step further with a deep data dive to show that the nation’s counties with the most socially vulnerable populations have significantly higher pipeline densities. The findings suggest that people living in those counties are at greater risk of facing water and air pollution, public health and safety issues, and other negative impacts associated with the natural gas pipelines, said Laura Oleniacz, a spokeswoman for N.C. State.“This is what the communities themselves have been saying for a long time,” said Ryan Emanuel, the study’s lead researcher and a professor in N.C. State’s Center for Geospatial Analytics. “For the first time, we gathered all of this together and zoomed out and took a national look and said, ‘You know what, these pipelines don’t exist in a vacuum.’”The study has been peer reviewed and is being published in GeoHealth, a journal that focuses on the intersection of environmental and Earth sciences, and health. The authors drew their conclusions using data on socially vulnerable communities from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and natural gas pipeline data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Emanuel said. The researchers used the CDC’s data to examine socially vulnerable communities on a county-by-county basis.  The CDC defines social vulnerability as “the potential negative effects on communities caused by external stresses on human health. Such stresses include natural or human-caused disasters, or disease outbreaks.”

FERC Approves Scaled Back Pipe Connecting MU Gas to Gulf Coast --Enjoy the Republican majority on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) while you have it. That majority will end soon. Three FERC Republican commissioners have approved Enable Midstream Partners’ Gulf Run natural gas pipeline which will, in part, connect Marcellus/Utica gas supplies to the Gulf Coast for exporting (see New Pipeline Designed to Connect M-U Gas to Gulf Coast LNG Exports). Both of FERC’s leftwing Democrats, Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick and his sidekick NRDC lawyer Allison Clements, voted against the project. Why are we not surprised? The Gulf Run pipeline will run from northern Louisiana to Gulf Coast markets. The pipeline will connect to other pipelines, and that’s how Marcellus/Utica gas will reach it and go on to the Gulf Coast. In fact, the plan is to connect to multiple pipelines that in turn connect to not only the Marcellus/Utica, but also to the Haynesville, Barnett, and the Mid-Continent shale region too. Gulf Run was originally supposed to flow 2.75 billion cubic feet of gas per day (Bcf/d) running through 165 miles of 42-inch pipeline. The scaled-back version Enable filed with the FERC calls for 134 miles of pipeline that will flow 1.65 Bcf/d. The project is designed to transport natural gas from some of the most prolific natural gas producing regions in the U.S., including the Haynesville, Marcellus, Utica and Barnett shales and the Mid-Continent region, to the U.S. Gulf Coast and is backed by a 20-year commitment for 1.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) from cornerstone shipper Golden Pass LNG. The planned 42-inch pipeline provides for approximately 1.7 Bcf/d of capacity, allowing for upside potential beyond Golden Pass LNG’s commitment. The cost for the project is currently estimated at approximately $540 million, and pipe for the project was recently acquired at favorable pricing relative to market. The contractor bidding process is underway, and the project is anticipated to be placed into service in late 2022.*

FERC must fix its broken approach to pipelines --Experts worldwide agree that avoiding the most devastating impacts of climate change will require a speedy transition away from fossil fuels. Yet in recent years, the U.S. federal government has rubber-stamped nearly every proposal advanced to construct natural-gas pipelines. This practice locks in fossil fuel infrastructure for decades and forces consumers to pay for pipelines that are not needed now or in the future.It’s time to change course and take an approach that avoids bad investments and climate pollution. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the government agency that oversees interstate pipelines, has broad authority to act in the public interest in assessing pipeline applications. The commission should use its authority to meaningfully consider climate impacts and reject proposals that are inconsistent with national energy needs. While an ongoing proceeding offers FERC the opportunity to revise its policies, it will likely require a change in the commission’s membership later this year to allow these crucially important reforms to occur.The debate over FERC’s pipeline approval policy erupted into public view late last month at a tense meeting during which two pipeline extension projects were approved in a 3-2 vote along party lines. Despite the well-recognized link between pipelines and climate change, FERC’s three Republican commissioners dismissed the proposals’ climate-change impacts as insignificant and approved both applications over calls for further study from the two dissenting Democratic commissioners.The emissions impacts from the two proposals are hardly trivial. One of the projects, located in eastern Minnesota, will be the source of up to 925,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, which translates to roughly $50 million in annual climate-change costs, according to calculations based on widely used, conservative climate-damage valuations from the federal government. The total direct construction costs of the project are approximately $57 million — an amount vastly exceeded by the approximately $500 million in climate-change costs expected to accrue over the life of the initial contracts. Yet immediately after calculating the project’s emissions, the majority abruptly concluded that the project’s climate impacts are insignificant and do not merit further attention. The commission’s dismissive approach to the climate impacts of these projects is its latest evasion of its responsibility to fully consider whether a pipeline would serve the public interest. In 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found that FERC’s practice of ignoring the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the combustion of natural gas is unlawful.

U.S. natgas futures jump to 2-week high on warmer outlook (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures rose 4% to a two-week high on Tuesday on forecasts for warmer than previously expected weather over the next two weeks that should boost the amount of gas power generators burn to keep air conditioners humming. Traders also noted that output was on track to decline at the same time soaring global gas prices were pushing U.S. exports close to record highs. Front-month gas futures NGc1 rose 11.8 cents, or 4.0%, to settle at $3.104 per million British thermal units, their highest close since May 17. Despite the big gain on Tuesday, speculators last week boosted their futures and options shorts on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) to the highest since July 2020 because forecasts then were calling for mild weather through mid June. That helped cause the first drop in speculative net long positions on the NYMEX and Intercontinental Exchanges in four weeks. Data provider Refinitiv said gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states slipped to a preliminary 89.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on the first day of June, down from an average of 91.0 bcfd in May. That compares with a monthly record high of 95.4 bcfd in November 2019. With warmer weather coming, Refinitiv projected average gas demand, including exports, would rise from 85.4 bcfd this week to 90.2 bcfd next week. The forecast for this week was higher than Refinitiv predicted on Friday before the long U.S. Memorial Day weekend. 

Natural Gas Futures Slip Ahead of Fresh EIA Data; Tetco Issue Still Unresolved -- After a double-digit gain to start the week, natural gas futures retreated a bit Wednesday as a majority of the previously reported production decline recovered midweek. With traders eyeing another potential bearish storage injection, the July Nymex gas futures contract settled 2.9 cents lower at $3.075. August fell 3.2 cents to $3.094. Spot gas prices continued to strengthen across most of the country, though Southern California recorded steep losses despite the continuation of record heat. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. ultimately went unchanged at $2.850. As for futures, the July Nymex contract fell early. Though some pullback was expected after the sharp spike on Tuesday, the losses were cemented once revisions in the production came to light. However, the news of Texas Eastern Transmission’s (Tetco) force majeure that reinstated a 20% pressure reduction and reduced southwest flows out of Pennsylvania remained front and center. Wood Mackenzie analyst Dan Spangler said flows would be cut by up to 1 Bcf/d, similar to the restrictions implemented last summer following the Danville explosion in the summer of 2019. The pipeline is also capping flows north through Pennsylvania at the Uniontown compressor station to 2.7 MMcf/d. “While this capacity is higher than recent flows, it constrains an outlet for gas that would otherwise be able to travel southwest,” Spangler said. Tetco’s pressure reduction is because of an amended corrective action order from the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA). Tetco indicated that PHMSA had “temporarily approved” the pipeline company’s ability to recommence operations at its “full maximum operating pressure” as of late December 2020 following the completion of its remedial work plan.

US gas storage fields post second consecutive above-average weekly injection -- US natural gas storage fields injected just above the five-year average for the week ended May 28, but below-normal builds are expected in the weeks ahead as gas-fired power generation accelerates and LNG exports outpace June expectations. Storage inventories increased 98 Bcf to 2.313 Tcf, the US Energy Information Administration reported June 3. The build proved greater than the 87 Bcf addition expected by an S&P Global Platts' survey of analysts, but just above the five-year average build of 96 Bcf, according to EIA data. It was the second consecutive week the injection was more than most market expectations. Storage volumes now stand at 386 Bcf, or 41%, less than the year-ago level of 2.699 Tcf, and 61 Bcf, or 2.6%, less than the five-year average of 2.374 Tcf. The NYMEX Henry Hub July contract dipped 2 cents to $3.05/MMBtu in trading on June 3. Summer prices have given back nearly half of the 12 cents of gains picked up on June 1, following reports of a systemwide capacity reduction on Texas Eastern Transmission that is expected to reduce supplies in the US Gulf Coast area for a still undetermined length of time. Even so, the summer strip is sitting well above the $3 level after dipping below it for a week in late May. Capacity reductions notwithstanding, doubts about the tightness in supply-demand balances continue to swirl, particularly as storage inventory builds repeatedly have come in higher than market surveys anticipate, according to Platts Analytics. Platts Analytics' supply and demand model currently forecasts 75 Bcf injection for the week ending June 4, which would measure about 20 Bcf less than the five-year average. Demand fundamentals for the week in progress have unwound the previous week's gains in power generation demand while also seeing a recovery in residential and commercial and industrial loads following losses the week before. Total supplies are down roughly 900 MMcf/d on the week, for an average 94.4 Bcf/d, as offshore production has extended last week's decline by another 200 MMcf/d while net Canadian imports have also pulled back an additional 600 MMcf/d. Downstream, power demand has fallen 2.1 Bcf/d while res-comm and industrial are up by a combined 1.7 Bcf/d. Taken together with a roughly 800 MMcf/d increase in export demand—both LNG feedgas and exports to Mexico—total demand is up by a net 400 MMcf/d week over week. Altogether, balances have trended 1.3 Bcf/d tighter from the reference week, though this is being driven mostly by weaker supply rather than stronger demand.

U.S. natgas futures rise on hotter midday forecasts - (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures rose almost 2% on Friday after midday forecasts called for hotter weather over the next two weeks than previously expected. Traders said they expect that extra heat will prompt power generators to burn more gas to keep air conditioners humming. Front-month gas futures NGc1 rose 5.6 cents, or 1.8%, to settle at $3.097 per million British thermal units. That put the front-month up about 4% for the week after it gained almost 3% last week. Data provider Refinitiv said gas output in the Lower 48 U.S. states averaged 91.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in June, up from 91.0 bcfd in May but still well below the monthly record high of 95.4 bcfd in November 2019. One reason production has slid in recent months is that drillers have not added enough rigs to keep up with natural declines in well output. The number of rigs drilling for gas in the United States this week fell by one to 97. That put the gas rig count down for a fourth week in a row for the first time since May 2020 as drillers focus more on improving cash flow, paying down debt and returning money to shareholders rather than increasing output. RIG/U With warmer weather coming, Refinitiv projected average gas demand, including exports, would rise from 84.6 bcfd this week to 88.0 bcfd next week and 89.7 bcfd in two weeks. The forecast for next week was a little lower than Refinitiv predicted on Thursday due to milder weather.

 Colonial hack exposed TSA’s light-touch oversight of pipeline cybersecurity - Three times over the past year, Colonial Pipeline and the Transportation Security Administration discussed scheduling a voluntary, in-depth cybersecurity review — an assessment the federal agency began doing in late 2018 to strengthen the digital defenses of oil and natural gas pipeline companies, according to a company official and an industry official familiar with the matter.But no such review of Colonial’s systems has occurred, according to a Colonial spokesman. And the pipeline company has previously told federal officials it wants to first complete a headquarters move to a new building — probably in November — though the spokesman, Kevin Feeney, said on Friday that it may allow a review sooner.It’s unknown whether the government-run cybersecurity assessment would have helped Colonial avert the ransomware attack that locked up some of its computer systems this month — and led the company to shut down its entire pipeline, leaving large swaths of the East Coast with fuel shortages.But a range of current and former officials and cybersecurity experts say the company’s ability to avoid a government review underscores how a voluntary, arms-length approach by federal officials over nearly two decades has left key elements of the nation’s critical infrastructure at risk.“I’m very concerned whenever I see a lack of urgency given the potential threats we face,” said Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), co-founder of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus. “You’re leaving so many areas exposed by not having a review — and addressing at least the vulnerabilities that you can identify.” Now, in the attack’s wake, the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the TSA, is reversing course, scrapping two decades of a voluntary regime for pipeline cybersecurity and moving for the first time to mandatory rules. But a review of the TSA’s history since it was handed oversight of pipeline security in 2001 shows a government culture of closely partnering with energy giants and industry trade groups in setting guidelines that were voluntary. No penalty resulted for a failure to obey them.

Big Oil Fought Cybersecurity Regulations, Making Pipeline Attacks Easier - The American Petroleum Institute, the top trade group for the oil and gas industry, spent years opposing federal cybersecurity regulations before the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack. After the attack, watchdog groups say API is still opposing strong federal regulation and pushing for taxpayer “subsidies” instead. Colonial Pipeline, one of the largest pipelines in the country, which carries 45% of the fuel from Texas to New York, was forced to shut down after a ransomware attack by the foreign cybercriminal group known asDarkSide. Cybersecurity experts believe that Colonial lacked advanced cybersecurity defenses that can monitor networks for irregularities and detect threats like DarkSide’s infiltration tools. But Colonial is not the first pipeline affected by cyberattacks and many other pipelines in the U.S. may have similar vulnerabilities. A ransomware attack hit an unidentified natural gas facility in 2020, forcing it to shut down for two days, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said after the attack that the owner of the facility “did not specifically consider the risk posed by cyberattacks” or prepare employees to deal with one. Federal officials have been sounding the alarm on the lax cybersecurity measures for years. Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioners Neil Chatterjee and Richard Glick warned in a 2018 op-ed that a lack of federal cybersecurity standards left energy firms vulnerable to cyberattacks. The Government Accountability Office in 2019 found that federal cybersecurity guidelines were badly out of date and lacked preparation to respond to an attack on critical infrastructure. After the Colonial attack, the cybersecurity firm Byos estimated that “less than 25% of the U.S. oil and gas industry has adequate cybersecurity in place,” according to Bloomberg News. One of the reasons that the federal government failed to enact regulations to protect critical infrastructure before the Colonial Pipeline attack appears to be a relentless campaign against federal regulations by the energy industry and API, which has spent more than $20 million on lobbying expenditures since 2018. Last year, API argued that “voluntary frameworks and public-private solutions, rather than prescriptive federal regulations, offer businesses the know-how and flexibility to respond to the ever-changing security landscape.” The group says its member companies believe the private sector “should retain autonomy and the primary responsibility for protecting companies’ assets” against cyberattacks. In the aftermath of the Colonial attack, API has changed its tune only slightly, arguing that it is “premature” to discuss regulations “until we have a full understanding of the details surrounding the Colonial attack.” API CEO Mike Sommers even suggested that it was just as important to protect the industry from regulators as from cyberattacks. A progressive watchdog group accused the group of trying to cash in on the cyberattack. “In the wake of dangerous cyber threats, the American Petroleum Institute is apparently angrier with the government for stepping up to stop future attacks than they are with the hackers doing the attacking,” Kyle Herrig, president of the left-leaning watchdog group Accountable.US, said in a statement to Salon. “The government has an obligation to protect American interests from cyberattacks including pipelines and other infrastructure — API treating these serious threats as a cash cow to line oil industry pockets while lobbying against the government stepping up protections shows they have the wrong priorities.”

Memphis Council delays vote to preserve aquifer – = The Memphis City Council is expected to make a final decision within the next few weeks on an ordinance regarding the Memphis Sand Aquifer and its preservation. On Tuesday, the council delayed a vote until July 6 to recognize the importance of the aquifer as the sole source of drinking water for many Shelby County residents while recognizing the impact contamination would have on the local environment. The ordinance was sponsored by Councilmembers Jeff Warren and Edmund Ford in regards to the controversial Byhalia Connection Pipeline, a joint venture between Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline and Valero Energy Corporation.The 45-mile crude oil pipeline would pass through mostly Black neighborhoods from Memphis into Marshall County, Mississippi. Residents and opponents of the pipeline fear any leak from the pipeline could contaminate the Memphis Aquifer. Because of this, several groups launched legal battles against the pipeline, including Memphis Against the Pipeline and Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). A new study conducted by the Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research at the University of Memphis showed that there are two points along the path of the pipeline where shallow aquifers connected to the Memphis Aquifer, increasing the risks of contamination. If the ordinance passes, pipeline officials would have to seek approval from the Memphis Underground Review Board and prove that public water supply wells are 1,000 feet from the project boundary. An investigation would also be launched into the potential impact a company carrying hazardous materials would have on minority populations and neighborhoods historically burdened by environmental pollution. Opponents of the pipeline, including former Vice President Al Gore, called the pipeline an example of environmental racism, recognizing that Black neighborhoods tended to shoulder the risks of being exposed to toxics from nearby industrial facilities.  A study identified Southwest Memphis as a hotspot for air pollution, noting that residents faced cancer risks “four times higher than the national average.”

Kinder Morgan to pay $1.2B for Crestwood-Consolidated Edison natural gas JV -Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) will acquire Stagecoach Gas Services LLC for $1.225 billion. Stagecoach is a natural gas pipeline and storage joint venture between New York-based Consolidated Edison Inc. (NYSE: ED) and Houston-based Crestwood Equity Partners LP (NYSE: CEQP). It includes four natural gas storage facilities with 41 billion cubic feet of FERC-certificated working gas capacity plus 185 miles of natural gas pipelines. Stagecoach Gas Services operates in the core of the Northeast Marcellus and Utica Shale plays, with the pipeline connecting to multiple points in Pennsylvania and New York, including interstate pipelines like the Tennessee Pipeline, a Kinder Morgan subsidiary. Fitch Ratings Inc. said in a June 1 note that it believes the cash-funded acquisition will not have a material impact on the company’s business risk. "Kinder had a $1.4 billion cash balance as of March 31, 2021, boosted by a first-quarter 2021 $759 million gross margin from the February 2021 winter storm and cold snap," Fitch's note said. "The storm demonstrates the value of gas storage and pipeline assets, and Fitch views the Stagecoach assets favorably given the regulatory issues facing construction of new assets, particularly in the northeast."

Winter storm windfall put Kinder Morgan in position for Stagecoach purchase - A $1 billion boon to Kinder Morgan Inc.'s balance sheet from February's severe weather enabled the natural gas pipeline giant to offer to buy Stagecoach Gas Services LLC from Crestwood Equity Partners LP and Consolidated Edison Inc., analysts said. Mizuho Securities USA LLC Managing Director Gabriel Moreen agreed with analysts at Scotiabank and Raymond James & Associates Inc. that Kinder Morgan was "effectively taking the [winter storm] proceeds and redeploying them." "I think the acquisition should be well received, but I think investors still want to know Kinder Morgan's capital return plans," Moreen said in an interview. Stagecoach Gas, which Kinder Morgan agreed to acquire for roughly $1.23 billion, comprises four gas storage facilities in New York and Pennsylvania with a total working capacity of 41 Bcf and 185 miles of pipelines. The pipelines have interconnects to major interstate gas pipelines, including Kinder Morgan's Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., connecting gas supplies to Northeast U.S. demand markets. Scotiabank told clients June 1 that while they "expect the sticker price to cause some upfront heartburn" for shareholders, Kinder Morgan "is expected to be one of the few operators that could have potentially captured operating synergies" from buying Stagecoach, given the connection to Tennessee Gas. For Crestwood, the deal announcement "eliminates some uncertainty as investors had been somewhat concerned" that it would buy out ConEd's 50% stake, Raymond James said. Crestwood took a $120 million impairment during the first quarter on Stagecoach to make the company more attractive to potential buyers. "We had an indication that the market value of Stagecoach's assets was below its carrying value," "We also had a very comparable transaction announced in a similar time frame with the Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America LLC trade, coming in at the 11x to 12x range, which was kind of also in the ZIP code of how we assessed fair value." After Kinder Morgan and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP agreed in February to farm out a 25% stake in the Natural Gas Pipeline system to a fund managed by ArcLight Capital Partners LLC, Crestwood valued its 50% share in Stagecoach at $666 million.

Kinder Morgan urges new tax credits as midstream firms embrace carbon capture - Kinder Morgan Inc. CEO Steven Kean called for additional federal policy incentives to build out CO2 pipeline infrastructure as more North American midstream companies announced carbon capture, utilization and sequestration initiatives. Extended Tax Code Section 45Q credits are offered to industrial manufacturers that capture carbon emissions and either store them permanently or put them to use in applications that reduce life cycle emissions. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration plans to make the credits more accessible to developers, but Kean warned that converting existing pipelines to transport CO2 will not be viable without new subsidies. "You really do need to move this stuff in liquid form, which means ... very high-pressure pipe," the CEO said June 2 during a conference hosted by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC. "If you think about [natural] gas and liquids pipelines running at 800 to 1,000 psi, call it — there's various newer pipelines at 1,440 or something like that — but you need to move the CO2 in liquid format, call it 2,000 psi. You can't just simply retrofit." Kean did acknowledge that "there may be some solutions around that by doing the compression and liquefaction at the other end of the pipe." The Kinder Morgan CEO said in April that the gas pipeline giant would consider bringing in joint venture partners as it seeks to expand beyond sequestration and pipeline transportation to carbon capture.

In Blow to Big Oil, Corporate Subsidy Quietly Dies in Texas - WHEN ORGANIZERS SET out to overturn Texas’s giveaway program for the oil and gas industry, they had a long game in mind. Over 20 years, the tax exemption program known as Chapter 313 had delivered $10 billion in tax cuts to corporations operating in Texas — with petrochemical firms being the biggest winners. This year, for the first time in a decade, the program was up for reauthorization. Organizers decided to challenge it for the first time. At the beginning of last week, as Texas’s biennial legislative session approached its end, the aims of organizers remained modest. “We thought it would be a victory if the two-year reauthorization passed so we could organize in interim,” said Doug Greco, the lead organizer for Central Texas Interfaith, one of the organizations fighting to end the subsidy program. At 4 a.m. last Thursday, it became clear that something unexpected was happening: The deadline for reauthorization passed. “The bill never came up,” Greco told The Intercept. Organizers stayed vigilant until the legislative session officially closed on Monday at midnight, but the reauthorization did not materialize. The lapse in authorization coincided with three other groundbreaking blows to oil and gas corporations. A Dutch court ruled that Shell Oil is liable for its climate impacts and must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Exxon Mobil shareholders booted out two members of the corporation’s board of directors for its failures on the climate crisis. And Chevron shareholders voted to force the company to cut its emissions. With all four developments coming on the same day, the failure to reauthorize the subsidies in Texas fell under the radar. Taken together, the moves demonstrate changing opinions about climate change and fossil fuel companies; one analyst referred to the news about Shell, Exxon, and Chevron as “the start of a new era for Big Oil.” Between the court decisions, shareholder activism, and the unwillingness of Texas legislators to continue unpopular handouts to oil companies, the public may no longer be willing to go along with business as usual for fossil fuel firms.

With the World Focused on Reducing Methane Emissions, Even Texas Signals a Crackdown on ‘Flaring’ -  The practice of burning off unwanted natural gas from oil wells releases hazardous pollutants, which disproportionately affect communities of color.  This practice of burning off unwanted natural gas from oil wells has been commonplace and largely condoned by Texas regulators across the state’s shale fields for years. But now winds of change have begun blowing here in Texas, as climate activists at the state and national level focus on flaring and on methane, the largest component of natural gas and a climate super-pollutant 86 times more potent at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.  In advance of April’s climate summit in Washington, leading environmental groups called on President Biden to cut the nation’s methane emissions by 40 percent by 2030, as the best way to slow global warming over the next two decades. The U.S. Senate followed up on April 28 by reimposing Obama-era controls on methane leaks from oil and gas wells that had been rolled back by the Trump administration. Even the Texas Railroad Commission, the state’s pliant regulator of the fossil fuel industry, deferred consideration of a series of flaring applications from oil companies in February—applications it had routinely approved for years—after one commissioner said flaring should be “a necessary last resort” during emergencies and not a wasteful and polluting practice to dispose of unwanted natural gas.  Flaring the gas is preferable to simply “venting” it into the atmosphere, another common practice. Burning the gas turns methane, the super-polluting greenhouse gas, into carbon dioxide, the primary cause of climate change, which is less warming. But both flaring and venting, beyond their impact on climate change, pose serious health threats to nearby residents like Rhyne. Flaring releases a variety of hazardous air pollutants, including volatile organic compounds like benzene, a carcinogen, and contributes to ground-level ozone, a pollutant that causes respiratory illness and heart disease. Ever since Apache first started drilling in 2016, Rhyne said, flaring and venting have become prevalent.  Phil West, a spokesman for Apache, said flaring, while “sometimes-necessary,” is a practice Apache uses “sparingly.”

Emissions from Texas’s Permian Basin will be a climate test for Joe Biden – Vox --Around 265 million years ago, much of modern-day Texas was underwater, and the vast region known as the Permian Basin was a flourishing coral reef. Today, the organisms that once thrived there have been transformed into enormous deposits of fossil fuels — and they have made the area one of the most treacherous front lines in President Joe Biden’s domestic fight against climate change. The Permian Basin, which stretches hundreds of miles across West Texas and southeast New Mexico, accounts for 40 percent of US oil production and 15 percent of its natural gas, according to February data. Less than a year after oil prices dipped into negative territory because of the Covid-19 pandemic, production in the region has bounced back almost to pre-pandemic levels. Already, the region is the nation’s No. 1 source of methane, a greenhouse gas that warms the planet far more efficiently than carbon dioxide in the short term. The US oil and gas industry has pinned much of its future hopes on the region, especially in the next decade: If it gets its way, the Permian Basin will still grow through 2029, outranking every country except for Saudi Arabia in liquid fuel production, according to one analysisfrom Oil Change International. At this rate, by 2050, it would account for 39 percent of the world’s new oil and gas emissions. The world can’t afford this if it is to meet international climate goals. That’s what the International Energy Agency recently made clear in a report that argued for halting new investment in fossil fuel production, starting in 2021. Yet under Biden, the Permian could undergo expansion if the industry sees through its plans to export its gas and oil. That means any credible US response to the climate crisis will need to include a plan for the West Texas Permian Basin. But wrangling Texas oil and gas emissions could test President Biden’s powers like nothing else. When Biden signaled early in his presidency that fighting climate change must involve reining in the fossil fuel industry, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott immediately signaled that he would protect the state’s oil and gas industry at all costs. On January 28, Abbott signed anexecutive order to direct every state agency to use all lawful powers and tools to challenge any federal action that threatened the Texas energy sector. Biden has committed to slash US climate pollution in half by 2030 to contain the worst of global warming, but the administration has few levers to limit pollution in a red state infamous for deregulating the industry. The Texas side of the Permian is the biggest challenge. The land is entirely state- and privately-held, compared to the federal lands in New Mexico, which makes it hard to discourage future oil production by blocking new leases. And unlike New Mexico, the state regulators and politicians have shown no interest in coming to terms with the Permian’s pollution. That leaves the Biden administration with a thorny choice: It could take a gentler approach and regulate the Permian’s climate emissions but risk not doing enough. Or it could swing a political sledgehammer by declaring a climate emergency and cutting off the Permian from its global customers — which could provoke intense backlash from Abbott, industry, and voters in upcoming elections.

Opportunities for CO2 sequestration through enhanced oil recovery, part 2.  No doubt about it. The global effort to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide — the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases — is really heating up. Yes folks, CO₂ is in the spotlight, and everyone from environmental activists and legislators to investors and lenders want to slash how much of it is released into the atmosphere. There are two ways to do that. First, produce less of it. That’s what the development of no- or low-carbon sources of power and the electrification of the transportation sector are intended to accomplish. The second way is to capture more of the CO₂ that’s being emitted and make it go away, and the most cost-effective means to that end is sequestration — permanently storing CO₂ deep underground, either in rock formations or in oil and gas reservoirs through a process called enhanced oil recovery, or EOR. Sure, there’s an irony in using and sequestering CO₂ to produce more hydrocarbons, but the volumes of CO₂ that could be squirreled away for eternity through EOR are enormous, and the crude produced might credibly be labeled “carbon-negative oil.” In today’s blog, we continue our look at the rapidly evolving CO₂ market and the huge opportunities that may await those who pursue them.As we said in Part 1 of this blog series, CO₂ EOR technologies have been around for almost 50 years.  During most of that time, however, EOR has been a footnote in the financial statements of all but a handful of companies. But now, ESG and the momentum to address the climate-change challenge sooner rather than later has thrust CO₂ EOR to center stage. Whether they are involved in CO₂ capture or not, oil and gas companies are fond of EOR. Unlike solutions that rely on technologies like solar photovoltaics and lithium-battery storage (outside the sweet spot of most oil companies), CO₂ EOR uses processes and techniques that are quite familiar to hydrocarbon producers, as well as being proven and used in several major basins. So we know they work, and can be scaled up to handle far greater volumes of CO₂ than they do today. We’ll get back to just how much CO₂ is sequestered using EOR a little later, but first let’s consider the big picture. For starters, how big is this CO₂ problem in the first place?The answer? Really big. In fact, it’s hard to wrap your head around the sheer magnitude of the GHGs being emitted into the atmosphere. As shown in Figure 1, more than 50 gigatons (billion metric tons) of GHGs are released each year across the globe, here calibrated to CO₂-equivalent volumes. CO₂ alone (lavender bar segments) accounts for about four-fifths of the total, followed by methane (light green bar segments) and nitrous oxide (yellow bar segments). The blue line represents the U.S. portion of the worldwide CO₂ annual total: about 5 gigatons. If you squint looking at Figure 1, you’ll see that U.S. CO₂ emissions have been gradually declining since 2005, when they reached almost 6 gigatons. Much of that decline is tied to shifts in the U.S. power generation sector from coal to natural gas and renewables. In contrast, GHG emissions by the rest of the world increased by almost 10 gigatons of CO₂ equivalent over the same period, mostly due to economic growth in China, India, and other emerging markets, with some reduction in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.

Permian Study Finds Overproduction Leading to More Methane Leaks - The energy-rich region of the southwestern U.S. known to geologists and fossil fuel enthusiasts as the Permian Basin has expanded its production more quickly than any other oil and gas region in recent years, reaching 38% of U.S. oil and 17% of gas production in 2020. With this scale has come a gush of greenhouse gas emissions, although just how much has until recently been impossible to say. Between September and November 2019, a team of scientists from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Arizona, and Arizona State University flew multiple times over the 21,000 square miles of the Permian Basin with airplanes bearing sensors that allowed them to pinpoint “super-emitters” of methane. About 29% of the total lost gas quantified in flyovers between September and November 2019 came from “routinely persistent” sources, indicating that these leaks could be largely eliminated with repairs and diligent monitoring. The releases represented just 11% of emissions sites from a total of 1,100 unique sources studied. While carbon dioxide is a bigger driver of global warming and lasts longer in the atmosphere, methane—the main component of natural gas—traps more than 80 times as much heat over a 20-year period. Halting methane emissions from the oil and gas industry has jumped to the top of climate to-do lists in part because policy analysts have identified it as one of the cheapest and easiest ways to hold down global temperatures.

New program partners education organizations with oil and gas companies to fill job gaps - Permian Strategic Partnership is teaming oil and gas companies with education organizations to fill gaps in the workforce. The Catalyst Workforce Development program is in the early stages of the project, but it’s been in the works for over a year. Phase one of the project includes collecting data from oil and gas companies about the highest demand jobs - and then figuring out how to teach skills for those jobs. PetroSkills - an oil and gas skill training company - and the University of Texas Petroleum Extension are working together to align the needs of the industry with what’s taught in school. “Our main goal is to make sure people who grow up here, live here, part of the community have the training and skills that they need to successful and stay here,” said PSP director of education and workforce initiatives, Molly Young. After a challenging year for oil and gas, the launch of the Catalyst project is bringing renewed energy to the industry. “I think there’s so much energy right now around the industry coming back up and recovering from COVID and all the economic impacts that happened in the last year. This is a great thing to rally around where we can both our industry and education partners together to work on something meaningful,” said Young. The Catalyst project will involve K-12 school districts and community colleges, and four-year universities in the Permian Basin. Young says she hopes the young people of this community will see this as an investment in their futures and encourage them to stay here and work.

We Energies' Ixonia proposal survives appeal - — It’s not a “done deal” yet, but it’s getting there. A We Energies liquid natural gas storage tank proposed for Ixonia on Thursday survived a conditional use permit appeals process conducted by the Jefferson County Zoning Board of Adjustment. According to Jefferson County Corporation Counsel Blair Ward and county Administrator Ben Wehmeier, the conditional use permit for the controversial facility that We Energies is hoping to install in Ixonia could face another citizens group appeal at the Jefferson County Circuit Court level and the structure also must pass muster with the state’s Public Service Commission. Dating to April, the Jefferson County Zoning Board of Adjustment has struggled with 1,104 pages of written record from a Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Committee decision to permit We Energies a conditional use to build a proposed liquified natural gas processing and storage facility in Ixonia.  The appeal alleged that members of the planning and zoning committee made a number of errors Nov. 11, 2020 when they granted We Energies the conditional use permit. Among those errors, according to the appeal, was a misinterpretation of the definition of a “utility” in the county zoning ordinance, which allowed the proposed facility to qualify as a conditional use in an agricultural preservation zone; failure to consider more appropriately zoned areas, such as industrial districts, as a site for the plant; and incorrectly concluding that all criteria in state statutes required to allow a “utility” use in a farmland preservation district had been satisfied. On Thursday, the board of adjustment spent approximately seven hours deliberating before returning its decision that the conditional use permit appeal should be denied. The vote was 2-1, with Weiss and Sayre-Hoeft voting to allow the permit. Roberts cast the dissenting vote. The proposed We Energies facility would include a 15-story, 150-foot-diameter tank to store 12 million gallons of liquified natural gas. The plant also would have equipment to process vaporized natural gas into a liquid and back again, a section of pipeline connecting to a main natural gas pipeline plus an electric substation.  . The Ixonia residents who filed the appeal alleged, among other impacts, that the proposed large industrial-type facility would reduce their property values, as well as the use and enjoyment of their properties; change the rural character of the area and cause noise, odors, light pollution and increased truck traffic. They also claimed the facility would endanger their safety, due to the possibility of a leak, fire, explosion or other event at the plant.

Michigan rejects Canada's claim that Line 5 pipeline dispute is cross-border treaty issue - The dispute over the cross-border Line 5 pipeline is entirely for Michigan to deal with, the state's attorney general argues in a legal brief released Wednesday that flatly rejects Canada's depiction of a foreign-policy matter that Ottawa and the White House must resolve. In a sternly worded 21-page legal filing, Attorney General Dana Nessel excoriates the arguments of the pipeline's owner, Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., as "meritless" and "baseless," and waves away the submissions of the federal Liberal government, neighbouring states and various industry stakeholders as little more than policy-based window-dressing. Enbridge is trying to convince Michigan court Judge Janet Neff that the case needs to be heard by a federal judge because it raises "substantial federal questions" about Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's effort to shut down the line for fear of an environmental disaster in the Great Lakes. Nessel disagrees. "This case is a state-law action through and through," her brief begins. Michigan is "invoking powers that are unique to a state sovereign," it says, and asserting claims under Michigan laws "over a strip of land that is owned by the state, located within the state, and held in trust by the state for the public benefit of its people." The dispute first erupted in November when Whitmer — citing the risk of a catastrophe in the Straits of Mackinac, the waterway where Line 5 traverses the Great Lakes — abruptly revoked the easement that had allowed the line to operate since 1953. Enbridge insists the pipeline is safe and has already received the state's approval for a $500-million effort to dig a tunnel beneath the straits that would house the line's twin pipes and protect them from anchor strikes. The company has made it clear it has no intention of shutting down the pipeline voluntarily.

 Telecommunications firm interested in using new Line 5 tunnel - A Marquette-based telecommunications company is one of the first third party companies to express interest in using a tunnel scheduled to be built beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Peninsula Fiber Network, which provides services for telecommunication providers and operates a 911 network in most Michigan counties, filed a letter of intent with the state to use the tunnel, company General Manager Scott Randall said. "We would place a significant fiber-optic facility ... within the utility corridor within the tunnel," Randall said Wednesday to the Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority. "We would make that available to any other provider who wants to utilize that route. Doing so, we feel would help ensure stable and secure communications for the state of Michigan.” There currently is one other fiber optic cable connecting the Upper and Lower peninsulas that runs along the Mackinac Bridge, Peninsula Fiber Network said. Enbridge Energy still is pursuing a final federal permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as well as authorization from the Michigan Public Service Commission for construction of the roughly 4-mile tunnel under the straits and the location of a new segment of Line 5. Enbridge is preparing a request for proposals for construction of the tunnel as well as a tenant manual for third party utilities interested in using the tunnel.

Does the U.S. Really Need Another Oil Pipeline? - A decades-old pipeline called Line 3, run by the Canadian company Enbridge, is in the midst of a controversial upgrade sparking fierce resistance from Indigenous communities living along the route. Line 3 is being replaced in order to enable the transport of nearly 800,000 barrels of dirty tar sands crude oil per day from Calgary, Canada, to Wisconsin. The majority of the pipeline cuts across northern Minnesota through the heart of lands where the Anishinaabe people have treaty rights to hunt, fish and harvest wild rice and maple syrup.Line 3 joins a growing list of controversial oil pipeline projects targeted by the burgeoning Indigenous-led climate justice movement. In his last year in office, President Barack Obama responded to the powerful and internationally hailed convergence at Standing Rock in South Dakota by halting work on the Dakota Access Pipeline project. Almost a year earlier, he had canceled the Keystone XL pipeline—which was another major target of climate protesters. Entering office in January 2017, President Donald Trump promptly revived both projects and eventually greenlit the Line 3 pipeline. Once Joe Biden entered the White House in early 2021, he canceled the doomed Keystone Pipeline but has yet to take action on reversing Trump’s approval of DAPL or canceling the Line 3 project.Indigenous leaders, embodying the spirit of Standing Rock five years ago, have been resisting the Line 3 replacement project and are now calling on all Americans, including those who are not Indigenous, to join them for what is being called a “Treaty People Gathering” from June 5 through 8 to demand an end to the project. One of them is Nancy Beaulieu, co-founder of the Resilient Indigenous Sisters Engaging(RISE) Coalition, and the northern Minnesota organizer for 350.org. Beaulieu explained to me in an interview that, “as Indigenous people, we have the inherent responsibility to protect the waters and all that is sacred. And as settlers—people who signed those treaties with our ancestors—they have an obligation to uphold those treaties.” In other words,“everyone has a responsibility to the treaties” signed with tribal nations.Non-Indigenous Americans have largely forgotten not only that we have treaty obligations, but also that we live in a nation with a bloody history of settler colonialism. Former Republican Senator Rick Santorum demonstrated that ignorance in his tone-deaf comments on CNN—which later got him fired—when he said, “We birthed a nation from nothing. Yes, there were Native Americans, but there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”Leaders like Beaulieu are determined to fight such erasure by reviving the conversations around treaty obligations and how the fight against pipelines and climate change is central to Indigenous stewardship of the natural world. She sees the June gathering as building on the Standing Rock mobilization and the Keystone pipeline activism, saying it is “the same exact thing but with different tribes.”

1,000 Civil Disobedience Arrests Expected if Minnesota Gov. Walz Doesn't Stop Line 3 Tar Sands Pipeline --The coming month will be critical for the controversial Enbridge Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline, currently under construction in Northern Minnesota, AP reports."Due to the urgency of the climate crisis crisis and the fact that Indigenous leaders have not consented to the Line 3 project," organizers from 300 groups warned President Biden in a letter last week, "large-scale non-violent civil disobedience is now being organized for early June along the Line 3 pipeline route."  Organizers are calling on Biden to halt the pipeline, and will convene a "Treaty People Gathering" June 5th through 8th. Construction on the project to dramatically increase the amount of oil the pipeline can carry is scheduled to resume soon and Gov. Tim Walz (D) is waiting for a Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling expected by June 21 — the state Department of Commerce, two tribes, and other opponents argue that the company's demand projections failed to meet the legal requirements. Organizers did not share details of their plans because police are also preparing for their protests but Winona LaDuke, founder of the Indigenous-based environmental group Honor the Earth, told the AP she expects "over 1,000 people are going to get arrested" if Walz fails to halt the project.

They’re Shoving A Pipe Down Our Throat’: Inside Winona LaDuke’s Fight Against Line 3 – — You’ve likely heard about Line 3 by now. It’s a pipeline that would bring tar sands oil through northern Minnesota to Superior, Wisconsin. Part of it would run alongside an existing pipeline corridor but some of the route requires carving out a new path. Construction on the Minnesota portion started in December and is expected to pick back up June 1. But the resistance to the project hasn’t let up.Line 3 construction legal challenges and protests have been ongoing for months and years. We recently traveled to the Bemidji area to meet the women leading the resistance and to see what they say they are fighting to protect.  “Well we are quite ferocious competition,” said Winona LaDuke of Honor the Earth.  You could call her a Harvard-educated economist, an author, farmer, and nonprofit organizer. Or you could call her a former vice presidential candidate and an Anishinaabe.LaDuke is all that. And she’s a water protector who’s been fighting a pipeline route near the White Earth reservation she lives on for eight years.She took us to see the Shell River and Shell Lake, one of her biggest concerns.“This is the Shell River coming out of Shell Lake, and this river is crossed four times by Enbridge,” LaDuke said.The pipeline will cross not only this river but the Mississippi River twice along with more than 200 other bodies of water, according to LaDuke. “It’s a really beautiful lake, it is a lake that is full of wild rice,” LaDuke said. “There’s a lot of life in this river, and they don’t deserve it.”Enbridge, a Canadian based energy company, is behind the project. It moves roughly a quarter of the crude oil produced in North America. It says the rest of the pipeline is already built and the Minnesota portion is half-finished. But LaDuke says a spill would be devastating.

Enbridge's Line 3 oil pipeline enters critical month in June (AP) — June will be a critical month for Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 crude oil pipeline as the company resumes construction and opponents mobilize for large-scale protests and civil disobedience. One prominent opponent, Winona LaDuke, founder of the Indigenous-based environmental group Honor the Earth, said she expects thousands of people from across the state and country to join the protests along the route in northern Minnesota. Both sides are also waiting for a major ruling from the Minnesota Court of Appeals in June on a legal challenge by environmental and tribal groups that are seeking to overturn state regulators’ approval of the project. The opponents also hold out hope that Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and President Joe Biden will intervene. “I expect that unless Walz stops the project over 1,000 people are going to get arrested,” LaDuke said. Line 3 carries Canadian crude from Alberta. It clips a corner of North Dakota on its way across northern Minnesota to Enbridge’s terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. Enbridge says the 1960s-era pipeline is deteriorating and can run at only about half its original capacity. It says the new line, made from stronger steel, will better protect the environment while restoring its capacity and ensuring reliable deliveries to U.S. refineries. The Canadian and Wisconsin replacement segments are already carrying oil. The Minnesota segment is about 60% complete as a planned construction pause for the spring thaw ends June 1. Enbridge plans to finish the work and put the line into service in the fourth quarter, said Mike Fernandez, the Calgary-based company’s chief communications officer. That adds to the urgency for opponents, who are organizing a “Treaty People Gathering” for June 5-8 and preparing for mass arrests. More than 250 “water protectors” already have been arrested since major construction began in December. The opposition says the replacement pipeline, which would carry Canadian tar sands oil and regular crude, would aggravate climate change and risk spills in sensitive areas where Native Americans harvest wild rice, hunt, fish, gather medicinal plants and claim treaty rights.

Sexual violence along pipeline route follows Indigenous women’s warnings  On 15 May, a woman met a pipeline worker at a bar in Minnesota and agreed to go to his house, but when they arrived, there were four other people there and she felt uncomfortable. “She wanted to leave, she tried to leave,” said Amy Johnson, executive director of the Violence Intervention Project (VIP) in Thief River Falls, who spoke to the woman on the phone. “It was very scary with those other men there. She said he had her in the bedroom and she couldn’t leave.” The Canadian company Enbridge is building the Line 3 oil pipeline through Minnesota, a $2.9bn project that replaces a corroded, leaking pipeline and increases its capacity from 390,000 to 760,000 barrels a day. The project has brought an influx of thousands of workers who are staying in hotels, campgrounds and rental housing along the pipeline route, often in small towns like Thief River Falls, and on or near Native reservations. Before Minnesota approved the pipeline, violence prevention advocates warned state officials of the proven link between employees working in extractive industries and increased sexual violence. Now their warnings have come true: two Line 3 contract workers were charged in a sex-trafficking sting, and crisis centers told the Guardian they are responding to reports of harassment and assault by Line 3 workers. Johnson said VIP, a crisis center for survivors of violence, has received more than 40 reports about Line 3 workers harassing and assaulting women and girls who live in north-western Minnesota. An Enbridge spokesperson, Michael Barnes, said it has “zero tolerance for illegal behavior by anyone associated with our company or its projects”, and said anyone caught or arrested would be fired. Barnes said the two workers facing trafficking charges were fired by the contractor. He also said before construction began, the company worked to raise awareness of human trafficking by partnering with contractors, tribes, local officials and Truckers Against Trafficking, which combats human trafficking. After a lull in construction due to muddy spring conditions, workers are now returning to Minnesota. Enbridge’s CEO, Al Monaco, said Line 3 was on schedule to be completed by the end of the year, but Indigenous groups and environmentalists are attempting to stop the project through peaceful protest, divestment campaigns and court action.

Enbridge entering a new phase of construction on Line 3 — and a new phase of protests - The first months of construction on Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline were relatively uneventful. Cold weather and the COVID-19 pandemic limited protests across the 337-mile route in northern Minnesota, and the Canadian company quickly finished about 60 percent of its work on the project after starting in December. After a short spring break on mainline construction required by Minnesota regulators, however, Enbridge is now entering a new phase of construction — and a new phase of protests. As the company restarted construction this week, opponents of the project geared up for a wave of larger demonstrations aimed at slowing or stopping the pipeline. A court decision on a key legal challenge to Line 3 is also expected in June, making the final stretch of construction a pivotal one for the future of Enbridge’s new pipeline. Enbridge broke ground on Line 3 in 2020 after six years of environmental and regulatory reviews on the project. It’s intended to replace an older pipeline that cuts a similar route through the northern part of the state before ending at a terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. The existing 34-inch pipeline was built in the 1960s and is a corroding spill risk that operates at roughly half capacity. The new Line 3 will be a larger 36-inch pipeline capable of carrying 760,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The U.S. portion of the Line 3 project — which includes small new sections in North Dakota and Wisconsin — will cost about $4 billion in total. Supporters say the new Line 3 will be safer than the old pipeline and safer than transporting oil by truck or train. Enbridge also promised thousands of construction jobs and other economic benefits to northern Minnesota. Opponents, including some tribes and environmental groups, say Enbridge shouldn’t build new fossil fuel infrastructure amid climate change. They also argue a new pipeline carries its own spill risks in areas where tribes retain rights to hunt and gather wild rice. The Line 3 route includes 22 river crossings in water-rich central Minnesota, including the headwaters area of the Mississippi River. Minnesota regulators sided with Enbridge, and the company began construction in December. There have been protests and arrests of activists along the pipeline route, but so far, no large-scale demonstrations have taken place. That’s in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some prominent organizers said they didn’t want mass gatherings in rural areas where the health care system was already strained. The frigid winter weather also likely kept some people away from the remote construction project.Various groups opposed to the construction of Line 3 have come together to organize a weeklong event in Mahnomen starting June 5 called the Treaty People Gathering to demonstrate resistance to the pipeline and educate attendees about treaty rights. Organizers expect this will be the largest protest so far, with some 1,200 people confirmed to attend from around the country. A march is planned early Monday morning and various forms of resistance are planned through the week.

 Oil demand will reach pre-pandemic levels in mid-2022, analyst says - Travel is picking up in the United States and Europe, but the rebound in global oil demand hinges on Covid-19 response in Asian markets, according to Energy Aspects analyst Amrita Sen. New Covid restrictions are going in place in Southeast Asia, and it could delay a full return in demand for crude until the middle of 2022, she said in an appearance on CNBC's "Closing Bell." "Chinese demand is booming, but as we know India is struggling. A lot of other Asian countries are going back into lockdowns of some form," Sen said Tuesday. While India continues to grapple with a crippling second wave of Covid-19, new daily case counts have surged elsewhere in the region. In the past month, total cases in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries have more than doubled, according to data from Worldometer. In response to rising infections, new restrictions, including business closures, have gone into effect in some countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The latter country was an outlier in mitigating the disease's spread in the early days of the health crisis. "The reality is that Asia is also quite obsessed with zero case count, rather than learning how to live with Covid, which the West is doing, like another flu effectively," Sen said. When it comes to the U.S., work commutes have yet to return to normal, but pent-up demand and discretionary travel, such as over the Memorial Day weekend, are driving gasoline demand, Sen said. But all eyes remain on the Asian markets where some countries face vaccination challenges. Malaysia, for example, has administered at least one dose of a vaccine to about 6% of its residents, according to an Our World in Data tracker. Meanwhile, about 40% of Americans have been fully vaccinated. "Vaccination rates are low there, so we need Asia to get vaccinated," Sen said. "That's when globally demand can get back to 2019 levels."

U.S. oil and gas leasing review to be released in ‘early summer’ -official -President Joe Biden’s administration expects to release results of its review of the federal oil and gas leasing program by early summer, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said on Friday. Biden announced the review shortly after taking office in what was widely viewed as a first step to fulfilling his campaign promise of banning new federal drilling leases to fight climate change. Lease auctions have been paused in the meantime, upsetting the oil and gas industry and the state governments that host it, who argue the move risks killing jobs and hurting the economy. “The oil and gas review is in process right now,” Haaland said on a call with reporters to discuss the department’s budget request. “Everyone’s been working really hard on it. We expect to have it released in early summer.” Haaland did not say how long the pause on lease auctions could last. Some 25% of U.S. oil and gas production comes from federal lands and waters. The Biden review is intended to weigh the economic benefits of federal drilling against its environmental and climate costs. Haaland’s remarks came as the department detailed large increases in spending proposed by the White House here on measures to address climate change, including wildfire mitigation and preparedness, permitting renewable energy projects on public lands and cleaning up abandoned fossil fuel infrastructure. The proposal for fiscal 2022 represents an increase of $2.5 billion, or 17%, over the enacted Interior budget for this year. It includes nearly $2 billion in new climate-related investments, the department said. The budget must be approved by Congress before taking effect.

Impacted Residents Petition – Continuous Air Quality Monitoring | Open Letter to the Erie Board of Trustees - Board of Trustees,  Attached you will find a petition signed by over 200 of your constituents. It includes testimony from more than 80 impacted residents who desperately need your help. We Implore (sic) you to do the right thing and vote to purchase/implement continuous Air Quality Monitoring for our struggling community. Let this be the first step towards accountability and meaningful legislative change. As residents of Erie, Colorado, we are deeply concerned over the toxic stew of air pollutantsreleased from oil & gas operations into our communities every day. Exposure to volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) such as benzene and ethylbenzene are linked to increased risk for asthma, low birth weight, cancer, cardiac problems, and other respiratory issues1. Residents near oil & gas operations suffer headaches, dizziness, and nose bleeds in addition to the nuisances of noise, odor, and traffic. Current air quality standards set forth by the CDPHE are insufficient to protect our health, safety, and welfare. We need industry-standard, robust, and permanent air quality monitoring in Erie to properly correlate these air quality issues with the symptoms experienced by Erie residents near fracking operations. Given the proliferation of oil & gas operations within and along its borders, the Town of Eriemust be protective of its residents to understand and act on the negative impacts of oil & gas on our air quality. We demand the Town engage with Boulder A.I.R to install long-term permanent air quality monitoring stations in Erie, as well as Ajax Analytics to provide short-term/immediate response air quality monitoring. This blended approach will be a crucial first step along the way to protecting Erie residents from the negative impacts of unconventional oil & gas exploration.

OIL AND GAS: House lawmakers team up for bipartisan orphaned wells bill -- Wednesday, June 2, 2021 -- Two oil-state lawmakers are calling for a national orphaned well program to clean up the bevy of abandoned oil and gas relics on federal lands.

Hydrogen 'hub' planned for North Dakota; project could include synfuels plant sale - Several companies are partnering to try to make North Dakota a hydrogen “hub” that would harness the state’s abundant natural gas resources, and their first project could involve the sale of Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah. The facility began operating in 1984 and produces a number of products, including synthetic natural gas derived from lignite coal. It’s faced financial difficulties in recent years amid low gas prices. Subsidiary Dakota Gasification Co. operates the plant and employs 525 people. Sukut and leaders of Bakken Energy and Mitsubishi Power Americas, along with state officials, spoke about the effort Wednesday at the state Capitol. The deal involving the synfuels plant isn’t done, but company leaders are hopeful it will come to fruition.Bakken Energy, a North Dakota company formerly known as Bakken Midstream, is working with Basin to acquire the plant. It also has plans in the works to build a power plant near Williston that runs on ethane, a component of natural gas.The hub the company envisions would involve hydrogen production, storage, transportation and consumption, with facilities spread out across the state. Mitsubishi also is developing a hub in Utah, along with hydrogen storage facilities in the eastern United States and other hydrogen-related sites elsewhere in the country. The hydrogen market is expected to grow significantly in the decades ahead, and it’s viewed by supporters as a way to curb climate change.Japan, where Mitsubishi is based, and South Korea are considered leaders in hydrogen-powered vehicles. There’s great potential for hydrogen to fuel large trucks and trains, said Steve Lebow, founder and chairman of Bakken Energy. Hydrogen produced in North Dakota could be used in many ways down the road, such as for transportation, he said. Browning added that hydrogen could be important to the future of steelmaking, as well as power generation and electricity storage.Company leaders are not revealing many details about the potential project at the synfuels plant, but their larger vision for a statewide hub would involve redeveloping the facility. Even if a deal doesn't materialize, Bakken Energy still plans to work toward creating a hub, CEO Mike Hopkins said.The companies are planning to produce hydrogen from synthetic gas made at the synfuels plant, as well as from gas produced in the Bakken oil fields.

Feds approve expansion of North Dakota natural gas pipeline(AP) — Federal regulators have approved a natural gas pipeline in western North Dakota, a move state officials believe will help curb the wasteful flaring of excess gas and increase state tax revenues by millions of dollars annually by allowing more oil drilling in the area. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission officials this week approved a certificate of public convenience and necessity for WBI Energy Inc.’s North Bakken Expansion project. The company, a subsidiary of Bismarck-based MDU Resources Group Inc. said the expansion would add 250 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to a pipeline network. The company said the project includes construction of about 62 miles beginning in Tioga of 24-inch natural gas pipeline and 20 miles of 12-inch pipe, a new compressor station and additional infrastructure. The company said the project would cost $260 million and employ up to 450 people during construction. The project, which would traverse four western North Dakota counties, would be completed late this year or early next, North Dakota Pipeline Authority Director Justin Kringstad said. The line would connect to the Northern Border Pipeline south of Watford City, where the gas would be sent to Iowa, Chicago and other markets, Kringstad said. Natural gas, a byproduct of oil production, is far less valuable than crude. Natural gas production grew by 6% in March to 2.879 billion cubic feet per day. The industry captured 94% of the gas it produced and is meeting the 91% target set by state regulators to help alleviate the wasteful flaring of excess gas. The state’s daily oil output in March, the latest figures available, increased 2% to 1.108 million barrels per day. Kringstad said oil drilling in the area north of Lake Sakakawea is hamstrung by the lack of natural gas infrastructure. “If a new gas transmission project was not developed, the region north of the lake would continue to see depressed activity levels since the gas capture infrastructure is not available to meet the flaring guidelines,” Kringstad said. “By bringing this system online, it frees up the ability for more drilling and associated oil and gas production north of Lake Sakakawea,” Kringstad said. “For every day this system is operating at its starting capacity, North Dakota’s oil tax revenue increases by over a $1 million per day.”

PIPELINES: Judge overrides Biden admin on Keystone XL permit -- Wednesday, June 2, 2021 -- \A federal judge last week overrode the objections of the Biden administration and kept alive a lawsuit challenging presidential authority to issue cross-border permits for pipelines.

Why Biden Approved ConocoPhillips' Willow Field In Alaska: It's All About Securing The TAPS -- Fitzsimmons -- SeekingAlpha -- - May 30, 2021  Link here.

• Some investors were highly surprised when President Biden's Justice Department supported the continued development of Conoco's massive Willow field in Alaska.
• I was not. As I wrote earlier on Seeking Alpha, ironically Biden could be great for Conoco Phillips' stock.
• One thing is clear: Biden is an energy pragmatist. He wants to see the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline flowing because it is an issue of national security.
• And the Alaskan Pipeline needs new oil to keep it operating.
• One could also argue that 100,000 bpd from a conventional reservoir like Willow is much more environmentally friendly than the equivalent number of shale wells.

Shell Oil Company, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, has reached an agreement for the sale of its interest in Deer Park Refining Limited Partnership, a 50-50 joint venture between Shell Oil Company and P.M.I. Norteamerica, S.A. De C.V. (a subsidiary of Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex). The transaction will transfer Shell’s interest in the partnership, and therefore full ownership of the refinery, to Pemex, subject to regulatory approvals.“Shell did not plan to market its interest in the Deer Park refinery; however, following an unsolicited offer from Pemex, we have reached an agreement to transfer our interest in the partnership to them,” said Huibert Vigeveno, Shell’s Downstream Director. “Pemex has been our strong and active partner at the Deer Park Refinery for nearly 30 years, and we will continue to work with them in an integrated way, including through our on-site chemicals facility, which Shell will retain. Above all, we remain committed to the wellbeing of our employees and will work closely with Pemex to ensure the continued prioritization of safe operations. We’re proud of our 90-plus year history as an operator and neighbor at Deer Park and we will continue to play an active role in the community”. The consideration for this transaction is $596 million which is a combination of cash and debt, plus the value of hydrocarbon inventory. This transaction allows Shell to further focus its refining footprint while also maintaining integration optionality and retaining value through its Chemicals and Trading activities. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2021.

Biden freezes oil leases in Alaska refuge pending new environmental review - The Biden administration is suspending all oil and gas leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge pending a deeper look at the environmental impacts of drilling in the sensitive region, the Interior Department said Tuesday.The suspension of the leases, which POLITICO first reported earlier in the day, follows President Joe Biden's January 20 executive order that identified “alleged legal deficiencies” in the original leasing program and put in place a temporary moratorium on any oil- and gas-related activities in the refuge. The executive order also left open the possibility that the department would undertake a new environmental review to address potential legal flaws in the program.Interior Secretary Deb Haaland wrote in a secretarial order calling for the suspension that those legal deficiencies, "including the inadequacy of the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act," prompted the temporary moratorium activities around the leases ANWR. The agency will publish its intent to start the review in the Federal Register in the next 60 days.A new environmental analysis could impose additional restrictions on development in the refuge or potentially nullify the leases altogether, undoing one of the signature policy achievements of the Trump administration. But Tuesday's secretarial order does not go as far as green groups have requested in an ongoing lawsuit, which aims to void the leases that were awarded earlier this year.The move comes after the Biden administration disappointed environmental groups last week by lending its support to developing ConocoPhillips' Willow project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the area that lies to the west of ANWR. The Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain, a 1.6 million-acre stretch of tundra on Alaska’s North Slope, was opened to oil and gas development as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The language included in the bill was drafted by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and gave power and authority over the leasing program to the secretary of the Interior, acting through the Bureau of Land Management. The Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge, played only a marginal role in the environmental review process.The opening of the coastal plain to drilling marked the culmination of a nearly four-decade-long battle by the oil industry to gain access to the refuge, which is home to federally listed polar bears whose population numbers have declined dramatically in recent decades largely due to diminishing sea ice. The area opened to development also provides critical calving habitat for the Porcupine caribou herd.

Alaska Delegation, Governor Rebuke Biden Administration For Cancelling Lawful ANWR Leases -U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Congressman Don Young, and Governor Mike Dunleavy (all R-Alaska) today criticized the U.S. Department of the Interior for announcing it will suspend all oil and gas leases for portions of the non-wilderness Coastal Plain (1002 Area) of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), pending the outcome of another environmental review. The leases were issued in January pursuant to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which authorized responsible energy development in ANWR.ANWR spans 19.3 million acres, an area of land roughly equal in size to South Carolina, in northeast Alaska. In 1980, Congress designated more than eight million acres within ANWR as federal wilderness as part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). That same legislation set aside the 1.57-million acre Coastal Plain for petroleum exploration and potential future development, which is supported by a majority of Alaskans.“The Biden administration’s actions are not unexpected but are outrageous nonetheless,” said Senator Murkowski. “Suspending leases in Alaska’s 1002 Area is in direct conflict with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, through which Congress mandates an oil and gas leasing program be established on the non-wilderness Coastal Plain, and ordered at least two lease sales by 2024. In addition, The Act specifically states that the purpose of the 1002 area of ANWR is oil and gas development.  The oil and gas leasing program established by the Trump Administration meets the legal mandates required by Congress including imposing a framework with a range of environmental safeguards that are successfully guiding production elsewhere in northern Alaska. This action serves no purpose other than to obstruct Alaska’s economy and put our energy security at great risk. Alaskans are committed to developing our resources responsibly and have demonstrated our ability to do so safely to the world.” 

Biden Urged to Go Further After 'Strong Step' Toward Protecting Arctic Refuge From Drilling - Environmental campaigners in Alaska and across the country are cautiously celebrating the Biden administration's Tuesday decision to suspend some fossil fuel drilling leases that were sold in the Arctic shortly before former President Donald Trump left office while also calling on Congress to provide permanent protections to one of the planet'smost biodiverse places."We strongly support the Biden administration's commitment to preserving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last great expanses of untouched wilderness areas in America," said Kristen Miller, acting executive director of Alaska Wilderness League. "The leasing program and resulting lease sale were the result [of] a substantial flawed and legally deficient process that must be reversed.""Suspending these leases is a step in the right direction and we commend the Biden administration for committing to a new program analysis that prioritizes sound science and adequate tribal consultation," Miller continued. "The Arctic refuge Coastal Plain is sacred to the Gwich'in people who were roundly ignored by the Trump administration, as well as the Iñupiat that have lived on the Coastal Plain for generations.""There is still more to be done," she added. "Until the leases are canceled, they will remain a threat to one of the wildest places left in America. Now we look to the administration and Congress to prioritize legislatively repealing the oil leasing mandate and restore protections to the Arctic refuge Coastal Plain."Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, echoed that call for additional action."After fighting so hard to protect these lands and the Porcupine caribou herd, trusting the guidance of our ancestors and elders, and the allyship of people around the world, we can now look for further action by the administration and to Congress to repeal the leasing program," she said. "There is so much more to do to protect these lands for future generations."

Biden Suspends Oil Leases in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge While Supporting Drilling Elsewhere in Alaska - The Department of the Interior on Tuesday suspended oil and gas leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge until a comprehensive analysis can determine the environmental impact of drilling in the area.A review "identified defects in the underlying record of decision supporting the leases, including the lack of analysis of a reasonable range of alternatives'' required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), ABC News reported.  The suspension includes 10-year leases that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued on Jan. 6, 2021, which span more than 430,000 acres of the refuge, a press release stated. The lease suspension follows President Joe Biden's executive order, instated on his first day in office, which placed a temporary moratorium on oil and gas lease activities, NBC News reported. Spanning nearly 20-million-acres, Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge houses polar bears, caribou, snowy owls and migrating birds from six continents, and is sacred land for the Indigenous Gwich'in people, NBC News wrote. However, some argue that suspending the leases doesn't go far enough to protect the wilderness."There is still more to be done. Until the leases are canceled, they will remain a threat to one of the wildest places left in America," Kristen Miller, conservation director of the Alaska Wilderness League said in a statement. The decision to suspend leases in the refuge also came just one week after the Biden administration defended another Trump-era oil and gas project. The Willow Project in the North Slope of Alaska is slated to produce more than 100,000 barrels of oil a day for the next 30 years, The New York Times reported. The ConocoPhillips drilling endeavor would be located in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska, an area earmarked by the federal government for oil extraction, according to a press release by the Office of Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy. Gov. Dunleavy argues that communities in the area rely on oil and gas projects, while environmental groups sued the federal government, arguing that the environmental impacts of the project had not been taken into account, The New York Times wrote.

How Third-Party Auditors Make Oil Industry Fraud Possible -- Major accounting firm KPMG is under fire from investors who filed a class action lawsuit against the firm for overstating the asset values of now-defunct oil exploration company Miller Energy Resources. And last month, a judge dismissed KPMG’s attempt to have the case thrown out.At issue in the lawsuit, filed in 2016, is a $4.55 million purchase by Miller Energy in 2009 for land and offshore oil assets in Alaska which included existing oil production infrastructure. Miller Energy then claimed those same assets were worth approximately half a billion dollars, a claim which would require approval by third-party auditors.But according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the property and old oil infrastructure in Alaska was worth only a fraction of those claims; inflating its value beyond its worth amounted to fraud, according to the SEC. The SEC stated that “Miller Energy overvalued the Alaska assets by more than $400 million.” But the oil company wasn’t the only one at fault, said the SEC. In January 2016, the SEC sent a cease and desist order for Miller Energy detailing the major fraud case and focusing in part on the role that third-party auditors such as KPMG played in making it possible.The onshore and offshore Alaskan oil assets purchased by Miller Energy had been abandoned by the previous owner because the asset retirement obligations (AROs) — the amount of money required to properly decommission the existing assets — were likely greater than the value of the remaining oil in the ground. The property was essentially worthless once the cost of the AROs was considered. But Miller Energy then told the SEC in 2010 that property was worth half a billion dollars and KPMG signed off on that estimate for several years, starting in 2011.In an August 2017 cease and desist order for KPMG, the SEC summarized the extent of KPMG’s failure to perform a valid audit of Miller Energy:“[T]he KPMG engagement team performed an inadequate assessment of the risks associated with the Miller Energy engagement. Among other things, KPMG’s initial evaluation, which was completed by Riordan and approved by KPMG management, failed to adequately consider Miller Energy’s bargain purchase, its recent history as a penny-stock company, its lack of experienced executives and qualified accounting staff, its existing material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting, its long history of reported financial losses, and its pressing need to obtain financing to operate the newly acquired Alaska Assets.”The Miller Energy executive who signed off on the overvaluation ultimately paid an SEC fine of $125,000, while KPMG was fined $1 million. Oil reserves fraud — in which companies overestimate the amount of oil that can be produced from their assets — has been recognized as a growing problem in the oil and gas industry, as DeSmog has previously reported. But in order for companies to succeed in convincing investors of their incredible claims, it is critical to have independent third-party auditors — like KPMG — to support these claims.

Installed Keystone XL pipe will remain underground, for now -Hundreds of workers are back in southeast Alberta to work on the Keystone XL pipeline project, although instead of construction activity, crews will spend the summer fixing up the land. TC Energy suspended the project in January after U.S. President Joe Biden pulled the presidential permit for the proposed pipeline, which would have transported oil from Alberta to the American Midwest. About 150 km of pipe was installed in Alberta and — for now — TC Energy plans to leave it underground. In a regulatory filing last week, the company said it will work to preserve the pipe and two constructed pumping stations to maintain their integrity. "Our first priority is to make sure we wind down construction activities safely and with care for the environment and that is what we continue to focus on," TC Energy said in an email to CBC News. "A longer-term plan is being developed to deal with the assets that have already been constructed and we continue to evaluate our options."

Oil Group to Press Canada to Postpone Emissions Rules Oil-sands producers will ask the Canadian government to delay new greenhouse-gas rules to give scientists time to figure out how to halt their emissions. ``We'll be talking to the government about their timeline for this,'' Pierre Alvarez, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said yesterday in a telephone interview. ``This is going to take a bunch of work.'' Oil-mining operations in western Canada's tar-soaked swamps and valleys that begin operations after 2012 will have to store carbon emissions rather than releasing them into the atmosphere, Canadian Environment Minister John Baird said yesterday. Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and ConocoPhillips are among the members of Alvarez's trade group. Canada's oil sands hold about 177 billion barrels of oil that can be recovered using current technology, equivalent to all the reserves of Iran and Libya combined. Oil prices more than tripled in the past five years as worldwide demand, led by China and India, expanded faster than supplies. Before the new carbon rules were announced, oil and gas companies had already decided to cut spending in Canada by 3.1 percent this year to $27.7 billion, according to a team of Citigroup Global Markets Inc. analysts led by Geoff Kieburtz. That compares with estimated increases of 6.5 percent for the U.S. and 12 percent outside North America. Alvarez declined to say whether the carbon rules will discourage investment in new oil-sands projects. Baird, the environment minister, said the regulations will be completed next year. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is a so-called greenhouse gas linked to climate change. U.S. oil futures rose above $100 a barrel for the first time in January, making high-cost developments like oil sands more attractive, and touched an all-time high today at $109.72. ``If oil stays anywhere near its present levels, the CO2 costs probably would not make it uneconomic,'' said Gene Pisasale, who helps oversee about $25 billion in investments, including about 1.8 million ConocoPhillips shares, at PNC Wealth Management in Baltimore. Companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Saudi Aramco and Marathon Oil Corp. have $15 billion in refinery expansions planned from Michigan to Texas to process more crude from Canada's oil sands. Canadian supplies are needed to replace dwindling output from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mexico, John Hofmeister, Shell's U.S. chairman, said in September.

 Abandoned oil and gas wells will be cleaned up despite backlog: Alberta regulator - – There’s lots of life in Alberta’s conventional oil industry and plenty of resources and political will to clean up the mess it leaves behind, says the head of the province’s energy regulator. “Will there be halcyon-days growth in the sector? Probably not,” said Alberta Energy Regulator president Laurie Pushor. “We still see an industry that is healthy and anticipating relatively stable production.” Pushor spoke to The Canadian Press after his first year on the job, a year that saw 20 per cent layoffs at his agency at a time when the government is asking it to do more. There are also growing worries over the industry’s environmental liabilities and concern about the growth of coal mining in the Rocky Mountains. “This organization has had a profound amount of change,” he said Thursday. Pushor acknowledged problems with how Alberta ensured industry has cleaned up after itself. A recent report from the University of Calgary found more than half the province’s wells no longer produce, but remain unreclaimed. The regulator’s own predictions suggest such wells will double between 2019 and 2030. The regulator wasn’t making sure companies that bought old wells had the wherewithal to operate and close them safely, Pushor said. Companies would pass the regulator’s tests, then collapse anyway. “We were seeing failures of companies that had positive ratings.”

Rusty container causes oil spill in Austrian Lake -- Oil Has Spilled Into A Lake In Austria During Cleaning Works, Police In Salzburg Said On Sunday. According to the statement, a steel container began leaking as it was being removed from the Lake Wolfgang near Salzburg and caused the spill. Divers had been removing old containers and tyres from the lake. They already recovered about 20 rusty barrels filled with water, when one of them unexpectedly leaked oil, DPA reported. The fire brigade immediately placed containment barriers around the patch of oil and sprayed it with a binding agent to keep it from spreading. A specialist company was hired to siphon off the oil in an area of about 30 square kilometres, according to the statement. There was no immediate indication of environmental damage.

Govt worried of oil spill in Lake Victoria  - There is a looming danger of an explosion and eventual spill of more than 30,000 litres of diesel in Lake Victoria by fuel tankers that sank alongside MV Kaawa Ferry more than 16 years ago. The warning was sounded by Dr Tom Okurut, the executive director of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema), during the inauguration of the new Nema board in Kampala yesterday. “MV Kabalega sank in Lake Victoria when it was coming from Mwanza and the oil is still in the tankers. There have been attempts to lift up the boat but they have failed and the tanks are expanding and can explode any time, causing an oil spill,” Dr Okurut said . “We are trying to use some technology to suck out the oil without spilling it into the lake and see if this can be successful,” he added. When asked what the impact of the oil spill could be on aquatic life, he said oil is lighter than water and when it spills, it will float, cutting off oxygen supply, thereby killing marine life. MV Kabalega, a train wagon ferry operated by the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC), sank in May 2005, about 150 feet between Kuye Islands and Mazinga Sub-county and Bukasa in Kyamuswa Sub-county in what is known to be the Ssese chain of islands, following a collision with another URC owned ferry, popularly known as MV Kaawa. At the time of the collision, MV Kabalega, which was loaded with about 6,800 tonnes of wheat and oil, was headed to Port Bell in Uganda while MV Kaawa was headed out to Tanzania’s Lake Victoria port of Mwanza. MV Kaawa struck Kabalega’s bow sending the railway wagons on its deck into the water. The ferry’s tank was also ruptured, allowing water to make a rapid entry that eventually sank it.

Pakistan, Russia sign agreement to develop Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline - Pakistan and Russia have signed an inter-government agreement to develop Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline for gas transportation from Karachi to Kasur. According to the Pakistan Embassy in Russia, a protocol on amendments to the Agreement on North-South Gas Pipeline Project was signed by Pakistan’s Ambassador in Moscow Shafqat Ali Khan and Russian Minister for Energy Nikolay Shulginov in Moscow. The agreement signed after successful negotiations between Pakistan’s Ministry of Energy and Russian Ministry of Energy. As per the protocol, the project has been renamed as “Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline”. Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline (SPV) would be set up within 60 days of the agreement signing. The pipeline project is a flagship strategic venture between Pakistan and Russia that would strengthen bilateral cooperation.

Cyclone Tauktae: Oil leak spotted around aground barge off Palghar coast in Maharashtra  -In the aftereffects of cyclone Tauktae, oil leak was spotted on Saturday around the barge "Gal Constructor'' which had run aground during cyclone Tauktae off the Palghar coast in Maharashtra.The Indian Coast Guard said a "silvery oil sheen" of 50 metres in width was spotted and all precautions are being taken.The spill had not reached the shore, the officials said.As many as 137 people had been rescued from the barge after the cyclone hit it on May 17.Palghar district disaster control chief Vivekanand Kadam told PTI that the leak was spotted close to Vadrai coast in Palghar, near Mumbai."Officials from the Maharashtra Maritime Board as well as Coast Guard personnel are on the spot, trying to plug the leak as and when the tide allows," Kadam said.The Coast Guard said in a statement that Gal Constructor was carrying approximately 78 kilo litres of High Flash High Speed Diesel (HFHSD) but had no crude oil on board, and no breach of the oil tank was reported.The barge had been deployed by contractor firm Afcons on behalf of state-run ONGC to service its oil and gas fields near the Mumbai coast. The company arranged Seacare which has laid a boom of 400 metres around the barge while two fuel barges have been hired for the removal of oil, the Coast Guard said."No oil spill has been reported on shore as of now," the release added.The situation was being closely monitored and the district administration is on alert in case oil reaches the shore and clean-up is required, it said.

Mumbai: 85 floating tanks to remove 79,000 litres of barges oil -  A salvage team has started work on sponging out 79,000 litres of lube oil from the barge Gal Constructor which broke anchor, drifted and ran aground off Palghar during cyclone Tauktae about a fortnight ago. Oil removal started after 1,000 litres leaked into the sea, which was contained using booms within a radius of 400 metres around the barge. The oil was stored in the barge as lubricant for machinery. Diesel too was stored on the vessel for operations like generating electricity.The barge is about 2 km from Palghar’s Wadrai Coast, where the depth of sea is up to three metres at places. Fifteen tanks of capacity 1,000 litres each have been sent to the location for oil removal, and 70 more will reach within three days, said a shipping industry source. The tanks are being hauled by small mechanised boats. No oil spill has been reported onshore yet. “Neither has a breach of the oil tanks aboard the barge been reported. Work is on to recover the spilt oil, which has been contained around the grounded barge with the help of booms,” a source from the Directorate General of Shipping told TOI.The oil captured within the boom radius is being removed by absorbent pads. The barge’s operator had hired it from Tirupati Vessels and has engaged Smit Salvage and the firm Seacare for removal of oil from the barge. “POL (petrol, oil, and lubricant) onboard is 79 KL, which will be pumped into plastic tanks of 1,000 litres. A total of 85 tanks will be used to transport the barge’s POL,” said an official.

 ICG ships continue its efforts to control the fire onboard MV X-Press Pearl off Colombo (UNI) Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Sunday said that its ships have been is working tirelessly to extinguish the massive fire onboard container vessel MV X-Press Pearl off Colombo in Sri Lankan water. The ICG and Sri Lankan Navy jointly have taken up this challenging round-the-clock fire-fighting operation named as Operation Sagar Aaraksha 2 since May 25. “At present, three ICG ships and four tugs deployed by Sri Lanka are involved in the operation and continuously fighting the fire by spraying foams and sea water using external fire-fighting systems. The non-stop joint firefighting efforts have yielded positive results with increasing signs of fire being under control. Smoke density has also reduced. The fire has been localised to a small area near the aft section of the vessel”, the officials in the ICG said. They also said that two ships ‘Vaibhav’ and ‘Vajra’, in addition to their fire-fighting capabilities, are also equipped with adequate Pollution Response (PR) capabilities for oil spill. The presence of a specialised PR vessel ICGS Samudra Prahari since May 29, has provided added strength to overall fire fighting capabilities while ICG Dornier aircraft sorties are being undertaken daily from Madurai for aerial assessment of the situation. Reports from the ships and aircraft indicate that there has been no oil spill.Further, with the careful and measured execution of firefighting operation, no change has been observed in trim and draught of the vessel indicating that the stability and watertight integrity of the vessel is intact, the ICG officials added.

Officials fear disaster as ship full of chemicals, oil sinks off Sri. Lanka.. -- A fire-stricken container ship off the coast of Sri Lanka that started to sink Wednesday is becoming a source of concern for a potential environmental disaster, according to local officials.The ship, called the MV X-Press Pearl, could create an oil spill emergency as it was filled with chemicals including nitric acid and carrying nearly 350 metric tons of oil, CNN reported.Operators of the ship, X-Press Feeders, told NBC News that efforts to remove the ship from shallow waters failed Tuesday, raising fears of an ecological disaster.“The ship's aft portion is now touching bottom at a depth of 21 meters (70 feet)," the company wrote in a statement, adding that the forward area is still afloat but spewing smoke.Sri Lankan government officials shared later on Tuesday that the ship was successfully moved to deeper waters, but expressed concern that oil could begin to leak from the ship."Emergency measures are [being] taken to protect the lagoon and surrounding areas to contain the damage form any debris or in case of an oil leak," Sri Lanka's State Minister of Fisheries, Kanchana Wijesekera, wrote in a tweet detailing the situation.X-Press Feeders on Tuesday said that an inspection team boarded the ship after mitigating the fire and discovered that the ship's engine room was flooded."There are now concerns over the amount of water in the hull and its effect on the ship's stability," X-Press Feeders said.  The X-Press Pearl was en route from India to Malaysia when, on May 20, a fire broke out on board. It was carrying 1,486 containers, with 81 containers holding "dangerous goods," including 25 metric tons of nitric acid at the time, according to CNN. A criminal investigation headed by Sri Lankan authorities was launched into how the fire began on the ship. The mysterious explosion and sinking of the support ship comes after Iran, in April, accused Israeli forces of attacking an Iranian military ship that had been linked to alleged spying activities by the Iranian government.  A U.S. official at the time said that Israel had notified the U.S. that they had attacked the vessel as a retaliatory measure following earlier strikes on Israeli vessels by Iranian forces.  Israel and Iran since 2019 have engaged in back-and-forth attacks on ships traveling through the eastern Mediterranean and Red seas.

Plastic Pellet Spill From Burning Ship Causes ‘Worst Beach Pollution’ in Sri Lanka’s History  --A chemical-laden ship sank off the coast of Sri Lanka Wednesday, after burning for nearly two weeks.The accident has already led to one of the worst marine disasters in the country's history, as tons of plasticpellets from the burning ship have already contaminated its fishing waters and washed up on its shores,Reuters reported."This is probably the worst beach pollution in our history," Sri Lanka's Marine Protection Authority (MEPA) chairman Dharshani Lahandapura told AFP.  The ship, a Singapore-registered container vessel named MV X-Press Pearl, caught fire May 20 after an explosion while it was anchored off of Sri Lanka's western coast, according to Reuters. It was carrying 1,486 containers, including 25 metric tons (approximately 28 U.S. tons) of nitric acid and other chemicals. Some of these chemical-filled containers fell overboard in the fire. However, it is believed that most of the cargo was destroyed in the flames, according to AFP. Up until now, the biggest devastation from the incident has been the plastic pellet pollution. The government moved Wednesday to suspend fishing along 50 miles of Sri Lanka's coastline, grounding 5,600 boats, according to Reuters. "I have never seen anything like this before," Dinesh Wijayasinghe, a 47-year-old who works in a hotel in the coastal town of Negombo, told The New York Times. "When I first saw this, about three to four days ago, the beach was covered with these pellets. They looked like fish eyes." This pollution is devastating both for the region's marine life and for the people who depend on it for their livelihoods. Microplastics and other charred remains from the ship have been found as far down as two feet deep in the sand, according to AFP. There are fears the pollution will harm mangroves and coral reefs and make it harder for fish to breed in shallow waters."No one is able to say how long we will have the adverse effects of this pollution," 30-year-old fisherman Fisherman Lakshan Fernando told AFP. "It could take a few years or a few decades, but in the meantime what about our livelihoods?"At the same time, the plastic pollution could have a lasting impact on human health. "The pellets can soak and absorb the chemicals from the environment," marine biologist Dr. Asha de Vos told The New York Times. "This is an issue because when we eat whole fish, we will also be eating these chemicals." There are now concerns an oil spill could make the environmental disaster even worse, CNN reported. The vessel has 350 metric tons (approximately 386 U.S. tons) of oil in its tank. This could reach a 30-kilometer (approximately 19 mile) stretch of coastline, including pristine beaches.

Oil spill fear deepens as ship on fire starts to sink off Sri Lanka - (EFE).- A cargo ship with chemicals on board that has been on fire for the last nearly two weeks off the Sri Lankan coast began to sink Wednesday, officials said, sparking fears over a catastrophic oil spill and extensive marine pollution. The Sri Lankan Navy told the media that the X-Press Pearl vessel, carrying 1,500 containers of nitric acid and other chemicals, was sinking near the western coast. Minister of State for Fisheries Kanchana Wijesekera wrote on Twitter that the “sinking vessel is been towed away to deep waters by the salvage company with the support of the navy and other stakeholders involved.” The minister said the fisheries department had suspended vessels entering from the Negombo Lagoon and fishing from Panadura to Negombo with an immediate effect after the ship started sinking. “Emergency preventing measures are taken to protect the lagoon and surrounding areas to contain the damage form any debris or in case of an oil leak. Vessels fishing in around the area and high seas are also informed of possible debris and to be vigilant.” The Singapore-registered container was heading from India to the Colombo harbor when it caught fire off Sri Lankan waters last nearly two weeks ago. The authorities have since tried to extinguish the flames. But strong winds associated with the monsoon have complicated the operation. The burning ship has caused the plastic waste spillage off the west coast. Sri Lanka Navy launched a mass-scale beach cleanup after plastic pallets from the ship washed ashore. It is the second ship that caught fire off Sri Lankan water in a span of few months. In September, a large crude oil carrier MT New Diamond caught fire and suffered an engine room explosion that left one of its crew dead. The Sri Lankan and Indian firefighting missions battled for over a week to control the fire.

International experts deployed for Sri Lanka oil spill - Foreign experts have been deployed to help Sri Lanka contain a potential oil leak from a burnt-out container ship partially sunk off Colombo, the ship's operator said Friday. Representatives from the International Tankers Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) and Oil Spill Response (OSR) were onshore monitoring the MV X-Press Pearl, X-Press Feeders said. "They continue to coordinate with MEPA (Marine Environment Protection Authority) and the Sri Lankan navy on an established plan to deal with any possible spill of oil and other pollutants," the company said. Its chief executive, Shmuel Yoskovitz, apologized to Sri Lanka for the disaster, which saw the ship burn for 13 days and inundated the island's beaches with huge amounts of plastic pellets. With the ship's stern now on the sea bed and the bow slowly sinking, environmentalists fear an oil leak could cause even greater degradation to marine life. Choppy seas and poor visibility prevented navy divers from checking the hull for a second day Friday, Sri Lanka navy spokesperson Indika de Silva told AFP. He said a team reached the sinking vessel and made a cursory inspection on Thursday, but could not carry out their mission because of poor visibility. Meanwhile, the MEPA has placed oil dispersants and skimmers should the vessel leak its 350 tons of fuel oil on board. An Indian coastguard vessel in the area has equipment to deal with any oil slick, according to the Sri Lankan navy, which has requested assistance with the operation. Sri Lanka's Harbour Master Nirmal Silva said Thursday that no oil had leaked so far. "Looking at the way the ship burnt, expert opinion is that bunker oil may have burnt out, but we are preparing for the worst-case scenario," Silva said.

OMV confirms hydraulic oil spill off Taranaki coast - An oil spill off the Taranaki coast has been reported to authorities, Austrian-owned oil and gas company OMV says.On Monday, an OMV New Zealand spokeswoman confirmed hydraulic fluid, also known as hydraulic oil, had been spilled during a site survey last week.”Approximately 90 kilometres off the coast of Taranaki, hydraulic fluid was lost to the ocean during operations conducted from the vessel MMA Vision,” she said. “OMV takes its commitments to the environment seriously and, as abundance of caution, OMV asked the vessel operator to return to port for investigation and repair.”  A helicopter which flew out to examine the scene on Friday morning found no signs of the spill, she said.OMV’s Maui B platform. The Austrian-owned oil and gas company has confirmed hydraulic oil was spilled during a site survey off the Taranaki coast last week. (File photo)OMV has operated in New Zealand since 1999 when it acquired shares in the Maari oil field, 80km off the South Taranaki coast.It now also owns the Maui gas field and has a 74 per cent share in the Pohokura gas field.

OPEC oil output rise in May limited by Nigeria, Iran losses --OPEC oil output has risen in May as the group agreed to ease supply curbs under a pact with allies, a Reuters survey showed, although a drop in Iranian exports and involuntary reductions in African members limited the increase. The 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has pumped 25.52 million barrels per day (bpd) in May, the survey found, up 280,000 bpd from April. Output has risen every month since June 2020 with the exception of February. Hoping for a global demand recovery, OPEC and allies, known as OPEC+, decided from May 1 to ease more of the record supply cuts made in 2020. OPEC+ meets on Tuesday and delegates expect producers to stick to the existing plan. The OPEC+ agreement allows for a 277,000 bpd increase in OPEC output in May versus April, plus Saudi Arabia had pledged to add 250,000 bpd as part of a plan to gradually unwind a 1 million bpd voluntary cut had made in February, March and April. But with reductions in other countries offsetting the Saudi move, the increase in May OPEC output found by the survey is less than expected, and the group is still pumping much less than called for under the deal. OPEC compliance with pledged cuts was 122% in May, the survey found, versus 123% in April. The biggest increase in May of 340,000 bpd came from Saudi Arabia as it began to unwind the voluntary cut and raised output as part of the May 1 OPEC+ boost. OPEC’s No. 2 producer Iraq also pumped more in May, the survey found, adding an extra 70,000 bpd and pushing output beyond its quota. Libya, one of the OPEC members exempt from making voluntary cuts, boosted output in May after a force majeure on oil loadings from the port of Hariga was lifted. These increases were limited by involuntary reductions elsewhere in the group. The biggest drop was in Nigeria, where exports slowed from a number of terminals. Angolan supply, in long-term decline, also declined. Iran, which has managed to raise exports since the fourth quarter despite U.S. sanctions, exported less in May due to lower demand in China.

US sells off Iranian crude oil seized off coast of UAE - The U.S. has sold some 2 million barrels of Iranian crude oil after seizing an oil tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, court documents and government statistics show. The Iranian crude oil showed up in new figures released over the weekend by the U.S. Energy Information Agency, raising the eyebrows of commodities traders as Tehran remains targeted by a series of American sanctions. The EIA figures included just over 1 million barrels of Iranian ``crude oil imports`` in March ..The oil came from the MT Achilleas, a ship seized in February by the U.S. off the coast of the Emirati port city of Fujairah. U.S court documents allege the Achilleas was subject to forfeiture under American anti-terrorism statues as Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard tried to use it to sell crude oil to China. The U.S. has identified the Guard as a terrorist organization since the administration of former President Donald Trump.Prosecutors say shippers tried to disguise the shipment by labeling it as ``Basra light crude'' from neighboring Iraq. The U.S. government brought the Achilleas to Houston, Texas, where it sold the just over 2 million barrels of crude oil within it for $110 million, or at around $55 a barrel, court documents show. The money will be held in escrow amid a court case over it. When asked Monday about the case, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said he had ``no details'' about it. ``Since the time of the former U.S. president, Mr. Bill Clinton, no oil has been purchased from Iran because of their laws,'' Khatibzadeh said.

Russia to consider ditching dollar-denominated oil contracts if faced with more U.S. sanctions Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak on Thursday said the oil and gas-rich country may soon be tempted to move away from U.S. dollar-denominated crude contracts if President Joe Biden's administration continues to impose targeted economic sanctions. "Well, ideally we would prefer not to move away from the dollar as it is an international currency used for settlements," Novak told CNBC's Hadley Gamble at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, according to a translation. "But if our American partners create this type of situation we shall have no other choice but gradually do that," he added. His comments come shortly after Russia announced it would completely remove U.S. dollar assets from its National Wealth Fund. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at the same event Thursday that the changes could be expected within a month, according to Reuters. Russia's NWF accumulates oil revenue and was initially dedicated to supporting the country's pensions system. The move comes ahead of a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden later this month. "We shall continue to be the world leader in the fossil fuels market and we shall diversify by going into the LNG and petrochemicals (markets)," Novak said, referring to the acronym for liquefied natural gas. "Plus develop new energy production, clean energy," he continued, citing hydrogen, carbon storage technologies and the development of new fuels, among other projects. Russia's economy has been operating under international sanctions since 2014 after its annexation of Crimea. Its role in a pro-Russian uprising in east Ukraine, 2016 U.S. election interference, a nerve agent poisoning in the U.K. and its role in the SolarWinds cyberattack, among other incidents, have also all prompted further sanctions. For its part, Russia denies any involvement or wrongdoing. International benchmark Brent crude futures traded at $71.56 a barrel on Thursday afternoon in London, up around 0.3%, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures stood at $68.99, roughly 0.2% higher. Oil prices have climbed more than 30% since the start of the year. In Oct. 2019, Russia's largest oil company Rosneft set the euro as the default currency for all new exports of crude oil in an attempt to shield it from the impact of U.S. sanctions.

It could be a hot summer ahead for oil prices --Oil prices could temporarily spike to $80 per barrel or more this summer as demand comes roaring back. The reopening economy has already sent crude up about 40% since the start of the year, but a surge in driving by Americans, as well as an increase in goods transportation and air travel, could pressure prices further. For consumers, that means the typical early summer peak in gasoline prices could come later in the season. Unleaded gasoline was $3.04 per gallon on average Wednesday, about a penny higher than last week but more than 50% higher than a year ago, according to AAA. Brent futures, the international crude benchmark, settled up 1.6% at $71.48 per barrel Wednesday, the highest since Jan. 8, 2020. West Texas Intermediate futures for July were 1.6% higher at $68.83 per barrel, after hitting a high of $69.65, the highest since Oct. 23, 2018. "Demand is ramping up very quickly because everybody's driving, and we have the reopening of Europe, which is really starting to happen," said Francisco Blanch, global commodities and derivatives strategist at Bank of America. "India seems to have hit an inflection point, in terms of cases, which in my mind could mean you also get a return of mobility." Energy analysts agree the world is in for a period of higher prices, but they do not agree how high or for how long. Blanch said Brent has already hit his $70 target for the quarter, but he has a much more bullish longer-term view than others. "We think in the next three years we could see $100 barrels again, and we stand by that. That would be a 2022, 2023 story," Blanch said. "Part of it is the fact we have OPEC kind of holding all the cards, and the market is not particularly price responsive on the supply side and there is a lot of pent-up demand ... We also have a lot of inflation everywhere. Oil has been lagging the rise in prices across the economy." Members of OPEC and their allies, a group known as OPEC+, are gradually returning oil to the market. They agreed to implement their previously planned production increase of 350,000 barrels a day in June and another 450,000 barrels a day starting in July. Saudi Arabia also agreed to step back from its own cuts of about a million barrels a day, which was put in place earlier in the year. OPEC+ had agreed in April to increase output by more than 2 million barrels a day by the end of July. The U.S. industry is producing about 11 million barrels a day, down from about 13 million before the pandemic. But analysts say it's not clear how fast or whether U.S. companies will restore that production. "The sensitivity of producers to price changes has declined because of capital discipline," said Blanch. He said there is pressure on companies to be cautious in how they use capital after the collapse in prices last year. "Right now we're in a position where prices are rising, companies are reluctant to invest," Blanch said. "They are paying down debt and increasing dividends."

Oil up, near $70 a barrel as demand outlook improves (Reuters) -Oil prices firmed on Monday, with Brent trading near $70 a barrel on growing optimism that fuel demand will grow in the next quarter, while investors looked ahead to see how producers will respond at this week's OPEC+ meeting.Trading was thin as U.S. and UK markets were closed on Monday due to public holidays. Brent crude futures settled up 60 cents, or 0.9%, at $69.32 a barrel, off the a session high of $69.82. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.9% and last traded at $66.91 a barrel. Both contracts were set for a second monthly gain.Analysts expect oil demand growth to outstrip supply despite the possible return of Iranian crude and condensate exports. "Despite the mobility restrictions that are still in place, oil demand is recovering dynamically around the world," Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) said.Iran has been in talks with world powers since April, working on steps that Tehran and Washington must take on sanctions and nuclear activities to return to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear pact.The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia will meet on Tuesday.The group known as OPEC+ is expected to stay the course on plans to gradually ease supply cuts until July."Trading excitement often drives the market just before OPEC+ meetings, and there is confidence that the oil producer group will demonstrate supply restraint at its meeting on Tuesday," Louise Dickson, oil markets analyst at Rystad Energy said in a note to clients. A Joint Technical Committee (JTC) for the alliance kept its global oil demand growth forecast for 2021 unchanged at about 6 million barrels per day, two sources from the group told Reuters on Monday.

Oil jumps to two-year high as OPEC and allies reconfirm gradual production increase— A group of some of the world's most powerful oil producers agreed on Tuesday to continue gradually easing production cuts amid a rebound in oil prices. OPEC and its oil-producing allies, known as OPEC+, will boost output in July, in accordance with the group's April decision to return 2.1 million barrels per day to the market between May and July. Production policy beyond July was not decided on, and the group will meet again on July 1. International benchmark Brent crude futures traded at $71.17 a barrel on Tuesday, up around 2.7%, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures stood at $68.65, for a gain of more than 3% and the contract's highest level in more than two years. Oil prices have climbed more than 30% this year. The Middle East-dominated group, which is responsible for over one-third of global oil production, is seeking to balance an expected upswing in demand with the potential for an increase in Iranian output. The alliance announced massive crude production cuts in 2020 in an effort to support prices when the coronavirus pandemic coincided with a historic demand shock. Ahead of the meeting, analysts expected the group to keep output steady. "I think the event itself is going to be a nonevent. We expect them to basically reconfirm the plan that they laid out on April 1," Jeffrey Currie, global head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs, told CNBC's "Street Signs Europe" on Tuesday. "I think the bigger issue underlying this is: How are they going to deal with Iran?" Iran is in discussions with six world powers to revive its 2015 nuclear deal. The restoration of a deal could lead to more oil on the global market in coming months. "It's too early to give specific numbers around Iran," Currie said. "So I think the best you can hope for in terms of how they are going to deal with Iran is the indication that they are willing to offset any increases in Iran. That could be the positive upside surprise coming out of this meeting." OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said Monday that he did not believe higher Iranian supply would be a cause for concern. "We anticipate that the expected return of Iranian production and exports to the global market will occur in an orderly and transparent fashion," Barkindo said in a statement. "I think everybody is expecting Iran to add a lot of volume. So beyond the July increase, they aren't likely to come out with any commitment," Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday. "We know that as demand rises, we will need more OPEC barrels, but I think Iran is going to be the big question mark for them," Sen said. OPEC+ initially agreed to cut oil production by a record of 9.7 million barrels per day last year as global fuel demand collapsed, before easing cuts to 7.7 million and eventually 7.2 million from January. By July, the group's production cuts will be on track to stand at 5.8 million. "The most consequential issue for OPEC+ over the short term relates to the potential rise of Iranian production as a result of the US and Iran returning to JCPOA compliance,"

  Oil Hits Highest Since October 2018 With Saudis Upbeat on Demand - - Oil resumed its advance, reaching the highest settlement in over two years with the OPEC+ alliance forecasting a tightening global crude market and a nuclear deal with Iran still up in the air. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 2.1 percent, while global benchmark Brent settled above $70 a barrel for the first time since 2019. Prices rallied as members of the OPEC+ alliance sounded upbeat notes about the global consumption rebound. Saudi Arabia Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said “the demand picture has shown clear signs of improvement,” while his Russian counterpart also spoke of the “gradual economic recovery.” Adding further support, the prospect of an immediate resolution in talks to revive the 2015 nuclear accord has been delayed for now. Iranian officials said the Persian Gulf country and world powers are unlikely to reach a final agreement in the current round of talks, cooling speculation that sanctions on Tehran’s key oil exports might soon be lifted. WTI for July delivery climbed $1.40 to settle at $67.72 a barrel. Brent for August settlement rose 93 cents to $70.25 a barrel, the highest since May 2019. , “it looks like we could be in for a tight summer.” A robust economic recovery in the U.S. and Europe has given the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies the confidence that markets can absorb additional barrels, with the producer group agreeing Tuesday to press ahead with an increase of 841,000 barrels a day in July, following hikes in May and June. That comes as the International Energy Agency signaled a speedier demand recovery than its previous estimates, seeing global oil demand in one year possibly rebounding to levels seen before the pandemic. The oil market’s structure was also showing signs of strength on Tuesday. The spread between WTI’s nearest two December contracts -- a favored trade for hedge funds to express views on the oil market -- rallied to its widest backwardation since the two contracts began trading, indicating tight supply. Down the curve, the spread between the December 2022 and December 2023 contracts has surged further above $3 a barrel in backwardation. The oil glut built up during the coronavirus pandemic has almost gone and stockpiles will slide rapidly in the second half of the year, according to an assessment of the market earlier this week from an OPEC+ committee. At the forefront of the global demand recovery, the U.S. has been showing signs of solid travel patterns even before this past weekend marked the start of the traditional peak fuel consumption period. U.S. gasoline demand in week ended May 28 reached the highest level since start of pandemic to 9.534 million barrels a day, Descartes Labs said in survey based on movements of cellular devices.

Oil Algos Confused After Big Crude Draw, Product Build -  Oil prices rallied on the day as signs of a demand recovery from the US to Europe stoke optimism among producers and analysts in the crude market, combined with waning hopes for an Iran nuke deal.Oil is in “strong demand right now,” with economies around the world opening up, Daniel Yergin, the oil historian and vice chairman at consultant IHS Markit Ltd., said in a Bloomberg Television interview. "Oil is bid on the Iran timeline to adding barrels getting kicked further into the future--sometime between August and the fall," After last week's across-the-board draws, analysts expected another week of demand dominance. API

• Crude -5.36mm (-3.3mm exp)
• Cushing +741k
• Gasoline +2.51mm (-1.1mm exp)
• Distillates +1.585mm (-1.6mm exp)

While crude stocks tumbled more than expected, gasoline and distillate stocks unexpectedly rose last week... WTI hovered just below $68.80 ahead of the API print and barely budged on the mixed data... “Summer and the reopening of the economy is bullish for demand,” while “it looks much less likely we’ll have Iranian barrels any time soon than it did last week.” But, the question now is whether oil prices can hold their gains "amid strong demand, despite plenty of downside risk on the supply side,"

WTI Extends Gains After Sizable Crude Inventory Draw, Shrugs Off Unexpoected Product Builds - Oil prices are holding gains, with WTI around $69, after last night's bigger than expected crude draw reported by API, helped by signs of demand rebounding in the US (PMI/ISM) offsetting China concerns.Crude prices have extended gains this week on OPEC’s new outlook and because nuclear talks between Iran and world powers stalled.“There will always be a good amount of supply to meet demand,” Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said at a forum in St. Petersburg on Thursday.“We’ll have to see demand” before producers increase supply, he said.Additionally, Saudi Arabia increased oil prices for customers in its main market of Asia by more than expected after Brent crude surged above $70 a barrel and OPEC forecast that global demand would heavily outstrip supply over the rest of the year. DOE

• Crude -5.079mm (-3.3mm exp)
• Cushing +784k - biggest build since Feb
• Gasoline +1.499mm (-1.1mm exp) - biggest build since April
• Distillates +3.72mm (-1.6mm exp) - biggest build since March

Crude stocks fell notably last week but product inventories unexpectedly rose... US Crude production continues to remain 'disciplined' (in fact, falling 200kb/d last week) despite the soaring prices and surging rig counts....

 "We'll See $200 Oil": Russia & OPEC Ministers Blast IEA's 'Net Zero By 2050' Plan As "La-La-Land" - After in recent months crude oil prices have clearly recovered from their COVID-19 slump on steadily increasing demand, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak addressed the much anticipated decision-making at the upcoming OPEC+ conference set for August and the expectation that it will decide to raise output significantly beyond the current pandemic-induced strategy of gradually releasing more barrels into a strengthening oil market.Novak said in his Thursday remarks at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that while it remains "premature" to talk about output decisions for August, he affirmed "The current oil price is good enough for Russia," adding: "Oil prices reflect the balance of supply and demand," and noted it's expected the seasonal oil demand will increase in the third quarter of the year. On Wednesday Brent crude futures touched their highest price since September 2019 at $71.99, with the international benchmark gaining 1.6%, following the day prior the benchmark seeing a rise of almost 3%.Novak confirmed the upcoming OPEC+ conference will address and finalize oil output for August and other months, while stressing that oil prices shooting too high "may force users to switch to other energy sources."On that front in particular, he blasted current IEA proposals and a "road map" being pushed which in the end could lead to $200 a barrel oil(!):If the world were to follow the International Energy Agency’s controversial road map, which said investment in new fields would have to stop immediately to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, "the price for oil will go to, what, $200? Gas prices will skyrocket," Novak said.And naturally Qatar and Saudi Arabia seconded that dire assessment, vowing to continue expanding their oil and gas facilities while pointing the finger at the climate activists for seeking to starve industry cash. Bloomberg presents the Gulf statements Thursday as follows: The "euphoria" around the transition to clean energy is "dangerous," Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Sherida Al Kaabi said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia on Thursday."When you deprive the business from additional investments, you have big spikes" in prices, he stressed further.

Oil hits over 1-year high on OPEC+ supply discipline, demand prospects  (Reuters) – Oil prices surged on Wednesday, hitting their highest in more than a year from a decision by OPEC and allies to stick to the plan to gradually restore supply, along with the slow pace of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States. Brent rose $1.1, or 1.6%, to settle at $71.35 a barrel. It reached $71.48 a barrel, its highest since January 2020. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.11, or 1.6%, to settle at $68.83 a barrel. It hit $69.00 during the session, its highest since October 2018. “The oil market welcomed the OPEC+ decision to stick with its existing production plan, and in conjunction with positive global demand indications, prices are gaining further today,” said Louise Dickson, Rystad Energy oil markets analyst. Expecting a recovery in demand, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, together known as OPEC+, agreed on Tuesday to maintain their plan to gradually ease supply curbs through July. The OPEC+ meeting took 20 minutes, shortest in the group’s history, indicating unity among members and their confidence in the market’s recovery, analysts said. OPEC+ data shows the group is now more upbeat about the pace of rebalancing in the oil market than it was a month ago. Graphic: Oil Market Balances – https://graphics.reuters.com/GLOBAL-OIL/rlgvddlxyvo/chart.png Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said solid demand recovery in the United States and China and the pace of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts can only lead to further rebalancing of the global oil market. “We expect oil prices to move well beyond $70 per barrel towards mid-year,” said Norbert Rucker, analyst at Swiss bank Julius Baer. Analysts also said the slow progress of the Iran nuclear talks provides breathing room for demand to catch up before Iranian oil returns to the market if a deal is reached. Talks aimed at reviving Iran’s nuclear pact with global powers were expected to adjourn for a week, diplomats said, with remaining parties to the deal due to meet on Wednesday evening to sign off on the move. In the United States, crude stocks fell by 5.36 million barrels in the week ended May 28, according to two market sources, citing American Petroleum Institute figures released after the markets settled. Gasoline inventories rose by 2.5 million barrels and distillate stocks climbed by 1.56 million barrels.

U.S. oil futures post another finish at the highest since 2018  Oil futures climbed sharply on Wednesday (link), with U.S. prices at their highest in over two and a half years. Most of oil's rise is "driven by expectations that gasoline inventories will take a hit" in supply data due out Thursday, and "anticipation that Americans, who stayed home last year, will be taking to the road again," said James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics. The Energy Information Administration will release its weekly supply report on Thursday, a day later than usual because of Monday's Memorial Day holiday. Oil prices, however, appeared to gain more ground during the session following reports of a fire at a state-owned refinery in Iran (link). That followed news that the largest warship in Iran's navy caught fire (link) and sank on Wednesday. The events are "raising the overall risk premium in the Middle East," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group. "The biggest downside risk is the return of Iranian supply and that looks more unlikely." West Texas Intermediate oil for July delivery climbed $1.11, or 1.6%, to settle at $68.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Front-month contract prices ended at their highest since October 2018, FactSet data show.

Oil steady after mixed U.S. crude inventory report -  (Reuters) -Oil prices steadied on Thursday following two straight days of gains that took oil futures to highs not seen in a year, after weekly U.S. crude stocks fell sharply while fuel inventories rose more than expected. Brent futures settled at $71.31 a barrel, down 4 cents after touching its highest since May 2019 earlier in the session. U.S. crude settled at $68.81 a barrel, losing 2 cents. WTI prices rose as high as $69.40, the strongest since October 2018, after gaining 1.5% in the previous session. U.S. crude inventories dropped by 5.1 million barrels last week, compared with expectations for a decrease of 2.4 million barrels, while gasoline stocks grew by 1.5 million barrels and distillate stockpiles jumped by 3.7 million barrels. [EIA/S] “They burned through a lot of crude oil though, and we had builds in gasoline and distillate,”  “You don’t want to be burning that much crude and then the customers don’t want it.” Gasoline demand jumped last month on panic buying following the closure of the Colonial Pipeline, the largest U.S. refined products line, which meant drivers were less likely to need to fill up their tanks over Memorial Day weekend, the start of peak summer driving season. “Gasoline demand was off week-over-week which may disappoint some people, but it’s still solid,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. Oil prices have risen in recent days on expectations from forecasters, including the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, that oil demand will exceed supply in the second half of 2021. OPEC+ agreed on Tuesday to continue with plans to ease supply curbs through July, giving oil prices a boost, in anticipation of improved consumption. The OPEC+ meeting lasted 20 minutes, the quickest in the group’s history, suggesting strong compliance among members and the conviction that demand will recover once the COVID-19 pandemic shows sign of abating. Also supporting prices was a slowdown in talks between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program, which reduced expectations for a return of Iranian oil supplies to the market this year.

Oil Continues Winning Streak On Demand Recovery And Production Restraint - Brent on Friday topped $72 per barrel for the first time since 2019, and analysts think $70- plus oil could be here to stay as demand recovery continues and supply discipline on the part of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is exerted. Trader optimism on Friday was due to factors that had been building earlier in the week, including OPEC agreeing on Tuesday to stick to agreed supply restraints, and news that nonfarm payrolls in the U.S. increased by 559,000 jobs last month. Also boosting oil was a slowdown in talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program. Brent on Friday rose 58 cents to settle at $71.89 per barrel, after touching $72.17, its highest since May 2019; West Texas Intermediate rose 81 cents to settle at $69.62.   “After much dilly-dallying, Brent appears to have found a new home above $70; summer and the reopening of the global economy is bullish for oil demand in the second half of the year.” John Kemp, commodities analyst for Reuters, pointed out that U.S. shale restraint should also be credited for pushing up oil prices: on Friday he noted that while the number of rigs has already more than doubled from its cyclical low in August 2020,   He added, that "The number of active rigs has grown by an average of just 3.5 per week over the last 15 weeks, down from an average of 6.2 per week over the previous 20 weeks"; also, the number of rigs active last week (359) was far below the number in January 2020 (670) and April 2019 (825), when prices were at a similar level - meaning production is "likely to grow more slowly than previously expected in late 2021 and the first half of 2022." More heartening news came on Friday in the form of data from Vortexa showing that Asia exported about 417,000 barrels per day (bpd) of jet fuel to Europe and North America combined in April-May, nearly 32 percent higher than the 316,000 bpd for February-March; also, jet fuel volumes in floating storage facilities have consistently stayed at zero for the past four weeks for the first time since March last year, according to Kpler., “A pick-up in air travel in the U.S. and Europe amid falling [Covid] infection rates and possible relaxing of travel restrictions this summer, that contrasts against the weak fundamentals in Asia, is expected to support a widening of East-West jet fuel arbitrage in the near term.”

Oil Prices Up for Second Straight Week  | Rigzone -  Oil and gasoline futures both posted their second weekly gain in a row as expectations for a demand pick-up from the northern hemisphere’s summer begin to come to fruition. Futures in New York rose nearly 5% this week, the largest such increase since mid-April. A string of data this week so far affirmed the market’s bet that higher vaccination rates and continuing reopening efforts are unleashing pent-up demand this summer. On the supply side, oil is garnering support from deferred expectations on a renewed nuclear deal with Iran and OPEC+’s cautious approach to bringing back output. Meanwhile, global benchmark Brent ended the week above the psychological $70-a-barrel mark for the first time in over two years, nearing a technical level that may spur renewed flows into the market. “The domestic story remains good and OPEC+ seems to be not aggressively increasing supply,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. The market has been hoping for a return to “a more normal travel season, and that’s the data we’re seeing in the U.S. and Europe.” Without an immediate revival of the Iran nuclear accord looming over the market, traders see prices grinding higher as the summer demand story unfolds. U.S. government data this week served as confirmation that the world’s largest oil-consuming country is in the midst of a demand revival with the onset of the summer travel season, while other countries are also showing strength. A gauge of gasoline consumption inched up for a third straight week at the highest since March 2020, according to the latest Energy Information Administration weekly storage report. In the U.K., government data showed road fuel sales jumped last week to near pre-pandemic levels. “It looks like the economy is back, certainly in the U.S., and vaccines are starting to spread, which is making people want to be long oil heading into the weekend,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. Once more countries start getting a hold on the Covid-19 spread, “economies are going to start booming with pent-up consumer demand.” Prices WTI for July delivery rose 81 cents to settle at $69.62 a barrel. Brent for August settlement gained 58 cents to end the session at $71.89 a barrel. Contract climbed 3.3% for the week. While the rebound remains patchy in parts of Asia, the sharp recovery taking shape in the west is spurring calls for OPEC+ to ensure the market doesn’t overheat.

Goldman says a nuclear deal with Iran could send oil prices higher. Not everyone agrees – A nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran could send energy prices higher — even if it means more supply in the oil markets, according to Goldman Sachs' head of energy research. While it appears to be contradictory, a deal that brings Iranian barrels back to the market could actually see oil prices rise, said Damien Courvalin, who is also a senior commodity strategist at the bank. Talks in Vienna are ongoing as Iran and six world powers — the U.S., China, Russia, France, U.K. and Germany — try to salvage the 2015 landmark deal. Officials say there's been progress, but it remains unclear when negotiations could conclude and oil prices have been seesawing as a result. A deal would lift sanctions on Iran and bring Tehran and Washington back to complying with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran which dealt a blow to the Islamic Republic's oil exports. If that announcement comes in the next few weeks, in our view, it actually starts that bullish repricing. Courvalin explained his rationale. He pointed to how oil prices rose in April after OPEC+ said they would gradually raise output from May by adding back 350,000 barrels a day. "An increase in production … is announced that is above anyone's expectations — ours included. And yet prices rally, volatility comes down," he said. "Why? Because we lifted an uncertainty that was weighing on the market since last year," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" last week. Investors wondered if OPEC would end up in a price war when it tried to increase production, but the oil cartel presented a "convincing path going forward," Courvalin said. "You could argue the same for Iran," he added. Simply knowing will likely "lift some of that uncertainty." "If that announcement comes in the next few weeks, in our view, it actually starts that bullish repricing," he said at that time. Opposing views Other analysts say an agreement could mean lower prices for oil, at least in the short term. Morgan Stanley said in a research note that an increase in Iranian exports will probably cap Brent crude at $70 per barrel, and expects the international benchmark to trade between $65 and $70 per barrel for the second half of 2021.

Iranian warships possibly headed to Venezuela reportedly spark US concern -Two Iranian naval vessels possibly destined for Venezuela are reportedly prompting surveillance from U.S. national security officials.Sources close to the matter told Politico that an Iranian frigate and a former oil tanker called the Makran were traveling south along the eastern coast of Africa.The ultimate destination of the ships is unknown, as is the purpose of their voyage, but U.S. officials told the news outlet that they may be going to Venezuela.Politico noted that Iran and Venezuela have formed closer ties over the years, cooperating on gasoline shipments and projects focusing on cars and cement factories. Both countries are also currently under harsh sanctions by the U.S.A source familiar with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s administration told Politico that senior officials have advised against welcoming the Iranian vessels. Iran is one of the few allies Venezuela has, having been isolated by most other countries.Iran has sent multiple fuel tankers to Venezuela as its oil refining sector has diminished, with Venezuela sending cash back to Tehran.If Iranian vessels do indeed travel into the Western Hemisphere, the action could endanger the ongoing Iran nuclear negotiations in Vienna, which the U.S. is engaging in indirectly. Iran has regularly protested against the presence of U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf, Politico noted, and has often threatened to make a similar move but has so far not followed through with those threats. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) released a statement on Sunday in response to Politico's report, stating Iranian warships are not welcome in the Western Hemisphere. He called on President Biden to speak out against the presence of Iranian warships."For years, I have been warning that Nicolas Maduro’s brutal regime has worked to turn Venezuela into prime real estate for Communist China, Iran and our adversaries to gain a critical foothold in the Western Hemisphere," Scott said."Now, the U.S. national security community believes that the Iranians, undoubtedly emboldened by the Biden Administration’s weakness and desperate desire to reenter the failed Iran nuclear deal, are making a direct and serious threat to America’s national security," he added.

Iran's largest warship catches fire, sinks  - The Iranian navy’s largest warship erupted in flames on Wednesday before sinking in the Gulf of Oman, according to state media reports. The Associated Press reported that the semiofficial Fars and Tasnim news agencies in Iran reported that the ship sank near the port of Jask, located about 790 miles southeast of Tehran, despite attempts by firefighters to save the vessel. While the warship Kharg, named after the island that serves as Iran’s main oil terminal, did not escape the flames, Reuters reported that emergency responders were able to safely rescue the ship’s crew. The cause of the fire is unknown, though state media reported that it began around 2:25 a.m. in the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, where it was conducting a training mission. Fars published video of thick, black smoke rising from the ship Wednesday morning, and satellite photos from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration detected a fire at the Jask port starting shortly before the blaze was reported by state media. Fars reported that “all efforts to save the vessel were unsuccessful and it sank," according to Reuters. The Kharg, which was built in Britain and entered the Iranian navy in 1984 following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, served as one of few ships held by Iran capable of providing replenishment and support for other vessels while at sea, according to the AP. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the United States was "aware of the loss of one of their ships by fire," but was not able to offer further details.

Why Did 72% of Israelis Want Attack on Gaza to Continue? (video and transcript)  --Hi, I’m Paul Jay. Welcome to theAnalysis.news. A survey conducted by direct polls in Israel, that question, 684 Israelis has a margin of error of 4.3 percent, finds that a majority of Israelis didn’t want Israel to negotiate a cease fire that was announced yesterday and they wanted the attacks to continue. In fact, there is a cease fire now in place as we speak, at any rate, but what does this poll tell us about Israeli society? The poll found that 72 percent of the people that responded thought the operation should continue, with the number rising slightly in the south of Israel to 73 percent. Only 24 percent said we should agree to a cease fire, with the figure dropping to 22 percent in the south. When asked whether Israel had made greater achievements in this round of fighting over the previous round, 66 percent said yes, with the figure dropping to 30 percent for those that lived in the south.Now, the question of whether there should have been such an “operation” – another word to use for bombing – whether the question was asked, should there have been such an operation at all? Well, it doesn’t seem like it was asked, at least not in that poll. Now joining us to discuss the state of Israeli society and politics and what the significance of this poll me is, is Shir Hever. He’s a political economist living in Heidelberg, Germany. He was born and raised in Jerusalem. He lived in Tel Aviv before moving to Germany in 2010. His recent book is The Privatization of Israeli Security. Thanks for joining me again Shir.

Poems From Palestine - In the coming weeks we will feature a series of poems from Palestine, curated by the poet and translator Fady Joudah. As the series continues, you’ll be able to scroll down to read all of the poems here, or click the links below to view them separately.

Israeli opposition parties reach agreement to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - — A diverse coalition of Israeli opposition parties said Sunday that they have the votes to form a unity government to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader and its dominant political figure for more than a decade.Under their agreement, reached after weeks of negotiations spearheaded by centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid, former Netanyahu defense minister and ally Naftali Bennett will lead a power-sharing government. Bennett, 49, would serve as Israel’s next prime minister, according to terms of the deal reported by Israeli media, to be succeeded in that role by Lapid, 57, at a later date.“We could go to fifth elections, sixth elections, until our home falls upon us, or we could stop the madness and take responsibility,” Bennett said in a televised statement Sunday evening. “Today, I would like to announce that I intend to join my friend Yair Lapid in forming a unity government.”Netanyahu called the plan “the fraud of the century.”“There is not a single person in Israel who would have voted for Naftali Bennett if they had known what he would do,” he tweeted.Lapid is expected on Monday to inform President Reuven Rivlin of his ability to form a government with the support of Bennett and will have a week to finalize coalition deals. At the end of the week, the government will be put to a vote of confidence in the Knesset.Netanyahu, 71, has struggled to hold on to power after four inconclusive elections in the past two years while facing an ongoing corruption trial. Bennett is one of several former loyalists who have flirted with joining the so-called change coalition, a collection of parties that span the political spectrum but share a desire to end Netanyahu’s 12-year tenure.

Netanyahu Faces Shocking Ouster After Israeli Opposition Reaches Deal To Form Government -It's the end of an era for Israeli politics as embattled prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest serving leader, is facing a shocking ouster after the head of a small hard-line party on Sunday said he would try to form a unity government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opponents, effectively ending Bibi's 12-year rule. In a nationwide address, Yamina party leader and Netanyahu's former defense minister, Naftali Bennett said he had decided to join forces with the country's opposition leader, Yair Lapid in a “unity government" whose "unified" goal has long been removing Netanyahu from office. The pair have until Wednesday to complete a deal in which they are expected to each serve two years as prime minister in a rotation deal.“It’s my intention to do my utmost in order to form a national unity government along with my friend Yair Lapid, so that, God willing, together we can save the country from a tailspin and return Israel to its course,” Bennett said adding that "we could go to fifth elections, sixth elections, until our home falls upon us, or we could stop the madness and take responsibility." This coalition will have one week to finalize deals and then will face a vote in the Knesset. Lapid will inform President Reuven Rivlin of his ability to form a new government with his partners on Monday, according to reports.A unity government would end the cycle of deadlock that has plunged the country into four inconclusive elections over the past two years. It also would end, at least for the time being, the record-setting tenure of Netanyahu, the most dominant figure in Israeli politics over the past three decades.

The Trumpification of Xi Jinping --  The Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC) has achieved great outcomes over the last several decades, especially after the late Deng Xiaoping took effective control of the nation from Maoist holdovers.  He set a model of indirect and collective leadership in contrast with Mao Zedong who ruled nearly absolutely for nearly three decades, while building and enforcing a cult of personality dedicated to himself. Of the top three positions in the nation, he held only one: Chair of the Military Commission, making him Commander-in-Chief. But he was never General Secretary of the Party (with his exact position there unclear), and his highest position in the actual government never above Vice Prime Minister, which he did not remain in all that long.The system went through various changes in the 1980s, with Deng clearly running things, although after 1983 the Head of State position, President, got a 5-year term.  Starting in 1993 the system established with the accession of Jiang Zamen in 1993, a new pattern appeared that the Supreme Leader (a title Deng was granted by the CCP in 1979) would hold the top three position for 10 years, two presidential terms: President, Party General Secretary, and Char of the Military Commission. This did not work perfectly as when the transition in 2003 to Hu Jintao came, Jiang delayed handing over the Chair of the Military for about half a year, while Hu got the other two on time.  Their rivalry would come to dominate the hidden power struggle in Zhongnanghai with its remnant “Sitting Committee” of retired Long March and later leaders carrying on their ancient power struggles.In any case, the period from Deng’s becoming Supreme Leader, although bearing few specifically official positions of power, led to a profoundly seriously successful period of Chinese economic growth and social and cultural achievement and advancement.  It would lead by around 2014 China becoming the world’s largest economy in real PPP terms, with it now more than 30% ahead of the US on that measure, even as the US continues for a few more years to be tops in nominal GDP. In the last year China has announced achieving ending deep poverty. So, much has been achieved, and way more than I have mentioned here. It is now in many ways the world’s leading economy and society.

China will allow couples to have 3 children in a major policy shift designed to reverse shrinking birth rates - China said on Monday that married couples may have up to three children, a major policy shift from the existing limit of two, after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world's most populous country. Beijing scrapped its decades-old one-child policy in 2016, replacing it with a two-child limit that failed to trigger a sustained surge in births. Raising children in Chinese cities remains expensive. "To further optimize the birth policy, (China) will implement a one-married-couple-can-have-three-children policy," the official Xinhua news agency said in a report following a meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping. The policy change will come with "supportive measures, which will be conducive to improving our country's population structure, fulfilling the country's strategy of actively coping with an ageing population and maintaining the advantage, endowment of human resources," Xinhua reported. It did not specify the support measures. "People are held back not by the two-children limit, but by the incredibly high costs of raising children in today's China. Housing, extracurricular activities, food, trips, and everything else add up quickly," Yifei Li, a sociologist at NYU Shanghai, told Reuters. "Raising the limit itself is unlikely to tilt anyone's calculus in a meaningful way, in my view," he said. In a poll on Xinhua's Weibo account asking #AreYouReady for the three-child policy, about 29,000 of 31,000 respondents said they would "never think of it," while the remainder chose among the options: "I'm ready and very eager to do so," "it's on my agenda," or "I'm hesitating and there's lot to consider". The poll was later removed. "I am willing to have three children if you give me 5 million yuan ($785,650)," one user posted.

 Tokyo pushes ahead with Olympics despite growing demands to cancel - With the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games scheduled to start on July 23, broad opposition to holding the event continues to grow in Japan as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens throughout the country. Despite this, the government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, backed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is pushing ahead with the event despite the strong possibility that the Games will be held under a state of emergency. Protests against the Olympics have taken place on social media with small, in-person demonstrations also occurring in Tokyo and other cities. Organizers are now holding weekly protests on Friday evenings in Tokyo. While many are understandably cautious of attending these demonstrations, online petitions demanding a halt to the Games have garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures. The concerns that people have are well founded. The Suga government on Friday extended the state of emergency until June 20 for nine prefectures and cities, including Tokyo. As of Sunday, there have been 741,674 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 12,920 deaths. This included 3,599 new cases from the previous day. The official figures are certainly an undercounting as people find it difficult to receive tests or treatment. In addition, only 2.4 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. Last Thursday, Naoto Ueyama, the head of the Japan Doctors Union, warned that holding the Games could lead to a new “Olympic” strain of the COVID-19 virus. “All of the different mutated strains of the virus that exist in different places will be concentrated and gathering here in Tokyo. We cannot deny the possibility of even a new strain of the virus potentially emerging after the Olympics,” he stated at a news conference. Underscoring this, health officials in Vietnam on Saturday announced that they had detected a new hybrid variant of the virus, a combination of the UK and Indian strains. Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long stated that the new hybrid strain spreads quickly through the air and is “very dangerous.” The major concern of the Japanese establishment is not for the lives of people around the world, but on the economic impact to big business of cancelling the Olympics. Bloomberg warned, for example, that cancelling the Games could wipe out much of Japan’s 2021 economic growth, with a direct loss of up to 1.8 trillion yen ($16.4 billion dollars). This is just a fraction of the amount Tokyo spends on its military. Despite the pandemic, Tokyo approved another record-high military budget of 5.34 trillion yen ($51.7 billion) in December.

10,000 volunteers for the Tokyo Olympics quit as the Japanese public's opposition to the games grows - Thousands of volunteers for the Tokyo Olympics have quit, Japan's national broadcaster said, citing the event's organizers.NHK reported on Wednesday that around 10,000 of the 80,000 volunteers who signed up to help at the event had left their posts, according to Reuters.The games are due to start on July 23, after being postponed from 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.Japan and Olympic organizers have pledged that the event will be safe and have barred international spectators.But a large number of Japanese people and doctors in the country have called for the games to be postponed or canceled due to the pandemic.Public opinion has consistently moved against hosting the Games, with a poll in May showing that 83% of those surveyed didn't want the Games to be held in Japan this summer. A poll just nine days before had shown 60% of people opposed to hosting the event.As of Wednesday, some 415,000 people have signed a Change.org petition asking the Japanese government to cancel the Games.Rising opposition to the Olympics among Japan's public comes as coronavirus infection rates fall but remain at high levels, and much of Japan remains in a state of emergency.On Tuesday, it was confirmed that nine prefectures in the country have had their states of emergency extended until at least June 20, less than a month before the Games are due to begin.Tokyo reported 260 cases of COVID-19 Monday, the 18th straight day of declines, but the city's Governor Koike Yuriko warned that cases could rise again if restrictions are loosened."I'm very concerned that the movement of people could return to normal levels," he said, according to NHK.

Forecasters in India offer dismal economic estimates.India’s coronavirus crisis is likely to hobble the country’s economy for months to come, forecasters said, with most states still locked down to contain a wave of new infections and vaccine supply struggling to meet the needs of a vast inoculation campaign. On Monday, India’s Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation estimated that the country’s gross domestic product shrank by at least 7.3 percent over the financial year that ended in March, reflecting the impact of a nationwide lockdown that lasted for much of 2020. The ministry also reported that India’s economy grew by 1.6 percent during the first three months of this year, beating forecasters’ predictions. But economists say that those numbers, which reflected activity before the full impact of a ferocious second wave of the coronavirus, are likely unsustainable in the near future. Experts point to two main reasons for their gloomy estimates: India’s prolonged lockdowns and its vaccination rate, which has fallen from about four million doses a day last month to just over a million now as its large vaccine industry, which had been expected to supply much of the world, has struggled to keep up supply. India recorded 152,734 new infections and 3,128 deaths on Monday, the country’s health ministry reported. India Ratings & Research, a credit ratings agency, estimated that the country’s G.D.P. growth rate came in at minus 7.5 percent for the previous financial year that ended in March. Millions of people in India are already in danger of sliding out of the middle class and into poverty. The country’s economy was fraying well before the pandemic because of deep structural problems and the sometimes impetuous policy decisions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Delhi’s factories and building sites can reopen, but migrant workers are scattered. - New Delhi, India’s capital, began easing pandemic lockdown restrictions on Monday, allowing construction and manufacturing activities to resume as the city continued to record a steep decline in new coronavirus cases and deaths.  Life on the streets of Delhi wasn’t expected to return immediately, with schools and most businesses still closed, but the limited reopening signaled officials’ optimism that the city of 20 million was past the worst of a second wave marked by desperation and death. From April 20, when the number of new reported cases peaked at 28,395, the official figure plummeted to 946 on Sunday. In late April, nearly one in three tests came back positive. Now, the positivity rate is 1.5 percent.  Still, factory owners and construction foremen said it might take some time for activity to return to normal levels because of a shortage of workers. More than 800,000 migrant workers left the city in the first month of its six-week lockdown, according to a Delhi transportation department report. Ram Niwas Gupta, 72, the founder of Ramacivil India Construction and the president of the Delhi-based Builders Association of India, said that 75 percent of his work force for 10 projects across northern India had disappeared to their rural family homes. “Immediately we will not be able to start work, but slowly in six to 10 days we will be able to mobilize labor and material and start the work,” Mr. Gupta said. In a meeting with the city’s disaster management authority on Friday, Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said the lockdown would be eased according to economic need. “Our priority will be the weakest economic sections, so we will start with laborers, particularly migrant laborers,” many of whom work in construction and manufacturing, Mr. Kejriwal said.  The pandemic is far from over in India, where cases are rising in remote rural areas that have limited to no health infrastructure. The state of Haryana, which borders Delhi and is home to the industrial hub of Gurugram, extended its tight lockdown by at least another week. And in southern Indian states where the daily case numbers remain high, official orders allowing manufacturing to resume have been met by resistance from workers.

India's Covid Crisis Decimates Country's Middle Class --Indian economy shrank 7.3% in fiscal year 1920-21, its worst performance since independence in 1947. Nearly 230 million middle class Indians have slipped below the poverty line, constituting a 15 to 20% increase in poverty since Covid-19 struck last year, according to Pew Research. Middle class consumption has been a key driver of economic growth in India. Erosion of the middle class will likely have a significant long-term impact on the country's economy. “India, at the end of the day, is a consumption story,” says Tanvee Gupta Jain, UBS chief India economist, according to Financial Times. “If you never recovered from the 2020 wave and then you go into the 2021 wave, then it’s a concern.” Mainstream Indian media have long been afraid to cover the incompetence and failures of Prime Minister Modi's government. But this is finally changing with the COVID pandemic hitting India's newsrooms. Dozens of Indian reporters and their family members have died after being infected with coronavirus. The disastrous turn in the situation on the ground couple with the change in media coverage have brought focus on Modi government's failed policies in handling the deepening health crisis and its devastating impact. The images of large numbers of people gasping for breath and dying on the streets for lack of oxygen have shocked the world. The covid crisis has exposed the hollowness of India's super-power delusions fed by the country's western boosters who see it as a counterweight to China. An example of such western propaganda is a recent novel by retired US Admiral Janes Stavirides.  The authors of "2034: A Novel of the Next World War" portray Indians as heroes whose statesmen-ship de-escalates World War III, negotiates peace and helps India emerge as the new global superpower. Patel, the Indian uncle character of the Indian-American deputy national security advisor Sandeep Chowdhury tells him, "America’s hubris has finally gotten the better of its greatness." The authors imagine the United Nations headquarters moves from New York to Mumbai after the war. Had this book been written after watching thousands of Indian victims of COVID19 gasping for breath and dying daily on the streets of New Delhi, I think Ackerman and Stavridis would have conceived  and developed a completely different plot line for their novel. 

Indian workers need a socialist strategy to combat the Modi government’s herd immunity policy - COVID-19 is surging throughout India like a tsunami, ravaging the lives of tens of millions of people. The working class and oppressed masses are bearing the brunt of this horrific crisis. According to official figures, India’s total number of coronavirus cases is now over 27 million and deaths over 320,000. Underscoring the ferocity of the pandemic’s second wave in India, more than 15 million of these cases have been recorded in just the past eight weeks. After repeatedly recording the world’s highest numbers of daily cases and deaths for a single country, over 400,000 and over 4,000 respectively, India is now reporting over 200,000 daily COVID-19 cases and over 3,000 daily fatalities. Despite the attempts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to exploit the relative decline in daily cases and deaths to boast the pandemic is on a “downward trend,” the reality is that it continues to rage. One reason for the recent decline in recorded infections is that COVID-19 is now running rampant through India’s vast rural population, where testing and health infrastructure are all but non-existent. Even when the official figures were at their peak, they represented a vast underestimation of the true extent of the catastrophe. India has maintained an extremely low rate of COVID-19 testing throughout the pandemic, ensuring that many cases go undetected. Even prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, only a quarter of deaths in India were medically certified. Many medical experts have warned that the real death toll is likely five to ten times the official figure. This would mean that a staggering 20,000 to 40,000 people have been dying every single day since mid-April. Although the pandemic is a biological phenomenon, the main reasons for the immense and ongoing health and social disaster are political. The threat of a global pandemic was both foreseeable and foreseen, but the capitalist profit system proved utterly incapable of preparing for such a predictable event and of taking the necessary containment measures once it had erupted. Governments in every country, from the imperialist centres of North America and Europe to the right-wing capitalist regimes in India and Pakistan, cut health budgets and starved their health care systems for decades, leaving them in no condition to deal with the surge of sick patients. Then, as the virus began to spread, they prioritised the protection of corporate profits over the safeguarding of human lives. Businesses were allowed to stay open, financial and social support were denied to workers, and millions were allowed to die because, in the words of US President Trump and the New York Times, “The cure can’t be worse than the disease.” The global capitalist elite’s callous indifference to human life finds its sharpest expression in the mass death currently occurring in India. Its dilapidated health care system has been overwhelmed. COVID-19 patients are dying in the streets and in their homes due to the lack of basic medical facilities like oxygen, ICU beds, and ventilators. Thousands of people severely ill with the virus can’t even get admitted to a hospital because they are full of patients—sometimes two to a bed. Dead bodies are being thrown en masse into rivers or buried in unmarked graves.

India cancels exams for over a million 12th graders - The Indian government, still trying to control a devastating second wave of the coronavirus, has canceled national exams for 12th graders, affecting the fates of more than a million students.The decision to call off the exams, which had been postponed from the spring, came late on Tuesday at a meeting of senior officials chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It showed that concerns around the spread of infections remain serious even as India’s official case count has dropped significantly from its peak a month ago.“Students, parents and teachers are naturally worried about the health of the students in such a situation,” Mr. Modi said in a statement. “Students should not be forced to appear for exams in such a stressful situation.”After India recorded more than 400,000 cases a day a month ago, the most in any country since the pandemic began, new infections there have dropped by more than half. Yet India is still averaging more than 3,000 deaths per day, a number that experts believe is a significant undercount. On Wednesday, the government reported 132,788 new cases and 3,207 deaths from the virus.Most states remain under some form of lockdown, and hardly any of India’s young people have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The Indian government only last month opened vaccinations to people under 45, and a shortage of doses has meant that most states have made little progress in inoculating the young. About 12 percent of people in the country have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to a New York Times database.“This is the right step,” said Renu Singh, the principal of Amity International School in Noida, a suburb of New Delhi. “Most important is the safety, security and health of the child. Children are not vaccinated. If they come to school, they will be exposed.”Antra Rajpoot, a 12th grader at the school, said that the idea of sitting for an exam with large numbers of students felt “really unsafe.” The government’s decision “definitely brought about a sense of certainty, safety, and it’s a very happy decision.”Without the exams, which help determine placement in colleges and professional schools, Mr. Modi’s office said that the Central Board of Secondary Education, which administers the tests, would come up with an alternate method of assessing student performance.

Surging Food Prices Push Pakistan Overall Inflation Rate to 10.9% in May 2021 - Food prices in Pakistan rose 14.8% in May while the average inflation rate for July-May period of the current fiscal year came in at 8.83%,  according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.  Meanwhile, global food prices have surged by 40% in May,  the highest rate in a decade, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Poor harvest due to bad weather and COVID19 pandemic-related disruptions in production and distribution are being blamed.  In Pakistan, chicken prices shot up by 60%, followed by 55% increase in prices of eggs, 31% rise in prices of mustard oil and wheat prices were up by 30% year over a year, according to the PBS. Globally, prices of cereals (including wheat) jumped 37%, vegetable oil 124%, meat 10% and sugar 57%.   Higher imports of food items at high prices and increased shipping costs have added to Pakistan's food inflation woes. Among the factors contributing to elevated food prices are drought in South America and record purchases by China. Cooking oils have soared too on demand for biofuel.“We have very little room for any production shock. We have very little room for any unexpected surge in demand in any country,” Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, warned in a phone interview with Bloomberg. “Any of those things could push prices up further than they are now, and then we could start getting worried.”Developing countries such as Pakistan where an average consumer spends 40% or more on food will be particularly hit by surging food prices. A jump of 37% in cereals is of special concern because people in poor nations get more than 50% of their daily caloric intake from cereals. Early reports indicate that Pakistan is seeing a record production of wheat with an increase of two million tons to 27.3 million tons from 25.3 million tons last year. 

Food Insecurity: A Potentially Underrated Collateral Damage of the Pandemic - Global food security is being threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictive measures to control it. Jammed food supply chains, falling incomes for some population segments, and rising food prices are placing food out of reach for millions of individuals. This column discusses the short-run relationship between food (in)security and income and food prices, and the implications of the current economic crisis for global hunger. The pandemic’s economic fallout risks setting us back a full decade on eliminating undernourishment, especially in low-income countries. Governments should strengthen social safety nets for the most vulnerable to keep inequality in check.

FAO's Food Price Index surges for record 12th consecutive month in May - Xinhua | English.news.cn -- World food prices surged in May, climbing for a record 12th consecutive month as supply chain issues sparked by the coronavirus pandemic combined to push prices nearly 40 percent above levels from a year earlier, according to data released on Thursday by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The steep 4.8 percent month-on-month rise pushed the overall FAO Food Price Index to 127.1 points in May, 39.7 percent above its level a year ago. All major components of the index increased, with grain, cereal, vegetable oil and sugar prices all exceeding their April levels by at least 6 percent. Grain and cereal prices, the largest component, rose 6.0 percent in May, pushed by higher prices for corn, barley and sorghum. But wheat prices fell in the second half of the month after surging over the first two weeks, while rice prices remained steady. In 2020, the overall index for grains and cereals climbed nearly 90 percent, the FAO said. Prices for vegetable oils rose 7.8 percent in May, driven by increased prices for palm, soy and rapeseed oils, which climbed due to lower production in Asia. Sugar prices were 6.8 percent higher due to speculation about low yields in Brazil. The other two major components saw more modest increases, with dairy prices inching 1.5 percent higher from April due to increased demand from China canceling rising supply from New Zealand. Meat prices, meanwhile, climbed 2.2 percent due to a steady increase in demand in east Asian countries, mainly China. The monthly FAO Food Price Index is based on worldwide prices for 23 food commodity categories covering prices for 73 different products compared to a baseline year. The next index is scheduled for release on July 8. 

Food prices rose 40 percent in May amid expanding global hunger and social crisis triggered by pandemic --The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) food price index rose by 40 percent over the past year, including a rise of 4.8 percent since April. The FAO report released on Thursday states: “The May increase represented the biggest month-on-month gain since October 2010. It also marked the twelfth consecutive monthly rise in the value of the FFPI to its highest value since September 2011. ... The sharp increase in May reflected a surge in prices for oils, sugar and cereals along with firmer meat and dairy prices.” The FFPI (FAO food price index) is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities. According to the report, corn prices are 67 percent higher than a year ago, sugar is up nearly 60 percent and prices for cooking oil have doubled. The surging food prices are catastrophic for millions of people around the globe—already facing desperate conditions from the coronavirus pandemic—with hunger driven up rapidly in the poorest countries of the world. The UN World Food Program reports that 270 million people are currently suffering from acute malnutrition or worse situations in the 79 countries in which the agency operates, double the number in 2019. Among the regions facing a rising hunger crisis that is exacerbated by skyrocketing food prices are Southeast Asia, Africa and Central America. The World Bank estimates that up to 124 million people sank below the international poverty line—living on less than $1.90 a day—in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. Up to 39 million people more are expected to be added in 2021, taking the total number of those living in extreme poverty to 750 million people. Analysts attributed the food cost increases to a series of global climate and economic factors. Bloomberg, for example, reported: “Drought in key Brazilian growing regions is crippling crops from corn to coffee, and vegetable oil production growth has slowed in Southeast Asia. That’s boosting costs for livestock producers and risks further straining global grain stockpiles that have been depleted by soaring Chinese demand.” Among the food supply issues driven by China’s economic expansion are an increased demand for feed to rebuild pig herds that were struck in recent years by disease. The pig feed contains staples, such as corn and soybeans, that are also consumed by people. Other analysts have pointed to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global food supply saying that restrictions on movement have increased logistics costs while decreased incomes have driven up demand for less expensive food items. Economists have warned that the resumption of eating out around the world, following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions despite the ongoing pandemic, is adding to price increases. Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist at the FAO, said, “The decline in eating out was not totally compensated with eating at home, but as people start to go to restaurants again, you will see food prices rise.”

The West’s Not Very Hidden Hand in Debt Oppression in Central Asia - On 15 April 2021 about 15 women seized a local state administration building in Kyrgyzstan to demand a debt relief and a stop to housing repossessions. Barricading themselves inside the building, the women in black mournful headscarves, threatened to pour gasoline over their bodies and set themselves alight if the country’s Prime Minister did not arrive to negotiate with them. Gas cylinders were placed along the office windows and gasoline on floors set the scene for a large explosion. Struggling to breath in the room full of toxic fumes, the women announced: ‘We’re sick of financial slavery! Eradicate the usury!’ These were at the end of their tether after years of struggling against financial oppression. In 2019, Kyrgyzstan had the fifth highest real lending interest rate in the world. Many rural women have been protesting against debt, housing repossessions and exorbitant interest rates for the past 13 years. In 2016, their anti-debt struggles culminated in protests in front of the US Embassy in Bishkek, where they blamed the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) for creating and funding exploitative microcredit companies in the country. In neighbouring Kazakhstan, urban residents of Nur-Sultan and Almaty held numerous anti-debt protests in front of the central bank, blaming it for predatory lending arising from Western credit flows.The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the debt oppression in the region by causing job losses. In Kyrgyzstan, thousands of migrants returned home, causing unprecedented decrease in remittances.The Kyrgyzstani state could not offer income support to its work force, of which 75% is self-employed. The pandemic pushed an additional 700,000 people into poverty, worsening the existing situation where 38% of the population is classified as poor. In oil rich Kazakhstan,42% of the population lost income, and applied for income support of 42,500 tenge (US$99). The government made a one-off payment in full in the first month, and a partial payment in the second month. In order to provide some relief, the central banks in the region recommended loan payments to be deferred up to three months. But commercial banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) continued to charge interest on outstanding loans and commission fees for changing loan terms. Despite rising default rates,they refused to write off debt or suspend the accrual of interest, deepening indebtedness.

Macron demands Malian junta endorse French occupation of Mali - Speaking last Sunday to Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD), French President Emmanuel Macron arrogantly demanded that the Malian military junta state its support for the French occupation of Mali. France’s eight-year war in Mali, launched shortly after a coup d’état in 2012, has relied on a series of neocolonial military dictatorships in Mali and across the Sahel. Macron spoke less than a week after Colonel Assimi Goïta, the strongman of the National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) junta, arrested interim President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane. Goïta forced them to resign, after having first ousted President Ibrahim Boubakar Keïta in a coup last August. Yet Macron unblushingly told the JDD that France will not remain “at the side of a country where there is no more democratic legitimacy.” He shamelessly demanded that the Malian government and people should state its gratitude to its French military occupiers. Macron complained, “It is precisely those who are asking us to intervene militarily who refuse to publicly state their need for France. They are used to saying that their problems today are due to the old colonial powers of yesterday. Of course, colonization has left a deep mark. But I also told youth in Ouagadougou that their problems today are not due to colonialism, they are caused more by bad governance by some and the corruption of others.” He spoke to the JDD amid mounting anger and disillusionment with the war across the Sahel, as well as in France, and shortly after the National Workers’ Union of Mali (UNTM) bureaucracy called off a nationwide strike to oppose falling living standards in the impoverished country. It was an empty exercise in political damage control, yet after another coup in Mali exposed Macron’s fraudulent claims that France is intervening in Mali to protect democracy from Islamism.

Copa America moved to Brazil amid COVID-19 increase in Argentina -The Copa America soccer tournament has been moved to Brazil, nearly one day after the competition’s governing body announced that Argentina would no longer host the event due to COVD-19 concerns.CONMEBOL, the governing body of the Copa America tournament, announced on Sunday that the competition, scheduled to be played from June 13 through July 10, would not be played in Argentina because of “present circumstances,” referring to the country’s spike in coronavirus cases, according to ESPN.Less than one day later, however, the South American soccer governing body announced that Brazil would host the games.Organization President Alejandro Dominguez wrote on Twitter that the council’s decision to move the tournament to Brazil was unanimous, according to a translation from ESPN.The tournament, which involves 10 South American countries, was originally supposed to be played in Colombia, in addition to Argentina, according to ESPN.Colombia, however, dropped out as a co-host on May 20 after CONMEBOL rejected its request to postpone the tournament, the cable sports channel reported. The country reportedly wanted to delay the competition because of social and economic unrest in the region.Argentina has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths in recent weeks. The country has recorded more than 3.7 million coronavirus cases and more than 76,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to data from the World Health Organization.The country has administered more than 10.7 million doses of coronavirus vaccine.

Mass demonstrations in Brazil against Bolsonaro’s homicidal response to COVID pandemic -On Saturday, massive demonstrations took place in all 28 Brazilian states against the government of fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro and its criminal response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The total number of protesters nationwide may have exceeded 100,000, according to organizers’ estimates. In São Paulo, the country’s largest metropolis, the estimated number in the streets was over 80,000 people. In Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, there were around 30,000. Thousands more also protested in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Brasilia and in smaller numbers in more than 100 other cities. In Recife, the demonstration was violently repressed by the Military Police under the command of Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) Governor Paulo Câmara in the state of Pernambuco. The police fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at the demonstration. Three people were wounded by the shots, and two of them, hit in the eye, were partially blinded. These were the largest demonstrations in Brazil since 2019, when students and teachers marched nationally against the cuts in the education budget implemented by Bolsonaro in his first year in office. They coincide with the mass uprising in the neighboring country Colombia, where there have been uninterrupted and radicalized protests, also opposing a right-wing government’s handling of the pandemic and the social crisis. In Brazil, the protests were called by social movements linked to the Workers Party (PT) and its pseudo-left satellite Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL). Among these movements is the Frente Povo sem Medo (People without Fear Front), led by PSOL leader Guilherme Boulos. The dimension of the protests, however, expresses the growth of social opposition beyond the narrow political limits imposed by these organizations.

Torture sites and mass graves reported in Colombia as repression intensifies against mass protests -A May 23 report prepared by the human rights organization Justicia y Paz stated that fascistic paramilitary groups, which operate in concert with the far-right and US-backed regime of Colombian President Ivan Duque, have created torture sites and mass graves in an attempt to suppress protests in the city of Cali, which has been the epicenter of continuing countrywide demonstrations. The report described “chop houses” in Ciudad Jardín, a neighborhood of Cali, where protesters kidnapped by fascists were tortured and dismembered. Residents, the document asserts, were generally too frightened to denounce these chilling crimes, for they knew that they had the sanction of the police and the state. The report went on to describe mass graves, “where the bodies of many young people were taken,” in the cities of Yumbo and Buga. It noted: “The people who have shared their testimony indicated that the youths were detained, some of them have been reported missing by their friends or families, and in Guacari, in Buga, 45 minutes from Cali, they were executed. Some of the survivors of the executions were found with gunshot wounds in health centers and today are terrified and in hiding.” Thousands of people involved in protests have been arbitrarily detained and often subjected to brutal treatment, sometimes including torture. Of these, hundreds have been “disappeared.” The Ombudsman’s Office of Colombia had reported 548 missing persons as of May 7. In Cali alone, human rights groups reported 206 missing persons as of May 20. The corpses of murdered protesters have begun to turn up in rivers, some showing signs of torture, others dismembered. In one particularly grisly instance, the severed head of a missing protester was found in a plastic bag. Other bodies have been found alongside abandoned roadways. Among those murdered was Beatriz Moreno Mosquera, a Buenaventura teacher and syndicalist, whose body was found bearing signs of torture. Even as it employs such gruesome and outright fascistic methods against the predominantly peaceful protests, the Duque administration is escalating state repression. Duque announced on May 28, which marks a month since the demonstrations began, a “maximum deployment” of the military and police in the western province of Valle del Cauca and its capital Cali. Thirteen demonstrators were killed on that day alone in Cali.

Why Colombia Has Erupted in Protest -Spiraling poverty and unemployment in the wake of the pandemic lie behind the widespread protests in Colombia that began on 28 April. Young people have been particularly badly affected, even though their generation has been largely excluded from the government’s negotiations with protest leaders – one half of an official response that has mixed dialogue with violent repression. As presidential elections approach next year, the situation is eroding people’s trust in political institutions. In the last year, an estimated 3.6 million people have fallen into poverty, while 2.78 million are now classed as living in extreme poverty. The result is that 42.5% of Colombia’s population now live below the poverty line, up from 35.7% in 2019. A decade of anti-poverty measures appear to have been reversed, at least in part. The figures mean that more than 21 million people are currently being forced to subsist on the equivalent of less than $88 per day, with 7.47 million people living on less than $39 per day. Big cities have suffered the most from the economic impact of the pandemic, and the social distancing policies that followed. In Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city, 3.3 million people (of a total population of 7.1 million) are living in poverty. Other major cities, such as Medellín and Cali, also have large numbers of people below the poverty line. Women are among the hardest hit, with 46.7% of women (compared to 40.1% of men) living in poverty. This has a knock-on effect for many families: according to the director of the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), “the gender gap increased during the pandemic and this necessarily affects the incidence of poverty in households where women are heads of households”. For young people, meanwhile, unemployment has risen to 23.9%, up from 20.5% in the first quarter of 2020, in the 14-28 age category. Young people are also being forced out of education, because of the high cost of private universities, and a lack of capacity in the public system. Last year, an estimated 243,000 students dropped out of various forms of education.  The trigger for the protests that began in April was a proposal to reform the tax system, although demands quickly expanded to a rejection of reforms to the healthcare system, too. For many people, the pandemic has exacerbated a situation that already sparked mass protests in 2019, adding unemployment and a lack of education opportunities to the mix.

Mass grave with 215 bodies found at Canadian “Indian” residential school -The bodies of 215 indigenous children have been found in a mass grave on the grounds of the now closed Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia. This horrifying discovery is yet further evidence of the brutality and inhumanity of Canada’s state-sponsored residential school system, which lasted into the 1970s and was aimed at eradicating indigenous culture and transforming Native children into a pliant workforce for Canadian capitalism. Local indigenous people, including school survivors, waged a decades-long campaign for an investigation of the Kamloops school grounds. Last Thursday Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc people of southcentral British Columbia released a preliminary report. To date 215 corpses, some of children as young as three years old, have been identified through ground penetrating radar. Their deaths were never documented. Casimir said more bodies may be discovered as other parts of the grounds remain to be searched. Similar grisly discoveries, albeit never on this scale, have been made over the years at other former residential school sites. Native leaders have described the Kamloops mass grave as “the tip of the iceberg.” Community members have brought flowers and other mementos to the Kamloops school site. In Vancouver, artists lined up 215 pairs of tiny shoes on the steps of the city’s Art Gallery to remember the children and the crimes committed against them. Their action has inspired similar tiny-shoe memorials to spring up in cities and towns across the country. These largely spontaneous actions demonstrate the widespread horror and disgust among the population of all ethnic backgrounds to the mistreatment and abuse the Native population has suffered at the hands of the Canadian capitalist state. The Kamloops Indian Residential School, the largest in the entire residential school system, was established in 1890 under the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, which ran it until 1969. It was then taken over by the federal government as a day school until its closure in 1978. Over the years, school survivors have provided detailed eyewitness accounts of the malnourishment, disease and systemic physical, sexual and psychological abuse to which they and other children who had been taken from their parents were subjected.

Zero Dark Failure: NATO Troops Mistakenly Raid Food Workshop In Bulgaria - On May 29th, the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense and Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into an incident in the village of Cheshnegirovo in the region of Plovdiv.The incident involved US military who, mistakenly, stormed vegetable oil production workshop during a NATO military exercise. The incident happened on May 11, but the US embassy said it only learned about the incident on May 28th. The diplomatic mission apologized for the incident and promised to co-operate in the investigation.“The US Army takes training seriously and prioritizes the safety of our soldiers, our allies, and civilians. We sincerely apologize to the business and its employees,” the embassy said.The owner of the workshop, Marin Dimitrov, told Bulgaria’s state radio that his seven workers continue to feel stressed by the invasion of the soldiers and that he intends to seek his rights in court.Footage from the factory’s security cameras showed seven US soldiers armed with assault rifles and moving in fire teams to secure the facility, with no resistance from the workers. After finding no ‘enemy’ combatants, the Americans left.

US & NATO Bombers Just Flew Over 30 Nations, Including 5 Bordering Russia -- US Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa announced that American B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers accompanied by military aircraft from twenty-one other NATO nations flew over all 30 NATO member states on Memorial Day. Those would include the five that border Russia – Norway, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – of course. The B-52s (designed to carry nuclear weapons during the Cold War), like their fellow nuclear-capable long-range bombers the B-1 and B-2, started deployment to Europe in 2018 under the aegis of the Pentagon’s Bomber Task Force and so far this year have maintained a ready presence in Europe, in one instance landing at a Norwegian air base within the Arctic Circle.Monday's transcontinental flights were codenamed Operation Allied Sky and were the second such since last August when six B-52s accompanied by 80 NATO fighter jets flew over the thirty member states in a single day. The message sent by the operations shouldn’t be difficult to understand.Currently the B-52s are based at the Morón Air Base in Spain under NATO arrangements, as four, soon to be six, U.S. guided-missile destroyers equipped with interceptor missiles are based at the Naval Station Rota in the same nation, also under NATO auspices.The NATO allies providing warplanes to escort the American nuclear-era bombers were Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey.

Russia warns its economy is showing signs of overheating - There are signs that Russia's economy is overheating with annual inflation currently at 5.9%, Anton Siluanov, the country's finance minister, said Thursday. "If we continue with increased spending, what will we get? Overheating. Elements of overheating are already visible — high inflation," Siluanov said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, according to a Reuters translation. Consumer price inflation accelerated again in May, rising from 5.5% in April. Earlier this week Russia's Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina told CNBC that "inflation is accelerating" and that, unlike elsewhere, inflation was not seen as a temporary issue as economies reopened and consumer demand increased. "In our case, it's different," Nabiullina told CNBC's Hadley Gamble earlier this week ahead of SPIEF. "We think that the inflation pressure in Russia is not transitory, not temporary. We see more persistent factors, monetary factors, that's why we started to get a rate hike back to the neutral stance." Investors will be looking to the next central bank meeting on June 11 to see what it does next, with speculation mounting that the bank could hike interest rates by as much as 50 basis points from a current level of 5%. The central bank's inflation target is 4%. Nabiullina said the central bank would analyze all the factors, including the inflation forecast and the situation in the economy, but said that "we see the risk that our inflation expectations are elevated, and they remain elevated for several months." On Wednesday, Russia's central bank issued a bulletin in which it noted that the economy was continuing to grow in the second quarter and that gross domestic product could reach its pre-pandemic level in mid-2021. However, analysts at the bank noted that "economic growth is still uneven. Industries focused on export and intermediate products as well as the services sector have been recovering at outrunning paces during the recent months." It added that uncertainty with respect to medium- and long-term consequences of the coronavirus pandemic remains high.

EU wants banks to adopt digital wallet, but it's a tough sell --The European Union's proposed digital wallet could struggle with adoption, despite its improvements to payment security, because it restricts companies from profiting from the project.  The EU is expected to announce plans for an electronic wallet that would be available to citizens in its 27 nations. The wallet would store driver's licenses, payment credentials and a single online identity to access public and private services. Consumers will use standardized biometric authentication such as fingerprint and retina scanning, among other methods, to enter a portal to apps from participating banks, payment companies and other enterprises. The EU is developing these standards with member states, who will have to sign off on the protocols, with the app expected to be released in about a year. The wallet project is scheduled to be formally announced this week following months of discussion and rumor, according to the Financial Times and Bloomberg.  The near-term benefits would be limited to security, enrollment and transaction vetting. The FT reports companies that access user data through the wallet will not be allowed to use that data for marketing or related commercial activity. Other digital wallets, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, use enrollment as the basis for cross-selling a variety of other financial services and unrelated products such as streaming content. Apple Pay is the basis for Apple Card, a partnership with Goldman Sachs that uses Apple's digital wallet as a springboard for card issuance and App Store sales.

UK teachers suffer increased workload as government plans to lengthen working day UK teachers are threatened with an extended work day in the next academic year. The government’s post-Covid recovery plan is placing the burden of “catch-up” learning on already overstretched schools and teachers. Ministers are considering two plans: A compulsory 30-minute extension of the school day—which would focus on academic catch-up—or an extension of the school day from 8am-6pm, with the extra time used for voluntary extracurricular activities. Sir Kevan Collins, the education recovery commissioner, is leading the initiative, having said previously that teachers “will be asked to increase learning time for pupils as part of the catch-up effort.” Arguing that a voluntary approach will not work, Collins favours a compulsory extension in order to “guarantee” that disadvantaged pupils attend. Collins is no stranger to squeezing value out of public services. In his 2009-2012 role as chief executive of the Labour Party-run London Borough of Tower Hamlets, he implemented £50 million in cuts over three years. Whatever plan is enforced on schools will intensify the exploitation of education workers, already exhausted by the government’s schools policies since the beginning of the pandemic. The government is utilising the coronavirus crisis to usher in long-planned education restructuring. This takes place amid an unprecedented increase in teacher workload related to the pandemic. In January, Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancelled A level and GCSE exams, but their replacement has put a huge burden on teachers. Secondary school staff have been tasked with carrying out “assessments” to replace the cancelled exams for secondary pupils. Teachers have been placed under intense pressure and media scrutiny to carry out the marking, moderation and awarding of teacher assessed grades (TAGs). The “assessments” that have been introduced expose the government lie that pupils have been herded back into school for their own well-being. Pupils in Year 11 and 13 have been put under intense pressure to perform, with some reports of pupils having over 30 different assessments over a two-week period. After all that these children have been through over the past year, they are now brought back from lockdown to be assessed!

British Medical Journal says UK government’s COVID-19 response created “maelstrom of avoidable harm” - On Tuesday, the BMJ (formerly, British Medical Journal ) accused the British government of having unleashed “a maelstrom of avoidable harm,” including the deaths of up to 150,000 people “who died earlier than they might have” as a result of its disastrous response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Executive editor Kamran Abbasi made this damning indictment in a comment on the testimony given last week by Dominic Cummings, former adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. His account, Abbasi writes, leads to “the inescapable conclusion… that the disastrous manner in which the government is run is a major contributor to excess deaths in the UK, although Johnson persists with his denials.” Cummings’ evidence confirmed that the Johnson government “slept on the job,” “relied on flawed pandemic modelling,” “sought a narrow caucus of expert views and kept them confidential,” “prioritised the economy over health,” “failed to protect vulnerable people in care homes and lied about it,” “ignored the potential of airborne spread,” “delayed mass testing,” “left international borders uncontrolled” and “oversaw a calamitous and costly procurement strategy for personal protective equipment.” Britain “was ill prepared and had no pandemic plan, and even if it did it was a misguided plan that pursued herd immunity and was accepting of a large number of deaths. Johnson was dragged into each lockdown, particularly the first in late March 2020, and he delayed the key one in September by ignoring his own scientists and colleagues and backing cherry picked supporters of herd immunity.” The BMJ is identifying a record of staggering criminality, as confirmed by Cummings. Johnson and his collaborators, according to Cummings’ account, were actively considering the deaths of 500,000 people, and up to 800,000 in one scenario, in pursuit of herd immunity through infection. He confirmed that the prime minister shouted he would rather “let the bodies pile high in their thousands” than implement another lockdown at the end of October, precisely because he “prioritised the economy over health.” While he was still writing COVID-19 off as a “scare story,” Johnson even suggested in Trumpian fashion that he be injected “live on TV with coronavirus so everyone realises it’s nothing to be frightened of.”