Fed minutes February 2023: Members resolved to keep fighting inflation with rate hikes - Federal Reserve officials at their most recent meeting indicated that there are signs inflation is coming down, but not enough to counter the need for more interest rate increases, meeting minutes released Wednesday showed. While the Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting concluded with a smaller rate hike than most of those implemented since early 2022, officials stressed that their concern over inflation is high. Inflation "remained well above" the Fed's 2% target, the minutes stated. That came with labor markets that "remained very tight, contributing to continuing upward pressures on wages and prices." Consequently, the Fed approved a 0.25 percentage point rate increase that was the smallest hike since the first of this tightening cycle in March 2022. The move brought the fed funds rate to a target range of 4.5%-4.75%. But the minutes said that the reduced pace came with a high level of concern that inflation was still a threat."Participants noted that inflation data received over the past three months showed a welcome reduction in the monthly pace of price increases but stressed that substantially more evidence of progress across a broader range of prices would be required to be confident that inflation was on a sustained downward path," the minutes said. The summary repeated that members believe "ongoing" rate hikes will be necessary. Stocks fell following the release of the minutes while Treasury yields shed most of their losses from earlier in the session. Though the quarter-point hike received unanimous approval, the minutes noted that not everyone was on board. A "few" members said they wanted a half-point, or 50 basis point, increase that would show even greater resolve to get inflation down. A basis point is equal to 0.01%. Since the meeting, regional Presidents James Bullard of St. Louis and Loretta Mester of Cleveland have said they were among the group that wanted the more aggressive move. The minutes, however did not elaborate on how many a "few" were nor which Federal Open Market Committee members wanted the half-point increase. "The participants favoring a 50-basis point increase noted that a larger increase would more quickly bring the target range close to the levels they believed would achieve a sufficiently restrictive stance, taking into account their views of the risks to achieving price stability in a timely way," the minutes said.
Fed officials wary of losing progress on inflation after strong job gains - Federal Reserve bankers are optimistic about the direction that inflation is heading but still worried about reaching their target of 2 percent inflation, according to the minutes of the bank’s latest meeting of its rate-setting committee, which were published Wednesday. “Almost all participants observed that slowing the pace of rate increases at the current juncture would allow for appropriate risk management as the Committee assessed the extent of further tightening,” the minutes say. At the beginning of this month, the Fed made its smallest rate increase since it started raising rates a year ago, lifting them by just a quarter of a percent. But bankers also expressed concern during the meeting “that a policy stance that proved to be insufficiently restrictive could halt recent progress in moderating inflationary pressures.” This could lead to inflation remaining above the bank’s 2 percent objective for a longer period and pose a risk of inflation expectations becoming unanchored, according to the January meeting minutes. Just two days after that meeting, a massive January jobs report showing unemployment was down to a 54-year low was published by the Labor Department, surprising many economists including those at the Fed. Usually, rising interest rates are associated with increases in unemployment. But the labor market has been all but oblivious to the effects of eight consecutive interest rate hikes, and that has led to deep disagreements among economists. Inflation has been falling since last summer, with the U.S. consumer price index dropping to 6.4 percent in January from a high of 9.1 percent last June. That’s seven months of declines in a row even as the labor market has refused to budge. “Then comes the labor market report for January — and it’s very strong. It’s certainly stronger than anyone I know expected. I would say we didn’t expect it to be as strong,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at an event in Washington earlier this month. The minutes contained some mixed signals about an economy that’s refusing to obey some classical economic models. Fed bankers “observed that risks to the economic outlook were becoming more balanced” just as they worried about the “risk of inflation expectations becoming unanchored.” The Fed’s rate-setting committee has more than a dozen members, and they’re rarely if ever in total agreement with each other. Central bankers also called out “profit margins” as a driver of inflation, something the Fed mentioned only once during its eight meetings in 2022. “[Rate-setting committee members] noted the possibility that as consumers become more price sensitive, businesses might accept lower profit margins in an effort to maintain market share, which could reduce inflation temporarily,” the minutes say.
FOMC Minutes: All participants continued to anticipate ongoing rate increases - From the Fed: Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, January 31–February 1, 2023. Excerpt: In their consideration of appropriate monetary policy actions at this meeting, participants concurred that the Committee had made significant progress over the past year in moving toward a sufficiently restrictive stance of monetary policy. Even so, participants agreed that, while there were recent signs that the cumulative effect of the Committee's tightening of the stance of monetary policy had begun to moderate inflationary pressures, inflation remained well above the Committee's longer-run goal of 2 percent and the labor market remained very tight, contributing to continuing upward pressures on wages and prices. Against this backdrop, and in consideration of the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, almost all participants agreed that it was appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate 25 basis points at this meeting. Many of these participants observed that a further slowing in the pace of rate increases would better allow them to assess the economy's progress toward the Committee's goals of maximum employment and price stability as they determine the extent of future policy tightening that will be required to attain a stance that is sufficiently restrictive to achieve these goals. A few participants stated that they favored raising the target range for the federal funds rate 50 basis points at this meeting or that they could have supported raising the target by that amount. The participants favoring a 50-basis point increase noted that a larger increase would more quickly bring the target range close to the levels they believed would achieve a sufficiently restrictive stance, taking into account their views of the risks to achieving price stability in a timely way. All participants agreed that it was appropriate to continue the process of reducing the Federal Reserve's securities holdings, as described in its previously announced Plans for Reducing the Size of the Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet.In discussing the policy outlook, with inflation still well above the Committee's 2 percent goal and the labor market remaining very tight, all participants continued to anticipate that ongoing increases in the target range for the federal funds rate would be appropriate to achieve the Committee's objectives. Participants affirmed their strong commitment to returning inflation to the Committee's 2 percent objective. In determining the extent of future increases in the target range, participants judged that it would be appropriate to take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and economic and financial developments. Participants observed that a restrictive policy stance would need to be maintained until the incoming data provided confidence that inflation was on a sustained downward path to 2 percent, which was likely to take some time.
Fed plots its next move - Federal Reserve officials are giving away some clues about their approach to inflation and the economy in 2023, according to notes released Wednesday. At their most recent meeting, Fed officials “stressed that substantially more evidence of progress across a broader range of prices would be required to be confident that inflation was on a sustained downward path.” The minutes revealed that a few Fed officials wanted to hike interest rates by 50 basis points, a more aggressive approach than the 25 basis point hike the Federal Open Market Committee went with. The meeting came before recent data showing that inflation rose 6.4 percent annually in January, coming in only slightly below December’s reading and above analyst predictions. It also predates blowout jobs data pointing to a booming U.S. economy. One of the officials pushing for a larger rate hike was St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday that more aggressive action is needed to slow the economy and bring down inflation toward the Fed’s 2 percent target. “Our risk now is inflation doesn’t come down and reaccelerates, and then what do you do?” he said. If the Fed accelerates its rate hikes, the central bank could risk sending the economy into a recession that would push millions of Americans out of their jobs. But Fed officials have made it clear that the risk of persistent inflation outweighs recession fears.
The Missing Pieces From Fed Minutes On The Bigger Move Debate - There is an interesting jigsaw to be solved from Wednesday’s release of the Fed minutes of its meeting earlier this month. Here’s what the minutes showed: A few participants stated that they favored raising the target range for the federal funds rate 50 basis points at this meeting or that they could have supported raising the target by that amount. The participants favoring a 50-basis point increase noted that a larger increase would more quickly bring the target range close to the levels they believed would achieve a sufficiently restrictive stance, taking into account their views of the risks to achieving price stability in a timely way. However, the statement after the decision on Feb. 1 showed that there was no dissent. What gives? There are at least eight hawks who count as “participants”: Neel Kashkari, James Bullard, Chair Jerome Powell, Michelle Bowman, Christopher Waller, Loretta Mester, Mary Daly (based on her recent statements) and Esther George. The Fed’s immediate post-meeting statement showed there was no dissent from Kashkari, Powell, Bowman and Waller. So all those “participants” who sought a bigger move were the ones not voting. That means at least two or more of Bullard, Mester, Daly and George.
“Disinflation” Hoopla Sunk by Spiking Prices in January, Upward Revisions for Oct-Dec: Services PCE Price Index Worst since 1984, Goods Jump, “Core PCE” Red-Hot Again - By Wolf Richter - The Fed pays particular attention to the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index. The “Core PCE” price index (which excludes the volatile food and energy components) is its measuring stick for the 2% inflation target. Powell has been pointing at the services components of the PCE price index as a hotbed of inflation. And the PCE price index for January, released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, was a horror show on all counts. Not only did all the relevant measures get a lot worse in January, but the prior three months, October through December, were revised higher – much like the CPI inflation readings a couple of weeks ago – showing substantially greater inflation momentum at the end of the year than originally shown. The whole thing throws a lot of cold water on the “disinflation” hoopla. Inflation rages in services. On a year-over-year basis, the PCE Price Index for services spiked by 5.6%, the worst since 1984. December, November, and October were all revised up sharply. This is where inflation is running hot, and services is nearly two-thirds of consumer spending. This is where the inflation action now is, where it’s entrenched and self-propagating: On a month-to-month basis, the PCE price index for services jumped by 0.6% in January from December. December was upwardly revised to +0.6% from +0.5%. There is just absolutely no slowdown in sight. This is the center of the horror show: The Core PCE price index turned red-hot again. On a month-to-month basis, the core PCE, which excludes food and energy, jumped by 0.6% in January from December, after having jumped by an upwardly revised 0.4% in December. This jump was largely driven by red-hot inflation in services. But this time, goods prices rose too, after having declined in prior months. The month-to-month down-trend in October and November was just a classic inflation head fake: On a year-over-year basis, core PCE jumped by 4.7%, up from 4.6% in December, which was revised up from the original +4.4%. November was also revised up to +4.8%, from originally +4.7%.
Jamie Dimon on Fed: It has 'lost a little bit of control of inflation' -JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Thursday that containing inflation remains a work in progress for the Federal Reserve, while noting the U.S. economy continues to show signs of strength."I have all the respect for [Fed Chair Jerome] Powell, but the fact is we lost a little bit of control of inflation," Dimon said in an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer during the "Halftime Report." It's the first of a two-part interview with Cramer, with the second installment airing later Thursday on "Mad Money."Dimon's comments came one day after the Fed released the minutes from its Jan. 31-Feb.1 meeting, which showed members remain resolved to fight persistent inflation."Participants noted that inflation data received over the past three months showed a welcome reduction in the monthly pace of price increases but stressed that substantially more evidence of progress across a broader range of prices would be required to be confident that inflation was on a sustained downward path," the minutes said.Dimon himself said he expects that interest rates could "possibly" remain higher for longer, as it may take the central bank "a while" to get to its goal of 2% inflation.Even so, the JPMorgan CEO said he's not currently breaking out the recession playbook, as he is encouraged by the strength of the U.S. economy."The U.S. economy right now is doing quite well. Consumers have a lot of money. They're spending it. Jobs are plentiful," Dimon said. "That's today. Out in front of us, there's some scary stuff. You and I know there's always uncertainty. That's a normal thing." Those comments contrast with Dimon's previous remarks in October. At that time, he said the U.S. economy will likely fall into a recession in six to nine months. In December, he said higher inflation was eroding consumer wealth, which would lead into a recession this year.
Biden's Fed vice chair search narrows as top tier seen emerging - The White House is narrowing its search for a nominee to become the next Federal Reserve vice chair, intending to swiftly replace Lael Brainard, who became President Joe Biden's top economic adviser this week.A top tier of candidates is taking shape led by Harvard University professor Karen Dynan and Northwestern University professor Janice Eberly, in no particular order, with Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly and Morgan Stanley Chief Global Economist Seth Carpenter also in serious contention, according to people familiar with the search, speaking on condition of anonymity as the process unfolds. Other names beyond t hose are expected to circulate or be floated to the White House, including Fed governors Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson, but they are considered longer shots than the others, some of the people said. Cook and Jefferson joined the board last year.The White House wants the process to conclude relatively soon, the people said, with an announcement possible in the coming weeks. Whoever the president nominates must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.A White House official declined to respond to specific names and candidates, and said only that the administration is looking at a highly diverse group of world class economists and will move quickly to nominate someone. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as the process continues.Eberly and Carpenter declined to comment. Dynan, Goolsbee and Daly did not respond to requests for comment.Filling the high-profile position is particularly urgent as the central bank continues its battle against inflation and as the 2024 presidential campaign takes shape amid anxieties about the nation's economic future. The White House declined comment on the candidates or timing. The people who said the search had narrowed also cautioned that deliberations continue and no decision has been made. The Wall Street Journal previously reported the interest in Goolsbee, a fixture in Democratic circles who was a fierce defender of Biden before taking his current role.Brainard left the Fed officially on Monday and started Tuesday as Biden's National Economic Council director.Biden recruited Brainard — a one-time candidate for Fed chair and Treasury secretary — away from the central bank to head up the National Economic Council after the departure of Brian Deese. The president also named Jared Bernstein as his incoming chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. He replaces Cecilia Rouse, who is scheduled to return to Princeton University.Biden has been urged to pick a Latino candidate to succeed Brainard, with 34 lawmakers signing a letter last week calling for such a trailblazing appointment. The nominee, however, is not expected to be a Latino, two of the people said. Tobin Marcus, an analyst for Evercore ISI who once worked for Biden, said in a research note this week that he believed Dynan and Eberly, and to a lesser extent Carpenter, to be the frontrunners.
Emmer introduces bill to bar Fed from issuing CBDC to consumers — Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., has introduced a bill that would bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency directly to individuals. Emmer, who's been known to be an advocate of the cryptocurrency industry, introduced a very similar bill last year, and although his party controls the House, the measure is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate. Even so, Emmer's recent ascension to House majority whip gives his positions on crypto and banking-related issues more weight. The bill's messaging repeats sentiments that Emmer has promoted before: That a Fed retail CBDC would give the central bank too much information into Americans' spending habits and money. "Any digital version of the dollar must uphold our American values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free market competitiveness," Emmer said on Twitter. "Anything less opens the door to the development of a dangerous surveillance tool." Emmer's bill would, among other measures, prohibit the Fed from directly offering "products or services directly to an individual." This would effectively ban the central bank from creating and offering a retail CBDC. The bill would also not allow the use of CBDC "to implement monetary policy," and would require the Fed's Board of Governors to talk with regional Fed banks before offering a pilot program around CBDCs and issue quarterly reports on any pilot program. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has already cautioned that the central bank will not pursue a CBDC without Congressional approval.
US Legislators Introduce Bill That Would Prohibit Creation Of An American CBDC -- U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) has introduced a bill that would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC directly to anyone. The bill, titled the “CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act” details that “Except as specifically authorized under this Act, a Federal Reserve bank may not offer products or services directly to an individual, or maintain an account on behalf of an individual, or issue a central bank digital currency directly to an individual.” It goes on to further detail specifically that “The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee may not use any central bank digital currency to implement monetary policy." Rep. Emmer explained in his tweet announcing the bill that “Any digital version of the dollar must uphold our American values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free market competitiveness. Anything less opens the door to the development of a dangerous surveillance tool.” The bill aims to stem the creation of a CBDC due to the various issues many see as potential results of the creation of an American CBDC. As detailed in various Bitcoin Magazine pieces like “The Dangerous Implications Of Central Bank Digital Currencies,” “Central Bank Digital Currencies: A Technocratic Fallacy” and “The U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency Narrative Is A Fantasy,” the idea of a CBDC not only has moral and ideological opposition to it, but technical limitations present challenges that could make such a thing not possible in the first place. Several Representatives involved in the bill have also voiced their support. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) released a statement saying that he was “Proud to join forces with Rep. Emmer on legislation to keep the Fed from issuing a central bank digital currency. The Fed should be focused on its core mission of stable prices and max employment, not tracking our transactions indefinitely.” In addition, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) reiterated this point, explaining that “unelected bureaucrats are driving us to an authoritarian state. That can't happen.”
Q4 GDP Growth Revised Down to 2.7% Annual Rate --From the BEA: Gross Domestic Product, Fourth Quarter and Year 2022 (Second Estimate) Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 3.2 percent.The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the "advance" estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 2.9 percent. The updated estimates primarily reflected a downward revision to consumer spending that was partly offset by an upward revision to nonresidential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, were revised up. Here is a Comparison of Second and Advance Estimates. PCE growth was revised down from 2.1% to 1.4%. Residential investment was revised up from -26.7% to -25.9%.
Q4 GDP Revised Lower As Core PCE Unexpectedly Comes In Hot -- One month after the first Q4 GDP estimate surprised to the upside, coming in at 2.9% vs expectations of a 2.6% number, moments ago things gradually reverted to normalcy for a Biden admin that has seen its fair share of grossly manipulated economic data, when the BEA reported in its 2nd estimate of Q4 GDP that the economy actually grew almost as expected one month ago, revising the GDP print to a 2.7% (2.68% to be precise) increase from 2.9%. The fourth-quarter increase in real GDP reflected increases in inventory investment, consumer spending, business investment, federal government spending, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by decreases in housing investment and exports. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased. Turning to the revisions from the first estimate, real GDP was revised down 0.2% from the “advance” estimate and reflected a sharp downward revision to consumer spending (both goods and services) that was partly offset by an upward revision to business investment. Specifically, this is how the revisions affected the 2.7% GDP bottom line: As a reminder, with the change in private Inventories set to tumble as consumers save even more now that the Covid excess stimies have run out (and thus spend less), this means that Q1 GDP will come in far cooler than this print. The BEA also reported that as a result of recent revisions, real disposable personal income (DPI)— personal income adjusted for taxes and inflation—increased 4.8% in the fourth quarter after increasing 3.2% in the third quarter. Current-dollar DPI increased 8.6% in the fourth quarter, following an increase of 7.7% (revised). The increase in current-dollar DPI for the fourth quarter primarily reflected increases in compensation and personal current transfer receipts. On the other hand, personal saving as a percentage of DPI was 3.9% in the fourth quarter, compared with 3.2% (revised) in the third quarter. Yet while GDP was revised lower, as the BEA finally admitted that the US consumer was getting tapped out, the market generally ignored the aged data as we have much more granular monthly updates; however what did spook futures was the BEA's sharp upward revision to the GDP Price Index and Core PCE, which unexpectedly came in red hot: GDP Price Index 3.9% vs 3.5% in the first estimate, and well above the 3.5% consensus estimate. Core PCE Q/Q up 4.3% vs 3.9% in the first estimate, and also well above the 3.9% consensus estimate. Despite the upward revision, the trend remains a declining one, even if the slope is somewhat shallower: as the BEA also notes, GDP prices, the prices of goods and services purchased by U.S. residents, increased 3.6% in the fourth quarter after increasing 4.8% in the third quarter. Excluding food and energy, prices increased 4.1% after increasing 5.0%.
US could default on debt as soon as June: analysis The U.S. could default on the national debt as soon as June if lawmakers and the White House do not strike a deal to raise the federal borrowing limit, according to projections released Wednesday by prominent nonpartisan think tank. The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), which closely tracked the debt ceiling, issued new projections Wednesday of the “X-Date,” the date at which the Treasury Department will exhaust extraordinary measures to avert a federal default BPC warned Wednesday that lawmakers have until anywhere between start of summer and early fall to raise the debt limit or risk a government default – an outcome experts warn could be damaging to the economy. “We think the most likely time when they were not able to fund the government is sometime in the summer or early fall, but that there’s a slight chance that we run up against this very close-to-the-ground point in mid June or early to mid June,” said Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at BPC, in a Wednesday press call. The center released the updated timeline on early Wednesday after factoring in new data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Treasury Department. The group estimated last year that the “X-Date” would hit no sooner than the third quarter of 2023, but several economic and legislative factors can also impact the timeline. Akabas said extensions to the repayment pause on the federal student loans and the roughly $1.7 trillion government funding omnibus passed by Congress late last year could shorten the timeline. “Beyond that, there have been significant economic changes. Inflation has been more persistent than people anticipated almost a year ago,” he said in a Wednesday press call. “Interest rates have risen faster than people anticipated, which means that we are paying more to service our debt. So, most of those factors have worked in the direction of pulling the X-Date forward, relative to expectations last spring,” Akabas said. While it’s difficult to pinpoint a hard X-Date, projections are expected to become more precise the closer the government arrives to running out of cash. Experts are also keeping an eye on how revenues will impact the timeline, particularly as tax season heats up in the weeks ahead. BPC said that if revenues from tax season fail to meet expectations, there could be “a ‘too-close-for-comfort’ situation prior to quarterly tax receipts due on June 15.”
Democrats pounce on GOP ‘woke-waste’ attacks - The culture wars have entered the budget battle, as GOP leaders take aim at “woke” spending and Democrats push back with charges of bigotry. Democrats are pouncing as Republicans sharpen their focus on what they call “woke-waste” in the federal budget, targeting programs ranging from funds for transgender immigrants in Los Angeles to a nature trail named for Michelle Obama in Georgia. The items were included in a list unveiled earlier this month by Republicans on the House Budget Committee, which identified areas of “wasteful” spending GOP leaders are hoping to eliminate as part of their broader goal of balancing the budget within a decade. Republicans are defending the focus on “wokeness,” saying they’re working to safeguard taxpayers from a federal government that’s abused its authority with efforts to promote “equity” and “inclusion,” typically on issues of race, gender and sexuality. Yet Democrats see something more sinister, accusing GOP leaders of targeting minority benefit programs, not because they’re expensive, but because the fight energizes their conservative base. “It’s very exemplary of their approach, which is a blend of cutting support to working-class families while also lacing in bigotry and racism,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a member of the liberal “Squad,” said. The real goal, she added, is “to distract from the actual economic impact, negative economic impact, that they’re having on working families.” The Republican attacks on so-called wokeism are hardly new. GOP leaders have, for years, accused Democrats in both the White House and Congress of pushing an agenda that both exaggerates the prevalence of racism in America and oversteps in employing governments at all levels to take it on. The criticism has targeted agencies as varied as the Pentagon, the IRS and the Department of Education, touching on issues as diverse as military readiness, financial literacy and the teaching of American history. Some charge that deep-state liberals are hellbent on indoctrinating students, soldiers and the public at large with the teachings of critical race theory — a legal theory that has become a shorthand of sorts for any education centered on race. Since taking control of the House last month, Republicans have extended those arguments with a series of bills designed to combat a “wokeness that has swept our country,” in the words of Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.). The coming budget debate will be the next battleground in that fight, and Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) previewed the Republicans’ anti-woke strategy with the recent release of his spending cuts wish list. Among the targeted items are about $6.6 million in funds under a section labeled “stop woke-waste,” which singles out a handful of programs on the chopping block, like $750,000 for “Transgender and Gender nonconforming and Intersex (TGI) immigrant women in Los Angeles,” $1.2 million for “LGBTQIA+ Pride Centers,” and $3.6 million to expand a hiking trail named after Michelle Obama in Decatur, Ga. The spending was greenlit by Congress as part of a $1.7 trillion bipartisan omnibus last year, a bill opposed by all but nine House Republicans.
Social Security and Medicare: Troubling math, tough politics | AP — It seems no one wants to cut Social Security or Medicare benefits. Not President Joe Biden, who is already telling voters his upcoming federal budget proposal will “defend and strengthen” the programs. Not Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who has declared cuts to the programs off the table in negotiations to raise the federal debt limit. There’s just one glitch with these declarations: Social Security won’t be able to pay out its promised benefits in about a dozen years, while Medicare won’t be able to do so in just five years. Economists have done the projections and say both programs will drive the national debt higher in the decades to come, forcing teeth-gritting choices for the next generation of lawmakers.It’s a math problem that requires a political solution. Payroll taxes largely fund Social Security and Medicare. They generally get deducted from workers’ paychecks, which is why Biden, a Democrat, says people are merely getting back what they’ve already paid into the system. But as more baby boomers age and retire, there are more beneficiaries and not enough tax revenue to fund the programs. Payroll taxes are expected to generate $1.56 trillion this year, but the combined costs of Social Security and Medicare are likely to be $2.16 trillion, according to a Congressional Budget Office report last week. The office warned in its report that Social Security benefits may need to be cut even earlier than past projections, beginning in 2032. CBO Director Phillip Swagel said Friday at a Bipartisan Policy Center event that “benefits today are being paid in full as promised, drawing down on the Social Security trust fund.” But when the government is unable to pay full benefits, “that’s a challenge,” he said. The number of people enrolled in Medicare has more than tripled to roughly 65 million since its inception in 1966. More than 10 million new retirees and disabled people joined in just the past decade, according to data from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. The shortfall in tax revenues combined with a rising number of recipients would eventually lead to Social Security’s trust fund being unable to fully pay benefits in 2035, a Social Security and Medicare trustees report predicted last June, though the CBO said it could happen sooner. Medicare’s trust fund would be unable to pay full benefits starting in 2028. This forces the inevitable choice of whether to shore up the trust funds’ finances or reduce people’s benefits. Continued delays by Congress and the president in addressing this math problem could narrow the number of potential fixes.
Biden Weaves Climate Into Economy and Regulations With Two Key Picks - The New York Times— Last week, President Biden announced that Lael Brainard, the vice chair of the Federal Reserve who is known for citing the financial risks posed by climate change, would become his top economic adviser.Her appointment follows that of Richard Revesz, an environmental lawyer and an academic who is known for defending climate regulations, who last month became head of the White House’s top regulatory office — a place that has historically been viewed as the place where environmental controls go to die.The appointments to two of the most powerful posts in the White House underscore how Mr. Biden has pursued an “all-of-government” approach to climate change, appointing people with backgrounds in climate policy to senior positions across federal agencies. It also illustrates his intent to use executive action to address global warming in the last two years of this term.“This is a new thing that we’ve seen from the Biden White House as they have made climate central to their economic recovery and regulatory agenda,” said Jamal Raad, executive director of the climate advocacy group Evergreen Action. “Putting people in positions of power that are not traditionally climate positions who deeply understand the climate crisis and the need to act on it.”.The timing of their appointments is not a coincidence. While Democrats in Congress passed the nation’s first major climate law last year, the midterm Republican takeover of the House of Representatives means it is unlikely that new environmental legislation will be enacted in the remainder of Mr. Biden’s first term. That leaves Mr. Biden with executive authority as a way to push through the rest of his climate agenda. That will entail the oversight of about $370 billion in new spending on climate and clean energy programs provided by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. It will also mean writing new climate regulations, intended to ratchet down emissions from cars, trucks, power plants and oil and gas wells.
Washington accuses Russia of “crimes against humanity” to justify escalation of Ukraine war - On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris formally accused Russia, for the first time, of carrying out “crimes against humanity,” part of an escalating propaganda campaign to condition public opinion for the direct deployment of US-NATO troops into the war over Ukraine. Speaking at the Munich Security Council, Harris asserted, “Russian forces have pursued a widespread and systemic attack against a civilian population—gruesome acts of murder, torture, rape and deportation. Execution-style killings, beatings and electrocution.” Harris declared, “In the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, we have examined the evidence. We know the legal standards. And there is no doubt these are crimes against humanity.” Presumably, Harris was referring to the definition of such crimes provided in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Responding to Harris’ remarks, WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North noted on Twitter Sunday, “The crimes specified in the Statute, which Harris invokes against the Russian government, have been committed by every American administration since 1945 (certainly beginning with the firebombing of cities and the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan).” Indeed, the US government does not recognize the authority of international law over its own officials, but by any objective standard every living American president should be hauled before a war crimes tribunal. During the Vietnam War, the United States adopted a policy of terrorizing the civilian population through murder and the destruction of property. The US military coined the term, attributed to an American general by journalist Peter Arnett, of “destroying the village in order to save it.” US military officials designated certain areas of Vietnam, where, by policy, all men, women and children were to be systematically exterminated. Any person who was killed in these areas was classified an “enemy combatant,” even if they were an infant. As many as 1 million North Vietnamese civilians were killed during the conflict.
US formally accuses Russia of crimes against humanity in Ukraine The United States has determined that Russia is committing crimes against humanity in Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Saturday, the latest salvo in the West’s effort to hold Moscow accountable for its wartime atrocities. In a marquee address at the Munich Security Conference, Harris detailed that Russia is responsible for a “widespread and systematic attack” against Ukraine’s civilian population, citing evidence of execution-style killings, rape, torture and forceful deportations — sometimes perpetrated against children. As a result, Russia has not only committed war crimes, as theadministration formally concluded in March, but also illegal acts against non-combatants.“Their actions are an assault on our common values, an attack on our common humanity,” the vice president said, referencing images of bodies lying in the streets of Bucha and the sexual assault of a four-year-old girl by a Russian soldier. “Barbaric and inhumane.”Harris then declared: “The United States has formally determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity.”The Biden administration will continue to assist Ukraine in its investigation into these alleged crimes, she said, vowing that the perpetrators and “their superiors” will be “held to account.” She added: “Let us all agree: on behalf of all the victims, both known and unknown: justice must be served.”The declaration is among the most forceful yet from a Western power as allies grapple with how to punish Russians responsible for violations. And it escalates the judicial side of America’s support for Ukraine, which has long said Russia was guilty of these crimes and that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ultimately responsible.Harris didn’t cite Putin by name, but the clear implication is that the invasion he launched nearly a year ago is why Ukrainian civilians are now victims of these international law violations.While “crimes against humanity” are not officially codified in an international treaty, they are still adjudicated in the International Criminal Court and other global bodies. The Biden administration’s determination means the U.S. believes Russian actions have met a broader standard than war crimes but not as specific a violation as genocide.“In contrast with genocide, crimes against humanity do not need to target a specific group,” according to the United Nations. “Instead, the victim of the attack can be any civilian population, regardless of its affiliation or identity. Another important distinction is that in the case of crimes against humanity, it is not necessary to prove that there is an overall specific intent.”Some, however, would like the Biden administration to go further. Back in the United States, both of West Virginia’s senators, Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Shelley Moore Capito, introduced a resolution to recognize Russia’s war on Ukraine as a genocide.Others like Tom Malinowski, a former member of Congress and senior human rights official at the State Department, believe “these debates about what to call Russia’s atrocities are less important than providing Ukraine the means to stop them.”
Putin Announces Suspension of the New START Treaty - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday announced that Moscow is suspending its participation in New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Russia.“In this regard, I am forced to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty,” Putin said in astate of the nation address delivered to Russia’s Federal Assembly.New START was first signed in 2010 by then-President Obama and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, and replaced the START I Treaty that was signed in 1991.New START came into force in 2011 and caps the deployment of nuclear warheads at 1,550. It also places limits on the deployment of launchers, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and heavy bombers.New START was set to expire in February 2021, but Putin and President Biden agreed in January 2021 to extend the agreement by five years. According to the State Department, inspections under the treaty have been suspended since March 2020 due to Covid-19.Explaining his reasoning for suspending the treaty, Putin said it was signed at a time when the US was less hostile. He also wants to address the issue of the UK and France’s nuclear weapons, which are part of NATO’s arsenal, although both countries have significantly smaller arsenals than the US and Russia.“Before we return to discussing this agreement, we must understand for ourselves what the intentions of countries like France and the UK are and how we will consider their strategic arsenals as well, which is the cumulative striking potential of NATO,” Putin said, according to RT.Putin’s move is the result of the lack of diplomacy between the US and Russia. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has only held one known callwith his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, since Russia launched the invasion on February 24, 2022, and the discussion was focused on a prisoner swap, not the war or arms control.The two countries were engaged in arms control talks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the US canceled the negotiations. After months of refusing to engage with Russia on the issue, the US eventually agreed to hold talks on New START in November 2022, but Russia pulled out at the last minute.Arms control between the US and Russia had been crumbling for years as Washington withdrew from key treaties. In 2019, the Trump administration pulled out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which banned ground-launched missiles with a range of 500-5,500 kilometers.Putin mentioned the INF withdrawal in his speech on Tuesday. “The whole world witnessed how they withdrew from fundamental agreements on weapons, including the treaty on intermediate and shorter-range missiles, unilaterally tearing up the fundamental agreements that maintain world peace,” he said.The Trump administration also withdrew from the Open Skies treaty, which allowed unarmed surveillance flights over participating countries. Russia tried to salvage the treaty with the Biden administration but had no success. The administration told Moscow it wouldn’t rejoin Open Skies.In his speech, Putin vowed to fight on in Ukraine and blamed the US and its allies for provoking the war by expanding NATO and supporting the 2014 coup that ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. He said the Western provision of longer-range weapons would result in Ukraine losing more territory.“The longer the range of the Western systems being brought to Ukraine, the farther away from our borders we will be forced to push the threat,” Putin said. He mentioned statements from Western officials calling for the “strategic defeat” of Russia. “This means they plan to finish us once and for all. In other words, they plan to grow a local conflict into a global confrontation. This is how we understand it and we will respond accordingly, because this represents an existential threat to our country,” Putin said. According to Russian officials, Russia’s military doctrine allows the use of nuclear weapons if the state of Russia faces an “existential threat.”
'Big mistake': Biden responds to Putin's nuclear treaty suspension – POLITICO video
Biden makes first wartime visit to Kyiv - Sporting a blue-and-yellow tie in Ukraine’s colors, Biden made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capitol of Kyiv for about five hours on Monday. During his quick stop, Biden did not hold back from criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Russia’s aim was to wipe Ukraine off the map. Putin’s war of conquest is failing,” Biden said. “Putin thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. … I don’t think he’s thinking that right now.” Biden also announced another $500 million in additional aid for Kyiv, which comes as Russia has launched a new offensive in eastern Ukraine. Before he departed the country, Biden and Zelensky traveled to the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral in central Kyiv, taking a walk around the complex that stands for Ukrainian resistance. Zelensky said the moment stood as a “clear signal that Russia’s attempts of relaunch will have no chance.” The White House did take steps to inform Russia of the visit ahead of time. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to speak on how Moscow responded, but noted this was a historic visit. Sullivan said it was “unprecedented in modern times to have the president of the United States visit the capital of the country of war where the United States military does not control the critical infrastructure.” That didn’t stop some Republicans from taking the chance to hammer Biden on the visit. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is flirting with a 2024 White House run, faulted Biden for “neglecting” issues at home, including the border.
President Biden Makes Surprise Visit To Kyiv, Pledges New Military Aid -President Biden departed from Joint Base Andrews in Prince George's County, Maryland, early Sunday morning. He stopped at Ramstein Air Base in Germany before making an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Monday morning. The visit comes ahead of the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Biden's visit comes as Russia prepares for a massive spring offensive. Western countries are racing to flood Ukraine with new weaponry, including main battle tanks and armored vehicles. Biden delivered remarks alongside President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv and announced new military aid worth $500 million, according to AP News. The new military aid includes anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars, howitzers, shells, ammunition, and other support but no new advanced weaponry. "I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about US support for Ukraine in the war," Biden said in joint remarks with Zelenskyy. He said, "I'm here to show our unwavering support for the nation's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity." Zelenskyy thanked Biden for coming to Kyiv "at a huge moment for Ukraine." He said he and the US president would hold talks about the war and what's happening on the frontlines and also "about the people, about Ukrainians, about Americans . . . what we have to do to stop the war, to have success in this war . . . and how to win this year". Biden said, "I am meeting with President Zelenskyy and his team for an extended discussion on our support for Ukraine." He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "dead wrong," believing he could instantly take Ukraine during the invasion nearly one year ago. "Over the last year, the United States has built a coalition of nations from the Atlantic to the Pacific to help defend Ukraine with unprecedented military, economic, and humanitarian support – and that support will endure," he continued. Biden also said, "We will announce additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia's war machine." The president's social media team was busy tweeting this morning.
Biden declares 'Kyiv stands' in surprise visit to Ukraine - (AP) — President Joe Biden swept unannounced into Ukraine on Monday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a defiant display of Western solidarity with a country still fighting what he called “a brutal and unjust war” days before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion. “One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden declared after meeting Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace. Jabbing his finger for emphasis on his podium, against a backdrop of three flags from each country, he continued: “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.” Biden spent more than five hours in the Ukrainian capital, consulting with Zelenskyy on next steps, honoring the country’s fallen soldiers and seeing U.S. embassy staff in the besieged country. Altogether he was on Ukrainian territory for about 23 hours, traveling by train from and back to Poland. The visit came at a crucial moment: Biden is trying to keep allies unified in their support for Ukraine as the war is expected to intensify with spring offensives. Zelenskyy is pressing allies to speed up delivery of promised weapon systems and calling on the West to provide fighter jets — something that Biden has declined to do. The U.S. president got a taste of the terror that Ukrainians have lived with for close to a year when air raids sirens howled just as he and Zelenskyy wrapped up a visit to the gold-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral. Looking solemn, they continued unperturbed as they laid two wreaths and held a moment of silence at the Wall of Remembrance honoring Ukrainian soldiers killed since 2014, the year Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Russian-backed fighting erupted in eastern Ukraine. The White House would not go into specifics, but national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that it notified Moscow of Biden’s visit to Kyiv shortly before his departure from Washington “for deconfliction purposes” in an effort to avoid any miscalculation that could bring the two nuclear-armed nations into direct conflict. In Kyiv, Biden announced an additional half-billion dollars in U.S. assistance — on top of the more than $50 billion already provided — for shells for howitzers, anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars and other aid but no new advanced weaponry. Ukraine has also been pushing for battlefield systems that would allow its forces to strike Russian targets that have been moved back from frontline areas, out of the range of HIMARS missiles that have already been delivered. Zelenskyy said he and Biden spoke about “long-range weapons and the weapons that may still be supplied to Ukraine even though it wasn’t supplied before.” But he did not detail any new commitments. “Our negotiations were very fruitful,” Zelenskyy added. Sullivan would not detail any potential new capabilities for Ukraine, but said there was a ”good discussion” of the subject. Biden’s mission with his visit to Kyiv, which comes before a scheduled trip to Warsaw, Poland, is to underscore that the United States is prepared to stick with Ukraine “as long as it takes” to repel Russian forces even as public opinion polling suggests that U.S. and allied support for providing weaponry and direct economic assistance has started to soften. For Zelenskyy, the symbolism of having the U.S. president stand side by side with him on Ukrainian land as the anniversary nears is no small thing as he prods allies to provide more advanced weaponry and step up delivery.
Biden brings hope — as well as pledges of cash and weapons —– KYIV — Just days before the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the streets of the capital were suddenly locked down on Monday morning. Then videos of a mysterious procession of vehicles with blacked-out windows began being posted online.Who, wondered many ordinary Ukrainians — trying to go about their daily business as best as they can despite the war — was the foreign guest causing so much inconvenience?There had been rumors that Joe Biden was going to make a surprise visit to Kyiv before his scheduled trip to Poland. But the people of Ukraine didn’t know for sure until Biden was pictured walking out of Mykhailivsky monastery in central Kyiv together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.The image of the U.S. president calmly walking in Kyiv, while air raid sirens blared in the background, gave hope to Ukrainians, who saw a powerful ally standing beside them.“Thank you, Mister President, for visiting Kyiv today. Strong gesture in support of our fight. Again, we are invincible when united! Russia is already losing. Invaders will die. Be brave like Ukrainians and like Biden,” prominent Ukrainian military volunteer Serhiy Prytula said in a statement.Russians were obviously less impressed. Dmitry Medvedev, a former president, reacted with a rant about Biden “being allowed to safely travel to Kyiv by Russians” and Russian military bloggers started asking when Vladimir Putin is going to the occupied Donetsk region to show the same kind of support for his troops. Vladyslav Faraponov, an Internews Ukraine media analyst, told POLITICO that “Russians are going crazy on social media because they realize their weakness during this visit. There is nothing they can do about it. What is more, as the first anniversary of the war approaches, it makes them think of their foolishness as Russia’s officials have convinced them that Kyiv could be captured in three days.”Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told the AP that the Russians were only formally informed several hours before the visit to avoid “any miscalculation that could bring the two nuclear-armed nations into direct conflict.”“It is difficult to imagine a bigger diplomatic slap [in the face] to Putin than the arrival of President Biden in Kyiv,” former CEO of Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz Andriy Kobolev wrote on Facebook.
Biden, after trip to Ukraine, to meet NATO allies in Poland | (Reuters) - President Joe Biden, fresh from a visit to Kyiv, was set to reaffirm to U.S. allies on Tuesday that the United States is squarely behind Ukraine and committed to bolstering NATO's eastern flank as the anniversary of Russia's invasion approaches. Biden arrived in Warsaw late on Monday after a dramatic visit to Kyiv where he met President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is seeking more weaponry as Ukraine gears up for a spring offensive against the Russians. Biden was due to meet Polish President Andrzej Duda to discuss collective support for Ukraine and thank Warsaw for helping the United States and other countries to deliver military and humanitarian aid. Duda's foreign policy adviser said the men would also discuss Poland's security and scaling up the resources of the transatlantic military alliance there. "It is no secret that we will talk about increasing the presence, also in terms of infrastructure, of NATO," Marcin Przydacz told private broadcaster TVN 24. In the evening, Biden will give a speech rallying support for Ukraine as the war enters its second year on Feb. 24 with no end in sight. "President Biden will make it clear that the United States will continue to stand with Ukraine, as you've heard him say many times, for as long as it takes," said John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson.
Putin ally fires back at Biden’s Poland speech with nuclear warning -Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hit back at the U.S. on Wednesday, warning that his country reserved the right to use its nuclear arsenal to defend itself after a speech in Poland by President Biden following his surprise visit to Ukraine.“After all, it is obvious to all reasonable forces that if the United States wants the defeat of Russia, then we are on the verge of a world conflict,” Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said in a post on the messaging platform Telegram. “If the United States wants to defeat Russia, then we have the right to defend ourselves with any weapon, including nuclear.”The message from Medvedev — who was president from 2008 to 2018 and the country’s prime minister until 2020 — about nuclear weapons comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this week that he intended to pull Russia from the New START arms treaty, an agreement between Russia and the U.S. to limit their ability to produce and launch nuclear weapons.After Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday, he delivered a speech in Poland in which he noted that the “United States and the nations of Europe do not seek to control or destroy Russia.”“The West was not plotting to attack Russia, as Putin said today,” Biden said. “And millions of Russian citizens who only want to live in peace with their neighbors are not the enemy.”He went on to lay the burden of ending the war on Putin.“If Russia stopped invading Ukraine, it would end the war,” Biden said. “If Ukraine stopped defending itself against Russia, it would be the end of Ukraine.”Medvedev turned the claim upside down, arguing it was actually the U.S. who was prolonging the war.
Victoria Nuland Says US Supports Ukrainian Attacks on Crimea -Victoria Nuland, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, said last week that the US is “supporting” Ukrainian attacks on Crimea and called Russian military installations on the peninsula “legitimate targets.”Nuland made the comments when asked about a report from The New York Times that was published in January and said the Biden administration was “warming” to the idea of helping Ukraine attack Russia despite the risk of escalation. “Russia has turned Crimea into a massive military installation … those are legitimate targets, Ukraine is hitting them, and we are supporting that,” Nuland told the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington DC-based think tank.Nuland also expressed support for the “demilitarization” of Crimea. “No matter what the Ukrainians decide about Crimea in terms of where they choose to fight, etcetera, Ukraine is not going to be safe unless Crimea is at a minimum — at a minimum — demilitarized,” she said.Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed Nuland’s comments, saying she was inciting an escalation of the war. “Now the American warmongers have gone even further: they are inciting the Kiev regime to further escalate, to bring the war to the territory of our country. Just like that, with direct strikes,” Zakharova said. Nuland’s comments came a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged that a Ukrainian attempt at retaking Crimea would be a “red line” for Russian President Vladimir Putin and would risk a major response from Moscow. US support for such operations would increase the risk of provoking Moscow and heighten the chances of a direct clash between NATO and Russia. Putin has shown that he will significantly escalate the war over attacks on Crimea. Russia did not start large-scale missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure until after the truck bombing of the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea to the Russian mainland. While Ukraine hasn’t been in a position where it can launch an offensive against Crimea, the Biden administration has made clear throughout the conflict that it wouldn’t discourage Kyiv from attacking the peninsula. Russia has controlled Crimea since 2014, but neither the US nor Kyiv recognize the peninsula as Russian territory. The people of Crimea voted to join Russia following a US-backed coup in Kyiv, which Nuland played an instrumental role in, and polling since 2014 has shown that they are still happy with the change.
Between That Rock and The Hard Place - Kunstler - Secret Agent Man “Joe Biden” turned up in Kiev Monday morning after landing in Poland and riding an overnight choo-choo train across the Ukraine frontier to avoid the hazardous pomp of landing Air Force One in a war zone. One might try to guess the message Victoria Nuland sent her errand boy to deliver. My guess is that “JB” was there to tell Wolodymyr Zelensky the USA stands behind him one hundred percent — an obvious whopper — being exactly the opposite of the developing reality that, short of setting off nuclear Armageddon, there is really nothing the USA can do to prevent Russia from concluding our ill-conceived project on its own terms. Who better to deliver an arrant falsehood than the master, “Scranton Joe,” he who once battled and vanquished the tyrant Corn-Pop! Remember, last week Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, speaking out of the aperture between his butt cheeks, announced that Russia had lost “strategically, operationally and tactically” in Ukraine. This was after NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg announced rather clumsily that Ukraine’s army was out of ammo, especially artillery shells, and the only remedy for that was for Europe to rebuild an armaments industry — which was a sideways-and-backwards way of saying… fuggeddabowdit. One might also suppose that, behind all this cognitive dissonance, the US would be engaged in secret talks with Russia to arrive at some face-saving device for getting out of this mess. But really, what is our leverage for that? Can we threaten to put US boots-on-the-Ground in Ukraine? That would be a little like channeling Gen. George Armstrong Custer, don’t you think? Apparently, all we’re left with is a game of pretend, using the Pretender-in-Chief as the front. I’d also venture to say that American voters are not so enthused about this Ukraine pageant as they seemed to be last summer when the yellow and blue flags popped up on front porches at every Woked-up clam-bake from Edgartown to Bar Harbor. Our Ukrainian proxies sure seemed to be giving those Ruskies what-for along the front lines in Donbas, payback, you understand, for helping Donald Trump steal the 2016 election from She Whose Turn It Was Supposed to Be… America’s Amazonian Caesar-in-a-pants-suit, HRC.The fall offensive by Ukraine was an illusion, alas, setting up its army for methodical decimation, now nearly complete. So, too, is all the talk of sending tanks in to save the day. And so, too, is the very existence of NATO as anything other than window-dressing on an empty storefront. If blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines, as recently alleged by independent reporter Seymour Hersh, smells like an attack on our supposed ally, Germany, then how was it not an attack on NATO, in which Germany is the centerpiece? And, finally, why would Germany not be engaging in secret talks of its own with Russia, behind America’s back?
Biden team has ‘deeply rooted hatred for Russia’, warns US lawmaker -- Senior Biden administration officials have a “deeply-rooted, irrational hatred of Russia” and seek to get the US involved in another world war, Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar has said. “Elon is correct,” Gosar wrote in a tweet on Thursday, responding to Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s comments in which he accused the US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland of “pushing this war” in Ukraine. “Both Nuland and Blinken have a deeply rooted irrational hatred of Russia, and they seek to get the US involved in another world war,” the US lawmaker said. “These are dangerous fools who can get us all killed.” In a follow-up tweet, Gosar wrote that “as a non-soldier, Nuland is quite willing to endorse violence and war.” He added that she has “endorsed regime change in Russia, celebrated the US destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, and called for the indefinite flow of arms into Ukraine.” Gosar has consistently opposed Washington’s policy toward the Ukraine war since Russia announced a “special military operation” a year ago. Back in October, he slammed Biden for not acting in the interest of Americans, calling on Washington to cut foreign aid to Ukraine. “NO MORE Foreign Aid, especially not to fund a war that we should have NO involvement in,” Gosar tweeted at the time. “Biden and his crime family may owe Zelensky, but America doesn’t owe him a damn thing,” the lawmaker stressed, making a reference to President Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s business dealings with Ukraine and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s cover-up of the matter later on. Meanwhile, the United States on Thursday announced that it is preparing a fresh military aid package to Ukraine worth $2 billion.
Ted Cruz says Democrats use Ukrainian flag ‘like a COVID mask’ to ‘show virtue’ | The Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) accused Democrats of virtue signaling with Ukrainian flag pins and other shows of support for Kyiv amid its war against Russia. “For the Democrats, this has become a virtue signal,” Cruz said on an episode of his “Verdict” podcast, pointing to lapel pins that lawmakers have regularly worn to show solidarity with Ukraine. “A Ukrainian flag has become like a COVID mask. It’s a sign to show your virtue,” he said. Cruz shared the remarks on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine. Democrats have used colorful scarves, ties and blazers to signal support for Ukraine, though members of both parties on Capitol Hill have at times sported the country’s national colors of yellow and blue. During the podcast segment, Cruz criticized the Biden administration, asserting it has no strategic national objective in regards to the ongoing conflict. He also predicted tougher restrictions on money sent to Ukraine by the U.S. “Congressional patience for an open-ended commitment to the Ukraine war is fading quickly, and with a Republican majority in the House, I think you’re going to see much more scrutiny on what funds are going,” Cruz said. “I think there will still be a willingness to provide actual weaponry, to provide ammunition or weapons that the Ukrainians can use to defend themselves,” he continued. “I think there will be very little interest in unrestrained checks going to the government of Ukraine.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin both delivered public addresses this week marking the anniversary of the conflict’s beginning.
How Much Is US Aid to Ukraine Costing You? - In 2022, the U.S. government approved expenditures of $113 billion on aid to Ukraine. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget writes: In total, CBO estimated that $6.6 billion of the $113 billion would be spent in FY 2022 and another $37.7 billion in FY 2023. Furthermore, CBO estimated more than half of the approved funds would be spent by the end of FY 2024 and more than three-fourths by the end of FY 2026. How much will that cost the average household? There are approximately 131.2 million households in the United States. So the average cost per household is $113 billion divided by 131.2 million, which is $861. Of course, averages are often under-informative. That’s true of this one. In 2018, according to the Brookings Institute, high-income households, those in the top 20% of the income distribution, paid about 68 percent of all the tax revenue that the federal government collected. To be in the top quintile that year, you needed to have an income of $153,301 or more. Assume for simplicity that these numbers, adjusted for inflation, are about the same today. Also, I’ll assume, even though I know it’s false, that this $113 billion will be paid entirely out of taxes rather than new debt. It’s not as bad an assumption as it looks. To the extent it’s paid out of new debt and to the extent future taxes pay off that debt, based on a progressive tax structure such as the one we have now, it would be a pretty good assumption. So the top quintile would pay 68% of $113 billion, which is $76.8 billion. There are approximately 26 million households in the top quintile. So the cost per top-quintile household is $76.8 billion divided by 26 million, which is $2,956. That’s a lot to fight someone else’s war.
Americans divided on who will win Ukraine war: poll - Americans are nearly evenly split on whether Russia or Ukraine will eventually win the conflict between them as the war reaches its first anniversary, according to a new survey.The Economist-YouGov poll found 26 percent of respondents think Russia, which invaded its neighbor without provocation last Feb. 24, will emerge victorious, while 27 percent think Ukraine will fend off its aggressor and secure an eventual win.The researchers note that the new figures are a change from the past few months, when Ukraine was more significantly favored to win. In September of last year, 32 percent of Americans polled expected Kyiv to win, compared to 22 percent who thought the same of Moscow.More than a third, or 34 percent, aren’t sure which nation will prevail, and 13 percent think both are equally likely to succeed. When it comes to who is currently winning the conflict, a plurality of Americans, or 32 percent, think neither Russia nor Ukraine is currently ahead.
Donald Trump Jr. claims US train network is being sabotaged over attack on Nord Stream 2 - Donald Trump Jr believes that Russia is behind the recent train derailments in Ohio and Michigan, saying that it's Vladimir Putin's revenge for the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in Europe in September. 'Are we under attack? Does anyone believe you can have all of these major train derailments, all with severe environmental consequences, and it’s just total coincidence? Why have we not seen anyone even asking if this is perhaps retribution for our supposed attack on Nordstream 2?,' the ex-president's eldest son tweeted Friday.The derailment of a toxin-laden 'bomb train' in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 3 created an environmental disaster in the surrounding area. While on Thursday, a train hauling hazardous materials derailed Thursday near Detroit, but none spilled, officials said. Both were operated by Norfolk Southern railroad company. Last year, attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, connecting Russia and Germany, spewed gas into the Baltic Sea. Sweden and Denmark, where the explosions occurred, have concluded the pipelines were blown up deliberately. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1970, wrote last week - citing an unidentified source - that US Navy divers had destroyed the pipelines with explosives on the orders of President Joe Biden.The United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have called the incident 'an act of sabotage.' Moscow has blamed the West. Neither side has provided evidence. After that report was published, White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson called it 'utterly false and complete fiction.'On Thursday, Trump Jr. first linked the derailments to Nord Stream 2, mistakenly calling it Nordstrom, in a tweet. In another tweet on Thursday, Trump Jr. questioned the media's ethics asking: 'Is media that's stupid and or bought and paid for that they wouldn't even be questioning it? WTF?'The Trump Organization's executive vice president did not offer any evidence to back up his messages. Also on Thursday, Russia demanded that the United Nations Security Council set up an independent inquiry into the pipeline explosions. Russia gave the 15-member council a draft resolution on Friday, seen by Reuters, which would ask U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish an international investigation into the 'sabotage' and identify who was to blame.
John Kirby Denies Allegation White House Blew Up Nord Stream Pipelines - National Security Council spokesman John Kirby categorically denied a report claiming the United States sabotaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines last week, saying “there is no truth” to the reporting from longtime journalist Seymour Hersh. Earlier this month, Hersh cited an anonymous source for his report claiming it was the U.S. government that destroyed a section of the pipelines that run between Russia and Germany, adding that Washington had planned the destruction of the system since before the Russia–Ukraine war broke out. The Russian government has since called for investigations into the matter. When asked about Hersh’s claims during a Fox News interview, Kirby said that “the United States and no proxies of the United States had anything to do” with the pipeline blasts. There was no U.S. involvement in this. None. Zero,” he added, saying it was a “completely false story.” “If the U.S. were to undertake some mission like that, would the administration have an obligation to inform Congress in advance?” asked Fox News’ Shannon Bream. He responded: “We did not take any such operation, Shannon, and obviously, we keep Congress informed appropriately of things both classified and unclassified. But I can tell you now, regardless of the notification process, there was no U.S. involvement in this. None, zero, it’s completely false.” Hersh is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist best known for his reporting that exposed the 1968 My Lai massacre during the Vietnam war. He also reported on the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq in 2004. However, some in the media have criticized him for his reliance on anonymous sources. For his latest Substack post, Hersch cited an individual who had knowledge of U.S. “operational planning” and nothing else. After the pipeline explosion last year, the United States and some European countries accused Russia of being behind the sabotage. Russian officials, in response, said that the pipelines were operated by Russian state-run entities and that it would make no sense for the Kremlin to destroy a project it had invested billions of dollars in. Hersch wrote that the White House’s “decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more than nine months of highly secret back and forth debate inside Washington’s national security community about how to best achieve that goal. For much of that time, the issue was not whether to do the mission, but how to get it done with no overt clue as to who was responsible.”
Russia calls UN meeting on Nord Stream pipelines sabotage - — Russia clashed with the United States and other Western nations Tuesday over the Kremlin’s call for a U.N. investigation of last September’s sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Western Europe. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the U.N. Security Council that Moscow has “no trust” in the separate investigations being carried out by Denmark, Sweden and Germany, but it does “fully trust” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish an independent international investigation of the explosions. The United States, United Kingdom, France and others said authorities from the three countries are still investigating the pipeline attacks and the real reason Russia raised Nord Stream 1 and 2 now was to divert attention from the first anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine and high-level U.N. activities for the next three days including adoption of a General Assembly resolution condemning Moscow’s action. “Today’s meeting is a blatant attempt to distract from this,” U.S. Minister-Counselor John Kelley told the council. “As the world unites this week to call for a just and secure peace in Ukraine consistent with the U.N. Charter, Russia desperately wants to change the subject.” Ahead of the meeting, the ambassadors of Denmark, Sweden and Germany sent a letter to council members saying their investigations have established the pipelines were extensively damaged “by powerful explosions due to sabotage.” The letter, circulated Tuesday morning, said further investigations are being conducted in all three countries and that it’s unclear when they will finish. It says Russian authorities have been informed about the investigations. But Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told reporters: “They are claiming that they are informing Russia about it which is not true ... Any attempt for us to get any information was rejected by them or ignored.” Russia circulated a draft resolution to council members late last week asking the U.N. secretary-general to urgently establish a commission to investigate the Nord Stream attacks. Security Council experts held closed consultations Monday on the proposed resolution and council diplomats said there was opposition to it. Russia’s Nebenzia said Moscow hasn’t been allowed to join investigations by any of the three countries, saying they “are not only not transparent, but it is quite clear that they seek just to cover the tracks and stick up for their ... American brother.”
Blinken Warns China Against Providing Aid To Russia, Says Balloon Surveillance Must "Never Again Occur" As Beijing Slams "Excessive Use Of Force", Offers "No Apology" - -- In the aftermath of the recent Hullaballon fiasco, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China’s top diplomat on Saturday that the U.S. will not tolerate violations of its airspace after a Chinese spy balloon flew over North America, but received no apologies from Beijing. According to Politico, Blinken met with Wang Yi, director of China’s Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in what was the administration’s first face-to-face meeting with the Chinese government since a balloon was discovered earlier this month and subsequently downed by the U.S. military off the coast of South Carolina. According to a State Department readout of the meeting, Blinken “directly spoke to the unacceptable violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law” by the Chinese surveillance balloon “underscoring that this irresponsible act must never again occur.” Blinken later told NBC’s Chuck Todd in an interview after the meeting that Wang offered “no apology” for the incident. Separately, Blinken also warned Beijing about “implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia or assistance with systemic sanctions evasion,” as Moscow wages war against Ukraine. In the same NBC interview, Blinken said that he is "very concerned that China is considering providing lethal support to Russia in its aggression against Ukraine and I made clear that that would have serious consequences in our relationship."Blinken told Yi that the US had information China was considering whether to give Russia assistance, possibly including guns and weapons, for the war in Ukraine. The US has warned China since the start of the invasion a year ago not to do so.“The concern that we have now is, based on information we have, that they’re considering providing lethal support,” Blinken told CBS’s “Face the Nation” shortly after he met with Wang. “And we’ve made very clear to them that that could cause a serious problem for us and in our relationship.”
U.S. issues yet another stern warning to China -- Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Wednesday “there will certainly be consequences for China should they deepen their relationship with Russia.” “We haven’t seen them give lethal aid to Russia at this time for the war, but they also haven’t taken that off the table,” Singh said. Singh declined to comment on what those consequences would look like. This comes on the heels of similar warnings from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Over the weekend, Blinken said China has supplied nonlethal aid to Russia and is considering sending lethal aid. Blinken said he warned his Chinese counterpart at the Munich Security Conference in Germany against the move. On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin hit back against claims Beijing is considering sending weapons and munitions to Russia, turning the tables against Washington. “It is the U.S., not China, that has been pouring weapons into the battlefield,” Wang said at a press briefing. “The U.S. is in no position to tell China what to do.” China is one of the few nations that has not condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, and trade soared to record levels between the two nations last year. China has recently stepped into a more public role in the Russia-Ukraine war. China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang expressed concern at a security conference in Beijing this week that the war will spin “out of control.” “We will continue to promote peace talks, provide Chinese wisdom for the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis,” Qin said, “and work with the international community to promote dialogue and consultation to address the concerns of all parties and seek common security.” China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, also traveled to Russia this week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, China, Russia and South Africa are holding joint naval drills in the Indian Ocean starting on Friday.
Retired General on Russia-Ukraine conflict: ‘It would push us much closer to a cold war to have China actively involved in assisting Russia’ -- Retired General Jack Keane said on Wednesday that if China were to provide assistance to Russia during its invasion of Ukraine, it would could help escalate the conflict to a cold war. “If China comes to the assistance of Russia and starts to provide them military assistance, that will be significant,” Keane said on WABC and John Catsimatidis’s “Cats at Night Show.” “I don’t believe the consequences are war with China and Russia, but it would likely push us much closer to a cold war to have China actively involved in assisting Russia.” Keane also said that the Biden administration “slow rolls” the United States’ military assistance to Ukraine, noting that it may extend the war. He said that the United States is not sending advanced weapons to Ukraine “out of fear” that Russia will escalate the conflict. “The administration slow rolls this and piecemeals it, and it actually extends the war and protract the war, and that falls into Putin’s hands, because he’s got more people than the Ukrainians have by a factor of three,” he said. Keane said this delay in sending weapons systems has “handcuffed” the Ukrainians and prevented them from retaking their territory. “This administration takes a knee every time they think about providing an advanced weapon system to Ukraine out of fear that Russia will escalate and use nuclear weapons,” he added. “So they’ve done this about nine times and Russia hasn’t escalated one bit.”
US May Release Intelligence Showing China Poised To Transfer Arms To Russia - The Biden administration says it has proof that China is strongly considering supplying Russia with lethal aid amid the war in Ukraine and that it may release this intelligence to the public. "The Biden administration is considering releasing intelligence it believes shows that China is weighing whether to supply weapons to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, U.S. officials said," The Wall Street Journal reports.. The details continue: "The discussions on public disclosure come ahead of Friday’s United Nations Security Council meeting marking one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. It follows a number of closed-door appeals to China—coordinated among North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies—that culminated in a formal warning delivered over the weekend in Munich to Wang Yi, China’s senior foreign-policy official, by a number of Western officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly." In follow-up, Blinken told CBS News in a weekend interview the US has been "concerned" over potential Chinese military aid to Moscow. "We've been concerned from day one about that possibility," he had told "Face the Nation". As for the types of defense aid, he said somewhat ambiguously, "There's a whole gamut of things that — that fit in that category, everything from ammunition to the weapons themselves." While the sources who spoke to the Journal said it's their belief that no final decision has been made, they say that intelligence - which is also possessed by Western allies - shows there's been a shift in thinking. "Beijing had previously been cautious to confine its support to financial assistance and oil purchases, the officials said, but that stance now appears to be shifting, according to the latest intelligence assessments," WSJ continues. A source identified only as a senior Western official described that "Until now... there has been a certain amount of ambiguity about what practical help China might give Russia." But at this point US intelligence has picked up on evidence that it's "much less ambiguous."
Tsai Ing-wen Tells Rep. Ro Khanna Taiwan Is Increasing Military Exchanges With US -Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday met with a US bipartisan congressional delegation in Taipei led by Rep. Ro Khanna (R-CA) and told the American lawmakers that Taiwan is boosting military exchanges with the US.“Taiwan and the United States continue to bolster military exchanges, and going forward Taiwan will cooperate even more actively with the United States and other democratic partners to confront such global challenges as authoritarian expansionism and climate change,” Tsai told the delegation.Since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 to open up with Beijing, the US maintained some quiet military cooperation with Taiwan and continued to sell arms to the island. But in recent years, that cooperation has expanded and become more public.Tsai’s comments came after a report from Nikkei Asia revealed that the US has expanded its training of Taiwan’s military with US National Guard troops, a program that started before the spring of 2022. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that President Biden signed into lawin December called for more military cooperation with Taiwan and included unprecedented military aid. China responded to the NDAA by launching major military exercises around Taiwan.While meeting with Tsai, Khanna said the purpose of the visit was to strengthen economic and military ties with Taiwan. ” We come here to strengthen the economic relationship, representing Silicon Valley … and also, of course, the partnership on military and defense,” he said.Khanna, a member of a new House panel on China, previously said he would focus on learning about Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and insisted the trip wasn’t a provocation. But congressional delegations to Taiwan anger China as they view US government officials visiting the island as a challenge to the one-China policy. Other members of the delegation include Reps. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), and Jonathan Jackson (D-IL).
US To Quadruple Troop Presence In Taiwan, Simultaneously Ratchets Pressure Over China-Russia Tie -Immediately on the heels of reports that the Biden administration is mulling going public with intelligence which it says shows China is poised to begin providing lethal aid to Russia (while at the same time acknowledging that no final decision has been made), the United States is set to more than quadruple its troop presence on the self-ruled island of Taiwan.The troop surge would be done all in the name of an existent limited "training program" for Taiwanese partner forces, but sources in The Wall Street Journal cite the "rising threat from China". Again, the timing of the two reports emerging back to back in The Wall Street Journal is interesting, suggesting a connection as the two sides clash and test red lines on a variety of intersecting security issues.First, US intelligence officials floated a clear warning against Beijing considering sending weapons to Moscow, and in follow-up an expanded US military presence in Taiwan is revealed. Certainly China will bristle at the fresh Washington pressure coming from both angles. Tensions have also boiled over the 'spy balloon' shootdown saga from earlier this month. And on Thursday NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg added his voice, saying that the Western military alliance sees signs that "China is considering and may be planning to send arms to Russia."The WSJ details of the question of more troops positioned in Taiwan, "The U.S. plans to deploy between 100 and 200 troops to the island in the coming months, up from roughly 30 there a year ago, according to U.S. officials." It continues: "The larger force will expand a training program the Pentagon has taken pains not to publicize as the U.S. works to provide Taipei with the capabilities it needs to defend itself without provoking Beijing." But going suddenly from dozens of troops to hundreds is without doubt going to provoke Beijing's wrath, also after last August's unprecedented island-encircling drills in response to Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taipei. According to further details in the report: The number of American troops, which has included special-operations forces and U.S. Marines, has fluctuated by a handful during the past few years, according to Defense Department data. The planned increase would be the largest deployment of forces in decades by the U.S. on Taiwan, as the two draw closer to counter China’s growing military power. China has meanwhile joined Russia in charging that the US and NATO have thwarted efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis peacefully. This week's visit to Moscow of China's top diplomat Wang Yi emphasized precisely that Beijing sees its role as one of a peace-broker, while declaring that China and Russia are "like-minded partners".
Bolton hails Biden’s decision to send US troops to Taiwan - Former US national security advisor John Bolton has hailed President Joe Biden’s decision to increase the number of American military troops deployed to Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), but urged the administration to “do a lot more.” “I think this is the right thing to do,” Bolton said in an interview on Friday. Citing unnamed US officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the deployment of American troops to the self-ruled island is to take place in the coming months. The US troop troops, which included special-operations forces and Marines, will train Taiwanese forces on military maneuvers as well as on American weapons systems, the Journal said. The deployment comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and in defiance of China’s warning against such deployments to the self-ruled island, according to reports. Bolton said he would do even more and said he would send a couple of American naval vessels to Taiwan. “I would homeport a couple of American naval vessels at Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s big harbor, and show the Chinese that we’re gonna be there training and assisting the Taiwanese against any possible Chinese attack,” said Bolton, who served under former President Donald Trump from 2018 to 2019. “The aim here is not to win a war that China starts; the aim here is to deter China from doing it,” he added. “And believe me, we can do a lot more to do that.” Bolton also claimed that China is closely watching how the war in Ukraine unfolds. “I think that they clearly have their eye on Taiwan,” he said. “They’re watching what we’re doing in Ukraine to judge whether we really can defend, give the weapons for the Ukrainians to defend themselves adequately.” “Their bet is if the United States can’t rally Europe to defend a European country attacked by Russia in this case, what are they going to do if the Chinese attacks Taiwan or islands in the East China Sea, islands in the South China Sea?” Bolton continued. “And so, a lot of rides on this because the Chinese are trying to gauge, in particular, whether the Biden administration is really up to it.”
Imagine If China Did To The US What The US Is Doing To China – Caitlin Johnstone --This past Thursday US Senator Josh Hawley gave a speech at the Heritage Foundation — a warmongering think tank with immense influence in the DC swamp — that is a perfect representation of a couple of interesting dynamics occurring in US foreign policy thought today.The Trump-endorsed Hawley is a perfect example of the faux-populism in the “MAGA” branch of the Republican Party: a rich Ivy League alum who makes a big display of standing up to the elites on behalf of the little guy, while consistently advancing the longstanding agendas of western oligarchs, DC neocons, and secretive US government agencies.Hawley’s latest performance of pretending to fight the Deep State while directly assisting the Deep State appears in his speech titled “China and Ukraine: A Time for Truth,” wherein he denounces the “endless proxy war in Ukraine,” the “Uniparty” of “neoconservatives on the right and liberal globalists on the left,” and the way US wars in the Middle East cost “billions of dollars there and lost hundreds of American lives” (a massive understatement on both counts).In typical MAGA Republican fashion, Hawley then takes all this populist-sounding rhetoric and uses it to argue that all the wealth, resources and military firepower that’s going toward those foreign policy blunders overseas should instead be used to help prepare for war with China over Taiwan. It’s no wonder that Hawley is a favorite guest of another faux-populist, the virulent anti-China propagandistTucker Carlson, who often makes the same argument. Calling China “a new imperially-minded power” (in comparison to World War II Axis powers, not the United States), Hawley claims that PRC president Xi Jinping “wants control of the Pacific,” and will swiftly move from taking over Taiwan to militarily encircling the United States if he isn’t stopped.After fearmongering about mass product shortages “of everything from basic medicine to consumer electronics” should Beijing take Taiwan, Hawley then began describing a “dark future” in which the world finds itself surrounded by Chinese war machinery, even in Washington’s neck of the woods: We recently witnessed a Chinese spy balloon cruise across the American heartland. But things can get much worse. Imagine a world where Chinese warships patrol Hawaiian waters, and Chinese submarines stalk the California coastline. A world where the People’s Liberation Army has military bases in Central and South America. A world where Chinese forces operate freely in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.Yeah, imagine that Josh. Imagine a strange, dark timeline where China is encircling the US with military bases and weapons of war. You know, in literally the exact same way the US is doing to China right now.I recently did a write-up on a freakish bit of war propaganda put out by Sky News Australia about the threat of “China’s aggression” provoking a third world war. Hilariously, about halfway through the special, Sky News flashes a graphic showing the immense sprawling military presence that the US has built up around China in “a vast network of operations that extend from Hawaii all the way to India.”The Sky News special is titled “China’s aggression could start new world war,” but your brain would have to be made of soup not to look at that graphic and understand who the real aggressor is here. The US is plainly acting aggressively, and China is plainly reacting defensively to those aggressions. This is obvious because the US would never tolerate China doing to it what it has been doing to China, as evidenced by the fact that people like Josh Hawley describe that exact hypothetical as the absolute worst-case “dark future” nightmare scenario.If Hawley wants to play a game of imagining things, perhaps he should imagine what the United States would do if China suddenly began doing the things he described. Chinese warships sailing around near California and Hawaii, in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, under the same aggressive “freedom of navigation” exercises that US warships routinely perform in waters near China to the anger of Beijing. People’s Liberation Army military bases in Central and South America, like the network of military bases the US has set up around China and continues to build up to this very day. Imagine that, Josh.
Chinese spy balloon, UFOs: What we know as answers start to emerge --After weeks of questions about a Chinese spy balloon and a series of unidentified objects spotted flying in or near American airspace, theanswers are coming into focus. The U.S. military said Friday that it has ended its search for airborne objects that were shot down near Deadhorse, Alaska, and over Lake Huron on Feb. 10 and 12. President Joe Biden said Thursday that three unidentified flying objects shot down last weekend over North American airspace were "most likely" balloons tied to private companies or research institutions, not part of China's surveillance spy balloon operation. . National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby made no promises when asked whether the public will eventually learn what the three unidentified objects shot down in recent weeks are in a press briefing Friday.It comes down to the government’s ability to recover the objects, which Kirby said landed in “extreme” conditions from the Alaskan arctic to the Yukon wilderness to Lake Huron’s deep waters.“It’s going to be very difficult to find them, let alone once you find that debris to be able to do the forensics to identify it,” Kirby said. “So I can't promise you that we'll know definitively one way or the other.” Kirby also said Friday that no entities have come forward to claim possible ownership over any of the three unidentified flying objects shot down in recent weeks. "As far as I know, it is true that no one has come forward to claim ownership," /he said.But that doesn't mean the government is fully in the dark about the objects. "I never said we had zero idea," Kirby said of identifying the three objects. "I said we don't know what they are."An amateur balloonists club based in Illinois says one of its balloons last reported its location over Alaska on Saturday before going "missing in action" — the same day an unidentified object was shot down by the U.S. military in the same area. “Pico Balloon K9YO last reported on February 11th at 00:48 zulu near Hagemeister Island after 123 days and 18 hours of flight,” reads a Feb. 14 blog post by the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB).The group did not connect the two incidents in its post. Aviation Week first reported a possible connection.
What We Know About The US Air Force’s Balloon Party So Far – Caitlin Johnstone --You know, everyone’s always talking about how the US military is only ever used to kill foreigners for resource control and generate profits for the military-industrial complex, but that’s not entirely true. Turns out the US military is also used for shooting down party balloons.In an article titled “Object downed by US missile may have been amateur hobbyists’ $12 balloon,” The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe reports the following:The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade says one of its hobby craft went “missing in action” over Alaska on 11 February, the same day a US F-22 jet downed an unidentified airborne entity not far away above Canada’s Yukon territory.In a blogpost, the group did not link the two events. But the trajectory of the pico balloon before its last recorded electronic check-in at 12.48am that day suggests a connection – as well as a fiery demise at the hands of a sidewinder missile on the 124th day of its journey, three days before it was set to complete its seventh circumnavigation.If that is what happened, it would mean the US military expended a missile costing $439,000 (£365,000) to fell an innocuous hobby balloon worth about $12 (£10).“The descriptions of all three unidentified objects shot down Feb. 10-12 match the shapes, altitudes and payloads of the small pico balloons, which can usually be purchased for $12-180 each, depending on the type,” writes Steve Trimble for Aviation Week, who first broke the Bottlecap Balloon Brigade story.This information would put a bit of a wobble on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s commentsto ABC’s This Week on Sunday that all three of the balloons shot down through the weekend were Chinese surveillance devices, saying “the Chinese were humiliated” by the US catching them in their sinister espionage plot. If the US air force did in fact just spent millions of dollars shooting down American party balloons, it wouldn’t be the Chinese who are humiliated. And it looks like that is indeed what happened. On Tuesday the National Security Council’s John Kirbysaid the “leading explanation” for the three unidentified flying objects that were shot down is that they were “balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose.” On Thursday President Biden told the press that “The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation, or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research.”US and Canadian authorities have reportedly given up searching for debris from two of the objects that were shot down, which would make sense given that one wouldn’t expect to find much debris from a small balloon that was exploded by an air-to-air missile designed to take out fighter planes. And this all comes out after US officials told The Washington Post that the “Chinese spy balloon” which started this historically unprecedented multi-day frenzy of aerial kinetic warfare over North America was probably never intended for surveillance of the United States at all. Experts assess that the balloon was blown over the continent entirely by accident, trying to reconcile that narrative with the contradictory US government claims of intentional Chinese espionage by suggesting that perhaps the Chinese had intended for the balloon to be used for spying on US military forces in the Pacific or something.
Inflation Up, Balloons Down, More War - - David Stockman -- Well, at least we are starting to get some clarity. America is not being attacked by aliens and probably not by the Red Chinese, either. However, it is definitely being bombarded by inflation, war fever and, apparently, the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB).Last week’s media frenzy about intruders in the skies has gone stone cold silent on the likes of CNN and in The New York Times. Maybe that’s because Sleepy Joe himself has now assured us that the last three intruders shot down with half-million dollar Sidewinder missiles were not sent by the Chicoms, after all."The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation, or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research,"Then for good measure, the White House’s always risible press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, assured that they weren’t the spawn of extraterrestrial aliens, either."I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no – again, NO – indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns."Whew! Good to know.Still, we now learn that there is even more good news. According to a report from Aviation Week, at least one of the objects may have been a hobby balloon reported missing by a club in Illinois that launches small balloons with tracking devices that are capable of traveling the globe at high altitudes.The club, the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB), said its $12 balloon with attached ham radio was last picked up via radio signal on Feb. 10 at 38,910 feet off the west coast of Alaska, and that it was projected to float over central Yukon territory the following day on February 11.By your way, that was the same day a US F-22 shot down an object in the same area, which surely makes it the most expensive takeout in military history.Alas, this felled balloon has disappeared into the white stuff below – so we don’t yet have the official proof from the intrepid defenders of America’s airspace that it wasn’t a menacing Red Balloon. But the NIBBB assures that it did launch what is known as a "pico balloon" that traversed the above described territories on the indicated days and times.In any event, a "pico balloon" is a small silver-coated party-style balloon that carries a transmitter. Coincidentally, a Pentagon memo described the object that was shot down over Canada as a "small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it."So, as Edward Snowden tweeted,…… please tell me the white house did not spend the month of February scrambling jets to fire $400,000 missiles at the local hobby club’s TWELVE DOLLAR BALLOON…….. lord have mercy.
Pentagon Declines To Answer If It Shot Down $12 Balloon With $400,000 Missile - The Pentagon is stonewalling inquiries as to whether one of the unidentified objects it shot down off the coast of Alaska earlier this month was a $12 dollar hobby balloon. Speculation that the unidentified aerial object the administration shot down earlier this month was actually a cheap hobbyist pico balloon began to build this week after a group dedicated to the hobby reported one of its balloons “missing in action” over Alaska. A blog post from the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) recounted that it had lost contact with its hobby balloon on Feb. 11, and that it was last recorded at an altitude of about 39,000 feet off the coast of Alaska. Pico balloons are small mylar balloons equipped with trackers that are used by hobbyists to measure weather patterns and can cost as little as $12. The U.S. military shot down an unidentified object in the same general vicinity at an altitude of 40,000 feet on the same day using a $400,000 AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. When asked whether that included a pico balloon or if the department had in any way followed up with the NIBBB, the Pentagon deflected. “We have nothing to provide on this,” a Department of Defense (DOD) spokesperson said in an email. For its part, the NIBBB has said it is not unusual for such a balloon to go without transmission for some days at a time, and until remains from the balloon were collected, the assertion that the U.S. military shot it down was not verifiable. “As has been widely reported, no part of the object shot down by the U.S. Air Force jet over the Yukon Territory has been recovered,” the NIBBB said in a blog post.
Exclusive: US military uses balloons, disguises recon aircraft as civilian planes to spy on China: report -High altitude balloons are widely used for weather surveillance by countries around the world, but the US recently created a series of "spying" dramas hyping China's unmanned airship that went out of control, which not only built up tensions, but also seriously harmed China's rights through the use of force. An exclusive report obtained by the Global Times on Monday shows that the US military frequently conducted close-in reconnaissance on China, including the use of balloons, making the US the top spying country in the world.In 2022, the US military carried out close-in reconnaissance operations in the South China Sea over 600 times using spy planes, MizarVision, a Chinese technology and intelligence company, told the Global Times, citing open source Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data.The real figure could be higher, as some US aircraft turn off their ADS-B trackers or use fake ones, MizarVision said.Similar close-in reconnaissance sorties also took place in the East China Sea, including in August, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted large-scale exercises around the island of Taiwan, according to the company's monitoring. Frequently deployed aircraft include the EP-3E electronic signals reconnaissance plane, the P-8A maritime patrol and reconnaissance plane, the RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, the E-8C airborne command and control plane and the U-2 high altitude reconnaissance plane, said the intelligence company.The US military also uses other types of aircraft as well as vessels, and also disguises them as civilian airliners and commercial ships through fake identification codes and by customizing commercial aircraft into spy planes, MizarVision said, adding that such techniques have been used to spy on China's Hainan Island and Xisha Islands in the South China Sea. The US military has also used spy balloons, including in an exercise with the Philippines in the Bashi Channel from March to April 2022. Made of polyethylene plastic, the balloon can be used for communications, navigation and remote sensing for more than 45 days at a time, according to MizarVision.But it is a normal practice to use balloons for scientific research purposes.The World Meteorological Organization on Friday said that weather balloons have been a vital part of the global observation network over the past decades, serving as bases for weather forecasts and climate surveillance. Some 1,000 weather balloons carrying radio detectors send data every day.Using high altitude balloons for scientific research activities has become an international norm, with data from the China Science Daily showing that by 2018, the US had released more than 2,000 high altitude balloons, France around 3,000, and Japan more than 800. With technological advances, balloon activities by scientific research organizations and companies around the world are becoming more frequent, which also makes cross-border flights more frequent, including those from the US. When such incidents happen, they are often solved through dialogues.But this time, when China's civilian weather scientific research airship accidentally entered the US, it disregarded facts and China's friendly communication, took the chance for political manipulation and ill-intended hype, and accused China of using the balloon for "spying" purposes.A source close to the Chinese military told the Global Times that it is impossible that the Chinese balloon was used for "high altitude reconnaissance," as even Pentagon officials and US experts said satellites would do a better job than a balloon for military reconnaissance.The source said that the current political atmosphere in the US does not respect professionalism and common sense, as it intentionally creates anti-China stunts.
Democrats erupt with fury after Republican questions ‘loyalty’ of Rep. Chu - House Democrats are up in arms after a GOP lawmaker suggested Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), the nation’s first Chinese American congresswoman, is disloyal to the United States. Rep. Lance Gooden, a third-term Texas Republican, suggested this week that Chu should be denied access to sensitive classified materials — and investigated — after she defended Dominic Ng, President Biden’s selection to lead U.S. trade interests in Asia, from accusations that Ng is working on behalf of communist leaders in Beijing. “I question her either loyalty or competence,” Gooden told Fox News on Wednesday. “If she doesn’t realize what’s going on then she’s totally out of touch with one of her core constituencies.” Chu issued a statement Thursday calling Gooden’s remarks “racist,” and her Democratic allies in the House are now rushing to Chu’s defense and demanding an apology from Gooden. “At a time when anti-Asian hate continues to threaten communities, it’s critical that we condemn these racist and xenophobic attacks immediately and hold our fellow colleagues accountable to rid our politics of such dangerous statements and hatred,” Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), head of the Democrats’ campaign arm, said Friday in a statement. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also blasted Gooden, suggesting the Texas Republican was disloyal himself for siding with the majority of House Republicans who had voted in 2021 to overturn the presidential election results in favor of President Trump. “Lance Gooden’s slanderous accusation of disloyalty against Rep. Chu is dangerous, unconscionable and xenophobic,” Jeffries said Thursday in a statement. “Congressman Gooden appears to sympathize with violent insurrectionists and spreads big lies to the American people, having voted not to certify the election of President Joe Biden. Look in the mirror, Lance. You have zero credibility.” Gooden quickly responded by doubling down and accusing both Jeffries and Chu of disloyalty.
Critics: GOP Push to Boost Oil, Gas Exports Won’t Lower Americans’ Energy Bills - Republicans and industry executives say Biden administration policies are preventing the nation’s oil and gas producers from going full throttle and expanding exports, which they say will lower costs for consumers in the United States and make global energy supplies more secure and cleaner.With Republicans regaining House majority after November’s midterm elections, GOP leadership is charting a 180-degree reversal in energy policy from the one carved by Democrats over the last four years that saw concerns about climate change, environmental protection, and renewable power pushed as “green energy” emphases.House Republicans have introduced a 17-bill “Unleash America’s Energy” package that includes seven proposals that address oil and gas regulation, and push for greater capacity to export them as a way to remedy “artificial” policy restrictions that have increased costs. The bills “will increase American energy production, lower energy costs, strengthen domestic supply chains, and protect America’s energy grid. The various pieces of legislation being considered today will move the nation forward in our effort to enhance and strengthen American energy security,” President and CEO of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) Jeff Eshelman told Congressional lawmakers in a Feb. 7 hearing in Washington.Democrats, some economists, and a range of consumer advocates argue that since domestically produced oil and natural gas are both globally traded commodities, world events dictate consumer prices—as they are doing now—and, therefore, proposals to “produce our way to lower costs” are poorly camouflaged attempts by an industry already enjoying record profits to degrade environmental regulations.“Our record natural gas exports have radically upended domestic energy markets, forcing American families to compete with families in Berlin and Beijing for U.S.-produced energy,” Public Citizen Energy Program Director Tyson Slocum said during the Washington hearings, noting with domestic oil and gas sold on global markets, the fuel prices Americans pay are now “directly influenced by global calamities.”Among the proposals are measures that would mandate 30-day federal approval of “cross-border energy infrastructure,” aka, pipelines; remove “public interest” when the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) weighs natural gas export proposals; repeal the federal Natural Gas Tax; prohibit a president from banning fracking; and require the National Petroleum Council to research U.S. refinery capacity and needs.The two resolutions “express the sense” that there should be “no restrictions” on oil and gas exports, and “disapproval” of Biden’s revocation of the Keystone XL pipeline permit.The 17 bills, which also include proposed reforms of the Clean Air, Toxic Substances, Solid Waste, and Inflation Reduction Acts, were vetted in Feb. 7–9 hearings before the House Natural Resources and Energy & Commerce committees in Washington, and in Feb. 13–16 Texas field hearings. Some could be up for adoption on the House floor by late March.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, “Embarrassed” by “racist” Israeli Government, Threatens to Withhold Aid - Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) came on Face the Nation Sunday. In the course of the interview, Sanders lashed out at the new, extremist government in Israel, which includes a minister once convicted of incitement to racial violence and more than one figure belonging to Kahanist organizations of a sort that were at some points on the U.S. terrorism list.Sanders, who is Jewish, has several beefs with the current government in Israel, not least that he is “embarrassed” by it. Israel should not reflect on Jewish Americans, who are only responsible for their own individual actions and speech. The world is unfair that way, though, and for some people the fascist takeover in Israel will raise questions about what sort of person would not only support it but also try to silence anyone who speaks out against it. Sanders clearly feels that it is an albatross about his neck.For Sanders, a true Mensch, however, it isn’t only about Israel. He says he is worried about “what may happen to the Palestinian people.” The hate-filled Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir of the extremist Religious Zionism bloc have been put in charge of the three million occupied Palestinians in the West Bank, and are now in charge of the blockade against the 2 million besieged Palestinians of the occupied Gaza Strip. It is as though the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan were put in charge of millions of African-Americans.Sanders, moreover, doesn’t just want to complain about this alarming state of affairs, which the CIA believes could result in a new round of violence. He said,“I mean, I haven’t said this publicly. But I think the United States gives billions of dollars in aid to Israel. And I think we’ve got to put some strings attached to that and say you cannot run a racist government. You cannot turn your back on a two-state solution. You cannot demean the Palestinian people there. You just can’t do it and then come to America and ask for money.”In Congress, Israel is the most sacred of sacred cows. Its lobbyists (who ought to have to register as foreign agents but who seldom do) don’t win every fight and they aren’t almighty or “in control.” But they are very, very powerful, as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee boasts at its web site. So the Israeli government routinely violates international and U.S. law with impunity.So for Sanders to suggest holding the some $4 billion in direct aid the US gives Israel every year over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s head to make him back off his racist rhetoric and alliances, and to make him stop doing everything he can to forestall the rise of a Palestinian state, is bold indeed. So far, it is not entirely clear that Sanders and other critics of Netanyahu could get the votes in Congress that would be necessary to rein the prime minister in.
Jeffries visits border one day after McCarthy -- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) visited the border city of Laredo, Texas, on Friday, one day after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) led a group of lawmakers to a different section of the U.S.-Mexico border. Jeffries and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) — whose district includes Laredo — held meetings and listening sessions with local leaders, including law enforcement, to discuss the challenges and opportunities border communities face. After that, they held a brief press conference outside the City of Laredo’s World Trade Bridge administrative building, where Jeffries called for “a congressional solution” on immigration. “President Biden, the Biden administration, has taken some decisive steps … that in particular has eased some of the migration pressures from countries like Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela,” Jeffries said, “but we do need a congressional solution.” “We do need comprehensive immigration reform that is both humane but also respects the rule of law” and public safety, he added. The new House Republican majority is putting an increased emphasis on the situation at the southern border, where migrant encounters linger near record highs, and on Thursday, McCarthy traveled to the border in Cochise County, Ariz., along with four first-term House Republicans who flipped Democratic-controlled seats in last year’s midterm election. On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee investigations and health subcommittees had a joint field hearing in McAllen, Texas, and next week, the House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing in Yuma, Ariz. The Thursday visit was McCarthy’s first to the border since becoming Speaker, but securing the border was a key part of McCarthy’s agenda in the lead-up to the November midterm elections and last month’s Speaker’s race, which he won after 15 ballots. Democrats appear to be refusing to cede the border to the GOP.
Arizona Democrat goes on media blitz against GOP border narrative -- Arizona Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva put his communications team to work Thursday, as the border lawmaker sought to put his stamp on wide-ranging coverage of the House GOP’s focus on the border. Grijalva kicked his team into high gear over Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) trip to Arizona with a group of first-term lawmakers in the first of many GOP-led trips and hearings planned in the region. “They do a huge disservice by slandering the whole border region, demonizing everything associated with the border, and with the borderlands, and in doing so, continue to create this stereotype about what the border is and isn’t,” Grijalva told The Hill. The 11-term congressman conducted at least 11 separate interviews with national and local press, while touring remote areas added to his recently redrawn district. It was a change of pace for a lawmaker who’s generally known to be media-accessible while in Washington, but much less so when Congress is in recess. “I mean, the pace of each day is different, but when you’re trying to put your narrative toe-to-toe with the Speaker, someone who is the spokesperson for the GOP and who has a much larger communications staff along with other GOP offices, some which have former governors’ communications directors, it’s a formidable battle and fight,” an aide to Grijalva told The Hill. “And I think the day reflected that we can go toe to toe with the best because the Congressman has a powerful story to tell,” the aide added. Grijalva, whose district spans more than 300 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, largely told the story of a region whose everyday issues are overshadowed by politicization of migration and smuggling at the border.
Immigrant group threatens to sue over change to asylum policy --An immigrant advocacy group is threatening to sue the Biden administration over its anticipated plans to change U.S. asylum policy, which is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, NBC News reported on Monday. If adopted, the new rule would prohibit migrants from seeking asylum in the United States if they did not initially attempt to apply for it from the country they were coming from. Migrants would not be eligible for the program if they cross an international border without applying first.Director of litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center Keren Zwic said that her organization and its partner groups will fight the expected charges in court, saying that the new rule, which comes as President Biden has faced unrelenting GOP criticism over his handling of the southern border, would not survive a legal challenge if it was enacted.“If the proposed asylum ban rule does what we expect it to do — unlawfully deprive access to asylum based on manner of entry and/or transit route, it would be invalid like the similar Trump administration rules that were found unlawful by federal courts,” she reportedly said. Four senior Department of Homeland Security officials told NBC News that the new rule is expected to be formally announced in the coming weeks as Border Patrol sets up more phone booths to be used for remote interviews to determine whether a migrant is eligible for asylum. The officials said the new policy would quickly expel those who do not meet the qualifications, and that the policy would wind up preventing many migrants from Central America attempting to claim asylum, according to NBC News.mNearly 300 advocacy groups signed a letter to Biden last month calling on his administration not to adopt the changes.“Your administration’s announcement of plans to establish a presumption of asylum ineligibility for individuals who do not use ‘established pathways to lawful migration’ and do not apply for protection in countries of transit advances the agenda of the Trump administration, which repeatedly sought to impose similar asylum bans,” the groups wrote in their letter.Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas responded to critics of the asylum rule who say it is an “asylum ban” in comments to reporters last month.“But it is not a ban at all, and it is markedly different than what the Trump administration proposed,” he said at the time. “What we are trying to do is draw people in a safe and orderly way, which is not the case now.”
Pakistani brothers freed from Guantanamo after 20 years of illegal detention -Two Pakistani brothers who were held at the US-controlled Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba have been set free after nearly 20 years in jail without charge. According to the Pentagon, Abdul and Mohammed Ahmed Rabbani operated an al-Qaeda safe house and organized travel and funds for the group's leaders. Both men were approved for release in 2021, but it is unclear why they remained imprisoned. Both brothers, who have now been repatriated to Pakistan, said that they were tortured by CIA officers before being transferred to Guantanamo. The Guantanamo Bay military camp prison facility, which is based within a US Navy military base, was established by then-President George W Bush in 2002 to hold foreign terrorism suspects following the 9/11 terror attacks in New York.
We need a well-designed plan to repair or replace our crumbling federal prisons -The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has been described as an agency in crisis. A primary driver of this description is the difficulty BOP has in recruiting and hiring staff. Difficulties in recruiting and retaining quality staff are compounded by the fact that many prison facilities are deteriorating and were not designed or built to safely house today’s inmate population, which in turn compromises the safety of correctional staff, inmates, and the public. Moreover, many prisons are located in remote areas of the country that lack the resources and amenities required to attract the large numbers of qualified staff needed to operate the facilities. The BOP’s mission is to protect society by confining offenders in the controlled environments of prisons that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure, and that provide work and other self-improvement opportunities to assist offenders in re-entering society and becoming law-abiding citizens. A growing challenge to the BOP’s mission is that an increasing number of federal correctional facilities and supporting infrastructure have reached or exceeded their useful life. Among the oldest are the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, built in 1902, and the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth built in 1903, with the cost to operate and maintain these and other aging facilities and infrastructure becoming enormous. BOP Director Collette Peters recently testified that many facilities are in such poor shape that the agency is forced to prioritize repairs to only the life safety systems, leaving other needs unmet. She noted that BOP has a backlog for repairs totaling over $2 billion, some twenty times more than its annual appropriations for repairs of about $100 million. Obviously, this is unsustainable and places inmates, staff, and the public at risk. Meanwhile, BOP’s inmate population sits today at just under 160,000, down from its high of almost 220,000 in 2013, but slightly higher since President Biden took office. However, these numbers do not reflect the anticipated impact of the First Step Act (FSA) which is intended, in part, to reduce the size of the federal prison population. Thus, it is reasonable to expect that the federal inmate population will decline in the coming years. With BOP’s inmate population expected to decline, the need to further expand the number of federal prison beds simply does not exist. But that does not mean new or additional federal prisons are not needed. Today, the BOP is seeking to build two new prisons: one in Leavenworth, Kan., and a second in Letcher County, Ky. Leavenworth is an example of thoughtful planning by BOP based on their current and future needs. The plan there is to build a new facility to replace the second oldest federal prison in a location shown to be among the more desirable places to live as a BOP employee. In addition, to control the cost of construction, the new prison is being built on the grounds of the existing facility, thereby retaining and leveraging the investments previously made in the land and infrastructure. In addition to employing a large cadre of correctional officers, prison operation requires hiring a workforce of experienced educators, physicians, nurses and other health care professionals, psychologists, administrators, and a wide range of support staff. Many of these skills are in short supply in rural communities, thus much thought needs to go into placing new facilities where recruiting and retaining such a workforce can be more successful.
New USPS Plan, rather than reducing transportations costs, it will drive them up by requiring more routes. The cover story of the new issue of the Postal Service’s Eagle Magazine is “Re-Thinking Local Delivery.” It’s all about the big, new, modern Sorting and Delivery Centers that will replace carrier operations at your local post office.The article has a graphic showing a delivery vehicle out on a route making stops at the ten benefits of the new network:
- Larger, more efficient delivery unit design;
- Improved service performance and reliability;
- Ample space, docks, conveyors, mail and material handling equipment to operate more efficiently and provide greater reach;
- Improved employee workplace;
- Efficient, repeatable and measurable operations;
- Reduced transportation costs;
- Logically sequenced workflow connecting facilities and mail to customers;
- More local commerce opportunities;
- Reduced carbon footprint through electric vehicles and fewer trips;
- Further delivery unit reach/coverage; incorporate dynamic routing abilities.
The Postal Service has yet to produce any data supporting these claims, and about the only data it has provided show that the plan, rather than reducing transportations costs, will drive them up by requiring more routes. Similar claims in the past about improving efficiencies and performance have not materialized, and much of this talk is just rhetoric disguising reality.More “efficiency” usually means the Postal Service thinks accomplishing the same work is with fewer employees. It will look for workforce reductions, perhaps as many as 50,000 jobs. “Measurable operations” means that it will be easier for management to surveil employees at the S&DC than at the post office. And as for improving service performance and reliability — the rationale for relaxing service standards on First Class mail last year — that’s doublespeak for raising on-time scores by slowing down the mail and lowering the grading curve.“The Postal Service’s current delivery unit model,” begins the Eagle article, “is the legacy of prolonged underinvestment in the organization’s infrastructure.” It describes carrier operations in the back of the post office — Destination Delivery Units, or DDUs — as “often attached to Post Offices, which restricted the Postal Service’s ability to operate efficiently and accommodate the growing volume of packages.”Delivery units aren’t simply “attached” to post offices. They are one of the two core functions of a post office, and they usually occupy more than half the space. Many of the clerks in the post office do double duty by not only serving customers at the window but also helping with the carrier operation. This is how it’s been for over 150 years. Now the Postal Service wants to “decouple” delivery and retail operations so that it can operate more efficiently (with fewer employees) and to help deal with the growth of the package business — one of the main drivers behind the plan.To help make its case, the Eagle denigrates post offices as “aging” and “ill equipped,” “inefficient,” long in need of upgrades, redundant (there are too many of them, and they’re too close together), and “poorly maintained and lacking amenities commonly found in the delivery operations of the Postal Service’s competitors.” The article doesn’t explain why. If post offices are so poorly maintained and ill equipped, the Postal Service hasn’t done more to improve conditions. In contrast to this aging infrastructure of post offices, many S&DCs will be “new, modern, purpose-built facilities.” Many, perhaps, but the vast majority of the S&DCs will not be located in new, modern facilities. They’re being put in “aging” processing centers that weren’t designed or located to handle hundreds of carriers and delivery vehicles.
Buttigieg urges U.S. railroads to boost safety, not oppose reforms - (Reuters) - U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday he would call on major railroads to improve safety after a Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, of a train operated by Norfolk Southern (NSC.N). Buttigieg in a letter to Norfolk Southern Chief Executive Alan Shaw said he would also urge Congress to raise the cap on fines against railroads for violating safety regulations "to ensure their deterrent effect is commensurate with the economic proportions of today's large railroad companies." Buttigieg said he would soon outline specific safety improvements railroads should take immediately. He harshly criticized them for lobbying against steps "intended to improve rail safety and to help keep Americans safe." "Major derailments in the past have been followed by calls for reform – and by vigorous resistance by your industry to increased safety measures. This must change," Buttigieg wrote. Buttigieg has faced harsh criticism from many Republicans in Congress for his response to the derailment of the train loaded with toxic chemicals that caused a fire and sent a cloud of smoke over the town that forced thousands of residents to evacuate while railroad crews drained and burned off chemicals. No fatalities or injuries have been reported, but residents have been demanding answers about potential health risks. Buttigieg's letter emphasized "the urgent need for Norfolk Southern to demonstrate unequivocal support for the people of East Palestine and the surrounding areas." Norfolk Southern said Sunday it "received a copy of the letter from the secretary and are reviewing." Shaw said last week the railroad had established an initial $1 million community support fund and distributed $1.7 million in direct financial assistance to more than 1,100 families and businesses to cover evacuation costs. Buttigieg's letter said that in response to many derailments, two U.S. agencies had finalized rules on high-hazard flammable trains and Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) braking. "Rather than support these efforts to improve rail safety, Norfolk Southern and other rail companies spent millions of dollars in the courts and lobbying members of Congress to oppose common-sense safety regulations, stopping some entirely and reducing the scope of others," Buttigieg wrote.
Trump will return to the scene of his crime when he visits Ohio toxic train wreck. - The ex-POTUS hopes to jump-start his lethargic '24 campaign in East Palestine by visiting a toxic disaster his policies may have caused.
Trump heads to Ohio as Biden critics assail wreck response -- Former President Donald Trump is slated to visit East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday as the 2024 presidential candidate and others intensify their criticism of the Biden administration’s response to the environmental disaster caused by a derailed train. The former president has joined a chorus of critics, including conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson, GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, in questioning the administration’s handling of the chemical disaster. The high-profile criticism of the administration’s response — including pressure from allies to do more — suggests that the scrutiny over the train derailment’s causes and disastrous aftermath is just getting started. Capitol Hill lawmakers are demanding answers and have announced an upcoming hearing to examine the aftermath of the wreck. The Biden administration, meanwhile, is stepping up federal support for the region and defending its actions in the wake of the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment. EPA Administrator Michael Regan traveled to East Palestine for the second time Tuesday to announce that his agency is taking over the federal response and ordering the rail company Norfolk Southern to clean up from the disaster. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sent a letter to Norfolk Southern accusing the rail company of raking in profits while opposing safety measures and announced a plan Tuesday morning to reform rail safety. Trump, who’s running to take back the White House in 2024, has seized on the incident as a chance to hammer the administration ahead of another possible Trump vs. Biden campaign. After Trump made plans last week to visit East Palestine, he posted on his Truth Social account, “Great people who need help, NOW!” The former president also claimed credit for plans by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to send additional aid to the area after Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine had initially said FEMA had deemed Ohio ineligible for assistance. “Biden and FEMA said they would not be sending federal aid to East Palestine,” Trump wrote. “As soon as I announced that I’m going, he announced a team will go. Hopefully he will also be there.”
Another train derails in Midwest as Pete Buttigieg announces visit to Ohio crash site --Yet another train derailed in the Midwest late Monday night in Gothenburg, Nebraska. Images from the Nebraska derailment showed roughly a dozen cars strewn across train tracks, but there were no flames or smoke. Union Pacific Railroad says the train was transporting coal, and there is no indication that the crash poses a threat to locals."At about 1:45 a.m. CST today, approximately 31 Union Pacific train cars carrying coal derailed near Gothenburg, Nebraska," Union Pacific Railroad told Fox News Digital in a statement. "No one was injured. The incident occurred about three miles southeast of Gothenburg. Cleanup has begun, with heavy equipment on site."One of the three mainline tracks near the derailment site reopened to train traffic at about 8 a.m. CST. The cause of the incident is under investigation," the statement continued. A train derailed in Gothenburg, Nebraska on Monday night The Monday derailment comes as Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg announced plans to visit the site of a toxic train derailment in Ohio, nearly three weeks after the incident occurred. Another train also derailed last week in Michigan near Detroit.
Buttigieg to travel to East Palestine on Thursday amid criticism Biden administration isn’t doing enough -- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is set to travel to East Palestine, Ohio, on Thursday in the wake of the hazardous train derailment earlier this month. The secretary will meet with community members affected by the derailment, receive an update on the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) investigation and hear from investigators on the ground, according to the Transportation Department. The NTSB is expected to issue its initial findings from the investigation into the derailment on Thursday. The secretary’s trip comes after the Biden administration faced criticism for not heading to East Palestine sooner. Frustration builds over response to Ohio train derailment as officials urge patience The Transportation Department defended the timing of the trip, saying in a statement on Wednesday that Buttigieg wanted to “go when it is appropriate and wouldn’t detract from the emergency response efforts.” A spokesperson for the department added that Buttigieg is going now since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “is moving out of the emergency response phase and transitioning to the long-term remediation phase” and noted that the visit aligns with the NTSB issuing its findings of the investigation. East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway said on Monday that President Biden’s trip to Ukraine was the “biggest slap in the face,” that it showed the president “doesn’t care about us” and that he was “furious” Biden was supporting Ukraine and not his town. Former President Trump, who has suggested that the town was abandoned by the Biden administration, is slated to visit East Palestine on Wednesday. Biden was in Poland until Wednesday afternoon and is heading back to Washington.
Political fight erupts over toxic spill - The train derailment and subsequent toxic spill in East Palestine is quickly evolving from a chemical disaster to becoming a backdrop primed for political bickering.It’s been nearly three weeks since a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and the tiny town may soon become subject to those wanting to mine political capital. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be in the town on Thursday, following weeks of GOP figures blasting him for not visiting. Buttigieg drew additional Republican ire when he pointed out the Trump administration had repealed an Obama-era braking rule for trains carrying hazardous materials. Meanwhile, former President Trump arrived in East Palestine on Wednesday, accusing the Biden administration of “indifference and betrayal.”Arriving with water and supplies, the former president didn’t hesitate to claim credit for helping bring aid to the town, saying his criticisms had forced the Biden White House to deploy assistancWhile officials and politicians sling blame at one another, residents of the small Ohio town continue to wonder if the water and air around them are safe.Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) say that monitoring has shown air and water quality to be safe. However, some locals aren’t reassured, and if that assessment is mistaken the consequences could be dire.As Stat reported, some of the chemicals and byproducts of the derailment are known carcinogens linked to various cancers and lung damage, even in small amounts. Five toxic chemicals have been detected by the EPA so far in light of the accident, but others could be present. When polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is burned, the extremely toxic carcinogen dioxin is released. Stat noted PVC was present in four of the cars initially on fire in the wreck.
White House Blames Republicans, Former Trump Officials For Toxic Chemical Spill In Ohio - - The White House criticized Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration on Wednesday, claiming they should be to blame for the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.The criticism came on the same day as former President Donald Trump visited the derailment site, during which he called out the Biden administration for its slow response.“Congressional Republicans and former Trump administration officials owe East Palestine an apology for selling them out to rail industry lobbyists when they dismantled Obama-Biden rail safety protections as well as EPA powers to rapidly contain spills,” said Andrew Bates, a deputy White House press secretary, according to a statement.He added, “Congressional Republicans laid the groundwork for the Trump Administration to tear up requirements for more effective train brakes, and last year most House Republicans wanted to defund our ability to protect drinking water.”Bates challenged GOP lawmakers to set things right. He also tweeted out a 2021 letter signed by 20 GOP senators, asking the Federal Railroad Administration to increase the use of automated track inspections instead of human inspections.“There is only one way they can prove that they are finally disowning their long history of giveaways to rail industry management at the expense of communities like East Palestine: work across the aisle with us to put Obama-Biden protections back in place and go further, including with higher fines for rail pollution and properly equipping the EPA,” Bates said.However, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy, said last week on Twitter that the brake regulation would not have prevented the Ohio derailment, since it would have applied to “high-hazard flammable trains” (HHFT) transporting 20 or more loaded tank cars. She noted that the train derailed in Ohio was an HHFT but a “mixed freight train.”
Biden officials weighing civil penalties in Ohio's toxic rail disaster - The Biden administration is considering civil penalties for freight railroad Norfolk Southern, along with possibly a legally binding order to ensure the company pays for cleanup costs associated with the toxic derailment in Ohio on Feb. 3, senior officials told reporters on Friday.In a call designed to highlight the work of several agencies on the ground in East Palestine, Ohio, administration officials detailed the work being conducted by FEMA, the EPA, Health and Human Services, Transportation Department and independent investigatory agency the National Transportation Safety Board. The railroad has already pledged to pay for the costs of the cleanup, but officials said Friday that if it does not, the government would do it and charge Norfolk Southern three times the cost.Several officials noted that previous disasters, such as the 2013 derailment in Quebec of a runaway train carrying crude oil that caught fire and killed 47 people, had spurred regulatory and legislative action and they were certain this would have a similar result.The officials also defended the furor of criticism of what some see as a delayed response by the administration, in particular DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg who did not speak publicly about the derailment until over a week after it happened, by saying an evacuation order was in place early on because of the danger of an explosion and local authorities were telling people to stay out of the area. Beyond that, they said that visits by high-ranking officials can create a distraction to crews working on the groundOfficials on the call touched on the debate over whether electronically controlled pneumatic brakes could have averted the disaster. In 2015, after a National Academy of Sciences study could not find conclusively that they were better than other braking options, a rule that would have mandated their use on certain trains carrying very dangerous substances was withdrawn under the Trump administration, as required by statute.
A Key Agency in the Ohio Train Derailment Response Hasn't Had a Confirmed Leader Since Biden Took Office - One of the federal agencies working on the response to the Feb. 3 Ohio train derailment and spill of toxic chemicals has not had a confirmed leader––or even a nominee for the job–– under the Biden administration. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, established in 2004 and housed within the Transportation Department, develops and enforces regulations for the country’s 2.6-million-mile pipeline transportation system and the nearly 1 million daily shipments of hazardous materials by land, sea and air. Along with the Federal Railroad Administration, it is supporting the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the derailment that caused havoc in East Palestine, Ohio, which is near the Pennsylvania border. The pipeline safety agency, which had about 550 employees as of September, has not had a confirmed leader since the end of the Trump administration. Tristan Brown has been in charge during the Biden administration, as acting administrator from February 2021 to November 2021 and since then as deputy administrator performing the duties of administrator, due to limits on how long he could assume the acting title under the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act. “Since day one, Tristan Brown has been capably leading the agency, which was one of the first to arrive in East Palestine to support emergency response efforts,” said a White House official. The White House did not say if the president is considering any nominees for the role. “The [Transportation] secretary and the [Biden] administration have confidence in [the safety agency’s] current leadership, which has been one of the most productive in advancing new safety requirements in the agency’s history,” an agency spokesperson told Government Executive. However, Republican lawmakers, experts and former agency leaders underscored the importance of having confirmed leadership. “The fact that President Biden has not even nominated a [safety agency] administrator more than halfway through his term shows just how low hazardous materials and pipeline safety fall on his list of priorities,” said a spokesperson for the Republicans on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. “The Ohio train derailment underscores the need for Senate-confirmed leadership at [the safety agency] and all safety agencies, to ensure that current and emerging threats are recognized and addressed, and to represent their agencies to senior administration and congressional decision makers with regard to priorities, budgets, and needed authorities,” said Erin Murphy, senior attorney for energy markets and utility regulation at the Environmental Defense Fund.
Efficient and fragile: Low prices, modern railroading and the toxic Ohio derailment --Complex, tightly networked systems run very efficiently and can work with precision for long periods, until they don't. Money saved on the front end can be lost in one catastrophic accident. There is no better recent example than the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying copious amounts of toxic vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals. By now nearly everyone knows the tale of toxic fires and fears of explosion which led officials to drain undamaged tank cars carrying the same toxic chemicals which escaped the initial fires and then burn those chemicals as a precaution. Toxic smoke and residue settled far and wide from the crash site near East Palestine, Ohio, a small town of about 4,700. (You can read a summary of the possible effects of these chemicals on living organisms here. But I think the writer might actually be underplaying the consequences both short- and long-term.) Who will pay for all the damage to people and the environment is a tricky question. Attempts by Norfolk Southern to avoid liability will almost certainly find their way into the media. (In fact, they already have.) What likely won't be discussed is the consumer love affair with cheap goods which, of course, require cheap transport as part of being cheap. The focus on driving down costs and keeping prices low (not so much lately!) has been a cruel force in world affairs leading to hideous labor conditions and environmental practices. Part of the story was told in a documentary, the title of which has become the shorthand description of the problem, "The High Cost of Low Prices." It turns out that something called Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) has become the latest fad in the railroad industry for reducing costs by reducing personnel and inspection times and then increasing train speeds and the number of railroad cars on a train. The upshot is that things get missed or worse, ignored. Apparently, a faulty bearing caused the Ohio derailment. Workers used to get 3 minutes to inspect each railcar for safety issues. Now under PSR they get 90 seconds. We have just experienced how the hyper-efficient just-in-time worldwide logistics system can get utterly snarled when a pandemic and then a war disrupt supply chains. There is a trade-off between the efficiency and the robustness of any system. Likewise, there is a trade-off between efficiency and safety. Part of increasing efficiency is to run machines and people closer to their maximum speed. For machines that can mean higher pressures, more stress, more wear and tear, and therefore a greater likelihood of breakdown. For humans efficiency can lead to fatigue (more work per person) and, where inspection tasks have been eliminated or speeded up, it can lead to missed safety issues.The obsession with both profits and cheap prices are part of what led to the Ohio train derailment. There will now be a lot of talk about lax regulations and corporate greed. And, both need to be discussed. But I can confidently predict that almost nothing will be written or spoken about the role of our obsession with low prices as a concomitant cause of this horrific accident.
Rail safety plans likely to hit wall of industry lobbying - The Biden administration and some lawmakers’ call for new freight railroad safety rules could face the same industry lobbying opposition that past attempts have encountered. In the wake of the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg rolled out an agenda for overhauling rail safety. It includes requiring at least two crew members to staff each train. The secretary also touted a potential rule to require electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes on certain trains and called on Congress to phase in higher tank car standards at a faster pace (Greenwire, Feb. 21). “Profit and expediency must never outweigh the safety of the American people,” he said in a statement. “We at USDOT are doing everything in our power to improve rail safety, and we insist that the rail industry do the same — while inviting Congress to work with us to raise the bar.” All four senators representing Pennsylvania and Ohio, including Ohio Republican J.D. Vance, are also expressing support for new safety rules to prevent future disasters, including new crew size requirements. “The one issue we have to be careful about is we don’t let Norfolk Southern off the hook,” Vance said during recent remarks. The Association of American Railroads — the freight rail industry’s main lobbying group, which counts as a member Norfolk Southern Corp. — has called for policymakers to hold off on pursuing policy changes while the National Transportation Safety Board investigates.“The NTSB’s independent investigators continue their work to identify the accident’s root cause and contributing factors,” AAR President Ian Jeffries said in a statement this week. “That investigation must continue unimpeded by politics and speculation so NTSB’s findings can guide what additional measures may have prevented this accident,” said Jeffries. Indeed, the powerful industry has for years worked to block, delay or reverse safety regulations, usually under the argument that they would be cost prohibitive or would not improve safety. The freight rail industry has spent more than $254 million lobbying the federal government in the last decade, according to federal disclosures compiled by OpenSecrets. In that same period, industry employees and political action committees gave $43.6 million to federal election campaigns, with most of the money going to Republicans, according to OpenSecrets data.
Amid Ohio Nightmare, Rail Worker Alliance Urges All of Labor to Back Railroad Nationalization - An alliance representing rail workers across the United States published an open letter late Thursday urging all of organized labor to support the nationalization of the country’s railroad system, arguing that the private and inadequately regulated industry has “shown itself incapable of doing the job.”“In face of the degeneration of the rail system in the last decade, and after more than a decade of discussion and debate on the question, Railroad Workers United (RWU) has taken a position in support of public ownership of the rail system in the United States,” reads the letter, which was published as the small town of East Palestine, Ohio is attempting to recover from the toxic derailment of a Norfolk Southern train two weeks ago.“We ask you to consider doing the same, and announce your organization’s support for rail public ownership,” continues the letter, which was addressed to unions as well as environmental, transportation justice, and workers’ rights organizations. “While the rail industry has been incapable of expansion in the last generation and has become more and more fixated on the operating ratio to the detriment of all other metrics of success, precision scheduled railroading (PSR) has escalated this irresponsible trajectory to the detriment of shippers, passengers, commuters, trackside communities, and workers.”PSR is a Wall Street-backed model that has taken hold across the U.S. rail industry, gutting workforces and undermining safety in pursuit of more “efficiency” and larger profits for rail carriers and rich investors. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 of the nation’s trains derail every year.In its open letter, RWU—whose ranks include workers from a number of different unions and rail professions—noted that “on-time performance is suffering” and “shipper complaints are at all-time highs” as rail carriers prioritize their profit margins over all else.Norfolk Southern, which also owns the train that derailed outside of Detroit on Thursday, brought in record revenue and profits in 2022.“Passenger trains are chronically late, commuter services are threatened, and the rail industry is hostile to practically any passenger train expansion,” RWU’s letter states. The workforce has been decimated, as jobs have been eliminated, consolidated, and contracted out, ushering in a new previously unheard-of era where workers can neither be recruited nor retained. Locomotive, rail car, and infrastructure maintenance have been cut back. Health and safety have been put at risk. Morale is at an all-time low.”The alliance also pointed to the White House-brokered contract that Congress forced rail workers to accept last year as evidence of broader industry dysfunction. At the center of the contract negotiations—which nearly resulted in a nationwide strike—was the issue of paid sick leave, which is denied to most rail workers due to PSR.The solution, RWU contended, is to nationalize the rail industry, a step that would open the door to “a new fresh beginning for a vibrant and expanding, innovative, and creative national rail industry to properly handle the nation’s freight and passengers.” The organization is calling on allies to back its resolution supporting public ownership.
The answer to the East Palestine disaster: Railroad workers’ control over safety and working conditions - The Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee -Brothers and Sisters, More information is coming out every day about the derailment in East Palestine. But one conclusion is undoubtedly true: The real culprits for this catastrophe sit in Washington and Wall Street. Railroaders have been warning about the conditions that resulted in the derailment for years. They include the impact of Precision Scheduled Railroading and similar attendance schemes, endless cost-cutting by the railroads, a massive reduction in the size of the nationwide workforce, and a relaxation of inspection and maintenance. These have made the trains ticking time bombs. We all knew that something like this was bound to happen. In fact, it happens every day, where on average there are three derailments in the United States. The disaster is a direct consequence of Congress’ ban on our striking. The conditions on the railroads have been decaying for years. We wanted to fight for better and safer conditions, adequate staffing and maintenance. But the government decided that the profit interests of the railroads are more sacred than our democratic right to strike and even the right of the public to a safe and healthy environment. This is laying the ground for even more disasters in the future, with the implementation of single-crew “pilot programs” and the contracting out of locomotive maintenance by BNSF. The railroads are violating even the slave charter Congress imposed, because they know Congress and their lackeys in the union bureaucracy will back them to the hilt. The same people who banned our strike are now rushing to cover up the scale of the disaster. Both Democrats and Republicans like Ohio Governor Mike DeWine tell residents in East Palestine that it’s safe to drink the water, even as the city of Cincinnati, 300 miles downriver, has shut off intake from the Ohio River. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg shrugged off the derailment in a recent statement. There are over 1,000 derailments every year in the US, he said, so what’s the big deal? Bernie Sanders leapt to Buttigieg’s defense when people objected. “Was he the one driving the train?” Sanders asked, implicitly blaming the rail crew and not Norfolk Southern for the disaster. This is the consequence of the corporate dictatorship that really controls this country. Congress and the White House justified banning a strike by citing the supposed danger it would pose to the public. But they show complete indifference to the poisoning of an entire town with vinyl chloride. They could not give a damn how many people fall sick and even die. Their only concern is protecting profits from any challenge from the working class. The role of the union bureaucrats has been to act as agents of the government and the railroads. Last year they worked to enforce the PEB and try to prevent or delay strike action, placing all initiative into the hands of the carriers and the government. Now, the BLET maintains a guilty silence on East Palestine, having not even bothered to publish a statement on its website. SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson issued a statement calling on the federal government to “step in.” As though they had not already “stepped in” in December to do the exact opposite! Later, Ferguson openly defended the ban on strike action by claiming Biden acted “for the good the country.” If we had control of the situation, the outcome in East Palestine would have been entirely different. Safe staffing, shorter trains and adequately maintained locomotives and tracks would made such a disaster totally unthinkable.
Bernie Sanders blames rail workers for Ohio rail disaster, defends strikebreaking Biden administration - Sometimes a politician sums up the real essence of their politics in a few glib words. This was the case with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders when confronted by MSNBC columnist Eric Michael Garcia last week about the role of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. After more than a week-long silence on the rail disaster, Buttigieg appeared in an interview last week when he complacently waved off the significance of the derailment by citing the fact that more than 1,000 derailments occur every year in the United States. After a sharp public backlash, Buttigieg was forced to walk this back somewhat by issuing a stern-sounding but toothless letter to Norfolk Southern. He still has not visited the disaster site, vaguely claiming he will only do so “when the time is right.” Sanders’ five-word reply to Garcia’s question—“Did he drive the train?”—encapsulates the cynical arrogance and hostility to the working class of this self-identified “democratic socialist.” Sanders’ statement not only absolved Buttigieg and the Biden administration, but his own responsibility for the disaster. He played a key role in the maneuvering which led to the passage of an anti-strike law against railroaders last December. His statement also implicitly blamed the rail crew, a disgusting slander in light of the unsafe condition of the rail system that the Democrats and Republicans, including Sanders, have created through their kowtowing to the massively profitable rail corporations. What are the facts? A Norfolk Southern train carrying vinyl chloride and other highly toxic chemicals derailed after safety equipment failed to detect in time an overheated wheel bearing. This under conditions where the jobs of workers responsible for monitoring such situations had been eliminated by the railroad as a cost saving move. Norfolk Southern did not even report the train was carrying high hazard materials due to lax or non-existent regulations. Sanders’ comments to Garcia were not accidental. They flow logically from his role as a leading figure in the Democratic Party and as a “left” apologist for the pro company unions. Nearly a week after the Ohio rail disaster, Sanders had staged a press conference with union officials to hail the granting of four additional sick days to certain categories of rail workers by CSX. Flanked by right-wing Indiana Republican Senator Mike Braun and heads of rail unions, Sanders praised the company’s “responsibility,” while only mentioning in passing the toxic poisoning of East Palestine. Those extra sick days, which do not include train crews that are worked to the bone and are on call 24/7 under “Precision Scheduled Railroading,” amounted to a token gesture to cover for the fact that the railroads are pressing the advantage Congress gave them with the anti-strike law. Three railroads announced “pilot programs” for one-man crews only days after the strike bill was signed into law, and BNSF has since announced plans to contract out locomotive maintenance to non-union labor.
US ending extra help for groceries that started during COVID - Nearly 30 million Americans who got extra government help with grocery bills during the pandemic will soon see that aid shrink — and there’s a big push to make sure they’re not surprise Officials in 32 states and other jurisdictions have been using texts, voicemails, snail mail, flyers and social media posts — all in multiple languages — to let recipients know that their extra food stamps end after February's payments. “One of the scenarios you don’t want to see is the first time they’re aware of it is in the checkout line at the grocery store,” said Ellen Vollinger, an official with the Food Research & Action Center, a nonprofit organization. For the average recipient, the change will mean about $90 less per month, though for many, it could be much more, an analysis shows. Benefits will return to usual levels, which are based largely on a household's income, size and certain expenses, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. A public notice in Michigan urged the 1.3 million recipients in that state to “seek needed resources” to make up for the cuts. “We want to make sure our clients are prepared for this change, as we realize inflation is affecting all of us,” said Lewis Roubal with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Jacqueline Benitez, 21, who works as a preschool teacher in Bellflower, California, expects a significant cut, perhaps half, of the $250 in food benefits she has received since 2020 through CalFresh, the state’s SNAP program. "It’s such a lifesaver,” said Benitez, who was previously homeless, but now lives in a subsidized one-bedroom apartment. “Food is such a huge expense. It’s a little nerve-wracking to think about not having that.”
Biden Admin Negotiates Deal To Give WHO Authority Over US Pandemic Policies - The Biden administration is preparing to sign up the United States to a “legally binding” accord with the World Health Organization (WHO) that would give this Geneva-based UN subsidiary the authority to dictate America’s policies during a pandemic. Despite widespread criticism of the WHO’s response to the COVID pandemic, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra joined with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in September 2022 to announce “the U.S.-WHO Strategic Dialogue.” Together, they developed a “platform to maximize the longstanding U.S. government-WHO partnership, and to protect and promote the health of all people around the globe, including the American people.” These discussions and others spawned the “zero draft” (pdf) of a pandemic treaty, published on Feb. 1, which now seeks ratification by all 194 WHO member states. A meeting of the WHO’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) is scheduled for Feb. 27 to work out the final terms, which all members will then sign. Written under the banner of “the world together equitably,” the zero draft grants the WHO the power to declare and manage a global pandemic emergency. Once a health emergency is declared, all signatories, including the United States, would submit to the authority of the WHO regarding treatments, government regulations such as lockdowns and vaccine mandates, global supply chains, and monitoring and surveillance of populations.
Republican Senators Push Back Against Accord Giving WHO Power Over US Pandemic Response - As member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) prepare to gather in Switzerland next week to negotiate final terms of an accord that will give the WHO centralized authority over U.S. policy in the case of a pandemic, Republican senators are pushing back with an effort to reinforce congressional power to authorize treaties. The draft accord, which would be “legally binding” on all 194 member nations, gives the WHO the authority to declare pandemics and submits member countries to “the central role of the WHO as the directing and coordinating authority on international health work,” in areas like lockdowns, treatments, medical supply chains, surveillance, and “disinformation and false news,” once a pandemic is declared. Seventeen U.S. senators, led by Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), introduced the “No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act” on Feb 15, which states that the pandemic accord must be deemed a treaty, thus requiring the consent of a supermajority of the Senate, which is two-thirds, or 67 senators. The legislation comes as the WHO gears up to present what it calls the “zero draft” of the accord, negotiated with the help of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, to all member nations on Feb. 27 to agree final terms. Other sponsors of the bill included Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), and Katie Britt (R-Ala.). “The WHO, along with our federal health agencies, failed miserably in their response to COVID-19,” Sen. Johnson stated. “This failure should not be rewarded with a new international treaty that would increase the WHO’s power at the expense of American sovereignty.” But some doubt this bill, even if approved, will stop the WHO accord from going into effect once President Joe Biden signs it.
Reversing 30 Years of Damage from the Clintons, the DOJ Closes A Price-Fixing Loophole Wide Enough to Drive a Truck Through - Between 1993 and 2011 the Department of Justice Antitrust Division issued a trio of policy statements (two during the Clinton administration and one under Obama) regarding the sharing of information in the healthcare industry. These rules provided wiggle room around the Sherman Antitrust Act, which “sets forth the basic antitrust prohibition against contracts, combinations, and conspiracies in restraint of trade or commerce.” And it wasn’t just in healthcare. The rules were interpreted to apply to all industries. To say it has been a disaster would be an understatement. Companies increasingly turned to data firms offering software that “exchanges information” at lightning speed with competitors in order to keep wages low and prices high – effectively creating national cartels. Here are just two recent examples:
- Real estate investment behemoths are allegedly using third-party software algorithms to essentially act as one national landlord cartel that coordinates pricing (i.e., keeping your rent sky high). The real estate rental giants and the information-sharing company that connects them all are facing a series of lawsuits, and the DOJ is also investigating the companies accused of colluding to keep apartments vacant and rents elevated. The increased use of such information sharing has coincided with astronomical rent growth and increases in the number of homeless Americans and deaths of the homeless.
- Last year the DOJ fined a group of major poultry producers $84.8 million over a long-running conspiracy to exchange information about wages and benefits for poultry processing plant workers and collaborate with their competitors on compensation decisions in violation of the Sherman Act. The DOJ also ordered an end to the exchange of compensation information, banned the data firm (and its president) from information-sharing in any industry, and prohibited deceptive conduct towards chicken growers that lowers their compensation. Neither the poultry groups nor the data consulting firm admitted liability.
The good news is that the DOJ is finally admitting that these loopholes were a mistake and has closed them. Here is the Feb. 3 statement from the DOJ: After careful review and consideration, the division has determined that the withdrawal of the three statements is the best course of action for promoting competition and transparency. Over the past three decades since this guidance was first released, the healthcare landscape has changed significantly. As a result, the statements are overly permissive on certain subjects, such as information sharing, and no longer serve their intended purposes of providing encompassing guidance to the public on relevant healthcare competition issues in today’s environment. Withdrawal therefore best serves the interest of transparency with respect to the Antitrust Division’s enforcement policy in healthcare markets. Recent enforcement actions and competition advocacy in healthcare provide guidance to the public, and a case-by-case enforcement approach will allow the Division to better evaluate mergers and conduct in healthcare markets that may harm competition. The effect could be swift as businesses try to avoid antitrust suits. From ArentFox Schiff LLP, a national law and lobbying firm: The withdrawal of the safety zone and increased scrutiny of information exchanges signal that broader enforcement against information sharing is coming. Companies should consult with their antitrust counsel to re-evaluate their current information-sharing practices. The rules were based on junk economics and were big gifts to big business from the Clintons. In 1993, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and other officials announced steps to make healthcare more “available” and “affordable” to all Americans. The policy statements provided for antitrust “safety zones” which created circumstances under which the DOJ and the FTC would not challenge the following:
- Hospital mergers;
- Hospital joint ventures involving high-technology or other expensive medical equipment;
- Physicians’ provision of information to purchasers of health care services;
- Hospital participation in exchanges of price and cost information;
- Joint purchasing arrangements among health care providers;
- Physician network joint ventures.
The rules were further liberated in 1996 and then again in 2011 under Obama’s Affordable Care Act and its Accountable Care Organizations provision. While all of these rules allowed for more concentration, which is well known, the “exchange of price and cost” provision also made it so even in non concentrated industries, businesses could still wield monopoly pricing power by exchanging information with “competitors” through middlemen. Here was the loophole, according to the DOJ’s now-withdrawn enforcement policy:
Biden taps former Mastercard CEO Banga to head World Bank - President Joe Biden on Thursday nominated Ajay Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard, to lead the World Bank. The surprise selection would install in the role a Wall Street veteran positioned to leverage billions more in private capital the institution needs to transform into a leader on climate change and other global challenges. Biden said in a statement that Banga is “uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history.” World leaders have called on the international lender to rethink how it addresses emerging global crises like climate change, food security and the coronavirus pandemic. The nomination comes just days after current World Bank President David Malpass announced he would resign by July, months ahead of when the Trump administration-nominated leader’s term expired. Banga, if confirmed by the World Bank’s board, will have to balance the climate agenda of the U.S., the bank’s largest shareholder, with concerns from other countries about a potential move away from the institution’s core mandates of fighting poverty and funding economic development projects within national borders. The U.S. has historically been allowed to choose the head of the World Bank, although that dynamic has recently faced pushback from other nations. Banga, an admired figure for decades on Wall Street, rose to prominence at Citigroup as a protege of then-CEO Sandy Weill. Raised in India as a Sikh, Banga cut a recognizable figure at parties and events with his stylish turban and humble approach. Weill had to convince him to take the company jet after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks instead of flying commercial and risking intense immigration scrutiny. Sikh Americans faced significant hostility from some Americans after the attacks even though they had no connection to Islamic jihadists. Despite being in the mix to take over Citi from Weill, Banga decided to leave the bank to take over at Mastercard, which he led from 2010 to 2020. Environmental advocates have put a premium on ensuring the next World Bank president will marshal its resources to address rising temperatures and deliver finance to green energy systems across the globe.
U.S. to nominate ex-Mastercard CEO Banga for World Bank president President Joe Biden will nominate former Mastercard chief executive Ajay Banga in a surprise pick to be the next president of the World Bank as Washington pushes the lender to expand its financial firepower and confront global issues such as climate change and public health. Banga "has spent more than three decades building and managing successful, global companies that create jobs and bring investment to developing economies, and guiding organizations through periods of fundamental change," Biden said in a statement Thursday. The 63-year-old currently serves as vice chairman at U.S. investment firm General Atlantic. Before that, he spent a decade as president and CEO of Mastercard. He also held various positions at Citigroup, including as CEO of the Asia-Pacific region. Current President David Malpass, who was nominated by President Donald Trump, last week unexpectedly announced that he plans to leave by the end of June. While the official nomination process to replace Malpass opened earlier Thursday, and a final selection isn't expected until early May, Washington's candidate has traditionally taken the top spot at the World Bank, where the U.S. is the largest shareholder. The nomination comes at a time when the World Bank and its twin Bretton Woods institution the International Monetary Fund are facing growing demand for their assistance, with 60% of low-income nations at or near distress, with countries owing their creditors hundreds of billions of dollars. It also comes as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is pushing an evolution of the development lender from its traditional focus on country-specific lending to focus on global goods like fighting climate change and pandemics. Raised in India, Banga has "a unique perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing developing countries and how the World Bank can deliver on its ambitious agenda to reduce poverty and expand prosperity," Biden said. Yet he wasn't among a list mentioned by analysts in recent days, which included Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development; and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the current head of the World Trade Organization, a dual Nigeria-U.S. citizen. The World Bank board said Wednesday said that it would strongly encourage women nominees.
SCOTUS stocks docket with blockbuster regulatory battles - In the next four months, the Supreme Court is expected to deliver a spate of rulings that will reshape administrative and environmental law. At the midpoint of their term, the justices have nearly a dozen cases — and a handful of petitions — that provide plenty of openings for the court to undercut the Biden administration’s climate agenda. And many of the court’s six conservative justices appear hungry for those opportunities, said Tanya Nesbitt, a partner at the firm Thompson Hine LLP. “We have a court that seems more apt to take cases that don’t really match old procedural regularity, a court that’s more willing to take a case that’s arguably moot and willing to use the shadow docket to intervene and reinstate lower court decisions,” she said. “It’s a strange time.” The Supreme Court kicked off its term with oral arguments in Sackett v. EPA, a blockbuster case that has the potential to significantly narrow Clean Water Act protections for the nation’s wetlands and streams — and muddy the waters when it comes to implementing the Biden administration’s newly released rule codifying “waters of the U.S.,” or WOTUS. Many legal scholars expect the Sackett case would not have made it before the justices — who reject most disputes that come their way — but for the emergence of the court’s new conservative supermajority. Court watchers expressed similar sentiments last term when the court granted West Virginia v. EPA, a case that asked the justices to toss out an Obama-era power plant emissions rule that had technically never gone into effect. In its 6-3, ideologically divided ruling in West Virginia in June, the Supreme Court breathed new life into the “major questions” doctrine — a legal theory that says Congress must clearly authorize federal agencies to regulate significant economic and political issues. Republican attorneys general have latched on to the doctrine as a key weapon to strike down any federal regulation — environmental or otherwise — that they oppose. “If you’re fighting regulations right now, we’re seeing it time and time again that the major [questions] doctrine is being presented — and these are not environmental cases, many of them,” said John Cruden, a principal at the firm Beveridge & Diamond PC, during a Thursday panel discussion at the annual conference of the Environmental Law Institute and the American Law Institute. West Virginia is “another example of how administrative law is being taken over by environmental law,” said Cruden, who worked at the Justice Department’s environment division under Democratic and Republican administrations and led it under former President Barack Obama. “It’s going to be an often-cited case, but the boundaries of this are hardly certain.” The Supreme Court may soon have the chance to more clearly define the doctrine in an upcoming battle over President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan or in other regulatory cases that are currently making their way through the lower courts. For now, said Cruden, figuring out when to apply the major questions doctrine is a bit like former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s infamous threshold test for obscenity: “I know it when I see it.” Here are the environmental cases and petitions currently awaiting further action from the nation’s highest bench.
SCOTUS: Section 230, student debt on Supreme Court agenda -The Supreme Court begins a two-week argument session on Tuesday that includes divisive clashes over student debt forgiveness and a controversial liability shield known as Section 230 that Big Tech argues is fundamental to social media. The justices will begin the busy period by weighing the scope of Section 230 before hearing from the Biden administration the following week. Lawyers for the administration will be seeking to fend off challenges to block its plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for qualifying borrowers.Rulings in the cases are expected by the summer. Here’s a preview of the two big clashes. The justices on Tuesday will hear Gonzalez v. Google, which could upend protections internet companies have had throughout the nearly two-decade rise of social media. The plaintiffs, relatives of a victim who was among the more than 100 people killed in a series of attacks by Islamic State terrorists in Paris in November 2015, sued Google under federal anti-terrorism laws. The family accused Google of aiding and abetting terrorism by purportedly recommending pro-ISIS content to users on YouTube, but Google argues that its recommendations are protected by Section 230, a controversial provision that shields internet companies from liability for content provided by a third-party user. The tech industry contends that taking the family’s side would dampen a critical shield that effectively allows the modern internet to function. “Recommendation algorithms are what make it possible to find the needles in humanity’s largest haystack,” Google wrote in its brief. The dispute may also have broader impacts beyond the tech industry. On Wednesday, the justices will interpret the anti-terrorism law that the family believes makes Google liable in the first place. The court will take it up through Twitter v. Taamneh, a case brought by relatives of another ISIS terrorist attack victim that levies similar allegations against social media platforms. Google has suggested that siding with the tech industry in Taamneh would resolve both cases, because Google wouldn’t have any liability to need Section 230’s protections. The Biden administration will attempt to save its student debt forgiveness program on Feb. 28, when the Supreme Court will hear two challenges to the plan. Six Republican-led states and two individual loan borrowers who did not qualify for the relief argue the administration should not be allowed to forgive up to $20,000 in debt for qualifying individuals. Their lawsuits have stalled the program, and the justices now are poised to deliver the final verdict on whether Biden can move ahead with fulfilling one of his campaign promises. The administration asserts that neither group has standing, meaning the legal capacity to sue, so the justices shouldn’t even consider the merits of their challenges.
High court takes 1st look at law that shields internet firms — The Supreme Court is taking up its first case about a federal law that is credited with helping create the modern internet by shielding Google, Twitter, Facebook and other companies from lawsuits over content posted on their sites by others. The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday about whether the family of an American college student killed in a terrorist attack in Paris can sue Google for helping extremists spread their message and attract new recruits. The case is the court’s first look at Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, adopted early in the internet age, in 1996, to protect companies from being sued over information their users post online. Lower courts have broadly interpreted the law to protect the industry, which the companies and their allies say has fueled the meteoric growth of the internet and encouraged the removal of harmful content. But critics argue that the companies have not done nearly enough and that the law should not block lawsuits over the recommendations, generated by computer algorithms, that point viewers to more material that interests them and keeps them online longer. Any narrowing of their immunity could have dramatic consequences that could affect every corner of the internet because websites use algorithms to sort and filter a mountain of data. “Recommendation algorithms are what make it possible to find the needles in humanity’s largest haystack,” Google’s lawyers wrote in their main Supreme Court brief. In response, the lawyers for the victim’s family questioned the prediction of dire consequences. “There is, on the other hand, no denying that the materials being promoted on social media sites have in fact caused serious harm,” the lawyers wrote. The lawsuit was filed by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old senior at Cal State Long Beach who was spending a semester in Paris studying industrial design. She was killed by Islamic State gunmen in a series of attacks that left 130 people dead in November 2015. The Gonzalez family alleges that Google-owned YouTube aided and abetted the Islamic State group by recommending its videos to viewers most likely to be interested in them, in violation of the federal Anti-Terrorism Act.
A family's tragedy leads to U.S. Supreme Court social media showdown - (Reuters) - Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old aspiring industrial designer, ventured to Paris as a student at California State University, Long Beach on a study-abroad program. She lost her cellphone, so one day in November 2015 she let her mother Beatriz know she was well with a one-word message on Facebook: "Mommy." Beatriz responded with one word, "Mimi," her daughter's nickname. Two days after that message exchange, Nohemi died in a hail of bullets fired by Islamist militants as she sat at a bistro called La Belle Epoque, part of a rampage of shootings and suicide bombings that killed 130 people, with the Islamic State militant group claiming responsibility. Beatriz Gonzalez now finds herself at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court showdown over the scope of protections contained in federal law freeing social media platforms from legal responsibility for content posted online by their users. Arguments before the nine justices are scheduled for Tuesday. Latest Updates Alec Baldwin's 'Rust' manslaughter charges downgraded, cutting possible prison time Factbox: Abortion battles in U.S. state capitals to watch in 2023 White Castle could face multibillion-dollar judgment in Illinois privacy lawsuit $3.7 bln UK mass action against Facebook over market dominance rejected - for now Helped by attorneys who have fought to hold internet companies accountable for actions that allegedly aided and abetted militant groups, the Gonzalez family sued Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google LLC for financial damages because its YouTube video-sharing service hosted Islamic State content and its algorithms recommended the group's videos to certain users. The justices will hear the family's appeal of a lower court's decision to throw out the lawsuit, largely based on immunity granted to social media companies under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. They will hear a related case involving Twitter Inc (TWTR.MX) on Wednesday.
Justice jokes SCOTUS members aren't internet experts during Gonzalez v. Google – POLITICO video
Marjorie Taylor Greene calls again for ‘a national divorce’ - Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) resurrected her calls for a “national divorce” on Monday, arguing that Republican and Democratic states needed to be separated and the federal government needed to shrink, although it is unclear what prompted the thought. “We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,” Greene said on Twitter on Monday. “From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.” It was not the first time that Greene has suggested the idea of a “national divorce.” In late 2021, Greene said voters who brought “ruin” to California shouldn’t be allowed to do the same to a state like Florida. “All possible in a National Divorce scenario,” Greene wrote on Twitter in December 2021. “After Democrat voters and big donors ruin a state like California, you would think it wise to stop them from doing it to another great state like Florida. Brainwashed people that move from CA and NY really need a cooling off period.” Greene’s renewed call for a national split came after she spent the morning criticizing President Biden for his unannounced trip to Ukraine, arguing that the president was ignoring domestic responsibilities to make his international visit. “Biden didn’t go to East Palestine, Ohio on President’s Day,” Greene said on Twitter. “He went to Ukraine, a NON-NATO nation, whose leader is an actor and is apparently now commanding our United States military to world war. We must impeach this America Last fool before it’s too late.” In a podcast episode featuring Greene with far-right political strategist Steve Bannon in October 2021, Bannon pushed back against the idea of a “national divorce.” “It’s something that I’m adamantly obviously opposed to, vehemently,” Bannon said on the podcast, according to Insider. “And I don’t even like some of these commentators starting to talk about it, for the simple reason we control two-thirds of the country.”
Cheney fires back at Greene’s call for ‘national divorce’- Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) responded to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) call for a “national divorce” on Monday, suggesting that it was “unconstitutional.” “Our country is governed by the Constitution. You swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Secession is unconstitutional. No member of Congress should advocate secession, Marjorie,”Cheney tweeted in response to Greene’s comments. Cheney’s response comes after Greene once again called for a “national divorce” earlier on Monday, suggesting that Republican and Democratic states should be separated and that the federal government should be downsized. “We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,” Greene said on Monday. “From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.” Greene has previously mentioned a “national divorce” in comments made in 2021, and said that Democratic supporters were able to “ruin” California, and they should not be able to follow suit in Florida. “All possible in a National Divorce scenario. After Democrat voters and big donors ruin a state like California, you would think it wise to stop them from doing it to another great state like Florida. Brainwashed people that move from CA and NY really need a cooling off period,” she wrote on Twitter at the time. Greene’s comments on a national divorce on Monday came just after she criticized President Biden for visiting Ukraine on an unannounced trip. “Biden didn’t go to East Palestine, Ohio on President’s Day. He went to Ukraine, a NON-NATO nation, whose leader is an actor and is apparently now commanding our United States military to world war. We must impeach this America Last fool before it’s too late,” she said in a tweet.
McCarthy gives Fox News’s Tucker Carlson access to Jan. 6 Capitol surveillance footage -- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has granted Fox News host Tucker Carlson and his team access to surveillance footage from the U.S. Capitol around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Carlson was granted access to some 41,000 hours of footage by McCarthy’s office, Axios first reported on Monday. A Fox News spokesperson confirmed the report to The Hill. During a press conference last month, McCarthy said he supported the idea of more footage from the Jan. 6 attack being made public while accusing Democrats of politicizing the investigation. Two Republicans were seated on the select committee that was formed to probe events surrounding the riot, though both were critics of former President Trump. “I think the public should see what has happened on that,” McCarthy told reporters in January while discussing the footage. “We watched the politicization of this. I think the American public should actually see all what happened instead of a report that’s written for a political basis,” the GOP Speaker added. Carlson, Fox’s top-rated prime-time host, has on his show questioned the circumstances around the attack. In 2021 he produced “Patriot Purge,” a documentary series that purports to tell an alternative story of the Jan. 6 insurrection and features at least one subject who suggests the event may have been a “false flag” operation. The series led two contributors to leave their roles with the network and reportedly angered staffers within Fox News’s ranks. The release of additional footage from the Jan. 6 attack has been a point of emphasis for Republicans in the new Congress. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who was at the center of a rebellion against McCarthy for the Speakership last month, appeared on Carlson’s program and called for releasing additional footage from Jan. 6. 2,100 rail workers to get paid leave in new deal with Union Pacific Sheriff: Suspect in LA bishop’s shooting death is housekeeper’s husband “Every time, from the JFK files to 9/11 to now Jan. 6, it’s our own government — it’s our own Department of Justice — that seems to stand in the way of transparency,” Gaetz said.
Bennie Thompson rips McCarthy for giving Tucker Carlson Jan. 6 footage - House Homeland Security Committee ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson (Miss.) on Monday blasted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for handing over tens of thousands of hours of riot footage from Jan. 6, 2021, to Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “It’s hard to overstate the potential security risks if this material were to be used irresponsibly,” Thompson said in a statement. McCarthy’s office granted about 41,000 hours of footage of the Capitol riots to Carlson, Axios first reported. A Fox News spokesperson confirmed the development to The Hill on Monday.“If Speaker McCarthy has indeed granted Tucker Carlson — a Fox host who routinely spreads misinformation and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s poisonous propaganda — and his producers access to this sensitive footage, he owes the American people an explanation of why he has done so and what steps he has taken to address the significant security concerns at stake,” Thompson said.The Mississippi Democrat headed the select House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attacks for nearly a year and a half before releasing its final report in December. The committee had interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, read through documents and reviewed troves of video footage of the riots during its investigation.Carlson has accused the select committee of “lying” about what happened on Jan. 6, and has boasted that Fox News did not cover the proceedings, or what he called “propaganda,” on live television. In 2021 he produced “Patriot Purge,” a documentary series that purports to tell an alternative story of the Jan. 6 insurrection and features at least one subject who suggests the event may have been a “false flag” operation. Fox News staffers were reportedly angered by the series, and at least two contributors to the network resigned in protest. U.S. Capitol Police previously said that it had “cooperated extensively” with the select committee, noting that it provided 14,000 hours of footage to the panel.
Schumer blasts McCarthy for giving Jan. 6 footage to Fox News - Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday weighed in on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) move to hand footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol over to Fox News, calling it a “grave mistake” to give the footage to host Tucker Carlson. “The speaker is needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11. The footage Speaker McCarthy is making available to Fox News is a treasure trove of closely held information about how the Capitol complex is protected and its public release would compromise the safety of the Legislative Branch and allow those who want to commit another attack to learn how Congress is safeguarded,” Schumer said in a letter to Senate Democrats. Democrats have warned of security dangers in McCarthy’s decision to transfer the 41,000 hours of footage to Carlson in particular. “Giving someone as disingenuous as Tucker Carlson exclusive access to this type of sensitive information is a grave mistake by Speaker McCarthy that will only embolden supporters of the Big Lie and weaken faith in our democracy,” Schumer said. The majority leader contended that “handpicking” Carlson to receive the footage “laid bare that this sham is simply about pandering to MAGA election deniers, not the truth,” and forecasted that the Fox News host will “select only clips that he can use to twist the facts to sow doubt of what happened” during the riot. Schumer accused McCarthy of agreeing to release the footage “to get the votes he needed from the MAGA wing of the House Republican Conference to become speaker” of the lower chamber, and emphasized that the Senate “strongly objects” to the material release. “The speaker— nor any elected official— does not have the right to jeopardize the safety of senators nor Senate and Capitol staff for their own political purposes. Period. Full stop,” Schumer wrote.
“That’s Not Public Disclosure”: Kevin McCarthy’s Deal With Tucker Carlson Is No Act of Transparency -- After promising GOP hard-liners that he’d release unseen footage from the Capitol riot, the House Speaker has gifted it to a Fox News host known for pushing January 6 conspiracy theories. In defending his decision to hand over security footage from the Capitol riot exclusively to Tucker Carlson, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has claimed that he is fulfilling a promise of transparency he made to voters. “I was asked in the press about these tapes,” he told The New York Times, "and I said they do belong to the American public.”But McCarthy has hardly fulfilled that vow: The full record of security footage from the January 6 attack is still not available to the public or any members of the media aside from Carlson, who has theorized that FBI operatives orchestrated the riot as part of a conspiracy to undermine Donald Trump and frame his supporters. (The Fox News host has conducted sympathetic interviewswith Capitol riot suspects; attempted to downplay the insurrection as a mere act of “vandalism”; and suggested that antifa activists might have secretly incited violence on that day.) And by granting Carlson access, McCarthy will allow his majority to cast doubt on the facts of the insurrection without having to rehash it themselves.“Tucker is not going to spend his TV program emphasizing previously unseen acts of violence by Trump supporters,” Ford Fischer, a video journalist working to unearth a massive cache of January 6 footage, told me. “Tucker is going to put out things that are weird or counter to the narrative, which is fine. But that’s not public disclosure, that’s media relations for the Republican Party.”Top Democratic brass have raised concerns of their own, with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer accusing McCarthy of “pandering to MAGA election deniers.” As he wrote in a Wednesday letter, “The footage Speaker McCarthy is making available to Fox News is a treasure trove of closely held information about how the Capitol complex is protected and its public release would compromise the safety of the Legislative Branch and allow those who want to commit another attack to learn how Congress is safeguarded.”The McCarthy-Carlson deal comes roughly a month and a half after McCarthy’s embattled bid for the Speakership, during which the then House minority leader promised GOP hard-liners, including Matt Gaetz, that he’d release thousands of hours of footage from January 6. (At the time, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a vocal advocate for those charged in the Capitol riot, pointed to McCarthy’s vow as one of the reasons she so fervently supported his bid.)Thus far, a relatively small amount of surveillance footage has trickled out of federal and congressional investigations or other official avenues, including clips filed in the hundreds of cases related to the attack. Officials have previously claimed that releasing all of the footage could open the Capitol up to future security risks—a concern that Republicans seem to have forgotten about.
Mike Lindell says he will sue McCarthy for sharing Jan. 6 footage only with Tucker Carlson My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell says he plans to sue Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for providing Fox News host Tucker Carlson with exclusive access to footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Lindell told Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast on Thursday that his streaming platform Lindell-TV plans to sue McCarthy, claiming the Speaker violated the First Amendment’s freedom of the press provision and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The Trump ally said Lindell-TV is “injured by not having access” to the tapes and that the Speaker’s decision represented discrimination. “We’re not gonna sit back and let that happen,” Lindell told Bannon, former White House chief strategist. “Why does just Fox get this? So they can cover it up even more? It’s disgusting. All of us, including War Room, we all need to see what’s on those tapes, and we need to see all of them.” The Justice Department and the now-defunct House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack both previously expressed an interest in obtaining information from Lindell, who was a key proponent of false claims that voting machines had been manipulated in the 2020 election. McCarthy’s office granted Carlson access to about 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage around the time of the Jan. 6 riot, a Fox News spokesperson confirmed to The Hill on Monday. Democrats have slammed the decision as a potential security threat for the Capitol. “The apparent transfer of video footage represents an egregious security breach that endangers the hardworking women and men of the United States Capitol Police, who valiantly defended our democracy with their lives at risk on that fateful day,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said.
Fox News emails, messages show its role in instigating January 6 attack - The legal document filed Thursday in the defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News gives a glimpse of the utter cynicism with which the network executives and multi-millionaire program hosts regard their audience, although that hardly qualifies as a revelation. More significant by far is the insight into the role of Fox News in the transformation of the Republican Party into an increasingly fascistic party. Both executives and on-air figures like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham were preoccupied, during the post-election period, with concern that they would be outflanked on the right by outlets like NewsMax and One America Network. The latter catered directly to the election conspiracy theories embraced by Trump and attorneys for his campaign like Sidney Powell and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. Dominion filed its lawsuit in March 2021, after the failure of Trump’s attempted coup of January 6, 2021, when he instigated the mob attack on the US Capitol in an effort to prevent the congressional certification of his election defeat and Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Powell, Giuliani and other Trump advocates claimed—as one major thread of their myriad conspiracy theories—that the election software developed by Dominion and sold to many state election authorities had been used to “flip” votes from Trump to Biden. There was zero evidence to support this claim, and in emails and text messages both the Fox executives and the program hosts ridiculed Powell and Giuliani as “crazy” and their claims as without foundation. This did not stop the program hosts from publicly backing these claims, bringing the Trump lawyers and other advocates, like My Pillow boss Mike Lindell, onto their programs for fawning and supportive interviews, as well as Trump himself, on occasion. These Fox interview programs, broadcast each evening, were a nightly barrage of lies and incitement, aimed at creating a supportive milieu for the openly fascistic elements who would storm the Capitol on January 6. The reservations expressed by Fox executives were not about the obvious conflict between the facts of the election, which Biden won handily, and the demented claims of the Trump campaign. They were concerned that the Republican Party as a whole was being damaged by the “Stop the Steal” campaign, confirming Fox’s longtime role as the house organ of the Republican right. News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire boss of the media empire that includes Fox, was concerned that the increasingly threadbare claims of a stolen election were undermining the Republican Party’s prospects in the Georgia Senate runoff set for early January 2021.
Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner subpoenaed in Jan. 6 probe: NYT -- - Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have both been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating former President Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to The New York Times, in another sign the investigation is picking up steam. The subpoena of Ivanka Trump, the former president’s first daughter, and Kushner, news of which The New York Times attributes to two people briefed on the matter, comes as special counsel Jack Smith has summoned other members of Trump’s innermost circle in recent weeks, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.The special counsel and representatives for both Ivanka Trump and Kushner did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.The escalation of Smith’s investigation, including approaching prominent individuals connected to the matter, means the probe may be nearing its conclusion. Smith is also investigating Trump’s handling of classified information. Trump, who has had an adversarial relationship with Smith, has attempted to block witnesses from testifying in the investigation on the grounds of executive privilege. Pence has also said that he plans to fight Smith’s subpoena. Smith’s subpoena of Ivanka Trump and Kushner also continues his push to crack the circle of the people that were closest to the former president on Jan. 6, 2021, as rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Ivanka Trump was with her father in the Oval Office that day, and Kushner was also at the White House. Both Ivanka Trump and Kushner also testified before the congressional committee that was investigating the event.
Trump-allied group wants J6 committee staffers blacklisted - A conservative non-profit group allied with former President Donald Trump urged “Hill staffers and their colleagues” to cut off meetings with any former Jan. 6 committee staffers who have since joined firms that lobby. In a letter sent to hundreds of recipients on the Hill, the dark money group American Accountability Foundation listed the names of the former committee staffers and their titles — along with their new employers and links to their firms’ clients — all of whom they urged to blacklist. “AAF has put together a cheat-sheet below outlining their new firms and the firm’s clients so you can be sure you (and your staff) aren’t inadvertently taking a meeting with a company that hires staff that hates your boss,” says the memo sent by Thomas Jones, the group’s president and founder. In his letter, Jones noted recent reporting by POLITICO on the January 6 committee staffers being hired by law and lobbying shops. “It is important to remember that even if one of these former J6 investigators is not listed as a lobbyist on this specific account, the billings brought in by the clients listed below benefit all staff at the J6 investigator’s new firm,” he added. It remains to be seen how effective the gambit will be, as the letter was sent only this past Wednesday. K Street firms have a major presence on Capitol Hill and their hires include figures on all sides of the political spectrum. But the group’s play illustrates the intense desire that exists among some conservatives to exact political retribution for those staffers who helped unearth extraordinary evidence of Donald Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election. Jones confirmed the authenticity of the memo in an email to POLITICO. He railed against the January 6 committee’s use of investigative power, claiming that the committee and the F.B.I. forced some to “spend tens — sometimes hundreds — of thousands of dollars defending themselves from an overreaching and weaponized government.” He argued that conservatives should not be taking meetings with these lobbyists’ clients.
Jan. 6 rioter who called for Ocasio-Cortez’s assassination sentenced to more than 3 years in prison -- A Texas man who called to assassinate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was sentenced to more than three years in prison on Wednesday for actions he took during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Garret Miller, 36, was sentenced to 38 months in prison over his actions on Jan. 6, including assaulting a police officer, an interstate threat to injure or kidnap, three counts of interfering with law enforcement during a civil disorder and entering restricted grounds. He pleaded guilty to all of the counts in December 2022, and was also sentenced to 36 months of supervised release. He traveled to D.C. to stop the certification of the 2020 election results and brought rope, a grappling hook, a mouth guard and a bump cap to the Capitol, according to the Justice Department’s press release. The department said that during the breach of the Capitol, Miller “was so disruptive on the East Front of the building that he was twice detained, the second time resulting in him being put in handcuffs.” After he was released, he stayed at the riot and pushed his way into the Rotunda, where law enforcement was trying to remove rioters. He then assaulted a police officer and got into “physical altercations” with at least six others before leaving the building after 5 p.m. that day, according to the Justice Department. Miller also used social media to threaten officials and public officials, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, according to the release. Miller responded to a post Ocasio-Cortez made on social media that read “Impeach” with his own message, “Assassinate AOC,” on the evening of Jan. 6, 2021. According to the Justice Department’s press release announcing his sentencing, he openly expressed a desire to “start assassinating” and boasted about how he “terrified [c]ongress” after the riots on Jan. 6 up until his arrest on Jan. 20, 2021.
US mass killings linked to extremism spiked over last decade (AP) — The number of U.S. mass killings linked to extremism over the past decade was at least three times higher than the total from any 10-year period since the 1970s, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League. The report — provided to The Associated Press ahead of its public release Thursday — also found that all extremist killings identified in 2022 were linked to right-wing extremism, with an especially high number linked to white supremacy. They include a racist mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 Black shoppers dead and a mass shooting that killed five people an LGBT nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings,” the report from the group’s Center on Extremism says. Between two and seven extremism-related mass killings occurred every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s, but in the 2010s that number skyrocketed to 21, the report found. The trend has since continued with five extremist mass killings in 2021 and 2022, as many as there were during the first decade of the new millennium. The number of victims has risen as well. Between 2010 and 2020, 164 people died in ideological extremist-related mass killings, according to the report. That’s much more than any decade except the 1990s, when the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people. Extremist killings are those carried out by people with ties to extreme movements and ideologies.
Hunter Biden Business Partner Flips, Now 'Cooperating' With GOP Investigators -- Eric Schwerin, a close business associate of Hunter Biden who also dealt with Joe Biden's business and tax affairs, is now working with House GOP investigators looking into Biden family dealings - particularly in Ukraine and China, where the family collected millions of dollars, Just the News reports."He is cooperating with us," House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told the outlet."His attorneys and my counsel are communicating on a regular basis. Now, I feel confident that he's going to work with us, and provide us with the information that we have requested," Comer continued. "I think that Schwerwin is going to be a very valuable witness for us in this investigation." Of note, Schwerin, the former president of Hunter Biden’s now-dissolved investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, visited the White House at least 19 times from 2009 to 2015, according to White House visitor log records reviewed by The Epoch Times and first reported by the New York Post.
Georgia grand jury foreperson Emily Kohr's odd 15-minutes teases Trump indictment recommendation | CNN Politics — It’s a marvel of the American judicial system that Emily Kohrs, a 30-year-old woman who has described herself as between customer service jobs and who said she didn’t vote in the 2020 presidential election, could play a pivotal role in the potential indictment of a former US president. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves and so, too, may be Kohrs, the foreperson of the special grand juryempaneled from May 2022 through January 2023 to help Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutors investigate Donald Trump.It’s important to note that Trump has NOT been indicted, and it’s not clear he ever will be. He denies all wrongdoing.Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who conducted the sweeping investigation in which Kohrs played a role, is still considering what, if any, charges should be brought against Trump or anyone else for trying to overturn the election in 2020. Prosecutors will make that decision – not the special grand jury on which Kohrs served and that heard from witnesses and prepared a report and recommendations.Kohrs is cagily answering questions, teasing that the special grand jury may have recommended charges for Trump and saying she hopes something comes of it all.Her identity as the foreperson was first revealed by The Associated Press, and in addition to the AP, she has, in short order, done interviews with The New York Times, NBC News, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and CNN.The former US Attorney Harry Litman said on CNN on Wednesday that prosecutors have got to be “consternated” that a potential jury pool could be contaminated by Kohrs’ “odd 15-minute PR tour.”But he acknowledged that her teasing suggestion that Trump could be indicted is nothing short of incredible.“In terms of magnitude, I’m straining for the right adjectives, but it’d be the biggest thing that’s happened in the criminal law perhaps in American history, right? This has never happened to a former president,” Litman said.While federal grand juries are notoriously secret affairs, grand juries empaneled in local courts have varying rules. There’s nothing in the statute about special grand juries in Georgia that says they must be secret. In fact, the statute says reports issued by special grand juries should be published if the grand jury recommends it. And Kohrs says the judge gave her and the other jurors permission to speak to the press, albeit with limitations.In an order rejecting the request of media organizations, including CNN, to release the full report, Fulton CountySuperior Court Judge Robert McBurney noted the special grand jury is intended to aid the district attorney, not act on behalf of the court. The report, he noted, was issued to Willis, not the court. And it is ultimately up to Willis, an elected Democrat, whether to bring charges against Trump.McBurney also pointed out that what the special grand jury saw was not a trial where a defendant presents his or her side of a case, but was instead “largely controlled by the District Attorney.”The special grand jury had 24 jurors, including alternates, although all 24 were never present to hear witness testimony together. Only Kohrs has spoken publicly so far.
Trump lawyers call Georgia special grand jury proceedings ‘clown-like’ after forewoman’s remarks - Lawyers for former President Trump labeled the Georgia special grand jury probe into the 2020 election “clown-like” after the forewoman of the jury made remarks to multiple media outlets.Defense attorneys for Trump, Drew Findling and Jennifer Little, spoke to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday and indicated they may file court motions in response to forewoman Emily Kohrs’s recent public comments.The attorneys said the forewoman’s remarks to media outlets suggested that the grand jury did not operate in a professional manner.“This type of carnival, clown-like atmosphere that was portrayed over the course of the last 36 hours takes away from the complete sanctity and the integrity and, for that matter, the reliability,” Findling told the Journal-Constitution of the investigation.Over the last week, Kohrs has been interviewed by multiple media outlets and offered limited insight into the special grand jury’s report, which was partially released last week. She said that a number of people were recommended to be indicted, adding “it’s not a short list.”She declined to name who the jury recommended.Trump’s legal team argued that Kohrs’s comments suggested that the grand jury’s proceedings were conducted in an unprofessional manner.“You want folks to have faith and trust in not only the system, but in the results of your investigation,” Little said. “How can anyone looking at what we’ve now seen have faith and trust in the results of this investigation?”In an interview with The New York Times, Findling said Kohrs’s comments about recommending multiple people be indicted “poisoned” the process. He also criticized Kohrs’s comments that jurors discussed media coverage of the proceedings. “They were permitted during the course of seven months to read your newspaper, to read the local newspaper, to watch the news, to go on the internet and apparently even able to bring those sources of material into the four corners of the grand jury room?” Findling told the Times. “What kind of reliable body is that?”
Media outlets ask Georgia Supreme Court to release full grand jury report on Trump 2020 election probe —A coalition of media outlets is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to reconsider a decision that blocked the full release of a Fulton County special grand jury report, which includes recommendations for whether former President Donald Trump or any of his associates should face criminal charges for their efforts to undermine the 2020 election.A lower court order blocking most of the report’s release “prevented the public and press from reading the full Report even though it addresses a subject of paramount public concern to this state and nation: possible wrongdoing in connection with the US Presidential election of 2020, including possible wrongdoing by the then sitting US President,” the media coalition, which includes CNN, argued Friday in a court filing.. The Georgia Supreme Court can decide whether or not to take up the appeal, which comes after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney released snippets of the report earlier this month. But McBurney, who oversaw the special grand jury, decided to keep the vast majority of the document under seal, including recommendations for who should face criminal charges. McBurney wrote in his decision that it was a matter of “fundamental fairness” to keep the special grand jury’s conclusions under wraps to protect the rights of potential defendants and others named in the report. “Here, however, for anyone named in the special purpose grand jury’s final report who was not afforded the opportunity to appear before the grand jury, none of those due process rights has been satisfied,” McBurney wrote in his February order. “And for those who did appear – willingly or not – only the right to be heard (although without counsel or rebuttal) was protected.” The media coalition argued Friday that the special grand jury’s report constitutes a court document primed for public release and claimed the reputational concerns of those named in the report do not outweigh the public’s interest in viewing its findings. “The Report should be a public court record so that the citizens of the nation and this County can determine for themselves whether the future prosecutorial decisions of the District Attorney’s Office ‘do justice’ under Georgia’s laws,” the media coalition wrote.
Steve Bannon’s ex-lawyers sue for nearly $500,000 in unpaid legal fees -- Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon’s ex-lawyers are suing him for nearly half a million in unpaid legal fees, according to a complaint filed on Saturday. Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP (DHC) represented Bannon in his fight against responding to a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attacks as well as other cases over a two year period, according to the complaint. The firm said in the complaint that in total, Bannon owed the firm $855,487.87, despite him agreeing to pay the firm for its legal services. The complaint stated that he had only paid $375,000, which left the $480,487.87 that the firm is suing for. The complaint stated that DHC represented Bannon from November 2020 to November 2022. The firm said in the complaint that it issued regular invoices to Bannon, to which he “never raised any objection” to. “This action simply seeks payment of an outstanding bill for legal services rendered in the amount of $480,487.87, in addition to scheduling a hearing on the reasonable attorneys’ fees DHC is contractually entitled to as the prevailing party in this litigation,” the complaint stated. Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison for defying a subpoena from the House select committee in October and also was fined $6,500 in that case.
Judge orders depositions of Trump, Wray in long-running dispute with ex-FBI officials - A federal judge has agreed to permit former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page to take sworn testimony from former President Donald Trump for two hours as part of their long-running lawsuits related to Strzok’s firing in 2018 after Trump repeatedly and publicly pilloried the pair. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled on Thursday that Strzok and Page — whose text messages disparaging then-candidate Trump cast a pall over the FBI’s investigation of links between the Trump campaign and Russia — would also be allowed to depose FBI Director Christopher Wray for a similar two-hour period on a limited set of topics. But there’s a twist: Their ability to ask Trump and Wray about these circumstances might come down to a decision from President Joe Biden. Jackson’s order gave the Justice Department a month to “inform the Court whether the current President will invoke … executive privilege” over any aspects of Trump’s testimony. Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, also stressed that she had not yet considered all potential objections to the demands for testimony from Trump and Wray. That could include arguments by Trump that he has the unilateral right as a former president to assert executive privilege. Trump has spent years publicly assailing Strzok and Page for their disparaging private messages about him, claiming they proved that FBI bias fueled the Russia probe, despite independent reviews that failed to substantiate those claims. Strzok was fired amid the controversy, and Page resigned. Strzok is contesting his dismissal, and both are claiming invasion of their privacy over the manner in which the Justice Department released hundreds of their text messages. In the suits, Strzok and Page contend that Trump and his Justice Department appointees were carrying out a political vendetta. The Justice Department and the FBI have both denied that Trump’s public attacks played any role in the bureau’s decision to fire Strzok, saying it was a decision arrived at by career officials and carried out without political pressure. They’ve argued that deposing Trump or Wray would shed little light on decisions that were made by others at the FBI. But Jackson’s ruling suggests there might be evidence that she thinks only Trump and Wray can provide. She noted that her decision was rooted in an analysis of the “apex doctrine,” which requires litigants to first seek information from figures at lower rungs of an organization before pursuing testimony of more senior officials. Jackson also indicated that the depositions would be limited to a “narrow set of topics” that were defined in a sealed hearing on Thursday.
Taibbi- US Senator Wanted ZeroHedge Banned From Twitter - Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, he has continued to keep his promise of transparency with regard to the company's past behaviorThanks to the revelations in the so-called 'Twitter Files', we have seen clear evidence that the FBI and other three-letter agencies worked directly with various social media entities to suppress perfectly "lawful speech" for purely political reasons.Twitter suppressed or removed content on various subjects, including irregularities in the 2020 elections, mail-in voting issues, and various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company was under government pressure to purge such content and its purveyors from the platform, though most of the time it was cooperating with the censorship requests willingly, the documents indicate. And yet, as Matt Taibbi writes, these extremely newsworthy revelations... [ The #TwitterFiles have revealed a lot: thousands of moderation requests from every corner of government, Feds mistaking both conservatives and leftists for fictional Russians, even Twitter deciding on paper to cede moderation authority to the “U.S. intelligence community”: pic.twitter.com/njklzvX0n1— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) February 19, 2023] ....have produced exactly zilch in mainstream news coverage in the last two months.However, as Taibbi notes, House hearings were held last week, at which one witness told a story about Donald Trump asking to remove a mean tweet by Chrissy Teigen.The press went bananas. Now THAT was big news! And so, Taibbi throws down the gauntlet in the latest 'Twitter Files', "purely to show the bankruptcy of media in this area"... If a president freaking out about one tweeter is news, surely a U.S. Senator finking on three hundred-plus of his constituents also must be? Here’s Maine Senator Angus King writing to Twitter to call a slew of accounts “suspicious” for reasons like:
- “Rand Paul visit excitement”
- “Bot (averages 20 tweets a day)”
- Being followed by rival Eric Brakey
- Or, my personal favorite: “Mentions immigration.”
Taibbi notes that King’s office declined comment. If Dick Nixon sniffed glue, this is what his enemies list might have looked like: Read the full (rather lengthy) spreadsheet here in a Google doc to see if you're on 'the list'.Yes, the Maine Senator demanded @ZeroHedge (and 100s more) Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts (and Facebook Groups) be instantly removed for being "suspicious".As Matt writes in a follow-up...One of the funniest things about the @SenAngusKing suspicious accounts list is that they seemed to think @zerohedge is a bot. https://t.co/2jiOKvpc9o
$749,387 Pentagon contract debunks the lie about “independent” fact-checkers -- Documents expose the so called „independent“ fact-checkers. The so called disinformation fighters are nothing more than well-paid employees working under a $749,387 program funded by the Pentagon.A U.S. company called News Guard, self-proclaimed as independent fact-checkers, received generous funding from the U.S. Department of Defense last year, a contract with the U.S. military has revealed. The company in question, founded in 2018, evaluates media outlets that publish investigations related to the US government, Covid, the war in Ukraine, the attempted coup in Venezuela, and marks them as „dangerous“ sites that spread misinformation, are unreliable and violate journalistic practices. Therefore, they should be avoided by readers and advertisers. News Guard has signed a contract with Microsoft to provide a free fact-checking service to users of the Microsoft Edge browser. Anyone who wants to check whether a site is dangerous can install the News Guard extension for free on their computer’s browser or buy the application for $4.95 per month on their mobile phone, the company’s website states. The company also provides a free extension for Google Chrome.In addition, News Guard specifies that they provide their services to social networks, search engines and Internet providers around the world. Thus, any site that is flagged by News Guard as disinformation will be treated by social networks and search engines as dangerous and „disinformation“. One of the advisers to the News Guard fact-checkers is Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA, former director of the National Security Agency and former principal deputy director of National Intelligence. Another News Guard adviser is Don Baer, White House communications director during the Clinton administration. The company that promotes itself as non-political, trustworthy, unbiased, transparent is violating its own rule of transparency. It turns out that the News Guard fact-checkers received $749,387 in funding from the US Air Force which was not declared by News Guard on the company’s website. However, information about the Pentagon contract can be found in the US government’s federal contract registry. Information obtained from the US federal contracts registry shows that the News Guard „independent“ fact-checkers were awarded a $749,387 contract by the US Air Force (September 7, 2021 – December 8, 2022). „Misinformation Fingerprints“ is stated in the description for the contract.
Free Speech Is For Fighting The Empire: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix – Caitlin Johnstone - My research has led me to conclude that there’s an elite conspiracy to enslave us all and turn us all into brainwashed automatons mindlessly enacting the wishes of our rulers in a cruel dystopia built by the powerful, for the powerful. Haha, just kidding. That already happened. Step one is learning that the mainstream consensus worldview is a lie, and that we’ve been fed power-serving propaganda since we were children about our society, our nation, our government and our world. Most people haven’t even made it to step one yet.Step two is getting clear on how we’ve been lied to. A lot of people who make it past step one get mixed up here. Many fall for dopey right-wing narratives about Jews ruling the world, globalist pedophile cabals, elite conspiracies to make all our kids transgendered or whatever, because their ideology prohibits them from clearly seeing the real underlying dynamics of capitalism and the empire-building of their own government. They place far too much emphasis on things like vaccines and the future of transhumanism being used to someday create an Orwellian dystopia, because their worldview prohibits them from recognizing that we’re already living in a power-serving mind-controlled dystopia.Others simply don’t go far enough in extracting the mainstream worldview from their minds and don’t inquire deeply enough into what’s really true. Plenty of self-identified socialists and anarchists still buy into bogus mainstream narratives about empire-targeted governments, or still buy into to the power-serving dynamics of party politics. Step two takes a lot of hard, sincere, intellectually honest work sorting out fact from fiction.Step three is learning what to do about all this, and beginning to take action. This means working to spread awareness of what’s really going on and helping others to make it through steps one and two, because the only thing that ever leads to lasting positive changes in human behavior is an expansion of consciousness. The more people make it to step three, the more people there are to help wake up everyone else.Free speech is meaningless and worthless if you don’t use it to oppose real power. In western “democracies” the majority of people are so effectively propagandized into speaking in alignment with the interests of the western empire that they may as well be taking orders on what to say at gunpoint.In totalitarian regimes you say what your rulers want you to say because they physically coerced you using the threat of violence. In “free democracies” you say what your rulers want you to say because they psychologically coerced you using propaganda. The end result is the same. Reagan once joked about Soviets thinking they are free because they’re allowed to criticize the US government as much as they like, but really that was just projection. Westerners think they have free speech, but they never use that “free speech” to criticize the tyrannical empire they live under. Free speech is held as an important human right because it helps the people put a check on power. If you’re not using it for that, you may as well not have it. Your speech is only free insofar as you can criticize real power, and insofar as you actually do so.
DOJ alleges Google destroyed chat messages it should have saved -- Google "systematically destroyed" instant message chats every 24 hours, violating federal rules to preserve potentially relevant communications for litigation, the Department of Justice alleged in a filing that became public on Thursday. As a result of Google's default to preserve chats for only 24 hours unless an employee opts to turn on history for the conversation, "for nearly four years, Google systematically destroyed an entire category of written communications every 24 hours," the department wrote in the filing. According to the DOJ, Google should have adjusted its defaults in mid-2019 "when the company reasonably anticipated this litigation." Instead, it relied on individual employees to decide when chats were potentially relevant to future litigation, the department said. "Few, if any," did, according to DOJ. Meanwhile, investigators alleged, Google "falsely" told the government it had "'put a legal hold in place' that 'suspends auto-deletion.'" The government added that "at every turn, Google reaffirmed that it was preserving and searching all potentially relevant written communications." The data deletion continued up until as recently as this month when the government indicated it would file a motion for sanctions and an evidentiary hearing, investigators allege. At that point, the DOJ said, Google committed to "permanently set to history on." A Google spokesperson said in a statement company officials "strongly refute the DOJ's claims. Our teams have conscientiously worked for years to respond to inquiries and litigation. In fact, we have produced over 4 million documents in this case alone, and millions more to regulators around the world." The alleged issue is one that previously came up in Epic Games' antitrust litigation against Google. Epic submitted exhibits in that case that seemed to show some Google employees believed chats were a safer place to conduct sensitive conversations. For example, one exhibit shows an employee comment on a document that says "Since it's a sensitive topic, I prefer to discuss offline or over hangout," referring to Google's chat product. The parties in that suit hashed out the issue in front of a federal judge in the Northern District of California this year in two evidentiary hearings. At one of those hearings on Jan. 31, Judge James Donato indicated he would be open to a kind of adverse jury instruction, but one that would allow the jury to draw its own conclusions on what the deletion of messages means for the case. An adverse jury instruction, in its most stringent form, would instruct a jury that it should assume that the relevant documents that were destroyed would have cast Google in a negative light, according to Eileen Scallen, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, an expert in evidence and civil procedure. A lesser remedy could be to instruct the jury to not hold it against the plaintiff for not having specific documents to back up its claims.
Internal chaos plagues Bannon-fronted $FJB cryptocurrency, critics say — When former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon and Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn took control of a MAGA-branded cryptocurrency in December 2021, the venture seemed poised for success. A white-hot crypto market had set the stage for high returns. And in an industry that relies on promotion and marketing savvy, the two high-profile Trump associates quickly leveraged their enormous megaphones to attract throngs of buyers. Within weeks, the currency’s value soared. Bannon and Epshteyn, two original architects of Donald Trump’s political operation, promoted it relentlessly on social media and on Bannon’s hit podcast, positioning it as a rejection of President Joe Biden and an alternative currency for conservatives that would support job creation and regularly donate to charities. The name of the coin itself sought to capitalize on political divisions; dubbed $FJB, the currency takes its name from the shorthand version of the vulgar MAGA expression “F— Joe Biden.” “We are now saying, ‘Screw Joe Biden,” Bannon said on his War Room podcast shortly after announcing his acquisition of the $FJB operation in December 2021. “It shows your total and complete independence … you’re going to very quickly have non-reliance on their financial system.” But now, thirteen months on, the cryptocurrency has fallen on hard times. $FJB, now officially said to stand for Freedom Jobs Business, has lost 95% of its value, at least in part due to an industry-wide downturn. And some of those who say they bought the coin are flocking to social media with complaints about the fund’s management and allegations that the coin’s leadership and representatives have made false promises — including accusations that they’ve failed in their commitment to continue to donate portions of the coin’s proceeds to the Wounded Warriors Project and other charities. Compounding the coin’s lackluster performance is a growing concern among self-identified buyers that Epshteyn and Bannon have, in effect, jumped ship. Critics say $FJB represents the latest in a string of ill-fated efforts to leverage MAGA support for financial returns — particularly on the part of Bannon, who in September pleaded not guilty to unrelated charges that he defrauded donors with the promise of building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. A monthslong review by ABC News of $FJB representatives’ and followers’ weekly meetings and social media activity, as well as interviews with former company insiders and self-identified coin holders, details how $FJB plummeted under the weight of market trends, internal dysfunction, and allegations of unfulfilled promises. A person close to Bannon and Epshteyn told ABC News, “Steve and Boris are fully committed to the $FJB community, and are working with a proficient and dedicated team in order to continue moving forward with all of the goals and objectives of the project. There is also a full effort under way to determine and remedy any and all issues stemming from actions of the original founders of the coin. The $FJB community stands for and champions transparency, independence, and American strength. Steve and Boris will always fight for those ideals.”
New indictment details Bankman-Fried's illegal campaign contributions - U.S. prosecutors on Thursday revealed new details of how FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly made millions of dollars of illegal campaign contributions using stolen customer money, as they hit the one-time crypto exchange executive with new fraud charges. Federal prosecutors in New York alleged that Bankman-Fried and two unnamed co-conspirators took out loans from Alameda Research — his hedge fund — and siphoned FTX customer funds to pump money into campaigns and super PACs that supported candidates from both parties in the 2022 midterms. The charges indicate the misuse of funds for political activity contributed to the collapse of the FTX exchange last year. Bankman-Fried improperly funneled contributions through other individuals to support dozens of Republicans as well as left-of-center Democrats whom he didn’t want associated with his personal brand, according to the indictment. Bankman-Fried and his partners used an encrypted Signal messaging channel to coordinate their efforts, which ultimately resulted in more than 300 unlawful contributions. Bankman-Fried, along with fellow FTX exchange executives Ryan Salame and Nishad Singh, were among the most prolific political donors during the 2022 cycle. Salame and Singh have reportedly cooperated with regulators. Amid the scrutiny of FTX since its bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried’s arrest in December, some congressional campaigns and super PACs have already set aside funds equal to the FTX team’s contributions until they receive further instruction. FTX’s new management, which is overseeing the platform’s bankruptcy restructuring, formally requested political contractors and organizations return the funds earlier this year. Bankman-Fried is now charged with 12 criminal counts, including securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter. Prosecutors initially charged Bankman-Fried in December on eight criminal counts. He pleaded not guilty. A spokesperson for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Thursday’s indictment identifies a contribution of $107,000 to the New York State Democratic Party made shortly before the midterm elections as an example of how Bankman-Fried sought to hide the extent of his political activities. The funds, which were wired from Bankman-Fried’s bank account, were tagged as having come from an unnamed co-conspirator instead. “As soon as I saw that, I asked that the funds be segregated,” New York State Democratic Chair Jay Jacobs said in an interview on Thursday afternoon. “We’re awaiting direction [from federal authorities] on who we return that money to.”
SBF Consultant Advised "Giving To A Lot Of Woke Sh*t" According To New Indictment -- Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged on Thursday with 12 new counts, including illegally making over 300 political contributions to the tune of tens of millions of dollars through straw donors and using corporate funds. "Bankman-Fried's use of straw donors allowed him to evade contribution limits on individual donations to candidates to whom he had already donated," reads the indictment, which adds that the "fraudulent conduct" impaired the FEC's functioning. "In dozens of instances, BANKMAN-FRIED's use of straw donors allowed him to evade contribution limits on individual donations to candidates to whom he had already donated." "As a result of this fraudulent conduct," SBF and his co-conspirators caused false information to be reported by campaigns and PACs to the FEC." New: superseding indictment charges Sam Bankman-Fried with 12 counts, includes new details about alleged campaign donation fraud. SBF and cohort made more than 300 donations totaling tens of millions of dollars, feds allege ---> pic.twitter.com/XM9niJAcBZ SBF had previously only faced charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers and lenders, as well as commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and violating campaign finance laws. According to the new indictment, Bankman-Fried and others, while attempting to open a bank account, "falsely represented to a financial institution that the account would be used for trading and market making," when in fact it was used to receive and transmit customer funds. SBF and co-conspirators "agreed to and did make corporate contributions to candidates and committees in the Southern District of New York that were reported in the name of another person," the indictment continues. FTX's former CEO wanted to give at least $1 million to a pro-LGBTQ political action group, but couldn’t find anyone bisexual or gay at the company whom he trusted, the document said. One unnamed executive, believed to be Nishad Singh, was urged to make the donation, while another right-wing executive, apparently Ryan Salame, did so for Republican causes, the document said. -Coindesk One SBF consultant reportedly told him "In general, you being the center left face of our spending will mean you giving to a lot of woke shit for transactional purposes."
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces new criminal charges - FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was hit Thursday with four newcriminal charges, including ones related to commodities fraud and making unlawful political contributions, in a superseding indictment filed in New York federal court. A source familiar with the new counts said that SBF, as he is popularly known, could face an additional 40 years in prison if convicted in the case, where he is accused of "multiple schemes to defraud." The new charging document lays out in greater detail Bankman-Fried's allegedly fraudulent conduct related to his cryptocurrency exchange FTX and an associated hedge fund, Alameda Research, both of which went bust in late 2022. The 12-count indictment also provides new details of hundreds of political donations that Bankman-Fried allegedly directed in violation of federal campaign finance laws. Bankman-Fried is accused of stealing FTX customer deposits and using billions of dollars of those stolen funds to support FTX's and Alameda's operations and investments, to fund speculative investments, to make charitable contributions, and to enrich himself, the indictment notes. He also tried "to purchase influence over cryptocurrency regulation in Washington, D.C., by steering tens of millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to both Democrats and Republicans," according to the new indictment, which was was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Before the criminal case, SBF was known as a major donor to Democrats. Bankman-Fried, who remains free on a $250 million personal recognizance bond after being first charged in late 2022, has pleaded not guilty in the case. The new indictment adds yet more legal pressure on SBF, whose close associates, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and ex-Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, pleaded guilty in December to multiple fraud and other charges. Both Wang and Ellison are cooperating with the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan against Bankman-Fried. The new indictment accuses him of securities fraud, wire fraud, and multiple conspiracy counts related to wire fraud on FTX customers and Alameda's lenders; illegal campaign contributions; money laundering; operating an unlicensed money transmitting business; and bank fraud. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, in a statement on the new indictment said, "We are hard at work and will remain so until justice is done." The charging document lays out how Bankman-Fried allegedly operated an illegal straw donor scheme as he moved to use customers funds to run a multimillion-dollar political influence campaign. Bankman-Fried and fellow FTX executives combined to contribute more than $70 million toward the 2022 midterm elections, according to campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets. The indictment claims that Bankman-Fried and his co-conspirators "made over 300 political contributions, totaling tens of millions of dollars, that were unlawful because they were made in the name of a straw donor or paid for with corporate funds." "To avoid certain contributions being publicly reported in his name, Bankman-Fried conspired to and did have certain political contributions made in the names of two other FTX executives," the new filing claims.
Judge John Dorsey Has Effectively Privatized Justice in the FTX Bankruptcy Case – by Pam and Russ Martens - Judge John Dorsey is the presiding judge in the bankruptcy proceedings for Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed house of cards, which includes the now frozen crypto exchange, FTX; his now shuttered hedge fund, Alameda Research; and more than 100 opaque affiliates operating in the shadows around the globe. Undisputed is the fact that despite FTX being represented by some of the most prominent law firms in America as it built this criminal enterprise – notably Sullivan & Cromwell – more than 10.3 million user accounts were looted of more than $8 billion right under the nose of Big Law. We say “notably Sullivan & Cromwell” in the above paragraph because not only did it work on more than 20 matters for the FTX group of companies for 16 months prior to its bankruptcy filing but its former law partner, Ryne Miller, served as General Counsel of FTX US since August of 2021. In addition, Sullivan & Cromwell has conceded that it personally represented Sam Bankman-Fried on his purchase of more than half a billion dollars of stock in Robinhood Markets (a stock trading app) – the rightful ownership of which is now the subject of multiple court battles. Equally problematic, an email by Sullivan & Cromwell law partner, Andrew Dietderich, has surfaced in a court filing indicating that just four days before FTX filed bankruptcy, Dietderich had told another law firm that FTX is “rock solid.” (Dietderich is now one of the key law partners involved in the FTX bankruptcy proceedings.)Given this set of facts, justice for the defrauded customers and the public interest would obviously demand that the pre-bankruptcy legal interactions between Sullivan & Cromwell, the FTX group of companies and Sam Bankman-Fried (as well as all other questionable activities by others) be investigated by an independent examiner, as is required under bankruptcy law when requested by the U.S. Trustee and debts exceed $5 million. Instead, Judge Dorsey ruled against the U.S. Trustee’s request for an independent examiner in the FTX bankruptcy proceeding and has signed an order making Sullivan & Cromwell the lead counsel overseeing the FTX bankruptcy case.By doing this, Judge Dorsey has effectively privatized justice while sitting on the bench of a federal court.Sullivan & Cromwell is a 144-year old Big Law firm with more than 900 attorneys. Its headquarters is located in the financial district in lower Manhattan on Broad Street. It filed the FTX bankruptcy case, not in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in lower Manhattan, but in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware – a two-hour drive for its law partners, some of whom are billing as much as $2,165 an hour in the FTX bankruptcy matter. .As Sullivan & Cromwell’s partners are billing and eating their way through what’s left of defrauded crypto customers’ money, Judge Dorsey had the audacity to make the argument in turning down the U.S. Trustee’s request for an independent examiner, that it would cost too much money. The public’s vested interest in this matter could not be greater. The federal prosecutor who has thus far indicted Sam Bankman-Fried and two of his alleged co-conspirators (Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang), has called FTX “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.” The entire life savings of some customers is gone with the allegation that their customer accounts were used as Bankman-Fried’s personal piggy bank to buy luxury real estate in the Bahamas; buy celebrity endorsements; slap his company’s name on sports stadiums; and funnel tens of millions of dollars to political campaigns. (And let’s not forget the millions of dollars in legal fees that went to Big Law firms – pre-bankruptcy – to keep this house of cards propped up. In addition to Sullivan & Cromwell, Forbes reported that the following U.S. law firms had worked for FTX prior to its bankruptcy filing: Fenwick & West; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Hogan Lovells; Morrison Foerster; Paul Hastings; Perkins Coie; Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; and White & Case.)
FTX Japan reports $50M in withdrawals since Feb. 21 - According to the crypto exchange, 7,026 FTX Japan account holders had moved funds from the firm to Liquid Global — a requirement in order to withdraw assets. Bankrupt crypto firm FTX’s subsidiary in Japan has reported that thousands of users have moved from the exchange since it resumed withdrawals on Feb. 21.In a Feb. 22 announcement, FTX Japan said users of the exchange and those at Liquid Global had withdrawn roughly 6.6 billion yen — $50 million at the time of publication — in cryptocurrency and fiat. According to the crypto firm, 7,026 account holders had moved funds from FTX Japan to Liquid and there were 5,697 transactions involving cryptocurrencies and 1,947 instances of users withdrawing fiat.The crypto firm said on Feb. 20 that in order to process withdrawals, FTX Japan users would need to confirm their account balances and transfer them to a Liquid account. Withdrawals resumed at 3:00 am UTC on Feb. 21 for the first time in more than three months.FTX Japan had been part of its parent company’s proceeding in filing for bankruptcy in November 2022, when the firm froze assets for roughly 9 million users, removing access to millions of dollars. An NHK report at the time said that FTX Japan had roughly 19.6 billion yen in cash — more than $138 million — when it ceased operations, suggesting that there may be roughly $90 million left for users as of Feb. 22.Due to bankruptcy proceedings in the United States, most FTX users, including those at FTX US, have been unable to withdraw their assets since November. The case is moving forward in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, in which the judge denied a motion to appoint an independent examiner, citing the expense involved.
Court denies Fed motion to dismiss Custodia suit, keeps trial in play -The digital-asset bank suing the Federal Reserve Board and one of its regional banks over access to the payments system could still see its day in court.U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl denied the Fed's motion to dismiss the case brought by Custodia Bank, a Wyoming-chartered depository seeking a so-called master account with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.Master accounts are a single point of access for the Fed's various financial services, including payments processing. Custodia filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Wyoming against both the Fed board and the Kansas City Fed in June, claiming — among other things — that they subjected the bank's application for a master account to an undue delay.The Fed board had argued that Custodia's lawsuit was rendered moot when the Kansas City Fed formally rejected the bank's application for master accounts last month. At the same time, the board denied Custodia's bid to become a state member bank, a status that would have subjected it to heightened supervisory scrutiny but given it an easier path to a master account.On Friday afternoon, the Fed rejected Custodia's request to reconsider its member bank application.In a press release, the Fed noted that Custodia's original application was "inconsistent with the required factors under the law," but Fed rules entitled it to request reconsideration.The Fed board and Kansas City Fed both did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Bank regulators warn about liquidity risks in crypto-related deposits -Regulators in Washington, D.C., want banks to be wary of liquidity concerns when dealing with customers funded by cryptocurrencies.The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposits Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a joint statement Thursday morning urging banks to be diligent in assessing run risks related to deposits from crypto firms. The agencies singled out deposits kept at banks on behalf of a crypto firm's underlying customers and deposits used as reserves for stablecoins as being particularly prone to runs. The comments on liquidity risks come after Silvergate Bank, a San Diego-based depository that specializes in serving crypto and financial technology firms, saw a drawdown of $8.1 billion of its $11.9 billion of deposits during the fourth quarter of last year. The run followed the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement Thursday that the regulators' letter was a step in the right direction toward a broader, comprehensive regulatory system for crypto assets. "As we continue to learn the full extent of the fallout from the crypto industry's collapse, it's important that we use our existing financial safeguards to protect consumers and our economy from crypto's risks," Brown said. "This is the right step to provide more clarity to banking organizations and protect people's hard-earned money as we continue to consider a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets."The Silvergate episode has caused regulators and lawmakers to take a closer look at the interrelationship between crypto and the traditional banking sector. The agencies' letter does not include any new risk management requirements for banks, but rather encourages them to apply existing standards. It also notes that banks are not prohibited or discouraged from doing business from any particular type of business, so long as it is legal.Still, the guidance notes that the volatility of crypto assets can lead to rapid and unpredictable inflows and outflows of deposits. This volatility can present a risk to banks that service firms in the space. To mitigate these risks, regulators are encouraging banks to understand the factors that might influence deposit behavior in the crypto space broadly as well as the specific vulnerabilities of the deposits from their specific customers.
Dozens of FDIC-insured banks have crypto ambitions — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Office of the Inspector General said dozens of FDIC-insured banks "have ongoing or planned digital asset activities," in its most recent review of the bank regulator.In its report, the OIG summarized the most serious challenges facing the FDIC and gave a brief assessment of the agency's progress in addressing them. Given ongoing regulatory skepticism of digital assets, many who watch banking closely were surprised to learn that, according to the OIG, over a hundred FDIC-affiliated banks have existing or planned cryptocurrency related activities. "One hundred and thirty-six FDIC-insured banks have ongoing or planned digital asset activities," the OIG wrote in the report. "The FDIC should work with other regulators to provide clarity regarding the regulation of digital assets. Further, the FDIC should ensure that its examinations, policies, and procedures address consumer risks regarding digital assets, including the relationship of deposit insurance and digital assets."Like FDIC, the OIG says it sees inherent risks in housing digital assets at depository institutions. This comes as a number of community banks have moved to incorporate digital assets into their business models, including through bitcoin savings plans and offering stablecoins.The report identifies a total of nine areas the FDIC should work on to promote public confidence and financial stability. According to the report, the agency needs to: prepare for banking crises; fortify cybersecurity at banks; address digital asset-related risks; support underserved communities; fortify internal IT safeguards; address changes in their workforce; improve data collection; strengthen FDIC's supply chain management; and implement effective governance at the agency.
Ransomware Attack On Food Giant Dole Temporarily Shuttered US Production - Dole Food is one of the world's largest producers and distributors of fresh fruits and vegetables. An alarming report reveals the company temporarily shuttered all operations across North America after a cyberattack earlier this month. "Dole Food Company is in the midst of a Cyber Attack and have subsequently shut down our systems throughout North America," Emanuel Lazopoulos, senior vice president at Dole's Fresh Vegetables division, wrote in a memo to retailers on Feb. 10. The memo was obtained by CNN this week. Dole sent the memo to supermarkets after customers complained about its prepackaged salads, which include salad blends, salad kits, and ready-to-eat salads, being out of stock. "Our plants are shut down for the day and all our shipments are on hold. "Please bear with us as we navigate our way and hopefully we will minimize this event," the internal memo continued. William Goldfield, the spokesperson for Dole, confirmed the ransomware incident in a statement released on the company's website on Wednesday. Dole plc announced today that the company recently experienced a cybersecurity incident that has been identified as ransomware. Upon learning of this incident, Dole moved quickly to contain the threat and engaged leading third-party cybersecurity experts, who have been working in partnership with Dole's internal teams to remediate the issue and secure systems. The company has notified law enforcement about the incident and are cooperating with their investigation. While continuing to investigate the scope of the incident, the impact to Dole operations has been limited. What's not clear is how long the company had to shutter production. There was no word if the company paid a ransom to hackers. Add Dole to the growing list of incidents at US food plants. Some folks are convinced the nation's food processing plants are 'under attack' after a series of fires (read: here & here & here).The FBI warned food plants to be alert for ransomware attacks last year.
McHenry releases final financial data privacy bill ahead of markup --House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.,released his final version of his financial data privacy bill ahead of a planned markup on Tuesday. McHenry's bill would require financial companies to offer consumers more disclosures regarding their financial data, and it would allow consumers to request that their records be deleted. McHenry said in a statement that the bill is meant to secure private financial data "without strangling innovation." There's some notable omissions in the final version than a draft circulated last year. The planned section on enforcement that was marked "To be added" has been removed entirely in the final version. This comes at a time when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency that would be inextricably linked to the idea of protecting consumers' financial data, is under scrutiny from Republicans and courts over the legality of its funding structure. McHenry's bill would also preempt state laws, an idea that rankled House Financial Services Committee ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., in a hearing earlier this month. California, according to Americans for Financial Reform legislative director Renita Marcellin, has tougher data protection laws than McHenry's discussion draft. "I'm interested in learning how we can strengthen data privacy standards to better protect consumers," Waters said during the hearing. "I know this is a priority for Chairman McHenry, but I've heard some concerns with the approach taken in the discussion draft we're considering today. For example, according to California's state privacy agency, the discussion draft we're considering would preempt state laws, including those in my home state. The draft would prevent states from adopting new protections in response to changes in technology, something the current law allows." In materials accompanying the bill's release, McHenry's office said that the preemption part of the chairman's bill would "reduce compliance burden and provide certainty to both consumers and entities that handle their financial data."
There are more hedge funds than Burger Kings - There has been a lot of rending of garments and gnashing of teeth in recent years over the death of active management. Meanwhile, evil passive investing keeps growing.This is wrecking price signals, killing the dynamism of markets, fuelling bubbles/bear markets (delete according to whatever markets are doing that year) and imperilling capitalism itself. Yada yada.The reality is of course that there is more trading than ever before, more mutual funds than ever before, and more hedge funds than ever before. The latter in particular has demonstrated an impressive ability to survive and grow despite returns in aggregate being mediocre (at least there are very few truly mega-wealthy mutual fund managers). One of our old favourite “makes you think” facts is that there are more hedge fund managers than there are Taco Bell managers. It turns out that this is a gross understatement. Via SigTech. we learn that data provider Preqin has for the first time ever counted over 30,000 hedge funds globally, distributed thuslyThere are more than four times as many hedge funds as there are Taco Bells (ca 7,200 it seems). Even last year, when the average hedge fund lost 5.3 per cent according to eVestment, Preqin tallied 938 new ones being launched.In fact, there are more hedge funds than there are Burger King outlets (over 18,700), employees at the Pentagon (24,000) and words in Animal Farm (assuming no prologue); and nearly as many as there McDonald’s franchises (ca 35,000) and listed stocks globally (about 43,000).Anyway, if you want to read more, here is the full report. And here is a chart to hammer the point home.
Retail Investors Pour $1.5 Billion Each Day Into US Markets, The "Highest Amount Ever Recorded" - For much of the waning days of 2022, the broader theme in markets was a downbeat one, especially for one group of habitual gamblers investors: after a stellar 2021 when nothing made sense and the junkiest of companies exploded higher steamrolling shorts, for retail investors 2022 felt like the polar opposite: a relentless series of gut punches which knocked the air out of basement dwelling daytraders and crushed some of the most popular retail names. It all culminated with the near record year-end liquidation when in addition to momentum, tax loss selling prompted retail investors to dump single stocks at an unprecedented pace as described Retail Investors Slamming The Bid Amid Tax-Loss Selling Capitulation However, this record selling flow would not last long, and indeed, just one month later, we wrote that with LO institutions and hedge funds extending their bearish positioning, it was retail investors that picked up the BTFD torch in January, adding that "if retail is once again a more powerful price setter than institutions and hedge funds (thank you zero market liquidity), and we are facing another Jan 2021-type meltup, then watch out above even if none of the abovementioned technicals go into play." In retrospect we were right, but not even we had any idea just how much we were right. That's because according to the latest report from retail orderflow specialist Vanda Research, January was a blowout, record month for retail buyers in the market. As Vanda's Mario Iachini writes, "in the last month, retail investors poured an average of $1.51bn/day into the US markets, the highest amount ever recorded." And as we expected, this group of investors "has continued driving US equity market swings since the second half of last year."
Public Pension Funding Average Now Below 50%, Yet Beneficiaries and Press Stay Mum -- by Yves Smith - The lack of current interest is not because the problem has gotten better. With the Fed trying not merely to whip inflation but also to get the US on a lasting basis out o a ZIRP-y policy regime, the outlook for financial assets for the next foreseeable while is not so hot. And that’s before getting to the impact of climate change and resource pressures on corporate profits. As we’ll discuss in more detail soon, a new Bloomberg op-ed by Aaron Brown, former MD and head of research at AQR shows that the state of public pension funding is more dire than most realize. For instance: The widespread failure of the public pension model raises questions about the viability of the saving for retirement model. Neoliberalism demands labor mobility and weakens community ties. It also increases the burden on already fragile nuclear families. The retirement model in the era of subsistence farming was living with children and grandchildren or other extended family members. Oldsters could still be helpful even if they were secondary players in providing for household needs, by child care, light cooking and cleaning, and other support. In the post World War II era, the corporate and labor elite got generous pensions, while others could still save for retirement by buying a house. 30 year mortgage terms matched the usual working lie. A retiree could live mortgage free or sell his house and move into a smaller abode.Short job tenures, pricey housing leading to much later initial home purchases, and howeowners being encouraged to extract equity via tax-advantaged second mortgages have undermined the “home as savings vehicle model.” Now individuals are exhorted to save and invest in financial markets. But market touts forget that the stock market took until the mid 1950s to recover from the 1929 crash. And the post World War II period was exceptional, with the US initially at 50% of global GDP able to implement governance structure of its liking and under its thumb. After the stagflationary 1970s, the US then had a very long run of falling policy interest rates that ended in May 2007. Declining interest rates boost financial asset prices, particularly of typically-levered assets like real estate and risky assets like stocks. Asset prices got another lease on life with the Fed and other central banks driving and keeping interest rates in negative real yield territory. The problem is that investing for retirement has pretty much nada to do with productive investment. Secondary market securities trading is a tiny fraction of new security sales to fund company operations. One tell of how little public companies do in the way of investing in their businesses is their level of stock buybacks. We pointed out in 2005 how companies had become so short term oriented that they were unwilling to pony up even for projects with one year paybacks, fearful of the impact of higher expenses on the next quarter’s earnings. That means many executives have deemed the most attractive path to be slow-motion liquidation via using cost cuts as their main engine for profit growth from existing operations.The reason that public pensions are part of this problem is that public pensions executives and trustees, like many individual investors, were encouraged to think long-term investment returns of 7% were entirely reasonable. But it’s not reasonable to expect investments to keep returning more than GDP growth. The indirect proof of that fallacy is the degree to which investments, as in capital, has engaged more and more rentier activities to the detriment of labor. In the US, profits as a share of GDP were roughly 6%, a level Warren Buffett deemed to be unsustainably high. In the last few years, profits compared to GDP have risen by nearly 2x. So increased labor crushing as a tailwind to stock prices is also likely on the wane.
Republicans seek records on SEC’s climate proposal as part of push against ESG investing plans— Top GOP lawmakers are pressing Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler on the agency's proposal for climate-related disclosures for investors, according to a letter released Wednesday. Reps. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., chairman of the panel's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and Tim Scott, R-S.C., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, demanded detailed information from Gensler on the controversial "Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors." "Congress created the SEC to carry out the mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation—not to advance progressive climate policies," the letter addressed to Gensler states. "Instead of pursuing its clear statutory mission, the SEC, under your leadership, has chosen to flout the democratic process and pursue its progressive social agenda through the promulgation of this extraordinarily expansive climate disclosure rule." The request is part of the GOP's sustained scrutiny of the proposal to require publicly traded companies to disclose to investors how their operations affect the climate and contribute to carbon emissions. Gensler recently announced that the agency is considering adjustments to the proposal, first introduced in March 2022, after pushback from investors. Gensler told CNBC's "Squawk Box" earlier this month that the proposal simply required a clear climate transition plan from public companies. "Some companies have targets (on) how to manage this," he said. "And it was: if you have something, just disclose it and sort of describe it so that the investing public has the material features of those plans in that regard." Republican lawmakers have balked at what they call the SEC's overreach into business practices. In the letter, they accuse Gensler of abusing "the rulemaking process" and said that "blatant partisan efforts to circumvent the legislative process" are outside of the SEC's oversight. An SEC spokesperson said Gensler would respond to the GOP lawmakers directly. In the letter, the lawmakers requested answers to seven questions and accompanying documentation on the disclosure proposal, including minimization of First Amendment concerns, possible coordination with the White House and a list of any SEC employees who worked on the proposal, by March 8. House Republicans have deployed their new majority powers in part to target firms and agencies that have pushed to make social considerations a larger piece of investing. Earlier this month, McHenry formed a Republican working group on environmental, social and governance, or ESG, plans in part to target the rule disclosure. ESG platforms broadly apply to taking into account the environmental and social implications of a company's decisions, and not just its financial performance, as part of investing decisions. Many House Republicans have criticized ESG plans — but some of them have received campaign contributions from the very financial firms they are targeting.
U.S. targets bank with UAE ties in new phase of Russia sanctions -The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned a Russian bank with ties to the United Arab Emirates, signaling to allies that it will start cracking down on sanctions evasion as the war in Ukraine enters its second year. The fresh round of sanctions and export controls on more than 250 individuals and entities includes MTS Bank, which has branches in Moscow and Abu Dhabi. The UAE's central bank granted MTS a license last year to operate there. Thousands of Russians went to the UAE after the invasion began and were the biggest international buyers of Dubai real estate last year, according to the brokerage Betterhomes. The U.K. also designated MTS on Friday. In addition to financial-sector sanctions, the U.S. unveiled measures aimed at Russia's defense and energy sectors with the goal of constraining industries key to President Vladimir Putin's war machine. Among the targets are the Credit Bank of Moscow, one of Russia's ten largest banks, several wealth management firms, arms dealers and suppliers of materials used in weapons and military equipment. Notably, the U.S. is sanctioning German and Swiss nationals it says are tied to procuring Western technologies for Russia. "Over the past year, we have taken actions with a historic coalition of international partners to degrade Russia's military-industrial complex and reduce the revenues that it uses to fund its war," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. "Our sanctions have had both short-term and long-term impact, seen acutely in Russia's struggle to replenish its weapons and in its isolated economy. Our actions today with our G7 partners show that we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes." In addition, nearly 90 companies in Russia, China and other countries will be placed on the Commerce Department's entity list for sanctions evasion, according to the White House. The listings are meant to prevent the targeted companies from buying semiconductors, software or other technologies manufactured in the U.S. or with American intellectual property.
California bill would bar banks with gun ties from bond work --A bill introduced in California's legislature would prohibit banks or lenders with business customers that manufacture firearms from working on the state's public finances. Senate Bill 637, introduced Thursday by California Sen. Dave Min, D-Costa Mesa, applies to every aspect of the state's public finances including municipal bonds, capital projects and the state's debt portfolio, according to Min's news release. "Michigan State. Half Moon Bay. Monterey Park. And on and on and on. There is no place in America that is safe from the epidemic of gun violence," Min said. "And unfortunately, this epidemic is being bankrolled by financial institutions that have turned a blind eye towards the horrors that their investments in the gun industry have created.""SB 637 will force Wall Street to make a choice between the blood money offered by the gun industry and doing business with the State of California," said California Sen. Dave Min, D-Costa Mesa.If the bill survives the legislative gantlet, it would mark a blue state riposte to governments in Republican-controlled states, notably Texas, that have denied business to banks they believe don't support the gun industry.The bill at present consists of a boilerplate sentence that says it will be amended "to include provisions that would prohibit financial institutions that do business with firearms manufacturers from doing business with the state of California."The bill's intent, according to Min's release, would mark a commitment by the state to ending the gun violence epidemic as reflected by its public finances."SB 637 will force Wall Street to make a choice between the blood money offered by the gun industry and doing business with the State of California, sending a clear message and more importantly a strong market signal that the State of California will not, either directly or indirectly, finance gun violence," Min said.
Illinois officials unveil proposals to widen regulatory powers - Financial regulators in Illinois have unveiled a sweeping legislative package that's intended to enhance consumer protections while also creating a regulatory framework for digital-asset firms. The measures draw on numerous ideas that have been enacted in recent years by Democratic lawmakers in New York and California, as well as by congressional Democrats. One bill would require digital-asset exchanges and related businesses to obtain a license to operate in Illinois. Another proposal would create new disclosure requirements for providers of small-business financing. And a third bill would expand the authority of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which officials said will help the agency to target bad actors. "You can't scroll through your phone these days without seeing a headline about the latest tech scam or cryptocurrency collapse wiping out someone's savings," David DeCarlo, the state agency's regulatory innovation officer, said Tuesday in a press release. In addition to boosting consumer protections, the bills would force less-regulated financial companies to compete on more equal regulatory footing with Illinois banks and credit unions, state officials argue. Still, the legislative proposals drew a mixed response Wednesday from the Illinois Bankers Association. Ben Jackson, the trade group's executive vice president for government relations, offered positive comments about the proposal for licensing of digital-asset businesses that do business in Illinois. That proposal is modeled on the so-called BitLicense requirement that New York state regulators enacted in 2015. Similar legislation was introduced two years ago in Illinois, but it failed to get across the finish line, despite support from the Illinois Bankers Association. Jackson was more critical of the other two measures, which would require more disclosure in connection with small-business financing and expand state regulators' consumer protection authority. The former bill draws from small-business financing disclosure laws that were passed in recent years in California and New York.The latter measure would allow the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to adopt rules in connection with so-called unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices. That language is modeled on legal authority that Congress granted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau more than a decade ago over the banking industry's opposition..
Bank of America racked up $1.2 billion in penalties, settlements in 2022 (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp (BofA) (BAC.N) amassed $1.2 billion in expenses for litigation and regulatory investigations last year including fines and settlements, according to a company filing on Wednesday.The cost is a major jump from $164 million recorded by the second-largest U.S. lender in 2021 and $823 million in 2020, and excludes payments for internal and external lawyers.The company dealt with several major issues in 2022, setting aside $354 million as part of a settlement to pay bond insurer Ambac Financial Group for a major lawsuit that stemmed from the 2008 mortgage crisis.BofA also paid $225 million in penalties to U.S. financial regulators last year over employees' use of unauthorized messaging platforms including WhatsApp.A pair of banking regulators also fined the bank $225 million over what they called a "botched" handling of jobless benefits during the pandemic.While those three cases led to just over $800 million in combined expenses last year, BofA did not specify what accounted for the remaining $400 million. A company spokesperson declined to comment. Some other U.S. banks also received hefty penalties in 2022. In December, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hit Wells Fargo with the watchdog's largest ever civil penalty as part of a $3.7 billion agreement to settle charges over widespread mismanagement of car loans, mortgages and bank accounts.
BankThink: Why the CFPB is doing more harm than good | American Banker - For more than a century, the nation's leading banks have proudly served as financiers of the American dream for millions of families and small businesses. Consumer Bankers Association members oppose discrimination in any form and remain fully committed to promoting economic advancement among underserved communities. However, recent changes made by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices exam manual serve only to hinder these efforts. Recognizing their important role in addressing systemic injustices through economic empowerment, banks are expanding financial inclusion initiatives and access to credit for low- and moderate-income communities and neighborhoods of color. Banks also have taken steps to bring more Americans into the financial system. Over the past decade, a growing share of the industry introduced new "BankOn" accounts — which have to meet certain criteria designed to increase access to affordable banking services, including low or no fees. The expanded reach of these accounts, coupled with early direct deposit, real-time alerts, overdraft reforms and other innovations are designed to strengthen the financial well-being of all consumers. Well-supervised banks adhere to higher federal oversight standards than any other institutions in the financial services ecosystem. In accordance with these requirements, they comply with an extensive list of existing rules and statutes intended to prevent discrimination, whether the Equal Credit Opportunity Act , Fair Housing Act or the Community Reinvestment Act, among others. Accordingly, banks conduct their own fair-lending analytics, including comparative file reviews and regression analyses, to meet their legal responsibilities and minimize any potential of discriminatory outcomes. These laws were developed and implemented by Congress through the statutorily defined rulemaking process — one which considers stakeholder input and yields clear, transparent expectations. As a result, banks are empowered not only to adhere to them but to deliver on their intent across every region they serve. This approach to regulation comes in stark contrast to actions taken by policymakers at the CFPB last spring, when the bureau made sweeping revisions to its examination manual to reflect a new interpretation or legal theory that the "unfairness" prong of the UDAAP definition can be applied to any conduct the CFPB deems discriminatory — even in markets where specific fair-lending laws may not apply. As CBA and other leading financial groups argue in a lawsuit challenging the CFPB's UDAAP announcement, such changes represent an enormous self-expansion of the agency's authority that stands contrary to the intent of Congress, which never authorized or intended for the CFPB to "fill gaps" between the clearly articulated boundaries of antidiscrimination statutes with its UDAAP authority. Further, by announcing revisions to the exam manual in conjunction with a press release and blog post, rather than through a rulemaking process, the bureau also set a concerning precedent regarding the manner in which policymakers can implement regulatory priorities.
Supreme Court hasn't decided yet to take CFPB constitutionality case - The Supreme Court has not yet agreed to hear a challenge to the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, though the high court could still take the case this term or next.The Supreme Court on Tuesday did not list the case — Community Financial Services Association of America v. CFPB — among the cases it intended to hear in the current session, but it may still take the case next week or at any time, experts said. The court regularly releases a list of cases each Monday. But it also may issue individual "miscellaneous" orders at any time.The CFPB case is being closely watched for its impact on not only the agency's own funding structure but those of other regulatory agencies as well. The case also threatens to undo all of the bureau's past actions and rules, depending on how sweeping the Supreme Court's decision ultimately would be if it were to take the case.In November, the CFPB petitioned the court to review an appellate decision that the bureau's funding through the Federal Reserve Board violates the appropriations clause. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit had ruled in October that the CFPB's funding contravenes the Constitution's separation of powers. The three judges, all appointees of President Donald Trump, found that Congress had ceded its own "power of the purse" by funding the CFPB outside congressional appropriations, even if the funding was authorized by statute.The CFPB was created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, which structured the bureau as an independent agency within the Fed. The CFPB's budget is drawn from the Fed and capped at up to 12% of the central bank's operating expenses. In 2022, the agency's maximum budget was $734 million.Few experts think the Supreme Court will abolish the CFPB outright. But the 5th Circuit's ruling opened the door for the bureau's 12-year history of rules and enforcement actions to be challenged. Many experts think any Supreme Court decision will lead to a fight in Congress over the CFPB's future funding. Though some banks and financial institutions want the CFPB to be abolished outright, many others are hoping for a ruling that would force Democratic lawmakers to bow to reforms, including funding the agency through congressional appropriations and adopting a commission structure.
CFPB orders TitleMax to pay $15M for illegal loans to servicemembers - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday ordered auto title lender TitleMax to pay a $10 million fine and $5 million in restitution for overcharging servicemembers and altering the personal information of military borrowers to avoid detection. The CFPB said that TitleMax, based in Savannah, Georgia, doctored personally identifiable information so military borrowers and their dependents would not be identified as servicemembers covered by the Military Lending Act. The company made illegal auto title loans to servicemembers above the 36% annual interest rate cap and overcharged other borrowers on fees and useless insurance products that provided no coverage, the CFPB said. From 2016 to 2021, TitleMax originated at least 2,670 auto title loans to military borrowers. The company also charged borrowers unlawful fees on 15,000 loans for an insurance product that did not provide any coverage, the bureau said. Borrowers who did not qualify for the insurance product also were charged fees, the bureau said. "The CFPB order stops TitleMax's illegal predatory lending to military families — sometimes even taking steps to hide evidence of its wrongdoing," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a press release. "Our legal action is the CFPB's first against a nonbank lender for providing title loans to military families." TitleMax was fined $9 million by the CFPB in 2016 for failing to disclose costs of title loans in three states and for illegally exposing consumers' personal identifiable information to their employers. In 2019, California fined the company for allegedly violating the state's interest rate cap. TitleMax, a unit of TMX Finance, offers small dollar title loans typically for 30 days for which borrowers put up their car or truck as collateral. TitleMax sells auto title and personal loans through 1,000 stores in 18 states. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
FHFA seeks public input on community impact of Home Loan member banks - The Federal Housing Finance Agency is asking the public to weigh in on whether certain banks and financial institutions are doing their part to support affordable housing.The FHFA made its request for public input Wednesday as part of its biennial review of the Federal Home Loan Bank System's community support program. The examination determines whether members are eligible for the discounted credit provided by the 11 Home Loan banks."The FHLBanks' member institutions must meet community support standards in order to maintain access to long-term FHLBank advances," FHFA director Sandra L. Thompson said in a written statement Wednesday. "Today's announcement provides the public with the opportunity to tell us how these financial institutions are meeting the standards in their communities."The request for public comment is a staple of FHFA's community support program review. Some of the Home Loan banks solicit letters of support year-round through their websites in anticipation of the every-two-years evaluation process. Yet this year's review, which includes all 6,500-plus member organizations — banks, credit unions, thrifts and insurance companies — coincides with the FHFA's first comprehensive review of the system in nearly a century. It also comes amid growing questions about the use of Home Loan bank loans, known as advances. Notably, San Diego-based Silvergate Bank used $4.3 billion of advances late last year to hold off a deposit run amid the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Once focused on mortgages and multifamily lending, during the past decade, Silvergate has transformed its business model to be primarily focused on supporting crypto and financial technology firms, yet it still retains membership with the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. Last month, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and John Kennedy, R-La., sent a letter to Silvergate asking what it intends to do with the advances and whether they will be used to support affordable housing.Some in the bank regulatory and housing advocacy spaces have also questioned how much the Home Loan Bank System is doing to address the country's housing woes or whether it has stayed true to its founding purpose. Established under the Hoover administration in 1932, the Home Loan banks are private, member-owned institutions but they enjoy severalgovernment-imbued benefits, including a tax-exempt status and a government-guarantee on agency bonds.
BankThink Don't disrupt the Federal Home Loan banks' liquidity mission | American Banker --A recent BankThink piece argued that the Federal Home Loan banks provide "insufficient tangible benefit." Drawing that conclusion ignores the importance of reliable and easily accessible liquidity to the health of financial institutions, the mission Congress has given the Home Loan banks to provide liquidity to their members in all economic cycles, and the impact liquid banks, credit unions, insurance companies and community development financial institutions (Home Loan bank members) have on their customers, members and communities.Home Loan bank members rely heavily on the liquidity provided by their bank. It is access to liquidity that enables them to make more loans, which in turn drive homeownership and community development, strengthening local economies. Without it, depository institutions would operate with lower loan-to-deposit ratios, constricting the availability of credit and making the cost of credit higher. The consequences would be felt by consumers: If banks reduced loan volume just 5% to account for a change in access to Home Loan bank liquidity, borrowers would have access to $50 billion less credit each year from community lenders. Potential homebuyers would face higher interest rates — a less affordable market — making it more difficult for them to buy a home.Home Loan bank activity also enhances the viability of the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. The agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market enables consumers to access this product and Home Loan bank eligible institutions hold approximately 40% of MBS — providing funding for consumers' mortgages and enhancing the availability and accessibility of homeownership opportunities. Home Loan banks give their members confidence to hold MBS in the long term because they can use the MBS as collateral and secure liquidity through advances. An illiquid MBS market could lead to the extinction of the 30-year mortgage, a hallmark of mortgage financing only available to homebuyers in America.Home Loan banks enable so much of what consumers value in housing finance, and, through their members, Home Loan banks have a real, demonstrable impact on borrowers and communities. According to a recent University of Wisconsin study, an additional $130 billion in mortgage lending is conducted each year, and consumers pay $17 billion less in interest payments, because of Home Loan bank activity — a very tangible benefit to consumers. Home Loan bank activity also serves as a shock absorber during times of financial stress. During the Great Recession, Home Loan banks were the largest source of crisis-related liquidity for the financial system until the Federal Reserve intervened months after the crisis began. And during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Home Loan Bank System increased advances by 25% in the last few weeks of March 2020, before Federal Reserve and legislative intervention, as members looked for a stable source of liquidity at the onset of an unprecedented crisis. In today's higher interest rate environment, Home Loan banks are again answering their members' needs and making much needed liquidity available. The value Home Loan banks provided to the financial system during these exigent circumstances cannot be understated and should not be forgotten. The BankThink headline warns that FHFA is coming for the Home Loan banks. If that's true, the impact will be felt not only by Home Loan bank members, but also by the people and communities they serve.Many of the ideas proffered during the review process — limiting member credit lines based on their business activity, ongoing housing asset tests, restrictions on large bank access, and requirements to use advances exclusively for housing finance activity — would reduce Home Loan banks' ability to maintain our level of support for affordable housing, much less expand our impact. Restricting access to, and use of, liquidity would limit member activity, reduce the availability of affordable mortgage finance, and hurt consumers. The consequences would be real and would be felt on Main Streets across the country.FHFA Director Sandra Thompson has said repeatedly that the status quo is not acceptable. We agree that the need for more affordable housing is real, and we are eager to engage the agency about how Home Loan banks can make a robust impact through the affordable housing component of our mission. The system is already one of the largest contributors to affordable housing, and we want to continue to be part of the solution. However, the importance of our liquidity mission to fulfilling our affordable housing and community development mission — and the consequences of disrupting the liquidity mission — must not be misunderstood. Disrupting access to liquidity could shrink the Home Loan Bank System, the Affordable Housing Program, the Community Investment Program, and the Community Investment Cash Advance Program, lessening the impact Home Loan banks and their members can have when addressing housing and community development needs of cities, towns, rural and underserved areas across the country. Worse, it could radically alter the nature of banking and housing finance in America.
FHA slashes mortgage insurance premium by 30 basis points - The Department of Housing and Urban Development will cut the Federal Housing Administration's mortgage insurance premium by 30 basis points, a move that many stakeholders think is long overdue.The cut drops premiums from 85 basis points to 55 basis points — reverting premiums to a level not seen since before the 2008 housing crisis. HUD estimates that this will on average result in yearly savings of about $800 for about 850,000 homebuyers. A 7.5% share of home sales in the third quarter of 2022 used FHA-insured mortgages.The FHA's Commissioner Julia Gordon confirmed the planned reduction Wednesday, noting that the cut will give homebuyers "a little room to deal with inflation" and is meant to be "meaningful" without jeopardizing the FHA's insurance fund.Gordon also explained that the reduction had to be modest because "despite a very high capital ratio, we know things can change quickly."Stakeholders in the housing industry have been calling on the administration to reduce premiums for the past two years, arguing that doing so would make the FHA's program more affordable for homebuyers. Mortgage insurance is required for all FHA borrowers, regardless of the down payment amount.Advocates for a cut have also noted that Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund is flush with cash:as of Sept. 30 the capital ratio of the FHA's MMIF was 11.11%, several times above the statutory minimum of 2.0%.The administration was previously reluctant to commit to a change, pointing first to elevated delinquency rates and then to uncertainty about their budget for the next fiscal year. But in late December, Congress approved a final 2023 spending bill that provided HUD with $61.8 billion, or $8.1 billion more than enacted levels in 2022, making a premium cut a far more realistic proposition.The cut goes into effect for loans endorsed for FHA insurance on or after March 20, 2023.
MBA Survey: "Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 0.64% in January" - Note: This is as of January 31st. From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 0.64% in January The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) monthly Loan Monitoring Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 6 basis points from 0.70% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior month to 0.64% as of January 31, 2023. According to MBA’s estimate, 320,000 homeowners are in forbearance plans.The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 1 basis point to 0.30%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 8 basis points to 1.37%, and the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) decreased 17 basis points to 0.83%.“The forbearance rate decreased across all investor types in January, as borrowers continued to recover from pandemic-related hardships,” said Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s Vice President of Industry Analysis. “With the national emergency set to end on May 11 of this year, many borrowers will no longer have the option to initiate COVID-19-related forbearance. Mortgage forbearance in other forms – whether due to natural disasters or life events – will continue, albeit with different requirements and parameters.This graph shows the percent of portfolio in forbearance by investor type over time.The share of forbearance plans has been generally decreasing.At the end of January, there were about 320,000 homeowners in forbearance plans.
Black Knight: Mortgage Delinquencies Decreased in January -From Black Knight: Black Knight’s First Look at January 2023 Mortgage Data: Expanded and Enhanced Market Data Shows Mortgage Delinquency Improvement Across the Board in January, Uptick in Foreclosure Starts
• January performance data showed a slight decrease (-10 basis points) in the national delinquency rate month-over-month, which is now down 15.1% year over yearAccording to Black Knight's First Look report, the percent of loans delinquent decreased 2.3% in January compared to December and decreased 15% year-over-year.
• Foreclosure starts saw a fourth straight increase, but remain 37% below pre-pandemic levels; active foreclosures are up 20% since January 2022, but they too remain nearly 20% below pre-pandemic levels
• As purchase and refinance lending continue to face interest rate headwinds, prepayment activity hit yet another record low in January, dating back to at least 2000 when Black Knight began reporting the metric
Black Knight reported the U.S. mortgage delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) was 3.38% in January, down from 3.48% in December. The percent of loans in the foreclosure process increased slightly in December to 0.45%, from 0.44% in December. The number of delinquent properties, but not in foreclosure, is down 289,000 properties year-over-year, and the number of properties in the foreclosure process is up 48,000 properties year-over-year.
NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decreased to 4.00 million SAAR in January -- From the NAR: Existing-Home Sales Descended 0.7% in January; Existing-home sales fell for the twelfth straight month in January, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Month-over-month sales were mixed among the four major U.S. regions, as the South and West registered increases, while the East and Midwest experienced declines. All regions recorded year-over-year declines.Total existing-home sales, completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – slid 0.7% from December 2022 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.00 million in January. Year-over-year, sales retreated 36.9% (down from 6.34 million in January 2022)....Total housing inventory registered at the end of January was 980,000 units, up 2.1% from December and 15.3% from one year ago (850,000). Unsold inventory sits at a 2.9-month supply at the current sales pace, unchanged from December but up from 1.6 months in January 2022. This graph shows existing home sales, on a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) basis since 1993.Sales in January (4.00 million SAAR) were down 0.7% from the previous month and were 36.9% below the January 2022 sales rate. Sales were just above the pandemic low of 4.01 million SAAR.The second graph shows nationwide inventory for existing homes. According to the NAR, inventory increased to 0.99 million in January from 0.96 million in December. Headline inventory is not seasonally adjusted, and inventory usually decreases to the seasonal lows in December and January, and peaks in mid-to-late summer.The last graph shows the year-over-year (YoY) change in reported existing home inventory and months-of-supply. Since inventory is not seasonally adjusted, it really helps to look at the YoY change. Note: Months-of-supply is based on the seasonally adjusted sales and not seasonally adjusted inventory.Inventory was up 15.3% year-over-year (blue) in January compared to January 2022.Months of supply (red) was unchanged at 2.9 months in January from 2.9 months in December.This was below the consensus forecast.
NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decreased to 4.00 million SAAR in January; Median Prices Down 13.2% from Peak in June 2022 Today, in the CalculatedRisk Real Estate Newsletter: NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decreased to 4.00 million SAAR in JanuaryExcerpt: On prices, the NAR reported: The median existing-home price3 for all housing types in January was $359,000, an increase of 1.3% from January 2022 ($354,300), as prices climbed in three out of four U.S. regions while falling in the West. This marks 131 consecutive months of year-over-year increases, the longest-running streak on record. Median prices are distorted by the mix (repeat sales indexes like Case-Shiller and FHFA are probably better for measuring prices).The YoY change in the median price peaked at 25.2% in May 2021 and has now slowed to 1.3%. Note that the median price usually starts falling seasonally in July, so the 2.0% decline in January in the median price was partially seasonal, however the 13.2% decline in the median price over the last seven months has been much larger than the usual seasonal decline.It is likely the median price will be down year-over-year soon - and the Case-Shiller index will follow.
Mortgage Rates Near 7% for Spring Selling Season: Prices of Existing Homes Fall 13% from Peak, on Lowest Sales since 2010By Wolf Richter - Spring selling season begins with 7% mortgage rates? In terms of closed sales, December and January usually mark the low-point of the year for the housing market, reflecting deals made over the holiday period in November and December. But the spring selling season starts now. In January, mortgage rates had dropped on hopes of a quick Fed pivot and steep rate cuts asap, yes please, with mortgage rates diving back to 3%, or whatever, but that dream is now fizzling. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate today rose to 6.87%, according to Mortgage News Daily. The 10-year Treasury yield is moving in on the 4% mark – currently at 3.96%. And these rates are going to dog the spring selling season. “And this too shall pass” has been the guiding principle for potential sellers, as they’re waiting for the Fed to slash its interest rates so that mortgage rates could plunge back to 3% so that they could sell their properties for March 2022 prices. So potential sellers are not putting their vacant properties on the market unless they have to, and buyers are not buying at March 2022 prices. And the market remains essentially frozen. For deals to be made, potential sellers need to get realistic about the price at current mortgage rates. Those that listed their properties and made a deal months ago at whatever unpalatable price, they’re now way ahead of the game. Sales of previously owned houses, condos, and co-ops fell by another 0.7% in January from December, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales of 4.0 million homes, according to the National Association of Realtors today. This was the 12th month in a row of month-to-month declines on this seasonally adjusted basis. Sales dropped by 37% year-over-year, below the lockdown low of May 2020, to the lowest since 2010 during Housing Bust 1. Actual sales in January – not seasonally adjusted, and not as annual rate – fell to 231,000 properties, down 34% from a year ago (historic data via YCharts): Sales of single-family houses fell by 0.8% in January from December, and by 36% year-over-year, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.59 million houses. Sales of condos and co-ops were roughly unchanged from December, but plunged by 43% from January a year ago, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 410,000 units. Sales plunged in all regions. Year-over-year percent change (NAR map of regions):
New Home Sales Increase to 670,000 Annual Rate in January New Home Average Prices Down 5.3% Year-over-year - The Census Bureau reports New Home Sales in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 670 thousand. The previous three months were revised down, combined.Sales of new single‐family houses in January 2023 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 670,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 7.2 percent above the revised December rate of 625,000, but is 19.4 percent below the January 2022 estimate of 831,000. The first graph shows New Home Sales vs. recessions since 1963. The dashed line is the current sales rate.New home sales are close to pre-pandemic levels. The second graph shows New Home Months of Supply. The months of supply decreased in January to 7.9 months from 8.7 months in December. The all-time record high was 12.1 months of supply in January 2009. The all-time record low was 3.5 months, most recently in October 2020. This is well above the top of the normal range (about 4 to 6 months of supply is normal)."The seasonally‐adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of January was 439,000. This represents a supply of 7.9 months at the current sales rate." Starting in 1973 the Census Bureau broke inventory down into three categories: Not Started, Under Construction, and Completed.The third graph shows the three categories of inventory starting in 1973. The inventory of completed homes for sale (red) - at 68 thousand - is more than double the record low of 32 thousand in 2021 and early 2022. This is getting close to the normal level of completed homes for sale and increasing.The inventory of homes under construction (blue) at 280 thousand is very high, and about 11% below the cycle peak in July 2022. The inventory of homes not started is at 91 thousand - below the record peak of 102 thousand.The fourth graph shows new home sales for each month, Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA), for a few selected periods. Black is the maximum sales per month during the bubble (2005) and light gray is the minimum sales during the bust (2008 - 2011). The most recent five years are shown (2019 through 2023). In January 2023 (red column), 59 thousand new homes were sold (NSA). Last year, 70 thousand homes were sold in January. The all-time high for January was 92 thousand in 2005, and the all-time low for January was 21 thousand in 2011. The next graph shows new home sales for 2022 and 2023 by month (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate). Sales in January 2023 were down 19.4% from January 2022.
CoreLogic: "US Annual Rent Price Growth Dropped by Nearly Half in December" --CoreLogic: US Annual Rent Price Growth Dropped by Nearly Half in December - Rent price gains declined in December for the eighth straight month on an annual basis, but the 6.4% national increase remained higher than pre-pandemic levels. ...“U.S. single-family rental price growth closed out 2022 at about half of what it was one year ago,” said Molly Boesel, principal economist at CoreLogic. “However, while rent growth has been slowing, it still rose at more than double the pre-pandemic rate. Rental price gains began increasing near the end of 2020 and have risen by about an average of $300 in the past two years. Annual single-family rent growth is projected to slow throughout 2023, but it will likely not decline by enough to wipe out gains from the past two years.”This graph from CoreLogic shows the year-over-year change in rents for several price tiers.This index was reported to be up 6.4% YoY in December, after rising 7.5% YoY in November and 8.8% YoY in October.
The average American tenant is rent-burdened. Here’s what that means for the economy.The average American renter is now paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing, as wages have failed to keep up with rent hikes and affordable units remain scarce, a new report shows. The nation is falling short of the demand for affordable housing by at least a million homes in some estimates. The federal government defines rent-burdened as paying more than that 30 percent threshold. The typical American renter now falls in that category, according to a recent report from Moody’s Analytics. This marks the first time that’s occurred in the more than 20 years that the ratings agency has been tracking the metric. “If we’re looking at the low- to moderate-income families, they are taking 40 percent and above all of their income on the rent, even if the metro [area] itself hasn’t crossed that 30 percent line yet,” said Moody’s Analytics senior economist Lu Chen. “This 30 percent is such a symbolic number … And I have to say we have been close to that 30 percent threshold for some time,” she added. Three adults working full-time, still struggling with paying rent While tenants in many U.S. cities have long spent at least 30 percent of their income on housing, the fact that this threshold has been passed at the national level marks a new milestone for housing affordability. Jennifer Wells, a social worker in Bartholomew County, Indiana, told The Hill her rent has soared since 2016, while maintenance was scarce. “In 2016, I moved into a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment and was paying $720 a month. And then the six years that I lived there, it was gradually raised to well over $1,000 a month,” Jennifer said. Wells, a tenant leader with Hoosier Action, a housing advocacy group, said the problems with affordability continued. “Absolutely no maintenance was done. The last year I lived there, there was no AC for two solid months and that was last year, we had a very hot summer,” she continued. “We were having to borrow AC units from friends, which was just causing my electric bill to skyrocket.”
Parents Increasingly Move Back In With Their Kids, What's Going On-Multigeneration households are on the rise. Let's discuss several reasons why... Pew discusses the Demographics of Multigenerational Households.. The number of Americans who live in multigenerational family households is about four times larger than it was in the 1970s, while the number in other types of homes grew by far less. The share of the U.S. population living in multigenerational homes more than doubled over the past five decades. After declining in earlier decades, multigenerational living has grown steadily in the U.S. since the 1970s. From 1971 to 2021, the number of people living in multigenerational households quadrupled, while the number in other types of living situations is less than double what it was. The share of the U.S. population in multigenerational homes has more than doubled, from 7% in 1971 to 18% in 2021. Multigenerational living is growing in part because groups that account for most recent overall population growth in the U.S., including foreign-born, Asian2, Black and Hispanic Americans, are more likely to live with multiple generations under one roof. Thus, the rise in the multigenerational family household population is linked to the changing makeup of the overall U.S. population. However, multigenerational living also is rising among non-Hispanic White Americans, who accounted for a higher share of the multigenerational household population growth from 2000 to 2021 (28%) than of total population growth (9%). Among major racial and ethnic groups, Americans who are Asian, Black or Hispanic are more likely than those who are White to live in a multigenerational family household. About a quarter of Asian (24%), Black (26%) and Hispanic (26%) Americans lived in multigenerational households in 2021, compared with 13% of those who are White. Since 2000, the multigenerational household population has grown by 22.1 million people, but some groups played a larger role than others in driving that change. Americans younger than 40 accounted for almost half (49%) of the increase in the multigenerational household population but only 17% of overall population growth. In general, young adults are marrying later and staying in school longer than previous generations, which may contribute to their rising inclination to live with other family members under one roof. PEW discusses the reasons in a separate article, Experiences of Adults in Multigenerational Households. There are a variety of reasons why adults live in multigenerational households, but financial considerations top the list. Many also say that this is just the arrangement they’ve always had or that caring for an adult family member or receiving care is a reason for their living arrangement. Relatively few say the reasons they live in a multigenerational household are related to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the most part, adults living in multigenerational households say this has been a positive experience, with at least half saying their arrangement is often convenient and rewarding. Still, about a quarter say living with other adult family members can be stressful all or most of the time, and this is particularly the case among adult children living with a parent.The experiences of adults in multigenerational households often vary by income; and, among adult children living with a parent, by age. For example, those with lower incomes are more likely than those with middle and upper incomes to say there’s not enough space to live comfortably. Younger adults (ages 25 to 39) who are living with a parent are much more likely than those ages 40 and older to see financial benefits in the arrangement and much less likely to say they contribute anything toward the mortgage or rent in their household. Unsurprisingly, finances are a factor in 67 percent of these decisions. It's a major factor in 40 percent of these arrangements. There are more households over time so the number of multigenerational households will also increase over time even if the percentages stay the same. However, PEW notes that non-Hispanic White Americans accounted for a higher share of the multigenerational household population growth from 2000 to 2021 (28%) than of total population growth (9%).
Housing February 20th Weekly Update: Inventory Decreased 1.5% Week-over-week --Altos reports that active single-family inventory was down 1.5% week-over-week. Usually inventory bottoms in early February, so we'd expect inventory to bottom seasonally soon.Here are the same week inventory changes for the last five years: This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research. As of February 17th, inventory was at 437 thousand (7-day average), compared to 443 thousand the prior week. The second graph shows the seasonal pattern for active single-family inventory since 2015.
• Occupancy: 60.8% (-5.5%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): $156.10 (+19.5%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): $94.94 (+12.9%)
*Due to the pandemic impact, STR is measuring recovery against comparable time periods from 2019. Year-over-year comparisons will once again become standard after the first quarter. The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average.
Personal Income increased 0.6% in January; Spending increased 1.8% - The BEA released the Personal Income and Outlays report for January: Personal income increased $131.1 billion (0.6 percent) in January, according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI) increased $387.4 billion (2.0 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $312.5 billion (1.8 percent).The PCE price index increased 0.6 percent in January. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index also increased 0.6 percent. Real DPI increased 1.4 percent and Real PCE increased 1.1 percent; goods increased 2.2 percent and services increased 0.6 percent.The January PCE price index increased 5.4 percent year-over-year (YoY), up from 5.3 percent YoY in December, and down from the recent peak of 7.0 percent in June 2022. The PCE price index, excluding food and energy, increased 4.7 percent YoY, up from 4.6 percent in December, and down from the recent peak of 5.4 percent in February 2022.The following graph shows real Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) through January 2023 (2012 dollars). Note that the y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the change..The dashed red lines are the quarterly levels for real PCE. Personal income was below expectations, and the increase in PCE was above expectations. Inflation was above expectations.
How the CPI “Weights” Changed and Moved CPI: Meet the Surprises By Wolf Richter - There has been a hullabaloo of sorts in certain circles recently about the adjustment of weights for the calculations of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Swirling around in this hullabaloo were suggestions that certainly the BLS is adjusting the weights to manipulate CPI down and further deceive Americans about inflation. So we’re going to look at the actual weights and numbers and charts, to see how the weights changed in recent years and for 2023. So meet the surprises. There are about 330 expenditure categories of goods and services that make up CPI. For example, “white bread” is one category, summarizing the prices of many different types and brands of white bread. In this manner, the CPI basket covers just about everything consumers are buying. Each of these goods or services is assigned a weight in the overall index that determines its “relative importance” in the overall index. All goods and services added together have a weight of 100%. That never changes. What changes are the weights of the individual categories, some weights increasing, others decreasing, but the sum always = 100%. The BLS adjusts these weights based on the changing purchasing patterns by consumers. When consumers spend a larger portion of their total spending on item X than they used to, the weight of Item X increases. Conversely, they will spend a smaller portion of their total spending on Item Y, and its weight is then reduced. The idea is to keep the CPI basket up-to-date with current consumer purchasing patterns, which shift over time. These adjustments used to be made on a two-year cycle. Starting with 2023, the adjustments of the weights will be made every year to capture shifts in spending more quickly. During Covid, there were massive shifts in the spending patterns, causing mind-boggling distortions in the economy. But because the weight adjustments occurred on a two-year cycle, they initially missed the big changes. So going forward, the adjustments will be made annually, the BLS said. Here are nine major categories that together account for 83% of overall CPI:
- “Rent of shelter,” a high-inflation biggie: weight increased, pushed up CPI. The weight of “rent of shelter” – a stand-in for housing costs that roughly accounts for one-third of CPI – was increased in 2022. Because the CPI for “rent of shelter” spiked in 2022, the higher weight made the overall CPI worse in 2022. It was then again increased by a much larger amount in January 2023 for the current year.The weight was increased from 32.05% in November 2021 to 32.42% in January 2022, and to 34.04% in January 2023.In January 2023, with the CPI for rent of shelter a red-hot +0.8% month-to-month and +8.0% year-over-year, the higher weight made CPI even worse:
- Food at home: weight increased, pushed up CPI.The weight of food at home – food and beverages that folks buy at stores – jumped in 2022 with a surge in purchases in 2020 (remember, it was on a 2-year cycle). The weight has now jumped from 7.7% in November 2021 to 8.7% in January 2023.The year-over-year CPI of food at home has been in the double digits for 10 months in a row. And the higher weights made CPI even worse so far:
- Food away from home: weight dropped, pushed down CPI.Food away from home includes restaurants, delis, vending machines, cafeterias at schools, company work sites, etc. This industry got crushed during the pandemic. Restaurants have recovered, except those trying to make a living off the office lunch crowd; those got hammered by working from home, which also hammered company-provided meal services in office buildings that used to be touted as a big benefit. Many companies closed those eating facilities because people are working from home. So overall, people were eating more at home, and used the company-provided lunch and dinner facilities less often.And the weight of food away from home dropped from 6.3% in November 2021 to 4.8% in January 2023, with the biggest drop occurring for 2022, and a smaller drop for 2023.The CPI for food away from home has been running hot at over 8% for much of last year (in January 2023: +0.6% month-to-month and +8.2% year-over-year), and the decline in the weight pushed down overall CPI:
- New and used vehicles: Weight changes pushed up CPI. The number of new vehicles sold to end-users plunged in 2020, 2021, and 2022 to levels first seen in the 1970s due to supply-chain shortages, particularly semiconductor shortages. With inventories depleted, the prices of new vehicles shot higher, and month after month for 12 months straight, from October 2021 through September 2022, the CPI for new vehicles jumped by over 10% year-over-year.The weight rose from 3.9% in November 2021 to 4.3% in January 2023, which, given the increase in new-vehicle CPI, made overall CPI worse.Used vehicle sales volume dropped substantially from pre-pandemic levels, largely because of the most mind-boggling price spikes ever, with the CPI for used vehicles spiking by 45% year-over-year in the summer of 2021, and enough people just said no, and for the past 12 months, the CPI for used vehicles actually dropped.Weights were adjusted higher in January 2022 to 4.2%, but then were reduced to 2.7% in January 2023. Because used vehicle prices have dropped for a whole year, the lower relative importance of the dropping CPI for used vehicles pushed up the overall CPI so far:
- Gasoline: weight dropped, as consumption dropped. Gasoline is one of those products that when the price spiked through mid-2022, people cut their consumption. According to EIA data, consumption of gasoline in the US, as measured in barrels per day, fell by 4.5% in 2022 from 2021.Over the last six months of 2022, gasoline prices plunged. In January, the CPI for gasoline was just a tad higher than in January a year agoThe weight of gasoline dropped from 3.9% in November 2021 to 3.2% in January 2022. With little year-over-year price change in gasoline in January, overall CPI wasn’t impacted in a major way.
- Medical care services: weight declined, and in interesting twist, pushed up overall CPI. This category does not include medical drugs, a category of its own. Weight dropped from 6.97% in January 2022 to 6.65% in January 2023.This is an interesting twist. Medical services include health insurance. Starting in October 2022, health insurance CPI was massively adjusted downward for the next 12 months, making up for the overstatement in the prior 12 months. After this adjustment, the health insurance CPI month-to-month has been deeply negative, and dragged overall medical care services CPI into the negative (-0.7% in January month-to-month).By reducing the weight of medical services in overall CPI in January for 2023, the negative medical services CPI weighs less in overall CPI, and the reduction in weight of this negative number results in pushing up overall CPI. You might have to read this sentence a couple of times – like I said, an interesting twist.
- Household Furnishings: weight increased, pushed up overall CPI.Remember what we said: these weights are adjusted on prior years’ consumption pattern. And during Covid, consumers bought all kinds of stuff to fix up their homes and patios – furniture, window and floor coverings, appliances, lamps, tools, dishes, etc., for all kinds of reasons, including to prepare the home for working from home, causing an epic spike of these types of purchases.And the weight increased from 3.8% in November 2021 to 4.4% in January 2023. With the CPI for household furnishings jumping 0.5% month to month and 6.4% year-over-year, the higher weight of this hot category pushed up overall CPI.Recreation services: weight declined. This category includes video and audio subscriptions, cable, streaming services, etc. The CPI for this category has increased by 3.9% year-over-year.The weight dropped from 3.7% in November 2021 to 3.1% in January 2023.
- Working from home was a nightmare for clothing retailers that sell clothes that people wear to the office. But some of it may now have turned around, perhaps amid a bout of revenge spending on travel attire. The weight dropped from 2.7% in November 2021 to 2.4% in November 2022, but in January, the weight was raised to 2.5%. The CPI for apparel was hot in January, at 0.8% month-to-month, but year-over-year was up only 3.1%.
Dollar Store "Mania" Hits Small Kentucky Town -Brick-and-mortar dollar stores have expanded rapidly nationwide over the past two years. These discount retailers bring rural consumers more buying power during high inflation periods. One town in eastern Kentucky has had what the Daily Mail calls a "dollar store mania" as these retailers take over the town. Olive Hill has a population of 1,600. About a third of the residents live below the poverty line, which is higher than the national average of 12.8%. Given low incomes and cheap land around the tiny town, it makes sense why dollar stores are flooding the small town to take advantage of poor residents. Daily Mail said the town has two Family Dollar locations and four Dollar General stores. One resident said: "It seems like there's a dollar store every few feet." The reason why discount retailers are flooding small towns was explained by John Mercer, head of global research at Coresight, who WSJ quoted: High inflation has increased the appeal of dollar stores' relatively low prices. But the expansion of the sector is rooted in structural changes in U.S. shopping habits that predate the current economic cycle. Mercer said more and more shoppers are turning to dollar stores for groceries. This comes as low-income folks have been battered with 21 months of negative real wage growth, depleted savings, maxed-out credit cards, and the highest credit card rates in years. The challenging macroeconomic climate suggests low-income consumers have trouble affording traditional items at stores and supermarkets and must downshift to discount retailers. That's why dollar stores have been the fastest-growing food retailers by share of household expenditure, with growth in rural areas more than doubling in the last decade, according to a recent study. However, affordable food at dollar stores comes at a health cost to low-income consumers who will only be able to find high-calorie, ultra-processed packaged foods -- not exactly healthy. And while these big corporations are increasingly building dollar stores in small towns. Perhaps these companies could also build diabetes clinics.
Tesla engineering HQ leaving Texas to return to California, Musk announces – Tesla is returning to California. Elon Musk announced during a joint press conference with California Gov. Gavin Newsom that Tesla would be returning its global engineering headquarters to California, two years after a dramatic exit that saw the electric car company leave the Golden State for a facility in Austin, Texas. Tesla will open up shop in the former home of Hewlett Packard in Palo Alto, Musk said. The facility will serve as the company’s engineering headquarters while the corporate headquarters remains in Austin. The move returns Tesla to the world’s center of technology and innovation, and puts Musk in closer to proximity to the headquarters of Twitter, which the billionaire tech entrepreneur purchased last year in a massive social media shakeup. Musk called the move into HP’s old building a “poetic transition from the company that founded Silicon Valley to Tesla.” Newsom applauded the decision to return Tesla to California, saying that the state remains on the forefront of “discovery and new ideas and innovation.” “We say about our state, the future happens here first. We are America’s coming attraction,” Newsom said. The governor, who has known for Musk for decades, said it was a point of personal pride to have Tesla in California.
LA Port Inbound Traffic Down 22% YoY in January - Container traffic gives us an idea about the volume of goods being exported and imported - and usually some hints about the trade report since LA area ports handle about 40% of the nation's container port traffic. The following graphs are for inbound and outbound traffic at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in TEUs (TEUs: 20-foot equivalent units or 20-foot-long cargo container).To remove the strong seasonal component for inbound traffic, the first graph shows the rolling 12-month average.On a rolling 12-month basis, inbound traffic decreased 1.9% in January compared to the rolling 12 months ending in December. Outbound traffic decreased 0.6% compared to the rolling 12 months ending the previous month.The 2nd graph is the monthly data (with a strong seasonal pattern for imports). Usually imports peak in the July to October period as retailers import goods for the Christmas holiday, and then decline sharply and bottom in February or March depending on the timing of the Chinese New Year. Imports were down 22% YoY in January, and exports were down 7% YoY. It is possible that exports have bottomed after declining for several years (even prior to the pandemic).
The Number Of Americans On Jobless Benefits Hovers Near One-Year Highs - Initial jobless claims continues to hover 'bullishly' around the 200k mark (last week was 192k), despite the ongoing news of mass layoffs (and severance), dropping to four-week lows... Graph Source: Bloomberg Continuing jobless claims also dipped last week from 1.691mm to 1.654mm (the biggest drop since December), but has been generally flat for 3 months. California saw the biggest drop in claims for the second week in a row... Finally, the total number of Americans claiming some form of unemployment benefit rose to 1.941mm last week, hovering at one-year highs... Source: Bloomberg It seems the transmission mechanism from Fed rates to the 'real' economy is broken... or this lag is unprecedented
2,100 rail workers to get paid leave in new deal with Union Pacific - The Union Pacific Corporation has reached an agreement with two of its unions that represent 2,100 hundred rail workers to provide them with multiple days of paid sick leave, a key goal in recent rail labor talks. In a statement on Monday, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen (BRC) shared that the agreement, which takes effect on April 1, will provide up to four days of paid sick leave for Union Pacific employees in the union, also allowing them to convert their personal leave days for sick leave. According to Bloomberg News, Union Pacific’s agreement with BRC and the National Conference of Firemen & Oilers (NCFO) represents covers approximately 8 percent of its total workforce. “Union Pacific did the right thing by coming to the bargaining table and reaching a fair agreement. We look forward to continuing to work with the other Carriers to reach similar agreements for all our members.” In a separate statement, NCFO President Dean Devita applauded the latest agreement, saying it was time for “Union Pacific for coming to the bargaining table and adjusting this wrong and making it right.” Congress and the Biden administration last year forced through a new rail labor agreement after talks between unions and management broke down, with one of the key sticking points being workers’ demand for paid leave.
Airlines cancel over 1,300 U.S. flights as winter storm grips states | (Reuters) - Airlines canceled more than 1,300 flights in the United States on Wednesday as a strong winter storm makes its way through the western and central states. A total of 1,327 flights within, into and out of the United States were canceled by 12:30 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware, which also showed 2,030 flights were delayed. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a tweet on Tuesday the severe weather could cause flight delays or cancellations this week in Minnesota and other states in the Great Lakes and southern plains. Snow falling at a rate of two inches an hour and gusty winds will make travel conditions treacherous and perhaps impossible in parts of the Northern Plains and the Upper Midwest, the National Weather Service said in its forecast on Tuesday. Regional carrier SkyWest Inc (SKYW.O) led the cancellations with 312 flights, followed by low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines Co's 248 and Delta Air Lines'246 flight cancellations. Southwest and Delta said they are monitoring the storm, while SkyWest did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
New York Drivers Wasted Ten Days In Traffic Last Year - New Yorkers should not be surprised by new TomTom traffic data that shows the Big Apple's traffic is the worst in the US. On average, New Yorkers spent a whopping 236 hours (9.83 days) in rush hour in 2022, according to TomTom's geolocation data that tracks congestion and traffic trends. TomTom's report analyzed 80 US cities and measured how long drivers traveled 6 miles. The number two spot is Washington, then San Fransico, Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, Seattle, and Philadelphia. A one-way commute (around 6 miles) to work in New York is also the most expensive in the US. Time spent in rush hour will add up over the years. Perhaps all this wasted time can be saved by a hybrid work week or remote work. At least now, there's a clear understanding of what major metro areas to avoid during rush hour.
Mississippi House Republicans back controversial white-run court system for heavily black capital city - In a move reminiscent of the state’s racist Jim Crow laws of the late 19th and 20th centuries, Mississippi House lawmakers recently passed a bill allowing an all-white panel of state officials to appoint unelected judges and prosecutors to oversee the courts of the city of Jackson, an overwhelmingly black majority city. The Republican-led House debated the legislature, called House Bill 1020 (HB 1020), and passed it following an intense four-hour debate last Tuesday. HB 1020 would expand the city’s Capital Complex Improvement District (CCID), which includes the bulk of the Jackson downtown area and state government offices. This bill essentially gives the CCID a separate court system of unelected officials, including two judges, four state prosecutors, four public defenders and a court clerk. These officials are to be appointed by the Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court and the state attorney general, both of whom are white. The population of the CCID area is over 50 percent black. If passed, this bill would take away from these city residents the right to name their own judges and prosecutors and put the sole power to appoint these positions into the hands of white state officials. Jackson is a Democratic-run city with a black mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, and this bill would place more power over the courts of this city into the hands of white Republican state officials. In fact, none of the positions that would have this appointing power under this bill has ever been held by a black official, even though African Americans make up 38 percent of the population, the largest proportion of any state. The bill will also expand the state-run capital police force. Jackson Mayor Lumumba spoke out against the bill, calling it one of the most oppressive in the state’s history. “It reminds me of apartheid,” he told reporters. “It’s oppressive because it strips the right of black folks to vote, and it’s oppressive because it puts a military force over people that has no accountability to them. It’s oppressive because there will be judges, who will determine sentences over people’s lives. It's oppressive because it redirects their tax dollars to something they don’t endorse or believe in.” One of the bill’s sponsors, white Republican state Senator Trey Lamar, spoke in favor of the bill, claiming it will help address the crime issue in Jackson by expanding the CCID and the capital police force. “The people who voted for this bill are trying to make Jackson safer,” he said. “That’s all they’re interested in, and if you’re not committing crimes in Jackson, you really don’t have anything to worry about.” Lamar does not live in Jackson and represents a majority white community.
Fascist election denier wins race to be chair of Michigan Republican Party - The evolution of the Republican Party into a fascist political organization reached a new level during the election for chair of the Michigan GOP at the party’s state convention in Lansing on Saturday. After three ballots, Kristina Karamo, who has refused to concede her 14-point loss for Michigan secretary of state in November 2022, defeated Matt DePerno, who had also lost his bid for state attorney general last year. Kristina Karamo speaks to Michigan Republican Party delegates Saturday, February 18, 2023, in Lansing, Mich. Karamo, who was overwhelmingly defeated in her bid to become Michigan’s secretary of state, was chosen Saturday to lead the state's Republican Party for the next two years. [AP Photo/Joey Cappelletti] Karamo, the first African-American chair of the Michigan organization, won 58 percent against DePerno’s 42 percent of the final ballot. The deciding ballot was cast after an 11-hour chaotic convention, described by the Washington Post as, “a rowdy standoff over voting procedures and 10 candidates who all ran under a pro-Trump banner.” Although both Karamo and DePerno are 2020 election deniers, the former appears to have benefited from the fact that the latter had the endorsement of Donald Trump. In a brief victory speech—cut short because the organization lacked the funds needed to extend rental of the convention hall beyond 8:00 p.m.—Karamo said, “I am nothing without Jesus. I am a nobody without Jesus. We will not betray you; we will not lie to you.” Even though she lacked Trump’s support, Karamo made it clear that she represents those within the Michigan organization who are aligned with the Make America Great Again (MAGA) program of the former president, who attempted to remain in the White House through a coup plot and fascist assault on the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021. Karamo drew an enthusiastic response from the delegates when she said she had not conceded her own race for Michigan secretary of state while citing unspecified and unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. Along with all those supporting Trump’s lie of a stolen 2020 election, Karamo is calling for various undemocratic measures including restrictions on absentee balloting.
Religious freedom bill advances in West Virginia committee (AP) — A West Virginia legislative committee on Wednesday advanced a bill that would codify the right of residents to challenge government regulations that interfere with their religious beliefs. The House Judiciary Committee advanced the bill to the full House of Delegates. A public hearing on the bill is scheduled Friday in the House chambers. The legislation would require a government entity to have a compelling reason to burden someone’s constitutional right to freedom of religion and to meet its goals in the least restrictive way possible. Lawmakers failed to pass a similar bill in 2016. Several Republican committee members said the bill has good intentions. Del. Chris Pritt of Kanawha County said the bill would make West Virginia attractive to economic development. “There could be businesses out there that could look at this law and say, that’s the kind of place we want to move to, a place that protects religious minorities, that respects religion,” Pratt said. Opponents fear the bill would allow businesses to challenge city ordinances prohibiting discrimination in housing or employment based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Democratic Delegate Evan Hansen of Monongalia County said he had multiple concerns about the bill, including how it would treat religious minorities, patients whose doctors or pharmacists have certain religious beliefs, and foster children in the homes of same-sex couples.What It Looks Like When the Far Right Takes Control of Local Government - The agenda for the Ottawa County governing board’s most recent meeting here last week listed, among other issues, a roof repair and resurfacing contract, a budget calendar that needed setting and, from IT, a request to hire one more employee.They were terrestrial concerns. But over the course of a meeting that ran more than four hours, public speaker after speaker in three-minute increments were debating something else entirely, something far more spiritual — to what extent their government should, or should not, pursue Judeo-Christian values. They warned of the “tyranny” of mask mandates, the “sexualization of our children” and the “unhinged caterwauling fascists” of the left. One woman thanked the commissioners “for trying to bring our freedom back,” while a man read to them from Isaiah: “Be not dismayed, for I am your God … I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”Members of an upstart group called “Ottawa Impact” control the majority of the Board of Commissioners in Ottawa County, Mich. They signed a contract pledging to “recognize our nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage and celebrate America as an exceptional nation blessed by God.”It’s been going like this in Ottawa County since last month, after an upstart band of far-right Republicans unseated seven more traditionalist Republican incumbents, seizing a majority on the 11-member board. The hardliners, members of a group called “Ottawa Impact,” had signed a “Contract with Ottawa” promising to “respect the values and faith of the people of Ottawa County” and to “secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and future generations.” They’d pledged to “recognize our nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage and celebrate America as an exceptional nation blessed by God.” At candidate forums inside a Baptist church not far from the county offices here, they’d talked about their faith.Meetings of the board have drawn overflow crowds hours of public comment from supporters and critics. That is, until they took office last month, and havoc broke out. In their first meeting, the new board members adopted a series of measures that changed things in Ottawa County. They fired the county administratorand replaced him with John Gibbs, a former Trump administration official, Christian missionary, failed congressional candidate and election denier whoonce suggested women should not have the right to vote.
Supreme Court declines to block execution in Florida |- The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to block the execution of a man on death row in Florida after he argued that his death sentence was unconstitutional. Donald Dillbeck, who was found guilty of first-degree murder in 1990, applied to the court for a stay of the execution and petitioned for a writ of certiorari, or review of the case, raising constitutional questions. The Supreme Court denied both. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the death warrant for Dillbeck last month, and Dillbeck’s petition for a stay at the state level was denied.Dillbeck was convicted of killing a woman in Tallahassee after he had escaped from custody while serving a separate life sentence for killing a deputy in 1979, according to the filing from the state of Florida. His attorneys argued that Dillbeck was entitled to an exemption from execution because of a neurobehavioral disorder associated with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure. They also asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on whether the Eighth Amendment requires a death sentence to be recommended by a unanimous jury — Dillbeck was sentenced in an 8-4 decision.
18 Inch Pipe Bomb Discovered Near Conrail Tracks In Northeast Philadelphia -An 18 inch pipe bomb was discovered behind a church in the Holmesburg section of northeast Philadelphia. The bomb was found on Sunday afternoon behind St. Dominic’s Catholic Church, on the 8500 block of Frankford Avenue, according to reports by Fox 29. One Twitter account of the location of the bomb pinned it to train tracks behind the church. It was discovered by a passerby and pointed out to police, who confirmed it was a PVC pipe with "capped ends and black powder" on it. Frankford Ave., between Benson and Blakiston was shut down and the Philadelphia bomb squad was called to the scene. The bomb was eventually disarmed and taken away, transported from the Holmesburg section of the city to bomb squad headquarters.
Cryptocurrency 'mining operation' discovered under Cohasset High School allegedly run by ex-town employee - CBS Boston- An ex-town employee is accused of running a "cryptocurrency mining operation" out of Cohasset High School. Former Cohasset assistant facilities director Nadeam Nahas, 39, was due to be arraigned in Quincy District Court Thursday but never showed up, forcing the judge to issue a warrant for his arrest. Cohasset police said another town worker discovered the mining setup in a "remote crawl space under the school" in December of 2021. He saw electrical wires and several computers "that seemed out of place," police said. The operation was illegally using power from the school's electrical system, police determined after consulting IT professionals. Investigators with the Coast Guard and Homeland Security helped to safely remove the mining equipment and figure out where it came from. "He was effectively creating money," said Larry Glazer, a crypto expert and managing partner at Mayflower Advisors in Boston. Glazer said the suspect was likely using the crawl space operation to create his own money on the taxpayers' dime. "It's something that can't be done efficiently at home in New England because the cost of electricity is so prohibitively expensive," he said. "You had an employee who was effectively stealing electricity from the community from the taxpayers and from the town." After a three-month investigation, police charged Nahas with fraudulent use of electricity and vandalizing the school. Nahas resigned from his job in early 2022, police said. Cohasset Public Schools told WBZ-TV in a statement "we were cooperative in assisting the Cohasset Police throughout the investigation," but offered no further comment. As CBS News explains, crypto is digital currency that can be made or "mined" by using specialized computer processors running on vast amounts of electricity.
The 'Woke' Brigade Has Come For Roald Dahl's Books - In 1807, Thomas Bowdler and his sister, Henrietta Maria Bowdler, published The Family Shakespeare, which stripped away anything bawdy. For the next 200 years, the word “bowdlerize” was a derogatory word leftists flung at prudes who watered down the classics. Wokery has changed that. Roald Dahl’s publishing company and his heirs have agreed that his works are just too much for children’s sensibilities and must be sterilized, simplified, and even augmented to make them nicer…actions that effectively erase everything that made Dahl unique. Personally, Dahl was complicated. His WWII experiences proved him to be brave, charming, and patriotic. One of his children with his wife, Patricia Neal, died from measles, and another was terribly injured in an accident, leading him to abandon Christianity. When his wife, actress Patricia Neal, had a massive stroke, he alternately cajoled and bullied her into recovery. Then, having restored Patricia to health, he began an 11-year-long affair with another woman who eventually became his wife. He accepted the Palestinian line on Israel, with his anti-Zionism inevitably shading into antisemitism. Critics have also attacked his books for racism (the Oompa-Loompas came from Africa) and misogyny (many of his female characters are scary and ugly). When it comes to the books, though, it seems silly to target racism and misogyny because the reality is that almost all the adult characters in Dahl’s books are scary and ugly. Children take pleasure in the macabre, bizarre, and scary, especially when humor and a happy outcome are involved. And for children, who have moral clarity before leftists get hold of them, a happy outcome means the good are rewarded and the bad are punished. Perhaps it’s that ultimate moral clarity that really explains why the wokerati have come after Dahl’s writing: “Words matter,” begins the discreet notice, which sits at the bottom of the copyright page of Puffin’s latest editions of Roald Dahl’s books. “The wonderful words of Roald Dahl can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most marvellous characters. This book was written many years ago, and so we regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all today.” ... By comparing the latest editions with earlier versions of the texts, The Telegraph has found hundreds of changes to Dahl’s stories. Language related to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race has been cut and rewritten. In Matilda, a mention of Rudyard Kipling has been cut and Jane Austen added. It’s Roald Dahl, but different. One of the most bowdlerized books is The Witches, about a boy growing up in a coven of witches fully as unpleasant as the crones in Macbeth. The book has been cleaned up…a lot:
Texas 3rd-grader finds superintendent’s gun in school bathroom, parents voice concerns - – Roughly a month after a Texas third-grade student found a gun belonging to a superintendent in a school bathroom, parents expressed their concerns that they weren’t notified sooner by school officials. In January, the Rising Star Elementary student found the gun and immediately notified a teacher without touching the weapon, superintendent Robby Stuteville told Nexstar’s KTAB. The gun belonged to Stuteville, who said he and the school’s principal open carry on campus. Stuteville explained that he took off the gun and placed it in a stall while using the restroom. The firearm remained in the bathroom unattended for about 15 minutes before it was found. “There was never a danger other than the obvious,” Stuteville claimed last week. He then went on to say he was “proud” of the student and commended their behavior after finding the firearm. Speaking with KTAB on Thursday, Stuteville said he was no longer bringing his weapon to school. Local law enforcement told KTAB they weren’t made aware of the incident until recently, despite the incident happening last month. Rising Star Police Chief Don Braly confirmed there is an active investigation that began Wednesday.h
Why are 42 percent of US high school students experiencing persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness? --The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month released its “Youth Risk Behavior Survey [YRBS] Data Summary & Trends Report: 2011-2021.” The CDC’s findings are both shocking and disturbing. Among US high school students in 2021:
- 42 percent experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness
- 29 percent experienced poor mental health during the previous 30 days
- 22 percent seriously considered attempting suicide
- 18 percent made a suicide plan
- 10 percent attempted suicide
- 3 percent were injured in a suicide attempt that had to be treated by a doctor or nurse
There were approximately 17 million students enrolled in private and public high schools in the US in 2021 (Statistica). Extrapolating from the CDC data, this means that more than 7 million of these students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and 1.7 million attempted suicide. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds in the US. What is behind this devastating picture of the mental health of teenagers in America? While the CDC offers few answers or solutions, they can be pointed to in the life experiences of this young segment of the population in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which served to amplify the ills and mental health struggles in a society already wracked by poverty, social inequality, police violence and war. Consider some of the conditions young people confront: 238,500 young people in the US have lost a primary caregiver in the pandemic—becoming COVID-19 orphans—according to Imperial College London. Losing a parent is one of the most destabilizing and stressful events of the human experience, placing bereaved children at increased risk of mental ill-health and psychosocial problems. Orphans are at increased risk of substance abuse, dropping out of school, and almost twice as likely as non-orphans to die by suicide. Adding to the pressure on children was the mounting incidence of mental health issues among their parents. 71 percent of parents surveyed in 2020 said they believed the pandemic had hurt their mental health. A 2021 study found that 34 percent of parents reported elevated anxiety symptoms and 28 percent of them reported depression symptoms at the point of clinical concern, reports Lucy (Kathleen) McGoron, assistant professor of Child and Family Development at Wayne State University. In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency in child mental health, citing “soaring” rates of child mental health. The US government has committed only $300 million to a national response to the child mental health crisis, a pittance compared to the $25 billion in “security assistance” given to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration.
Illinois governor plan targets kids' mental health crisis (AP) — A mental health crisis among children in Illinois will be fought by streamlining and easing access to necessary treatment and coordinating between six separate state agencies, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Friday. A report examining the capacity and condition of Illinois’ response to behavioral health in young people has been in the works for nearly a year. It sketches avenues to help families understand mental illness, then makes it easier for them to get required care without navigating, in Pritzker’s words, the “serpentine” paths of disparate state agencies. “Government doesn’t work very well between silos of one department and another,” Pritzker said at a school in the Chicago suburb of Maywood. “People feel like they have territory that they need to protect. And the fact is that our territory is all of the children of the state of Illinois.” The mental health of children nationwide rapidly unraveled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021 found 44% of American children had depressive episodes lasting at least two weeks and nearly half had thought about suicide, according to the report. Lawmakers and advocates weary of wrestling with seemingly unyielding bureaucracies were impressed by the number of agencies working together. “You think of a parent who’s in crisis at their wit’s end ... having to call each and every one of these agencies and trying to keep track of it,” said Senate Public Health Committee Chairperson Karina Villa, a West Chicago Democrat. “All they want is to get their baby the help that they need. Now we have a blueprint as to how they’re going to be able to do that.” The report’s authors were a team led by Dana Weiner, on loan from the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, where she is senior policy fellow. “What families (should) experience is a simplified, centralized, clear way to get access to services to understand what their children are struggling with and to identify the things that might help address those challenges,” Weiner said.
Oakland public schools face drastic cuts in the face of massive budget deficit --Teachers in Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) have been working without a contract since October of last year. Under the impact of the ongoing pandemic, soaring inflation and continuous budget cuts, the conditions in Oakland schools are deteriorating. With the district seeking to close a $79 million deficit, the right to a public education is under threat. In their latest bargaining update, the Oakland Education Association (OEA) demanded a 23 percent raise, with pay renegotiated yearly through the 2024-25 school year. OUSD instead proposed a 4.5 percent raise, less than the inflation rate in the San Francisco Bay Area of 6 percent. Even the OEA’s pay proposal would do little to fix teacher’s salaries after the effective pay cut imposed by the last contract. Four years ago (2019) this month, Oakland teachers voted by 95 percent to authorize a strike. They had been without a contract since July 2017 and inflation was steadily eroding their living standards. Three thousand teachers walked off their jobs, and the 34,000 students as well as the community overwhelmingly supported the strike. But after seven days on strike, the OEA bureaucracy rammed through a contract with raises of 11 percent over the three years of the agreement. In 2021, the union agreed on a contract extension with a 1.6 percent raise. Since their last raise in in 2016, California has reported a 24.8 percent increase in the consumer price index. That amounts to an effective pay cut of 12 percent! In addition, the OEA apparatus agreed to district budget cuts of $22 million and the closure of Roots International Academy. The settlement infuriated teachers, students and parents, and set the stage for future school closures and budget cuts. At the beginning of this school year, OUSD ordered the closure of five schools to eliminate a looming deficit. The Oakland school board, under widespread pressure from parents and teachers, voted on January 11 to rescind the closures. Two days later, the Superintendent of Alameda County Office of Education, Alysse Castro sent a warning letter to the board. She downgraded the financial rating of the district to “qualified.” This politically-engineered insolvency of OUSD brings the district one step closer to state receivership. Castro has given them an ultimatum: balance the budget by March 1. She and the state-appointed trustee, Luz Cázares, expect severe budget cuts, potentially including more school closures. In addition, the physical infrastructure of the OUSD has been deteriorating for a decade, as the district has ignored the master plan of $3.2 billion worth of repairs. The maintenance program was not budgeted for five years and $5.2 million was removed from the existing fund. With deteriorating structures and outmoded ventilation systems, the health of students and staff continues to be at risk. The exceptional health measures implemented at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland last month, reveals the attitudes of world leaders and other privileged attendees: COVID-19 is a real threat, but those who aren't rich are expendable. The OEA bargaining update does not even mention COVID-19, which continues to kill over 400 people across the country every day. Resumption of in-person schooling, supported by teachers union bureaucrats, was a major cause of the exodus of teachers from their profession and the current nationwide shortage of teachers. The financial disaster in Oakland is not an exception. The Contra Costa County Office of Education, also in the San Francisco Bay Area, has downgraded West Contra Costa County Unified School District (WCCUSD) to “qualified” status and is demanding severe cuts.
Education Department focuses on reform of under-the-radar higher ed financial aid rule -- An under-the-radar federal rule routinely leaves vulnerable college students unexpectedly owing money to their former institutions and blocked from continuing their education or even getting an official transcript. Reforming that rule is now on the Education Department’s regulatory agenda.More than 39 million Americans attended college and left without earning a degree. Many of those individuals are from lower-income backgrounds, and rely on federal financial aid to pay for college. About 40 percent of those who take federal loans for college do not graduate. While owing money on a federal loan without having earned a degree is bad enough, the situation is even worse for students who leave college in the middle of a semester. That’s because of a complex set of federal requirements for dealing with financial aid known as “Return to Title IV” or R2T4.If they withdraw from college before the 60 percent mark, however, their college is required to return a share of the disbursed federal aid to the government. While the formula is complicated, roughly speaking, a student is only entitled to keep the share of aid equal to the share of the semester they completed. For example, if a student was enrolled for 25 percent of the semester, they can expect to keep about 25 percent of the awarded aid and the college can use the aid to cover about 25 percent of the amount they’ve charged. All other disbursed aid must be returned by the college to the federal government.Under the rules of R2T4, if a student makes it through 60 percent of an academic term, they get to keep all the federal aid — grants and loans — awarded for that term and used to pay for their tuition, fees, and other expenses. Because colleges charge full tuition and fees at the start of the term, it is highly likely that the student in these circumstances will owe money to their college for charges in excess of the amount of aid the student was able to keep. They may also be required to pay some portion of their federal student loan to the federal government immediately, instead of over the course of 10 or 20 years. To make matters worse, the vast majority of colleges and universities impose an additional barrier on students who owe them money: they hold their transcripts and block registration until the full balance is paid. This effectively blocks students subject to R2T4 from continuing their education anywhere, unless and until they pay the institutional debt. At least 6.6 million individuals have “stranded credits” because of institutional debt — some significant share because of R2T4.
CDC data shows U.S. teen girls ‘in crisis’ with unprecedented rise in suicidal behavior The pandemic took a harsh toll on U.S. teen girls’ mental health, with almost 60 percent reporting feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness, according to a government survey released Monday that bolsters earlier data.Sexual violence, suicidal thoughts, suicidal behavior and other mental health woes affected many teens regardless of race or ethnicity, but girls and LGBTQ youth fared the worst on most measures, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention report. More than 17,000 U.S. high school students were surveyed in class in the fall of 2021.In 30 years of collecting similar data, “we’ve never seen this kind of devastating, consistent findings,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of CDC’s adolescent and school health division. “There’s no question young people are telling us they are in crisis. The data really call on us to act.”The research found:
- Among girls, 30 percent said they seriously considered attempting suicide, double the rate among boys and up almost 60 percent from a decade ago.
- Almost 20 percent of girls reported experiencing rape or other sexual violence in the previous year, also an increase over previous years.
- Almost half of LGBTQ students said they had seriously considered a suicide attempt.
- More than a quarter of American Indians and Alaska natives said they had seriously considered a suicide attempt — higher than other races and ethnicities.
- Feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness affected more than one-third of kids of all races and ethnicities and increased over previous years.
- Recent poor mental health was reported by half of LGBTQ kids and almost one-third of American Indian and Alaska Native youth.
The results echo previous surveys and reports and many of the trends began before the pandemic. But isolation, online schooling and increased reliance on social media during the pandemic made things worse for many kids, mental health experts say. The results “reflect so many decades of neglect towards mental health, for kids in particular,” said Mitch Prinstein, the American Psychological Association’s chief science officer. “Suicide has been the second- or third-leading cause of death for young people between 10 and 24 years for decades now,” and attempts are typically more common in girls, he said.
Suicide is a leading cause of death for people ages 5 to 24 in the US — Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 5 to 24 years old in the U.S., CBS News reports. Lockdowns and school shutdowns during the first year of the pandemic left many young people feeling depressed, anxious, and isolated. New research in the Journal Pediatrics from Nationwide Children's Hospital finds youth suicide rates increased in 2020, CBS News reports. 5,568 died by suicide, 79% were male, and 50% died by firearm. "That really highlights the need for safe storage of firearms in the home. If you're a parent and you own guns, storing them safely is paramount to reducing risk for suicide," said Jeff Bridge, director of the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Bridge authored the study that also found more suicides during the pandemic compared to before among non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaskan Native youth, and Black youth. "We really need to tailor our suicide prevention strategies through a culturally informed lens," said Bridge. Researchers stress suicide is preventable if those interventions can get to the young people most in need both at school and at home. "There are several school-based suicide prevention programs. It is okay to ask your child if they're thinking about suicide. That will not put the thought in your child's head. There is very strong evidence that refutes that notion. Have that conversation," Bridge said. Bridge says we need to have those mental health conversations with our children because it is just as important as their physical health. Researchers also highlighted the higher-than-expected suicide rate among non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander females as a cause for concern as well because this is a group of young people that usually has a very low rate of suicide.
Most young men are single. Most young women are not. - More than 60 percent of young men are single, nearly twice the rate of unattached young women, signaling a larger breakdown in the social, romantic and sexual life of the American male. Men in their 20s are more likely than women in their 20s to be romantically uninvolved, sexually dormant, friendless and lonely. They stand at the vanguard of an epidemic of declining marriage, sexuality and relationships that afflicts all of young America. “We’re in a crisis of connection,” said Niobe Way, a psychology professor and founder of the Project for the Advancement of Our Common Humanity at New York University. “Disconnection from ourselves and disconnection from each other. And it’s getting worse.” In the worst-case scenario, the young American man’s social disconnect can have tragic consequences. Young men commit suicide at four times the rate of young women. Younger men are largely responsible for rising rates of mass shootings, a trend some researchers link to their growing social isolation. Societal changes that began in the Eisenhower years have eroded the patriarchy that once ruled the American home, classroom and workplace. Women now collect nearly 60 percent of bachelor’s degrees. Men still earn more, but among the youngest adults, the income gap has narrowed to $43 a week. Scholars say the new era of gender parity has reshaped relationship dynamics, empowering young women and, in many cases, removing young men from the equation. “Women don’t need to be in long-term relationships. They don’t need to be married. They’d rather go to brunch with friends than have a horrible date,” said Greg Matos, a couple and family psychologist in Los Angeles, who recently penned a viral article titled “What’s Behind the Rise of Lonely, Single Men.” Recent years have seen a historic rise in “unpartnered” Americans, particularly among the young. The pandemic made things worse. As of 2022, Pew Research Center found, 30 percent of U.S. adults are neither married, living with a partner nor engaged in a committed relationship. Nearly half of all young adults are single: 34 percent of women, and a whopping 63 percent of men. Not surprisingly, the decline in relationships marches astride with a decline in sex. The share of sexually active Americans stands at a 30-year low. Around 30 percent of young men reported in 2019 that they had no sex in the past year, compared to about 20 percent of young women. Only half of single men are actively seeking relationships or even casual dates, according to Pew. That figure is declining.
The COVID-19 Pandemic and Youth Suicide: 2020-2021 - by the American Academy of Pediatrics.Suicide is a leading cause of death among youth in the United States. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic raised concerns that suicide rates will increase. The National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System documents circumstances of child deaths reviewed by multidisciplinary teams. In April 2021, a question asking whether COVID-19 directly or indirectly impacted the child's death was added to the National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System. The objective of this study was to identify factors related to suicide deaths among youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.This exploratory study of youth aged 10 to 17 years occurring during 2020 to 2021 compared demographic and incident characteristics, life stressors, social/mental health histories, and pandemic-related disruptions to school, health, and mental health for COVID-19-impacted suicides and non-COVID-19-impacted suicides using descriptive statistics. χ2 statistics assessed statistical significance in differences across the 2 groups.A total of 552 suicides were included for study. Higher proportions of COVID-19-impacted suicides (n = 144) were by hanging (51% vs 40%) and occurred in suburban areas (57% vs 45%) compared with non-COVID-19-impacted suicides (n = 408). COVID-19-impacted youth also experienced significantly more isolation (60% vs 14%), school problems (42% vs 19%), depression (43% vs 24%), and/or anxiety disorder (23% vs 12%) diagnoses. A subset of youth experienced significant effects of the pandemic and associated measures implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. They were proportionally more likely to experience isolation, school and mental health care disruptions, behavior changes, and severe emotional distress; all signs of increased risk for suicide.
'Rogue' antibodies found in brains of teens with delusions and paranoia after COVID-19 Two teens developed severe psychiatric symptoms such as paranoia, delusions and suicidal thoughts during mild COVID-19 infections. Now, scientists think they've identified a potential trigger: Rogue antibodies may have mistakenly attacked the teens' brains, rather than the coronavirus. The researchers spotted these rogue antibodies in two teens who were examined at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Children’s Hospital after catching COVID-19 in 2020, according to a new report on the cases published Monday (Oct. 25) in the journal JAMA Neurology. The antibodies appeared in the patients' cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which is a clear liquid that flows in and around the hollow spaces of the brain and spinal cord. But while such antibodies may attack brain tissue, it's too early to say that these antibodies directly caused the troubling symptoms in the teens, the researchers wrote in the new study. That's because many of the identified antibodies appear to target structures located on the inside of cells, rather than on the outside, co-author Dr. Samuel Pleasure, a physician-scientist and professor of neurology at UCSF, told Live Science in an email."So, we suspect that either the COVID autoantibodies" — meaning antibodies that attack the body rather than the virus — "are indicative of an out of control autoimmune response that might be driving the symptoms, without the antibodies necessarily causing the symptoms directly," he said. Future studies will be needed to test this hypothesis, and to see whether any other, undiscovered autoantibodies target structures on the surface of cells and thus cause direct damage, he added. The study's results demonstrate that COVID-19 may trigger the development of brain-targeting autoantibodies. And they also hint that, in some cases, treatments that "calm down" the immune system may help resolve psychiatric symptoms of COVID-19. Both teens in the study received intravenous immunoglobulin, a therapy used to essentially reset the immune response in autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, after which the teens' psychiatric symptoms either partially or completely remitted. But it's possible the patients would have "improved on their own, even without treatment," and this study is too small to rule this out, Gombolay noted.
2021 CDC Suicide Death Data Intensifies the Call for Continued Suicide Prevention Efforts -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released data on suicide deaths for the year 2021. According to the new data, suicide deaths in the United States increased from 45,979 to 48,183 (4.79%) between the years 2020 and 2021 with the age-adjusted suicide rate for 2021 at 14.1 per 100,000 people. This year's report looks at age, race and ethnicity related trends between 2018 and 2021 which point to disparities in trends between non-Hispanic Whites and other racial and ethnic groups. Between 2018 and 2021, increases in age-adjusted suicide rates were highest amongst Native Americans (26%), with Blacks (19.2%) and Hispanics (6.8%) also evidencing significant increases. Over this period from 2018 to 2021, suicide rates for Whites declined by 3.9%, however they increased between 2020 and 2021 from 16.9 to 17.4 per 100,000 people. By race/ethnicity, the highest number of suicide deaths in 2021 were within the White population (36,681). Among the various age groups, a significant increase occurred for 25–44-year-olds (5% increase from 2018 to 2021), while the rate decreased by 12.4% for 45-64-year-olds (the age group that has traditionally contributed the most to the overall number of suicides). Increases for 25–44-year-olds were also seen for Native Americans and Hispanics, however, for Black people, the largest increase (36.6%) was seen in people aged 10-24. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the nation's largest suicide prevention organization, released the following statement regarding the CDC's data:At AFSP, we are saddened and disappointed by the increase in suicide deaths and rates – even one death from suicide is one too many. The new data from the CDC strengthens our drive to save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide through advancing scientific research, educating the public about mental health and suicide prevention, and advocating for public policies that support more scalable and customized prevention strategies. We are seeing a wave of change in our society that destigmatizes openly talking about and seeking help to prevent suicide and this is giving people more confidence to take action to protect their own and others' mental health and well-being.With the data showing increases in suicide rates amongst Native American, Black, and Hispanic people, we see how structural racism and social and health inequities – among other factors – may be negatively impacting the mental health and suicide risk of historically marginalized communities. AFSP is committed to developing and providing effective, widely-accessible and culturally informed prevention education efforts in partnership with peer organizations that have expertise in these communities – like Soul Shop for Black Churches and Talk Saves Lives™ (TSL): An Introduction to Suicide Prevention for Latinx and Hispanic Communities – in order for these important communities to receive culturally appropriate education and support. We continue to prioritize and invest in research on suicide prevention among diverse and under-represented racial groups.
US prisoner deaths rose more than 60 percent from 2019 to 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic - Deaths of prison inmates increased over 60 percent in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic according to a new report by the UCLA School of Law’s Behind Bars Data Project. Data acquired by the project, which in many cases exceeds the data reported on by states and prisons themselves, indicates that 6,182 imprisoned people died behind bars in 2020 compared to 4,240 in 2019, a 62 percent increase despite a 10 percent decline in the prison population. This increase in prison mortality was led by 16 states which saw an increase in inmate deaths of more than 90 percent. Notable among these are Michigan, which saw a 130 percent increase with 131 more deaths in 2020 than in 2019, and New Jersey, which saw an increase of 142 percent with 47 more deaths than in 2019. The collection and reporting of this data is a significant achievement that compiles invaluable information about the cost in life that the pandemic has taken on prison populations. Many states have stopped reporting publicly on COVID deaths and data on deaths in prisons can be difficult to acquire. The Bureau of Justice Statistics used to take detailed records of inmate deaths for monitoring of health and safety but stopped in 2019, leaving a large gap between the real numbers of inmate fatalities and the official figures reported by government agencies. Missouri, a state with over 23,000 prison inmates, declined requests from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to provide data on COVID deaths, and both Pennsylvania and Georgia claimed that they did not have or could not access data on COVID deaths in prisons to provide to the BJS. Additionally, no data was collected from privately run prisons operating under federal contracts, making accurate reporting on deaths of incarcerated individuals virtually impossible. The Behind Bars Data Project used a variety of methods, including extensive public record requests from state agencies, to collect their data at the facility level and make it available to the public, collecting data at a scale and accuracy that has not been available for years. From this research the project was able to identify that 1,942 more deaths occurred in 2020 over 2019, a 47 percent increase in the total number of deaths. However, many jails and prisons released a limited number of inmates in response to the rapid spread of the virus, resulting in a 10 percent decrease in the total prison population in 2020. Adjusting for this change in population, the crude death rate rose 62 percent to 47 deaths per 10,000 inmates. This is significantly higher than previous estimates of deaths for incarcerated individuals by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which has placed the death rate of inmates at 15 deaths per 10,000, and is nearly four times higher than the average 12.5 per 10,000 for the rest of the United States. The driving cause of this increased death rate was the spread of COVID-19 through the country’s overcrowded and unsanitary prisons. Nationally, federal prisons were 23 percent above capacity in 2020, with similar problems at the state level. In California, 24 of the state’s 35 prisons exceeded 100 percent capacity. Overcrowding allowed for COVID-19 to spread rapidly, with at least 641,890 infections and nearly 3,000 coronavirus deaths in US prisons as of February 17 according to The COVID Prison Project. The real figure is likely higher due to common problems with the underreporting of case numbers and the dismantling of all COVID mitigation measures by the Biden administration.
COVID-19 linked to 40% increase in autoimmune disease risk in huge study -- Catching COVID-19 may raise the risk of developing autoimmune disease by 43% in the months following the infection, according to the largest study of its kind. "The impact of this study is huge — it's the strongest evidence so far answering this question of COVID-19 and autoimmune disease risk," . The new research, which has yet to be peer reviewed, was posted Jan. 26 in the preprint database medRxiv(opens in new tab).Scientists previously linked COVID-19 to an increased risk of autoimmune disease, in which the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy parts of the body. However, this research was limited to small studies that focused on just a few conditions, such as autoimmune hemolytic anemia, which affects red blood cells, and Guillain-Barre syndrome, which affects nerve cells. Now, researchers have analyzed the health records of 640,000 people in Germany who caught COVID-19 in 2020 and 1.5 million people who didn't knowingly catch the coronavirus that year to explore how the infection might affect the risk of developing any of 30 autoimmune conditions.They examined the rate at which people were newly diagnosed with autoimmune diseases in the three to 15 months after they tested positive for COVID-19. They compared these rates to those of the people who hadn't caught COVID-19. Roughly 10% of the participants in each group had preexisting autoimmune diseases.Among the people with no history of autoimmunity, more than 15% of people who'd caught COVID-19 developed an autoimmune disease for the first time during the follow-up period, compared with roughly 11% of the people who hadn't caught COVID-19. In other words, the COVID-19 group had a 43% higher likelihood of autoimmune disease than the control group.Among those with existing autoimmunity, those who caught COVID-19 had a 23% higher chance of developing an additional autoimmune disease in the follow-up period.COVID-19 was most strongly linked to an increased risk of vasculitis, which causes inflammation of the blood vessels; the previously infected group had a 63% higher rate of a type of vasculitis called arteritis temporalis than the uninfected group did. Autoimmune-driven problems with the thyroid, a butterfly-shaped organ in the throat that releases hormones, and the skin condition psoriasis were also strongly linked to prior COVID-19 infection, as was rheumatoid arthritis, which causes swelling in the joints. "These findings just cannot be ignored," Subramanian said. "We need to pursue research into how COVID-19 is potentially triggering autoimmunity because many people are continuing to suffer from the effects of COVID-19." There are several hypotheses as to how COVID-19 might trigger autoimmunity, and it's possible that different mechanisms affect different organ systems, the researchers noted.
Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine Associated With Heart Inflammation: Study --A higher than expected number of heart inflammation cases have occurred in people who received Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, researchers reported in a new study. Sixty-one cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or both following a Novavax vaccination were reported in the World Health Organization’s vaccine safety database through Aug. 23, 2022, Spanish researchers found.Using pre-pandemic rates of heart inflammation in the population, the researchers calculated that the number of post-vaccination cases was higher than expected.Reporting odds ratio values of higher than one indicate a higher-than-expected rate. For myocarditis following Novavax vaccination, the ratio was 5.2. For pericarditis, it was 24.75. For myopericarditis, or both conditions at once, it was 14.4.Heart inflammation is a known side effect of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, which utilize messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, but little data has been collected on the condition following Novavax vaccination, which does not contain mRNA.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, when it authorized Novavax’s shot during the summer of 2022, noted in fact sheets that clinical trials indicate there are increased risks of myocarditis and pericarditis after receipt of the Novavax vaccine. In the trial data submitted to the regulator, five cases of one or both conditions were reported in the vaccinated and zero were reported in placebo recipients. U.S. authorities have since cleared a Novavax booster, and recently reached a deal to obtain up to 1.5 million additional doses on top of the original tranche.The European Medicines Agency initially did not warn about inflammation after Novavax vaccination but later added a warning to its product information.Most cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis after Novavax vaccination in the real world—50—have been reported in Australia, according to the new study. Two have been reported in the United States and nine have been reported in Europe. Most have been among those aged 18 to 44.While the exact mechanism for induction of myocarditis has yet to be confirmed, the study’s authors pointed out that the Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax vaccines use nanoparticles to deliver a spike protein into the body. The study was funded by CIBERSAM, a research network, and was published in Drugs—Real World Outcomes on Feb. 14.
Myopericarditis Associated with the Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine (NVX-CoV2373): A Retrospective Analysis of Individual Case Safety Reports from VigiBase | SpringerLink - Myocarditis and pericarditis have been associated most notably with mRNA vaccines, but the association with a recently authorized adjuvated vaccine (NVX-CoV2373) is controversial. The aim was to analyze the cases of myocarditis and pericarditis in association with NVX-CoV2373 reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) global database of individual case safety reports (ICSRs) for drug monitoring (VigiBase), applying disproportionality analyses. The NVX-CoV2373 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine (Novavax) is a new adjuvated protein-based vaccine combining the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein with Matrix-M adjuvant, recently authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 12 years of age and older [1]. The vaccine was previously authorized in Australia, Canada, UK and the European Union [2]. Due to clinical trial evidence, the FDA issued a warning for increased risks of myocarditis and pericarditis, which was included in the Fact Sheet for Healthcare Providers [3]. Conversely, no warning nor any mention of the risk of myocarditis or pericarditis is available in the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) issued by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) [4]. Myocarditis and pericarditis were early signals associated with mRNA vaccines that emerged in Israel on 2021 [5, 6]. Since then, the causality evidence has accumulated, and both mRNA vaccines, BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna), have listed these events in their product label.Misalignment of regulatory decisions between regulatory agencies may suggest the presence of conflicting evidence. The aim of the present study was to describe and analyze the cases of myocarditis and pericarditis with COVID-19 vaccines reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) global database of individual case safety reports (ICSRs) applying disproportionality analysis. Results:In total, 61 ICSRs included NVX-CoV2373. Most of the reports originated in Australia (50; 82.0%); 24 (39.3%) were considered serious. None of them were fatal. The median age of individuals was 35.5 years old, and most were males (38; 62.3%). Chest pain was the most common co-reported event 43 (70.5%). The median induction period was 3 days after immunization. Increased disproportionality for myopericarditis was found for NVX-CoV2373 (ROR 14.47, 95% confidence interval [CI] 11.22–18.67) and mRNA vaccines: BNT162b2 (ROR 17.15, 95% CI 16.88–17.42) and mRNA-1273 (ROR 6.92, 95% CI 6.77–7.08). Higher values were found in males. The adenoviral vector-based vaccine Ad26.COV2.S showed slightly increased disproportionality (ROR 1.83, 95% CI 1.70–1.98), whereas no increased disproportionality was found for ChAdOx1.
"The Trials Should Have Been Halted": Rate Of 'Serious Adverse Events' Closely Tracks Spike In Post-Vax Disabilities - Over the past 18 months, skeptics of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines and those pointing out high rates of adverse reactions have been subject to ostracism, deplatforming, and flawed 'fact checks' to shut down opinions and analysis which conflicted with official narratives. Now, the data has begun to speak for itself, thanks to people like former Blackrock portfolio manager Ed Dowd, who has devoted the last several years to deep-dive research and analysis of pandemic-related data (in fact, he's written an excellent book on the topic). Dowd, along with partners Carlos Alegria and Yuri Nunes, launched Phinance Technologies - where, aside from traditional macroeconomic analysis, they have produced comprehensive reports on pandemic-related disabilities and excess deaths using official data.Their latest analysis reveals that the rate of Serious Adverse Events in the mRNA Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials closely tracks a spike in disabilities reported after the vaccine rollout.Via Phinance Technologies, In part 3 of our US disabilities analysis we observed that the rise in disability rates post 2/2021 correlates closely with the rollout of the vaccination schedule. When looking at changes in disabilities on a wider time frame (since 2008) we observe that the disability rates rose or fell from month to month but tended to be relatively stable over time. However, as shown in part 1, the change in behaviour since early 2021 is clearly an abnormal occurrence with high level of statistical significance. It happens to be highly correlated to the cumulative Covid-19 vaccine rollout, but we cannot state that the correlation is statistically meaningful as it is based on a cumulative plot with obvious autocorrelation.In this section we provide further evidence that the most likely cause of the rise in disabilities is the Covid-19 vaccines. For that purpose, we model the expected rise in disabilities due to the vaccination rollout in the general population. We do so by using the rates of Serious Adverse Events (SAEs) obtained by the safety analysis of the mRNA vaccine (Pfizer and Moderna) clinical trials, performed in the Vaccine journal paper we reviewed here, and our analysis in part five.
Moderna Backpedals, Guarantees 'Free' Covid-19 Vaccines After Demand Collapses - mRNA vaccine maker Moderna has backpedaled on a January plan to charge $110 to $130 per dose of Covid-19 vaccine (up from $26 per dose for booster shots), and is now promising that people won't have to pay for the jab once the US Government stops buying shots. "Moderna remains committed to ensuring that people in the United States will have access to our COVID-19 vaccines regardless of ability to pay," the company said in a statement, adding that the vaccine "will continue to be available at no cost for insured people whether they receive them at their doctors’ offices or local pharmacies." Those without insurance - or whose insurance is inadequate, will be able to get jabbed "at no cost" via a Moderna assistance program.As The Epoch Times notes, Because the COVID-19 vaccines were added to the child immunization schedule, children whose families cannot pay for the vaccine will be eligible to receive them for free, with taxpayers covering the cost. That would happen through a program called Vaccines for Children. Advisers to the government, who recommended the addition to the schedule, said it was because the vaccines can prevent severe illness. The new vaccines, poised to replace the original shots, are not backed by any clinical trial data yet. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that the only reason the vaccines were placed on the schedule was so they could be covered by the Vaccines for Children program. “It was the only way that our uninsured children would be able to have access to the vaccines,” Walensky said during a congressional hearing on Feb. 8. “That was the reason to put it on the schedule.” The announcement comes amid a collapse in demand for Covid-19 vaccines.
Florida Surgeon General Joe Ladapo investigated for allegedly falsifying Covid report - — The Florida Department of Health’s inspector general last fall investigated Joseph Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general, after the agency received an anonymous complaint alleging he falsified a report focusing on the safety of Covid-19 vaccines for young men. Among other things, the complainant alleged Ladapo committed “scientific fraud” and “manipulated data” in a report that Ladapo later used to claim that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines could increase the risk of cardiac death among young men, according to the complaint. Both brands use mRNA technology, which Ladapo contends was rushed to the market by the urgency of the pandemic without the proper testing. “The analysis performed in DOH did not find this,” the individual wrote without providing evidence, according to the complaint. “He manipulated the final draft of the analysis.” Ladapo’s report was used as evidence in vaccine guidance he released in October that came under heavy criticism from the medical community, which said the surgeon general’s stance that the vaccine posed a health risk in healthy young men was flawed and went against Covid-vaccine recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The guidance even prompted Twitter to temporarily block a social media post from the surgeon general promoting the analysis, though the company later restored it. The inspector general’s office opened the investigation in November after it received the complaint and later closed it at an undisclosed date after the complainant didn’t respond to follow-up questions regarding the accusations, according to state documents that include a copy of the original complaint. Nothing is known about the complainant, and anyone can submit a grievance with the Department of Health’s inspector general. But the individual appeared to have detailed knowledge of state health agencies, according to the documents the Florida Department of Health provided to POLITICO. Ladapo on Wednesday called the accusations against him untrue and said the report in question was completed by a team of staffers at the Florida Department of Health. “It’s factually false,” Ladapo said in an interview with POLITICO. “I trust the team — they used our Florida data, they performed the analysis, and we’re an accredited public health organization.”
What stays in Vegas: Tourist sewage may inflate community COVID prevalence | While SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance is a valuable way to measure disease prevalence and predict surges, a newstudy conducted in Las Vegas suggests that the tool may overestimate the true viral burden in areas with large influxes of tourists or commuters.University of Nevada researchers worked with the Southern Nevada Water Authority on the study, which was published yesterday inJAMA Network Open.The team analyzed and genomically sequenced samples from seven Las Vegas water treatment plant locations that serve southern Nevada and one manhole on the south Las Vegas Strip from March 2020 to February 2022. Treatment plants 2 to 7 serve location populations, while plant 1 serves a mix of locals and visitors, and the manhole represents mainly visitor waste.The aim was to determine the relative influence of the nearly 1 million weekly visitors to Las Vegas, a city of 2.3 million residents, on levels of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 variant in wastewater from Dec 13 to 20, 2021.Omicron BA.1 was detected in the Las Vegas Strip manhole on Dec 7, about 1 week before it was found at the treatment plant locations and clinically confirmed, and rapidly displaced the Delta variant. On Dec 13, Omicron made up an average of 48.0% of all SARS-CoV-2 genomes from manhole samples and 4.1% of the genomes at treatment plans 2 and 3, rising to 82.0% and 48.0%, respectively, on Dec 20.The researchers estimated that visitors contributed over 60% of the SARS-CoV-2 load to Strip sewers and that the prevalence of Omicron among the visitors was 40% to 60% on Dec 13, climbing to 80% to 100% on Dec 20.By late 2021, the estimated undercount of COVID-19 cases for facility 1 was 14.0 per 100,000 people, compared with 4.2 and 4.5 for facilities 2 and 3, respectively. Omicron-specific mutations overtook Delta at the Las Vegas Strip manhole and facility 1 faster than at facilities 2 to 7. "We hypothesized that with tourism returning to prepandemic levels, visitors started contributing a disproportionate fraction of SARS-CoV-2 RNA to facility 1, and in early December 2021, these visitors were more likely to be infected with the Omicron VOC than the local population," the authors wrote.
California COVID death toll passes 100,000, CDPH says | The Sacramento Bee - More than 100,000 Californians have now died of COVID-19, health officials said Thursday, crossing the milestone about three years after the state confirmed its first fatalities from coronavirus.The state’s official death toll rose to 100,187 as of a weekly update Thursday from the California Department of Public Health, adding 227 from last week. Accounting for reporting delays, the latest seven-day average was 22 deaths per day, according to CDPH.More than half of the state’s fatalities came in the first year of the pandemic, with a wave of deaths in the wake of a brutal surge that took hold in winter 2020.At the height of that wave – California’s worst to date of the enduring health crisis, as the surge began before vaccines were made widely available in the early months of 2021 – the seven-day average rose to nearly 700 deaths from COVID-19 per day for a stretch of January 2021.The state’s second-worst surge, spurred by the omicron variant from late 2021 through early 2022, peaked at about 280 daily deaths during February 2022.California’s death toll topped 25,000 in December 2020, 50,000 in February 2021 and 75,000 in December 2021. State health officials have tallied more than 11.1 million lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the crisis, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. The first death of a California resident is listed by CDPH as occurring Feb. 6, 2020.Following the arrival of the virus in 2020, California has seen six distinct surges of infections – one each summer and winter, spurred in some instances by genetic variants of the virus taking root as the new dominant strain in circulation.The six-figure death milestone comes at a relative low point in COVID-19 transmission and hospitalizations, and with Gov. Gavin Newsom poised to lift California’s state of emergency at the end of this month.CDPH on Thursday reported 2,607 patients in hospital beds with confirmed COVID-19, down from the most recent winter surge’s peak of more than 4,600 in hospitals during early January.California peaked at more than 21,000 concurrently hospitalized coronavirus patients during the winter 2020 surge, and spiked to more than 15,000 in early 2022 during the omicron surge, CDPH data show.More than 35,000 of California’s deaths have come in Los Angeles County, the state and nation’s most populous county at just over 10 million residents.The most deaths per capita have come in Imperial (508 deaths per 100,000 residents), Tuolumne (388), San Bernardino (368), Los Angeles (345) and Inyo (341) counties, CDPH data show.In the capital region, CDPH as of Thursday reported 3,514 deaths in Sacramento County residents (224 per 100,000); 682 in Placer County (170 per 100,000); 442 in Yolo County (198 per 100,000); 244 in El Dorado County (126 per 100,000); 238 in Sutter County (225 per 100,000) and 134 in Yuba County (169 per 100,000).COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic has been especially dangerous to older populations, who have made up a disproportionate share of deaths.Californians of age 80 or older made up nearly 38,000 of the 100,000 deaths despite comprising just 2.7% of confirmed cases and 4% of the state’s total population, according to demographic data by CDPH last updated Feb. 7.More than 23,000 who died of COVID-19 in California were in their 70s, nearly 20,000 were in their 60s and about 11,000 were in their 50s, state health data show.At least 95 California children have died of the virus, including 34 who were younger than 5 years old. Juveniles have made up about 18% of cases but less than 0.1% of the statewide death toll, CDPH data show.
COVID in California: Idaho bill would criminalize mRNA vaccines - Despite staggering figures — 5.3 million new COVID cases and 48,000 deaths in the past 28 days — the latest numbers from the WHO signify huge declines from the month before. But the UN agency is standing firm on its recommendation to wear high-quality masks in public settings such as transportation and health facilities. There’s some encouraging news about long COVID from a U.S. Census Bureau study published by the CDC, which finds a 43% decline in the number of American adults reporting symptoms of long COVID since June. And the California Supreme Court ruled that local school districts do not have the right to impose COVID vaccine requirements because that’s the job of the state. Latest updates:
- Berkeley will lift its COVID-19 vaccination requirement for city employees on March 1, in alignment with the end of California’s pandemic state of emergency declaration. Since late 2021, active city employees must show proof of vaccination or have a valid exemption. In a detailed review of the city’s pandemic response, officials from the Public Health Division also told the Berkeley City Council on Tuesday that the remaining indoor masking requirements for health care and congregate settings would be relaxed. The agency operates independently of the Alameda County Public Health Department. “As we move through the next few months and years, we will continue to shift our response to prevention, and we will continue to integrate many of the activities that we were doing in the COVID response unit into public health programs,” said Dr. Lisa Hernandez, the city’s health officer.
- Idaho bill would criminalize administering mRNA vaccines. Republican lawmakers in Idaho have introduced a bill that would criminalize the administration of mRNA vaccines, such as the COVID-19 shots produced by Pfizer and Moderna. Sponsored by state Sen. Tammy Nichols and Rep. Judy Boyle, HB 154 was introduced in the House Health & Welfare Committee on Feb. 15 and would charge anyone administering a vaccine that uses mRNA technology to “an individual or any other mammal” with misdemeanor charges. “We have issues (the vaccine) was fast-tracked,” Nichols told the committee, KTVB7 News reported. Informed by another lawmaker that the vaccines were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Nichols elaborated that it “may not have been done like we thought it should’ve been done.” The bill requires a hearing and vote by the committee before it moves onto the House floor. Messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccine technology was discovered in the early 1960s, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 650 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been administered in the U.S. alone, according to Our World in Data.
- California topped 100,187 total COVID-19 pandemic fatalities as of Thursday, with an average of 22 people still dying each day due to the virus. But after climbing over the past month, the state’s overall coronavirus metrics appear to have stabilized. The state’s health department reported an average of 2,859 new daily cases — or about 7.1 per 100,000 residents — as of Thursday, compared to 2,893 cases per day, or 7.2 per 100,000 residents in the prior week. The state’s seven-day rolling coronavirus test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of lab test results that are positive for the virus, held at 6.5%, compared to 6.4% last week. The state’s wastewater facilities also showed levels of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material leveling off or decreasing. The daily average of COVID patients in California hospitals ticked up slightly to 2,607, compared to 2,541 last week. Around 2.61% of the state’s inpatient beds are now in use for COVID-19 patients. The COVID-19 state of emergency in California will end on Feb. 28.
Ohio surpasses 9,000 COVID cases for first time in 6 weeks - Ohio reported more than 9,000 COVID-19 cases in a week for the first time in more than a month. The state added 9,136 cases on Thursday, according to the Ohio Department of Health. It’s the most cases recorded in a week since Ohio reported 10,188 cases on Jan. 12. ODH reported 435 COVID hospitalizations making it the sixth consecutive week with fewer than 500 hospitalizations. Thursday marked the fourth time in six weeks the state recorded more than 400 weekly hospitalizations. Ohio had 752 COVID patients in its hospitals Thursday, including 63 in west central Ohio and 99 in southwest Ohio, according to the Ohio Hospital Association. For southwest Ohio it was a 10% decrease compared to the previous week and a 48% decrease from 60 days ago. West central Ohio recorded a 6% decrease in inpatients with the virus over the last week and a 47% decrease over the last 60 days. As of Thursday there were 110 ICU patients in the state with COVID. The six ICU patients with the virus in west central Ohio was a 25% decrease from the previous week and a 57% decrease compared to 60 days ago, according to OHA. Southwest Ohio had 22 ICU patients with COVID. It was a 38% increase compared to last week but a 15% decrease over the past 60 days. Ohio added 71 COVID deaths Thursday, bringing its total to 41,686, according to ODH.
US COVID-19 activity declines further -- In its weekly review of COVID-19 data today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said indicators continue to decline, with the 7-day average for new daily cases 33,722, down 9.2% from a week ago.New deaths from the virus are averaging 344 a day, down 15.2% compared to the previous week. Likewise, new daily hospitalizations are down 4.9% compared to the previous week's average. The CDC noted that it will switch to an every-other-week schedule for its updates starting on Mar 3.Also today, the CDC released new Omicron variant projections, showing a continued increase in XBB.1.5 viruses, which are now at 85%, up from nearly 80% the previous week. The CDC said XBB.1.5 is growing in all US regions, and other lineages show very slow or no growth.In in other COVID developments, Pfizer and BioNTech today announced that it has submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for full licensure of its bivalent COVID-19 vaccine for use in people ages 12 and older for primary and booster doses.
Japan postmortems of COVID-infected patients finds virus stays in half-- Postmortems of 11 patients who died in Japan after contracting COVID-19 in 2021 found that an infectious viral load remained in the nasopharynx and lungs of over half, with one having been dead for 13 days, a health ministry study showed Monday.The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare eased restrictions on handling coronavirus-infected corpses in a revision to funeral guidelines in January, but Hisako Saito, an associate professor of legal medicine at Chiba University and principal researcher of the study team, stressed the importance of educating and equipping personnel to "handle bodies on the assumption they are infectious."The revision stated that infected corpses no longer needed to be handled differently provided anti-infection measures such as wiping the body and stuffing the nose are taken.The research team's examination of 11 infected bodies, for which forensic and pathological autopsies had been conducted, took place between January and October 2021, when infections in Japan were fueled by the Delta variant of the virus.PCR tests on 30 nasopharyngeal mucosa and lung tissue samples detected the virus in 13 samples from six bodies. The body in which the virus was detected 13 days after death from pneumonia had been placed in the refrigerator for 12 days.The team surmised that patients who died shortly after being infected and whose bodies were discovered within a day of death or placed in cold storage for long periods of time had a high probability of viral persistence.Embalming, however, appeared to circumvent the risk, with antigen tests on nasopharynx samples from nine infected bodies that had been treated with a formaldehyde solution all returning negative for COVID-19. The bodies were autopsied between August 2021 and March 2022.Saito said the embalming, which offers a way for families to properly grieve as funeral rites can be held as usual without fear of infection, "is effective and should be utilized in addition to basic infection control measures."
China's COVID-19 epidemic has 'basically' ended, but not completely over (Reuters) - Health authorities in China said on Thursday the country's COVID-19 epidemic has "basically" ended, but it is not completely over as it found seven imported cases of the highly-transmissible XBB.1.5 variant since Jan. 8.Officials, speaking at a news event with several departments attending, said China's "major decisive victory" over COVID has set an example for populous nations in prevention and control.Last week, China's top leaders declared a "decisive victory" over COVID, claiming the world's lowest fatality rate, although experts questioned data as the virus surged across the country recently after largely being kept at bay for three years.The country strengthened its healthcare system in anticipation of the virus spreading to rural areas. Officials said at the press briefing on Thursday critical care beds had expanded to 404,000 from 198,000.Health officials and experts were also monitoring the XBB.1.5 sub-variant of Omicron for months. On Jan. 4, data had showed no new variant was found in the country.Officials said on Thursday one local case of the variant was linked with an imported case on Feb. 3.
Reckitt recalls baby formula over possible contamination with deadly bacteria - – Nutrition product manufacturer Reckitt is voluntarily recalling baby formula after the product was possibly contaminated with Cronobacter sakazakii, a bacteria that can be life-threatening among young children.The company says it is recalling two batches of ProSobee 12.9 oz. Simply Plant-Based Infant Formula out of “an abundance of caution” and that “all product distributed went through extensive testing and tested negative for the bacteria.”Cronobacter sakazakii is the same bacteria that caused several infections among infants last year, leading to an FDA investigation of formula maker Abbott Laboratories. Abbott has denied any direct link to the cases, two of which involved children who died. Abbott issued a voluntary recall and shuttered a plant for months, contributing to a nationwide formula shortage. The Reckitt products under recall, about 145,000 cans, were distributed through retail stores across the nation, as well as in Guam and Puerto Rico. Recalled product batches are ZL2HZF and ZL2HZZ both with a UPC Code of 300871214415 and a “Use By Date” of “1 Mar 2024.”Reckitt says there haven’t been any illnesses reported as of Sunday.
CDC warns not to use eye drop brand as it investigates death, infections across 11 states — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is asking people to stop using a brand of artificial tears that could be behind dozens of infections across the U.S.The CDC says lab and epidemiological evidence have tied the use of EzriCare Artificial Tears to a multi-state cluster of Pseudomonas aeruginosa patients, but the investigation is ongoing and there is not yet a definite link.Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria live in the environment, are highly resistant to antibiotics and can cause infections in the blood, lungs (pneumonia) and other body parts. Often these cases occur after surgery.The CDC is investigating at least 50 cases in 11 states that have led to hospitalization, permanent vision loss and even one death. The cases are located in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Washington.While working to determine the cause of the illnesses, CDC investigators found that the majority of people used artificial tears, with EzriCare being the most popular brand. Investigators identified the drug-resistant bacteria in open bottles of the drops, the CDC said. Testing of sealed bottles is ongoing.“CDC recommends that clinicians and patients immediately discontinue the use of EzriCare Artificial Tears until the epidemiological investigation and laboratory analyses are complete,” according to a Jan. 20 news release. EzriCare said in a statement Wednesday that they were not aware of any testing that definitely linked the eye drops to Pseudomonas aeruginosa, but said they stopped selling the product.“To the greatest extent possible, we have been contacting customers to advise them against continued use of the product, the company said in a statement on its website. “We also immediately reached out to both CDC and FDA and indicated our willingness to cooperate with any requests they may have of us.”
FDA widens advisory on eye products after patients blinded, hospitalized -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday widened an advisory on artificial tear products to include additional ones manufactured by Global Pharma Healthcare Private Limited over concerns of a potential bacterial contamination that could result in blindness or death.The FDA warning now urges consumers and health care professionals not to use EzriCare Artificial Tears, Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears and Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Eye Ointment, which are intended to be sterile. The manufacturer first recalled the artificial tears at the recommendation of the FDA due to what the agency says were violations of its current good manufacturing practice.Among the issues noted by the FDA were drug formulation issues, concerns about packaging and lack of appropriate microbial testing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this month warned against using the EzriCare or Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears products as it investigated what it says is a potentially related string of some 56 Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterial cases.The cases span 12 states and include five reports of vision loss and one death, according to the CDC’s latest update.
‘Forever chemicals’ disrupt key metabolic processes in children and teens: study - Exposure to “forever chemicals” interferes with several critical biological processes — including the metabolism of fats and amino acids — in children and young adults, a new study has found. The disruption of these processes can increase susceptibility to a variety of illnesses, such as developmental disorders, cardiovascular disease, cancer and metabolic diseases like diabetes, according to the study, published on Wednesday in Environmental Health Perspectives. Focusing on this age group was particularly important to the authors, as children and young adults go through key stages of development that may make them more vulnerable to toxic exposures.This stage in life is also the period in which many serious diseases that manifest in adults begin to take root, the researchers noted.The compounds in question, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are already linked to illnesses like thyroid disease, testicular cancer and kidney cancer.Notorious for their ability to persist in the human body, water and soil, these synthetic compounds have become ubiquitous in both the environment and in everyday products. “We found that exposure to a combination of PFAS not only disrupted lipid and amino acid metabolism but also altered thyroid hormone function,” lead author Jesse Goodrich said in a statement.Goodrich and his colleagues had set out to explore the impacts of a mix of PFAS — of which there are thousands — on biological processes in children and adolescents.Their analysis showed that PFAS exposure changes the way the body metabolizes lipids and amino acids — the building blocks of fats and proteins, respectively — as well as the levels of thyroid hormones. This last finding was particularly significant to Goodrich, who emphasized the essential role thyroid hormones play in growth and metabolism.Changes in thyroid hormones can disrupt development during puberty and can raise the risk of developing conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer later in life, the authors warned.“Our findings were surprising and have broad implications for policy makers trying to mitigate risk,” said Goodrich, who is an assistant professor of population and public health sciences at the Keck School.An additional important finding flagged by the authors was the fact that exposure to a mixture of PFAS, rather than to a single type, fueled the disruption of these biological processes.Almost all Americans, they warned, have detectable levels of several types of PFAS, which can be found in common household items like waterproof apparel and food packaging.
GSK Scientists Knew About Zantac's Cancer Risks For Forty Years - Three years after the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) pulled GSK Plc's heartburn drug Zantac off the market due to suspected links to cancer, and just two weeks before the trial begins of a man who alleges he developed bladder cancer after taking the drug, Bloomberg Businessweek revealed in a new report the pharmaceutical company's scientists have long knew about the drug's risks. Bloomberg's lengthy report highlighted GSK scientists and independent researchers understood that ranitidine had a cancer-causing carcinogen known as N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). The drug was approved in 1983 as "Zantac" to treat acute duodenal ulcers and later as a remedy for heartburn. By the late 1980s, Zantac was worth a whopping $2 billion, making it one of the most profitable drugs ever. It accounted for about half of Glaxo's sales and 53% of the market for prescription ulcer medications. Then use of Zantac soared further by the mid-1990s when the FDA approved it as an over-the-counter medication. GSK eventually controlled the heartburn remedy market for decades. Bloomberg said GSK "backed flawed research designed to minimize concerns and chose not to routinely transport and store the medication in ways that could have eased the problem." "Glaxo sold a drug that might harm people, tried to discount evidence of that and never gave anyone the slightest warning," Bloomberg continued, adding its team of journalists reviewed "thousands of pages," including court filings and studies. Four decades of dominating the heartburn market and building a pharmaceutical empire around it -- abruptly stopped several years ago for GSK. In September 2019, the FDA received a report that made claims about ranitidine containing high levels NDMA. Shortly after that, in April 2020, the FDA pulled all ranitidine products from the market over the cancer-causing risks surrounding NDMA. The FDA stated concerns about the storage methods of the drug, indicating:"NDMA levels increase in ranitidine even under normal storage conditions ... And NDMA has been found to increase significantly in samples stored at higher temperatures, including temperatures the product may be exposed to during distribution and handling by consumers."According to Bloomberg, the FDA found 357ng of NDMA in Zantac, a level four times higher than what's acceptable in any FDA-approved drug. And what's frightening is that NDMA levels soared to 931ng in the same product five months later.
Measles: The never-ending fight against one of the world’s most contagious diseases - Democratic Republic of the Congo - Every two to three years, measles outbreaks affect tens or even hundreds of thousands of children in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Last year was no exception, with more than 148,600 cases and 1,800 deaths reported. How can this recurring emergency be explained? And, above all, how can we put an end to it?When one speaks of an emergency in DRC, the problem of measles is rarely the first image that comes to mind. Yet this disease regularly wreaks havoc on young children – the main victims of measles – and has been the primary reason for intervention by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency teams in DRC for years.“We have five emergency teams mobilised almost around the clock to respond to the various measles outbreaks throughout the country. But as soon as we put out a fire here, it flares up on the other side,” says Dr Louis Massing, MSF’s medical referent in DRC.“In 2022, we carried out 45 measles-related emergency interventions; that’s more than three-quarters of our emergency response in DRC.”The largest measles outbreak ever documented in DRC occurred between 2018 and 2020. At that time, nearly 460,000 children contracted the disease, and 8,000 of them died. Large-scale vaccination campaigns had been organised by the health authorities, supported by international partners such as MSF, enabling the number of cases to be drastically reduced by 2021.“But last year, nearly half of the country's health zones were once again in an epidemic situation,” says Dr Massing. “And it’s not over. In January 2023 alone, close to 20,000 suspect cases of measles have been notified in DRC and our teams have already responded to measles outbreaks in Tshopo, Maniema, South Kivu, North Kivu, Lomami and Lualaba provinces.”
Quick takes: US flu trends, flu vaccine effectiveness, WHO flu strain picks | CIDRAP
- In its weekly update today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said US flu activity remains low in most of the country, with most markers, including hospitalizations and deaths, continuing to drop for the week ending Feb 18. The percentage of outpatient visits for flu, at 2.6% last week, remained just above the national baseline of 2.5%. The percentage of influenza B samples rose slightly, from 10.4% to 13.3%. Four more pediatric flu deaths were reported, raising the season's total to 115.
- Interim estimates of flu vaccine effectiveness in the US flu season, based on two ongoing studies at the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin, suggest that the vaccine was 54% effective for preventing medically attended influenza A infection in people younger then 65 years and was 71% in children and adolescents, according to a report published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Flu vaccines help cut infections, complications, and deaths, but protection is suboptimal, averaging 10% to 60% from 2004 to 2018, according to CDC data, a factor driving an international push for more effective flu vaccines. Effectiveness is known to vary by season, flu virus subtype, and antigenic match with circulating strains.
- The World Health Organization flu vaccine strain selection committee today announced its recommendations for the Northern Hemisphere's upcoming (2023-24) flu season, keeping most of the strains the same as for the current season. The only difference is a change in the 2009 H1N1 strain for both egg and cell/recombinant versions, swapping earlier virus strains with 2022 versions. The H1N1 strain selections for the Northern Hemisphere are different than the ones included in the vaccine for Southern Hemisphere's 2023 flu season.
Cambodia reports its second H5N1 avian flu case --World Health Organization (WHO) officials today said Cambodia's health ministry has reported a second H5N1 avian flu case, involving the father of the 11-year-old girlwho recently died of her infection.Also today, WHO officials said its flu vaccine strain selection group, as part of its regularly scheduled biannual meeting, recommended adding another candidate H5N1 vaccine virus, if needed.At a briefing, Sylvie Briand, MD, who directs the WHO's epidemic and pandemic preparedness division, said the second case is one of the girl's 12 contacts and that testing is still under way on others. Yesterday, media reports that cited Cambodian health officials said four of the contacts experienced flulike symptoms."The global H5N1 situation is worrying, given the widespread virus around the world in birds and the increased reports of cases in mammals, including humans," she said.Briand said WHO officials are in close communication with Cambodian officials and that the two groups are meeting in a teleconference today. So far, it's not clear if the two patients had the same exposure to the virus or if the case represents human-to-human spread, she said. The new case marks the ninth H5N1 infection since the virus started spreading rapidly in wild birds and poultryRecent developments with H5N1 have prompted the WHO to reassess the risk for the virus, Briand added. In earlier assessments, health officials have said the risk to humans is low and that so far there's no genetic evidence that the virus can more easily infect humans.The WHO has recorded 965 human H5N1 cases since 2003, and though the virus has a high mortality rate of more than 50%, it isn't known to spread easily among people.WHO officials said highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza viruses have been circulating in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, since the early 2000s.Richard Webby, PhD, a virologist who directs the WHO collaborating center at St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, said multiple H5N1 clades are circulating in Cambodia's poultry, including 2.3.4.4b as well as a more localized lineage.
Nigeria Lassa fever tally tops 500 confirmed cases - In a follow-up on the Lassa fever situation in Nigeria in 2023, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) report an additional 68 confirmed cases during the week ending February 12. Confirmed cases were reported from Ondo, Edo, Bauchi, Taraba, Ebonyi, Gombe,Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau States that week.This brings the total confirmed cases to 531 during the first six weeks of 2023. This is a 48 percent increase compared to the same period in 2022 (358).In total for 2023, 20 States have recorded at least one confirmed case across 79 Local Government Areas.Cumulatively from week 1 to week 6, 2023, 85 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 16.0% which is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2022 (16.5%).Four new Healthcare workers (HCWs) were affected during the week ending Feb. 12, bringing the total HCWs affected this year to 28.Lassa Fever is an acute viral illness and a viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF). The causative agent is a single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus in the family arenaviridae, the Lassa virus. This zoonotic disease is associated with high morbidity and mortality, transmitted by the multi-mammate rat (mastomys natalensis), one of the most common rats in equatorial Africa. The disease was first discovered in a town called Lassa in Borno State, Nigeria in 1969. Lassa fever remains a major public health challenge in West Africa with Nigeria bearing the highest burden. Lassa fever occurs throughout the year but more cases are recorded during the dry season i.e. November through May.
Death toll from Lassa fever rises to 85 in Nigeria - (Xinhua) -- The death toll from Lassa fever in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has risen to 85 since the beginning of the year, local health authorities said on Monday.In its latest update on Lassa fever, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) said 15 dead cases were recorded between late January and mid-February, taking the count so far this year to 85.The NCDC said 68 cases were recorded within the period, bringing the tally this year to 531.The public health agency put the fatality rate at 16 percent, saying 79 local government areas across 20 states had so far recorded at least one confirmed case this year."The predominant age group affected is 21-30 years while the male-to-female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:0.9," NCDC said.According to the World Health Organization, Lassa fever is caused by the Lassa virus. Humans usually contract the virus through exposure to food or household items contaminated by the urine or feces of infected Mastomys rats. The disease is endemic in the rodent population in parts of West Africa.In some cases, Lassa fever has similar symptoms to malaria, appearing between one and three weeks after exposure to the virus. In mild cases, the disease causes fever, fatigue, weakness, and headache.The death toll of Lassa fever in Nigeria topped 170 from nearly 1,000 cases last year till November, amid intensified measures by the government to reduce infections.
High rate of multidrug-resistant bacterial colonization found in neonatal units in Kenya, Nigeria | CIDRAP - Molecular analysis of stool and rectal swab samples from two hospital neonatal units (NNUs) in Kenya and Nigeria revealed widespread colonization with multidrug-resistant organisms, researchers reported this week in Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control. A total 119 stool and rectal samples were obtained from 42 infants (57% female; 14.3% born extremely preterm) in the two NNUs and tested for extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) and carbapenemase genes using a previously validated quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay. The purpose of the study, conducted by a team of researchers from the United Kingdom, Kenya, and Nigeria, was to explore the frequency and rates of gut colonization with enteric bacteria harboring these multidrug-resistance genes, as colonization with these opportunistic pathogens can cause severe infections and lead to neonatal sepsis—a leading cause of infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Organisms that produce ESBL or carbapenemase enyzmes also spread easily between colonized infants, healthcare workers, and hospital surfaces and are a common cause of outbreaks in NNUs. Among the infants, 37 (89%) were found to be colonized with ESBL-producing organisms and 26 (62.4%) with carbapenemase producers. Suspected sepsis based on clinical assessment occurred in 30 infants (71.4%). Longitudinal sampling revealed that colonization occurred rapidly and had often occurred by the first sampling point (83.3%). Median survival time before colonization was 7 days with ESBL organisms and 16 days with carbapenemase producers. The majority of ESBL genes detected belonged to the CTX-M-1 (36/38; 95%), and CTX-M-9 (2/36; 5%) groups, and the most prevalent carbapenemase was blaNDM (27/29, 93%). The study authors say the high proportions of infants colonized with ESBL- and carbapenemase-producing organisms provide important epidemiologic information to inform infection-control strategies. "Active surveillance of colonization will improve the understanding of AMR [antimicrobial resistance] in these settings and guide infection control and antibiotic prescribing practice to improve clinical outcomes," they wrote.
US COVID-19 surges in 2020 linked to increased antibiotic prescribing -Surges in COVID-19 cases in the United States were associated with increased outpatient antibiotic prescribing in adults in 2020, according to an ecological analysis published this week in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.For the study, researchers with One Health Trust and Johns Hopkins University analyzed data on systemic antibiotic prescriptions collected from retail pharmacies from 2017 through 2020, along with county-level COVID-19 case data for 2020 and data on non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as masking that might have reduced transmission of other upper respiratory infections. Their aim was to estimate the relative importance of COVID-19 cases, NPIs, and sociodemographic factors in driving antibiotic prescribing during the first year of the pandemic.Total antibiotic prescriptions fell by 26.8% from March 2020 to December 2020 compared with 2017 through 2019, likely because of reduced healthcare-seeking behavior. But each 1% increase in monthly county-level COVID-19 cases was associated with a 0.009% increase in monthly antibiotic prescriptions per 100,000 population dispensed to all ages—the equivalent of 1,000 antibiotic prescriptions for every 1% increase in COVID-19 cases nationally.In a sub-analysis with children, a 1% increase in monthly COVID-19 cases was associated with a 0.12% decrease in the number of monthly antibiotic prescriptions. NPIs did not have an impact on all-ages prescribing, but counties with schools open for in-person instruction were associated with a 0.044% increase in monthly prescriptions per 100,000 children compared with counties that closed schools. Movement restriction and face mask requirements were associated with lower prescribing among children.The authors conclude that since other studies have found that bacterial co-infection in COVID-19 patients is rare, and that antibiotics were overused for COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic, at least a fraction of the increased antibiotic prescribing they found may have been inappropriate."The evidence here suggests that antibiotic use may have continued even when infections were likely viral," they wrote. "Further research is needed to understand why clinicians continue to prescribe antibiotics in these situations and how to modify this behavior."
Black Minnesotans disproportionately affected by environmental pollutants | MinnPost And nationally, Black people are 42% more likely than whites to have asthma and have a mortality rate from asthma 2.8 times that of white people, according to data from the American Lung Association. Zhara Danelle Dooley grew up in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, very close to Interstate-94. For as long as she can remember, she’s had asthma. “You never really think about it just because it’s part of life. It’s (Interstate) 94. It’s not a big deal. But then, when you think about how bad the air quality can be. That’s a big thing.”While being in the top 50% for lung health in the nation, Black Minnesotans face stark health disparities compared to white people living in the same state. When it comes to lung health in Minnesota, there’s a line connecting it to air pollution exposure.In the Twin Cities, the highest estimated rates of air pollution-related death and disease are found in neighborhoods with the largest percentage of Black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), low-income and uninsured residents and people who live with a disability.Nationally, that is also true. Black people are 42% more likely than whites to have asthma and have a mortality rate from asthma 2.8 times that of white people, according to data from the American Lung Association.“In Minnesota, overall, we have relatively good health outcomes, but of course, some varying disparities in a variety of areas for people of certain races and other groups,” said Dr. Abbie Begnaud, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School and a physician at M Health Fairview. “With regard to lung health, a lot of the racial differences that we see are related to – almost certainly systemic inequities – probably in terms of environmental exposures.”Zip codes with the largest percentage of BIPOC residents had more than five times the rate of asthma emergency room visits related to air pollution compared to areas with more white residents, according to the 2022 Life and Breath report by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).“That’s pretty stark evidence of disparities and who’s bearing the brunt of air pollution,” said Stephanie Fitzgerald, an attorney with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.
Climate Change Is Already Impacting Our Health -- The Incidental Economist (Posts) (video with Dr Aaron Carroll - Massive storms, flooding, extreme heat, droughts, air pollution, increased rates of disease, changes to our food and water… global warming, and the changes to climate that come with it, are increasing human health risks. Our physical and mental health both stand to suffer, and some populations are more vulnerable than others. What are the specific health issues, what can we do to address them, and most importantly – is there any hope? We hope to answer these questions and more in a handful of episodes on Climate Change and Health. This year, we’re going to be taking a look at how Climate Change can impact health.
How Climate Change Is Making Tampons (and Lots of Other Stuff) More Expensive - The New York Times -- When the Agriculture Department finished its calculations last month, the findings were startling: 2022 was a disaster for upland cotton in Texas, the state where the coarse fiber is primarily grown and then sold around the globe in the form of tampons, cloth diapers, gauze pads and other products.In the biggest loss on record, Texas farmers abandoned 74 percent of their planted crops — nearly six million acres — because of heat and parched soil, hallmarks of a megadrought made worse by climate change.That crash has helped to push up the price of tampons in the United States 13 percent over the past year. The price of cloth diapers spiked 21 percent. Cotton balls climbed 9 percent and gauze bandages increased by 8 percent. All of that was well above the country’s overall inflation rate of 6.5 percent in 2022, according to data provided by the market research firms NielsenIQ and The NPD Group.It’s an example of how climate change is reshaping the cost of daily life in ways that consumers might not realize.West Texas is the main source of upland cotton in the United States, which in turn is the world’s third-biggest producer and largest exporter of the fiber. That means the collapse of the upland cotton crop in West Texas will spread beyond the United States, economists say, onto the store shelves around the world.“Climate change is a secret driver of inflation,” said Nicole Corbett, a vice president at NielsenIQ. “As extreme weather continues to impact crops and production capacity, the cost of necessities will continue to rise.”Halfway around the world in Pakistan, the world’s sixth-largest producer of upland cotton, severe flooding, made worse by climate change, destroyed half that country’s cotton crop.There have been other drags on the global cotton supply. In 2021, the United States banned imports of cotton from the Xinjiang region of China, a major cotton producing area, out of concerns about the use of forced labor.But experts say that the impact of the warming planet on cotton is expanding across the planet with consequences that may be felt for decades to come.
Confirmation of BSE Halts Brazilian Beef Exports - Brazilian news outlets have reported a case of bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE). The disease was confirmed in the state of Para, according to a statement by Brazil's Minister for Agriculture Carlos Favaro. According to the ministry's report, the animal was a 9-year-old male in a herd of 160 head. The property has been inspected, with movement into and out of the property halted. Samples from the sick animal have been sent to the World Health Organization for Animal Health lab. This lab, based in Canada, will report on whether this is a classic form of BSE, or some atypical variation. The atypical form is more common in older animals and considered lower risk. Favaro said in a statement: "All measures are being adopted immediately at each stage of the investigation, and the matter is being treated with total transparency to guarantee Brazilian and global consumers the recognized quality of our meat." Last year, according to data from Brazil's Ministry of Economy, the country's exports of beef (fresh/chilled/frozen) set a record at 2 million metric tons (mmt), a 17% increase year over year. Chinese demand was responsible for 62% of the volume traded. The value of this totaled $11.8 billion (USD), up 48% year over year. News of the BSE confirmation led to reports that Brazil's beef exports to China will be halted beginning March 2, 2023. This is a major economic blow to the country, as China is currently the largest export destination for Brazil's beef exports. This is not the first time a case of BSE has halted exports from Brazil to China. In 2021, two confirmed cases halted exports, each lasting around three months. DTN Contributing Analyst Robin Schmahl noted the BSE case, and said the news led to what he called a "knee-jerk reaction" by the market. He said confirmation would mean more demand for U.S. beef, where supplies are already historically tight. That means a strong potential for higher cash, with boxed beef up on the news $4.31 for choice and $2.79 for select. "There is no reason feedlots will not hold out for higher cash," stated Schmahl. "The general consensus is that the upcoming Cattle on Feed report will continue to show contraction of the cattle herd providing support."
New Mexico Cattle Producers Seek to Stop Feds Shooting Cattle in National Forest -- New Mexico cattle producers and an animal rights group are asking a federal judge to halt a plan by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to hunt feral cattle by helicopter in a national forest. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) plans to shoot as many as 150 "unauthorized" cattle from a helicopter in Gila National Forest in southwest New Mexico, starting as early as Thursday. After a lawsuit filed Tuesday, a U.S. district judge in New Mexico will hold a hearing Wednesday morning in Albuquerque over whether to block the aerial hunt. The New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association, along with Spur Lake Cattle Co., a pair of individual producers and the Humane Farming Association, filed the lawsuit Tuesday against the USDA Forest Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), along with top USDA officials and the supervisor at Gila National Forest. Spur Lake is a New Mexico-based cattle company that owns and operates several ranches along the New Mexico and Arizona border. Also suing is Nelson Shirley, Spur Lake's president, but he also owns individual grazing allotments near the Gila National Forest and his branded cattle legally graze on some land within the forest. The Humane Farming Association is a California-based group that also operates Suwanna Ranch -- the world's largest farmed animal refuge -- provides more than seven square miles of land for rescued victims of animal cruelty. Gila National Forest is the sixth-largest national forest in the U.S., southwest of Albuquerque and includes Gila Wilderness, an undeveloped area of about 560,000 acres. A year ago, the Forest Service had its first aerial hunt on the forest, shooting 65 head of cattle from a helicopter. The New Mexico Cattle Growers, Spur Lake and others filed an initial lawsuit at that time. That led to the stipulation that any aerial operations to kill the cattle before March 1, 2025, would include a 75-day notice. The Forest Service announced Feb. 16 in a statement that the agency would again remove feral cattle from the forest "using lethal methods." The Forest Service said, "These feral cattle are not domesticated animals and pose a significant threat to public safety and natural resources."
Judge rules New Mexico feral cattle can be shot from helicopters (Reuters) - The U.S. Forest Service can go ahead with a plan to shoot dozens of feral cattle from helicopters in New Mexico's Gila Wilderness after a federal judge on Wednesday refused a request by ranchers for an emergency order to stop the cull.Cattle ranchers and local business owners told U.S. District Judge James Browning earlier on Wednesday at a hearing in Albuquerque the four-day hunt of about 150 stray or unbranded cows, due to start on Thursday, would violate federal laws and Forest Service regulations and likely kill cows they own.In denying the plaintiffs' bid for the emergency order, Browning said they were unlikely to succeed on the merits of their case and that of the approximately 300 cattle removed or killed over the last several decades "only one has been branded, and it was removed rather than killed." Jessica Blome, an attorney for the ranchers, said they are "deeply disappointed that the court green lit" the plan.
Pythons are snacking on GPS-wearing opossums that give up their locations - After nearly five months of waiting, an alarm activated on Michael Cove’s radio, a sign his study was working.To hunt pythons, an invasive predator in the Florida Keys, Cove and fellow researchers have been strapping GPS collars to opossums and raccoons. When one was eaten by a python in September, researchers programmed the device to notify them from within the snake’s stomach.After roughly six weeks of searching for the python that activated the alarm, research technicians located the 66-pound snake hiding underground. They needed about six hours to yank her out of the ground before they euthanized her. In her stomach, researchers discovered the collar — confirmation their plan worked.Cove told The Washington Post that he hopes the experiment, which is ongoing in Key Largo thanks to a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will protect endangered species and preserve ecosystems.“There’s not really many things restricting [pythons’] population expansion,” said Cove, a research curator at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. “I’m still cautiously optimistic that if we can remove a bunch of these big females before they’re reproducing, that we could manage this invasive predator.”Pythons originated in Southeast Asia, but they came to the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, often as pets. They soon started appearing in the Everglades after breaking loose or being dumped by their owners. The snakes, which can grow up to 18 feet long, are now linked to sharp declines in mammal populations in South Florida’s wetlands.According to a ScienceDaily study, the number of raccoons, opossums and bobcats in the Everglades each dropped by at least 87 percent between 1997 and 2012. The same study found that marsh and cottontail rabbits and foxes had disappeared from the area.In recent years, pythons have traveled south to Key Largo, where Cove said the first python was detected in 2007. Their migration left Key Largo woodrats and Key Largo cotton mice, which are endangered species, vulnerable to extinction. “We haven’t seen the kind of massive declines in mammals that you see in the Everglades,” Cove said, “which suggests to me that we’re still early in the invasion” in the Florida Keys.Cove said he wants to pinpoint the locations of female Burmese pythons, which eat more mammals than their male counterparts, across a 12-mile forested area.Wildlife officials and researchers have tried other methods to hunt pythons, such as spying on them to study their movements and tracking them with dogs. A Florida agency holds an annual python-catching competition, and in 2017, the state hired python hunters from India. In the past few years, researchers have used cameras to detect pythons.Cove developed a new approach. He said he bought 30 GPS collars for about $1,000 apiece, then caught opossums and raccoons in the area and bolted a collar around their necks with a leather strap in late April. Cove said the collars don’t place animals in greater danger of being eaten.Researchers programmed an alert to sound when the collars stop moving for more than four hours, Cove said. That could signal that a python consumed the collar-wearing mammal and was resting to digest.
Residents Say They’ve Broken Out in Rashes After East Palestine Train Derailment - Locals who live near the train derailment and release of toxic chemicals near East Palestine, Ohio, have complained about various health problems since the incident unfolded earlier this month, including rashes, headaches, and other issues. And they’ve expressed concerns that these new symptoms may be tied to the chemicals that were burned or released. The Feb. 3 derailment triggered officials to initiate a controlled release and burn of various chemicals as they cited concerns that those materials would explode and send out deadly shrapnel. Chemicals carried on the Norfolk Southern-operated train include toxic vinyl chloride gas, which was vented and burned, releasing a large cloud of black smoke that hung over the area for days. A plume of chemicals from the train derailment was also detected heading down the Ohio River, although some Ohio environmental officials assert that they may largely be fire retardant substances used to put out the fire. Other chemicals carried on the train include butyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether acetate, and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said (pdf).Residents of East Palestine were told they could return to their homes on Feb. 8. Since then, there have been reports from locals of adverse health events they’ve suffered amid separate reports of animals, including fish and chickens, dying off. “When we went back on the 10th, that’s when we decided that we couldn’t raise our kids here,” local Amanda Greathouse told CNN, adding that in the area, there was a smell that “reminded me of hair perming solution.” About 30 minutes after returning home earlier this month, she developed nausea and a rash, Greathouse told the network. Her house is located about a block from the train derailment site. “When we left, I had a rash on my skin on my arm, and my eyes were burning for a few days after that,” added Greathouse, who said she has two preschool-age children. “The chemical smell was so strong that it made me nauseous,” Greathouse said. “I just wanted to quickly pick up what I needed and leave. I only took a few pieces of clothes because even the clothes smelled like chemicals, and I’m afraid to put them on my kids.”
Cincinnati-area water districts shut off intake from Ohio River due to contamination from East Palestine derailment --Only days after Ohio Governor Mike DeWine publicly declared the water in East Palestine safe to drink, water authorities in Cincinnati, hundreds of miles away, announced they would shut off the intakes from the river “out of an abundance of caution.” The water authority in northern Kentucky that serves Campbell and Kenton counties and portions of Boone, Grant and Pendleton is following Cincinnati’s lead. Chemicals leaked from the catastrophic derailment and “controlled release and burn” of vinyl chloride from a tanker car would reach the Greater Cincinnati Water Work’s Ohio River intake by late Saturday or early Sunday morning, officials said. According to public works officials, thus far they have only detected very low levels of the chemical butyl acrylate, a byproduct of the burning of hundreds of thousands of gallons of vinyl chloride, upstream of the city. This is believed to have seeped into the Ohio River from a small creek approximately 300 miles north. The Ohio River passes less than 20 miles south of East Palestine. The same day DeWine’s office was informed that a large chemical plume of butyl acrylate had reached Gallipolis, Ohio, and was expected to arrive near Huntington, West Virginia. Richard Harrison, the executive director of the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO), told the Cincinnati Enquirer the rain that fell across the region on Thursday had made a “significant impact” in speeding the arrival of the contaminants to the city’s water intake. Harrison told the newspaper that the levels of the compound in the water are still far below what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would consider hazardous. Nevertheless, the justified decision to close the intake has exposed attempts by the government and the Norfolk Southern railroad to convince residents that there is no longer any danger to the public in East Palestine. The presence of chemicals from the spill in the Ohio River at any level is a worrying development. The Ohio River basin drains an area where approximately 25 million people live, and several cities lie along its course, including Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky, with metro populations of 2.3 million and 1.4 million, respectively.It is also one of the largest tributaries of the Mississippi River. Major cities downriver from where the Ohio River empties into the lower Mississippi include Memphis, Tennessee (metro population of 1.3 million); Baton Rouge (870,000) and New Orleans (1.3 million), Louisiana.
Explainer: What are the risks of materials released in the Ohio derailment? | (Reuters) - Ahead of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's visit on Thursday to the site of a toxic train derailment in Ohio, here is what we know about the scope of the incident: Neither the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nor Norfolk Southern(NSC.N), the company that operated the train that derailed in the Feb. 3 spill in East Palestine, Ohio, has said how much toxic material was in the train cars. The EPA has identified the type of rail cars involved and the chemicals they carried. Norfolk Southern did not reply to specific inquiries about how much each car was carrying. Federal rules specify how much of any toxic chemical can be carried in a particular rail car, and based on experts saying the cars were likely to be full to be cost effective, Reuters calculated that up to 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride was likely aboard. The same figure was cited in a federal class action lawsuit filed in federal court last week by Morgan & Morgan law firm against Norfolk Southern Railway and parent company Norfolk Southern Corp. Such an amount would be more than twice the amount emitted across the entire United States by companies in 2021, the latest year of available data in the EPA's "toxic release inventory" database. The EPA said in an email that most of the vinyl chloride was purposefully set afire to avoid a catastrophic explosion while cars burned for days. Vinyl chloride is a highly flammable, carcinogenic gas used in making plastic products that can cause dizziness, headaches and drowsiness when inhaled in the short term and a rare form of liver cancer after chronic exposure, the EPA has said. The agency said it did not know how much of other hazardous materials was leaked and did not confirm how much was aboard, but said "response efforts assumed all the contents of the rail cars leaked to ensure the most protective action." Norfolk Southern declined to comment in response to requests for details on the amounts of chemicals involved. The company CFO said on Wednesday the company will take responsibility for cleaning up after the derailment. The EPA has said repeatedly that its tests of drinking water and air inside homes near the wreck site have not shown any contamination. But that, experts say, does not answer the question of what exposure residents suffered in the hours immediately after the wreck, before monitoring was in place. Ila Cote, a toxicologist who worked at the EPA for nearly three decades carrying out disaster risk assessments on public health and is now a private consultant, said the long-term health damage, such as increased likelihood of cancer, from the short-term initial exposure to the toxic chemicals is extremely complicated to determine. "The data on cancer risk from a single high exposure is not good," Cote said. "But it would certainly be safe to say that if people had been highly exposed to vinyl chloride, they would incur increased risk of cancer."
EPA takes charge in Ohio rail disaster cleanup - A legally binding EPA order compels Norfolk Southern Corp., whose train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and spilled hazardous materials, to be responsible for cleanup efforts and costs. The rail company will identify and clean up contaminated soil and water resources, carry out the cleanup under a plan approved by EPA, reimburse the agency for cleaning services offered to residents and businesses that will be conducted by its staff and contractors, attend and participate in public meetings, and pay for EPA’s costs for work performed. “You’ll have the federal, state and local governments engaging with Norfolk Southern to put together a specific work plan outlining every single movement that they make, that we will approve,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said at a press conference. “Again, we’re going to push them to do it right and to do it as quickly as possible. It’s important that the community understand what’s happening in their backyard, and rest assured, we’re going to hold Norfolk Southern accountable.” If Norfolk Southern fails to comply, EPA will do this work and the company will foot the bill and pay triple the cost in the end, the agency said. Norfolk Southern previously agreed to comply with EPA orders and reimburse all cleanup costs and perform response activities after the agency sent the company a notice of potential liability (Greenwire, Feb. 15). The announcement comes during Regan’s second trip to the area in less than a week. Joined by Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), Regan spone to reporters in East Palestine, Ohio, early Tuesday afternoon to update the public as the federal government shifts from the emergency response to the remediation phase of its emergency management. Ohio Sens. J.D. Vance, a Republican, and Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, sent a letter Saturday to Regan and Anne Vogel, head of Ohio EPA, requesting testing and monitoring for dioxins, toxic chemical compounds that could have formed after vinyl chloride, a carcinogenic chemical carried on the train, was burned.EPA and state officials repeatedly reported no chemicals have shown up in water, soil or at-home air quality tests, but residents counter that rash breakouts, sick cattle and other unusual health implications have arisen since the derailment.Regan said at a press conference last week that officials are “testing everything on that train” but dioxin is not included in the online list of identified substances being measured.Brown and Vance ask in the letter if either agency — or any entity — is testing for dioxins. “According to the U.S. EPA, dioxins are highly toxic, can interfere with hormones, and can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, or damage to the immune system,” Vance and Brown wrote in the letter. “We are concerned [that] the burning of large volumes of vinyl chloride may have resulted in the formation of dioxins that may have been dispersed throughout the East Palestine community and potentially a much larg[er] area.” Brown and Vance asked for answers to their questions by Friday. A spokesperson for the Ohio EPA said in an email the agency “will be responding to the letter.”
University student finds thousands of fish, other aquatic life dead in East Palestine creeks --(WOIO) - State and government officials have assured residents of East Palestine that their lives can go back to normal, but many folks there aren’t buying it.19 Investigators met with someone who is documenting the environmental devastation and the impact it’s having on wildlife.“It’s terrible to look at,” said Sam Hall, a Sophomore at West Virginia University studying Wildlife and Fisheries Resource Management. “It’s a catastrophe. Everything is dead there’s nothing. You shouldn’t walk through a creek and see piles of dead things floating past you, it should be life.”The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates a total of 3,500 aquatic animals died in East Palestine, but just this weekend university of West Virginia student Sam Hall said he found tens of thousands more.“There’s dead frogs, dead crayfish, dead fish, everything in the creek is dead and it was all just sitting on the bottom covered in fungus rotting and there’s just a terrible chemical smell through this entire valley,” Hall said.Hall wanted to see the aftermath of the disaster for himself.He took videos of the water at Leslie Run creek.“It’s like you took some crazy drugs,” Hall said of how the water looked. “It’s not natural, and it will go downstream, and it releases these crazy fumes that burn your nose and I don’t know my eyes are starting to get a little itchy just standing over here by the creek.”Hall launched a project to document the effects of the fish kill in East Palestine, which is accessible to the general public.Locals can even upload their own photos.“More detailed information can get accessed by universities and researchers throughout i-naturalist it’s used for all different types of projects in the wildlife field,” he said.Veterinarians are recommending that anyone who had a pet die in the area since the derailment have a necropsy done to determine the cause of death.Norfolk Southern said they have already removed 15,000 pounds of contaminated soil and over one million gallons of contaminated water from the derailment site.
More than 43,000 fish died in East Palestine train derailment - The Ohio Department of Natural Resources said Thursday that the estimated number of fish that died in rivers and waterways after the Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine is now in excess of 43,000. You can watch the update from ODNR in the player below: ODNR said it worked with a third party, EnviroScience Inc., to collect data on the number of dead fish. Initial estimates from earlier this month indicated around 3,500 fish died across 7.5 miles of streams. ODNR wildlife officers located dead fish in Leslie Run, Bull Creek and a portion of the North Fork of Beaver Creek when the derailment occurred. New estimates provided by ODNR show that number is significantly higher—with more than 38,000 minnows and 5,500 other types of fish dead, totaling more than 43,000 dead fish. The fish were all located within a 5-mile span from the derailment site. As of Thursday, no terrestrial animal deaths have been reported from the derailment and subsequent chemical spill. Additionally, officials said the fish south of the tributaries appear to be healthy. The agency said it is confident the affected streams will recover. ODNR and the Environmental Protection Agency will continue to monitor the area, but the cleanup of the dead fish in the streams is complete. There may be a handful of dead fish left in the streams but they don't cause an ecological concern at this point, officials said. There isn't a worry at this point about further chemical contamination.
Did dioxins spread after Ohio train derailment? | AP After a catastrophic 38-train car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, some officials are raising concerns about a type of toxic substance that tends to stay in the environment. Last week, Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance, the U.S. senators from Ohio, sent a letter to the state’s environmental protection agency expressing concern that dioxins may have been released when some of the chemicals in the damaged railcars were deliberately burned for safety reasons. They joined residents of the small Midwestern town and environmentalists from around the U.S. calling for state and federal environmental agencies to test the soil around the site where the tanker cars tipped over. A look at dioxins, their potential harms and whether they may have been created by burning the vinyl chloride that was on the Norfolk Southern train: Dioxins refer to a group of toxic chemical compounds that can persist in the environment for long periods of time, according to the World Health Organization.They are created through combustion and attach to dust particles, which is how they begin to circulate through an ecosystem. Residents near the burn could have been exposed to dioxins in the air that landed on their skin or were breathed into their lungs, said Frederick Guengerich, a toxicologist at Vanderbilt University. Skin exposure to high concentrations can cause what’s known as chloracne — an intense skin inflammation, Guengerich said. But the main pathway that dioxin gets into human bodies is not directly through something burning like the contents of the East Palestine tanker cars. It’s through consumption of meat, dairy, fish and shellfish that have become contaminated. That contamination takes time. “That’s why it’s important for the authorities to investigate this site now,” said Ted Schettler, a physician with a public health degree who directs the Science and Environmental Health Network, a coalition of environmental organizations. “Because it’s important to determine the extent to which dioxins are present in the soil and the surrounding area.” Linda Birnbaum, a leading dioxins researcher, toxicologist and former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, said that burning vinyl chloride does create dioxins. Other experts agreed the accident could have created them.
Biden orders weekend door-to-door checks in Ohio after train derailment President Biden issued an order Friday directing federal agencies to check-in with residents of East Palestine, Ohio, after a train derailment earlier this month.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency will go door-to-door, visiting homes to see how families are doing and connect them any resources they may need.After hurricanes and other natural disasters, similar “walk teams” perform the same duties. Biden didn’t specifically say how many homes need to be visited, but he said he told employees to visit as many homes as possible by Monday.The announcement comes amid frustrations from Republicans toward the administration’s response to the disaster. House Republicans opened an investigation into the Feb. 3 derailment and have slammed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for what they have called a delayed response.Democrats meanwhile have blamed former President Trump and his administration for rolling back rail and environmental regulations during his term.Buttigieg also criticized the rollbacks when he visited the site of the derailment on Thursday, one day after Trump delivered a speech in East Palestine, slamming Buttigieg and Biden’s response.
The train derailment in Ohio was a disaster waiting to happen - When a freight train filled with volatile chemicals derailed in rural Ohio earlier this month, it set off a chain of reactions: the evacuation of a town of nearly 5,000 people; a massive black plume of smoke from a controlled burn; the death of fish in local waterways; and the necessity of monitoring the local air for pollutants. While the disaster garners headlines, researchers and chemical spill experts told Grist it’s a situation that plays out far too often across the country. The train that derailed around 9 p.m. on February 3 was carrying chemicals used in a variety of industries, from plastics to agriculture, each with a specific degree of hazard. The rail industry is responsible for a large share of the movement of highly volatile chemicals and explosives across the country. But for years, it has been plagued by harsh working conditions and a lack of rigorous safety standards and transparency. Justin Mikulka, a reporter who spent years researching the rail industry’s pitfalls and disasters and wrote the book Bomb Trains: How Industry Greed and Regulatory Failure Put the Public at Risk, said weakened regulations and a rush to reopen is to be expected. “While the trains are still burning, they’re rebuilding the rails,” Mikulka told Grist. “It’s again an excellent example of how they put profit over public safety.” Mikulka said, be it chemicals or crude oil, trains are getting longer, going faster, and moving through the majority of the nation’s backyard. These lines are often dubbed “bomb trains” by those in the rail industry and environmental groups. In the last two decades, train lengths have increased by 25 percent, according to the Government Accountability Office. Currently, the Federal Railroad Administration, or FRA, does not have a limit on how long a train can be. While derailments have decreased in recent years, the severity has increased as the industry focuses on longer trains with small crews. “The accidents that do occur, because of the longer trains, tend to be bigger accidents — more cars and more potential damage,” Steven Ditmeyer, a former head of the office of research and development at the FRA, told Vox. Mikulka said that the Ohio derailment could have been worse. When crews are stretched thin, Mikulka said, accidents and derailments are just waiting to happen. He said calls from workers for increased safety measures have gone unheard. “There are so many different points in this process where we look at how we can make it safer, and the rail company says ‘Yeah, but we don’t want to pay for that.’”
We Shouldn't Need Body Bags to Learn From Ohio's Train Disaster - If things had gone a bit differently, the chemicals on the train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, could have exploded, killing people on the spot, maybe hundreds. That’s the unacceptable risk thrust on communities across the country by the transportation of hazardous materials. Fixing the problem won’t be easy.Investigations will no doubt follow into what operator Norfolk Southern Corp. did wrong. The White House has already pledged to hold the company accountable. But the only sure way to avoid future accidents is to stop transporting dangerous materials across vast distances — whether by train, car or pipeline — since they all present risks. The explosion danger stems from the nature of several of the substances on the train, which derailed Feb. 3 — in particular, vinyl chloride, a building block of plastics. It can only be transported as what’s called a pressurized liquid. If exposed to enough heat from a fire, the vinyl chloride can boil and build enough pressure to blow apart even the most powerfully reinforced container. That’s what authorities feared would happen in East Palestine. The technical term for such a mega blast is a BLEVE, Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion, said chemist and toxicologist Hans Plugge, who heads the consulting firm Safer Chemical Analytics. You can try to quantify the power of a BLEVE in terms of 100s of tons of explosive, he said, but it comes across better if you watch a video of a disaster such as the 1983 BLEVE in Murdock, Illinois, which looked like an atomic blast and flung the remains of a tank close to a mile away. In East Palestine, a BLEVE was narrowly averted with a deliberate burning, sending up ugly black clouds of smoke, while the town was evacuated. The burn should have destroyed most of the vinyl chloride, but residents are still faced with concerns about long-term contamination with whatever leaked before the burn, as well as byproducts of the fire, including four other hazardous chemicals. Longer-lived contaminants called dioxins can form from incomplete combustion and tend to accumulate in the environment and people’s bodies. And all for what? Vinyl chloride is a building block for polyvinyl chloride, or PVC — a plastic nobody loves. It’s used for pipes as well as cheap building materials and medical equipment. But ending the dangers posed by transporting the pressurized liquid is harder than just swearing off PVC. There are already greener alternatives, in some cases good old fashioned natural building materials. The reason we have so much PVC and it’s so cheap is that it serves another purpose — using up chlorine that’s produced as a waste product in other processes. The chemical industry makes a lot of chlorine because it’s a biproduct in the production of sodium hydroxide, used in everything from waste-water treatment to pharmaceuticals to making bicycles. Sodium hydroxide is made from water and ordinary salt, but it takes lots of energy and leaves behind tons of chlorine. Chemical companies could pay to get rid of the chlorine, or they could find uses for it. Making chlorine-containing products, however, requires train compartments to be filled with pressurized chlorine gas, which is far more dangerous than vinyl chloride. So, making PVC is seen as the lesser of evils. I talked to both chemists and activists about the solution. Everyone agrees that we need to make chemical transport safer and, because unexpected things can happen, the best way to do that is to reduce the transportation of hazardous substances in the first place. “No matter where the trains run, individuals are assuming risks they don’t know exist, risks that are thrust on them without their knowledge by others far removed from the hazard,” said chemist Mark Jones, a consultant who had worked in industry.
Efficient and fragile: Low prices, modern railroading and the toxic Ohio derailment --Complex, tightly networked systems run very efficiently and can work with precision for long periods, until they don't. Money saved on the front end can be lost in one catastrophic accident. There is no better recent example than the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying copious amounts of toxic vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals. By now nearly everyone knows the tale of toxic fires and fears of explosion which led officials to drain undamaged tank cars carrying the same toxic chemicals which escaped the initial fires and then burn those chemicals as a precaution. Toxic smoke and residue settled far and wide from the crash site near East Palestine, Ohio, a small town of about 4,700. (You can read a summary of the possible effects of these chemicals on living organisms here. But I think the writer might actually be underplaying the consequences both short- and long-term.) Who will pay for all the damage to people and the environment is a tricky question. Attempts by Norfolk Southern to avoid liability will almost certainly find their way into the media. (In fact, they already have.) What likely won't be discussed is the consumer love affair with cheap goods which, of course, require cheap transport as part of being cheap. The focus on driving down costs and keeping prices low (not so much lately!) has been a cruel force in world affairs leading to hideous labor conditions and environmental practices. Part of the story was told in a documentary, the title of which has become the shorthand description of the problem, "The High Cost of Low Prices." It turns out that something called Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) has become the latest fad in the railroad industry for reducing costs by reducing personnel and inspection times and then increasing train speeds and the number of railroad cars on a train. The upshot is that things get missed or worse, ignored. Apparently, a faulty bearing caused the Ohio derailment. Workers used to get 3 minutes to inspect each railcar for safety issues. Now under PSR they get 90 seconds. We have just experienced how the hyper-efficient just-in-time worldwide logistics system can get utterly snarled when a pandemic and then a war disrupt supply chains. There is a trade-off between the efficiency and the robustness of any system. Likewise, there is a trade-off between efficiency and safety. Part of increasing efficiency is to run machines and people closer to their maximum speed. For machines that can mean higher pressures, more stress, more wear and tear, and therefore a greater likelihood of breakdown. For humans efficiency can lead to fatigue (more work per person) and, where inspection tasks have been eliminated or speeded up, it can lead to missed safety issues.The obsession with both profits and cheap prices are part of what led to the Ohio train derailment. There will now be a lot of talk about lax regulations and corporate greed. And, both need to be discussed. But I can confidently predict that almost nothing will be written or spoken about the role of our obsession with low prices as a concomitant cause of this horrific accident.
Four rail-borne risks moving through American communities - Communities alongside rail lines had two more close calls this week as freight trains carrying hazardous materials derailed in Houston and Detroit.For the communities where this week’s wrecks took place, the damage was less severe than symbolic: a reminder of the importance of rail-borne hazardous materials to every part of the economy just after the crash in East Palestine, Ohio.Houston is the capital of the nation’s petroleum industry, part of a sprawling crescent of refineries, crackers, factories and liquefaction plants stretching from Baytown, Texas, to the Mississippi River industrial corridor in Louisiana — sometimes called Cancer Alley. And Detroit — the once-and-future heartland of American automotive manufacturing — is now a rising hub of electric vehicle and battery manufacturing, a suite of high technologies whose exotic chemistries depend on hazardous materials.For example, liquid chlorine — carried in the train that derailed in Detroit — is an essential component in wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicle batteries, according to the Chlorine Institute.The crashes in both regions — one a rising hub of clean energy, the other of fossil fuels — underscored the risk posed by hazardous materials moving through the nation’s towns and cities.That is a risk that is often invisible until, suddenly, it explodes. Since 2015, the U.S. rail system has been responsible for 106 derailments in which hazardous materials were released, according to Federal Railway Administration data analyzed by The Hill.In 2022 alone, the agency tracked ten derailments containing hazardous materials, which ranged from a pair of propane-carrying cars overturned in Maine to a 44-car derailment in Iowa that sent 65,000 gallons of asphalt into an Iowa creek. Last year also saw a spill of 19,300 gallons of hydrochloric acid from a derailment in Oklahoma and 20,000 gallons of nervous system-distorting methyl methacrylate monomer — a key ingredient in fake nails. In East Palestine, approximately 36 cars derailed — 11 of which carried hazardous materials. If that wreck had happened in 2022, it would have been in 8th place in terms of cars destroyed..“Local communities don’t know what’s in these trains,” ‘ They can’t stop the trains from going through, and they have been unable to get safety regulations.” “And then they’re the ones left with, you know, the explosion,” Representatives from the Department of Transportation told The Hill that the agency doesn’t monitor the real-time movement of hazardous materials across the country. Trains carried about a million tons per day by rail in 2017, the last year the government released numbers.The nation’s rail trade groups have been quick to point out that this system is very safe on a train-by-train basis. According to the Associated of American Railroads (AAR), trains are ten times as safe per mile as trucks, and 99.9 percent of hazmat-containing rail shipments make it to their destination without incident.But trains also carry far more cargo than trucks — making the risks of a spill far more severe. And the sheer volume of U.S. rail travel means that even a failure rate of 0.1 percent can lead to a lot of damage.For example, about 20,000 rail shipments of vinyl chloride — the highly explosive and carcinogenic chemical that Norfolk Southern contractors poured in a ditch and burned off in East Palestine — cross the country each year, according to the American Chemical Society.That 99.5 percent success rate would still allow for 100 possible releases of a hazardous chemical — such as crude oil, ethanol, vinyl chloride or methane.
“This is why God made pipelines': GOP senator gives nonsensical explanation of Ohio train derailment -- United States Senator John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) suggested during a Fox News appearance on Saturday that "God made pipelines" and that somehow that form of notoriously unreliable infrastructure would have prevented the 150-car February 3rd Norfolk Southern Railway freight train derailment that poisoned East Palestine, Ohio with toxic vinyl chloride gas.The ecological disaster has been tied to former President Donald Trump's rollback of railway safety regulations that were implemented under his predecessor, Barack Obama."What do you think of how the federal government has been handling this? And should the secretary of transportation be out there talking to folks?" host John Roberts asked Kennedy, referring to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg."Well, this is why God made pipelines," Kennedy replied. "They're much safer than trucks or trains. Now, I understand this particular chemical, uh, could, could not have been transported by a pipeline. Um, but, but all you can do is require the truckers and require the railroads to be as safe as they possibly can. But when you can do it through a pipeline." Watch below or at this link.
FOX13 Investigates: Transporting truckloads of toxic materials through Memphis neighborhoods - Less than a year ago, there was an environmental battle raging against big oil in South Memphis. A proposed pipeline would have cut through the neighborhoods carrying thousands of gallons of oil. Citizens fought the proposal and won. Now, there is a new fight and this battle is only simmering. The first shot was fired when the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was granted approval of its plan to remove 3.5 million cubic yards of coal ash from two fields at the now shuttered Allen fossil fuel plant. Environmentalists applaud the cleanup, but a very loud few people in Memphis are furious with just how it's being done. In early February of 2021, TVA demolished the three smokestacks at the coal powered Allen fossil fuel plant which produced electricity for seven decades. Much more quietly, trucks have been making 120 trips per day since August, hauling coal ash away from the plant. The coal ash is what's left after that coal was burned to generate electricity for the Tennessee Valley Authority. How much coal ash? Three point five million cubic yards. Enough to cover 21 football fields. For decades life-altering, sometimes terminal, sicknesses have plagued the residents of South Memphis. And all of it, according to the EPA, contains poisonous levels of arsenic, mercury, and cadmium. This is why federal rules mandate the coal ash be dug up and moved to a better protected location, which in this case, is the South Shelby Landfill. Tennessee State Representative Justin Pearson just took his seat in the legislature in January. But the 28-year-old is taking a stand against what he said is as an extreme injustice against the people he represents. "Everything that TVA is doing is because they were forced to do it. None of this is altruistic in nature. This is not the way that you treat a community, and this is not the way a white community in Memphis or Shelby County would be treated. This is happening because they know that they can be exploitative against black people," Pearson said. Pearson said he's concerned about the amount of airborne coal ash from the trucks as they pass through the community. FOX13 took those concerns to TVA. Pearson isn't bothered only by the process, but also by how long it will take. "Ten years. Their plan is to do this for ten years. They will be cleaning out that pit and hauling this to the streets of Memphis for ten years and then leaving it in Memphis for eternity, " said Pearson. That's an estimated 19,000 toxic truckloads. After leaving the Allen Fossil Plant, the trucks get onto I-55 at Mallory crossing into Whitehaven, and eventually getting off Shelby Drive."And once they get on the exit, they come this way going east to the landfill. So, the trucks literally pass this house right here. And yes, they should be concerned as well as this whole neighborhood," Pearl Walker said as she pointed eastward down Shelby Drive.
Explosion Rocks Ohio Metal Plant, Sending Large Plume Of Black Smoke Into Sky - On Monday afternoon, a large explosion rocked a metal manufacturing plant just east of Cleveland, Ohio, sparking a fire and sending a massive column of black smoke into the sky.Fox News said the explosion occurred at I Schumann & Co. metal plant in Bedford. The company produces metal alloys.The black smoke billowing into the sky is reminiscent of the East Palestine controlled burn of toxic chemicals earlier this month. Law enforcement in Bedford has yet to say if the smoke is toxic to surrounding communities. JUST IN: Eye witness video of the massive metal facility explosion in Bedford, Ohio — mass casualty incident declared: "Wow, that's f-cking insane!" pic.twitter.com/cAlou0aDHi Multiple victims burned after massive explosion at a metal manufacturing plant in Bedford, Ohio pic.twitter.com/uOsHqNAQ8b — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 20, 2023 @IntelPointAlert || ‘Mass Casualty Incident’ reported following explosion at metal manufacturing plant in Bedford, Ohio; massive response underway pic.twitter.com/ibbHfHkhhm Here's another video of the fire. Emergency services have requested several medical helicopters. There are reports this could be a 'mass casualty incident.' DEVELOPING: ‘Mass Casualty Incident’ reported following explosion at metal manufacturing plant in Bedford, Ohio; massive response underway pic.twitter.com/J7DOcqBf9F — The cause of the blast is unknown at this time.
One killed, a dozen injured after blast at Ohio factory scatters molten debris, starts fire - (Reuters) - An explosion tore through an Ohio metals plant on Monday, scattering molten metal and debris that rained down on neighboring buildings, killing one person and injuring at least a dozen others, officials, witnesses and a media report said. The blast sent smoke billowing into the sky that could be seen for miles around the damaged factory about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Cleveland. The explosion of unknown origin at the I. Schumann & Co. metals plant in Bedford drew fire departments from throughout northeast Ohio. Oakwood Fire Department Captain Brian DiRocco addressed the media on scene earlier on Monday, saying 13 people were taken to hospital, many of them with burn wounds, and one more was being treated on site. At least one was in critical condition, and one was pulled from the debris, DiRocco had said. All of those injured were on site, the falling debris having spared those at neighboring businesses. A spokeswoman for Cuyahoga County confirmed later that a 46-year-old man had died, according to the New York Times. "The people were mostly walking wounded," DiRocco said. "I'm sure there's a lot of people that work here that were in shock." DiRocco said he had inspected the site before and found it a safe place "except for the fact that it's a foundry. You are dealing with molten metal, so there's always an inherent danger."
Downpour kills at least 36 in Brazil, cities cancel Carnival - ABC News - Heavy rain caused flooding and landslides that have killed 36 people on the northern coast of Brazil’s Sao Paulo state, officials said Monday, while fatalities could rise. Sao Paulo's state government said in a statement that 35 died in the city of Sao Sebastiao and a 7-year-old girl was killed in neighboring Ubatuba. On Monday morning, more than 500 people were continuing search and rescue efforts. Some of the hardest-hit cities that are under a state of emergency, including Sao Sebastiao, Ubatuba, Ilhabela and Bertioga, canceled their Carnival festivities as rescue teams contined a search for the injured and missing under the rubble. “Our rescue teams are not managing to get to several locations; it is a chaotic situation,” said Felipe Augusto, the mayor of Sao Sebastiao. Later, he added there are dozens of people missing and that 50 houses collapsed in the city due to the landslides. Augusto posted on social media several videos of widespread destruction in his city, including one of baby being rescued by locals lined up on a flooded street. Sao Paulo state government said in a statement that precipitation in the region has surpassed 600 millimeters (23.6 inches) in one day, one of the highest amounts ever in Brazil in such a short period. Bertioga alone had 687 millimeters during that period, the state government said. Gov. Tarcisio de Freitas said in a statement he requested support from the army, which sent two airplanes and rescue teams to the region. TV footage showed houses flooded with only the roof visible. Residents are using small boats to carry items and people to higher positions. A road that connects Rio de Janeiro to the port city of Santos was blocked by landslides and floodwaters.
São Paulo: Dozens killed as deadly storms hit Brazilian coast - BBC News (video) At least 40 people have been killed in flooding and landslides in Brazil's São Paulo state, officials say. Dozens of people are missing and while the number of dead is expected to rise, rescue workers say they hope to pull some of those trapped in flooded homes out of the mud alive. Video showed neighbourhoods under water, inundated motorways and debris left after houses were swept away. Carnival celebrations have been cancelled in a number of cities. In the coastal town of São Sebastião, 627mm of rain fell in 24 hours, twice the expected amount for the month. The town's mayor, Felipe August, said the situation there was chaotic: "We have not yet gauged the scale of the damage. We are trying to rescue the victims." Some 50 houses had collapsed and were washed away, Mr Augusto added, saying that the situation remained "extremely critical". The state government reported at least 35 deaths in São Sebastião and in Ubatuba, some 80km (50 miles) north-east, a seven-year-old girl was killed when a boulder weighing two tonnes hit her home. Hundreds have been displaced and evacuated. "Unfortunately, we are going to have many more deaths," a civil defence official told newspaper Folha de São Paulo. State Governor TarcÃsio de Freitas said he had released the equivalent of $1.5m (£1.2m) in funding to aid in disaster relief. Carnival events were cancelled across parts of the coastline, which is a popular destination for wealthy tourists looking to avoid huge streetside festivities in the big cities. The festival usually lasts for five days in the run-up to the Christian festival of Lent and the colourful celebrations are synonymous with Brazil. Latin America's largest port in Santos was also shut as wind speeds exceeded 55km/h (34mph) and waves rose to over a metre, local media reported. More heavy rain is expected in the area, threatening to make conditions even worse for emergency teams. Last year, torrential rain in the south-eastern city of Petropolis killed more than 230 people.
Extremely heavy rains hit Brazil, leaving at least 46 people dead - (video) Brazil’s southeastern coastal areas were hit with exceptionally heavy rainfall on February 18 and 19, 2023, causing floods and landslides that killed 40 people, injured 23 others, and displaced thousands more. The region experienced some of the country’s highest recorded rainfall totals for a 24-hour period, with Bertioga registering 694 mm (27.32 inches) and São Sebastião recording 649 mm (25.55 inches) during the same timeframe. A 180-day state of emergency was declared for the cities of Ubatuba, São Sebastião, Ilhabela, Caraguatatuba, and Bertioga after exceptionally heavy rains hit the region over the weekend. In 24 hours to 09:00 LT on February 19, Bertioga registered 694 mm (27.32 inches) of rain, São Sebastião 649 mm (25.55 inches) — twice its normal monthly rainfall, Guarujá 406 mm (15.98 inches), Ilhabela 346 mm (13.62 inches), Ubatuba 339 mm (13.35 inches), Santos 243 mm (9.57 inches), Caraguatatuba 240 mm (9.45 inches), Praia Grande 226 mm (8.90 inches) and São Vicente 211 mm (8.31 inches). Television and social media footage from the town of São Sebastião on Sunday showed flooded neighborhoods, debris from hillside houses swept away by mud, flooded highways, and cars destroyed by fallen trees. Dozens of roads have been washed out or blocked, causing severe transport difficulties. The mayor of Sao Sebastiao, Felipe Augusto, said 50 houses had collapsed in the city due to the landslides. “We have not yet gauged the scale of the damage. We are trying to rescue the victims,” Augusto said, calling the situation in the town “extremely critical.” As of February 22, 40 deaths have been confirmed in the region, including 39 in São Sebastião, and more than 2 400 people have been displaced or made homeless. Drinking water infrastructure has been severely damaged in São Sebastião, Caraguatatuba, and the municipality of Ilhabela, with drinking water being delivered by tank trucks in areas of São Sebastião. The southeastern coastal region of Brazil, particularly areas such as Ubatuba, São Sebastião, and Ilhabela, are popular tourist destinations known for their beautiful beaches, picturesque landscapes, and vibrant culture. The heavy rains and flooding are especially concerning for the local economy as the region relies heavily on tourism. This is the second severe flood event in the state in the last two weeks. Flooding affected the Greater São Paulo Region on February 7, resulting in one person dying in flood waters in Osasco, and another being reported missing and later found dead in floods in Parque São Lucas. From December 1 to February 13, heavy rains and landslides across Brazil left 25 people dead and 8 547 displaced. Update 11:30 UTC, February 22 The number of casualties rose to 46 on February 21. Almost 2 500 people are still displaced or homeless. 45 people died in Sao Sebastiao.
Thousands still isolated one week after devastating floods in New Zealand - One week after much of New Zealand’s North Island wasdevastated by Cyclone Gabrielle, it is clear that the storm was the country’s most destructive event since the 2010–2011 Christchurch earthquakes, and the worst weather-related disaster this century. Yesterday the Labour Party government extended its state of emergency for flood-affected areas for another week. There were still 15,000 properties without power, mostly in Napier and Hastings. This morning police reported that 1,700 people are still unaccounted for. Many communities remain cut off due to impassable roads in the Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, East Cape, Northland and Coromandel regions. The death toll stands at 11, with the government warning that this is likely to increase further. Questions have been raised about why places that are prone to flooding like the Esk Valley in the Hawke’s Bay, where many properties were destroyed and a two-year-old girl drowned, were not evacuated before the storm. On Monday at 8.33 p.m., the Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence and Emergency Management issued a notice saying: “If evacuation is required overnight, teams will be deployed to advise residents.” People could also self-evacuate, “if you feel concerned.” According to Stuff, “evacuations were under way at 3.19 a.m.,” but by then the Esk Valley was already inundated. In nearby Puketapu, a family with several children, including a nine-month-old baby, climbed onto the roof at 5.00 a.m., watching as the water swept away vehicles below. The mother repeatedly called emergency services who told her help was on the way, but it never arrived. The group were rescued by neighbours more than six hours later. The mother told Radio NZ (RNZ): “I was really disappointed… you hear on the news that, you know, they’re congratulating themselves for rescuing everybody and it’s like, ‘No, I could’ve died.’” The fact that so many people remain isolated and have not been contacted since the February 13–14 storm raises serious concerns about their welfare. Many are on the East Cape, where the only highway connecting dozens of villages has been severely damaged. This was entirely predictable: the road is poorly maintained and notoriously vulnerable to flooding and slips. Despite several days’ warning about the approaching cyclone, preparations were not made to support communities that would be cut off for a week or longer.
One year on, Australian flood victims still left abandoned - A year after the floods that devastated northern New South Wales (NSW), including the regional city of Lismore, most of the victims are still homeless or living in makeshift accommodation. On top of the failure of governments to protect and rescue people from the disaster in the first place, this is a further indictment of their indifference and contempt for those who are suffering such climate-related catastrophes. Two floods last February and March killed five people, destroyed 4,000 homes and damaged many more, particularly of working-class and elderly residents in low-lying areas and caravan parks. Many only escaped with their lives because of the efforts of volunteers in small boats. Now thousands of people remain living in substandard dwellings while they wait for government assessments or insurance payouts. That is despite a joint media appearance in Lismore four months ago by Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Liberal-National Premier Dominic Perrottet. In an attempt to quell the mounting anger, across the region and more broadly, over the government response to the disaster, Albanese and Perrottet joined hands to promote a $800 million buy-back, house-lift or repair scheme to address the crisis. Nothing has improved, however. Outraged residents protested outside the governments’ Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC) office in Lismore last month over being left in limbo by protracted delays and lack of transparency in the scheme. Nevertheless, not a single grant has yet been made. A public meeting this month in the flood-damaged township of Woodburn was told by the NRRC chief executive David Witherdin that it had received 8,000 applications, but only 25 homes had been assessed for potential buybacks so far. Moreover, Witherdin said the agency was “certainly oversubscribed”—that is, it had received many more applications than it could fund. As a result, people are still camping out in wrecked homes or caravans, some outside their houses, while others are paying exorbitant rents because of the wider housing, interest rates and cost-of-living crisis. A Southern Cross University survey revealed that at the end of 2022, almost 52 percent of flood victims were living in the shells of homes that had flooded; 26 percent were living in temporary accommodation such as caravans, sheds or government “pods,” or with friends or family; 18 percent were living in insecure accommodation such as tents or temporary rentals; and 4 percent were no longer living in the region.
Tropical Cyclone “Freddy” makes landfall over Madagascar, heading toward Mozambique - Tropical Cyclone “Freddy” made landfall over the northern Vatovavy-Fitovinany Region in central-eastern Madagascar on February 21, 2023, with maximum sustained winds of 165 km/h (102 mph). As the damage in Madagascar is still being assessed, Freddy has left the island and entered the Mozambique Channel. It is now gaining strength once again and is expected to hit Mozambique on February 24 as a severe tropical storm. Early on February 22, Madagascar’s National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) reported 4 fatalities and 16 600 affected people in four regions — Vatovavy, Fitovinany, Atsimo Atsinanana, and Amoron’I Mania. More than 2 250 houses were flooded.1 As of February 22, at least 1 person died in Mauritius and 500 families were evacuated. Around 25 000 power outages were also reported at the peak of the event across La Reunion while 80 people were hosted in emergency shelters. At 06:00 UTC today, the center of Freddy was located in the northern Atsimo-Andrefana Region of southwestern Madagascar. It had maximum sustained winds of 63 km/h and was heading WSW at 30 km/h (18 mph). The cyclone exited into the Mozambique Channel around 12:00 UTC. “Once [Freddy is] in the channel, the subtropical ridge strengthens towards the west and will steer the system westward then west-northwestward until landfall over the Mozambique coast on Friday morning,” forecasters at the RSMC La Reunion said at 06:00 UTC today.2 Over the weekend, under the effect of a trough passing to the south and contradictory steering from two residual ridges to the east and west, the system will almost stall overland before slightly drifting northwards as the subtropical ridge rebuilds to its southwest.
Cyclone Freddy slams Mozambique with 'dangerous' rainfall (AP) — Tropical Cyclone Freddy dumped “dangerous and exceptional rainfall levels” over Mozambique Friday as the long-lasting weather system continued to wreak havoc across southern Africa, the United Nations weather agency said. Freddy made landfall in the coastal town of Vilanculos with wind speeds of 113 kilometers (70 miles) and is now classified as an “intense tropical cyclone” after picking up speed over the Mozambique channel. The cyclone is projected to weaken as it barrels through southern Africa but still poses serious risk of heavy rainfall to the neighboring nations of Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi and Botswana, according to the regional weather center in Reunion. “There is a potential risk that months’ worth of rainfall may fall in the space of a few days, causing widespread flooding in an area which already has saturated soils and high river basin levels from unusually heavy seasonal rains,” The U.N. weather agency warned in a statement. Anne-Claire Fontan, a tropical cyclone scientist at the U.N. weather agency, said Mozambique is already reeling from floods and the cyclone will compound an already volatile scenario. Freddy had waned slightly when it plowed through Madagascar on Tuesday night, killing at least four people and displacing more than 16,000, before regaining strength over the ocean on Wednesday night and on Thursday.
Orange Warning for heavy rain in Hawke’s Bay, grave concerns for region still recovering from Cyclone Gabrielle, New Zealand - MetService, the national weather agency of New Zealand, issued an Orange Warning for Heavy Rain for the Hawke’s Bay region, as a complex weather system continues to affect the country. The agency has grave concerns for vulnerable areas due to the already saturated terrain. Areas in the region can expect to see 150 to 200 mm (5.9 to 7.9 inches) of rain over 48 hours. The heaviest falls are likely to occur from 15:00 LT on February 24, 2023, with peak rates of 20 to 30 mm/h (0.79 to 1.18 inches/h) possible. This weather system already brought unseasonably cold air, with a sharp change in temperatures throughout the country. Following extremely heavy rains that hit the North Island in late January and the destructive Cyclone Gabrielle in mid-February, parts of North Island are now bracing for another extreme weather event in the form of heavy rain. The previous weather events had already taken a heavy toll on the area, and Hawke’s Bay, in particular, was impacted particularly hard by Cyclone Gabrielle. MetService meteorologist Amy Rossiter advised today, February 23, that vulnerable areas like Esk Valley and the Wairoa District could be significantly impacted by heavy rain, given the slash and slit through the area. In addition to the Orange Warning for Heavy Rain in Hawke’s Bay, Heavy Rain Watches are also in force for Gisborne, Wairarapa, Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, and the western Bay of Plenty. MetService also warned that there is a risk of severe thunderstorms for much of the upper North Island today and tomorrow, with the potential that some of these thunderstorms could be severe. Downpours associated with these thunderstorms could reach peak intensities of up to 40 mm (1.57 inches) per hour, which can cause surface or flash flooding and may also lead to slips. Severe Thunderstorm Watches have been issued for this afternoon (LT) for Auckland, the Coromandel Peninsula, the Hauraki Plains, and the Bay of Plenty from Te Puke westwards. Rossiter advises people in these areas to prepare as best they can in case of a downpour, adding that localized 40 mm (1.6 inches) in an hour is a large amount of rain. Emergency services and lifelines working in recovery in the affected regions have been briefed.
From heatwave to frost in less than a week: Historic cold engulfs parts of South America - A sudden and unexpected surge of cold Arctic air has engulfed several regions of South America, shattering numerous cold records in its wake. Although it is currently summer in the southern hemisphere, including parts of South America such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and parts of Brazil, some areas have experienced a drastic and rapid shift in weather, going from a heat wave to frost in less than a week. On February 18, 2023, most of the cities in Paraguay experienced a sharp drop in temperature, breaking their previous records for minimum temperatures. The temperatures ranged between 7 and 16°C (44.6 – 60.8°F) across the country, with the lowest readings recorded in the southeast. The lowest temperature was 7.7 °C (45.9 °F), which is just 0.7 °C (1.2 °F) from the national record low for the month of February. The extreme cold weather caused at least 30 cities in Argentina to break their monthly cold records on the same day. The temperature dropped as low as -0.9 °C (30.4 °F) in Santa Rosa de Conlara, breaking the previous minimum February record of 3 °C (37.4 °F) set on February 1, 2005. In other cities, Villa Reynolds recorded 0.2 °C (32.4 °F), breaking the previous record of 1.8 °C (35.2 °F) set on February 12, 2018, and Villa De Maria recorded 1.6 °C (34.9 °F), breaking the previous record of 4 °C (39.2 °F) set on February 8, 1949.
Unprecedented snowfall isolates 87 villages, leaving 24 000 families in need of assistance, Morocco - A severe snowstorm wreaked havoc in Morocco’s southeast region on February 18 and 19, 2023, leaving 24 000 families in dire need of assistance and 87 villages isolated. The unprecedented levels of snowfall have led to road closures and the suspension of classes, while authorities and troops work tirelessly to provide aid to those in need. A massive snowstorm in Morocco’s southeast region has left 24 000 families in dire need of assistance, as well as 87 villages that have been isolated, particularly in the Ouarzazate and Zagora regions. The storm has led to unprecedented levels of snowfall, with some areas receiving up to 2.2 m (7.2 feet) of snow, leading to road closures and the suspension of classes. Despite the bad weather conditions, Moroccan troops have been working tirelessly to access the affected areas, and an airlift has been set up to deliver humanitarian aid teams to the people in need. Volunteer doctors from Rabat and other locations will be sent to assist, and medicines will be distributed to the affected population. King Mohammed VI has given instructions to speed up the delivery of aid to the villages affected by the storm, and the authorities are working with the Royal Gendarmerie and the Royal Armed Forces to ensure that everyone who needs assistance receives it. On February 20, the General Directorate of Meteorology issued an orange alert for snowfall of up to 20 cm (7.9 inches) in the highest areas of the provinces of Haouz, Taroudant, Ouarzazate, and Tinghir, which are popular tourist destinations. Predictions said the snow could reach nearly 2 m (6.4 feet) by midday Tuesday, February 21. The list of provinces set to see snowfall includes Al Haouz, Taroudant, Ouarzazate, and Tinghir. Despite the humanitarian concerns, news of heavy snowfall and even floods come as a pleasant change from last’s year drought. Moroccans are optimistic that the return of the rain will relieve some of the concerns surrounding water shortage and agriculture yield this year.
Winter storm brings icy Minnesota highways to standstill and knocks power out for nearly 200K Californians: Wicked winds up to 80mph and blizzard conditions set to lash 60M people - stretching from LA to Maine -- The coast-to-coast winter storm has already begun impacting millions of Americans with high winds leaving nearly 200,000 Californians without power and heavy snow and rain pummeling residents from coast to coast. As of Tuesday evening, more than 60 million people across nearly 30 states were under winter weather watches or warnings, primarily in the northern and eastern states which are slated to be hit by inches of rain, snow, ice, and flash flooding. Heavy snow in Minnesota stopped drivers on highways while blizzard conditions to the west in Montana dropped nearly three feet of precipitation in a matter of hours. On the West Coast, one climate scientist told the LA Times most California residents will be able to see snow from the storm in what he described as a 'very unusual event' which has also brought winds up to 80 miles per hour. 'Just about everybody who lives in California will probably be able to see snow, at least on the nearby hills — and, in most cases, in the very nearby hills — probably on Friday morning,' said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said. The 2,000 mile wide storm is expected to make travel impossible in some areas, particularly regions of Minnesota and cities along the Rockies. The National Weather Service issued winter storm, blizzard and high-wind advisories for a broad swath of the western and north-central United States. Up to two feet of snow and winds of up to 60 miles per hour were expected in some spots from Tuesday through Thursday. Snow falling at a rate of two inches an hour and gusty winds will make travel conditions treacherous and perhaps impossible in parts of the Northern Plains and the Upper Midwest, the service said in its forecast.According to meteorologists, the extreme weather is the result of winter fronts pulling cold air from the north. As of Tuesday afternoon, roughly one foot of snow had already fallen in northern Minnesota, with some experts predicting Minneapolis could be placed under a blizzard warning.
A winter storm could cover mountains in and around Los Angeles in snow - Just when it seemed like our wet winter had dried up for the season, a strong and rare storm is about to settle on Southern California this week—and possibly bring some serious snowfall along with it.A “cold, dangerous,” winter storm will move into the region starting Tuesday evening and stick around into Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures will be 10 to 20 degrees below normal (hang in there, wildflowers) which means highs in the low 50s, at best, for much of L.A., with high winds on Tuesday night that could bring mountain wind chills down to 10 to 20 degrees.While most of L.A.’s low-lying areas will just see a few inches of rain, the most notable part of the forecast is by far the snowfall levels at only somewhat higher elevations. In fact, the NWS says the storm could bring the “largest amount of 24–48-hour snowfall seen in decades” in the mountains around Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.Mountains above 6,000 feet (that’s slightly taller than the Mount Wilson Observatory) could see two to three feet of snow—or even as much asseven feet. Peaks above 4,000 feet (roughly the elevation of the top of the dreaded Grapevine along the 5) could see one to two feet of snow, while peaks 2,500 to 4,000 feet could receive six inches to a foot of snow. In other words, about a half-dozen of the tallest peaks in the western Santa Monica Mountains (the rugged area north of Malibu) could be covered in snow. Perhaps most remarkably, peaks as low as 1,500 feet could receive one to six inches of snow; for reference, the Hollywood Sign sits just above that elevation. In addition, some foothill areas and elevated valley floors like the Santa Clarita Valley and Antelope Valley could receive a dusting on Wednesday.
Photos: Massive winter storm takes aim at the Upper Midwest - The Washington Post
Massive snowstorm closes schools, grounds flights in U.S. heartland -- (Reuters) - A major winter storm battered the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest with high winds and heavy snow on Wednesday, forcing hundreds of schools to close, grounding air travel and making road travel difficult - if not impossible - in some U.S. areas. More than 50 million Americans were under winter weather advisories on Wednesday morning as the storm moved across a wide swath of the western and northern United States and into the East. Up to 2 feet (60 cm) of snow and winds of up to 60 miles (97 km) an hour were expected in some spots during the day and into Thursday, the National Weather Service said. In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, some 17 inches (43 cm) of snow, wind gusts up to 45 mph (72 kph) and temperatures hovering around 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 5 C) punished those going about their daily routines. "It's really cold, but people still want their coffee and eggs," said Bre Bethke, 37, a manager at M.B. Haskett Delicatessen, after being blasted by the fierce weather each time she opened a drive-through window for a waiting customer. The storm also pounded California and brought a mix of snow and sleet to the East, including New England, where forecasters warned motorists to beware slick roads. Snow-covered roads also will make travel treacherous in the Upper Midwest, and ice-covered power lines and falling trees could cause power outages late on Wednesday and into Thursday, said Frank Pereira, a forecaster with the weather service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.Among the hardest-hit cities in the Midwest was Minneapolis, where some 20 inches (50 cm) of snow and 45-mph (72-kph) winds were expected to create whiteouts. "We are bracing for what is likely to be one of the largest snowstorms in Minnesota history," St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said at a news conference. Local officials declared emergencies in Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul, and motorists were told not to be out on the roads.
Two powerful winter storms hit U.S., leaving more than 2 million people without power - The Watchers - (four videos) Two powerful winter storms are bringing widespread areas of wintry precipitation from coast to coast, leaving some 900 000 customers, or estimated 2.2 million people, without power. While heavy snow, significant icing, and blizzard conditions are affecting portions of the Upper Midwest eastward into the Northeast, heavy rain, snow, wind, and cold temperatures are impacting much of California. Dangerous travel conditions are expected.
- A deep layer low will produce heavy snow across the terrain of California and heavy rainfall across southern California.
- A swath of heavy snow and locally significant ice will stretch from the Great Lakes to the Northeast.
- Record-breaking warmth is expected over the East going through Thursday as extreme cold hits the Northern Plains and the Intermountain West.
A prolonged major winter storm continues to sweep across portions of the West, northern Plains, and Great Lakes regions, bringing with it heavy snow and blizzard conditions.The National Weather Service (NWS) warns of significant travel disruptions, infrastructure damage, livestock loss, and recreational interruptions.The storm, which consists of a series of low-pressure waves, is expected to result in as much as 2.5 to 5 cm (1 to 2 inches) of snowfall rates per hour in some areas. High winds with speeds of up to 64 to 80 km/h (40 to 50 mph) will accompany the storm, causing significant impacts.Additionally, the Great Lakes and Northeastern areas are predicted to see another 15 to 30 cm (6 to 12 inches) of snow, with some locations potentially receiving up to 46 cm (18 inches).These regions are already experiencing massive power outages and damage to trees and other infrastructure. Michigan is the worst affected with more than 680 000 customers without power as of 13:10 UTC today. Illinois had 87 500 customers without power at the same time, Wisconsin 55 413, California 39 000, and New York 32 000.The total number of customers without power as of 13:10 UTC exceeds 869 000, according to the Power Outage. Considering that the average household size in the United States is roughly 2.6 people, this leaves an estimated 2.2 million individuals without power.California is also experiencing unsettled weather as a new storm system develops off the West Coast, bringing heavy snowfall of 0.91 to 1.52 m (3 to 5 feet) in the Sierra Nevada region. The Great Basin and Four Corners region will also see snow accumulation of 0.30 to 0.61 m (1 to 2 feet).The West is currently experiencing extremely cold air, and this Arctic air is expected to spread across the northern High Plains and upper Midwest regions. The temperatures will be as much as 17 to 22 °C (30 to 40 °F) below average, with some areas in the northern High Plains recording temperatures well below 18 °C (0 °F).In contrast, the Arctic front and evolving winter storm will create record-setting warmth, with temperatures in the Ohio Valley, the Mid-South, Gulf Coast, Southeast, and southern Mid-Atlantic areas expected to reach highs of up to 27 °C (80 °F) on Thursday. These temperatures could approach, and potentially exceed, monthly records for February.
Snow, rain slam California as Michigan suffers without power (AP) — Heavy snow and rain pounded California and other parts of the West on Friday in the nation’s latest winter storm, while thousands of people in Michigan suffered in freezing temperatures through extended power outages wrought by one of the worst ice storms in decades. The storms have blacked out nearly 1 million homes and businesses from coast to coast, closed major roads, caused pileups and snarled air travel. More than 300 flights were canceled and over 4,000 were delayed Friday across the U.S., according to FlightAware.com. The National Weather Service warned of a “cold and dangerous winter storm” that would last through Saturday in California. Blizzard warnings were posted in the Sierra Nevada and Southern California mountain ranges, where as much as 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow was expected. “Simply put, this will be a historic event for the amount of snow over the higher peaks and lower elevation snow,” according to the regional weather office. Interstate 5, the West Coast’s major north-south highway, was closed south of the Oregon border as snow fell to the floor of the Sacramento Valley and in a high mountain pass north of Los Angeles, where blizzard warnings were in effect. Avalanche warnings were posted in some areas, and a tornado warning was issued for parts of Santa Barbara County. In Michigan, hundreds of thousands of people remained without power Friday after a storm earlier this week coated power lines, utility poles and branches with ice as thick as three-quarters of an inch. Annemarie Rogers had been without power for a day and a half in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. She sent two kids to stay with relatives and put extra blankets on the bed to try to keep warm. “It’s kind of miserable,” she said. “We do have a gas fireplace that’s keeping us warm in one room. There’s some heat generating from the furnace, but with no electricity to the blower it’s not circulating well.” At one point, more than 820,000 customers in Michigan were in the dark. By Friday, that was down to under 700,000, most in the state’s populous southeastern corner around Detroit. Promises of power restoration by Sunday, when low temperatures were expected to climb back above zero (minus 18 Celsius), were of little consolation. “That’s four days without power in such weather,” said Apurva Gokhale, of Walled Lake, Michigan. “It’s unthinkable.” Tom Rankin said he and his wife were unable to reach his 100-year-old mother-in-law Friday morning by phone. The couple drove to her home in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, to find her in bed “with a whole lot of blankets,” Rankin said, adding they helped her to their car, planning to ride out the outage at another relative’s home.m
National Weather Service Declares Rare Blizzard Warning For Los Angeles-Area Mountains --The National Weather Service issued the first blizzard warning for the mountains of Los Angeles in over three decades as a powerful winter storm is set to dump feet of snow in higher elevations. The NWS office in Los Angeles warned about a dangerous winter storm across the mountains of Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties. The agency said there would be "extremely dangerous mountain conditions."
- Blizzard conditions above 8000 feet. Additional snow accumulations of 38 to 73 inches. Winds gusting as high as 60 mph.
- Travel could be very difficult to impossible. The hazardous conditions could impact the morning or evening commute. Strong winds could cause tree damage. The dangerously cold wind chills as low as 40 below zero could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes.
NWS' map of weather warnings shows dangerous conditions across much of the Golden State. FOX Weather meteorologist Britta Merwin said, "Your eyes are not deceiving you ... All the way down in Southern California, that orange box is a Blizzard Warning that's in effect for Friday morning until 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon."Areas above 3,000 to 4,000 feet are under a blizzard warning and will see heavy snow Friday and Saturday. Accumulating snow is expected in elevations of less than 2,500 feet but only between one and six inches. Areas along the coast and valleys could see nearly five inches of rain. Meanwhile, winter weather has been absent on the East Coast this season. In Washington, D.C., temperatures are expected to reach nearly 80 degrees Fahrenheit today.
Winter storm causes over 1 million power outages, traps drivers in cars and delays travel nationwide - CBS News - A brutal winter storm closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming Wednesday, trapped drivers in cars, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and prompted the first blizzard warning in Southern California in decades — and the worst won't be over for several days. Few places were untouched by the wild weather, including some at the opposite extreme: long-standing record highs were broken in cities in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and Southeast. Outages became increasingly widespread overnight. By Thursday afternoon, poweroutage.us, which tracks utility outages, showed at least 1 million customers across the U.S. had lost power. Michigan continued to record the vast majority of electrical outages, with more than 811,000 customers without power throughout the state, according to poweroutage.us. The tracker reported more than 84,770 additional outages were in Illinois, more than 58,000 in Wisconsin, more than 41,000 in California and more than 21,000 in Oregon. Nearly 30,000 power outages had been reported in New York earlier on Thursday. The wintry mix hit hard in the northern U.S., closing schools, offices, even shutting down the Minnesota Legislature. Travel has been difficult. Airlines delayed or canceled more than 4,200 U.S. flights by Thursday afternoon — up from about 2,000 in the morning — according to the tracking service FlightAware. More than 1,600 U.S. flight cancellations were also reported on Wednesday, when another 5,900-plus flights were delayed across the country. The roads were just as bad. In Wyoming, rescuers tried to reach people stranded in vehicles but high winds and drifting snow created a "near-impossible situation" for them, said Sgt. Jeremy Beck of the Wyoming Highway Patrol. "They know their locations, it's just hard for them to get them," he said. Wyoming's Transportation Department posted on social media that roads across much of the southern part of the state were impassable. In the Pacific Northwest, high winds and heavy snow in the Cascade Mountains prevented search teams from reaching the bodies of three climbers killed in an avalanche on Washington's Colchuck Peak over the weekend. Two experts from the Northwest Avalanche Center were hiking to the scene Wednesday to determine if conditions might permit a recovery attempt later this week. Powerful winds were the biggest problem in California, toppling trees and power lines. By Wednesday evening, more than 42,000 customers in the state were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us. A 1-year-old child was critically injured Tuesday evening when a redwood crashed onto a home in Boulder Creek, a community in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco, KTVU reported. For the first time since 1989, a blizzard warning was issued for the mountains of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, effective from 4 a.m. Thursday to 4 p.m. Saturday, the National Weather Service said. "Nearly the entire population of CA will be able to see snow from some vantage point later this week if they look in the right direction (i.e., toward the highest hills in vicinity)," UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain tweeted. A more than 200-mile stretch of Interstate 40 from central Arizona to the New Mexico line closed due to snow, rain and wind gusts of up to 80 mph. More than 8,000 customers were without power in Arizona. In the northern U.S. — a region accustomed to heavy snow — the snowfall could be significant. More than 18 inches may pile up in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the National Weather Service said Wednesday evening. According to the weather service, the biggest snow event on record in the Twin Cities was 28.4 inches from Oct. 31 through Nov. 3, 1991. Temperatures could plunge as low as minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit Thursday and to minus 25 degrees on Friday in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Wind chills may fall to minus 50 F, said Nathan Rick, a meteorologist in Grand Forks. Wind gusts may reach 50 mph in western and central Minnesota, resulting in "significant blowing and drifting snow with whiteout conditions in open areas," the weather service said. The storm will make its way toward the East Coast later this week. Places that don't get snow may get dangerous amounts of ice. Forecasters expect up to a half-inch of ice in parts of southern Michigan, northern Illinois and some eastern states. A half-inch of ice covering a wire "is the equivalent of having a baby grand piano on that single span of wire, so the weight is significant," Paul said.
NJ fines defiant shore town $12M over unapproved beach work (AP) — The sandstorm being waged between New Jersey environmental officials and a defiant shore town bolstering its dunes without state permission is intensifying. The state Department of Environmental Protection said Thursday that it has fined North Wildwood over $12 million for past construction actions along its beachfront, including the destruction of vegetated sand dunes and wetlands, as well as the unauthorized construction of a bulkhead and beachfront amenities including showers and walkways. But a long-running dispute at the heart of the litigation might soon come to an end: The last two shore towns that needed to sign on to a full-blown beach replenishment project for the area did so on Wednesday, and an announcement on when the beaches might be widened is expected soon. The fines come as the city and the Department of Environmental Protection are fighting in court over more recent emergency repairs North Wildwood made to its beachfront following a significant storm in October — despite a warning from the state not to do so. North Wildwood is suing the state for $21 million, the amount it alleges it has had to spend on its own to protect the city and its residents from serious storms over the past decade. “Clearly these fines were a retaliatory move after we filed suit against the DEP,” Mayor Patrick Rosenello said. “They created this issue by not doing their job, then when we moved to protect ourselves, they retaliate against us. It really is just one more indication that this whole matter has to be resolved in front of a judge and not through the DEP’s administrative procedures.” The state declined comment, citing the pending litigation. But it did release copies of three violation notices issued between Jan. 11 and 24 assessing fines for various infractions of state laws and regulations totaling over $12 million. One of the most serious involves work the city did several years ago along a section of beachfront that it said had become badly eroded. The state said the work destroyed 8 acres of vegetated dunes, including 6.7 acres of critical wildlife habitat, and 1.1 acres of freshwater wetlands. North Wildwood built a vinyl and steel bulkhead for about 10 blocks without state approval, saying it needed to act urgently to protect lives and property. It used the same argument in October to make emergency repairs to its dunes two blocks from the earlier work, defying a state prohibition on such work. The state warned that doing the work the city wanted to do — and eventually did — could further damage the beachfront and damage or destroy critical wildlife habitat and coastal ecosystems.
Changes needed to save second-largest U.S. reservoir, experts say - Water levels in the nation’s second-largest reservoir dropped to a record low last week, raising the alarm that major changes are on the way for the seven states — and millions of Americans — relying on that system, experts say.Lake Powell, a man-made reservoir that sits along the Colorado River on the Arizona-Utah border, generates electricity for about 4.5 million people. It is also a key part of the Colorado River Basin system, which supplies water to more than 40 million people. As of last week, its water levels fell to 3,522 feet above sea level, which is the lowest seen since the structure was filled in the 1960s. It’s now just 22 percent full, and unprecedented cuts in states’ water usage are necessary to avoid dire consequences.“There’s too little supply and too much demand,” said Brad Udall, a water and climate scientist at Colorado State University. “Ultimately, I think what we’re going to see here is some major rewriting of Western water law.”“We’re seeing a collision right now between 19th century water law, 20th century infrastructure and 21st century population and climate change,” Udall added. “And how this works out is anybody’s guess.”A historic megadrought, the chronic overuse of water resources and the worsening climate crisis have sapped the Colorado River and endangered the Lake Powell reservoir and its Glen Canyon dam. If the reservoir drops to 3,490 feet, the dam may be unable to generate hydropower.“We're 32 feet above where problems occur. And we've had years, recently, where we've lost 50 feet or more of reservoir volume,” Udall said. “We're one bad year away from reaching the point where we can't generate hydropower. That's the first worry here.”At 3,370 feet, the reservoir becomes a “dead pool,” meaning water may be unable to flow downstream at all, cutting states off. “Lake Powell water is about a quarter of the water in the Los Angeles Basin. It supplies water to 90 percent of people in Las Vegas. It supplies water to about half of Phoenix. It supplies water that produces most of your winter vegetables,” Udall said.The Bureau of Reclamation, which is in charge of the nation’s dams, recently propped up Lake Powell by flowing more water into the lake from upstream reservoirs, and reducing how much it releases downstream. However, those weren’t permanent fixes.The Interior Department last year said that the seven states relying on the Colorado River — California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — need to reduce water usage by 2 to 4 million acre-feet. Six of the states reached an agreement on how to move forward. California, the biggest water user, was the lone holdout, and instead proposed a separate plan. Neither plan is enough.“Now we’re trying to get everybody to get on one single, consensus plan,” which is a tremendous effort, said Ed Andrechak, water program manager at Conserve Southwest Utah. Andrechak noted the significance of the suggested cut, pointing out that 2 to 4 million acre-feet of water usage would be “somewhere around 25 or 30 percent of the total flow of the river. The snow and rain seen in the west this year isn’t enough to stabilize Lake Powell either, Andrechak said. “Now, the reality is, they’re all going to get a cut. Everybody should give,” he said.And that must happen this year. The federal government is expected to mandate unilateral cuts this year if all seven states don’t come to an agreement.“There’s no time left. The crisis is here. They don’t necessarily have to give it up forever. It might be temporary for several years until there’s improvements,” he said. But even if water levels do improve in the future, states cannot expect to return to former water usage entirely. “Climate change is making sure that it’ll never get back to those levels,” Andrechak said.
Surface ruptures along a fault line two days after deadly earthquakes | Fox News Video -Drone footage shows a surface rupture in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, just two days after deadly earthquakes hit the area. See the aerial footage of the damage in this video.
New quake brings fresh losses to residents of Turkey, Syria (AP) — Survivors of the earthquake that jolted Turkey and Syria 15 days ago, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving hundreds of thousands of others homeless, dealt with more trauma and loss Tuesday after another deadly quake and aftershocks rocked the region. The 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Monday evening had its epicenter in the Defne district of Turkey’s Hatay province, which was of the area’s worst affected by the Feb. 6 magnitude 7.8 quake that killed nearly 46,000 people in the two countries. Turkey’s disaster management authority, AFAD, said the new quake killed six people and injured 294 others, including 18 who were in critical condition. In Syria, a woman and a girl died as a result of panic during the earthquake in the provinces of Hama and Tartus, pro-government media said. Monday’s quake was felt in Jordan, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon and Egypt. A magnitude 5.8 quake followed, along with dozens of aftershocks. The White Helmets, northwest Syria’s civil defense organization, said about 190 people suffered injuries in rebel-held areas and that several flimsy buildings collapsed but there were no reports of anyone trapped under the debris. In Turkey, teacher Zuher Capar, 42, said he was mourning the loss of relatives in the original earthquake and having a meal with his aunt and uncle near the Hatay town of Samandag when they felt Monday’s temblor.“It shook a little, then it grew strong,” he said. “The electricity went and there were screams everywhere. There were small children in the house. They were screaming, my aunt was crying.”On Feb. 6, Capar rushed to try to help his cousin, the cousin’s wife and the couple’s small children out of the rubble of their collapsed home, but they did not survive.“We had barely overcome the sadness (from the first earthquake),” he said.While his large family’s home withstood the quake earlier in the month, it was damaged on Monday. Capar said they are too frightened to sleep there and plan to stay in a large tent and cars. “We are trying to stay strong but it is a terrifying process. The cities we knew, the memories we had, have been destroyed,” he said. “When we go in the streets, there is only rubble and heavy machinery. It’s like a horror movie scene.”
New 6.3 magnitude quake rocks Turkey as death toll nears 47,000 - A 6.3 magnitude earthquake rattled Turkey on Monday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, even as the country is still cleaning up from one of the worst natural disasters in its history. The quake was centered near the southern city of Samandag, located in Hatay province, which suffered catastrophic damage in the quake that struck on Feb. 6. The latest earthquake came as officials from Turkey and Syria said the death toll from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck two weeks ago has reached 46,957 total, with 41,156 in Turkey and 5,801 in Syria. Search and rescue crews in Turkey and Syria are surveying the latest damage from the new tremor. At least three people are dead, and 213 people have been injured in Turkey from Monday's quake, according to the Turkish government. A new 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Monday struck parts of Turkey and Syria that were laid waste two weeks ago by a massive quake that killed around 45,000 people. The mayor of Hatay said people are trapped under rubble from newly collapsed buildings from the latest earthquake. At least 130 people were injured in northwest Syria as the latest quake struck, the White Helmets, Syria's Civil Defense Unit, tweeted. Several balconies and walls collapsed from the tremors, the White Helmets tweeted. "Several civilians injured from falling building debris, stampedes, and jumping from high areas. Additionally, in Jenderes, north of Aleppo two uninhabited buildings and the minaret of a mosque collapsed," the organization tweeted.
Videos capture moment 6.3 magnitude aftershock hits Turkey – CNN -A magnitude 6.3 aftershock struck Turkey's southern Hatay province, near the Syrian border, killing several people and injuring hundreds, according to Turkish and Syrian officials. The aftershock comes two weeks after a massive earthquake killed tens of thousands of people in both countries.
Stunned residents face new trauma after another earthquake hits Turkey, Syria: Updates -Stunned and struggling residents of Turkey and Syria are facing new trauma and obstacles following Monday's 6.3 magnitude quake that shook the same area devastated by earthquakes two weeks ago that killed almost 45,000 people and toppled thousands of buildingsTurkey's disaster management agency said six people were killed Monday and about 300 injured – 18 critically. In Syria, a woman and a girl died in the provinces of Hama and Tartus, pro-government media outlets said, and there were reports of people jumping from buildings to escape.Monday's quake damaged buildings that had survived the earlier quakes, displacing a fresh wave of people into the cold streets of Aleppo and Latakia."But the biggest damage it and all the other aftershocks are currently creating are not visible," Jani Savolainen, a Damascus-based spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told USA TODAY. "The earthquake brought back the memories from the war, in addition to creating new traumas of losing family members, homes and belongings now for the earthquake."
- ►Authorities had recorded more than 6,000 aftershocks between the quakes two weeks ago and Monday's temblors.
- ►The Syrian American Medical Society said it had treated a number of patients – including a 7-year-old boy – who suffered heart attacks brought on by fear following the latest earthquakes.
- ►Authorities had warned quake victims to not go into the remains of their homes, but people went back to retrieve what was left of their belongings. More than 1 million people were left homeless in Turkey alone by the earlier quakes.
Solar storm briefing and highly informative Q&A by Dr. Tamitha Skov - This highly informative solar storm briefing and Q&A session was made by Dr. Tamitha Skov also known as Space Weather Woman. Dr. Skov is a credentialed space weather forecaster, helping the public understand the effects of space weather on our daily lives since 2013. She works primarily in the fields of solar and space physics research and in the testing of spacecraft materials in realistic space radiation environments. In the video, Dr. Skov analyzes the recent X2.2 solar flare, its coronal mass ejection (CME), and the geomagnetic storm that turned out to be a fizzle. She then explains what to expect in the days ahead by examining the far side of the sun, demonstrating tools and websites that anyone can access to stay informed about space weather events. What’s great about Dr. Skov’s video is that she explains complicated terms and graphs in a way that anyone can understand, even if you’re not a space weather expert. She covers a wide range of topics and provides a lot of valuable information on how to analyze events. The Q&A portion of the video provides a unique opportunity to gain insight from an experienced space weather forecaster on fascinating topics, such as the effects geomagnetic storms have on human health and equatorial aurora. One of the most interesting parts of the video is when she discusses red aurora, Earth’s weakening magnetic field, the South Atlantic Anomaly, and the upcoming Earth’s magnetic pole flip. If you’re interested in any of these topics or have seen others discussing them, you definitely don’t want to miss this video.
Missouri Farmers Add Carbon to Their List of Crops --Jon Hemme farms about 1,000 acres of row crops in addition to his family’s dairy and cheese operation,Hemme Brothers Creamery in Sweet Springs, Missouri. In 2018, Hemme started to implement cover crops and no-till practices into his soybean and corn crops to make the soil more resilient. In 2020 he joined a program to sell the carbon sequestered on his crop land.“There was a small change that I could make on about 300 acres that would qualify me and I thought if I was doing the work anyways, it’d be kind of nice to be able to sell some carbon credits,” Hemme said. Agricultural carbon credits are generated on farmland and sold to companies that want to offset their carbon emissions. According to World Data Lab, global emissions have already reached more than 8.5 billion tons of C02 in 2023. The same data predicts more than 58 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions this year. A report from the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets estimated that a 15x scale of the carbon market by 2030 could have “meaningful support” to climate goals set by the Paris Agreement. Missouri and Kansas have the potential to contribute greatly to this market thanks to their millions of acres of farmland. Carbon farming seems like a win-win solution. But in the market’s preliminary stages, carbon credit payments are hardly large enough to incentivize (a practice) change among farmers.
How to pull carbon dioxide out of seawater | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (even if this works, how many plants are needed to clean the ocean?)As carbon dioxide continues to build up in the Earth’s atmosphere, research teams around the world have spent years seeking ways to remove the gas efficiently from the air. Meanwhile, the world’s number one “sink” for carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is the ocean, which soaks up some 30 to 40 percent of all of the gas produced by human activities.Recently, the possibility of removing carbon dioxide directly from ocean water has emerged as another promising possibility for mitigating CO2 emissions, one that could potentially someday even lead to overall net negative emissions. But, like air capture systems, the idea has not yet led to any widespread use, though there are a few companies attempting to enter this area.Now, a team of researchers at MIT says they may have found the key to a truly efficient and inexpensive removal mechanism. The findings were reported this week in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, in a paper by MIT professors T. Alan Hatton and Kripa Varanasi, postdoc Seoni Kim, and graduate students Michael Nitzsche, Simon Rufer, and Jack Lake.The existing methods for removing carbon dioxide from seawater apply a voltage across a stack of membranes to acidify a feed stream by water splitting. This converts bicarbonates in the water to molecules of CO2, which can then be removed under vacuum. Hatton, who is the Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering, notes that the membranes are expensive, and chemicals are required to drive the overall electrode reactions at either end of the stack, adding further to the expense and complexity of the processes. “We wanted to avoid the need for introducing chemicals to the anode and cathode half cells and to avoid the use of membranes if at all possible,” he says.The team came up with a reversible process consisting of membrane-free electrochemical cells. Reactive electrodes are used to release protons to the seawater fed to the cells, driving the release of the dissolved carbon dioxide from the water. The process is cyclic: It first acidifies the water to convert dissolved inorganic bicarbonates to molecular carbon dioxide, which is collected as a gas under vacuum. Then, the water is fed to a second set of cells with a reversed voltage, to recover the protons and turn the acidic water back to alkaline before releasing it back to the sea. Periodically, the roles of the two cells are reversed once one set of electrodes is depleted of protons (during acidification) and the other has been regenerated during alkalization.This removal of carbon dioxide and reinjection of alkaline water could slowly start to reverse, at least locally, the acidification of the oceans that has been caused by carbon dioxide buildup, which in turn has threatened coral reefs and shellfish, says Varanasi, a professor of mechanical engineering. The reinjection of alkaline water could be done through dispersed outlets or far offshore to avoid a local spike of alkalinity that could disrupt ecosystems, they say.
Energy sector's methane emissions near all-time high - Global methane emissions from the energy sector approached record highs last year, despite an industry environment that made capture of the greenhouse gas cost-effective, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. The report Tuesday said methane emissions from the sector — including from oil, gas and coal — rose to 135 million tons, nearly reaching the levels seen in pre-pandemic 2019 despite a decline in production of fossil fuels. The global energy sector has the second-highest methane emissions from human activity after agriculture, contributing about 40 percent of the global total of releases of the gas. IEA estimates that 80 percent of methane emissions from oil and gas could be cut at a net-zero cost for companies at 2022 oil and gas prices. Matt Watson, vice president for energy transmission at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the report shows the world is falling further behind on a “critical opportunity” to cut methane in a cost-effective way. “At a time when the world is scrambling to backfill supply that has been lost as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and when [oil and gas] prices are as high as they are, it’s inexcusable that more isn’t being done to capture methane and get it to market,” Watson told E&E News. “It’s not just bad for the climate, it’s bad business.” IEA estimates that up to 75 percent of the oil and gas industry’s methane emissions could be solved using existing technology. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said the oil and gas sector raked in “hefty profits” in a “turbulent period” last year. Roughly 3 percent of those profits could make up the $100 billion technology investment needed to cut oil and gas emissions, IEA’s report said. The report says that satellites captured more than 600 methane “super-emitting” events in 2022. More than 500 were observed at oil and gas facilities and more than 100 at coal mines. Birol pointed to the explosions of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in 2022 as one of these events, noting that the emissions created by the explosions are replicated by oil and gas operations daily. “There is just no excuse. … Fossil fuel producers need to step up and policymakers need to step in — and both must do so quickly,” Birol said in a statement. The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, a trade group that represents 12 of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, said IEA is right about the opportunities that exist in oil and gas to use existing technology to cut emissions. “Eliminating methane emissions from oil and gas operations is one of the quickest ways to meet the Paris Agreement targets,” OGCI executive committee chair Bjørn Otto Sverdrup said in a statement. Sverdrup, whose companies represent 30 percent of global gas production, said the group aims to cut methane emissions from the sector by 2030 to help meet the Paris climate accord targets. IEA also outlined regulatory policies that could lower methane emissions, including stopping nonemergency flaring or venting of the gas. The report calls for the improvement of empirical data and new requirements for leak detection and repair of oil and gas infrastructure. The fossil fuels industry needs to quicken the pace of emissions cuts if the world is going to be able to potentially reach zero emissions by 2050, IEA said. To reach that target, the fossil fuel industry will need to cut 75 percent of its methane emissions by 2030, it said.
Biden considers 1st offshore wind auction in Gulf of Mexico -The Biden administration said Wednesday it is considering the first-ever lease sale for offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico, a key part of a push to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 to help fight climate change. The proposed sale, which could take place as soon as this summer, includes areas offshore Lake Charles, Louisiana and Galveston, Texas, for roughly 3.6 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power about 1.3 million homes. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans to open a 60-day public comment period on Friday. The area offshore Lake Charles could be modified and possibly shrunk based on the comments received, and BOEM may decide to offer only one of two lease areas proposed off Galveston. The Gulf is the nation’s primary offshore source of oil and gas, generating about 97% of all oil and gas production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, according to BOEM. The National Ocean Industries Association, which represents both traditional oil and gas offshore energy companies and wind power, said that offshore wind, along with regular and predictable offshore oil and gas leasing, can help the Gulf of Mexico expand its “remarkable and irreplaceable energy portfolio.”
Biden administration announces first Gulf of Mexico offshore wind lease sales -- The Biden administration on Wednesday announced the first-ever lease sale for offshore wind power in the Gulf of Mexico, part of a wider goal of installing offshore wind up and down the U.S. coasts. The Interior Department will open over 300,000 acres in the Gulf, long dominated by fossil fuel production. In 2010, the Gulf was the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the largest marine oil spill in history, in which about 210 million gallons leaked into the ocean. “America’s clean energy transition is happening right here and now. At the Department, we are taking action to jump-start our offshore wind industry and harness American innovation to deliver reliable, affordable power to homes and businesses,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “There is no time to waste in making bold investments to address the climate crisis, and building a strong domestic offshore wind industry is key to meeting that challenge head on.” Ukraine lawmaker urges US to use money seized from Russian oligarchs for additional aid DEA announces proposed rules to make telemedicine permanently flexible, safeguarded The Biden administration has set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, as part of a broader goal of reducing U.S. carbon emissions by half in the same period. By 2035, the administration aims to deploy a further 15 gigawatts through floating turbines. The announcement follows earlier administration announcements of lease sales off the East and West coasts of the U.S. In December, the first auction for leases off the Pacific coast fetched more than $757 million. Meanwhile, in February 2022, a lease sale in the New York Bight pulled in an unprecedented $4.37 billion.
How misinformation about solar power hinders the fight against climate change - Citizens for Responsible Solar is part of a growing backlash against renewable energy in rural communities across the United States. The group, which was started in 2019 and appears to use strategies honed by other activists in campaigns against the wind industry, has helped local groups fighting solar projects in at least 10 states including Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, according to its website."I think for years, there has been this sense that this is not all coincidence. That local groups are popping up in different places, saying the same things, using the same online campaign materials," says Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.Citizens for Responsible Solar seems to be a well-mobilized "national effort to foment local opposition to renewable energy," Burger adds. "What that reflects is the unfortunate politicization of climate change, the politicization of energy, and, unfortunately, the political nature of the energy transition, which is really just a necessary response to an environmental reality."Citizens for Responsible Solar was founded in an exurb of Washington, D.C., by a longtime political operative named Susan Ralston who worked in the White House under President George W. Bush and still has deep ties to power players in conservative politics.Ralston tapped conservative insiders to help set up and run Citizens for Responsible Solar. She also consulted with a longtime activist against renewable energy who once defended former President Donald Trump's unfounded claim that noise from wind turbines can cause cancer. And when Ralston was launching the group, a consulting firm she owns got hundreds of thousands of dollars from the foundation of a leading GOP donor who is also a major investor in fossil fuel companies. It's unclear what the money to Ralston's firm was used for. Ralston has previously denied that Citizens for Responsible Solar received money from fossil fuel interests.Ralston said in an email to NPR and Floodlight that Citizens for Responsible Solar is a grassroots organization that helps other activists on a volunteer basis. The group isn't opposed to solar, Ralston said, just projects built on farmland and timberland. Solar panels belong on "industrial-zoned land, marginal or contaminated land, along highways, and on commercial and residential rooftops," she said.But her group's rhetoric points to a broader agenda of undermining public support for solar. Analysts who follow the industry say Citizens for Responsible Solar stokes opposition to solar projects by spreading misinformation online about health and environmental risks. The group's website says solar requires too much land for "unreliable energy," ignoring data showing power grids can run dependably on lots of renewables. And it claims large solar projects in rural areas wreck the land andcontribute to climate change, despite evidence to the contrary.
Made-in-Ohio solar panels benefit from federal incentives, supply chain politics - A once-novel solar power technology with Ohio roots is having a moment in the sun, along with two Toledo-area manufacturers. Scientists had experimented with cadmium telluride solar panels in the lab since the 1950s, but the technology was commercialized just two decades ago after important groundwork by a pair of Ohio entrepreneurs who founded what would eventually become First Solar. After years of fighting for a niche next to cheaper and more efficient crystalline silicon solar cells, cadmium telluride has recently closed the gap on cost and energy output. Cadmium telluride panels hold the largest worldwide market share among thin-film solar technologies, which use very thin layers of semiconductor material, versus thicker rigid crystalline silicon. On top of technological advances, the sector is poised to benefit from ongoing supply chain politics and new federal climate change legislation that incentivizes domestic manufacturing. Those trends are fueling a solar manufacturing boom in Ohio, where despite hostile state and local policies against solar farms, two cadmium telluride manufacturers have announced major expansions that promise to add hundreds of jobs in the coming years. First Solar plans to open its third Ohio factory later this year in Lake Township. That 3.3-gigawatt plant will be followed by a 1.3-million-square-foot research and development facility in Perrysburg, slated to open next year. Plans call for a fourth U.S. factory to open in Alabama in 2025, bringing the company’s total U.S. production capacity to roughly 10 GW. Meanwhile, Toledo Solar, whose panels go mainly to commercial and residential users, is tripling its production capacity from 100 to 300 megawatts this year. Although the company is much smaller than First Solar, which targets the utility-scale market, “that’s a big deal for us,” said CEO Aaron Bates. “The Toledo area, with its deep ties to the glass industry, was a natural incubator in the early years of our business,” said Kuntal Kumar Verma, chief manufacturing officer for First Solar. More than 20 years later, northwestern Ohio “is home to a pool of thin-film solar manufacturing knowledge that is perhaps unparalleled anywhere in the world.”
New emergency bid to appeal, block huge Nevada lithium mine (AP) — Conservationists are seeking an emergency court order to block construction of a Nevada lithium mine after a U.S. judge directed a federal agency to revisit part of its approval of the plans but allowed construction to go forward in the meantime. Four environmental groups want U.S. District Judge Miranda Du in Reno to temporarily halt any work at a subsidiary of Lithium Americas’ mine near the Oregon border until they can appeal her ruling earlier this month to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They filed on Tuesday a formal notice of their intent to appeal to the San Francisco-based circuit court and an emergency motion for injunction in Reno pending the appeal. An Oregon tribe that filed a new, separate lawsuit to block the mine last week joined the notice of appeal. “This mine should not be allowed to destroy public land unless and until the Ninth Circuit has determined whether it was legally approved,” said Talasi Brooks, a lawyer for the Western Watersheds Project. Du gave the U.S. Bureau of Land Management until the end of Wednesday to respond to the motion or reach an agreement with the conservation groups to postpone any construction until she rules on their request for an emergency injunction. “Based on the urgency implied by environmental plaintiffs’ representation that Lithium Nevada intends to start construction on February 27 ... the court sets an expedited briefing schedule,” she wrote in a brief order late Tuesday. The company said last week that construction at the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine was “imminent” after Du ruled Feb. 6 the bureau had acted legally — with one possible exception — when it approved plans for the mine in January 2021. A spokesperson for Lithium Americas said Tuesday they were confident the appellate court would uphold the project’s approval.
Environmental justice is a growing operational factor. How are federal and state agencies defining it? --As the electric power industry increasingly faces environmental justice considerations, the regulatory definitions that underpin this discussion can vary state-by-state — both in terminology and scope. The federal government has made some efforts to standardize definitions and initiatives across the board. The U.S. EPA released EJScreen, a geospatial tool to search demographic information on “environmental justice communities,” in 2015. Most recently, the Biden administration has announced the Justice40 initiative, which aims to distribute 40% of benefits from federal investments to “disadvantaged communities.”In 2021, at least 150 bills were introduced across state legislatures relating to environmental justice. Some states, like New York, have had language around environmental justice since the 1980s. Others have come later, or made updates to their policies. As of 2021, Bloomberg Law reported that 10 states had codified environmental justice legislation, with another 13 pending. Following the relevant definitions and standards in a service provider’s operating region has become increasingly important amid this trend. Though the concept of environmental justice is used across different legislation and permitting requirements, the way communities are specifically identified and addressed varies, as does the degree of implementation. Specifically, the language around how communities are named varies, as does the criteria to be categorized as such.Massachusetts, for example, defines “environmental justice populations” by meeting one of four criteria. In contrast, New Jerseynames these populations as “overburdened communities.” California, on the other hand, defines them as “disadvantaged communities” throughSB 535 and SB 350, which ensures additional funding for the communities through the energy transition.Massachusetts’ target populations are typically constrained to the neighborhood level, though the availability of data is rarely that granular. In order to qualify, the area must meet at least one of three criteria, including a certain annual household income threshold,demographic composition, and English language proficiency. Communities can still be designated as environmental justice communities if they do not meet these criteria through two exceptions, including the state government designating a portion of the neighborhood as such. New Jersey’s geographical constraint is a census block group. In order to fit the definition, communities must meet all three criteria of low-income percentages, demographic compositions, and English language proficiency. New Jersey’s criteria are parallel to those in Massachusetts, but their income criteria are based on federal definitions of the poverty line — not the state median — and the community must meet all of the criteria, not one or more. California has four categories of geographic areas qualifying as disadvantaged. These areas are tied directly to CalEnviroScreen, a geospatial tool used to identify communities that are most likely to be impacted by, or are already impacted by, pollution. Two designations for disadvantaged communities correspond to the score calculated by the tool for the census tract; the other two relate to a 2017 “disadvantaged community” designation, regardless of CalEnviroScreen results, and any lands under the control of federally recognized tribes. Just within these three states, there are several similarities and differences in how targeted populations are named and defined. “The lack of standards will make it hard for there to be industry ‘best practices’,” said Matthew Karmel, an attorney at Offit Kurman who heads the firm’s environmental and sustainability law practice. He classified two issues when it comes to defining the communities: terminology and context, and how they match up with one another. This lack of standardized definition from a legal perspective can be used against advocates at times, according to Byron Chan, senior attorney at Earthjustice.
DOE rule may block 50% of current gas stove models - Half of gas stove models sold in the United States today won’t comply with a first-ever efficiency regulation on cooking appliances, according to a new analysis from the Department of Energy.The projection, which DOE posted online two weeks after the rule’s release Jan. 31, aims to provide more clarification on the expected impact of a proposal earlier this month that is now receiving comments from the public (Energywire, Feb. 1).DOE says the cooking regulation will preserve some market share for gas stoves that have at least one high-input rate burner and continuous cast iron grates, two features that DOE determined are priorities for the public. Both features use a lot of energy.“DOE’s analysis is constructed so that the proposed standard would ensure that products with at least one HIR burner and continuous grates can continue to be available on the market,” Jeremy Ortiz, a department spokesperson, told E&E News on Thursday.“We did go out of our way to make sure that these two features would remain on the market in creating our analysis,” Ortiz said. “Over half the market would remain if this standard is finalized as proposed.” Ortiz’s comments provide more context on a plan that has triggered partisan rancor in Washington D.C.DOE mentioned the 50 percent projection in a memo called a notice of data availability released last week to present new analysis on market impacts and answer questions lobbed by industry. In that document, DOE said 40 percent of the current gas stove market does not have those two features and would likely comply with the proposed regulation of 1,204 thousand British thermal units (kBtu) of energy use annually.Another small slice of the current gas stove market has the HIR and continuous grate features and already complies with the proposed regulation, bringing current compliance with the proposal to roughly half, DOE says.“Over half the market would remain if this standard is finalized as proposed,” Ortiz said.That means roughly half the gas stove models purchased across the U.S. today will no longer be eligible for purchase in stores. It doesn’t mean that half the market will have to be electric, but that the gas stove industry will have to change what it sells to meet the standard. The 50 percent estimate was not included in the rule in January, but DOEreferenced it to the Wall Street Journal shortly after the release of the proposal.
Can crypto mining go green? Critics are skeptical | Grist The word “sustainable” features prominently on the website for Merkle Standard’s crypto mining operation in remote eastern Washington, which aims to be carbon neutral by year’s end. In Idaho, budding company GeoBitmine plans to meet its “environmental, social, and governance mandate” by using heat waste from its computers to grow crops in a greenhouse. And in Texas, crypto miners trumpet their presence as eager customers of a growing portfolio of wind and solar power projects. Across the country, cryptocurrency miners are striving to remake the image of their industry in the public’s and policymakers’ minds: from flighty to reliable, from all about profit to altruistic, from energy guzzling and emissions heavy to climate conscious. But environmental groups and researchers are skeptical. They point to the industry’s track record of contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and e-waste, as documented by federal agencies and independent researchers, and to the general volatility of crypto’s first decade-plus of existence. “(They’re) attempting to say all of the various talking points, like ‘We incentivize renewable energy … We’re near a wind farm so therefore we’re getting 100 percent clean energy,’ which, frankly, is incredibly misleading and very much like greenwashing.” Voices from both camps are clamoring for the ear of state and federal policymakers who are just beginning to form regulations around the nascent industry. The ongoing question is whether crypto mining will hinder or help progress toward transitioning the country away from fossil fuels and stabilizing the nation’s electrical infrastructure. Based on the industry’s history, even some crypto miners are striking a cautious tone. “(With) the pace of movement, plus the frankly irresponsible nature of many of the participants, it would be illogical for policymakers to not be concerned,” said Malachi Salcido, a Wenatchee-based bitcoin miner with a decade of experience in the industry. “The way that will change is not by arguing or entering into conflict. It’s by managing loads responsibly over time, taking strategic long-term positions, and earning trust.” Concerns center mostly on the process of bitcoin mining, which uses a system called “proof of work.” It is energy-intensive by design, requiring computers to solve thousands of equations as quickly as possible in the hopes of solving the correct sequence to earn bitcoin. A 2022 Biden administration report stated the industry consumed about 1 percent of the electricity used in the country, producing between 25 million and 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Like data centers, crypto mining operations also use water as coolant and churn through computers every year. That same White House report stated that crypto mining was responsible for e-waste output equivalent to that produced by the entire nation of the Netherlands. But some crypto miners have been innovating and pushing back, arguing that the industry has the ability to do better for the planet. Jorgensen is among them. He’s been involved with the bitcoin mining industry for two and a half years, beginning as a contractor. Now, he’s gathering investors to launch GeoBitmine, which he plans to set up in Idaho Falls this spring. Jorgensen refers to GeoBitmine as an “agrotech company” rather than a bitcoin mining operation. He said his focus with most of the five-acre facility is to build a greenhouse heated by the servers working away at mining bitcoin. That can employ at least 30 people initially, he estimated.
The Majority Of Bitcoin Mining Is Fueled By Sustainable Energy - via BitcoinMagazine.com - This article provides a look at my latest research, revealing how it came to be that a 2022 Cambridge Centre For Alternative Finance’s (CCAF) study on Bitcoin’s environmental impact underestimates the amount of sustainable Bitcoin mining going on. I also address why we can be very confident that the actual sustainable energy usage is at least 52.6% of Bitcoin mining’s total energy use.Whatever your position on ESG investment, the reality is that it’s soaring, on track to reach $10.5 trillion in the U.S. alone. What’s also true is that Bitcoin adoption cannot occur unless this $10.5 trillion of ESG funds feels comfortable that Bitcoin is a net positive to the environment.Right now, ESG investors largely don’t feel comfortable that this is the case. In speaking with them, my impression is that one reason for ESG investor discomfort with Bitcoin is that the CCAF study, “A Deep Dive Into Bitcoin’s Environmental Impact,” reported that Bitcoin uses only 37.6% sustainable energy.While ESG investors are generally quick to dismiss the work of Bitcoin-critic Alex de Vries — debunked in an earlier Bitcoin Magazine article — I have found they are also more likely to trust the CCAF study over a Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) study that found Bitcoin uses 58.9% sustainable energy. You can understand why: The Cambridge brand says “reputable, independent research,” while BMC’s says, “industry body.” Ironically, being an industry body, the very thing that gives BMC access to real-time Bitcoin mining data, also made its findings easier for at least some ESG investors to disqualify. Environmental groups such as Earth Justice and journals such as “The Ecologist” have been similarly quick to assume the CCAF numbers must be the correct ones.To date, Bitcoiners have had a muted response. The result: The conversation about ESG funds getting behind Bitcoin cannot progress. Bitcoin user adoption stalls.Meanwhile, environmental groups gain more fuel to lobby governments to regulate Bitcoin mining in a punitive manner.
Combustion Going Bust- Global Phase-Outs Of Gasoline Cars --The European Union last week approved a law that will ban the sale of combustion engine cars in its member states from 2035.For Germany and Italy as well as for Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Hungary, the new bill sets a first deadline for the sale of gasoline-powered cars.However, as Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, the current governments of the former two countries, however, have already spoken out against the ban - calling into question the timeline of the phase-out that climate scientists call absolutely necessary, but that could also face delays.Other European Union countries had already embraced the phase-out of gasoline cars: The Netherlands, Belgium's Flanders region, Sweden, Greece and Slovenia are all looking to end the sale of gas-powered cars even earlier, between 2029 and 2030.The only country in the world beating this is Norway, an electric mobility pioneer from outside of the European Union, where around 80 percent of new cars sold are already fully electric and 100 percent are scheduled to be in 2025.Similarly, voluntarily formed blocks of uniform vehicle standards could be dissolved in the U.S. over the issue of combustion engine cars.California in August set a phase-out date for new sales of these vehicles, also for 2035, and while 17 states had previously tied their vehicle standards to California's under the Federal Clean Air Act, several now want out. The states going along with California's decision (or expected to do so shortly) are Washington, Oregon, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont and Delaware— - fewer than half of California's former allies.
EPA undoes Trump-era power plant rollback - A quixotic and clamorous regulatory saga perhaps unmatched in Clean Air Act history has ended — at least for now.In a final rule unveiled Friday, EPA restored the legal underpinnings of a 2012 set of regulations for emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin that’s particularly dangerous to babies, and a host of other dangerous pollutants from coal-fired power plants.The rule will now be key to any effort by President Joe Biden’s administration to strengthen those regulations and clamp down on a controversial source of climate change-inducing air pollution. More broadly, it could provide a foothold for better incorporating expected environmental justice benefits into the rationales for future efforts to curb pollution (Greenwire, Feb. 7, 2022). The rule’s release comes almost three years after then-President Donald Trump’s administration scrapped that legal foundation. While utilities and other electricity producers continued to abide by the emissions limits, the agency’s decision to again formally find that it is “appropriate and necessary” to limit hazardous power plant releases removes a potentially serious legal vulnerability.Even though the power industry had already complied with what are formally known as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the Trump administration argued that the cost-and-benefit forecast originally used to justify them was fatally flawed.The Trump-era decision was a rare deregulatory move that sparked opposition from both industry and environmental groups.Under Biden, EPA then made a priority of reinstating the appropriateness finding. But the release of the new rule could lead to a restart in two sets of legal challenges that have been on hold: Republican-leaning states and some power companies launched the first; the second was brought by a Colorado-based coal company. Both are pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Why energy bills skyrocketed in the U.S. West - Politicians across the U.S. West are vowing to take action after high home heating and electricity bills left some consumers paying triple their normal amounts this winter. Surging prices afforded politicians like Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) a chance to tout his state’s move away from natural gas, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called on federal regulators to investigate market manipulation. State lawmakers have warned utilities that they could face more scrutiny if prices remain high, with the Colorado General Assembly even setting up a special joint committee to investigate utility rates. Advertisement Market analysts say utility prices are expected to come down soon — but not because of anything politicians did. Instead, high natural gas prices — compounded by storage constraints and pipeline troubles — are dropping from their winter peaks, removing the biggest cause of rising bills. It’s a reflection of how the complex global natural gas market can end up hurting consumers’ pocketbooks and the limited tools local politicians have to deal with the situation, said Bernadette Johnson, vice president of strategic analytics for research firm Enverus. “This was really the culmination of a lot of things that were on the path coming together and happening at once,” Johnson said. “Even though this is a huge, complicated market, I look at it and say everything makes perfect sense. But as a consumer looking at your bill, it’s expected that you’d have questions and be angry.” While utility prices typically increase in the winter as homes turn up the heat, the bill bumps in December and last month were well outside the norm as natural gas prices leapt in the West. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that daily natural gas spot prices at three hubs in the West traded above $50 per million British thermal units on Dec. 21. The cost that day was $6.14 at the Henry Hub benchmark, the pricing point for gas futures on the New York Stock Exchange. In a Jan. 25 presentation on utility bill affordability, Colorado Public Utilities Commission staff said the typical Xcel Energy Inc. customer paid 25 percent more for electricity and 75 percent more for gas in December than a year earlier. The largest factor in the increase, the PUC staff said, was a 40 percent rise in the gas fuel rate combined with a 30 percent increase in gas usage because of an unusually cold December. More increases came from Xcel’s higher base rates approved earlier in 2022 and the recovery of costs deferred from high gas prices during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri. The price shock was especially prevalent in California, which typically has higher natural gas prices than the U.S. average because it has to import more than 90 percent of its gas supply.A 2021 explosion in Arizona damaged a large pipeline network that supplies Los Angeles, limiting imports this winter, while pipeline repairs in West Texas further cut down on imports.According to EIA, net natural gas imports from Canada were down 4 percent in the first three weeks of December compared to the second half of November, while gas deliveries from the Rocky Mountains were down 9 percent in that period.Since a 2015 leak at the Aliso Canyon storage site outside of Los Angeles, regulators have limited storage there, meaning there was less gas for utilities to draw on when temperatures plunged.The end result, according to a report by the California Independent System Operator, was a fivefold increase in electricity prices in December 2022 compared to December 2021. Wholesale electricity prices in the fourth quarter were double that of a year earlier and triple that of two years earlier.
Small modular nuclear reactors could reshape Southwest Virginia's coal country - — As Michael Hatfield scanned the landscape from atop the abandoned mine where he once worked, he saw more than a patch of Appalachia left behind by an energy economy in transition. He saw a launchpad for the next nuclear age. The nuclear power plants Hatfield has in mind are not what you think. No massive cooling towers, miles of concrete, expansive evacuation zones. The nuclear industry and the Biden administration are pitching coal communities on small, adaptable plants that promoters boast are safer, cheaper and capable of being deployed all over the country in the effort to cut the power sector’s contribution to climate change. Whether small modular reactors, or SMRs, can realistically be built all over the nation is very much in dispute. The nuclear industry has a record of overpromising and energy scholars warn this new technology isstraining to show viability. Two demonstration projects expected to break ground, in Idaho and Wyoming, are behind schedule and struggling with spiraling costs. But as the United States seeks efficient alternatives to burning fossil fuels for electricity, these proposals for space-age plants that can besmall enough to fit in a large backyard feature prominently. They are designed to look more like office parks than nuclear plants, with low rise architecture that replaces concrete with steel, and downsized reactors the administration compares to those the U.S. Navy uses to power ships and submarines. U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry said in a recent interview with The Post that the technology’s success is vital for meeting the world’s goal of avoiding the most catastrophic fallout from climate change by limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. “I don’t think we get there without it,” Kerry said.Coal country is a ripe target for this experiment, with infrastructure that can be repurposed, capable workforces and communities eager to reclaim prominence in the energy economy. More than 300 retired and operating coal plants in the United States are good candidates for a nuclear conversion, according to a recent Department of Energy reportthat has touched off a frenzy of activity.Communities that previously rejected nuclear power as unsafe or a threat to the coal industry are now clamoring to be a part of what might be branded nuclear 2.0.“See that hilltop over there?” said Hatfield, a former coal company engineer who is now the administrator for Wise County. “If you put a nuclear plant someplace like that, it is not going to be near anybody’s backyard. This would keep us in the forefront of the energy business. We see it as our future.”
Bipartisan legislation would increase US uranium production to promote nuclear energy - Three U.S. senators, including the two leaders of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, have introduced bipartisan legislation directing the U.S. Department of Energy to establish a nuclear fuel program to strengthen domestic production. The legislation would make a priority of increasing U.S. production of low-enriched uranium and accelerating efforts to establish a high-assay, low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, capability. Lawmakers want to ensure that a disruption in Russian uranium supply would not affect the development of advanced reactors or operation of the U.S. light-water reactor fleet. U.S. energy security and independence are “impossible when we continue to rely on Russia and Vladimir Putin for the uranium we need to power our nuclear reactors,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. With Russia’s war against Ukraine entering its second year, “now is the time to take a hard look at how we source the raw materials necessary to power our nation and develop advanced energy technologies,” he said.Manchin, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the committee’s top Republican, and Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, on Feb. 15 introduced the Nuclear Fuel Security Act. Barrasso said a planned 345-MWe sodium-cooled TerraPower Natrium demonstration nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, would benefit from the legislation. He has previously introduced legislation intended to boost domestic supplies of HALEU and has urged the DOE to do so administratively. Interruptions in fuel due to the war have delayed for at least two years completion of the Wyoming reactor. Chris Levesque, president and CEO, told investors in December that domestic and allied manufacturing of HALEU, “will not reach commercial capacity in time to meet the proposed 2028 in-service date for the Natrium demonstration plant.”DOE is spending nearly $2 billion to support licensing, building and demonstration of the reactor, which will be built near a coal plant to be retired.In January, Manchin and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, founder and chairman of TerraPower, toured a coal-fired power plant in Kanawha County, West Virginia, as the potential site of a small nuclear reactor. If domestic enrichment is not commercially available at the scale needed in time to meet the needs of advanced nuclear reactor demonstration projects, the secretary of energy shall consider making available HALEU produced from inventories owned by the agency.The legislation also directs all options to be explored with countries that are allies or partners of the United States, to expand nuclear materials available to the U.S. The secretary of energy would be required to enter into contracts to begin acquiring at least 100 metric tons a year of low-enriched uranium by the end of 2026 or earlier. And DOE would be required by the legislation, if enacted into law, to enter contracts with members of a consortium – nuclear energy companies and nations – to begin acquiring at least 20 metric tons a year of HALEU by the end of 2027 or earlier from U.S. nuclear energy companies.
New reactors could revive U.S. uranium mining — and concerns about its ‘toxic legacy’ -When Peninsula Energy decided to idle its uranium mines in northeastern Wyoming in 2019, the cause was simple, says CEO Wayne Heili: “poor uranium markets.” At the time, the U.S. nuclear industry was largely stagnant. No new reactors had come online in the U.S. in nearly three decades, and Russia was supplying much of the nuclear fuel that was needed. While some 4,000 uranium mines once operated in the Western United States, only three remained active as of 2021. That was bad for the uranium industry, but the long decline was a welcome reprieve for communities — many of them Indigenous — that have most acutely felt the long-lasting health and environmental effects of the nuclear fuel cycle.But in the four short years since Peninsula stopped production, much has changed. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine came as the federal government was pushing for the development of new reactors to meet a 2035 target to end carbon pollution from the electric grid. And some of the advanced reactor designs that the U.S. Department of Energy was supporting — including TerraPower’s Natrium and X-energy’s Xe-100 — require a more highly enriched form of low-enriched uranium known as HALEU that comes almost exclusively from Russia. The disruption in the fuel supply led TerraPower to delay by at least two years its plans to bring the first Natrium reactor online in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 2028. It also put pressure on the federal government to bolster domestic uranium mining and processing in order to further delays. The federal government has responded with plans both to buy 1 million pounds of uranium for the development of a national uranium reserve and to create a domestic supply of HALEU. When it was signed in August, the Inflation Reduction Act included $700 million to help make that happen. The renewed demand for domestic uranium has already been felt at the United States’ largely languishing uranium mines, and Peninsula Energy is among the mine operators looking to restart. With a contract to supply 300,000 pounds of uranium to help fill the new national reserve, a growing understanding from reactor owners that “relying on the Russians for supply is a bad idea” and the expected “advent of small modular reactors in the market,” Heili said Peninsula is preparing to start mining again by the end of March.
'I handled the money': Householder aide pleads guilty to racketeering, testifies in public corruption trial - — A top aide to former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder testified against his former boss on Wednesday, describing him as a larger-than-life personality who demanded loyalty above all else.Jeff Longstreth worked for Householder from 2016 until July 2020, when federal prosecutors unveiled indictments in the largest public corruption case in Ohio history.“I pleaded guilty to racketeering,” Longstreth told jurors. “I handled the money. By doing, that I facilitated everything else that happened because of that.”Longstreth is the second defendant to plead guilty and testify for prosecutors at trial, hoping to reduce their eventual prison sentence by cooperating. A FirstEnergy lobbyist, Juan Cespedes, also pleaded guilty and testified last week.Householder and former Ohio GOP chair turned lobbyist Matt Borges are facing a jury together in a trial that began Jan. 23 and is in its fifth week. Both maintain their innocence.Prosecutors accuse them of being part of a complicated scheme to funnel $61 million in dark money from Akron-based First Energy Corp. to elect Householder as speaker, solidify his power base, secure enough votes to pass a ratepayer-funded $1.3 billion bailout of two FirstEnergy nuclear plants known as House Bill 6 and ensure it survived a ballot campaign to overturn it.When FirstEnergy funneled the money through the nonprofit Generation Now, some of it went to Longstreth’s firm, JPL Associates to pay for what Householder needed to become speaker such as staff, vendors and consultants, he testified.But Longstreth also used hundreds of thousands to pay off Householder’s credit card bills, settle an unrelated lawsuit and repair hurricane damage to the former speaker’s home near Naples, Fl. which just sold for more than $600,000, he testified.Longstreth wanted this money to be a loan, but said Householder would never sign loan documents, and repeatedly delayed conversations about putting half of his Florida home in Longstreth's name.Householder also never said thank you, Longstreth said.
Defense lawyer boils over in Ohio utility bailout and political bribery racketeering trial - Ohio Capital Journal — The defense of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder erupted Thursday in Householder’s epic corruption trial. Defense attorney Mark Marein of Cleveland suggested it was because of U.S. District Judge Timothy Black’s unfairness. But it came after a day in which the defense team’s attempts to undermine prosecution witnesses’ credibility might have come to naught. The sparks flew in the fourth week of the trial. Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges are accused of racketeering in a scheme to use $61 million in utility money to make Householder speaker and pass a $1.3 billion bailout that mostly benefited Akron-based FirstEnergy, the primary contributor. Earlier on Thursday, defense attorney Steven Bradley cross examined Jeffrey Longstreth, who operated as Householder’s right-hand man through his bid for the speakership and the 2019 passage and defense of the bailout law, House Bill 6. Longstreth was arrested along with Householder, Borges, and two others in July 2020. He is now cooperating with prosecutors in exchange for a sentencing recommendation of less than six months. During direct examination Wednesday, Longstreth described fancy dinners with Householder and FirstEnergy’s top executives during Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017 in Washington, D.C. At one, Longstreth described being at one end of a long table with FirstEnergy Vice President Michael Dowling in a noisy steakhouse, while Householder sat with company CEO Chuck Jones at the other. Longstreth said he couldn’t hear the conversation at the other end of the table, but at his end Dowling told him FirstEnergy needed help and it wanted to help Householder become speaker. Dowling instructed Longstreth to set up an organization to receive FirstEnergy’s millions, Longstreth said. “He said (the money) needed to be undisclosed and unlimited contributions,” Longstreth testified on Wednesday. Apparently seeking to impeach Longstreth’s memory, Bradley on Thursday showed the jury an itinerary indicating that Jones took the FirstEnergy corporate jet to D.C. the morning after the steakhouse dinner. He also produced a credit card receipt showing that Jones attended a dinner at a different restaurant the following night than where a second, more-intimate dinner was described by Longstreth on Wednesday. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Glatfelter asked Longstreth if itineraries change. He agreed they often do. She then produced credit card receipts and car records that indicated Jones may well have been in D.C and could have attended the first dinner as Longstreth described. She also showed that on the following night, the dinner Bradley said Jones attended ended about 30 minutes before the one Longstreth said he attended began.Longstreth testified that it was common at presidential inaugurations to attend multiple receptions and dinners in the same evening. Apparently that’s a major purpose of the quadrennial gatherings: To stay in $600 hotels, eat multiple $200 dinners, and figure out how to split up the taxpayers’ —or ratepayer’s — money.
Activists Slow Roll Federal and State Projects In Ohio - Energy In Depth - The process for building new energy-related infrastructure projects can take years because of the extensive environmental reviews and public comment periods that are required before any permits can be issued. That’s true for oil and gas, renewable projects, pipelines and transmission lines. Whether it’s through litigation after exhaustive National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews have been conducted or bureaucratic red tape, coordinated efforts to delay the construction of critical projects has led to significant delays and in some cases cancellations at both the federal and state levels. Landowners in Ohio who own mineral rights adjacent to or on federal and state lands have been waiting for over a decade to be able to develop their mineral rights. Recall that in 2011, Ohio’s General Assembly approved fracking under state lands, but development failed to take place. Then in 2017, former Gov. John Kasich passed a bill to establish the Oil and Gas Leasing Commission, an entity created to govern the process of shale gas development under state lands. However, that commission sat empty for years with no appointments made. Even after additional language was added to incentivize the commission, the rules were never promulgated, resulting in a de facto moratorium, and as a result, adjacent private landowners’ rights were held hostage. Ohio’s Statehouse recently passed, and Gov. Mike DeWine signed, H.B. 507, allowing for the safe development of oil and natural gas under the surface of state-owned lands after years of obstruction. H.B 507 finally allows for the safe and responsible drilling on state lands by bypassing the Commission and telling state agencies they “shall” sign leases to allow drilling under state-owned land until the Commission adopts formal rules for leasing. But in a par for the course move by environmental activists, those groups are now trying to slow down this process yet again by proposing more bureaucratic red tape for the Commission that would give activists more opportunities to stonewall projects. From the Ohio Capitol Journal: “He and many others pressed the commission for explicit public notice provisions. They want the commission to post parcels up for lease on their website with links to a map and 60-120 days for public comment. The commission should also lay out the factors they’ll consider in their decision. Additionally, they told commissioners to set up an email notification system to alert subscribers of new parcels.” If history is anything to go by, just look at the Wayne National Forest where an updated forest plan underwent extensive environmental review and public comment in 2017, nearly five years later, rules have yet to be published to allow for development to occur and no lease sales have taken place since May 2018.
Ohio Board of Tax Appeals sides with Nexus pipeline in value dispute -The Ohio Board of Tax Appeals has sided with the owners of the Nexus natural gas transmission line in a dispute over the pipeline's value and the amount of taxes owed to Lorain County. It is a defeat for Lorain County Auditor Craig Snodgrass, who fought Nexus after the companies that own the pipeline struck a deal with the state tax commissioner to lower their property tax bills — despite initial promises by the companies to pay many millions of dollars more to local municipalities, entities and organizations in 13 Ohio affected counties. According to a copy of their decision, BTA members Jasmine Clements and Jeff Caswell ruled 2-0 in favor of Nexus and granted its motion to dismiss Snodgrass' appeal. The board declined to award the Nexus partners any attorney fees it incurred to fight the appeal, as they had requested. Snodgrass said Thursday that he is "frustrated," but still has several weeks to decide what to do next. He said Nexus argued that he doesn't have jurisdiction to appeal the tax commissioner's decision, even though attorneys for both the state and Nexus "repeatedly" agreed that county auditors had the right to appeal — even putting language to that effect in a 2022 settlement agreement. He said he agreed to the proposed tax value of $1.68 billion for the pipeline in 2019 and had no reason to appeal it at that time. The Nexus pipeline "will depreciate in value each and every year forever, that's why it was so important to get the value right the first year," Snodgrass said. Taxpayers are "subsidizing (the pipeline) and the legislators are forcing us to subsidize it. I'm mad. This is why our tax bills are so high: Legislators setting the rules that make it prohibitive for us to do our jobs" as auditors, he said. "Everything is slanted toward big business" in Ohio, Snodgrass said. "Where's the homeowner in all this?" "Nexus continues to support the finality of the settlement agreement which provides additional revenue and certainty to local school districts," Nexus spokeswoman Kristen Henson wrote in an email to The Chronicle-Telegram on Thursday. "Should an appeal of the recent decision be filed by Lorain County, the matter will continue through the formal litigation process," she wrote. "If no appeal is pursued into litigation, the settlement agreement will stand, providing greater certainty for all involved."
Encino Energy Utica Update: 900K+ Acres, Drilling Under Tappan Lake - Marcellus Drilling News - Yesterday morning Harrison County, OH, commissioners got a face-to-face update from Encino Energy’s director of external affairs, Jackie Stewart. You may recall that Encino bought out and took over all of Chesapeake Energy’s existing Ohio assets–both shale and non-shale–in November 2018 for $2 billion (see Encino Takes Over from Chesapeake in Ohio Utica; Big Plans). Among the comments made, Stewart told commissioners, “Our wells are running so much more efficiently than they ever have in the past.” She also told them about work being done to drill a well under Tappan Lake in the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District.
Encino representatives update Harrison commissioners on activities in the county - The Harrison County Board of Commissioners received an update on work being done in the county along with community investments provided by Encino Energy. Jackie Stewart, director of external affairs for Encino Energy, met with the board Wednesday to introduce herself and Encino’s new community relations representative, Zach Kent, to Commissioners Amy Norris, Dustin Corder — the county’s newest commissioners — and Paul Coffland. Stewart said Encino has expanded its geographic footprint over the last couple of years. “When you look at the fact that we’ve got over 900,000 acres, our core footprint has been and will continue to be in Carroll, Harrison, Jefferson, Columbiana counties … but we’re just doing a little bit more in the northern part of the Utica (shale),” she said, adding that the company now has leases in Tuscarawas and Guernsey counties as well. Stewart said the energy company signed a “historic continuous lease” with the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District. She said it is in the process of drilling and completing a well pad beneath the surface of Tappan Lake. The revenue provided from the lease will allow MWCD to continue to make improvements, she said, adding that officials signed a memorandum of understanding with MWCD where the company will invest annually to its foundation. Stewart said oil production has doubled year after year. She said Encino has increased production by 90% since taking over in 2018. “Our wells are running so much more efficiently than they ever have in the past,” she said, adding that the company closed out 2022 with the best safety record in company history. Stewart said Encino will be sending out information on its Baseline Water Sampling Program, which was established in 2018. The program lists all the items that it tests for and how the testing is conducted. Also, Stewart spoke about community investments. She said the company has already begun receiving requests from organizations within the county. She said input from commissioners is always welcome if they are aware of any projects in need of additional funding. “Intel’s investment (in a site near Columbus) is slated to be $100 billion over the course of 10 years. The shale industry has invested over $100 billion in the same period of time, and the shale industry has done that with no tax exempts,” she said. “… With us, our economic impact is really significant just because of the fact that all of our steel casing is made in Youngstown — 70% of our vendors are in Ohio.” Stewart said company leaders believe natural gas prices will continue to decrease. She said Encino is producing around 32,000 barrels of oil per day. “Ohio has the opportunity to be in the top 10 oil producing states in the country in a few short years,” she said. Kent spoke of Encino’s Community Partnership Program. Since 2019, the company has contributed $1.46 million in its asset area, impacting 66 different organizations. He said he is hoping to broaden the range of organizations. “The more we are able to help, the better,” he said. In 2022, Kent said the program donated toward a number of projects including the Cadiz K-9 Program, the Harrison County Ag Society for a new horse barn, and the Harrison County Military Support Group. Stewart then asked commissioners what the company could do better. Coffland said it does “a fantastic job” communicating with county officials and has been very supportive. Stewart said Encino is projected to have more than 10 wells in the county this year. She offered to provide commissioners with projections, which could be helpful for the school district that also receives revenue from the wells. “Things are going really well in Ohio,” she added. Commissioners thanked Stewart and Kent for attending the meeting. In other matters, county Engineer Doug Bachman opened bids for a centerline striping project that includes 81.74 miles of roadways in the county. Two bids were received — $148,767.67 from AeroMark Co. of Streetsboro, Ohio, and $153,933 from Oglesby Construction of Norwalk, Ohio. He recommended tabling the bids to allow time for him to review. Commissioners moved their next meeting to 10 a.m. Thursday March 2 instead of the usual meeting day of Wednesday, March 1, due to Norris and Corder attending commissioner training in Columbus.
Commissioners offer stance on pipeline - Marysville Journal-Tribune - After weeks of discussion, a statement on behalf of the Union County Commissioners has been filed in support of Columbia Gas’s planned pipeline connector project but not for it going through preserved farmland. The statement came as a response to the notification that Columbia Gas of Ohio filed an expedited petition with the Ohio Power Siting Board to extend the pipeline...
DT Midstream Update: Millennium, NEXUS, Marcellus/Utica Gathering | Marcellus Drilling News - DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region as well as other regions. DTM issued its fourth quarter and full 2022 update yesterday. Among major interstate pipelines that serve the M-U region, DTM is a 50% owner (along with Enbridge) in the NEXUS Pipeline, a 256-mile, 36-inch gas transmission pipeline that flows 1.5 Bcf/d of Utica gas from eastern Ohio to pipeline system interconnects in southeastern Michigan (and from there all the way to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada). In 2022, DTM became the majority owner of the Millennium Pipeline, which stretches 263 miles from Corning, NY, to just outside New York City, delivering Pennsylvania Marcellus and Utica gas to utility and power plant markets across New York State and into New England.
40 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 6-12 | Marcellus Drilling News - New shale permits issued for Feb. 5-12 in the Marcellus/Utica increased nicely last week. There were 40 new permits issued in total last week, including 25 new permits for Pennsylvania, 11 new permits for Ohio, and four permits issued in West Virginia. The week before, there were only 26 new permits issued. Last week the top receiver of new permits was Seneca Resources, with six new permits for Tioga County, PA. Coterra Energy received five permits for Susquehanna County, PA. In Ohio, Encino Energy and Ascent Resources both received four new permits–in Carroll and Harrison counties, respectively. Armstrong County, Ascent Resources, Bradford County, Carroll County, Chesapeake Energy, Clay County, CNX Resources, Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G), Encino Energy, EQT Corp, Greene County (PA), Gulfport Energy, Harrison County, Marshall County, Monroe County, Mountain V O&G, Olympus/Huntley & Huntley,Seneca Resources, Snyder Brothers, Southwestern Energy, Susquehanna County, Tioga County (PA), Tug Hill Operating, Washington County, Westmoreland County
35 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 13-19 | Marcellus Drilling News -New shale permits issued for Feb. 13-19 in the Marcellus/Utica remained elevated last week. There were 35 new permits issued in total last week (down slightly from 40 the week before), including 27 new permits for Pennsylvania, three new permits for Ohio, and five permits issued in West Virginia. Last week the top receiver of new permits was Coterra Energy, with 13 new permits for Susquehanna County, PA. The number two permittee was Apex Energy with five permits in Westmoreland County, PA. Antero Resources, Apex Energy, Ascent Resources, Clay County, Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G), Doddridge County, Guernsey County, Jay-Bee Oil & Gas,Lycoming County, Marshall County, Mountain V O&G, Pennsylvania General Energy, Range Resources Corp, S.T.L. Resources, Susquehanna County, Tioga County (PA), Tug Hill Operating, Tyler County, Washington County, Westmoreland County
Southwestern to Curb Activity in Response to Weaker Natural Gas Market -= Southwestern Energy Co. said Friday it would drop drilling rigs this year in the Appalachian Basin and Haynesville Shale, joining other natural gas-focused producers that have announced plans to curb activity in response to falling prices. “Given near-term market conditions, we have proactively moderated activity, resulting in slightly lower expected production for 2023, and have the flexibility and optionality in our business to adjust as needed,” said CEO Bill Way. The company said it would spend $2.2-2.5 billion this year, or roughly the same as it spent in 2022, to produce slightly less, as inflation continues to take its toll on the industry. Production is expected to average 4.6 Bcfe/d this year, compared with 4.7 Bcfe/d in 2022. Way said the company, one of the largest natural gas producers in the United States and the Haynesville’s biggest operator, would be focused on driving capital efficiencies and reducing costs across its operations in response to inflation. “The team remains highly focused on offsetting inflationary cost impacts by leveraging our strategic supply chain efforts and delivering further operating and development efficiencies,” COO Clay Carrell added during a call Friday to discuss year-end results. “We are targeting further drilling and completion cycle time improvements as well as ongoing completion design and flow back optimization.” After completing the acquisitions of GEP Haynesville and Indigo Natural Resources LLC in 2021, 2022 marked the first full year of operations in Louisiana. Fourth quarter production was up to 427 Bcfe, compared with 385 Bcfe in the year-ago period. The company produced 679 Bcf overall in the Haynesville last year and 1.1 Tcfe in Appalachia, where it has operated for longer. The company’s operations this year would be split nearly evenly between both regions as they were in 2022. Management expects to bring up to 75 wells online in the Haynesville and up to 73 to sales in Appalachia. Natural gas prices have fallen by double digits since December, dipping below $2/MMBtu this week for the first time in years. Management said the company should average between 10 and 11 rigs this year, down from 13 in 2022. Southwestern joins other major upstream players in gassier basins including Chesapeake Energy Corp., Comstock Resources Inc. and EQT Corp., which have recently laid out plans to drop rigs or be ready to do so if prices stay lower for longer.
Toby Rice: 'We have the ability to add a Saudi Arabia’s worth of clean energy per day to the world stage' EQT Corporation chief executive argues for gas to replace coal and address energy security issues Toby Rice is having a moment.The 40-year-old chief executive of US gas producer EQT Corporation has long been making a case for natural gas that seems appropriate for these energy security-conscious and environmentally aware days.Now the self-described “people’s champion of natural gas” is conscious not to miss an opportunity to spread the word. “If you look back on the last 12 months — what did we learn in 2022? We learned that energy security matters, and that without energy security, you cannot transition,” Rice tells Upstream, hours before he is scheduled to take the stage at an industry gathering in Italy.
Equitrans Says MVP Coming in 2023, but ‘Disappointed’ with Permitting Reform Failures by Congress - Equitrans Midstream Corp.’s (EQM) long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) may gain some necessary permits within the next few months, “which will allow us then to bring MVP into service in 2023,” said CEO Thomas Karam. EQM is expecting the biological opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by next Tuesday, “and based on the permitting timeline announced by other agencies, we expect to receive all of the required permits and approvals over the next few months. This timing will allow for mobilization of construction crews in the summer of 2023, which will position us to bring MVP into service in 2023,” Karam said during the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year earnings conference call. MVP, a joint venture of EQM subsidiary EQM Midstream Partners LP, NextEra Capital Holdings Inc., Con Edison Transmission Inc., WGL Midstream and RGC Midstream LLC, stands alone in potentially bringing an incremental 2 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity to Appalachia. Total work on the project is nearly 94% complete, but the pipeline has faced staunch opposition that has resulted in multiple delays.As its estimate stands now, however, EQM is expecting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to issue permits to cross water bodies in the Jefferson National Forest “in mid-April, and subsequent to that, we expect for it to lift the stop-work order and allow work in the forest…,” Karam said.“However, as we all know, we expect project opponents to yet again challenge these duly issued permits,” Karam added. “Projects like the MVP that comply with every process and receive every approval should prevail, which is why we remain committed to the regular permitting path. That said, we also believe that our country desperately needs federal permitting reform,” the CEO noted. In 2022, EQM’s capital expenditures (capex) on MVP alone totaled $199 million, accounting for more than 35% of the company’s total spend during the year. EQM’s capex in 2022 reached $549 million, including its gathering, transmission and water operations. In the final quarter of the year, capex stood at $138 million. Spending on MVP is expected to further increase this year. EQM reported it expects capex on MVP to total $610-$660 million in 2023 – assuming the pipeline comes in-service this year. If the pipeline is not completed this year, the midstreamer estimates 2023 capex for MVP would range from $125-$200 million. If MVP comes online, total capex for 2023, including spending on MVP, gathering, transmission and the company’s water segment, is estimated between $970 million-$1.1 billion. Should more delays incur, capex across all segments is reduced to between $510-630 million. Speaking to the possibility of further delays, Karam also noted EQM was “disappointed that Congress couldn’t pass a permitting reform bill in December during the lame duck congressional session.“Although there are differences between and within the parties as to potential reform, we believe there remains support from both sides of the aisle to work on a bipartisan solution, and we think there continues to be prospects for legislation in the new Congress.” Most recently, former Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) in December introduced legislation that would have limited regulatory and litigation delays as a result of laws including the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1973 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Earlier last year, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) attempted to include language in a continuing resolution that would have overhauled the permitting system while avoiding a potential government shutdown. Opposition to Manchin’s bill from Republicans and progressive Democrats meant the bill died after failing to receive the filibuster-proof 60 votes needed. Manchin has pushed for permitting reform multiple times, as his home state of West Virginia is where MVP is held up on the 3.5-mile crossing of the Jefferson National Forest. EQM also noted it is continuing its investigation into the cause of natural gas escaping from its Rager Mountain Storage field in Cambria County, PA.The leak allowed more than 1 Bcf to enter the atmosphere in early November.The company discovered the leak on Nov. 6 from a single well, which was flooded on Nov. 19 to stop the flow of natural gas and placed one of two planned plugs. A second plug was set on Nov. 20. “We currently do not have permission to inject gas into the Rager Mountain field, but we are having active, productive discussions with” the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), “and are hopeful that they’ll authorize us to inject gas during the coming season,” said COO Diana Charletta, who joined Karam on the call. EQM has completed inventory tests on the field, and found that storage was reduced by about 1.29 Bcf. “We continue to evaluate whether and to what extent all of the inventory loss was due to venting or whether some’s due to potential migration,” Charletta said. “The root cause investigation phase is now underway. We have engaged the leading firm with expertise in storage field incidents to conduct an independent investigation…” while working with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Williams Expanding in Northeast, Gulf Coast and West to Move Natural Gas to U.S. Customers, LNG Clients --With its direction aimed at expanding the natural gas business, including deliveries to export LNG, Williams is looking to repeat the 2022 performance, when it delivered record results from its onshore and deepwater operations.“Despite macroeconomic impacts of inflation, higher interest rates and recession risks, Williams delivered outstanding results that exceeded our financial guidance, even after we raised it twice during the year.”During 2022, Williams continued to execute incremental growth projects on the massive Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC (Transco) system, which moves supply around the country and from the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). In addition, Williams has projects on the table to expand Northeast gathering and processing capacity. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January granted Transco a certificate and key permits for the planned Regional Energy Access Expansion project. The project could open up more gas takeaway from the Appalachian Basin to supply Northeast marketsMoving more gas supply to the Gulf Coast for LNG exports is possibly the executive team’s top ambition, putting the Haynesville Shale in the spotlight. Among other things, Williams netted additional commitments, including from Chevron Corp., for the Louisiana Energy Gateway (LEG) project, which would connect more Haynesville gas to Gulf Coast liquefied natural gas facilities and for petrochemical markets. In the LEG transaction with Chevron, Williams plans to construct a greenfield gathering system that connects to Transco.Separately, Williams also clinched a deal to use existing deepwater infrastructure in the GOM to serve increased gas production from the Chevron-operated Blind Faith platform. To expand the fairway to the Gulf Coast, Williams cut deals to purchase NorTex Midstream Partners LP and Trace Midstream’s Haynesville assets. CEO Armstrong said the purchases were “a key link in our Gulf Coast wellhead-to-water strategy.”
Williams to offer natural gas gathering services to Chevron in US - Natural gas processing and transportation firm Williams and has signed agreements with Chevron USA to support natural gas development in the Haynesville basin, as well as in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Under the deals, Williams will offer natural gas gathering services to the Chevron-owned 26,000-acre field in the Haynesville basin, which covers parts of Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Chevron has agreed to a long-term capacity commitment for Williams’ Louisiana Energy Gateway (LEG) project, which will collect natural gas produced from the Haynesville shale basin. Scheduled to be commissioned in late 2024, the LEG project will have the capacity to transfer 1.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas to various clients in the Gulf Coast markets. Furthermore, Williams will use existing infrastructure to support increased production from Chevron’s Blind Faith platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Production at the Blind Faith platform is planned to be increased by 75,000 barrels of crude oil per day, following the completion of the Ballymore tieback by Chevron. Williams will leverage existing connections to the Blind Faith facility to offer subsea natural gas gathering and crude oil transportation services, and onshore natural gas processing services for the production.
U.S. natgas slides almost 9% to over two-year low on warmer weather outlook - (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures dropped almost 9% to a near 29-month low on Tuesday, weighed down by forecasts for milder weather and lower heating demand next week than previously expected. Front-month gas futures NGc1 for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) fell 20.2 cents, or 8.9%, to settle at $2.073 per million British thermal units, their lowest close since September 2020. Data provider Refinitiv estimated 341 heating degree days (HDDs) over the next two weeks in the lower 48 U.S. states. The normal is 405 HDDs for this time of year. HDDs estimate demand to heat homes and businesses by measuring the number of degrees a day's average temperature is below 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius). "What we are seeing here and the expectations are that we're going to get through winter without any supply issues," "from a weather viewpoint, right now production seems to be exceeding demand." Refinitiv said average gas output in the U.S. Lower 48 states fell from 98.3 bcfd in January to 97.4 bcfd so far in February, after extreme cold earlier in February froze oil and gas wells in several producing basins. That compared with a monthly record of 99.8 bcfd in November 2022. Refinitiv forecast U.S. gas demand, including exports, would rise from 118.9 billion cubic feet (bcf) this week to 122.6 bcfd next week. Those forecasts were lower than Refinitiv's outlook on Friday. "Mild weather and strong production growth caused the balances to flip, with inventories recently rising above seasonal norms," analysts at Bank of America said in a note dated Monday. On Tuesday, federal regulators approved the partial restart of Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas, including two liquefaction trains, two tanks, and one loop and dock each. Freeport LNG, the second-biggest U.S. LNG export plant, was on track to pull in about 0.5 bcfd of gas from pipelines for a ninth day in a row on Tuesday, according to Refinitiv. When operating at full power, Freeport LNG can turn about 2.1 bcfd of gas into LNG for export. The first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) headed to Europe from the Freeport facility in the United States on Friday since a fire halted operations in June, will be unloaded at Germany's new Wilhelmshaven terminal, as per Refinitiv Eikon data. Last week, Freeport LNG asked federal regulators for permission to put the first phase of its restart plan into commercial operation. Phase 1 includes the full operation of the plant's three liquefaction trains, which turn gas into LNG, two storage tanks and one LNG loading dock. Energy regulators and analysts, however, have said they do not expect Freeport LNG to return to full commercial operation until mid-March or later.
Natural Gas Futures, Cash Prices Rise Ahead of Brief Winter Storm - Natural gas futures strengthened midweek as the ramp-up of full operations at a key export facility combined with the potential for March cold to support the market. With technical trading likely aiding the rally, the March Nymex gas futures contract settled Wednesday at $2.174/MMBtu, up 10.1 cents on the day. April futures climbed 12.1 cents to $2.298. Spot natural gas prices were higher as well, with stout gains on the East Coast and Rockies. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. tacked on 34.5 cents to $3.055. With a month and some change left to go in the official natural gas winter heating season, and only a handful of cold days in the near term, traders continue to look for signs that Old Man Winter has some life left in him. The latest models warmed a bit for the next couple of weeks overall, but the longer-range data continues to indicate colder potential as moving deeper into March. The Climate Prediction Center’s (CPC) outlook for weeks 3 and 4 indicates the highest probability of below-normal temperatures are from the Pacific Coast to New England, along the northern third of the country. The Pacific Northwest through the Central Plains, in particular, are at risk for unusually chilly weather. CPC forecasters said a tilt toward below-normal temperatures is likely over the eastern Great Lakes through parts of New England, though probabilities are lower given that some models showed above-normal temperatures reaching northward. Above-normal temperatures are likely over much of the U.S. Southeast. There are equal chances of above- and below-normal temperatures stretching across the country’s midsection to the Mid-Atlantic, according to the CPC. Though it may be too little too late to spark much renewed gas buying in the near term, the long-awaited return of Freeport LNG is now underway after the facility gained federal approval to restart full operations. The export terminal is set to reach 2 Bcf/d of export capacity in the coming weeks, which, at the very least, could provide a floor for gas prices that briefly dipped below $2.000 on Tuesday. Rystad Energy said although the federal approval “couldn’t have come at a worse time for markets” given the recent price decline, with the March Nymex contract set to expire on Friday “market participants can expect more fireworks as the week draws to a close.” Rystad noted that despite the lower price environment, domestic consumption has done little to improve balances and thus, send prices higher. Power demand has been resilient, according to the consultancy, but weekly storage withdrawals have fallen short of expectations as inventories remain firmly above the five-year average.
Natural Gas Futures Shrug Off Light Withdrawal; Cash Prices Surge Out West and in New England - Natural gas futures advanced for a second straight session Thursday as traders looked beyond another light winter storage withdrawal to the prospect of incrementally tighter balances heading into the spring. Physical natural gas prices, meanwhile, surged in the West and the Northeast on near-term wintry conditions. NGI’s Spot Gas National Average jumped $1.900 to finish at $4.955/MMBtu. The March Nymex futures contract rallied 14.0 cents to settle at $2.314 Thursday, adding to a 10.1-cent rally in the day-earlier period to erase the 20.2-cent sell-off that opened the holiday-shortened work week on Tuesday. While bulls will hope for better days ahead, it was another bearish result in the books from the latest government inventory data Thursday, though the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) print did land on the higher side of consensus expectations. EIA reported a withdrawal of 71 Bcf natural gas from storage for the week ended Feb. 17. The result was slightly stronger than expectations but more than 100 Bcf shy of the five-year average 177 Bcf draw. Prior to the report, a Reuters poll of 14 analysts showed estimates ranging from 51 Bcf to 100 Bcf, with a median pull of 68 Bcf. A Wall Street Journal survey had the same range and showed an average draw of 69 Bcf. Bloomberg produced a median draw of 59 Bcf. NGI modeled a 70 Bcf pull. Total Lower 48 inventories stood at 2,195 Bcf as of Feb. 17, a 15.2% (plus-289 Bcf) surplus to the five-year average, according to EIA. Of the seven storage report weeks of 2023 so far, six have featured notably lighter-than-average withdrawals, EIA historical data show. NatGasWeather pointed to “a more bullish draw in the West and Midwest” as the driving factor behind the larger-than-expected withdrawal in the latest print. This comes as “the key South Central region came in bearish versus expectations.” It is here “where the situation is most dire, running well higher than any of at least the past five years at this point in the season.” While the latest pull marked another in a string of weak prints this winter relative to the recent past, mid-range forecasts point to a cold March that could help compensate, according to EBW Analytics Group. The Freeport LNG export facility also is ramping back up after a fire last year, and this could add more than 2 Bcf/d of demand for gas by the spring. “As chillier temperatures, extensive coal-to-gas switching near 4.0 Bcf/d, and Freeport’s slow ramp higher collectively add demand for natural gas, storage surpluses are projected to flatten and decline, likely setting the stage for a bounce higher in Nymex futures,”
US natgas up nearly 6% on colder weather forecasts, contract expiry (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures gained close to 6% ahead of the expiry of the front-month March contract on Friday on forecasts for colder weather and higher heating demand over the next two weeks than previously expected. On its last day as front-month, gas futures NGc1 for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rose 13.7 cents, or 5.9%, to settle at $2.451 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). The contract has risen 7.7% so far this week, after briefly dropping below $2 per mmBtu on Wednesday. "We are seeing support in US gas markets this week from a combination of shifts cooler on weather outlooks, confirmation of 2 (LNG) trains at Freeport restarting and some early announcements that drillers are cutting back on plans for 2023," Data provider Refinitiv estimated 355 heating degree days (HDDs) over the next two weeks, up from 347 HDDs estimated on Thursday. The normal for this time of year is 342 HDDs. HDDs estimate demand to heat homes and businesses by measuring the number of degrees a day's average temperature is below 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius). With cold weather coming, Refinitiv forecast U.S. gas demand, including exports, would rise from 119.0 billion cubic feet per day this week to 121.4 bcfd next week. Refinitiv said average gas output in the U.S. lower 48 states fell from 98.1 bcfd in January to 97.4 bcfd so far in February, due to a cold spell earlier in February which froze oil and gas wells. That compared with a monthly record of 99.8 bcfd in November 2022. On Wednesday, Chesapeake Energy said it would drop three drilling rigs in coming months and would reduce gas output by 4% to 6% this year. The move followed Comstock Resources, which earlier disclosed it would take down two rigs in coming months due to weaker prices. "With the upcoming arrival of March and the roll to the April futures as the prompt contract, the weather factor will be diminishing in importance in forcing the market to rely heavily on a supply-side response to current low pricing," The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said utilities pulled 71 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas from storage during the week ended Feb. 17. That was more than the 67-bcf decrease analysts forecast in a Reuters poll. On Tuesday, Freeport LNG got approval from federal regulators to partially restart commercial operations at its Texas plant after an outage caused by a fiery blast last June that lasted more than eight months. The second-biggest U.S. LNG export plant was on track to pull in about 0.75 bcfd of gas from pipelines for the third day in a row on Friday, according to Refinitiv. Freeport LNG, when operating at full power, can turn about 2.1 bcfd of gas into liquefied natural gas for export. However, energy regulators and analysts, have said they do not expect Freeport LNG to return to full commercial operation until mid-March or later.
US energy firms use Ukraine war to lock in long-term gas contracts, report says -US oil and gas companies are pushing to solve the short-term problem of a tight European gas supply, driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) contracts, a new report shows.The US fossil fuel industry has locked in 45 long-term contracts and contract expansions since the start of the war, according to research by Friends of the Earth, Public Citizen and BailoutWatch. That’s a major increase from the 14 such contracts signed in 2021.While price volatility for gas in Europe is already easing, most of the new contracts won’t deliver gas until 2026 or later, after which they will lock in purchases for 20 years or more.“LNG terminals are massively expensive, multi-decade investments,” said Lukas Ross, a co-author of the report and program manager for Friends of the Earth. “In order for a bank or other investor to feel comfortable writing a check for something like this, they need market certainty. And the way that certainty is delivered is through long-term contracts. But a short-term supply crunch should not be solved with long-term infrastructure.”And then there’s the climate question. Taken together, the 2022 LNG contracts total 58.1m metric tons of LNG every year – that’s more than half the gas burned for cooking and heating in US homes in 2021. These contracts represent 351m metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year, equivalent to the yearly emissions of 94 coal plants or one-third of all US households.“How many of these projects are built – and how many years of extraction and emissions are locked in – is perhaps the most urgent climate policy question in the US today,” Ross said.The US government has fast-tracked the permitting process for several of the proposed LNG terminals, many of which had been stalled for years before the invasion of Ukraine. One terminal that Sempra Energy has been trying to build in Port Arthur, Texas, since 2019, for example, announced in January 2023 that it had secured contracts covering 80% of its output for the next 20 years, smoothing the path to construction.With European demand already drying up and EU leaders hesitant to sign long-term gas deals that conflict with their countries’ climate commitments, some companies are now looking to increase exports to Asian markets instead. “There’s somewhat of a bait and switch going on here,” said Alan Zibel, research director for Public Citizen. “The public have been told that these terminals and these exports are to help Europe, but in reality, the bulk of the contracting volume is still going to Asia.Oil and gas companies that have been trying to build export terminals on the Pacific coast for years to more easily reach customers in Asia have found a home in Mexico. Multiple projects are being built there, most of which will still go through US permitting processes because the gas they will be exporting will flow exclusively from the US.Meanwhile, US ratepayers are experiencing soaring prices at home. “The climate point is, of course, crucial and important, but this is also directly opposed to the interest of US consumers,” Zibel said.
Green groups take aim at Biden's narrative on LNG exports - The war in Ukraine and its fallout triggered immense new commercial interest in U.S. potential to export additional liquefied natural gas, so much so that U.S. suppliers have inked more than four dozen long-term contracts and contract expansions since the war in Ukraine began. There are two prevailing accounts of this war-driven surge worth taking a look at as the war approaches its one-year mark. One story, the one being told by environmental NGO Friends of the Earth and liberal watchdog group Public Citizen in their new LNG report this morning is that the sector has unethically cashed in on the war’s effects to energy markets and that President Joe Biden enabled it by endorsing more exports.Incidentally, that energy companies have leveraged the war to the advantage of their business is an argument Biden has made repeatedly with regard to the oil market, but the similarities end there.Biden has treated gas differently. In the other account of things, one largely shared between the Biden administration and the LNG sector, Europe needs more gas from its friends across the Atlantic, and it needs the additional export authorizations to support more exports.The FOE-Public Citizen joint report itemizes 45 long-term contracts and contract expansions to supply LNG entered into since the war began last February, although a few of the contracts involving Tellurian have been canceled. The count is up from 14 in 2021.All of these contracts involve future supply, and most of the projects involved in these supply and purchase agreements have not yet even reached final investment decisions. European buyers have been a party to a lot of these contracts, although they’ve been outpaced by Asian buyers.The Biden administration jumped at the opportunity to facilitate more LNG shipments from existing export terminals after the war began and authorized new exports, having previewed more LNG supplies as a ready solution in the weeks just before the war began.We observed that Biden’s pledge to get Europe more LNG put him on a collision course with his environmental constituencies, and it certainly has.“LNG exports are a ploy to prolong the era of fossil fuels. If Big Oil’s export agenda remains a blindspot for the Biden administration, then the President’s climate legacy is at risk,” said Lukas Ross of Friends of the Earth, a co-author of the report, which dismisses the expansion of gas infrastructure tied to these long-term contracts as a permanent solution to short-term volatility.
After Explosion, Freeport LNG Rejoins the Gulf Coast Energy Export Boom - Federal regulators have cleared a gas terminal on the Texas coast to restart commercial production of liquified natural gas for export, eight months after an explosion rocked the facility and nearby towns.Subsequent investigations revealed a host of problems with Freeport LNG—which super-cools fracked gas and loads it onto seafaring tankers—from overworked staff to overlooked engineering reports, which contributed to circumstances that led highly-combustible methane to leak from a pipe and catch fire last June.Earlier this month, federal authorities presented findings at a public hearing and said that Freeport LNG had corrected safety issues and repaired damage. On Tuesday, the company announced that it received regulatory approval to get back to business. Michael Smith, a New York billionaire and founder of Freeport LNG, said in a statement that staffing increases and procedural improvements at the terminal would “enhance operational excellence.” Freeport LNG will rejoin the energy export boom already unfolding on the Gulf Coast. It’s one of five working gas terminals in Texas and Louisiana that have cropped up in the last seven years and turned the U.S. from a major gas importer to the world’s top exporter. As gas prices abroad remain significantly higher than prices at home, most of those terminals have expansion plans. New projects slated for the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Lake Charles, Louisiana, have been met with protest. All of them aim to sell the bounty of Texas’ fracking on international markets. These are high times for global gas traders. The disruption of Russian gas to Europe has raised prices, encouraging developers and fueling the buildout along the Gulf. According to a report released Wednesday by Friends of the Earth, BailoutWatch and Public Citizen, LNG exporters finalized 45 long-term deals in 2022 to sell U.S. gas abroad, up from 14 in 2021 and three in 2020.Lukas Ross, a program manager at Friends of the Earth and an author of the report, said “the industry is shamelessly exploiting the crisis in Europe in order to lock in another generation of infrastructure.”Despite the focus on Europe, he said, Asian buyers accounted for most long-term contracts for U.S. LNG, exported primarily from the Gulf Coast. Freeport LNG lacks long-term contracts because it rents its facility for gas suppliers to execute their own contracts with buyers abroad. Suppliers get the gas—a mixture primarily composed of methane—from Texas shale formations cracked open through hydraulic fracturing. For domestic consumption, it gets to users via pipelines. But for shipment and sales overseas it must be super-cooled and compressed through an energy-intensive process into liquified natural gas. That process happens in compressor trains at export facilities, where the liquid hydrocarbon is then stored in giant tanks at about -260 degrees Fahrenheit before export. According to a review presented this month by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), the explosion at Freeport LNG happened when a pressure release valve failed to open, causing a pipe to overheat and burst.
U.S. crude oil exports to be in demand this year as trade flows reshuffle - U.S. crude oil exports that have been boosted by a trade flow reshuffle in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will remain elevated this year as Europe and Asia search for supplies, company officials and analysts said. Western sanctions on Russia’s crude and oil products have opened the door to rising demand for U.S. crude grades as many European countries have become thirsty for alternative supplies. This year, Russia’s oil is expected to continue flowing to India and China, while heightened volumes of U.S. crude will go to European and Asian customers. “A key change in flow is U.S. crude going to Europe,” Colin Parfitt, Vice President of Midstream for Chevron Corp CVX.N, told Reuters on the sidelines of the Argus Americas Crude Summit. “For this year, I’m pretty confident Europe is short of Russian oil, and we’ll see more U.S. crude there.” Exports of U.S. crude to Europe reached nearly 1.69 million barrels per day (bpd) in December, the highest in at least two years, according to data and analytics firm Kpler. It has since eased to about 1.42 million bpd in February. As U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast run at high levels, barrels from the prolific Permian Basin will be exported, said Brian Freed, chief executive of oil pipeline and storage operator EPIC Midstream. “Whether they go to Canada, or somewhere else in the United States, or to Europe or Asia, they’re going to end up on the water to clear the basin,” Freed told Reuters. Customers in Asia and India are buying discounted Russian Urals crude after Western nations imposed an unprecedented $60 a barrel price cap on Russian oil in December. About 25% of Indian crude imports are now coming from Russia, said Amit Bilolikar, Deputy General Manager for Bharat Petroleum’s crude trading desk. Bilolikar sees U.S. exports to India increasing, after the United States recently exported an all-time high record volume to Asia. China also is expected to buy more U.S. crude as the country eases coronavirus restrictions, said Matt Smith, Lead Oil Analyst for the Americas at Kpler.
Critics: GOP Push to Boost Oil, Gas Exports Won’t Lower Americans’ Energy Bills - Republicans and industry executives say Biden administration policies are preventing the nation’s oil and gas producers from going full throttle and expanding exports, which they say will lower costs for consumers in the United States and make global energy supplies more secure and cleaner.With Republicans regaining House majority after November’s midterm elections, GOP leadership is charting a 180-degree reversal in energy policy from the one carved by Democrats over the last four years that saw concerns about climate change, environmental protection, and renewable power pushed as “green energy” emphases.House Republicans have introduced a 17-bill “Unleash America’s Energy” package that includes seven proposals that address oil and gas regulation, and push for greater capacity to export them as a way to remedy “artificial” policy restrictions that have increased costs. The bills “will increase American energy production, lower energy costs, strengthen domestic supply chains, and protect America’s energy grid. The various pieces of legislation being considered today will move the nation forward in our effort to enhance and strengthen American energy security,” President and CEO of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) Jeff Eshelman told Congressional lawmakers in a Feb. 7 hearing in Washington.Democrats, some economists, and a range of consumer advocates argue that since domestically produced oil and natural gas are both globally traded commodities, world events dictate consumer prices—as they are doing now—and, therefore, proposals to “produce our way to lower costs” are poorly camouflaged attempts by an industry already enjoying record profits to degrade environmental regulations.“Our record natural gas exports have radically upended domestic energy markets, forcing American families to compete with families in Berlin and Beijing for U.S.-produced energy,” Public Citizen Energy Program Director Tyson Slocum said during the Washington hearings, noting with domestic oil and gas sold on global markets, the fuel prices Americans pay are now “directly influenced by global calamities.”Among the proposals are measures that would mandate 30-day federal approval of “cross-border energy infrastructure,” aka, pipelines; remove “public interest” when the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) weighs natural gas export proposals; repeal the federal Natural Gas Tax; prohibit a president from banning fracking; and require the National Petroleum Council to research U.S. refinery capacity and needs.The two resolutions “express the sense” that there should be “no restrictions” on oil and gas exports, and “disapproval” of Biden’s revocation of the Keystone XL pipeline permit.The 17 bills, which also include proposed reforms of the Clean Air, Toxic Substances, Solid Waste, and Inflation Reduction Acts, were vetted in Feb. 7–9 hearings before the House Natural Resources and Energy & Commerce committees in Washington, and in Feb. 13–16 Texas field hearings. Some could be up for adoption on the House floor by late March.
Biden urged not to approve oil terminals that could create ‘carbon bombs’ Joe Biden’s administration has been urged not to sink its own climate goals by approving an unprecedented ramp-up of oil export infrastructure off the Texascoast that could result in planet-heating emissions equivalent to three years of the US’s entire emissions output.The federal government has already quietly approved the Sea Port oil terminal project, a proposed offshore oil platform located 35 miles off the Texas coast, south of Houston, and will decide whether to allow three other nearby oil terminal proposals. Combined, the four terminals would expand US oil exports by nearly 7m barrels every day, handling the capacity of half of all current national oil exports.Should all of these projects be allowed to proceed and then operate at full capacity for their expected 30-year lifespan, it will result in an incredible 24bn metric tonnes of greenhouse gases once the transported oil is burned, an analysis conducted for the Guardian by Global Energy Monitor has found.These huge “carbon bomb” projects, critics say, fatally undermine Biden’s image as a president who has acted decisively to stem the climate crisis. No new major fossil fuel infrastructure can be built if the world is to avoid dangerous global heating, the International Energy Agency has warned.“The amount of oil going through these projects, and the resulting emissions, are pretty astounding,” said Baird Langenbrunner, an analyst at Global Energy Monitor, who added that the emissions total is likely a worst-case scenario as it is unlikely all four terminals will be built and then operate at full capacity for decades.“But even if the emissions are a bit lower then, we are fast-forwarding ourselves to the date where we have to stop completely emitting,” said Langenbrunner. “Any extra emissions are in direct conflict with climate goals and it’s hypocritical for the Biden administration to allow these things to get built and then say the US wants to decrease its own emissions.”The oil shipped from the planned terminals would be extracted from the vast Permian basin that lies beneath Texas and New Mexico, and fed through a network of pipelines to huge tankers that would convey it from the Gulf of Mexico to buyers overseas. The emissions from the burned oil would not count towards the US’s total carbon pollution, which Biden has vowed to halve this decade, but will still escalate the disastrous climate crisis.The Sea Port oil terminal, a joint venture between Enterprise, Enbridge and Chevron, will be the US’s largest oil export terminal once built, with a capacity of 2m barrels a day. This is around a quarter of all the oil the US currently exports each day and is part of a national boom in oil extraction that will hit record levels this year and next, despite Biden’s climate pledges and Republican claims that the US president has shut down domestic drilling.The project will link 140 miles of land-based and underwater pipelines to an onshore storage facility near the city of Freeport. Two underwater pipelines will run to the deepwater port located offshore, a key requirement for an oil industry that is keen to shift huge amounts of the resource from the Permian basin but has been frustrated by a lack of deep ports on the Texas coast with the capacity for the very largest oil tankers.In November, the maritime administration, an arm of the US Department of Transport, approved the construction of the Sea Port oil terminal, referencing the heightened demand for new oil and gas in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The project “is in the national interest because the project will benefit employment, economic growth, and US energy infrastructure resilience and security”, the agency wrote in its decision. “The port will provide a reliable source of crude oil to US allies in the event of market disruption.”
Highly paid oil rig worker merits overtime, U.S. Supreme Court says -- (Reuters) - An oil rig supervisor who earned more than $200,000 a year working for Houston-based Helix Energy Solutions Group is entitled to overtime pay, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in a decision with costly implications for the oil and gas industry. The court in a 6-3 decision authored by liberal Justice Elena Kagan decided that because the rig supervisor, Michael Hewitt, was paid a daily rate of $963 and not a salary, an overtime pay exemption in federal wage law for highly paid workers did not apply to him.The justices affirmed a 2021 ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Helix must face Hewitt's 2017 lawsuit seeking overtime pay. That lawsuit now goes back to a federal judge in Houston. A 1940 regulation holds that highly compensated workers - currently defined as those earning $107,000 a year or more - would not receive overtime pay if they have supervisory duties and are paid at least $455 per week in the form of a salary.Kagan said the text of the regulation made clear that it did not apply to employees who are paid based on how many days they work and are not guaranteed minimum weekly wages. Helix was backed in the case by oil and gas trade groups including the American Petroleum Institute, which said in briefs to the justices that supervisors in the industry are routinely paid daily rates and work long hours. A ruling favoring Hewitt would require companies to pay overtime premiums and invite a flood of lawsuits from highly paid workers, the groups added.Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts joined the court's three liberal members in the ruling.Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a dissent joined by fellow conservative Justice Samuel Alito, wrote that because Hewitt earned a set daily rate, he knew he would be paid at least that much for any week in which he worked. That coupled with his management duties made him exempt from overtime pay, Kavanaugh said.Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch in a separate dissent said Helix's appeal should have been dismissed for procedural reasons.
U.S. Crude Production Holds Strong Amid Fresh Signs of Demand Growth - American exploration and production (E&P) companies last week continued to pump oil at a robust pace, maintaining output at the highest level of the pandemic era. E&Ps produced 12.3 million b/d for the week ended Feb. 17, even with the prior week and the high mark of 2023, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report showed. It also kept crude production at the highest level since March 2020, when widespread coronavirus outbreaks arrived in the United States.EIA’s latest result, released Thursday, comfortably outpaced the year-earlier level of 11.6 million b/d. E&Ps posted a record 13.1 million b/d of oil output in March 2020, shortly before public officials declared the global pandemic.Total petroleum demand last week, meanwhile, rose 5% week/week. Domestic consumption, which declined 6% the prior week, has seesawed early in 2023 amid a robust job market that is supporting consumer spending on air travel and, conversely, forecasts for a recession tied to elevated inflation and rising interest rates.Total petroleum products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.0 million b/d, down 8% from the same period last year. Over the same stretch, motor gasoline demand averaged 8.5 million b/d, down 1%, while distillate fuel product consumption averaged 3.8 million b/d, down 14%. Jet fuel product supplied was up 1% to 1.5 million b/d..
Diamondback to Hold Permian Production Steady, Sees ‘Tight’ Natural Gas Takeaway - Diamondback Energy Inc. has no plans to accelerate oil production growth despite signs of impending tightness in the global market, according to management. “I don’t think the macro conditions are dictating any kind of production growth currently,” CEO Travis Stice told analysts. He cited uncertainty around monetary policy, the pace of oil demand recovery in China, and “Russian barrels that are still finding their way into the market. So it doesn’t appear to me that the macro conditions have fundamentally changed. And…perhaps most importantly, the feedback we get from our shareholders [is] encouraging us to continue to embrace a shareholder return model.” CFO Kaes Van’t Hof echoed Stice’s sentiments. “We continue to invest in high-return projects while not having to change our activity plan on a monthly basis trying to follow the crude price,” Van’t Hof said. “The plan is the plan, and this steady state of activity has produced good results today and no need to change that while it’s working right now.” Midland, TX-based Diamondback operates in both the Midland and Delaware sub-basins of the Permian.
New Mexico senators seek federal funds for abandoned oil wells - Federal funds could go to research to find, and study abandoned oil and gas wells in New Mexico and throughout the U.S., after dollars were previously earmarked for state efforts to clean up the facilities.New Mexico’s Democrat U.S. Sens. Ben Ray Lujan and Martin Heinrich, along with Republicans Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma introduced the Abandoned Well Remediation Research and Development Act (AWRRDA) Wednesday, aiming to increase funding for the work.This follows the Lujan-sponsored Revive Economic Growth and Reclaim Orphaned Wells (REGROW) Act which was included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021 to provide funds to states remediating orphaned wells.Wells are deemed “orphaned” when operators find them financially unviable and abandon them.Typically, states require bonding when a well is abandoned but that funding can be inadequate as a well can cost up to $50,000 to remediate and thousands more to repair the land. In New Mexico, there were an estimated 1,700 such wells, with the REGROW Act funds quadrupling the rate of the State’s remediation efforts from about 50 wells a year to 200, according to the Oil Conservation Division.There were an estimated about 2 million abandoned oil and gas wells across the U.S. Lujan said more work was needed to find additional abandoned wells, study their environmental impacts and develop new strategies to plug them more effectively.The wells when left orphaned are usually also unmonitored, meaning they can leak air and water pollution into the environment.The AWRRDA would earmark $30 million in federal funds in Fiscal Year 2023, along with $31.25 million in FY 2024, $32.5 million in FY 2025, $33.75 million in FY 2026 and $35 million in FY 2027.“There are more than 2 million abandoned oil and gas wells across America that pose tremendous health, safety, and environmental risks to the surrounding communities,” Lujan said. Heinrich pointed to abandoned wells emitting methane, a greenhouse gas and key component of extracted natural gas that can be released into the environment through leaks at oil and gas facilities, including pipelines, throughout the industry and fossil fuel supply chain.
Pay and Plug: Federal Funds Spur Cleanup of Lost Oil Wells - A century after oil barons scoured Texas for prime plots from which to extract black gold, another boom is underway: the plugging of thousands of abandoned oil wells. It’s an oil rush in reverse, spurred by the promise of federal money.In 2021, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which released $4.7 billion to states and federal agencies for plugging fallow oil and gas projects known as “orphan wells” if they lacked an owner.“There has never been federal money made available to plug these wells,” said Adam Peltz, a lawyer with the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group.Each leaky well could pose a grave environmental danger to surrounding areas in the form of a methane plume or groundwater contamination. Yet closing a single orphan well can cost tens of thousands of dollars.One federal agency that is beginning to resolve this problem is the National Park Service, which has started using the funding to build a four-member team of orphan-well detectives. Its mandate is to track down the dirtiest orphan wells on more than 84 million acres of federal lands the agency oversees and plug them — which had previously been a pipe dream.In January, the service’s inaugural project began: to plug 10 wells spread throughout a labyrinth of bayou canals in Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in southern Louisiana.The work is expensive. Forrest Smith, a petroleum and environmental engineer at the agency, estimates that each well in this park will cost about $100,000 to close. With $9.8 million in funding for current projects — pulled from the billions allocated broadly to state governments and federal agencies — and millions more on the way, his team is eyeing several dozen more wells across the country for closure. It’s the first dent in a list of about 2,000 wells on the federal lands under the stewardship of the park service.The grand tally of U.S. wells that have been abandoned or that do not have an owner is propagating like an algae bloom. In 2018, the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission recorded just over60,000 orphan wells nationwide. By 2021, that number hadsurpassed 130,000.And that’s probably nowhere near the true total. Between the patchwork of databases, the inconsistent quality of records and the varying definitions for categorizing wells, even ballpark numbers are difficult to establish. The interstate commission estimates there may be 800,000 undocumented orphan wells. “There’s still this huge uncertainty,” said Mary Kang, a professor at McGill University who monitors the efforts to assess to quantify orphan wells.
Douglas County landfill takes remnants of Keystone pipeline oil spill - (news video) Thousands of tons of crude oil impacted soil and solids from the Keystone spill in Kansas are now making their way to the Omaha area.
Settlement reached after tanker spill in Colorado - The Colorado Natural Resources Trustees announced that they resolved a natural resource damage claim under the Federal Oil Pollution Act through a $245 thousand settlement with MTY Trucking. On April 27, 2021, a tanker truck rolled over on Highway 36 near Lyons. It spilled approximately 2,000 gallons of gas into North St. Vrain Creek. The state conducted a damage assessment which found injuries to aquatic life and habitat downstream of the crash site. More than 800 trout died as a result of the spill, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “This accident damaged the local habitat and harmed an already vulnerable river ecosystem still recovering from the 2013 flood,” said Attorney General Phil Weiser, who serves as chairman of the Colorado Natural Resources Trustees. “With this result, we are holding accountable the responsible party, and we are in a position to remediate the damage.” Insurers for MTY Trucking paid the state’s natural resources damage claim. They made a separate $18 thousand payment to the Federal Government resolving a similar claim.
Bakken Natural Gas Price Hits Lowest Level Since 2020 Amid Regional Supply Glut - Bakken Shale benchmark natural gas prices have hit their lowest point in more than two years, the result of an oversupplied Midwestern market, according to the state’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). The price of natural gas delivered to TC Energy Corp.’s Northern Border pipeline at Watford City, ND, fell to $1.91/Mcf as of Thursday (Feb. 16). This price is the lowest seen since December 2020, DMR’s Lynn Helms, oil and gas division director, told reporters during a press briefing. The oil-to-gas price ratio for North Dakota producers currently stands at about 40-to-one, Helms noted. Since natural gas in North Dakota is mainly produced as a byproduct of oil, shutting in gas production means missing out on the much higher oil revenues. Meanwhile, the pressure to reduce flaring means any gas that is extracted must be captured and sent somewhere. Bakken gas has traded at a discount to other regions of the country, namely those with access to premium markets such as the West Coast and Gulf Coast. For example, Devon Energy Corp. said its average realized gas price during the fourth quarter in the Williston Basin was 44 cents/Mcf, versus $5.57/Mcf in the Powder River Basin (PRB). The PRB has emerged as a crucial swing supplier to West Coast markets amid pipeline constraints out of the Permian Basin. Midstream firms are pursuing projects to expand pipeline capacity from the Bakken to the Cheyenne hub in Wyoming in an effort to access higher prices. In the meantime, Williston producers can capture value from the high natural gas liquids (NGL) content of Bakken production, said North Dakota Pipeline Authority director Justin Kringstad, who joined Helms at the press conference. “We…have some of the richest natural gas in the world here in the Bakken,” Kringstad said. He explained that Bakken NGLs are shipped to markets including the Midcontinent, Gulf Coast and Canada. On the dry gas side, however, “certainly we’re largely tied to pricing on Northern Border as it heads down into the Ventura market, the Chicago market, largely influencing that North Dakota price for that component of that gas value chain.” NGI’s Northern Border Ventura price for delivery during Feb. 18-21 averaged $2.115/MMBtu. N Oil production averaged 956,288 b/d, down from 1.1 million b/d in November, according to preliminary data. Natural gas output fell to 2.64 Bcf/d from 3.03 Bcf/d. Permitting showed an uptick, however, with 94 wells permitted in December versus 86 in November. January’s permit count was 79. Helms called the permitting numbers “healthy,” and noted that the state’s drilling rig count remained “solidly in the mid 40s” as of Thursday. Similarly, there were 18 active hydraulic fracturing crews in the state as of Thursday, versus 19 around the same time last month.
Energy agency chief: "No excuse" for high methane emissions (AP) — The International Energy Agency on Tuesday accused fossil fuel industries of doing too little to curb methane emissions and undermining global climate goals to limit warming. Economic uncertainty, high energy prices and concerns over the security of supply — which should have led to emissions cuts in 2022 — were ineffective as methane emissions remained “stubbornly high,” it said. “Methane cuts are among the cheapest options to limit near-term global warming,” said IEA’s executive director Fatih Birol. “There is just no excuse.” The IEA’s annual Methane Gas Tracker report found that 75% of methane emissions from the oil and gas sector can be reduced with cheap and readily available technologies. Methane, which makes up natural gas, can escape into the air from oil and gas infrastructure. Fossil fuel companies may also flare or burn off excess gas which can release methane into the atmosphere. The report slammed oil and gas majors’ refusal to pay up the some $100 billion needed for technologies to spearhead the emissions cuts, which is less than 3% of the industry’s profits in 2022. Energy giants like Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and others reported record profits last year as Russia’s war in Ukraine drove up oil and natural gas prices, spurring calls for the companies to do more to contain climate-changing emissions and help households and businesses that saw their utility bills explode.
Fracking Wastewater Causes Lasting Harm to Key Freshwater Species - Extracting fossil fuels from underground reservoirs requires so much water a Chevron scientist once referred to its operations in California’s Kern River Oilfield “as a water company that skims oil.”Fracking operations use roughly 1.5 million to 16 million gallons per well to release oil and gas from shale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. All that water returns to the surface as wastewater called flowback and produced water, or FPW, contaminated by a complex jumble of hazardous substances in fluids injected to enhance production, salts, metals and other harmful elements once sequestered deep underground, along with their toxic breakdown products. No single U.S. agency collects oil spill data. But a 2017 study of four states found that up to 16 percent of fracked wells reported a spill each year between 2005 and 2014, totalling more than 6,600 spills. In Alberta, an estimated 2,500-plus spills of flowback and produced water occurred from 2005 to 2012, Tamzin Blewett, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Alberta and her colleagues reported in a 2020 review. More than 113 of those spills entered freshwater lakes and streams.Concerns that spills could damage sensitive ecosystems skyrocketed with the rapid expansion of fracking across the United States and Canada almost two decades ago, as technological advances allowed energy companies to exploit previously inaccessible shale oil and gas reserves. Those concerns are well founded, new research shows. Exposing animals that play a critical role in freshwater food webs to diluted samples of flowback and produced water from fracked wells causes lasting harm, scientists reported earlier this month in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology. The researchers investigated FPW’s effects on Daphnia magna, small crustaceans commonly called water fleas, that are the go-to lab organism for studying toxicity in aquatic ecosystems. They obtained the wastewater from a fracked well in the Montney formation, a vast reservoir of unconventional gas and oil that spans the border of British Columbia and Alberta in western Canada. It’s well known that flowback and produced water harms many different aquatic species. Less clear is whether keystone species like water fleas, the primary link between plants and fish and other animals higher in the food chain, can bounce back after a transient exposure, as might occur during a spill. The scientists exposed water fleas to two different dilutions of fracked wastewater for 48 hours, simulating what the animals might encounter downstream of a spill, using untainted water as a control. They transferred the fleas to clean water for the remaining 19 days of the experiment, tracking their ability to grow, mature and reproduce.The water fleas did not fare well. Close to 70 percent died in the more concentrated wastewater and half died in the less concentrated sample, with most of the deaths occurring after just five days. Those that survived took longer to mature and produced up to fivefold fewer offspring.Blewett’s group had exposed the animals to fracking wastewater for 21 days in a previous study. With the new study, she said, “We saw that it didn’t matter if you were exposed for 21 days or 48 hours. Even a small, short-term exposure can have long-lasting effects.”
Coast Guard responds to fuel spill from partially sunk fishing vessel in Fraser River --The Canadian Coast Guard has activated a pollution response after a partially submerged 65 foot fishing boat leaking oil and fuel was found off the north end of Deas Island in the Fraser River near Richmond on Sunday. The boat could be seen listing to its port side several metres off the north end of Deas Island, near the Massey Tunnel. Fisheries and Oceans Canada told Global News a ‘limited amount’ of oil and fuel has been discharged into the water. Local agencies have also been made aware of the incident. A Canadian Coast Guard Environmental Response Team has been activated and Western Canada Marine Response Corporation has deployed containment boom. Meantime, a local marine contractor has been hired to refloat the vessel and tow it to a facility and remove it.
Three Fires At Pemex Facilities In One Day - Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex saw three fires in one day at three separate facilities that it operates in Mexico and the United States. Pemex reported on Thursday a fire at the storage facility Tuzandepetl in the state of Veracruz. The fire started in the drilling equipment for reasons that are yet unknown, the Mexican company said. Five workers are unaccounted for after the incident, while three others are being treated for their injuries in hospital, Pemex said, adding that the fire was extinguished. Later on Thursday, the company said that there was a fire at the Minatitlán refinery in the same state, Veracruz. The fire was contained and later extinguished, but five workers were injured, Pemex said. The refinery hasn't stopped operations and there hasn't been damage to refinery equipment, according to the company. The cause of this fire is assumed to be the spilling of product on a hot surface, Pemex added. The third fire in one day at a Pemex facility occurred in the Pemex-run refinery in Deer Park, Texas. A fire incident was reported at one of the units of the Deer Park refinery on Thursday, according to a community alert quoted by Reuters. The fire incident was being handled within the refinery, and the alert was later updated to all-clear, according to Reuters. Pemex facilities have often suffered incidents in recent years. Last November, 19 people – including Pemex workers and civil protection personnel – were injured after a leaking pipeline exploded in Veracruz.Two months prior to this incident, a gas pipeline run by Pemex exploded in the Mexican state of Tabasco in September, causing a fire and leading to the evacuation of all workers at the Paredón Hydrocarbon Separation Station. In another major explosion involving Pemex's assets, a fire broke out at a Pemex oil platform in the Bay of Campeche in the southern Gulf of Mexico in August 2021. The fire, which occurred during maintenance, killed five workers and injured another six. The outage as a result of the fire reduced Pemex's production by some 444,000 bpd.
U.S. To Receive 3 Million Barrels Of Venezuelan Crude Oil In February - The United States is on track to receive nearly 3 million barrels of crude oil from Venezuela this month, according to shipping documents seen by Reuters. Chevron is on track to ship 100,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude oil per day into the United States as part of a license it received from the U.S. Treasury Department that gives it a limited pass to move sanctioned oil, after a three-year ban. Since obtaining its license, Chevron has exported Venezuelan crude oil for use in its Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery, and has sold some to Phillips 66 and Valero Energy, shipping documents show—both in the United States. Under Chevron’s limited authorization, profits from the sale of oil and petroleum products would go to paying down PDVSA’s debt to Chevron and not boosting state-run PDVSA’s profits. Venezuela’s heavy crude oil is prized by U.S. refiners, who, until recently, looked to Russia’s heavy crude to replace it. In December, it was reported that several refiners were hitting up Chevron to get their hands on the rare Venezuelan crude oil. While Chevron is the only oil company with approval from the U.S. to import crude oil from Venezuela, other oil and gas companies are looking for a similar authorization—including foreign oil and gas companies who are demanding fair treatment.
EU gas demand fell more than target -- The European Union managed to beat its target for cutting gas demand this winter, according to new data from Eurostat. Eurostat data shows that the European Union’s winter demand fell by 19 percent compared to the five-year average, beating the 15 percent goal it set for itself to help it survive the winter. The largest drop was in Finland, which cut its usage by nearly 60 percent. Lithuania saw the second biggest decrease with a nearly 50 percent reduction, with Sweden coming in third. Spain saw one of the smaller decreases in gas consumption, the data showed. Eurostat didn’t differentiate between demand loss due to the mild-weathered winter and high prices. Consumption began to see some of the larger dips beginning in August, which saw a 14% reduction in consumption. September saw an even bigger decrease, and the trend of increasingly lower consumption continued into January. January is typically a high gas demand month brought on by colder temperatures. Still, the EU consumed 1,534 PJ in January, a slight dip from December. For comparison, Eurostat data shows January 2022 consumption at 1,938 PJ.
The IEA Warns Of A Potential Natural Gas Shortage Next Winter - Tight production capacity for liquefied natural gas could lead to shortages next winter, the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, has warned.As gas demand from China begins to recover, competition for LNG supply will increase, creating the risk of shortages, Birol told Reuters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.The head of the IEA praised European governments for making “many correct decisions” last year to secure supply, including the construction of more LNG import terminals. He noted, however, that the mild winter had been a stroke of luck for Europe, combined with the demand drop in China amid last year’s lockdowns. "For this winter it is right to say that we are off the hook. If there are no last minute surprises, we should get through...maybe with some bruises here and there," Birol told Reuters. "But the question is...what happens next winter?"The official noted that some 23 billion cubic meters of natural gas are expected to be added to the global LNG supply this year, which would be equal to some 16.8 million tons. Yet even a moderate recovery in China’s economic activity would absorb 80 percent of that additional supply.Birol then went on to say that this meant Europe may end up short of gas for next winter, saying "Even though we have enough LNG import terminals, there may not be enough gas to import and therefore it will not be easy this coming winter for Europe," adding that "It is not right to be relaxed, it is not right now to celebrate".Europe is about to end winter 2022/23 with record high levels of gas in storage, which theoretically means it would need to buy less for the next heating season. Still, last year’s refill purchases featured a solid amount of Russian gas that will not be available this year and will need to be replaced.
EU Gas Price Cap: An Exercise in Futility --Last week, the European Union saw a cap on natural gas prices come into effect in hopes of curbing the risk of a repeat of last year’s eye-watering gas price jump to more than $350 per megawatt-hour. That spike in prices, which occurred in the summer after the Nord Stream pipeline—the biggest conduit of Russian gas to Europe—was blown out of commission saw businesses shut down and people gather to protest shy-high electricity bills. And the EU really doesn’t want this to happen again. The agreement for the price cap was no easy feat. It was fraught with problems from the start. Some EU members—the richer ones such as Germany and the Netherlands—opposed the very idea of capping the price of a commodity that sells on a free, unregulated market. Others, such as Spain, Italy, and the Eastern European states, defended the cap as a means of keeping gas relatively affordable. The initial proposal of the European Commission was to cap gas prices at 275 euro per MWh, or $287 if this price remains unchanged for two weeks on the spot market. Also, the price of gas in Europe had to be at least 58 euro above the average LNG price on the spot market for 10 consecutive days within those same two weeks to make matters even more complicated and unlikely to happen. Because of the level of this original price cap, the length of time it had to be in place in order to trigger the cap mechanism, and the LNG-related requirement, that first idea ended up being rejected on the grounds that it is effectively pointless. The Commission came up with a revised one that set the cap at 180 euro per MWh, equal to around $197. The cap would be triggered if prices remained at that level for three consecutive days and if that price was also 35 euro higher than the brand new EU benchmark for LNG prices. While officially approved, the cap mechanism remains largely pointless. Right now, natural gas is trading at around 50 euro, or around $53, per MWh on the EU spot market. The chances of this changing so radically that the cap needs to be triggered are, for now, remote. Gas in storage is at much higher levels than usual at this time of the year, so European buyers will not need to worry about refill season too soon. According to the Wall Street Journal‘s Carol Ryan, a late cold snap could potentially empty these storage sites and push gas prices closer to the cap. But, the report notes, traders’ behavior will likely start changing before the TTF benchmark hits 180 euro per MWh. And the first thing they do will be to move their activity from the transparent and strictly regulated stock exchange to the murkier landscape of over-the-counter trades. This was one major concern that traders and ICE were quick to express during the discussions on the level and conditions for the cap. Trader associations and even the European Central Bank said the cap could destabilize the EU financial system. ICE said it could be forced to move out of the EU. “If agreed, the market correction mechanism will be imposed on customers and the market infrastructure with no time for resilient testing and thorough risk management,” ICE told Reuters in December.
On eve of war anniversary, EU fails to finalize Russia sanctions deal – The EU has failed to sign off on a much-anticipated round of sanctions against Russia, leaving the bloc struggling to finalize a deal in time to mark the first anniversary on Friday of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Talks will now run into Ukraine's official commemorations of its first year at war, casting into doubt European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s recent promise to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv to deliver a 10th round of sanctions by then. Diplomats said agreement had been reached on nearly all of the package, but Poland was objecting to proposed restrictions on imports of synthetic rubber that it claims aren't strong enough. While acknowledging holding up the package, Warsaw denied being the problem. "We are not blocking sanctions," a Polish official said on condition of anonymity. "We just want to have sanctions that make sense." The Commission was continuing talks with some EU countries on Thursday evening in search of a compromise, according to two of the diplomats. Another meeting of ambassadors from the 27 EU member countries will be held on Friday morning, four diplomats said, to try and secure a deal. Poland's objection related to proposed restrictions on imports of synthetic rubber from Russia. Sanctions hawks had called for a complete ban, but in an effort to appease other countries that rely on those imports the Commission suggested setting a quota limit at 560,000 metric tons, an EU diplomat said. That’s even higher than current imports, the Polish official said. While several EU diplomats said Poland had been the most outspoken opponent of this quota, others have also expressed their discontent over derogations for certain companies. One EU diplomat said that the proposed quota "makes the sanction meaningless.” Trade data show that imports from Russia haven't exceeded that quota in the last decade.
Norway’s Oil Production Dropped In January - Oil production in Norway, the biggest oil producer in Western Europe, slipped in January compared to December and was 3% below official forecasts, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said on Tuesday. Last month, Norway pumped 1.754 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, 200,000 bpd of natural gas liquids (NGL), and 25,000 bpd of condensate. Total oil production in January was 3.0% lower than the NPD’s forecast, while crude oil output was 1.2% below forecasts and 1% lower than in December 2022. Norway’s natural gas production also fell in January, by 1% from December, but was 3.9% higher than the directorate’s forecast. Despite the lower production, Norway and the operators on its shelf expect to maintain the current high volumes of natural gas production for at least another five years as operators have pledged $29 billion (300 billion Norwegian crowns) to develop new fields and extend the lifetimes of producing fields, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said last month. “These are remarkable investments for the future. This will help ensure that Norway can continue to be a reliable supplier of energy to Europe”, said NPD Director General Torgeir Stordal. “Only rarely have we seen so much oil and gas produced on the Norwegian shelf as was the case last year – and only rarely have we seen such significant investment decisions,” the NPD said in its yearly overview of the production and investment activity on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. In January, Norway’s petroleum and energy ministry also said it was offering up to 92 new blocks for hydrocarbon exploration in the new round of licensing in mature areas. The announcement for the licensing round will take place in the third quarter of this year, with the award of blocks expected to be announced in January 2024. In the most recent licensing round, APA 2022, the ministry awarded earlier in January 47 new production licenses in the predefined areas to a wide variety of companies.
Russia’s Weekly Oil Exports Jump To Highest Level In Over A Month Russian crude oil exports by sea surged by 26% to 3.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in the week ending February 17, the highest level in more than a month, according to shipment tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.. All export terminals on the Russian Baltic, Black Sea, Arctic, and Pacific coasts saw a rise in crude oil shipments last week. The four-week average rate of exports was also higher and rebounded to 3.34 million bpd, according to the data monitored by Bloomberg. Of those, as much as 3.19 million bpd was headed to China and India, while historical data observed by Bloomberg suggests that the cargoes with destination labels of “unknown” usually arrive in India. The weekly exports are not so reliable in identifying sustainable patterns; the four-week average could be more accurate, and it points to a rise in Russia’s seaborne crude oil exports. Overall Russian oil exports, including crude and products, rose to 8.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, just ahead of the EU embargo and G7 price cap on refined products, which took effect on February 5, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly report last week. Crude oil exports increased by almost 300,000 bpd in January compared to December, despite a further 450,000 bpd decline in shipments to the EU, the agency said. announced cut of 500,000 bpd in production for March could be a sign that Moscow may be struggling to place all of its barrels, or “an attempt to shore up oil prices,” the international agency said. This year, Russia plans to sell more than 80% of its crude oil exports to “friendly” countries, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said last week. China and India are Russia’s biggest crude oil customers now. Those two major Asian importers—the world’s largest and third-largest crude importers—haven’t joined the Price Cap coalition and are thought to be buying cheap Russian crude at deep discounts to international benchmarks.
Russian 500,000 b/d crude production cut plan currently just covers March - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Feb. 21 the government's decision to cut crude production by 500,000 b/d currently only covers March but may be extended, the Tass news agency reported. "We will watch how the situation on the market develops, and based on this, market decisions will be taken. For now, the decision is only for March," he said. Novak added that the production cut, announced Feb. 10, will be spread proportionally across Russian producers. Russia is cutting output after an EU ban on most seaborne imports of Russian crude and a $60/b price cap came into force Dec. 5. From Feb. 5 this was followed by a similar ban on oil product imports and price caps of $100/b for imports of Russian products that typically trade at a premium to crude, such as diesel, gasoline and kerosene, and $45/b on products like fuel oil that generally trade at a discount to crude. To date, the restrictions have not had a major impact on Russian crude oil production volumes. Russian output fell 10,000 b/d on the month to 9.85 million b/d in January, according to the latest Platts survey by S&P Global Commodity Insights. That compares with 10.11 million b/d in February 2022. Analysts expect the sanctions to have a significant impact on Russian production from March. S&P Global Commodity Insights expects a drop in Russian oil production of 500,000 b/d from December to March. This is due to expected run cuts, as a result of problems re-routing clean products into atypical markets on an insufficient supply of ships.
India's Russian oil imports surge to a record 1.4 mn barrels per day in Jan -- India's Russian oil imports climbed to a record 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, up 9.2% from December, with Moscow still the top monthly oil seller to New Delhi, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia, data from trade sources showed. Last month Russian oil accounted for about 27% of the 5 million bpd of crude imported by India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, the data showed. India's oil imports typically rise in December and January as state-run refiners avoid maintenance shutdowns in the first quarter to meet their annual production targets fixed by the government. Refiners in India, which rarely used to buy Russian oil because of costly logistics, have emerged as Russia's key oil client, snapping up discounted crude shunned by Western nations since the invasion of Ukraine last February. Last month India's imports of Russian Sokol crude oil were the highest so far at 100,900 bpd, as output from the Sakhalin 1 field resumed under a new Russian operator, the data showed. In January, India's imports of oil from Canada rose to 314,000 bpd as Reliance Industries boosted purchases of long-haul crude, the data showed. Canada emerged as the fifth-largest supplier to India in January after the United Arab Emirates, the data showed. India's Iraqi oil imports in January rose to a seven-month high of 983,000 bpd, up 11% from December, the data showed. During April-January, the first ten months of this fiscal year, Iraq continued to be the largest oil supplier to India, while Russia became the second-biggest supplier, replacing Saudi Arabia which is now in third place, the data showed. Higher purchases of Russian oil dragged down Indian imports from the Middle East to an all time low of 48% and member nations of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) declined to the lowest ever, the data showed.
Derailed train spills oil into Karnaphuli River -- Oil spilled after a train derailed in Chattogram has started spreading in the Mahesh Khal, which leads to the Karnaphuli River, raising concerns about its impact on the environment. Oil spilled after a train derailed in Chattogram has started spreading in the Mahesh Khal, which leads to the Karnaphuli River, raising concerns about its impact on the environment. Two teams from the Department of Environment are gathering samples from either side of the closed sluice gate on the Mahesh Khal canal. They also reported seeing oil floating on the surface of the water as well. Three wagons bearing diesel fuel traveling through the Chattogram Goods Port Yard (CGPY) area in the city’s Halishahar area derailed late on Wednesday, reports bdnews24.com. Oil spilled from two of these wagons, rail officials said but failed to mention how much oil had been spilled as of Thursday afternoon. As of 1 pm, rail workers were still attempting to lift the third wagon back onto the tracks with two already recovered. Several rail lines run through the CGPY area. A drainage runs right next to the place where the wagons came off the tracks as the oil poured into it and flowed into the Mahesh Khal canal 30 yards away. About 20-30 people of different ages were removing oil from the water using foam, buckets, and bottles, gathering the oil into drums by the side of the road. The oil is also being sold to stores that sell fuel oil. Each of the wagons was carrying 30,000 litres of oil. “Not all of the oil in the wagons spilled,” said Abdur Rahman, manager of the railway’s Eastern Division. “As we were moving the carriages onto the track, we noticed that a little had spilled out. “A bit of this oil mixed with the water as the canal and drain are right next to it.” Asked why the train had derailed, CGPOI Master Abduk Malek said a probe was underway. “The sluice gate from the Mahesh Khal to Karnaphuli has been closed since yesterday (Wednesday) night,” said Md Monir, an inspector for the department of environment. “We have taken multiple samples from the canal near the gate.” “There is a significant presence of oil in the canal. But the river water was also found in the samples taken from the other side of the gate. We will know the extent of the oil spill when we test the samples. The oil on the river water is visible in small amounts to the naked eye.” Md Abdul Mannan, a local councillor, said “A lot of oil has spilled into the canal. If it is not removed using special tools, it may pollute the water.” “Even if the water does not reach the river, it may enter it at a later time, which could damage the environment. The way people are collecting oil in the location could give rise to health problems as well.” “The oil has spread in the Mahesh Khal,” said Prof Mohammad Idris Ali, an environmentalist. “During high and low tide it will enter the Karnaphuli River. From there it will travel to the ocean coast.” “If the sluice gate is closed, it will limit the spread somewhat. But there is no reason to believe that the oil can be skimmed off the water entirely.”/p>
40,000 litres of oil spills into canal as freight train derails in Chittagong - A freight train carrying diesel derailed in Chittagong's Halishahar area and around 40,000 litres spilled from three wagons into a nearby canal. The derailment happened around 6pm when the train was entering Chittagong Goods Port Yard (CGPY) depot after loading diesel from depots of Padma, Megha and Jamuna in Patenga area. Malek, a master at CGPY, said the train was supposed to go to Dhaka from Chittagong but it derailed after loading. “Efforts are on to recover the derailed train,” he said. A three-member probe committee was formed to investigate the incident, Tarek Imran, an official at Eastern Railway Transport department, said. According to the railway security department, every wagon can contain 38,000 to 40,000 litres of oil. Three wagons overturned within 15 to 20 minutes after they were loaded with oil when it was entering the depot. Experts said oil spilled from the wagons into the water bodies will pose a serious threat to the aquatic ecosystem.
China set for record crude oil imports in 2023: analysts - China is expected to import a record amount of crude oil in 2023 due to increased demand for fuel as people travel more following the dismantling of COVID-19 controls and as a result of new refineries coming onstream, analysts said. The prospect of strong demand from the world's biggest importer will be another bullish factor for an oil market already supported by the OPEC+ producer group's output cuts and western sanctions on Russian exports. China's crude imports may rise between 500,000 and 1 million barrels per day (bpd) this year to as high as 11.8 million bpd, reversing previous two years' decline to exceed 2020's record of 10.8 million bpd, according to analysts from four industry consultancies - Wood Mackenzie, FGE, Energy Aspects and S&P Global Commodity Insight. Their estimates are in line with the latest forecast by the International Energy Agency. Since the removal of COVID controls in December, China's demand for gasoline and jet fuel has risen. Sun Jianan, an analyst at Energy Aspects, reckoned gasoline and jet fuel would account for around 50% and 30% of total growth in demand for liquid fuels, respectively. Jet fuel consumption, according to Sun, would reach 90% of pre-COVID levels by end-2023. Demand for diesel - a key industrial and transportation fuel - and petrochemical feedstock naphtha, may grow more slowly as it will take longer for the recovery in China's manufacturing and property sectors to materialize, said FGE analyst Mia Geng and Energy Aspects' Sun. "Economic stimulus, along with infrastructure expansion in 2023 will set the stage for robust diesel consumption recovery," Wang Zhuwei, an analyst at S&P Global Commodity Insight, said. With domestic consumption rising and lucrative export markets to supply, the four consultancies saw Chinese refineries raising crude throughput by between 850,000 to 1.2 million bpd over 2022 levels, for an increase of between 6% to 9%. Last year, China's refineries posted their first annual decline in throughput since 2001.
Environmentalists accuse Beetaloo Basin pro-fracking website of astroturfing --A new website that says it represents Northern Territorians who support fracking in the Beetaloo Basin appears shrouded in mystery with no details about who is behind it.Environmentalists have concerns that the site, which calls itself the Beetaloo Economic Alliance, could be an example of astroturfing, a term that describes where a fake grassroots campaign is used to obscure marketing or PR.Hannah Ekin, a spokesperson for the Central Australian Frack Free Alliance (Caffa), said it had “all the markers” of an astroturfing campaign.The site was discovered as Caffa announced it was taking the NT government to the supreme court over an alleged failure to consider the environmental impacts of the fracking project by resources company Tamboran in the Beetaloo Basin.The website presents pictures of men in hard hats with the claim: “Your opportunity is under attack! The only question is, are you going to allow it?” and has a “take action” button that links to a template to send MPs an email in support of the Tamboran project.There is no contact information and only two working links. One to a piece by the Australian endorsing the project and another to a clip from the ABC titled: “Industry says gas from the Beetaloo Basin could solve Australia’s energy crisis.”There is a Facebook page with no followers and a Twitter account with three followers and 54 following. It has been posted to 10 times since its inception in early December 2022. The message function is barred.Mudburra elder Ray Dimakarri Dixon, an anti-fracking campaigner in the region, is furious at the unauthorised use of his image to promote the purported “grassroots” campaign.Near the bottom of the webpage is a picture of Dixon with the slogan: “No impact on air quality. A three year study by the CSIRO published earlier this year found fracking had no impact on air quality.”Dixon said he was stunned by seeing his image used to promote fracking.“They didn’t contact me,” Dixon said. “I am shocked about it.
Beetaloo Economic Alliance website uses 'astroturfing' strategies, anti-fracking group claims - Ray Dimakarri Dixon has been a long-time critic of fracking in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo basin. So it was with surprise that the Mudburra elder learned his image was being used without permission on a website advocating the development of the gas-rich region. "I was shocked. It's horrible, terrible stuff," Mr Dixon said in a press release issued by the Central Australian Frack Free Alliance (CAAFA) "It makes me feel that people might be looking at it and thinking that I support fracking," Mr Dixon said. "But I've been standing up for my country, and water, and the environment." The website of the "Beetaloo Economic Alliance" describes the basin's vast shale gas reserves, about 500 kilometres south-east of Darwin, as a "once in a generation opportunity". A screenshot of a web page with photos of men in hard hats on it. But it warns that the opportunity is "under attack" and encourages people to write to local federal Labor MP Marion Scrymgour to counter anti-fracking campaigns. "Let's not allow a few well-meaning, albeit misguided voices [to] take this opportunity away from us," it says. The website provides no information about what the Beetaloo Economic Alliance is. It also has no contact details, and an online search shows it was registered in November last year by an undisclosed applicant. However, the website features a photo of Mr Dixon alongside a headline which states: "No impact on air or water quality". Mr Dixon said he was appalled. "You can't just go and put a website up with a person's image without talking to them," he said. "They've got no respect for traditional owners of this land."
Anti-fracking petition with 10,000 names presented at Parliament House | Queensland Country Life --Activists are increasing their pressure on the Palaszczuk government to ban new gas developments in the Lake Eyre Basin, presenting a petition containing around 10,000 signatures at Parliament House on Wednesday.Oman’s oil output rises 4% in January, but exports decline – Oman’s daily average production of crude oil continued to remain above 1mn barrels per day (bpd) in January, up by nearly four per cent in comparison to daily average output recorded in the same period of last year. Daily average oil output during January 2023 increased to 1.065mn bpd compared with 1.028mn bpd in the same period of 2022, the data released by National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) showed on Monday. The sultanate’s total oil production in January 2023 grew by 3.6 per cent to 33.023mn barrels compared to 31.869mn barrels in the same period of last year. Of the total production, crude output rose by 3.5 per cent year-on-year to 25.978mn barrels during January, while condensates output increased 4.1 per cent to 7.045mn barrels during the first month of 2023. The sultanate’s total oil production for the full year 2022 had increased by nearly 10 per cent to 388.4mn barrels compared to 354.5mn barrels recorded in 2021. Oman’s oil exports declined by 6.9 per cent in January this year to 26.046mn barrels compared with 27.978mn barrels recorded in the corresponding period of 2022. In contrast, total oil exports for the full year 2022 had increased by 10.6 per cent to 319.5mn barrels in comparison with 288.9mn barrels in 2021, the NCSI data showed. Exports to China, the biggest buyer of Oman’s crude, accounted for 83 per cent of the sultanate’s total oil exports in January 2023. However, total exports to China decreased by 13.7 per cent to 21.639mn barrels during January this year compared to 25.061mn barrels in the same month of 2022.
Oil production now 1.6 million barrels daily – The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, on Monday, said Nigeria’s oil production had increased to 1.6 million barrels per day, a few millions short of the 1.8 million barrels per day quota allocated to Nigeria by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive, Mele Kyari, revealed this at a meeting of industry stakeholders, called to discuss the challenges of crude oil theft and losses affecting the oil and gas sector. He also stated that the rectangular security approach, comprising NNPCL and partners, regulators, government security agencies and host communities, boosted by the adoption of technology, ensured the recovery of production from what it was in July 2022 to the current 1.67 million barrels per day. Kyari, who was represented by the Head, Upstream Investment, NNPCL, Bala Wunti, at the event, which was chaired by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said the implementation of the Detect, Deter, Destroy and Recover had paid off. Other strategies that were deployed include the establishment of the Central Command and Control Centre for effective monitoring and coordination, the launch of the Whistle-Blowers Portal and the Crude Oil Validation Portal, as well as the deployment of surveillance tools in the fight against oil theft and vandalism. He said a key element of the collaboration had been the onboarding of the private security contractors from the host communities, which were hitherto isolated. According to Kyari, the security contractors’ in-depth knowledge of the terrain and modus operandi of the criminals had led to massive discoveries of illegal connections and interception of vessels ferrying stolen crude oil.
UAE’s Crescent Petroleum signs agreements to develop Iraqi oil and gas fields -- Sharjah energy company Crescent Petroleum has signed three 20-year agreements to develop oil and gas fields in Iraq, as the country seeks international collaboration to boost its energy supply. Crescent Petroleum plans to initially produce 250 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas from two oil and gas blocks in the country’s northern Diyala province, the company said on Tuesday. A third exploration block, located in Iraq’s main oil-producing hub Basra, will be explored and developed to add further supplies, Crescent Petroleum said. “Our new planned investments and operations will create thousands of new jobs and support the local and national economy,” said Abdulla Al Qadi, executive director of exploration and production at Crescent Petroleum. “Gas and oil supplies from these operations will help improve services and local economic development for the people of Iraq.” Gas from the Diyala operations is expected to start supplying nearby power plants within 18 months, the company said. Crescent Petroleum will build a processing plant on site, as well as pipelines and infrastructure to supply gas, it said. Iraq, Opec’s second-largest producer, depends on oil revenue to meet 90 per cent of government expenditure. The country exports about 3.3 million barrels of oil per day, while production in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region amounts to more than 450,000 bpd.
Saudi crude exports rise in December from a five-month low - Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports rose in December after falling to a five-month low the previous month, data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Monday. The kingdom’s crude exports rose about 2.2 per cent to 7.44 million barrels per day (bpd) in December from 7.28 million bpd in November. However, the world’s largest oil exporter’s crude production fell slightly from 10.47 million bpd in November to 10.44 million bpd. Saudi’s domestic crude refinery throughput fell 40,000bpd to 2.62 million bpd in December, while direct crude burn rose 48,000bpd to 477,000bpd. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia raised prices for its flagship crude for Asian buyers for the first time in six months amid an expectation of oil demand recovery, especially from China. Saudi Arabia emerged as top crude oil supplier to China again in 2022 and is expected to remain so after President Xi Jinping’s visit to Riyadh in December. Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other Opec members to JODI, which publishes them on its website. While the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) raised its 2023 global oil demand growth forecast this week, its monthly report showed crude oil output declined in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran as part of the organisation’s deal. Global oil demand climbed by 1.3 million barrels a day in December to a record high, driven by gains in Indonesia, Japan and Korea, the International Energy Forum said, citing data JODI data. Meanwhile, Russia plans to cut oil production by 500,000bpd, equating to about five per cent of its output, in March after the West imposed price caps on Russian oil and oil products.
Saudi Arabia’s Oil Revenues Hit $326 Billion In 2022 --Saudi Arabia received as much as $326 billion in oil revenues for 2022, its biggest oil sales haul in the era of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, although monthly revenues have been lower in recent months after oil prices slid to around $80 per barrel at the end of last year.Saudi Arabia recorded its highest-ever oil revenues back in 2012.The rise in oil prices last year, especially the spike in the first half to over $100 a barrel after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, raised the revenues for the world’s largest crude oil exporter. The value of oil exports accounted for more than 70% of all Saudi exports last year.In December 2022, oil exports increased by 11.1% year over year to $22.8 billion (85.5 billion Saudi riyals), but fell compared to November, according to datareleased by Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics on Tuesday. The share of oil exports in total exports increased from 71.9% in December 2021 to 79.0% in December 2022, the authority said.China, Japan, and India were Saudi Arabia’s main trading partners for exports in December 2022, due to the oil sales.While many economies floundered in 2022 due to inflationary pressures and soaring energy prices, Saudi Arabia’s economy grew by 8.7% last year, thanks to its oil industry and exports.According to flash estimates, real GDP in the fourth quarter of 2022 grew by 5.4% compared to the same period of 2021, and the real GDP during the year 2022 rose by 8.7% compared to 2021, the General Authority for Statistics said last month. Saudi economic growth was the highest among the G20 group of countries.Thanks to rising oil income, Saudi Arabia also booked its first annual budget surplus in nearly a decade. Analysts believe that the Kingdom needs oil prices at $75-80 per barrel to balance its budget.
Iran raises its oil prices for Asia amid China optimism - Iran has raised the official selling price (OSP) of its Iranian Light crude oil grade for Asian buyers, a report says. An industry source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday that Iran had set its crude oil price $2 a barrel above the Oman/Dubai average for March, 20 cents higher from the previous month. The raise comes as optimism over Chinese demand. Analysts expect China's oil imports to hit a record high in 2023 to meet increased demand for transportation fuel and as new refineries come on stream. The mark is also watching the fallout from Russia’s plans to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), equating to about 5% of its output, in March after the West imposed price caps on Russian oil and oil products. Russia is part of the OPEC+ producer group comprising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, which agreed in October to cut oil production targets by 2 million bpd until the end of 2023. A Feb. 19 note by Goldman Sachs analysts said future oil supply shortages are likely to drive prices toward $100 a barrel by the end of the year. On Monday, oil prices rose over 1%, with Brent crude settling up $1.07 at $84.07 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) for March rose 85 cents at $77.19. China is the biggest importer of Iranian crude, supported by a fleet of as many as 180 elderly tankers.
Oil Rises on China Demand Optimism and Supply Concerns —Oil prices rose on Monday, buoyed by optimism over Chinese demand, continued production curbs by major producers, and Russia’s plans to rein in supply. Brent crude rose 59 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $83.59 a barrel by 1020 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for March, which expires on Tuesday, was up 58 cents, or 0.8 percent, at $76.92 while the more active April contract gained 0.7 percent to $77.06. The benchmarks settled $2 down on Friday for a decline of about 4 percent over the week after the United States reported higher crude and gasoline inventories. The OPEC+ producer group comprising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia agreed in October to cut oil production targets by 2 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of 2023. Separately Russia plans to cut oil production by 500,000 bpd, equating to about 5 percent of its output, in March after the West imposed price caps on Russian oil and oil products. Analysts, meanwhile, expect China’s oil imports to hit a record high in 2023 to meet increased demand for transportation fuel and as new refineries come onstream. “We continue to see a reopening of China and a rebound in China and global jet demand driving upside risk to prices,” said Baden Moore, head of commodities research at National Australia Bank. China and India have become major buyers of Russian crude since the European Union embargo. At the same time, future oil supply shortages are likely to drive prices toward $100 a barrel by the end of the year, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a Feb. 19 note. Prices will move higher “as the market pivots back to deficit with underinvestment, shale constraint,s and OPEC discipline ensuring supply does not meet demand,” they wrote.
Oil eases in rangebound market as Fed and China demand face off - Oil edged lower as investors weighed the prospect for further U.S. monetary tightening against signs of improving demand from China following the end of COVID Zero. Brent futures retreated below US$84 a barrel after closing 1.3 per cent higher on Monday. Prices have bounced within a relatively tight range this year, and a measure of volatility remains near the lowest level in 13 months. Embedded Image Market watchers continue to weigh concerns that more Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes will sap demand, against expectations that China's reopening will drive an increase in commodity buying. The world's largest importer has been buying more oil from Russia and snapping up ships for cargoes from the U.S. as it ramps up imports. Indian refiners have also boosted processing, lifting rates in January to the highest in five years on the back of rising domestic demand. The country has also been a key consumer of Russian crude, taking advantage of discounted cargoes. The next key event that investors are awaiting is Wednesday's release of minutes from the Fed's last meeting. That, and U.S. personal spending data on Friday, may provide further clues of the path for rates. “Any hawkish takeaway from the upcoming Fed minutes may be a catalyst for further downward pressure for oil,” said Yeap Jun Rong, a market strategist at IG Asia Pte Ltd. Prices have attempted to climb on the improving supply-and-demand outlook that's coinciding with China's recovery, he added. Brent for April settlement lost 0.4 per cent to US$83.77 a barrel as of 10:22 a.m. in London. WTI for March delivery, which expires Tuesday, rose 0.5 per cent from Friday's close to US$76.75 a barrel. There was no settlement Monday due to the US holiday and transactions will be booked Tuesday. The April contract gained 0.9 per cent to US$77.25 a barrel.
Oil falls more than 1% as growth fears offset China demand hopes (Reuters) - Brent crude oil slipped more than 1% in a volatile session on Tuesday as persistent concerns about global economic growth outweighed supply curbs and prompted investors to take profits on the previous day’s gains. The focus in the wider financial market is firmly on the release on Wednesday of the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest meeting, after recent data raised the risk of interest rates remaining higher for longer. Global benchmark Brent crude settled $1.02, or 1.2%, lower at $83.05 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) for March, which expired on Tuesday, fell 18 cents, or 0.2%, to $76.16 a barrel. The second-month contract slipped 19 cents, or 0.2%, at $76.27. The price moves today “seem to be more technical in nature,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group. “We seem to be fading off on the same, old concerns that the dollar is going to be strong and about the interest rate situation.” A stronger greenback makes dollar-denominated oil more expensive for holders of other currencies. Earlier in the session, the market rallied, with Brent briefly turning positive, after better-than-expected business activity surveys in Europe and Britain pointed to a less gloomy European economic outlook than previously feared. On Monday, oil prices rose by more than 1% on optimism over Chinese demand that analysts expect to rebound this year after COVID-19 restrictions were scrapped. The WTI contract did not settle on Monday because of a public holiday in the United States, which has also delayed by a day both industry and official weekly U.S. oil inventory reports, respectively to Wednesday and Thursday. U.S. crude stockpiles have grown weekly for about two months, and were forecast in a Reuters poll to have risen 1.2 million barrels last week. However, signs of tighter supply lent prices some support. Russia plans to cut crude oil production by 500,000 barrels per day, or about 5% of its output, in March after the West imposed price caps on Russian oil and oil products over the invasion of Ukraine. The cut, announced this month, will apply only to March output for now, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday, according to news agency reports. Russia is part of the OPEC+ group which agreed in October to cut oil production targets by 2 million bpd until the end of 2023. Separately in the natural gas market, U.S. regulators approved the partial restart of Freeport LNG’s Texas facility, the second-biggest U.S. liquefied natural gas export plant, which was shut after a fire in June.
Oil futures end lower as uncertainty blurs the demand outlook Oil futures ended with a loss on Tuesday as investors continued to monitor the outlook for demand amid uncertainty over the global economic outlook. Ample U.S. supplies, meanwhile, contributed to a session decline of nearly 9% for natural-gas futures. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery edged down by 18 cents, or 0.2%, to end at $76.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on the contract’s expiration day. The new front month April WTI crude contract, which is most actively traded, fell 19 cents, or nearly 0.3%, settle at $76.36 a barrel. WTI futures didn’t settle Monday due to the Presidents Day holiday in the U.S. April Brent crude the global benchmark, lost $1.02, or 1.2%, at $83.05 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe after rising 1.3% on Monday. Back on Nymex, March gasoline rose 0.3% to $2.4156 a gallon, while March heating oil gained 2.9% to $2.7919 a gallon. March natural gas fell 8.9% to settle at $2.073 per million British thermal units, for a fourth straight session decline. Prices marked another finish at their lowest since September 2020. Crude remains lower for the month, with pressure tied to worries that aggressive tightening by major central banks, including the Federal Reserve, could cause a significant economic slowdown later in the year. The rise in both the U.S. dollar and short-duration Treasury yields stoked concerns about the Fed Reserve crushing the economy with “too-aggressive policy decisions this year,” analysts at Sevens Report Research wrote in Tuesday’s newsletter. “From a demand standpoint, recessions are clearly not a positive situation for consumption of refined products,” which is why U.S. oil prices fell 4% last week, they said. On the supply side, Russia previously announced a plan to cut production by 500,000 barrels a day in March. But oil has struggled to gain ground in part due to Russian crude exports that have remained robust, analysts have said. Citing Bloomberg data, analysts at Commerzbank said Russian crude oil exports surged by 26% to 3.6 million barrels per day last week, with shipments from all Russian export terminals on the Baltic Sea and Black Sea, as well as in the Far East, reaching multiweek highs. “Even if the marked upswing week-on-week was attributable to the previous week’s low level, the four-week average also shows an upward trend. 3.2 million barrels per day went to China, India, Turkey and other unknown destinations — this is the highest figure since the data series began at the start of 2022,” they wrote. “China’s increased oil demand is thus being met to a large extent by higher supply from Russia. This may explain why the oil price has not been able so far to profit from the demand growth in China,” they said. Natural-gas futures, meanwhile, are back to where they started in the third quarter of 2020, “after a spate of mild weather caused Henry Hub prices to slide below $2.30,” analysts at BofA Securities wrote in a research note dated Monday. Nine months ago, ahead of a fire that shut the Freeport LNG shipping facility, natural gas was trading above $9 per million Btus, U.S. inventories were 300 billion cubic feet under seasonal five-year average levels and “there was concern about inventories running dangerously low,” said the BofA Securities analysts. “Since then, mild weather and strong production growth caused the balances to flip, with inventories recently rising to more than 180 [billion cubic feet] above seasonal norms, a dynamic that has also played out in Europe,” they said.
Oil Falls on Fuel Demand Woes Ahead of US Fed Comments —Oil prices fell for a third trading session on Wednesday as concerns about fuel demand were stoked by expectations that minutes due from the U.S. Federal Reserve will indicate a need to hike interest rates. Brent crude futures for April delivery fell $1.13, or 1.36 percent, to $81.92 a barrel by 1025 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for April dropped by $1.18, or 1.55 percent, to $75.18 a barrel. The U.S. Fed will release the minutes of its latest meeting on Wednesday, which will give traders a glimpse of how high officials are projecting interest rates will go after recent data showed stronger-than-expected U.S. employment and consumer prices. Higher interest rates tend to lift the dollar, making dollar-denominated oil more expensive for holders of other currencies and reducing demand. Other economic reports from the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer, showed some troubling signs however. Sales of existing homes fell in January to their lowest since October 2010. A preliminary Reuters analyst poll on Tuesday also showed a rise in U.S. crude inventories, exacerbating the demand worries. The economic outlook across Europe, however, continues to show resilience, UBS said in a note. This followed business surveys released on Tuesday which showed surprisingly strong growth. Expectations of tighter global supplies and rising demand from China also cushioned overall price weakness. Analysts expect China’s oil imports to hit a record high in 2023 to meet increased demand for transportation fuel and as new refineries come on stream. In a note on Wednesday, Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ Bank pointed to state-owned PetroChina and Unipec booking 10 supertankers to import oil from the U.S. next month, equal to about 20 million barrels of crude, as signs of rising Chinese demand. China is the world’s largest oil importer. Morgan Stanley has raised its estimate for oil demand growth this year to 1.9 million bpd from 1.4 million bpd previously, but lowered its Brent price forecast for July-December.
The Crude Oil Market on Wednesday Continued on its Downward Trend -The crude oil market on Wednesday continued on its downward trend as concern over fuel demand were prompted by expectations that the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting would indicate a need for higher interest rates. The crude market posted a high of $76.55 in overnight trading before it breached its previous low of $75.90 and sold off to $74.95. The market retraced some of its overnight losses before it fell sharply lower ahead of the release of the Fed minutes. The oil market later extended its losses to over $2.30 as it breached its support at $74.30, its downward channel line, and sold off to $73.85 ahead of the close. The April WTI contract settled down $2.41 at $73.95 and continued to trade lower, posting a low of $73.80 during the post-settlement period. The market saw the largest one-day decline in nearly three weeks. Meanwhile, the April Brent contract settled down $2.45 at $80.60. The product markets ended the session lower, with the heating oil market settling down 7.71 cents at $2.7148 and the RB market settling down 7.8 cents at $2.3376. Morgan Stanley has raised its global oil demand growth estimate for this year by about 36%, citing growing momentum in China's reopening and a recovery in aviation, but flagged higher supply from Russia as an offsetting factor. The bank said global oil consumption is now expected to increase by about 1.9 million bpd compared with its previous 1.4 million bpd forecast. It stated that supply from Russia has been stronger than expected, leading to a slightly smaller than previously assumed deficit in the second half of the year, cutting Brent oil price forecast for that period to $90-100/barrel from a previous estimate of $100-110/barrel.The Caspian Pipeline Consortium said it had suspended some oil flows to its Black Sea terminal. It said the intake of oil from the Tengiz oilfield had been halted and pumping to the sea terminal had also been stopped. Oil continued to be received via two pumping stations, Atyrau in Kazakhstan and Komsomolsky in Russia, but at reduced volumes. IIR Energy said U.S. oil refiners are expected shut in about 1,741,000 bpd of capacity in the week ending February 24th, increasing available refining capacity by 10,000 bpd. Offline capacity is expected to fall to 1,444,000 bpd in the week ending March 3rd.According to the minutes from the January 31st-February 1st meeting, a majority of Federal Reserve officials agreed at the meeting to slow the pace of increases in the U.S. central bank’s benchmark overnight interest rate to a quarter of a percentage point, but also agreed the risks of high inflation remained a “key factor” shaping monetary policy and warranted continued rate increases until it was controlled. It said “participants generally noted that upside risks to the inflation outlook remained a key factor shaping the policy outlook,” and that interest rates would need to move higher and stay elevated “until inflation is clearly on a path to 2%.” The minutes showed the Fed navigating towards a possible endpoint to its current rate increases, at once slowing the pace in order to more cautiously approach a possible stopping point while also leaving open just how high rates will ultimately rise in the event inflation does not slow.
WTI Slides After Crude Stocks Rise For 9th Straight Week To Highest Since June 2021 - Oil prices are on the rise this morning - after 6 straight days lower - with WTI testing up to $76 despite API reporting another major crude inventory build. All eyes are once again on the official inventory and supply/demand data that has been 'odd' in recent weeks. API:
- Crude +9.895mm
- Cushing +481k
- Gasoline +894k
- Distillates +1.374mm
DOE
- Crude +7.647mm (+3.8mm exp)
- Cushing +700k
- Gasoline -1.856mm
- Distillates +2.698mm
US Crude stocks rose for the 9th straight week (and Cushing stocks rose for the 8th straight week). Gasoline inventories drew-down for the first time in 7 weeks while Distillates built... We do note however that there have been some wild swings in the 'adjustment' factor (fudge) in recent weeks... Total crude stockpiles are at their highest since June 2021... Since the start of the year, total crude stockpiles have risen by 57.6 million barrels, after taking account of the SPR withdrawals in the first weeks of 2023.Cushing stocks rose back above 40mm barrels for the first time since June 2021 US Crude production rose to new cycle highs at 12.3mm b/d, despite the rig count rolling over... WTI was trading around $75.50 ahead of the official print and slipped lower on yet another build... Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Oil & Gas Analyst Fernando Valle: “Hopes that returning China demand would support a recovery are fading, as consumption catalysts are having less of an impact than expected. We remain optimistic about long-term oil fundamentals due to the lack of investment in new supply and a view that growth in US shale oil will disappoint over the next few years.”
Oil prices rise amid fears over Russian supply cuts - Oil prices increased on Thursday on expectations that Russia will cut its oil exports more than previously announced. International benchmark Brent crude traded at $80.79 per barrel at 9.35 a.m. local time (0635 GMT), up 0.24% from the closing price of $80.60 a barrel in the previous trading session. At the same time, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $74.14 per barrel, a 0.26% rise after the previous session closed at $73.95 a barrel. A bigger output cut by major oil producers will put pressure on global supply. Russia is expected to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in March, but reports indicate that the country may cut supply even further. The country is reducing its supply in response to Western sanctions against Russian oil exports. The EU ban on Russian seaborne oil products, as well as a price cap of $100 per barrel on premium Russian oil products such as diesel, and a price cap of $45 per barrel on discounted products such as fuel oil, went into effect on Feb. 5. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak warned at the beginning of the month that Western countries' price caps on Russian oil and petroleum products could cause supply problems on the market. The OPEC+ group also plans to reduce its oil production targets by 2 million barrels a day until the end of 2023, further limiting available oil supply globally. Meanwhile, preliminary US oil inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute showed an increase of 9.8 million barrels, against expectations of a 1.2 million-barrel rise. A build in inventory data points to lower demand in the country, limiting overall oil price increases.
WTI, RBOB Futures Gain 2% After EIA Reports Gasoline Draw - While the ULSD contract softened Thursday, oil futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange settled the session with sharp gains, buoyed by a surprise drawdown in U.S. gasoline stockpiles and rebounding demand for the transportation fuel that offset another weekly build in commercial crude oil inventories. Further supporting the oil complex, stocks on Wall Street are on the verge of snapping the longest losing streak of the year, trading higher late afternoon after weekly unemployment claims filings were fewer than expected at 192,000 during the week ended Feb. 18. Jobless claims have remained below 200,000 for six consecutive weeks, signaling the labor market is holding onto its post-pandemic gains despite signs of slowdown in some sectors of the economy. Minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's Feb. 1 meeting revealed central bank officials are concerned that the tight labor market could trigger a reacceleration of inflation later this year. At least two Fed officials publicly voiced their support for a larger rate increase at the Fed's last meeting in February that concluded with a 25-basis point hike in the federal funds rate. April West Texas Intermediate futures advanced $1.44 to $75.39 per barrel (bbl), with the international crude benchmark Brent contract rallying $1.61 to a $82.21-per-bbl settlement. NYMEX RBOB March added $0.0419 to $2.3795 a gallon, and nearby-month NYMEX ULSD futures softened $0.0067 to $2.7081 gallon. Thursday's inventory report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration was once again bearish with some supportive elements for the gasoline complex, with gasoline stocks unexpectedly drawn down 1.9 million bbl to 240.1 million bbl. Gasoline demand rebounded 636,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the highest level since the holiday week ended Dec. 22 at 8.91 million bpd. Greater gasoline demand offset the ninth consecutive weekly build in commercial crude oil inventories through Feb. 17, building by 7.6 million bbl last week to 479 million bbl, about 9% above the five-year average. The larger-than-expected build occurred as domestic refiners again reduced run rates, down 0.6% last week to 85.9% utilization. Also bearish was an unexpected 2.7 million bbl build in distillate stocks to 121.9 million bbl last week, with inventory now about 12% below the five-year average from 15% during the previous week. The unexpected build in middle distillate stocks offered further evidence of a demand slowdown in the goods-producing sector of the economy that slid into recession almost eight months ago and remained in contraction at the start of the year.
Oil Pares Gains After Hot Inflation Data Spikes US Dollar -- New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures settled Friday's session mostly higher, although all petroleum contracts pared gains after U.S. inflation data offered more evidence of an overheated economy and ongoing inflationary pressures in the services sector, paving the way for the Federal Reserve to continue raising interest rates into restrictive territory. Personal Consumption Expenditures Index, Fed's preferred inflation measure, increased 5.4% from a year ago in January, up from 5% at the end of 2022 and well above the Fed's 2% target. On a monthly basis, inflation accelerated to 0.6% from December's 0.1% reading, with consumer spending climbing 1.8% after a negative 0.1% print in December. "The ongoing imbalance between the supply and demand for labor, combined with the large share of labor costs in the services sector, suggests that high inflation may come down only slowly," Fed Governor Philip Jefferson told a conference in New York on Friday. Friday's inflation data follows several strong labor market indicators as well as faster-than-expected retail sales and producer price inflation, reinforcing the view that the Federal Reserve would have more work to do to slow down an overheated economy. Markets see rising odds for the central bank to raise the federal funds rates by 50 basis points at their March 22 meeting and to reach a terminal rate of 5.25% to 5.5% as soon as June. Fed officials lifted their benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points at the start of February, bringing the target to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%. That was a step down from their 50-basis point increase at their December meeting, which followed four consecutive jumbo-sized 75-basis point hikes. In response to the data, U.S. dollar index spiked 0.6% against a basket of foreign currencies to settle at 105.158, initially pressuring front-month West Texas Intermediate futures in early trading. WTI futures reversed higher late morning and settled up $0.93 at $76.32 per barrel (bbl). International crude benchmark Brent for April delivery rallied $0.95 to $83.16 per bbl. NYMEX RBOB March declined $0.0208 to $2.3587 per gallon, and nearby-month NYMEX ULSD futures advanced $0.0881 for a $2.7962-per-gallon settlement. Potentially supporting the oil complex are signs that Russia is preparing to cut oil exports from its Western ports beginning next month as it reroutes petroleum flows toward Asia. Unconfirmed reports suggest Moscow will reduce oil exports by as much as 25% from the ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea and Novorossiysk on the Black Sea that mostly handle oil cargos bound to the European Union. Russia doesn't plan to cut oil exports from its Pacific ports, according to unidentified sources. Since the start of its Ukrainian offensive on Feb. 24, 2022, Moscow has sought out new buyers for oil sales outside of Europe, with Asia and the Middle East the leading new customers. Bloomberg data shows Russian oil exports to India -- the world's third-largest oil importer, jumped to 1.25 million barrels per day (bpd) at the start of the year from a modest 250,000 bpd before last February's invasion of Ukraine. The rerouting has come at a price of steep discounts for Russian barrels that are selling well below global benchmarks such as Brent, West Texas Intermediate and Oman/Dubai. Traders and shipping companies have found a multitude of ways to ensure Russian oil can flow on the global market, with so-called "ship switching" proliferating in international waters outside of Greece and Spain. Once the cargos are switched, the receiving tankers then ferry the oil thousands of miles to buyers in Asia and Middle East.
Oil Flat on Week as U.S. Inventories Rise but Russia Cuts Supply (Reuters) -Oil edged higher in volatile trade on Friday, and was flat on the week, with prices supported by the prospect of lower Russian exports but pressured by rising inventories in the United States and concerns over global economic activity. Brent crude futures settled at $83.16 a barrel, up 95 cents, or 1.2%. West Texas Intermediate U.S. crude futures (WTI) settled at $76.32 a barrel, rising 93 cents, or 1.2%. Earlier, both fell by more than $1 a barrel. The benchmarks were little changed on the week. Lower trading volumes contributed to volatility, with Brent trading at 58% and WTI trading at 90% of the previous session's levels. On the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, benchmark Brent crude was about 15% lower than a year earlier. It hit a 14-year high of nearly $128 a barrel on Mar. 8, 2022. Both benchmarks rose about 2% in the previous session on Russia's plans to cut oil exports from its western ports by up to 25% in March, which exceeded its announced production cuts of 500,000 barrels per day. But the market appeared to be well supplied with U.S. inventories at their highest since May 2021, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. [EIA/S] An indicator of future supply, U.S. oil rigs fell seven to 600 this week, while the total count was still up 103 rigs, or 15.8%, over this time last year, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said. Indications that Russian crude and refined products are accumulating on tankers floating at sea also hinted at increasing supplies. JP Morgan said in a note that it thinks short-term prices are more likely to drift lower toward the $70s than rise "as global growth headwinds strengthen and excess ‘dark’ inventory exacerbated by a flooding of Russian oil is worked off". The bank also said it expects the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut production to limit oil price declines. Minutes of the latest U.S. Federal Reserve meeting indicated that a majority of officials remained hawkish on inflation and tight labour market conditions, signalling further monetary tightening. The prospect of further interest rate hikes supported the dollar index, which was set for a fourth straight week of gains. The index is now up about 2.5% for the month. [FRX/] "While... curtailed Russian supply are certainly formidable bullish considerations, price action across the complex this month has sent off a powerful message that rising US interest rates that were further reinforced by Fed minutes, will be a major impediment to sustainable oil price strength," said Jim Ritterbusch of consultancy Ritterbusch and associates.. A firm dollar makes commodities priced in the greenback more expensive for holders of other currencies.
Oil bulls turn red week to neutral by clinging onto Russia cuts story - -- Oil bulls turned a losing week into a neutral one by leveraging upon an unverified report about deep production cuts planned by Russia to send crude prices up a second day in a row, despite U.S. inflation data suggesting the Federal Reserve could turn aggressive again on rate hikes. The Fed’s preferred inflation indicator — the Personal Consumption Expenditures, or PCE, Index — grew 5.4% in the year to January, beating forecasts for the month as well as its previous growth in December, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. That was a day after the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said that U.S. crude stockpiles rose for a ninth straight week, adding a cumulative 60 million barrels to inventories since the end of last year. Those long oil, however, ignored both the inflation and inventory data, remaining wide-eyed over a Reuters report that Russia will cut crude exports from its western ports by up to 25% in March. For context, the cut was way above the 5% reduction in output announced by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak two weeks ago. If true, it would be significant. But more than 24 hours after it appeared, the report remained unproven, with no comment or verification from a single official in Moscow. Yet, oil bulls managed to turn around an initial market slump on Friday by hedging on the so-called production cuts story to buy every price dip triggered by the heady inflation in the PCE data. The dollar hit a seven-week high against a basket of major currencies while the yields on the 2-year U.S. note hit their highest since 2007 amid a near reach of the 4% level for the benchmark 10-Year note. All these were on the back of expectations that the Fed will resort to more hawkish monetary action amid the “hotter inflation in the U.S.,” economist Greg Michalowski said in a post on the ForexLive forum. U.S. consumer sentiment, meanwhile, hit a 13-month high in February, according to a survey by the University of Michigan that showed Americans more optimistic about spending at a time the Fed actually needs them to show restraint. New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, crude for April delivery settled up 93 cents, or 1.2%, at $76.32 per barrel. Earlier in the session, WTI fell as much as $1.28. But after the turnaround, the U.S. crude benchmark finished the week down just 2 cents, practically flat. Brent for April delivery settled up 95 cents, or 1.2%, at $83.16. Brent fell as much as $1.12 earlier in the session. For the week, the global crude benchmark finished up 13 cents, or nearly flat too. Without volatile food and energy prices, the so-called core PCE Index was up 4.7% during the 12 months to January versus a forecast 4.3% and a previous growth of 4.4% in the year to December. “The PCE report shows that the Fed needs to do a little more,” Loretta Mester, Fed president for the region of Cleveland, said in comments carried by Bloomberg. “It is gratifying that inflation declined from [its] peak, but more is needed.” President Joe Biden, in a statement released by the White House, concurred. “Today’s report shows we have made progress on inflation, but we have more work to do.” The Consumer Price Index, a broader gauge of inflation, stood at a four-decade high of 9.1% for the year to June. It has moderated since to an annualized growth of 6.4% in January. The Fed’s target for inflation is just 2% per year.
Iran building 2,000 MW nuclear power plant in defiance of sanctions: Nuclear chief - Iran's nuclear chief says a nuclear power plant in the southwestern province of Khuzestan aims to generate 2,000 megawatts of electricity, defying decades of sanctions that have targeted the country's peaceful nuclear program. Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami said on Friday that the Karun nuclear power plant in Darkhovein District in the Shadegan County of the southwestern province of Khuzestan will produce 300 megawatts of electricity in the preliminary phase. He said the AEOI will simultaneously follow other phases with the purpose of making utmost use of the capacity made in Darkhovein District. "Enemies tried to break our will through sanctions and did not cooperate with us regarding the construction of nuclear power plant even after many years," the Iranian nuclear chief said. However, he said, the organization developed the project by relying on domestic capabilities. In December, Eslami inaugurated the construction operation of Karun, saying the government is moving towards the production of low-cost energy and fuel and the development of nuclear power plants is on the agenda of the AEOI. According to reports, the power plant is of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) type and, with the capacity of producing 300 megawatts of electricity, it is to be built on a land of approximately 50 hectares in the vicinity of the Karun River.
Iran Reportedly On Cusp Of Making Nukes Having Enriched Uranium To 84% Purity -Inspectors from the UN atomic agency discovered uranium enriched to 84% purity in Iran last week, a level just below that needed for nuclear weapons, Bloomberg reported Sunday, citing two unnamed senior diplomats. Until now, Iran had been known to have enriched uranium to 60%, while a purity of 90% is needed to produce nuclear weapons. The IAEA said in a tweet that it was “aware of recent media reports relating to uranium enrichment levels in Iran.” Director-General Rafael Grossi noted that the agency was in talks with Iran regarding the results of recent inspections, the tweet added. The IAEA is aware of recent media reports relating to uranium enrichment levels in Iran. Director General @rafaelmgrossi states that the IAEA is discussing with Iran the results of recent Agency verification activities and will inform the IAEA Board of Governors as appropriate. pic.twitter.com/4Aqdq01Xr5 The International Atomic Energy Agency is trying to clarify how Iran accumulated the uranium enriched to 84% purity — the highest level found by inspectors in the country to date. Iran had previously told the IAEA that its centrifuges were configured to enrich uranium to a 60% level of purity. The IAEA has been preparing its quarterly Iran safeguards report ahead of a March 6 Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, where the Persian Gulf nation’s nuclear work will figure prominently on the agenda.
Israel, Saudi Arabia Hold Talks on Increasing Military Ties - Israel’s new government under Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped up US-backed talks with Saudi Arabia on forging stronger military and intelligence ties, Bloomberg reported on Friday.The talks are part of an effort to forge a NATO-style anti-Iran alliance in the region between Israel and Washington’s Gulf Arab allies. While Saudi Arabia has not normalized with Israel, the two countries have quietly increased cooperation, including by participating in their first public joint military exercises in 2022.The Bloomberg report said that Israeli and Saudi officials held talks ahead of a meeting of the US-Gulf Cooperation Council Working Group that took place on February 16. More talks were expected to happen at the Munich Security Conference, which was held over the weekend.Israel has increased cooperation with the US’s Gulf allies since normalizing with the UAE and Bahrain in 2020 under the Abraham Accords. Since then, the US has brought Israel under the umbrella of US Central Command (CENTCOM), the US command responsible for the Middle East.Including Israel in CENTCOM operations facilitates more Israeli-Arab cooperation. Israel previously fell under US European Command since it didn’t have relations with most US allies in the region. The US and Israel want a future anti-Iran alliance in the Middle East to focus on integrated air defense systems.Saudi officials have insisted that a normalization deal with Israel would hinge on the creation of a Palestinian state, which is highly unlikely as the Netanyahu government is vowing to expand settlements in the West Bank. But it’s possible Riyadh could eventually be convinced by the US to open up with Israel if Washington offers more military assistance and arms sales.
Israeli Rampage leaves 11 Dead, over 100 Injured in Occupied Nablus, but Kamala Harris only Condemns Russian Occupation of Ukraine as War Crime– A daytime Israeli military raid on Wednesday on an apartment in the Palestinian city of Nablus in the Palestinian West Bankspiraled out of control, with the Israeli troops killing 11 persons and woundingover one hundred civilians with gunshots. Some of the injured are in critical condition. The Israelis say that they were after three young men, two members of the “Lion’s Den” resistance group, and the other a member of “Islamic Jihad.” The three were accused of having carried out attacks against Jewish squatters on Palestinian land. The troops killed all three, apparently by blowing up a building in which they were making a last stand.The raid on the 3 guerrillas was not in itself illegal. However, the toll of death and injuries the Israeli forces inflicted on non-combatants is.In addition, video shows Israeli security forces shooting down an unarmed man as he was running away.If the suspect was not firing at them but simply fleeing, shooting him down is a war crime. You can’t kill people who are not a credible and immediate threat to you. When Hadas Gold of CNN reported on this killing, she said that the Israeli military said it would review the footage to see what happened before the troops shot the man in the back as he was fleeing on foot. But you see that is just mumbo jumbo. It is irrelevant what happened before. You can’t just murder a suspect who is running away.One video shows an Israeli military vehicle plowing into a crowd. Running over people like that is an al-Qaeda and ISIL tactic.Then there is the embarrassing detail that 11 people were killed, not just the three suspects. The other 8 are mere collateral damage of the raid. Then there are over a hundred wounded, some critically.See, that’s also a war crime. In order to get at a handful of suspects, you can’t recklessly endanger the lives of innocent civilians.
Deadliest Israeli Attack On Damascus In Years As Country Reels From Earthquake -Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned Tel Aviv after Israeli airstrikes struck Damascus in the early morning of Sunday, killing at least five people and critically wounding 15 others (some reports say as many as 15 were killed). According to state-run news agency SANA, the ministry urged “international action” to prevent further attacks on Syrian soil. "Syria expects the United Nations Secretariat and Security Council to condemn Israeli aggression and crimes, take the necessary measures to deter them, hold them accountable, punish their perpetrators, and ensure they do not recur." The ministry further remarked that this attack comes in the context of recurring Israeli attacks against civilian targets and coincides with the recent attack by ISIS in Homs, which left at least 53 dead. Local reports indicate that the Syrian air defenses incepted most of the missiles, adding that the air strikes also hit locations in Damascus’ countryside, including on the outskirts of Shahba and in the north of al-Suwayda in southwestern Syria. Photos and videos of the bombardment have surfaced on social media, showing severe damage to residential areas and revealing the deceased of the attack, such as Syrian national and pharmacist Lilian Aoudi. Among those who died during the attack include a doctor and an engineer. "The strike on Sunday is the deadliest Israeli attack in the Syrian capital," the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said. The Israeli air strike assault comes as Syria continues to reel from a devastating earthquake that left close to 6,000 dead and leveled large swathes of the country’s northwest region.
In Syria, the West's Humanitarian Claims Crumble to Dust - US President Joe Biden’s administration relented last Thursday and finally lifted sanctions on Syria. The change of policy came after four days of relentless and shocking footage from the disaster zone in southern Turkey and northern Syria caused by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. It seems as if Washington felt it could no longer sustain its embargowhen tens of thousands of bodies were being exhumed from the rubble and millions more were struggling with cold, hunger and injuries.The US could not afford to look like the odd man out faced with a global wave of concern for the devastated populations of Syria and Turkey. under the new exemption, the Syrian government will be able to receive earthquake relief for six months before the embargo locks back in.But no one should be fooled by this apparent change of heart. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the State Department’s first reaction was to double down on its policy. Spokesman Ned Price dismissed the possibility of lifting sanctions, arguing it would be “counterproductive … to reach out to a government that has brutalized its people over the course of a dozen years now.” The truth is that the sanctions regime imposed by the US and its allies in Europe, Canada and Australia was a criminal policy long before the earthquake struck. The brief and belated exemption – under international pressure – does not fundamentally alter that picture. Sanctions are a form of collective punishment on the wider population. The West has been punishing Syrians for living under a government they did not elect but one the US is determined to bring down at all costs. The West’s embargo was imposed in parallel to a civil war, which rapidly transformed into a western proxy war, that ravaged most of the country. The US and its allies fueled and inflamed the war, sponsoring rebel groups, including jihadists, that ultimately failed to oust the government of Bashar al-Assad. Many of those extremist groups flooded in from neighboring countries, where they had been sucked into the vacuum left in the wake of the West’s earlier “humanitarian” regime-overthrow operations. To avoid the fighting, many millions of Syrians were forced to flee their homes, resulting in endemic poverty and malnutrition. Even as the fighting abated, Syria’s economy continued to sink – not only because of western sanctions, but because the US and others had seized Syria’s oil fields and its best agricultural lands. The supposed logic of the West’s decade-long policy to immiserate Syria, fashioned to a template Washington regularly rolls out against official enemies, was simple. Desperate Syrians would be incentivized to rise upagainst their leaders in the hope of better things. But the project visibly failed – just as it has done so often before in official enemy states such as Cuba and Iran. Nonetheless, the program of suffering continued to be enforced in the name of humanitarianism. When Syria was hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake last week, Washington’s insistence that the sanctions remain in place shifted the policy from the simply inhumane to the positively ghoulish. That in itself gives the lie to any pretense that, in their fight to topple the Assad government, the US and Europe ever really cared about the Syrian people. It also offers a revealing counterpoint to Ukraine’s treatment. Apparently, no price is to be spared to save the “European-looking” Ukrainians fromRussia’s invasion, even if it risks a nuclear confrontation. But darker-skinned Syrians will be abandoned to their fate as soon as crumbling masonry is no longer on our TV screens. When did this kind of racist discrimination qualify as humanitarianism?Punishing Syria isn’t an ethical foreign policy. It is rationalized by viewing the world and its peoples through one lens only: how they can serve the naked interests of western and, primarily, US power. As ever, the West is playing its colonial Great Game – power intrigues to line up its geostrategic chess pieces in the most advantageous arrangement possible. And those interests include global military dominance and control over key financial resources like oil.
How the World Bank and IMF Destroyed Yemen - In May 2014, the IMF and the government of Yemen were in talks about a $560 million loan requested by Yemen to bolster a quickly diminishing SWF. To secure the deal, president Hadi agreed to cut fuel subsidies by 20 to 40% in a phased wave of governmental cuts scheduled to start in October 2014. The SwF financed fuel subsidies and was created in 1996 by the World Bank to assist the poorest communities in Yemen. Yemen was in a desperate situation with the people’s growing dismay with the Hadi administration leading him to seek financial relief from the IMF because he was all tapped out at the World Bank. The World Bank’s 2010 Project Appraisal Document shows an acute awareness of the social unrest that would ensue if fuel subsidies were drastically cut, never-mind if fuel subsidies completely stopped. The IMF pressured the Yemen government to make cuts to the fuel subsidies earlier than planned, leading to unrest in the streets of Yemen. In July 2014, the Yemen government increased gasoline prices by 60% and diesel by 95% to appease the IMF, which asked Yemen to cut the fuel subsidy program and raise fuel prices to offset the country’s growing debt that has been blooming since Yemen’s Revolution of Dignity in 2011. The decision to raise fuel prices led to hundreds of thousands of protesters flooding the streets of Saana. Fuel prices spiked dramatically, causing bread transport to rise by 20% overnight. Rural Yemeni farmers, who account for 60% of the population, could not afford the fuel to run their equipment leading to widespread unemployment and barren markets. Yemen’s civil workers are the country’s backbone and consist of everyone from construction workers and engineers to doctors and teachers, who had their paychecks stopped in January 2014. The principal difference between the Yemen Revolution of Dignity in 2011 and the protests that gripped the country in 2014 is that the people protesting in 2014 weren’t just the youth, poor, or marginalized populations in Yemen that shook Saana in the Revolution of Dignity. The protest in 2014 was Yemen’s working class, tribal community, students, and poor people who organized protests in every province of Yemen. The fuel subsidy cuts were supposed to be supported by social programs targeted at people reliant on these subsidies. By 2014, the Yemen government had made zero cuts to the fuel subsidy program and failed to set up the programs the World Bank called safety net programs. On January 1st, 2014, payments on loans granted by the World Bank to Yemen were due, and the country needed help to pay the loan fees. The SwF required more money to disperse to 5 million Yemenis now enrolled in the program. To complicate the issue, the World Bank, European Commission, and United Nations Development Program, which created and funded the SwF, failed to help Yemen set up the social programs that were supposed to be a safety net for the most vulnerable populations across Yemen. The SwF went from covering 100,000 Yemenis in 1996 to over 1 million in 2000. According to Yemen Poverty Assessment Report 2007 (PDF) conducted by the United Nations Development Program, 77% of the fuel subsidies went to families above the poverty line, and only 13% went to chronically low-income families. The World Bank secured loans for the SwF from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, America’s Institute for Defense Analyses, and the United Nations Development Program to name a few international shapeshifters. Reforms to the SwF aimed at targeting people in chronic poverty also drew the attention of the World Food Program, which started to work closely with the SWF’s food assistance programs in 2009. The World Bank’s 2010 Project Appraisal Document details how the Yemeni government was supposed to make cuts gradually from 2010 to 2014.As Yemen began to lose control in late 2014, the Houthis were closing in on capturing Aden when Hadi and members of the internationally recognized government escaped to Saudi Arabia. Quickly after Hadi arrived in Riyadh, the GCC pushed resolutions through the United Nations Security Council to blockade Yemen and authorize the GCC to wage war on the Houthis and AQAP. The resolution explicitly states that securing the maritime passageways around Yemen is vital to international commerce, and the UN Security Council fears that an unstable Yemen threatens the security of the Arabian Peninsula.
Turkey rejects links between NATO expansion, F-16 deal | AP News(AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday called for Sweden and Finland to be accepted into NATO “as quickly as possible,” although his Turkish counterpart dismissed the possibility of any link between their accession and Turkey’s request for F-16 fighter jets. Turkey has delayed the Nordic countries admission to the trans-Atlantic defense alliance, citing concerns over terrorism. Meanwhile, members of the U.S. Congress have tied approval of the F-16 deal to Ankara retracting its opposition to the NATO enlargement. “We’re confident that NATO will formally welcome them in soon,” Blinken told a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara. “And when that happens, it will enhance the security of every NATO member, including the United States, including Turkey.” Cavusoglu repeated Turkey’s position that it would be willing to approve Finland joining NATO before Sweden. Turkey has complained about what it sees as Stockholm’s tolerance of support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a 39-year insurgency against Ankara. “Unfortunately PKK supporters are still present in Sweden,” he said. “They are recruiting people and they are financing terror acts and they are carrying out terror propaganda in Sweden … because they don’t want Sweden to become a NATO member.” While acknowledging that Sweden had made constitutional changes in a bid to satisfy Turkey’s demands, he said that more needed to be done to “convince our parliament and people.” Ankara has also been angered by Sweden allowing protests against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and not preventing an anti-Islam activist from burning the Quran, the Muslim holy book, in a separate, solitary protest. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Monday he remained “convinced that (Sweden and Finland) will join together.” He added: “Ultimately, it is a Turkish decision to decide on ratification, that has not changed.” In Ankara, Cavusoglu made clear his country objects to the sale of F-16 jets being tied to ratifying the NATO membership of Sweden and Finland which must be agreed by all 30 members of the alliance. Only the parliaments of Turkey and Hungary have yet to give consent. “It would not be right or fair to make two independent issues — the two countries’ NATO membership and the purchase of F-16s — conditional on each other,” Cavusoglu said. “It would not be possible for us to purchase the F-16s under these conditions.” Ankara has been seeking to upgrade its F-16 fleet after it was kicked off the project to develop the next-generation F-35 fighter following its acquisition of Russian air defense missiles. Underlining the U.S. administration’s support for the F-16 deal, Blinken said it was “very important for ongoing NATO interoperability and in the national interest of the United States.”
There can be no winner in Ukraine war: Hungarian premier --There can be no winner in the Moscow-Kyiv war, and urgent cease-fire and peace talks need to start as soon as possible, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told the state radio Kossuth Radio on Friday. "Russia cannot win the war because the West is mobilizing so much weapons, energy, and money for Ukraine that it is impossible to win an open military confrontation against such a power, but vice versa, because those who think that Russia, a nuclear power, can be defeated are mistaken," said Orban. Orban said a proposal to send peacekeeping forces to the territory of Ukraine may be on the agenda soon. According to Orban, it was wrong for Europe that it did not limit aiding Ukraine, as it is dragged into war more and more with each passing day. Russia launched its war on Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year. Orban said he asked deputies of his nationalist Fidesz party to support Finland and Sweden's NATO bids but that there is a dispute over the issue. "If Sweden and Finland want Hungary to be fair and contribute to (their) NATO membership, then these countries should take the same steps and not spread false claims about Hungary," Orban said. He also said Türkiye's voice over its concerns about Sweden's bid needs to be heard. "Türkiye also has concerns about Sweden and that these should be taken into account. Türkiye's concern is that there are terrorist organizations operating against Türkiye in Sweden. They (Türkiye) are our allies and we should hear their voices," said Orban. Hungary’s ruling party remains divided over the NATO bids of Finland and Sweden as the National Assembly, the country’s parliament, prepares to vote on the matter at the beginning of March. Deputies do not want to support the two countries on the grounds that they are spreading false allegations about Hungary. Türkiye and Hungary are the only NATO members that are yet to ratify the two countries’ bids. Finland and Sweden abandoned their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied for membership in the alliance after Russia launched its war on Ukraine last February.
China again calls for ceasefire on anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war - China has called for a ceasefire and peace talks between Russia and Ukraine — again. In a 12-point release published Friday, China's foreign ministry said: "All parties should support Russia and Ukraine in working in the same direction and resuming direct dialogue as quickly as possible, so as to gradually deescalate the situation and ultimately reach a comprehensive ceasefire." While the paper repeated Beijing's talking points, it was released on the one-year anniversary of Russia's US provoked war on Ukraine. The position paper also comes days after as Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has information that suggests China is considering sending “lethal support” to Russia. "Nuclear weapons must not be used," the Chinese government said in its paper, titled "China's Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis."In the paper, the Chinese government urged the international community to support the "right approach" in facilitating peace talks between the two countries and said Beijing wanted to "play a constructive role." Without mentioning the U.S. or its allies that support Washington-led sanctions, China said, "Relevant countries should stop abusing unilateral sanctions and 'long-arm jurisdiction' against other countries, so as to do their share in deescalating the Ukraine crisis."China previously voiced concerns about the ongoing war in Ukraine, withPremier Li Keqiang saying in March last year that he was "deeply" worried about the crisis in the region.However, it's less clear how much Beijing has done to support peace talks, or is practically able to do so. Its leaders have been in frequent communication.Wang Yi — China's former foreign minister who was recently promoted to a more senior diplomatic role — met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow this week, according to state media. Wang said at the meeting it's important not to give up on efforts toward peace, the state media report said.
Putin’s February 21 Speech: Hot Takes – Putin Speaks for a Strong, Self-Sufficient Russia by Yves Smith --Putin delivered his annual report to the Duma, Russia’s analogue to the US State of the Union, at noon Moscow time. It was delayed from its typical year end slot due to Putin having a raft of important international meetings then. Some Western commentators are oddly referring to the timing as three days before the anniversary of the Special Military Operation, when it is the anniversary of Putin’s speech on February 21, 2022, in which after a very long preamble, he proclaimed:I consider it necessary to take a long overdue decision and to immediately recognise the independence and sovereignty of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic.The US and Europe launched their economic war against Russia, with their shock and awe sanctions, on February 22, before Putin gave his February 24 speech announcing the launch of the SMO.Western hawks and combat junkies must have been enormously frustrated by Putin’s 1 hour 45 minute talk. Even though he discussed the war in Ukraine, and the impact of the war permeated his speech, he announced no new battlefield initiatives, and stuck to reprising old themes: how Russia did everything it could to prevent the war, how the West ignored neo-Nazi assassinations and reprisals, how Russia saw Kiev seeking heavy weapons, planes, and even nuclear weapons. Putin stressed that Western leaders have admitted to their treacherous behavior as if they are proud of cheating and lying, are accustomed to colonialism and hegemony, and played similar deceptive games in Libya and Syria. Russia recognized the next target after Donbass would be Crimea, as the West has acknowledged.Putin’s one big move on the geopolitical front came at the end of his remarks, that Russia would suspend its participation in the START treaty. This should come as no surprise to Russia-watchers. Putin reiterated the Russian grievances: the US had been withdrawing from treaties and operating in a more openly hostile manner, while in the earlier phases of security agreements, the US and Russia had developed more trust. Specifically, the US was not allowing Russia to inspect US facilities yet was demanding Russia do so. Putin also pointed out that nuclear armed France and UK were outside these pacts, yet had their weapons aimed at Russia (the official translation may be clearer on this issue, but it was clear in context that Putin was pointing out they were acting as US operatives and just inspecting US facilities, even if that were on, now seemed inadequate).The speech was mainly what I call “pothole Putin”. Putin seems to genuinely relish exercising power in comparatively mundane ways: launching new programs that improve material conditions or security and getting them completed. Perhaps this is a bureaucrat’s version of edifice complex. Perhaps it’s because more elements are under his control and with realistic time frames and competent officials, the odds of success are pretty good.But the many many plans that Putin described each by each might not seem that significant, all together they represent a substantial commitment to invest in science, technology and education, transportation, housing, hospitals and schools, to manage the impact of the war, from integrated programs for veterans and families of the fallen to reconstruction in the liberated oblasts, to supporting the arts and culture. Putin was explicit that Russia, particularly its elite, had been seduced into thinking the West offered opportunity and security. Even though he noted that ordinary Russians shed no tears for oligarchs who’d had funds and property seized by the US and the EU, and if they decided to remain outside Russia, they’d be second class citizens, he said there would be no witch hunts. He encouraged them to come back to Russia and rebuild.Mind you, as a non-Russian, I do not know to what extent the raft of initiatives are new, versus extensions and improvements of existing programs. For instance, Putin mentioned meeting target to have all major roads upgraded to national standards, IIRC by 2025; this was an affirmation that an existing target would be met. Ditto another on school building. But most sounded new or upgraded. And they might sound hand-wavey if you hadn’t read the public portions of Putin’s meetings with senior staff. This seems to be the level of detail he uses for directives: a high level sketch with some discussion of key points and problems to be solved. Putin mentioned up the impact on the rest of the world: the paltry spending on poor countries versus the amounts deployed in Ukraine, a dig at Borrell for depicting the world outside the US/NATO garden as a jungle. But he was clearly speaking mainly to a home audience and stressed the intent of the West end Russia as a country. Despite foreign leaders now casually admitting to those designs, many of the usual media suspects have taken to depicting that part of his talk as the sole/major focus and yet another Russian conspiracy theory. For instance, from the BBC: President Putin’s speech today was full of patriotic bluster.
Leopard tanks like a Mercedes, says Ukrainian soldier training in Germany - (Reuters) - A Ukrainian soldier compared Germany's Leopard 2 tanks to a Mercedes as he underwent training with them ahead of their arrival on the battlefield, saying he hoped they would bring a breakthrough in the war. He is among dozens of Ukrainian troops Germany is training on Leopard 2 simulators and then the tanks themselves at its largest military training ground, in Munster, before sending them to Ukraine. Germany last month agreed to supply the tanks, regarded as one of the best in the West's arsenal, overcoming misgivings about sending heavy weaponry that Kyiv sees as crucial to defeat Russia's invasion but Moscow casts as a dangerous provocation. "It is crucial that we use this modern weapon wisely, it will bring the breakthrough and we will win in the end," said the 57-year-old soldier. Asked about the difference between Western and Soviet systems, he said: "You can imagine it like the difference between a Mercedes and a Zhiguli" - referring to a Soviet car sold under the brand name Lada in the West. The version of the tanks Germany will be sending, produced by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, weighs more than 60 tonnes, has a 120 mm smooth bore gun and can hit targets at a distance of up to 4 km (2.5 miles). Ukraine's foreign minister said last month he expected to receive 120 to 140 Western tanks in a "first wave" of deliveries from a coalition of 12 countries, including the German Leopard 2, with time needed for training.
Russia, China and South Africa start military drills amid Ukraine war — A Russian naval helping to lead contentiously-timed joint military exercises this week with Chinese and South African forces off South Africa's coast said the war games would not include Russia test-firing one of its most powerful weapons, a hypersonic "Tsirkon" missile. Captain Oleg Gladkly said the pre-planned joint naval exercise was starting Wednesday and would continue for five days.In January, a U.S. official told CBS News the timing of the exercise, which will be ongoing Friday as the world marks a full year of Russia's unprovoked war on Ukraine, had the U.S. "concerned." David Feldmann, spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in South Africa, said that timing would at the very least present South Africa with a diplomatic challengeThat "challenge" looked set to take on a possible new degree of severity in February, when a state-run Russian news agency said the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov would take part in the drills and conduct a "training launch" of a Tsirkon missile, taking aim at a "surface target" more than 310 miles away. The TASS news agency quoted "a source close to Russia's defense industry," but noted that Russian officials had not officially confirmed the plan.During a news conference held Wednesday on the South African frigate SAS Mendi, the Russian commander confirmed that the Admiral Gorshkov, which is equipped with the advanced hypersonic missiles, was taking part, but would not fire one of the weapons.Russia has been at the vanguard of efforts by many nations, including the U.S., to develop hypersonic glide missiles, which can be harder to detect and intercept due to their speed and maneuverability. Russia and China have outpaced U.S. efforts on the weapons systems thus far. Moscow claimed in March 2022 to have used a hypersonic missile in Ukraine in what would have been the first use of the weapon on any battlefield, though U.S. officials never confirmed one was actually used. Two months later, the Russian Defense Ministry was quoted by TASS as saying it had conducted a successful test of a Tsirkon, hitting a target about 620 miles away.
South Africa risks backlash for Russian naval exercises, but its history with Moscow runs deep — As the anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine approaches, a Russian warship armed with one of Moscow’s most powerful weapons pulled into a port on South Africa’s east coast this weekend.The frigate Admiral Gorshkov – carrying hypersonic Zircon missiles, according to President Putin – has a “Z” and “V” crudely painted in white on its blackened smokestack, just like the Russian tanks and artillery pieces that rolled into Ukraine a year ago.It is participating in a 10-day naval exercise in the Indian Ocean alongside South African and Chinese warships, war games that South Africa says have long been planned.But the timing of the exercises has Western diplomats privately incensed and publicly critical, and they risk an embarrassing backlash for the government in Pretoria.“The timing of these exercises is particularly unfortunate and will focus the world’s attention on South Africa during the anniversary of the war. I don’t think Western nations are going to let this one slide,” said Steven Gruzd, head of the African Governance and Diplomacy Program at the South African Institute of International Affairs.“It is very disturbing, that South Africa is hosting a military exercise with the country – an aggressor, invader – that is using its military force against a peaceful country, bringing destruction and trying to eliminate the Ukrainian Nation,” said Liubov Abravitova, Ukraine’s ambassador to Southern Africa.On the basis of realpolitik alone, freezing out Russia or, at the very least, postponing the naval exercises, may have seemed like a smarter choice.Ukraine’s biggest supporters, the United States and countries in the European Union, are also big trade partners for South Africa.European Union and US two-way trade with South Africa outstrips Russian economic ties many times over. And though Russia promises more trade deals, its battered economy is unlikely to provide the direct investment that South Africa desperately needs. South African officials also point to drills held with the French and US militaries in recent years.But ties between South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) and Moscow run deep – and they aren’t easily broken.“By default, we are on the side of Russia. And to us Ukraine what we call a sell-out. It is selling out to the west,” said Obey Mabena, a veteran of the ANC’s armed wing in an interview last year with CNN.While Mabena doesn’t represent the government or the ANC, his sentiment is likely shared by more than a few ANC stalwarts.
India Emerges the Biggest Winner of the Ukraine War and Growing US-China Tensions -- by Riaz Haq - India is emerging as the biggest beneficiary of the Ukraine War and the US efforts to check China's rise. Indian businesses are busting US sanctions to take advantage of the vacuum left in Russia by the exit of western businesses since the start of the Ukraine War. At the same time, the US is rewarding India by promoting it as an alternative to China in the global supply chain. Meanwhile, Beijing is warning New Delhi that India "will be the biggest victim" of America's "proxy war" against China. Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, India has ramped up its imports of Russian oil by a whopping 33 times, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Dr. Nivedita Kapoor, an Indian expert at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, told the Monitor: “Right now the focus is on pharmaceuticals, electronics, machinery, chemical products, medical instruments, and agricultural products,” says Dr. Kapoor. “We have already been exporting these goods to Russia, and there is potential for major increases. ... It may be harder to expand the list due to the threat of secondary sanctions. In this environment, the Indian private sector looks at Russia as a risky market. But the immediate potential is very big.” “The best solution would be for Russia to make an early end to this war,” Kapoor said. “We can envisage a situation where Western companies have already exited the Russian market, and burned their bridges, while the Indian private sector no longer regards business with Russia as a risky proposition, carrying the threat of secondary sanctions. All that would go away for us, but we need to see an end to this war”, she added. With growing Washington-Beijing tensions, the United States is trying to decouple its economy from China's. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Biden administration is turning to India for help as the U.S. works to shift critical technology supply chains away from China and other countries that it says use that technology to destabilize global security.The US Commerce Department is actively promoting India Inc to become an alternative to China in the West's global supply chain. US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo recently told Jim Cramer on CNBC’s “Mad Money” that she will visit India in March with a handful of U.S. CEOs to discuss an alliance between the two nations on manufacturing semiconductor chips. “It’s a large population. (A) lot of workers, skilled workers, English speakers, a democratic country, rule of law,” she said.
Modi orders raids on BBC offices after documentary points to his role in 2002 Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom - Four weeks after the BBC aired a documentary that examined the role Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi played in instigating and enabling the 2002 Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government ordered tax officials to mount a massive raid on the BBC’s offices in Mumbai and the nation’s capital, New Delhi. Beginning on Tuesday, February 14, and continuing for three days, scores of Income Tax (IT) Department officials harassed and intimidated BBC journalists, technical staff and other employees while searching the BBC premises. The tax officials confined the journalists and other staff to their offices for hours on end and seized numerous documents, laptops and cell-phones, including those belonging to BBC staff. Several employees, including journalists, were reported to have undergone “questioning” for 60 hours. The BBC tweeted on Thursday that “some of [the staff] have faced lengthy questioning or been required to stay overnight.” Indian authorities claimed that the tax officials were investigating the BBC’s “diversion of profits, tax evasion and non-compliance with Indian laws.” Unsurprisingly, last Saturday the IT Department released a statement claiming to have “uncovered irregularities,” adding that the income and profits of the corporation are “not commensurate with the scale of (its) operations in India.” In justifying the attack on the British state-owned BBC, the Hindu-supremacist BJP government and its supporters tried to frame it as a blow against “western” bullying and even “colonialism.” None of this could hide the twin raids’ true aim. Nor was it truly meant to, for that would have run counter to their sinister purpose. The raids were intended to intimidate the press or anyone who dares shed light on the crimes perpetrated by Modi and his Hindu-supremacist BJP by demonstrating that they are prepared to use all the resources at their command to target and silence their critics. Not even the state broadcaster of a major ally and one of the world’s largest media conglomerates is off limits. The BBC documentary, India: The Modi Question, did not add much to the vast body of evidence that proves Modi, who in 2002 was Gujarat’s chief minister, helped instigate mass anti-Muslim violence, then ordered police to allow it to unfold. This resulted in the deaths of at least 2,000 people, the vast majority of them Muslims, and rendered hundreds of thousands of others homeless. But the first part of the two-part BBC documentary did bring to light that the British government, based on an on-the-spot investigation in the days immediately following the February–March 2002 pogrom, had concluded that the violence had been well-orchestrated, bore “all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing” and “Narendra Modi is directly responsible.”
University and College Union sells out UK higher education strike - On Friday, the University and College Union (UCU) called off seven days of strikes set to be held over the next two weeks. The sell-out came 24 hours after 70,000 university lecturers and other higher education workers at all 150 UK universities held three days of strikes. This completed nine days of a scheduled 18 days of walkouts this term. The national strike was called off unilaterally by UCU leader Jo Grady, without receiving any concrete offer addressing members grievances over pay, conditions and pensions. This came just hours before the next three strike days were due to take place beginning February 20. UCU leader Jo Grady announces the sellout of the strike by 70,000 university workers, saying that "the strike action scheduled for the next two weeks will be stood down". UCU negotiators had spent days in talks with the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) along with four other education unions—Unison, GMB, Unite and EIS—at the ACAS conciliation service. Following the talks, the unions issued a joint statement with UCEA confirming that the employers had conceded nothing. On the issue of pay, UCEA’s original well below inflation 5-8 percent offer will be imposed. The joint statement declared that “parties agreed that further progress was made on the uplift at the lower end of the pay spine and that a pay impasse, rather than an agreement, has been reached.” The employers cheered, “This completes the negotiations and discussions for pay, agreed as the priority phase by both parties in a bid to provide some early pay uplift six months early.” [emphasis added] The UCU originally demanded (RPI) inflation plus 3 percent, or 13.7 percent. In relation to casualisation among the HE workforce the agreement states, “UCEA has agreed to consult its members, with a positive recommendation to take action on zero hours contracts… We accept that there will be specifically defined reasons in any organisation for offering indefinite or fixed term employment arrangements without fixed or minimum hours where it is appropriate.” The UCU’s shutting down the strike is only the latest example of the trade union bureaucracy’s suppression of the class struggle and betrayal of their members throughout months of strikes that began last summer, including the sell-out of 40,000 BT workers in December.
British Taxpayer-Funded Anti-Extremist Study Finds Shakespeare, Orwell, Tolkien "Key Texts" For "White Supremacists" --Several of the UK’s most respected TV shows, movies, and works of literature have been included in a list of works that could potentially encourage far-right sympathies, compiled by the taxpayer-funded and government-led ‘Prevent’ counter-terrorism program. As The Daily Mail reports, works by some of the world’s greatest writers were included as examples of warning signs of potential extremism, including Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, Tennyson, Orwell, Huxley, Kipling and Edmund Burke. The flagship Prevent scheme, recently the subject of a scathing audit, singled out comedies Yes Minister and The Thick Of It, the 1955 epic war film The Dam Busters, and even The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare as possible red flags of extremism. Prevent is a key part of the UK's counter-terrorism strategy as a means to safeguard against "vulnerable people being drawn into criminal behavior".In practical terms, it places public bodies, including schools and the police, under a legal duty to identify people who may turn to extremism, and intervene in their lives before it is too late.If the local panels find someone who is at risk of becoming a terrorist, the Prevent teams use specialist mentors or other support programs to turn around their lives. It said the works of fiction were "key texts" for "white nationalists/supremacists". Right-leaning writer Douglas Murray obtained the full list and discovered that one of his books had been given a red flag by Prevent. He wrote in The Spectator: "A number of books are singled out, the possession or reading of which could point to severe wrongthink and therefore potential radicalisation. It seems that RICU [Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit ] is so far off-track that it believes that books identifying the problem that it was itself set up to tackle are in fact a part of the problem."
