week ending Oct 21

Fed’s Powell: High inflation and growth could mean more rate hikes - The economy continues to dash expectations for growth, hiring and consumer spending, complicating the Federal Reserve’s fight to tame inflation and raising questions about whether Americans are less susceptible to higher interest rates than ever before. Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend. In remarks before the Economic Club of New York on Thursday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell was resolute in his message: The central bank will not stop short in zapping higher-than-normal inflation from the economy. But he acknowledged a slew of uncertainties — “both old and new” — that make the Fed’s job harder. Combined, the uncertainty puts the Fed in a position to probably hold off on another rate hike when officials convene in a few weeks. “It may just be that rates haven’t been high enough for long enough,” Powell said in a discussion following his prepared speech. Advertisement The Fed has moved aggressively to raise interest rates over the past year and a half. Looking ahead, Powell said the Fed is “proceeding carefully” and will make its decisions based “on the totality of the incoming data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks.” Other Fed officials echoed that sentiment this week, cementing expectations for no rate hike before the policy meeting Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Still, no one knows what happens from here. The Fed could raise rates further, or hold them higher for longer, if it isn’t seeing enough cooling on jobs, hiring or growth. But Powell noted that households and businesses haven’t responded to high borrowing costs in typical ways. He pointed to homeowners who locked in low mortgage rates and therefore aren’t affected by the run-up in borrowing costs as they soared past 7 percent. Powell also mentioned businesses that have termed out their debt and now aren’t feeling tighter financial conditions. Advertisement “It really is a story of much stronger demand,” Powell said. “There may be some ways the economy is less affected by interest rates. It’s hard to know precisely.” The list of uncertainties goes on. Officials aren’t yet sure how long inflation will continue to ease or where prices will settle over the coming months. The Fed also sprinted to raise interest rates over the past 18 months, and no one knows how long it will take for the financial markets, households and businesses to feel the full consequences. Geopolitical tensions are also running high, with unknown risks for the world economy. Last year, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine roiled international energy markets and sent inflation soaring. Now, turmoil in the Middle East adds even more instability. Powell said that he found this month’s attack on Israel by Hamas “horrifying, as is the prospect for more loss of innocent lives.”

Fed Chair Powell hints that soaring bond yields could mean end of rate hikes — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that soaring bond yields could help the Fed slow the economy, further cooling inflation and the possibly signaling the end of rate hikes. But he stopped short of declaring victory, citing the economy’s resilience.“Tight policy is putting downward pressure on economic activity and inflation,” Powell said during a discussion at the Economic Club of New York.While he acknowledged steady progress on slowing inflation — and the role of rising yields — he still left additional action from the Fed on the table. Whether the Fed raises rates or not depends on the economy’s performance in the coming months. The 10-year Treasury yield was close to breaching 5% on Thursday. Treasury yields have soared recently on expectations that the Fed will keep rates higher for longer, which could slow the economy. The 10-year Treasury yield fluctuated slightly on Thursday as Powell spoke about inflation and the economy, but continued to hover just under the 5% threshold last breached in 2007.If economic growth continues to be robust and inflation’s descent stalls, a rate hike in December is in play, though a November pause seems to be cemented. But the Fed chair isn’t ready to make any pronouncements just yet, saying the Fed would continue to proceed carefully.“A range of uncertainties, both old and new, complicate our task of balancing the risk of tightening monetary policy too much against the risk of tightening too little,” Powell said Thursday.The job market, economic growth and consumer spending have all held steady despite the Fed’s 11 rate hikes, and the war between Israel and Hamas could rattle global energy markets if the conflict escalates to destabilize the broader, oil-rich Middle East.The Fed chief said the attack on Israel earlier this month was “horrifying,” and he warned of the uncertain outcome of “highly elevated” geopolitical tensions on the global economy.

Powell says inflation is still too high and lower economic growth is likely needed to bring it down - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged recent signs of cooling inflation, but said Thursday that the central bank would be "resolute" in its commitment to its 2% mandate. In a widely anticipated speech delivered to the Economic Club of New York, Powell evaded committing to a specific policy path but gave no indication that he was leaning toward a push higher for interest rates. As Powell spoke, futures market traders erased any possibility of a rate hike in November and decreased the chances of a move even in December. He acknowledged the progress made toward bringing inflation back down to a manageable level but stressed vigilance in pursuing the central bank's goals. "Inflation is still too high, and a few months of good data are only the beginning of what it will take to build confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably toward our goal," Powell said in prepared remarks. "We cannot yet know how long these lower readings will persist, or where inflation will settle over coming quarters." "While the path is likely to be bumpy and take some time, my colleagues and I are united in our commitment to bringing inflation down sustainably to 2 percent," Powell added. The speech comes with questions over where the Fed heads from here after a succession of interest rate hikes aimed at cooling inflation. Stocks turned higher after Powell spoke and the 10-year Treasury yield backed off its highs for the session. Powell said he doesn't think rates are too high now. "Does it feel like policy is too tight right now? I would have to say no," he said. Still, he noted that "higher interest rates are difficult for everybody." "Incoming data over recent months show ongoing progress toward both of our dual mandate goals —maximum employment and stable prices," he said. The speech was delayed at the onset by protesters from the group Climate Defiance who charged the dais at the club's dinner and held up a sign saying "Fed is burning" surrounded by the words "money, futures and planet."

Fed Chair Powell: "Inflation is still too high", expects "a period of below-trend growth" --- Speech by Chair Powell on the economic outlook. Excerpts: Inflation readings turned lower over the summer, a very favorable development. The September inflation data continued the downward trend but were somewhat less encouraging. Shorter-term measures of core inflation over the most recent three and six months are now running below 3 percent. But these shorter-term measures are often volatile. In any case, inflation is still too high, and a few months of good data are only the beginning of what it will take to build confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably toward our goal. We cannot yet know how long these lower readings will persist, or where inflation will settle over coming quarters. While the path is likely to be bumpy and take some time, my colleagues and I are united in our commitment to bringing inflation down sustainably to 2 percent. ... To date, declining inflation has not come at the cost of meaningfully higher unemployment—a highly welcome development, but a historically unusual one. Healing of supply chains in conjunction with the rebalancing of demand and supply in the labor market has allowed disinflation without substantially weaker economic activity. Indeed, economic growth has consistently surprised to the upside this year, as most recently seen in the strong retail sales data released earlier this week. Forecasters generally expect gross domestic product to come in very strong for the third quarter before cooling off in the fourth quarter and next year. Still, the record suggests that a sustainable return to our 2 percent inflation goal is likely to require a period of below-trend growth and some further softening in labor market conditions.

Fed's Waller: Credit card usage, loan defaults show slowing economy - Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said he is watching rising credit card usage and an uptick in borrower defaults as signs of potential economic softening. During a Wednesday afternoon speech at the European Economics and Financial Center in London, Waller said he will factor both credit categories into his decision to back a rate hike at the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting or another pause. He said both options will be on the table heading into the meeting two weeks from now, but recent data readings have been "overwhelmingly positive" for the Fed's goals of stabilizing prices and maintaining high employment. To that end, he noted that he will be monitoring the performance of bank-issued credit to better understand consumer spending patterns. "Though hard to measure, it seems that households are drawing down their liquid assets," Waller said. "Some other data supporting a slowing include more use of credit cards this year and a return of delinquency rates for consumer loans, which plunged over the course of the pandemic, to essentially their pre-pandemic levels." The total balance on credit cards and other revolving credit products plummeted from $858 billion in March 2020 to $736 billion in April 2021, according to data tracked by the Federal Reserve Board and analyzed by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. Since then it has climbed steadily, surpassing $1 trillion for the first time ever in July. Overall, usage is nearly back in line with its pre-COVID growth trajectory. Similarly, the delinquency rate on consumer loans dropped from 2.47% in the first quarter of 2020 to roughly 1.5% for much of 2021, according to the St Louis Fed. Through the second quarter of this year, the rate had ticked back up to 2.36%. Though still well below the 4.85% peak from 2009, the rebound demonstrates a return to the typical range of between 2% and 2.5% seen since the subprime mortgage crisis. Waller also addressed soaring Treasury yields, including the 10-year and two-year notes, which are trading at 16- and 17-year highs, respectively, demonstrating weakening investor sentiment. He said stronger-than-expected data on economic activity, an increased focus on the U.S. deficit, recent Treasury issuances and geopolitical unrest all could have contributed to this development.

GOP scrutiny on Fed grows as lawmakers fire off letters, legislation - Leading Republican lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee are releasing proposals and letters targeting the Federal Reserve's effort to expand capital rules for banks. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said that a response to a July 7 letter sent by him and Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., from Fed Vice Chairman for Supervision Michael Barr "fails to answer any of our questions and is a mere restatement of proposals you and other federal regulatory agencies recently put forward." In the most recent letter, Andy Barr repeated calls for the Fed to release a cost-benefit analysis related to the Basel III endgame proposal. Andy Barr is set to host a hearing next week in the House Financial Services subcommittee on financial institutions and monetary policy on the Biden administration's financial regulators. "To be clear, the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy is the touchpoint for banking regulators under the Committee on Financial Services (Committee)'s jurisdiction interaction with Congress," Andy Barr wrote in the letter. "This includes matters as important as a fundamental rewrite of capital rules, or what is commonly referred to as Basel III Endgame, along with your recent proposals on G-SIB surcharges, long-term debt, resolution plans, and evidently more to come. It is unacceptable that the Vice Chairman for Supervision of the Federal Reserve is leading those changes in an opaque manner, including failing to respond in a fulsome manner to a bipartisan request from Congress." Foster did not join in Barr's most recent letter to the Fed. In a September hearing, Foster struck a softer tone than Barr toward the Fed's rulemaking process. "I believe that having access to the data and assumptions and methodology would allow for a more informed discussion across the board here," Foster said. "But I think we also have to recognize that bank capital requirements and regulation is never going to be an exact science. You can reasonably model the costs of any increase or decrease in bank capital requirements or other things, the costs of compliance of increased stress testing and so on."

30-Year Treasury Yield Spikes past 5%, 30-year mortgage rates hit 8%, Mortgage Applications Plunge by Wolf Richter - Today it’s the 30-year Treasury yield that pierced the 5% line. It currently trades at 5.02%, the highest since August 2007.The first of the long-term yields to spike through the 5% line was the unloved 20-year Treasury yield on October 3; it currently trades at 5.25%.These long-term yields above 5% are an indication that a form of normalcy is gradually being forced upon the bond market by the resurgence of inflation, and by the belated realization that this inflation isn’t just going away on its own somehow. This is a huge regime change, after years of the Fed’s QE and interest rate repression, and all prior assumptions are out the window. The 10-year yield jumped to 4.92% at the moment, the highest since July 2007, edging within easy reach of the magic 5% line.It seems, the long-term Treasury market is gradually coming out of its delusion about inflation and normalizing interest rates after having spent 18 months believing in the hype about a Fed pivot and rate cuts to something like 0% that would be forced on the Fed by a steep recession, with lots of forever-QE to follow, or whatever.Instead, consumers are earning lots of money and are spending like drunken sailors. Businesses are spending and investing too. And the government is the biggest drunken sailor of all, further boosting the economy, and throwing more fuel on inflation.And this deficit-spending by the government has to be funded by piling enormous amounts of Treasury securities on the market that need to find buyers. Yield solves all demand problems by rising until demand emerges. And that’s in part what we’re seeing now. All of this is happening as the Fed is unloading its balance sheet at record pace, having already shed over $1 trillion in securities in a little over a year. Higher yields mean lower prices. So this return to normalcy has been dishing out huge losses to investors who’d bought long-term bond funds or long-term bonds in the era of QE. Investors that own these way-under-water 30-year bonds outright can choose to hold the bonds to maturity at around 2050, when they will get face value back, and collect 1.5% or 1.8% coupon interest along the way. Future bond buyers are looking at these juicy yields, and they’re licking their chops, hoping that yields will rise further to hit some magic number, at which point they’ll jump in, forming part of the demand for those bonds. There will always be enough buyers if the yield is high enough. And current bond buyers find those yields juicy enough, and a lot of demand emerges at 5%.

Why Longer-Dated Treasury Yields Spiked. It’s Not Magic: Yield Solves All Demand Problems by Wolf Richter • Yields of longer-dated Treasury securities have surged by about 150 basis points since April this year, from about 3.5% to above 5% for 20-year and 30-year yields, and to just below 5% for the 10-year yield, which has caused a historic bloodbath for holders of these securities and bond funds, such as the TLT. There is now a lot of navel-gazing in some quarters as to why this jump in yields could possibly have happened. And here and there, some fancy theories are getting trotted out. But it boils down to supply and demand. Supply is a tsunami of Treasury securities being issued as the government has to borrow unspeakable amounts to fund its scandalous deficits even in a strong economy.And this tsunami of supply must find demand. Yields must rise until they meet demand. Yield solves all demand problems. There will always be demand if the yields are high enough, so it’s not a question of finding buyers, but at what yield those buyers can be found.And that’s what we’re looking at: To what level will 10-year yields have to rise to entice even me to buy some of them? For me, 10-year yields are not there yet. And as each wave of issuance gets bought, new buyers need to be enticed with sufficient yields.Obviously, something could change that would lower yield expectations by potential buyers, such as inflation miraculously vanishing or something scary happening that will make even an unappetizing 10-year yield look better than the alternatives. But we’re not there yet. The total amount of Treasury securities outstanding has now reached $33.6 trillion. Of that amount, $7.1 trillion are securities held by government entities, such as government pension funds, the Social Security Trust Fund, etc. They’re not traded, and those entities buy the securities directly from the government, and so they don’t have a direct impact on supply and demand in the market.The remainder, $26.5 trillion, are Treasury securities held by the “public.” The public includes foreign holders, the Fed, banks, bond funds, insurance companies, individuals, and me (only T-bills so far).These securities held by the public spiked by nearly $1.8 trillion in the five months since the end of the debt-ceiling standoff, and by over $10 trillion, or by 65%, in five years, from $16 trillion in January 2019 to $26.5 trillion now! This new issuance of $1.8 trillion in five months needed to find buyers. And yields must rise until every last one of these securities is purchased by the “public.”

Fed's Beige Book: "Little to no change in economic activity" -- Fed's Beige Book "This report was prepared at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis based on information collected on or before October 6, 2023. " excerpt:Most Districts indicated little to no change in economic activity since the September report. Consumer spending was mixed, especially among general retailers and auto dealers, due to differences in prices and product offerings. Tourism activity continued to improve, although some Districts reported slight slowing in consumer travel, and a few Districts noted an uptick in business travel. Banking contacts reported slight to modest declines in loan demand. Consumer credit quality was generally described as stable or healthy, with delinquency rates still historically low but slightly increasing. Real estate conditions were little changed and the inventory of homes for sale remained low. Manufacturing activity was mixed, although contacts across multiple Districts noted an improving outlook for the sector. The near-term outlook for the economy was generally described as stable or having slightly weaker growth. Expectations of firms for which the holiday shopping season is an important driver of sales were mixed. Labor market tightness continued to ease across the nation. Most Districts reported slight to moderate increases in overall employment, and firms were hiring less urgently. have shown far less economic growth in Q3 than the key economic indicators.

Too Many Economists Thought This Was Impossible, The Nation, Mike Konczal - There are reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the US economy. While the inflation rate remains higher than before the pandemic, it has fallen during the past six months as supply chains have normalized and the broader economy has worked itself through the chaos of reopening. This occurred even as unemployment remained low—within the mid–3 percent range. Many economists said this would be nearly impossible.We are not out of danger yet. Creeping energy prices and the resumption of student-loan payments could drive down growth. But a wave of productive investments unleashed by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act may be enough to counteract those negative forces.Journalists have largely ignored one crucial aspect of this recovery: the expansion of labor force participation. The increase in the number of people working has helped tamp down inflation and has shown the importance of aiming for full employment. But to keep these advances going, we must invest more in care work. Otherwise, the skyrocketing costs of childcare in this country could hold back the economy, undoing our remarkable gains.The growth of the labor force is so comprehensive it’s tough to summarize, but there are three straightforward data points to see it. First, overall labor-force participation, at 62.8 percent, is a half-point higher than the Congressional Budget Office had predicted it would be before the pandemic. There’s a more active labor market now than in 2019, and it’s a testament to the power of fiscal spending to fight a recession. It also proves that we weren’t at full employment before Covid.Second, the percentage of adults between the ages of 25 and 54 with jobs is the highest in decades; overall, it’s as high as it was in 2001, and for women, it’s the highest on record. The 2010s were a decade of wondering where the jobs were—and even asking whether people wanted to work. The stubbornly high unemployment rate—which was as high as 8 percent at the beginning of 2013—had many economists assuming that high unemployment rates were just how the economy worked. Now we know that if the demand is there, the workers will show up. Third, the employment rate for people with disabilities is the highest since data started being recorded in 2008. At 23 percent, it is four points higher than in 2019. It’s not just a matter of improvements in technology; as labor markets get tighter, employers expand the pool of workers from which they hire.There are a few reasons this hasn’t received much coverage. First, inflation remains high, which is probably what people mean when they say the economy’s vibes are bad. But there are also more opportunistic reasons. The press loves stories from the point of view of bosses, and pundits rush to cover catchphrases like “quiet quitting.” When outlets do this, they miss how dynamic the economy is: Yes, people have been quitting jobs at record rates, but it is because they are taking new and better jobs.Many economists said during the Great Recession that the kinds of numbers we’re seeing now would never exist again. They said the mass unemployment of the 2010s was inevitable. They said it wasn’t the result of policy choices; technological change and workers who simply lacked the skills or effort to find jobs were to blame.But there’s also a more theoretical problem: Many economists believe that both the workforce and what the economy can produce are fixed in the long term. But this economy demonstrates that a tight labor market can pull in more workers, which allows the economy to produce more and incentivizes companies to produce more efficiently, which alleviates the supply constraints that drive inflation.

Kennedy cuts deal with Schumer on veterans’ gun rights amendment -Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Thursday he negotiated a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on an amendment allowing military veterans whose finances go into conservatorship to keep their firearms, a proposal Schumer previously called a “poison pill” to the Senate’s minibus appropriations bill. Kennedy’s effort to get a vote on his amendment had held up the bill funding military construction and the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. Now, the Louisiana senator said he expects to get a vote on his proposal after he agreed to modify the language. As a result, Kennedy said he will let the long-delayed appropriations bill advance. “I just left Chuck’s office. I think we got it worked out,” Kennedy told The Hill. “We’re going to hotline some new language. Frankly, I think it makes my amendment stronger. Now, not everyone’s going to be happy.” Kennedy said the modifications to the amendment are being put on the Senate “hotline,” giving all senators a chance to review it prior to coming to the floor. Kennedy said the agreement was between himself and Schumer. “The original position was they wanted me to pull my amendment down and I said ‘no,’” he said. But now that he has an agreement, Kennedy said he has “no plans to withhold consent to the minibus.”

Jim Jordan has a plan to avert a shutdown if he becomes House speaker. Will it work? -- Jordan indicated to Republicans he believes the automatic cuts will give them leverage over Democrats on full-year funding bills as they work to pass individual appropriations bills. The reason, he believes, is that Democrats will want to switch off the automatic cuts as soon as possible and therefore accept more GOP demands. “That is leverage,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus. “And I think he’ll get that. And I’ve been against [continuing resolutions]! But we got 31 days. I mean, time’s running out. We got to look forward.” But other Republicans say it’s a bad idea to pass another continuing resolution, or CR, which represents the sort of short-term funding on autopilot that conservatives — who want the chance to make more spending cuts — typically loathe. “I don’t like that plan at all,” said Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., who argued that Congress must pass full funding bills individually. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said: “I prefer to not be governed by continuing resolution. I think we should put a demand on the Senate to pass our single-subject spending bills.” The plan would need to get through the Democratic-controlled Senate, but Jordan’s belief is that Democrats and President Joe Biden would be unable to say no to a “clean” stopgap bill that continued funding set under current law. One problem, however, is that because of a quirk in the automatic cuts, Defense Department spending would face a larger cut than nonmilitary funds. That could lose Jordan support from military hawks in his own party, sparking intraparty divisions and hurting the cause of pressuring Democrats to fold. Rep. Tom Massie, R-Ky., the author of the 1% cut provision, championed Jordan’s plan. “So Joe Biden has already signed into law the reductions down the road that was part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act,” Massie said. “If we are still on a CR in April, there’s 1% cut that gets implemented. And it applies for the whole year starting Oct. 1." “So what Jordan said in there is — his plan would be to put a clean CR on the table. And we vote on that and take shutdown off the table,” he said. “It’d be a long-term clean CR that takes us past April. And get our 12 bills done. And then the Senate can work with us on the 12 bills. And I think they would be strongly incentivized to do that, staring at a cut instead of a shutdown.” Jordan made his case for the plan in a recent interview, arguing that the House needs a “strong” message for the Senate and Biden. “Pass that so that that 1% cut is hanging over everyone’s head. Nothing like that to incentivize people to actually focus on doing the 12 appropriation bills,” he said. “And the message becomes: You voted for it.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said she’d consider a stopgap bill if it came with policy conditions and wasn’t a “clean” measure. “If we’re not going to fix the problems that put us in this place to begin with, then I don’t want to continue kicking the can down the road,” she said in an interview. Despite the GOP skepticism about short-term bills, some say Jordan’s background as a hard-right stalwart gives him more credibility to sell it to right-wing skeptics. “I don’t think there’s any question, when you look at the history of Jim Jordan and his very conservative positions, that’s going to give him the opportunity to have a broader breadth of conservative cred,” said Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., the chair of the Republican Study Committee, a faction of conservative lawmakers.

Speaker fight: Jim Jordan wins over some GOP skeptics | CNN Politics - Rep. Jim Jordan won the support of several key skeptics in the Republican conference Monday, bolstering momentum for his bid for speaker ahead of a planned floor vote on Tuesday. House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers and House Appropriations Defense subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert – two key defense hawks, the GOP bloc perhaps most weary of Jordan – announced Monday morning they would back Jordan on the House floor. And Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouri, who called Jordan a “non-starter” for speaker last week, said Monday that she would support the Ohio Republican, too – as did Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida, another previous holdout. “Jim Jordan and I spoke at length again this morning, and he has allayed my concerns about keeping the government open with conservative funding, the need for strong border security, our need for consistent international support in times of war and unrest, as well as the need for stronger protections against the scourge of human trafficking and child exploitation,” Wagner said in a statement. “Jim Jordan is our conference nominee, and I will support his nomination for Speaker on the House floor.” Even with the additional support, Jordan still faces an uphill climb to be elected speaker. On the floor, he can afford to lose only four Republicans if every member votes, because a speaker needs a majority of the full House to be elected. Several Republicans said heading into a GOP conference meeting Monday evening they remain opposed to Jordan, including Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida and Ken Buck of Colorado. “I never use the term ‘hard no’ or ‘never, never,’ but I am opposed,” Bacon told CNN. Jordan told CNN he will go to the floor for a speaker vote at noon ET Tuesday, whether or not he has the votes locked down. Asked Monday evening whether he had the votes he needed, Jordan said, “I hope so. I think so.” If Jordan is able to secure the votes to become speaker Tuesday, it would put an end to a chaotic and unprecedented two weeks in the House following McCarthy’s ouster. Without a speaker, the House is unable to pass legislation despite the international crises and a government shutdown one month away, though some members have explored empowering interim Speaker Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican who was appointed to the position following Kevin McCarthy’s ousting. But if Jordan is unable to corral enough support to win a floor vote, Republicans would be back at square one, leaving the House in a speakerless paralysis. Last week, 55 Republicans voted inside the GOP conference against committing to supporting Jordan on the floor. The Ohio Republican then sent the conference home for the weekend, saying he planned to speak to the members one-by-one. GOP activists, meanwhile, went on the attack against those opposing Jordan, arguing that doing so would empower House Democrats.

McCarthy feels ‘very good’ Jim Jordan will become House speaker ahead of crucial floor vote - Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he is confident Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, will have the votes to become his successor, he told FOX News' Brian Kilmeade on Monday ahead of a crucial vote. "I feel very good about where Jim Jordan is at. He has been an integral part of our team when we took the majority, helping us get the majority," McCarthy said during "FOX & Friends." "The real challenge here is, and I know a lot of people out there are afraid that will Republicans break off and go work with Democrats, the only reason anybody's even talking about that is because eight Republican members worked with every single Democrat to remove me from speaker and put us into this tailspin and all based upon keeping government open," he continued. Jordan, who on Friday secured the nomination for speakership after a vote from the Republican conference, is looking at Tuesday as the best day for a floor vote, the source said, noting that most members would be back at the Capitol and present for the voting. Jordan faces an uphill battle in his bid to become speaker, needing to flip 55 Republicans who on Friday indicated they would not support the Ohio Republican in a floor vote during secret balloting on the matter. McCarthy slammed the eight Republicans who he said worked with the Democrats to oust him, citing concern surrounding service members who would have paid the price if the government did, indeed, shut down over a battle on spending. "This is what's so absurd about all this, that a few eight people worked with every single Democrat to make a political decision here to disrupt America," he continued. "That's where we have to… be a little calmer, show the leadership and come together and put America back on the right foot."

Jordan builds Speakership momentum as opposition falls - Opposition to House GOP Speaker nominee Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) is crumbling as Republicans return to Washington for a House vote to try to officially elect him. Four key lawmakers who signaled opposition to Jordan last week fell like a set of dominos Monday, giving the Ohio Republican a significant boost ahead of an expected floor vote Tuesday. “My gut tells me we’re somewhere south of 10 who are still being recalcitrant,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told conservative radio host Erick Erickson on Monday when asked about the opposition to Jordan. It is a remarkable development after 13 days of turbulence in the House GOP following the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), which left many lawmakers and outside observers skeptical Republicans could coalesce around any candidate. Jordan emerged as the conference’s nominee Friday, winning 124 votes. On a second tally, where Republicans were asked to vote “yes” if they’d support him on the floor, Jordan got 152 votes. A number of GOP members and political observers went into the weekend thinking Jordan faced a tough hill to climb to win the 217 Republican votes on the floor necessary to win the Speakership. But Jordan now seems to be edging closer and closer amid a pressure campaign by his allies to win support for the conservative Republican and ally of former President Trump. Also playing in Jordan’s favor is exasperation with the internal GOP turbulence that is keeping the House paralyzed as war breaks out in Israel and Gaza, as well as the threat of moderate Republicans working with Democrats to exert control over the Speakership.

Live updates: Jim Jordan fails to win House speakership on first ballot --Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who lost his first bid for House speaker earlier Tuesday, announced that a second vote will take place at 11 a.m. ET Wednesday.Jordan fell significantly short of winning the speaker’s gavel on a first ballot Tuesday, leaving the House in paralysis after 20 Republicans opposed the Ohio congressman.Jordan told CNN’s Many Raju that he will “keep going” and they’ve had “good conversations this afternoon.” “No one in our conference wants to see a coalition government with the Democrats. We are going to keep working. We will get to the votes,” he said. When pressed on how many ballots Jordan will go he said “we have to get a speaker.” Jordan said the expected return of Florida Rep. Gus Bilirakis, a Jordan supporter who missed the first vote to be at his mother-in-law’s funeral, should help him and insisted they are chipping away at the holdouts. He pointed to the fact on the first ballot he had a similar number of defections as former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy who was still able to win the gavel in January after 15 ballots. Jordan — or any other GOP speaker candidate — can only afford to lose four Republican votes tomorrow if all members are present and voting on the floor. A speaker needs a majority of the full House to be elected. The House, which has been without a speaker for two weeks following Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster, remains effectively frozen. It's a dire situation that comes as Congress faces a government funding deadline in mid-November and as crisis unfolds abroad in Ukraine and with Israel’s war against Hamas.

Jim Jordan loses first vote for speaker amid GOP defections - — Conservative Republican Rep. Jim Jordan fell significantly short of winning the House speaker’s gavel on a first ballot Tuesday, leaving the House in paralysis after 20 Republicans opposed the Ohio Republican. The vote, in which Jordan failed to secure a majority of the full House, was a disappointment for Jordan’s allies who had expressed hopes that the number of holdouts would be in the single digits. Immediately after the vote, the House went into recess, giving Jordan time to try to convince his opponents – a group of GOP moderates and allies of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Majority Leader Steve Scalise – to change their votes. The 20 Republicans who voted against Jordan included House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger of Texas, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado and a quartet of New York Republicans in purple districts. The anti-Jordan contingent cast six votes for McCarthy, seven votes for Scalise and three for former New York GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, among other alternatives. It’s now been two weeks of high-stakes chaos over the speaker’s gavel following the unprecedented ouster of McCarthy. The House’s slim margin is what led to McCarthy’s removal at the hands of a band of eight GOP rebels – and now a similarly sized group of House Republicans could block Jordan’s ascension, too. Jordan’s opponents include centrist Republicans concerned that the face of the House GOP would be a conservative hardliner, as well as lawmakers still furious at the small group of Republicans who forced out McCarthy and then opposed the speaker nomination of Scalise, who initially defeated Jordan inside the GOP conference, 113 to 99. After the first vote, the House recessed and Jordan shuffled between the speaker’s office and the majority whip’s office holding meetings. Asked if he would go back to the floor later Tuesday, Jordan said: “That’s the plan.” “We need to get a speaker as soon as possible,” he said.

Jordan fails to clinch Speakership on second ballot - House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) suffered another loss in the Speakership race Wednesday, failing to win the gavel on a second ballot of voting after a growing number of Republicans declined to support his bid. Twenty-two Republicans withheld support from Jordan. The vote was 199 for Jordan, 212 for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), five for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and seven for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.). Ten people voted for someone else. The GOP opposition was less than what some Republicans — including Jordan allies — had predicted, but the tally is nonetheless a setback for Jordan. Twenty Republicans withheld support from Jordan on Tuesday, leaving him short of the majority vote needed to clinch the gavel on the House floor. On Wednesday, four more Republicans flipped their votes from Jordan to another candidate. Two opponents flipped their votes to Jordan, and one Republican who was absent Tuesday voted for Jordan on Wednesday. Jordan, after the vote, insisted he was still in good shape and would talk to the holdouts. “I think we’re at, we got 200 votes. You know, we picked up some today, a couple dropped off, but they voted for me before. I think they come back again. So we’ll keep talking to members. Keep working on it,” he said. Some of his opponents, though, said additional votes wouldn’t yield anything. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a moderate who voted for McCarthy, said Jordan would “probably lose another 10 votes” on a third ballot. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) said things “may actually get worse in the next round.” The loss will likely fuel GOP calls to empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) as the Republican conference remains divided over who should wield the gavel with the House still at a standstill. That push intensified after the vote. Bacon and Gimenez both said they would vote for a resolution to empower McHenry. “It’s very clear to me that the most logical solution at this point is to empower the Speaker pro temp so that we get back to work,” Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), who supported Jordan, said after the vote.

These 6 Republicans reversed their votes on Jordan for Speaker - Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) fell short of the 217 votes needed to be elected Speaker of the House for a second time Wednesday, with 22 Republicans siding against him. The roll call resulted in Jordan receiving 199 votes, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) received 212 and other candidates took the remaining 22 votes. In total, six Republicans changed their votes from Tuesday’s ballot — four turning away from Jordan after previously supporting him, and two voting for him for the first time. Republicans who switched their vote against Jordan:

1. Rep. Vern Buchanan (Fla.) voted for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.)
2. Rep. Drew Ferguson (Ga.) voted for Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.)
3. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa) voted for Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas)
4. Rep. Pete Stauber (Minn.) voted for Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.)

Republicans who flipped to Jordan on the second ballot:

1. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (Calif.) supported former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on the first ballot
2. Rep. Victoria Spartz (Ind.) voted for Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on the first ballot

GOP lawmaker says she’s received death threats over Speaker vote - Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) revealed she has received death threats after reversing her support for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on the second Speaker ballot Wednesday. Miller-Meeks said she received “credible death threats” and a “barrage of threatening calls,” according to a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. She said her office is “cooperating fully” and the proper authorities have been notified. Miller-Meeks was one of four Republicans to switch their support Wednesday after voting for Jordan on the first ballot. “One thing I cannot stomach, or support is a bully,” she said. “I did not stand for bullies before I voted for Chairwoman Granger and when I voted for Speaker designaee Jordan, and I will not bend to bullies now.” Miller-Meeks instead voted for Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), claiming the Texas Republican has demonstrated “great leadership” as chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee. The Iowa Republican said it was “abundantly clear” early into Wednesday’s roll call vote that Jordan did not secure the 217 votes needed to take the gavel. “Given the concerns I had before any vote and the ability of the Speaker designaee to unify the conference, I voted in support of Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger to serve as Speaker of the House,” Miller-Meeks said. “I understand that voting against Rep. Jordan is not popular at this time,” she added. “I respected Jim enough to vote for him [on Tuesday], knowing he did not have the votes to be elected. We have had numerous calls to all our offices, and many have urged that I support Jim Jordan and many others urged me to look for a conservative consensus candidate.” Miller-Meeks said she thinks the GOP party “needs a consensus candidate” to allow the House to work on appropriations, support to Israel and to “stop the insane policies of the Biden administration.”

Jordan condemns threats toward members amid Speaker vote - House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has condemned the threats toward House Republicans who voted against him for Speaker, calling them “just wrong.” “It should never happen,” Jordan told CNN as he left his office Wednesday. “It’s just wrong, and we don’t want it to happen to anyone. Any American, anybody, any member of Congress. It’s just wrong,” he said. The Ohio Republican reiterated the similar message later Wednesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “No American should accost another for their beliefs,” he wrote in the post. “We condemn all threats against our colleagues and it is imperative that we come together.” “Stop. It’s abhorrent,” the lawmaker added. His condemnation comes after a second vote to replace former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) failed — leaving Jordan even further from securing the gavel than the first ballot. Opponents to his Speakership bid have reported receiving a barrage of angry texts and calls threatening them and their families unless they flip their vote. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) said Wednesday that she received “credible death threats” after she voted against Jordan. She was one of four Republicans who withdrew support after voting for Jordan on the first ballot. Two others, who originally had not supported him, flipped their votes on the second ballot. “One thing I cannot stomach, or support is a bully,” Miller-Meeks said in a statement. “I did not stand for bullies before I voted for Chairwoman Granger and when I voted for Speaker designee Jordan, and I will not bend to bullies now.” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who voted against Jordan both times, said in an interview on CNN that his wife had been getting threats via text message and angry phone calls. Screenshots of the reported text messages to Bacon’s wife read, “Why is your husband causing chaos by not supporting Jim Jordan? I thought he was a team player” and “Your husband will not hold any political office ever again. What a disappointment and failure he is.” “If they think a pressure campaign or bullying campaign is going to work for me, it’s not,” Bacon said in the interview. The House has been without a Speaker for more than two weeks, after eight Republicans joined all present Democrats in an historic vote to oust former McCarthy from the post. Since then, House Republicans have struggled to find a candidate that could garner a majority of support.

Speaker saga sparks revolution among mainstream Republicans --Mainstream House Republicans long frustrated with the antics of their combative anti-establishment colleagues are launching a revolution as a growing group of them lash out — at the expense of GOP Speaker nominee Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). The group of 22 Republicans who opposed Jordan on a second Speaker ballot Wednesday include those from swing districts and safe ones; new members and longtime House veterans. And they do not look like they are moving. Small groups of hard-line conservatives have used maximum leverage tactics to push and pull the rest of their GOP colleagues all year. It started with the 15-ballot saga to elect former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in January; continued through tanking procedural votes to block floor action over spending; and commenced with ousting McCarthy and blocking the first nominee selected to replace him, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.). The slim four-seat GOP majority had always provided the opportunity for ideological moderates, or any group of five Republicans, to take a similar tactic. But they had not banded together to make an organized, public move to do so — until now, against the candidacy of the founding chairman of the confrontational House Freedom Caucus who rose to be chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Some of those are vulnerable Republicans long seen as likely Jordan opponents, wary of being tied to his brand of combative politics. Others are appropriators with grudges over how Jordan’s hard-line conservative supporters have handled spending issues. Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, said that he is looking for a GOP Speaker that is “not just capable of moving the bills that we would prefer to move,” but will also “have the skill sets to work with the opposing party, particularly in the Senate.” “Mr. Jordan, while perfectly suited for [the] Judiciary and Oversight positions that he’s held, does not possess the skill sets that are going to be needed to be an effective Speaker and to be able to deliver what we need to deliver,” Womack said. Still others are lawmakers who long for the days when the GOP conference could hold a closed-door vote, elect a candidate for Speaker and then have that candidate win his colleagues’ backing on the floor. They are outraged that Jordan allies who would not support Scalise after he narrowly won such a vote last week are now demanding that they support Jordan. “Immediately, five people said, ‘We’ll never vote for Steve Scalise, only Jim Jordan.’ And you’re like, ‘OK, I guess our vote don’t count,’” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said. “That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.” “You can’t be at a game or process where only one side’s playing by the rules,”

Senate Republicans offer support for McHenry to break House impasse - Senate Republicans signaled Wednesday they would be open to expanding the powers of Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) as Speaker pro tempore to end the chaos in the House. Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said McHenry “might be a landing place” to allow the House to start conducting pressing business. “He’s a conservative, but he’s somebody who’s solutions oriented and practical and understands that part of the job around here, whether we like it or not, is to govern. I think that’s something that he gets, so we’ll see,” Thune said. “He’s a smart guy,” he continued. “He kind of knows how to navigate the House and I hope that he can figure out a path forward that would avoid [a government shutdown].” Some conservatives who have backed Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as the next Speaker agree — with a caveat. “I think there’s a very significant difference between doing it temporarily and doing it long-term. Temporarily strikes me as reasonable so the House can function as a governing body,” Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) told The Hill, noting that he doesn’t know McHenry well, but he believes he’d “make a great Speaker.” Vance added he could back a deal giving McHenry those powers through Thanksgiving, but that any longer would be a problem for him. To more than a half-dozen Senate Republicans across the ideological spectrum, the idea sounds good as turmoil continues to fester within the House Republican conference. Jordan, the GOP Speaker nominee, started to bleed support Wednesday as four Republicans flipped their support away from him on the second ballot — one day after 20 House Republicans opposed him on the first vote. That, coupled with a looming government shutdown deadline and war in Israel, has prompted lawmakers to call for McHenry, the current interim Speaker, to be effectively handed the job on a caretaker basis. Reps. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) and Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) have proposed giving McHenry, who currently chairs the House Financial Services Committee, powers to hold the role through at least Thanksgiving as government funding expires Nov. 17.

Jim Jordan to endorse empowering McHenry as temporary Speaker --Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) will back a resolution to empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) as he continues to work to shore up support for his Speaker bid, according to a source familiar. The move comes after Jordan failed on two ballots to get the 217 votes he needed to win the gavel and opponents were promising greater resistance. But it’s unclear whether a vote to empower McHenry would pass muster on the House floor. While the push to expand McHenry’s power has been growing this week, a number of Republicans pushed back on the idea Thursday. “Oh, hell no. Hades no,” Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) told reporters. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said Republicans “shouldn’t be setting this precedent,” and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said he was “absolutely” going to vote against it. How many defections there ultimately are — and whether any Democrats help make up the difference — remains the key question. The resolution would broadly grant McHenry the same powers as an elected Speaker, but it would only leave him in the role until January, and he would not be in the line of presidential succession. Jordan is not dropping out of the race and will remain the GOP’s Speaker-designee. Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Penn.) and other GOP lawmakers pushed for the move after Jordan’s second failed vote to secure the Speakership, in which he lost further support from the GOP conference. “After two weeks without a Speaker of the House and no clear candidate with 217 votes in the Republican conference, it is time to look at other viable options. By empowering Patrick McHenry as Speaker Pro Tempore we can take care of our ally Israel until a new Speaker is elected,” Joyce said in a statement ahead of Wednesday’s vote. But much like on the speaker’s race itself, the conference remains divided on whether to further establish McHenry in the role. “Never in the history of this institution…have we ever appointed a Speaker pro tempore with the full powers of the Speakership without having a duly elected Speaker,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told reporters. “To do that we’d be playing games…We should do our job and select the Speaker – the Constitution says that.” Other GOP members have expressed concern that installing McHenry would take needed pressure off the conference as it works to sort out who should lead them.

GOP hard-liner: Republicans ‘might as well be the Whigs’ if they strike deal to empower Speaker pro tem Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Wednesday suggested that if Republicans strike a deal to give acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) more powers, they “might as well be the Whigs” — the conservative political party from the 19th century. After two floor ballots, Republican nominee Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has yet to secure the 217 votes necessary to be elected Speaker. With the House heading into its third day of voting, there are concerns that Jordan will continue to lose Republican support, delaying an appointment of an official speaker even longer. Several lawmakers have considered a vote to expand McHenry’s limited powers as Speaker pro tempore amid the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas and ahead of the Nov. 17 government funding deadline. In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Roy said if House Republicans dared to make a deal with Democrats over McHenry’s abilities, it would be in violation of tradition and norms. “If the @HouseGOP dares cut a deal with Dems to empower a Speaker-Pro-Tem in violation of tradition & norms, & possibly the Constitution to likely pass another CE at Pelosi levels & more supplemental (not paid for) spending – including Ukraine … the GOP might as well be the Whigs,” he wrote. In a separate post, the Texas Republican said GOP lawmakers joining with Democrats to potentially expand McHenry’s powers “not only raises constitutional concerns, but represents an unforgiveable step to coalition government & likely decimation in 2024.” Jordan’s fellow Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson (R) posted online that it’s possible Republicans and Democrats will come up with a bipartisan solution, an idea floated by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to fast-track someone to the Speaker’s chair. “It’s possible that today a small group of Republicans attempt to work with Democrats to build a coalition government,” Davidson said on X. “I will gladly fight alongside the @HouseGOP to do what we said we would do, but I will surrender our agenda to no one.” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ind.) said he agreed with Davidson. “A majority is a terrible thing to waste,” Massie posted on X. “I will not vote to join a coalition with Hakeem Jeffries. I will vote for Jim Jordan.”

Republican Tempers Flare as Speaker Fight Continues, Paralyzing the House -Jordan Pushes for 3rd House Speaker Vote, Backing Off Plan to Endorse McHenry -- House Republicans spent Thursday fighting among themselves in closed-door meetings, trading blame and insults and casting about for a way forward as they failed again to coalesce around a speaker candidate.It was a day of uncertainty and whiplash on Capitol Hill, and the House remained paralyzed as war raged overseas and a government shutdown grew near. House members were unable to act on even the most basic of legislation while President Biden prepared to request a $100 billion emergency national security spending package that included aid for Israel and Ukraine and would need congressional approval.By Thursday evening, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the hard-right Republican nominee for speaker, appeared no closer to winning the post after meeting with some of the 22 mainstream G.O.P. lawmakers opposed to his candidacy. Nevertheless, Mr. Jordan said he would push for another vote to become speaker, scheduled for Friday at 10 a.m., even though he was bleeding support and calls were increasing for him to step aside.“He needed to know there is no way forward for his speakership,” Representative John Rutherford of Florida, one of the holdouts, told reporters after meeting with Mr. Jordan.In the face of unyielding opposition, Mr. Jordan began the day by proposing to hit pause on his candidacy and support a plan being floated by centrist lawmakers in both parties that would temporarily give the interim speaker, Representative Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina, explicit power to conduct legislative business. That proposal met with furious backlash from rank-and-file Republicans, including many of Mr. Jordan’s far-right supporters, who said empowering Mr. McHenry — a stand-in appointed to his post after the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as speaker — would effectively cede control of the House floor to Democrats and set a bad precedent.Within hours, Mr. Jordan reversed course again and said he would move forward after all with his bid to try to win the post quickly.It was the latest abrupt turn in a Republican speaker drama that has played out for more than two weeks, underscoring the depth of the party’s divisions and disarray. Unable to unite behind a candidate to lead them, the G.O.P. now cannot even agree on a temporary solution to allow the paralyzed House to function while members sort out their differences.After falling short in two consecutive votes for speaker, Mr. Jordan, a hard-line co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus and a favorite of former President Donald J. Trump, had told members on Thursday morning that he did not plan to force a third vote right away. Instead, he said he would back the plan to expand the powers of Mr. McHenry, whose current role is primarily to hold an election for a permanent speaker.But during a second, more contentious closed-door meeting of Republicans, Mr. Jordan’s backers demanded that he fight on and denounced the plan to bring up a resolution empowering Mr. McHenry.“We made the pitch to members on the resolution as the way to lower the temperature and get back to work,” Mr. Jordan said. “We decided that wasn’t where we were going to go. I’m still running for speaker. I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race.”

October 19, 2023: Rep. Jim Jordan vows to stay in speaker race - Rep. Jim Jordan affirmed Thursday he's still running for House speaker despite substantial resistance and two failed speakership votes. The Ohio Republican met this afternoon with some holdoutswho opposed his bid — but several emerged from the meeting saying they still aren't voting for him. Jordan's office said the House is expected to hold its next speaker vote Friday at 10 a.m. ET. After a heated closed-door conference meeting Thursday, House Republicans said a resolution to temporarily expand the powers of interim Speaker Patrick McHenry had been scrapped and they will instead go forward with more floor votes for Jordan. However, Jordan faces an uphill battle to win over holdouts and is under growing pressure from within the GOP conference to drop out. As Rep. Jim Jordan works to inject some life back into his flailing speakership bid, three sources say he has made some progress with a small bloc of holdouts: New York Republicans.If Jordan does win them over, it’s still not nearly enough to secure the speakership, given 22 Republicans voted against him on the second ballot and more are expected to oppose him on the third ballot. But Jordan is hoping to show some sign of progress ahead of the next vote, now planned for Friday.Sources say Jordan tapped former New York GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin – who is close with the freshman New York Republicans — to help lean on the holdouts, some of whom named Zeldin on the floor during speaker votes this week. Zeldin was seen going into Jordan’s office Thursday night. The holdouts have also heard from conservative New York donors in recent days encouraging them to get on board with a Jordan speakership, sources say. Unlike the other holdouts, the New Yorkers have specific asks and priorities that are pertinent to their districts, such as the state and local tax deduction. But others are opposed to Jordan based on principle, and are dug in as threats on them continue – a sign of the uphill climb he is still facing. The House, which has been without a speaker for more than two weeks after Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster, remains effectively frozen — a dire situation as Congress faces a government funding deadline in November and as crisis unfolds abroad in Ukraine and with Israel’s war against Hamas.

Gaetz says he will do ‘everything possible’ to stop empowering McHenry --Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) said he will do “everything possible” to prevent the empowering of Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.). “I’m against ‘Speaker Light’,” Gaetz said in a clip posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Thursday. “I’m against Bud Light. I believe it is a constitutional desecration to not elect a Speaker of the House. We need to stay here until we elect a Speaker.” “And if someone can’t get the votes, we need to go on to the next person,” Gaetz continued. “But, but twisting and torturing the Constitution to empower a temporary Speaker is having a ‘Speaker Light.’ That is not constitutionally contemplated, is deeply infirm, and I will do everything possible to stop it.” Gaetz was one of the eight Republicans who sided with House Democrats to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) from his role earlier this month. Now, as the House has gone weeks without a Speaker amid multiple crises like the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and a looming government shutdown, some in the lower chamber have considered a resolution to give McHenry more power. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who recently faced two failed attempts to gain the gavel this week, is also reportedly planning to back a resolution to empower McHenry. However, other Republicans, including Gaetz’s fellow hard-right colleague Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), have come out against the resolution. “I will not sit back and watch a complete betrayal of the GOP base with this ‘plan’ that’s being discussed,” Boebert wrote on X. “I ran because I was sick and tired of politicians coming up here and cutting deals and releasing ‘holier than thou’ statements about why we just had to accept it.”

McCarthy scolds Gaetz in GOP meeting: ‘Sit your ass down’ - Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) scolded Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) during a closed-door GOP conference meeting Thursday, telling the Florida Republican to sit down when he tried to interrupt McCarthy’s remarks. The interaction came as House Republicans met for almost four hours to consider possible paths forward as the conference struggles to coalesce around a candidate for Speaker after Gaetz led a group of eight Republicans who joined with Democrats to oust McCarthy. The conference nominated Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for the post, but he has failed on two floor votes to secure the gavel. Lawmakers described the meeting as intense. At one point, while speaking at the mics during the gathering, McCarthy mentioned Gaetz by name, according to a source in the room. Gaetz stood up to “kind of interrupt him and say something,” per a second source in the room. McCarthy then shot back, according to the second source. “Sit your ass down,” McCarthy said, according to the source, prompting Gaetz to “say something back.” The second source said Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) “was ready to lunge across the room.” McCarthy said he did not yell at Gaetz. “I was at the mic, I was speaking and Matt Gaetz tried to interrupt,” McCarthy said. “I told him to sit down.” “I think the entire conference screamed at him,” McCarthy added. “Listen, the whole country, I think, would scream at Matt Gaetz right now. Remember, it was the crazy eight led by Matt Gaetz and every single Democrat that put us into this situation.” Gaetz, for his part, said he thought McCarthy “was yielding to me since he had mentioned me.” “He gets his Irish up sometimes,” Gaetz added. “I’m not a very emotional person. I’m a lawyer by trade, not a baker, and so I’m used to the presentation of arguments and the listening of arguments without getting hot under the collar.”

In the latest sign of House chaos, the temporary speaker is threatening to quit — In a closed-door meeting Thursday, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., told GOP colleagues he might resign as speaker pro tempore if Republicans push him to try to move legislation on the floor without an explicit vote to expand his powers, according to multiple lawmakers in the room. “If you guys try to do that, you’ll figure out who the next person on Kevin’s list is,” McHenry told the room, three sources said, referring to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy's secret list of GOP lawmakers who would serve as temporary speaker in the event of a vacancy. McHenry's comments underscore the quandary Republicans are in: They can't really do anything until they choose a new speaker, but they can't agree on someone who can get the votes to be that new speaker. And McHenry is unwilling to set a precedent that would give future temporary speakers the full power of speakers who are elected on the House floor. It could mean that the House wouldn't need to elect speakers in the future. It's an idea that McCarthy himself has been floating, and it was the subject of debate during Republicans' 3½-hour private meeting Thursday. During the discussion, some Republicans asked whether they could give McHenry more power "by acclamation" or whether they needed to take an internal vote in the room. It's a different idea from the formal resolution proposed by Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, which would require a floor vote to empower McHenry to move legislation like spending bills and aid packages for Ukraine and Israel. A GOP lawmaker described McHenry's remarks as an implicit threat of resignation. The lawmaker said McHenry had made the same suggestion to individual members before he spoke to the larger conference. A second GOP lawmaker said that McHenry made the remarks “tongue in cheek” but that the message was clear: He questioned the constitutionality of such an option and said he did not want the greater authority unless Republicans agreed to grant it to him through a formal vote. McHenry “will not act in a manner he interprets as unconstitutional” as speaker pro tem, a third member in the room said. In individual conversations with members, McHenry also has threatened to resign as speaker pro tem if such a resolution were passed on the floor, the GOP lawmaker said. McHenry's office did not immediately reply to a request for comment. McCarthy has been one of the most vocal proponents of the idea that McHenry does not need the House to allow him to bring legislation to the floor. “When I put McHenry’s name down it was my belief that if something happened to me that McHenry could run the floor until we elected a new speaker. It was not my intention when I put a name down that they couldn’t do anything,” McCarthy told reporters after Thursday's meeting, during which lawmakers debated whether to vote on Joyce’s resolution. McCarthy was referring to the fact that since 2003, in the wake of the 9/11 attack, House rules have required the speaker to submit a list of names to the clerk of members to act in case of a vacancy in the position and to ensure continuity of government.

Speaker stalemate options narrow as GOP swats down off-ramp | House Republicans and their nominee for Speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), ended a marathon day with no Speaker, no clear path for the Ohio Republican to win the gavel — and even fewer ways out of their conundrum. Jordan spiked plans to hold a third floor vote on his Speakership bid Thursday as more Republicans said they intended to vote against him on the next go-around. The House will return to vote on his third attempt Friday at 10 a.m., a spokesperson said. But it is likely that the number of Republican votes against him — 20 on his first ballot Tuesday, and 22 on the second ballot Wednesday — will only increase. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told The Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday that he would no longer support Jordan on the House floor, and Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) said Thursday morning “it’s not my intention to support a third ballot” when asked if he would back Jordan again. Both had supported Jordan in the first two floor votes. Putting Republicans in an even tougher spot, the conference Thursday swatted down a proposal to temporarily empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), which was viewed by many as a last-ditch way to resume business in the House as the Speaker race continues behind the scenes. Jordan, meanwhile, appeared to make no progress in swaying the holdouts after meeting with them Thursday afternoon. Multiple defectors — including Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Carlos A. Gimenez (R-Fla.) and John Rutherford (Fla.) — left that meeting saying they were unmoved and that Jordan has no path. “You know how smart this guy is right? And he doesn’t wear glasses. He can see the writing on the wall,” Kelly said of Jordan’s grim prospects. Several of the holdouts point to their anger towards the conference’s first nominee for Speaker, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), being forced to withdraw his candidacy after Jordan supporters refused to support him on the House floor — and anger at the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) 16 days ago. However, a Reuters photographer captured Jordan’s notes scribbled on a napkin emerging from the meeting: “what is the real reason?” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), a close Jordan ally, warned the public Thursday that “Additional votes are expected through the weekend.” With Jordan in a tight spot, House Republicans earlier Thursday met for nearly four hours to discuss a proposal to temporarily empower McHenry. Tensions ran high in the meeting, with McCarthy at one point scolding Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and telling him to sit down. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), Kelly and other Republicans have been pushing the conference to consider expanding McHenry’s powers amid Jordan’s struggle to secure the gavel. But GOP lawmakers — including members of leadership — called it a nonstarter, and the conference scrapped the idea of bringing it up for a vote. “We don’t deserve the majority if we go along with a plan to give the Democrats control over the House of Representatives,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said. “It’s a giant betrayal.”

Democrats play cards carefully amid GOP’s Speaker chaos - The GOP’s 16-day battle over the Speakership has left Democrats patiently waiting, sitting on the sidelines to see if there’s a deal to be had. Republicans began Thursday with plans to vote for a third time on whether to make Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) Speaker. Those plans were shelved by midday when Jordan said he would back a plan to temporarily grant powers to Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) as Speaker pro tem. After a GOP uproar left it unclear if that idea could move forward, Jordan told reporters he’d move forward with another Speakership vote. “Have you ever played poker?” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) retorted when asked about any plans from Democrats to negotiate with Republicans. “For a change, we are actually, I think, playing our hand pretty well.” And that means knowing when to hold, he said. “You have to hold back. I mean, what are we going to go chase a deal with them in a circular firing squad? That makes no sense,” Huffman said. “The alternative is we run off chasing deals and eliminate all your leverage and probably not succeed anyway. So I think just by default, we’re sort of backed into this position of unity and cohesion because of the chaos over there.” Republicans are at a standstill on the McHenry proposals — resolutions many described as dead even as their backers say otherwise. But as the GOP caps meeting after meeting with no clear results, it’s unclear how long Democrats will stay on the sidelines. Democrats were tight-lipped Thursday about the extent of any outreach from Republicans, with many saying they had not been approached or describing any discussions as informal. “My sense is that they need to have a plan and an offer. And we’re not going to negotiate against ourselves,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) told The Hill. “If they’re not gonna make an offer, then what are we doing?” Democrats all week have made clear this is not their problem to solve. “We are just awaiting the outcome of their conference meeting,” House Majority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) told The Hill Thursday as Republicans spent nearly three hours huddled behind closed doors. “They’re the majority. This is their civil war. This is a Speaker they need to choose. We have offered our hand to come and develop a bipartisan path forward with us as soon as they can.” While Democrats say they haven’t kicked off any negotiations, they have aired their priorities, including ensuring the government doesn’t careen toward another shutdown when the funding lapses Nov. 17. “[House Minority Leader] Hakeem [Jeffries] and Katherine [Clark] are pretty consistent in saying, we’re not asking for shared power, we’re not asking for equal representation on committees or anything. All we want is to keep the government open, let’s give money to Ukraine, along with Israel. And we have all these wonderfully popular bills that the Republicans have never allowed to come to the floor,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said, adding that they want “significantly bipartisan bills” to be able to come up for a vote.

Anti-McCarthy Republicans say they’ll accept conference punishment if holdouts vote for Jordan - Seven of the eight Republicans who sided with Democrats to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) earlier this month said Friday they would be willing to accept punishment for their actions if it meant that the growing number of holdouts against giving the gavel to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) come around to the majority of the conference. “The holdouts against Jim Jordan have no asks, have no goals, have no objectives other than to see the eight of us suffer some consequence for having removed McCarthy,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told reporters after the third Speaker vote, which Jordan lost by his highest amount yet. “So we’ve made them an offer. The eight of us have said that we are willing to accept censure, sanction, suspension, removal from the Republican Conference.” “We will of course remain Republicans, we will continue to vote with Republicans on Republican principles,” he continued. “But if what these holdouts need is a pound of our flesh, we’re willing to give it to them in order to see them elect Jim Jordan for Speaker.” Gaetz led the group of Republicans who ousted McCarthy. Seven of the eight in the group have since supported and voted for Jordan in the three House Speaker votes this week, while Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) has voted for Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.).

Jeffries blasts Jim Jordan as ‘clear and present danger’ ahead of third vote House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) blasted Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as a “clear and present danger” before Jordan’s third attempt to gain the Speakership on Friday. “Jim Jordan is a clear and present danger to our democracy,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol. “He wants to end Social Security as we know it, he wants to end Medicare as we know it, doesn’t believe that President Biden was elected in 2020. That’s disrespectful to the American people.” “Jim Jordan wants to impose a nationwide abortion ban, and he is the poster child for MAGA extremism,” Jeffries continued. “We are saying to our traditional Republican colleagues, good men and women on the other side of the aisle: End the attachment to the extremist Jim Jordan and join with Democrats in finding a bipartisan path forward.” The House has been without a Speaker since former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted in a vote more than two weeks ago. Jordan, the conservative chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, became the Speaker-designate for the GOP after Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) initially won a closed-door Republican vote but then dropped out of the race when Jordan supporters refused to back him. Jordan has twice gone to the floor, and twice failed to win the 217 votes from his party that would make him Speaker. Democrats are particularly opposed to Jordan, who has been a top ally of former President Trump and who downplayed the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. They have repeatedly criticized him for denying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Jordan has also been a key figure in the House GOP’s impeachment drive against President Biden. Jordan held a press conference Friday where he gave no indication he’s ready to bow to those Republicans saying he should get out of the race. “Our plan this weekend is to get a Speaker elected to the House of Representatives as soon as possible so we can help the American people,” Jordan said when asked what his plan is for the weekend. Democrats are seeking to tie Republicans in swing districts who vote for Jordan to the controversial lawmaker, hoping it will help them win back the House majority next fall.

Democrats jeer as McCarthy calls Jordan ‘effective legislator’ - Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) delivered the nominating speech for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to be the next Speaker, but Democrats laughed at the California lawmaker when he called Jordan an “effective legislator.” “Jim Jordan is an effective legislator,” he said. “To legislate is about more than the name on the bill. It’s about reaching a compromise and working long hours behind the scenes to get the job done.” Democrats have derided Jordan in recent days over his scant legislative record. Over his 16 years in office, Congress has never passed a bill that Jordan wrote. Jordan failed his third vote to be Speaker Friday, with 25 Republicans against him. Opposition continues to build, after 22 Republicans voted against him Wednesday and 20 on Tuesday. McCarthy instead went after Democratic leaders, specifically Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.). He derided Aguilar for only passing a single bill of his in Congress, a post office resolution. “Apparently that’s good enough for caucus chair,” he said. “Democrats are attacking Jim because they don’t want the American people to remember they voted against securing and keeping a wide open border.” McCarthy held up Jordan as an exemplar of what a Speaker should be, while acknowledging their clashes in the past. The pair faced off against each other to become the GOP majority leader in 2018, a fight McCarthy won. “Members I know with the most bills to their name are the most selfish. Jim Jordan, on the other hand, is one of the most selfless members I know,” he said. “He is straightforward, honest and reliable. That is who Jim Jordan is and that is what being Speaker is about.” The House has been without a Speaker for more than two weeks after a group of eight Republicans voted with Democrats to oust McCarthy from the role. “Trust me, being Speaker is not an easy job, especially in this conference,” McCarthy said. “But I’ve seen Jim spend his entire career fighting for freedom no matter what, no matter the odds. And I know he’s ready for the job.”

House GOP abandons Jordan for Speaker after secret ballot loss - The Republican conference on Friday voted to no longer back House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as its Speaker nominee. The secret ballot vote came hours after Jordan’s third failed ballot on the House floor. He had lost GOP support with each successive vote. Friday marks the latest drama in the more than two-week saga since eight House Republicans joined with Democrats to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Oct. 3. Jordan was the GOP’s second shot at Speaker replacement. It had first narrowly nominated House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) for the post, but resistance to his candidacy — mostly from Jordan supporters — forced him to withdraw a day later. Scalise said after the Jordan vote on Friday he would not mount another bid for Speaker. Jordan briefly addressed his recall after the vote. “I told the conference it was an honor to be their speaker designee,” Jordan said. “But I felt it was important that we all — we all know an answer to the question, do they want me to continue in that — in that role. And so we put the question to them, they made a decision” Jordan said that he is going back to work as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “But it’s important we do unite,” Jordan said. “Let’s figure out who that individual is, get behind him and get to work for the American people.” Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) said Jordan’s remarks in conference were “very statesman-like,” and Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), who supported Jordan on the first two ballots but left his corner on the third, said the Ohio Republican was “classy.” Jordan’s decision leaves the House in chaos and stuck amid a war between Israel and Hamas and a looming shutdown deadline. Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (R-N.S.) said that the House GOP will hold a candidate forum Monday at 6:30 p.m., and a secret ballot election for a new Speaker nominee on Tuesday at 9 a.m. The deadline to declare a candidacy for Speaker is noon Sunday, members said. “We need space and time for candidates to talk to other members,” McHenry said. The race to succeed Jordan as the GOP’s nominee — and McCarthy as Speaker — is well underway. And the field is already crowded. Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, announced his own candidacy for Speaker while leaving the closed-door conference meeting. He had floated, but ultimately decided against, a run earlier this month. Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), who mounted an unsuccessful last-minute bid against Jordan last week, jumped back into the race Friday afternoon. And Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) in a statement said: “My hat is in the ring.” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) is running, according to a spokesman.

Report: Rep. Jordan Would Allow Vote Linking Israel and Ukraine Aid - Axios reported Monday that four House Republicans walked away from conversations with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) under the impression that he would allow a vote linking military aid for Ukraine and Israel if he becomes the new House speaker.Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) initially won the GOP nomination for House speaker but abandoned his bid after failing to gain enough support. Jordan was handed the nomination on Friday, but only 152 Republicans said they would support him in a vote on the House floor, short of the 217 votes that he needs.Jordan has gained more support since Friday and has been meeting one-on-one with holdouts ahead of an expected vote on Tuesday. A spokesperson for Jordan told Axios that he hasn’t made promises in his conversations with other lawmakers and only discussed the best way to approach certain issues.But one of the House Republicans who spoke with Jordan said, “He’s not going to block a vote” linking military aid for Israel and Ukraine. Jordan has voted against previous spending packages for the proxy war in Ukraine, but is a staunch supporter of Israel and has called for Congressto authorize more military assistance for Israel.The Washington Post first reported last week that the White House planned to link aid for Ukraine and Israel in an effort to “jam the far right,” referring to House Republicans who are against the proxy war in Ukraine but strongly back Israel. The White House has also discussed the idea ofadding aid for Taiwan and funds for border security to further entice Republicans to support a huge spending package.

Yellen Says the US Can Afford to Fund Wars in Gaza and Ukraine - Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen insisted on Monday that the US could “certainly” afford to fund the war in Ukraine and Israel’s onslaught on Gaza as the White House is looking for more military aid for both conflicts.Yellen’s comments came a day after President Biden said the US could fund both wars. “We’re the United States of America for God’s sake, the most powerful nation in the history — not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense,” he said on 60 Minutes.Yellen said the House needs to elect a new speaker so the new funding could be authorized. “We do need to come up with funds, both for Israel and for Ukraine. This is a priority,” she said. “It’s really up to the House to find, seat a speaker and to put us in a position where legislation can be passed.”The White House has also discussed the possibility of rolling funding to arm Taiwan into the potential spending package. But Yellen did not mention Taiwan, and other Biden administration officials have made clear this week that Ukraine and Israel are the priority.“America can certainly afford to stand with Israel and to support Israel’s military needs and we also can and must support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia,” Yellen said.Discussing US support for Israel, Yellen said, “We stand with Israel. America has also made clear to Israel, we’re working very closely with the Israelis, that they have a right to defend themselves. But it’s important to try to spare innocent civilian lives to the maximum extent possible.”While paying lip service to the idea of sparing civilian lives, the US is strongly backing Israel’s relentless bombing campaign that has killed hundreds of children. According to the latest numbers, at least 2,808 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 853 children and 936 women.

US, Qatar Agree to Deny Iran Access to $6 Billion of Its Funds - The US and Qatar have agreed to deny Iran access to $6 billion of its own funds that were recently released as part of a prisoner swap deal with the US, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The $6 billion was frozen in South Korea due to US sanctions on Iran that were re-imposed after the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, in 2018.As part of an agreement to secure the release of five Americans, the US agreed to allow the transfer of the $6 billion to Qatar, where US officials said it could only be accessed by Tehran for humanitarian purposes. The US also released five Iranians who were detained over alleged sanctions violations.The swap was made in September, but the US decision to again freeze the $6 billion goes back on the agreement. The move came after Republicans and some Democrats claimed the release of the $6 billion was related to the Hamas attack on southern Israel. But so far, there are no indications Iran was involved, as US intelligence says Iranian leaders were surprised by the operation, and the Israeli military said there’s no evidence of Iranian involvement.According to the Times, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told the House that Iran would no longer have access to the $6 billion. The report said it’s unclear if the Biden administration intends to cut off Iran’s access to the funds permanently or if it’s just a temporary measure. Iran’s Nournews also reported on Thursday that Iran still has access to the funds, so it’s unclear if they have been frozen yet.The US decision dims hopes that the prisoner swap deal would foster more diplomacy between the US and Iran. Now, Iranian opponents of negotiating with the US have another example of the US backing out of a deal, similar to the JCPOA.

US to send 2nd aircraft carrier to eastern Mediterranean - The Pentagon has ordered a second aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean near Israel to deter Iran or Hezbollah from joining the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to U.S. officials. A senior U.S. official and a U.S. official told ABC News that the USS Eisenhower carrier strike group will be ordered to the eastern Mediterranean to join the USS Gerald R Ford carrier strike group that arrived there earlier this week and is in international waters off of Israel. "I have directed the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG) to begin moving to the Eastern Mediterranean," said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a statement confirming the deployment. "As part of our effort to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas's attack on Israel." Senior U.S. officials have said publicly this week that the presence of the USS Ford carrier strike group in the eastern Mediterranean and the addition of more U.S. Air Force fighter jets to the region was intended to show the U.S. commitment to Israel and to serve as a deterrent to Iran and Hezbollah not to get involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict. MORE: 'Extremely difficult': What would be Israel's objectives in an offensive into Gaza? "These posture increases were intended to serve as an unequivocal demonstration in deed and not only in words of U.S. support for Israel's defense and serve as a deterrent signal to Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah, and any other proxy across the region who might be considering exploiting the current situation to escalate conflict," a senior U.S. defense official said Monday. "Those adversaries should think twice."

House Democrats Introduce Resolution Calling for Gaza Ceasefire - On Monday, a group of progressive Democrats in the House introduced a resolution calling for de-escalation and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel.“I am grieving for every Palestinian, Israeli, and American life lost to this violence, and my heart breaks for all those who will be forever traumatized because of it. War and retaliatory violence doesn’t achieve accountability or justice; it only leads to more death and human suffering,” Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) said in a statement on the resolution.The effort is being led by Bush and Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), André Carson (D-IN), Summer Lee (D-PA), and Delia C. Ramirez (D-IL). It has received support from Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Jesús García (D-IL), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Nydia Velázquez (D-NY).The resolution would urge “the Biden Administration to call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine, to send humanitarian aid and assistance to Gaza, and to save as many lives as possible.” Amid Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, which has already killed over 2,700 Palestinians, the State Department circulated instructions to its diplomats not to call for a ceasefire or a de-escalation of the conflict. The vast majority of Congress is also strongly backing Israel and wants to pass legislation for new military aid, giving the ceasefire resolution no chance of passing if brought to a vote.

Israel Asks US for Additional $10 Billion in Military Aid - Israel has asked the US for an additional $10 billion in military aid amid its onslaught in Gaza, The New York Times reported on Monday night.The report said lawmakers in Congress are working with the White House to craft a spending package that will include military aid for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan and additional funds for border security.It’s not clear how much the package will be worth, but previous media reports have said the White House was considering up to $100 billion for Ukraine alone to ensure the proxy war will be funded through the 2024 election.The extra $10 billion for Israel would be on top of the $3.8 billion the US provides the country each year. The administration has expressed full-throated support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza and has already shipped new military equipment and deployed major firepower to the region, including two aircraft carrier strike groups. The US began providing Taiwan with military aid this year, an unprecedented step in the era of normalized US-China relations. Lumping in Taiwan aid as part of a spending package to fund two hot wars in Ukraine and Gaza will be viewed as a major provocation in Beijing.

State Department official resigns over weapons shipments to Israel -- A State Department official that oversaw arms transfers to foreign powers resigned Wednesday over the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.Josh Paul, who worked for the department for more than a decade, said in a letter that he was leaving his position because the harm caused by the “provision of lethal arms to Israel” outweighed the good he could do in his role.Paul said the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs — where he served as director of congressional and public affairs — could “still do an immense amount of good,” and that American assistance is still needed around the world.But, he said, “we cannot be both against occupation, and for it.”“We cannot be both for freedom, and against it,” Paul added. “And we cannot be for a better world, while contributing to one that is materially worse.”The former official condemned the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked the war, calling it “a monstrosity of monstrosities.”Paul said the response taken by Israel, fueled by American support, “will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and Palestinian people.”The U.S. has provided “critical assets” to Israel, including emergency munitions to help the country with its counterattack.Paul said the response by the Biden administration and many lawmakers is disappointing and unsurprising. He added that he is worried the U.S. is making the same mistakes “we have made these past decades” and that he no longer wants to be a part of it.“It is my firm belief that in such conflicts, for those of us who are third parties, the side we must pick is not that of one of the combatants, but that of the people caught in the middle, and that of the generations yet to come,” Paul wrote in his letter. “It is our responsibility to help the warring parties build a better world.”

US Prepares 2,000 Troops for Potential Middle East Deployment to Support Israel - The Pentagon has selected 2,000 troops to prepare for a potential deployment to support Israel, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.Pentagon officials told the paper that the troops would be tasked with missions like advising and medical support and are not intended to serve a combat role. The personnel that have been selected are from across the US armed services, and some are already in the Middle East while others are outside the region.The Associated Press also reported that the US is preparing for the potential deployment. One official told the AP that they would “not be sent to Israel but could be sent to countries in the region.”It’s not clear what circumstances would lead to the deployment, but the prepare to deploy notice comes as Israel continues to bombard the Gaza Strip and is expected to launch a ground incursion. An Israeli military spokesman said Sunday that Israeli forces were “in formation” to launch an attack on Gaza City.POLITICO reported last week that the US decided not to send troops into Gaza to rescue hostages. But the report said the issue could be revised, and the idea of the US military entering the besieged enclave has not been ruled out.While not committing to sending troops into Gaza, the US has offered Israel intelligence and other types of support for a potential rescue operation. The US has also deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups into the region and sent new military aid, demonstrating Washington’s strong support for the onslaught in Gaza.

McCaul Preparing Authorization of Military Force If Gaza War Escalates - Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN on Monday that he was drawing up an authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against Hamas, Hezbollah, and other groups in the region if the Gaza war escalates.“I hope I never have to mark this bill up. But we have a situation in the Middle East that’s growing day by day with intensity and if Hezbollah gets involved, Iran has already threatened if Gaza is, you know, if Israel goes, you know, if IDF (Israel Defense Forces) goes into Gaza that they’re gonna come out,” McCaul said.When asked if the White House requested the authorization, McCaul wouldn’t say. “I don’t want to confirm that. It’s just that there is concern that — we, I’m currently, we’re currently drafting one in the event it’s necessary,” he said.McCaul said the AUMF he’s working on would apply to Iran as well if Tehran enters the fighting. “I’d prefer not to put Iran as a nation-state in there. It would be more Iran proxies, you know, like Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran-backed Shia militias, but if Iran gets directly involved, then we would have to put them on the list,” he said. The US has deployed a huge amount of firepower near Israel, including two aircraft carrier strike groups. The Biden administration has said the purpose of the deployments is to “deter” regional actors from entering the war, implying that the US would directly enter the conflict if Hezbollah launched a significant on Israel.

US arranging charter flights for Americans looking to leave Israel - The Biden administration is arranging charter flights for U.S. citizens looking to leave Israel amid a shortage of commercial flights in the aftermath of terrorist attacks against the Jewish state. John Kirby, a White House spokesperson on national security issues, said the administration is “acutely aware” of the limited availability of commercial flights out of Israel, and President Biden asked his team to ensure the government is assisting American citizens who want to leave. “So, beginning tomorrow, the United States government will arrange charter flights to provide transportation from Israel to sites in Europe,” Kirby said. The flights will be for U.S. citizens and their immediate family members, said Kirby. The State Department is still working on finalizing details, including whether the flights will be free of charge. “We’re also exploring other options to expand the capacity of doing this including whether it’s possible to help Americans by land and by sea,” Kirby said. There are still some commercial carriers flying in and out of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, but leaving Israel has become more difficult for some in the region amid fighting between the Israelis and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. Hamas launched terrorist attacks against Israel on Saturday that left more than 1,000 Israelis dead. Hundreds of Palestinians have died in subsequent fighting in Gaza. Kirby confirmed Thursday that 27 Americans have been killed in the fighting, and 14 U.S. citizens are still unaccounted for.

US Won't Draw 'Red Lines' on Israel's Use of White Phosphorus Munitions - National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday that the US would not draw any “red lines” over Israel’s alleged use of white phosphorus munitions, a chemical weapon that can cause severe burns. Human Rights Watch has said it verified videos of Israel using white phosphorus on Gaza and Lebanon on October 10 and 11. According to HRW, white phosphorus can be used “either for marking, signaling, and obscuring or as a weapon to set fires that burn people and objects.”In an interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press, Sullivan noted that the Israeli military denied the allegations but made clear the use of the chemical weapon wouldn’t impact US support for Israel.“I have seen the reports of that. The IDF has actually come out and said they were not using phosphorus bombs. I’m not going to sit here… and draw red lines,” Sullivan said. “I was asked this same question at the White House podium a few days ago, and I said, ‘You know, it’s not my job in public to draw red lines.'”Whether deployed for marking or as a weapon, the use of white phosphorus munitions in a densely populated place like Gaza risks harming civilians. When it comes in contact with the skin, white phosphorus can burn people all the way down to the bone. According to HRW, even minor burns are often fatal.“The use of white phosphorus in densely populated areas of Gaza violates the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life,” HRW said.

Biden warns Israel not to repeat mistakes of US response after 9/11 - President Biden cautioned Israel Wednesday not to make the same mistakes the United States made after the 9/11 terrorist attacks as Israeli forces are expected to prepare a ground offensive in response to terrorist attacks launched by Hamas. Biden delivered remarks in Tel Aviv at the end of a trip to Israel meant to underscore his unwavering support for the Jewish state in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks, which killed more than 1,000 Israelis and has set off concerns about a wider conflict in the region. “Since this terrorist attack took place, we’ve seen it described as Israel’s 9/11. But for a nation the size of Israel, it was like 15 9/11s,” Biden said. “The scale may be different, but I’m sure those horrors have tapped into some kind of primal feeling in Israel just like it did in the United States. Shock, pain, rage. An all-consuming rage.” “You can’t look at what has happened here … and not scream out for justice,” Biden continued. “Justice must be done. But I caution this: While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11 we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.” Biden said the choices in a time of war are never clear and must be weighed against potential costs before noting that the Palestinian people are suffering, and that the vast majority of them are not represented by Hamas. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. embarked on wars in Afghanistan to hunt down those responsible and then months later, began a war in Iraq. The dual conflicts cost the United States thousands of U.S. troops and spanned 20 years. Biden served as vice president while both wars were being waged and his administration later oversaw the chaotic exit of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021. The president’s comments came as scores of Palestinians have been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes on Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas. Israel is preparing an offensive against Hamas, including a potential ground invasion. World leaders have also sounded the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where civilians have struggled to access food, water and medicine. Protests have broken out in the Middle East after a hospital explosion Tuesday in Gaza that killed hundreds of people, including patients who were seeking treatment and refuge amid heavy aerial bombardment by Israel over the last week. While Hamas and some Arab nations have blamed Israel for the explosion, Biden and the White House have said available information indicates Israel was not responsible for the blast.

Iran Calls For Middle East States to Start Economic Escalation Via Oil Embargo On Israel - Iran is calling for an oil embargo on Israel over the latest deadly air strikes on the Gaza Strip amid growing tensions in the Middle East just as U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Israel.Iran wants “an immediate and complete embargo on the Zionist regime by Islamic countries, an oil embargo against the regime,” according to a statement from the foreign ministry on Telegram quoted by Bloomberg. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has also called for Muslim countries to expel their respective Israeli ambassadors if they have diplomatic relations with Israel. Amirabdollahian warned, “If the war crimes do not stop and the ongoing genocide by the apartheid Zionist regime in Gaza continues, the situation in the region will spiral out of control”.Amirabdollahian met with his Kuwaiti counterpart on the sidelines of an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)’s Executive Committee in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.The emergency meeting is taking place hours after a missile strike on a hospital in Gaza killed about 500 people, with Israel’s army and Hamas blaming each other for the attack, which sent oil prices jumping by more than 2% early on Wednesday.Meanwhile, U.S. President Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday to discuss the conflict. Following the bombing of the hospital, a meeting of Arab leaders and Biden in Jordan was canceled. Biden claimed that, from what he has seen, the explosion at the hospital was not carried out by Israel but by “the other team”.Israel is a small oil importer, but the further escalation of the Hamas-Israel war into the wider Middle East is not being ruled out, and analysts are increasingly concerned about supply from the world’s most important oil-exporting region.With Saudi Arabia also taking a pro-Palestine stance in its recent conversations with the U.S., the possibility for a quick end of the fighting is fading away while the possibility of greater regional involvement appears to be rising if oil prices are any indication.

Joe Biden just got canceled in the Arab World -- President Joe Biden’s overnight trip to Israel on Wednesday sent all of the right messages to The White House’s intended audience. To Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli people, it was a resounding show of support by the United States as a strategic and longtime ally that will not bend to terrorism. To Hamas, Hezbollah and their principal state-sponsor, Iran, it was a one word message:“Don’t.” And Biden backed it up with a show of force. The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group is currently in the Mediterranean Sea. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group will soon join it. In addition, there is the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan — “a rapid reaction force capable of conducting special operations” and supporting a large-scale evacuation, in a mission preparation phase. But the message is not resonating — not in the Middle East, and not across college campuses in the U.S. Before Air Force One touched down at Ben Gurion Airport early Wednesday morning, and before Biden could give Netanyahu a bear hug on the tarmac, the President had already been canceled by the Arab World. The ostensible reason was the explosion at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, which Palestinian health officials claimed to have killed nearly 500 people. This narrative was later all but refuted, but it is Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who is controlling the narrative — and the anti-western repercussions. Jordanian King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are in control of their governments. But when it comes to Israel and the plight of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Khamenei and his Mullahs control the Arab street. Faced with this Iranian fait accompli and fast-growing Palestinian protests across the Middle East, Abbas canceled his scheduled meeting in Amman, Jordan with Biden — and in doing so, he precipitated the cancelation of Biden across the region. Biden had been scheduled to participate in a four-way summit with Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority to discuss humanitarian initiatives and efforts to deconflict. But that, too, was canceled. “If you are explaining, you are losing,” the adage goes. Biden is learning a hard lesson about this now. In the Middle East, perception is often more convincing than reality to the Arab street. So too is the Arab street’s inherent bias against the U.S. and Israel. As a consequence, both Washington and Jerusalem continue to lose the information war to Iran and Hamas, both regionally and globally.

Lawmakers react to Biden’s Oval Office address -Lawmakers reacted after President Biden delivered an Oval Office address on Thursday night, during which he spoke on the Israel-Hamas conflict and the war in Ukraine. Democrats seemed to react well to their leader’s Thursday night speech, with many praising the president’s words on the current foreign conflicts. “Tonight, President Joe Biden masterfully presented the case that American leadership on the world stage is necessary for preserving and promoting democracy,” former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “In his Oval Office address, the President strongly reiterated America’s commitment to the people of Israel and the people of Ukraine as they defend their democracies,” Pelosi continued. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin (D), the Senate Majority Whip, appeared to thank the President for his words during the speech. “Thank you, @POTUS, for reminding America that we have a singular role in the world fighting against terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like the infamous war criminal, Vladimir Putin,” Durbin said in a post on X. “I agree with what @POTUS said tonight: the decisions Congress makes in the coming weeks will determine democracy’s fate for decades,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said in his own X post. Republican Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio) took aim at Biden for tying the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine together. “Why is Joe Biden going on national television and selling people on a Ukrainian escalation, when Joe Biden is talking about the terrible tragedy in Israel?” Vance said in a Fox News clip posted to his press office’s account.Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) had her own harsh words for the president about his address.“Joe Biden’s Oval Office address was a weak speech that did not spend enough time addressing the threat facing the Jewish state,” Blackburn said in an X post. “Once again, Biden failed to hold Iran accountable, commit to freezing the $6 billion to Iran, or pledge to withhold aid to Hamas,” she continued.

US has provided Ukraine long range ATACMS missiles, sources say — The US secretly provided Ukraine with long-range ATACMS missiles in recent days, according to multiple US officials, providing Ukraine with a significant new capability that could allow its forces to hit new Russian targets that were previously out of reach. The confirmation came on Tuesday after images of the missiles’ submunitions inside Ukraine began circulating on social media. US officials indicated to CNN on Tuesday that Ukraine has already used the ATACMS, some variants of which have a maximum range of approximately 186 miles, to attack Russia’s Berdyansk and Luhansk airfields in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian military tweeted on Tuesday that the attack destroyed several Russian helicopters, an ammunition depot and an air defense launcher, but did not specify whether they used ATACMS to do it. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the ATACMS in his daily address and expressed his gratitude for the agreements with the US being implemented. “Today, I am especially grateful to the United States. Our agreements with President Biden are being implemented. They are being implemented very accurately – the ATACMS have proven themselves,” Zelensky said. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that “The United States recently provided Ukraine with a type of ATACMS capable of ranging out to 165 km as part of our ongoing support for the people of Ukraine as they defend their territory against Russia’s brutal invasion. We believe this will provide a significant boost to Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities without risking our military readiness.” A US official said the version of the missiles the US provided to Ukraine, which carry cluster munitions instead of unitary warheads, are not in the the stockpiles the Pentagon would draw from if the US became directly involved in a war, so there were no concerns that transferring them would hinder US military readiness. National security adviser Jake Sullivan first asked the NSC in mid-July, as Ukraine’s counteroffensive appeared to be moving more slowly than anticipated, to work with the Pentagon to provide an updated memo on ATACMS options that assessed the potential impacts on US military readiness, the official said. The official said the missiles were provided “in recent days,” and that Biden signed off on their transfer in mid-September. In a meeting with Zelensky at the White House on September 21, Biden told Zelensky about his decision to send this particular variant of the ATACMS, known as APAM or anti-personnel/anti-materiel. The US decided to send them quietly because they wanted to take the Russians by surprise, especially after months of public back-and-forth over whether Biden would agree to send the weapons, an official said. The Russians are aware of the range of the missiles and the US was concerned they would move equipment and weapons out of reach before the missiles could be used, the official said.

US Secretly Provided Ukraine With Cluster Bomb ATACMS - CNN reported Tuesday that the US has secretly provided Ukraine with Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), munitions that typically have a range of about 190 miles and can be fired from the HIMARS rocket systems. US officials told The New York Times that the ATACMS the US has provided are armed with cluster bombs, a widely banned munition that’s notorious for killing civilians due to its indiscriminate nature. Cluster bombs spread small submunitions over large areas and can leave duds behind that civilians can come across years after the conflict. While most ATACMS have a range of 190 miles, the Times report said that the version the US secretly provided Ukraine has less of a range than the Storm Shadow missiles that the British have given Kyiv, which can hit targets up to 155 miles away. The US officials said Ukraine has already used the ATACMS in strikes on two airfields in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine on Tuesday. Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament, also said the ATACMS were already in use.“ATACMS is already with us. The airfield in Berdyansk with enemy equipment was hit by them. Thanks to our partners!” Goncharenko wrote on X. Berdyansk is a southern city in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia oblast. Ukrainian officials also said they struck an airfield in Luhansk andclaimed they destroyed nine helicopters in the two attacks, which has not been confirmed by the Russian side.It’s not clear when the US delivered ATACMS to Ukraine. After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington in September, media reports said President Biden decided to arm Ukraine with a cluster bomb version of ATACMS, but the Pentagon did not list the missiles in any recent weapons packages.

Drone Warfare in the Nuclear Age -- A war with China may not be inevitable, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks observed recently, but it’s a genuine possibility and so this country must be prepared to fight and win. But victory in such a conflict will not, she suggested, come easily. China enjoys an advantage in certain measures of military power, including the number of ships, guns, and missiles it can deploy. While America’s equivalents may be more advanced and capable, they also cost far more to produce and so can only be procured in smaller numbers. To overcome such a dilemma in any future conflict, Hicks suggested, our costly crewed weapons systems must be accompanied by hordes of uncrewed autonomous ships, planes, and tanks. To ensure that America will possess sufficient numbers of “all-domain attritable [that is, expendable] autonomous” weapons when a war with China breaks out, Hicks announced a major new Pentagon program dubbed the Replicator Initiative. “Replicator is meant to help us overcome [China’s] biggest advantage, which is mass. More ships. More missiles. More people,” she told the National Defense Industrial Association as August ended. Because we can’t match our adversaries “ship-for-ship and shot-for-shot,” given the prohibitive costs of traditional weapons systems (which must include space for their human crews), we’ll overpower them instead with swarms of autonomous weapons — unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs and UASs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), unmanned surface vessels (USVs), and unmanned subsea vessels (UUVs, or drone submarines), all governed by artificial intelligence (AI) and capable of independent action. “We’ll counter the [Chinese military’s] mass with mass of our own,” she declared, “but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit, harder to beat.” Needless to say, Hicks’ announcement of the Replicator Initiative has raised many questions in the military-industrial-congressional complex and elsewhere about this country’s ability to produce such a vast array of technologically-advanced weaponry in a short period of time. The U.S. military does, of course, already possess an array of remotely piloted drones like the infamous Predator and Reaper aircraft used in this country’s Global War on Terror to hunt and kill enemy militants (and often nearby villagers as well). Those are not, however, capable of operating autonomously in swarms, as envisioned by Hicks. Even if Congress were to vote the needed hundreds of billions of dollars to develop such weapons — and, at the moment, there’s no certainty of that — and even if the Pentagon could overcome its own bureaucratic inertia in passing such funds on to defense contractors, will those companies be capable of developing the necessary advanced software and hardware anytime soon? Who knows?

Texas installs barrier at New Mexico border to deter migrants - Texas is adding to its border wall to deter migrants from entering the state by constructing a barrier between itself and New Mexico. “Texas installs fencing along NEW Mexico border. Our barriers around El Paso forced the migrants crossing illegally to enter into New Mexico. They then entered into El Paso from there. To end that, we are building a barrier on the New Mexico border,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Construction of a wall along the Texas-Mexico border has been in the works for months since Abbott committed to the project in 2021. He has continually posted videos and images of the border wall on X, but last week’s announcement revealing the construction of a wall between Texas and the neighboring state of New Mexico marks the latest step in his Operation Lone Star. KFOX14 reported earlier this month that members of the Texas National Guard reinforced the wall between New Mexico and Texas with concertina wire — a type of barbed wire that already lines the Texas-Mexico border. Abbott said Texas had plans to build a barrier between the two states during an appearance at the Manhattan Institute last month. New Mexico and Texas Democrats condemned the action in a joint statement. “Earlier this month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the placement of razor wire fencing along the Texas-New Mexico border north of the Rio Grande near Sunland Park, NM. This is the latest Operation Lone Star stunt funded by the working Texas family’s tax-dollar that will result in environmental damage, community division and injuries of vulnerable migrants,” the statement read. “It’s clear that Governor Abbott has no plans on actually addressing our broken immigration system head on — but instead adding more fuel to Operation Lone Star’s dumpster fire,” the statement added.

Protesters calling for Israel-Hamas ceasefire arrested in House office building -A large group of protestors entered the Cannon House office building Wednesday demanding an Israeli ceasefire, resulting in several arrests, Capitol Police said. Three of the protesters were later charged with “Assault on a Police Officer during processing,” U.S. Capitol Police said in a post on X, formerly called Twitter. “Demonstrations are not allowed inside Congressional Buildings,” Capitol Police said in a post earlier in the day. “We warned the protestors to stop demonstrating and when they did not comply we began arresting them.” The protest, organized jointly by the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow, began at noon in front of the Capitol. Demonstrators urged Congress take action toward a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. The Biden administration has largely defended Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza, after Hamas militants carried out a massacre of Israeli civilians earlier this month. But progressives in Congress have increased pressure on President Biden to urge restraint from Israel as the death toll in the Gaza Strip mounts. “The root of violence is oppression, and we’re here to say no in our names,” Jewish Voice for Peace posted on X. “We have the power to stop the ongoing atrocities against Palestinians. We refuse to standby as the Israeli government commits genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”Protestors inside the Cannon Rotunda chanted “ceasefire now,” holding banners with the same message. Capitol Police did not confirm the number of arrests made, but posted on X at 4:04 p.m. that road closures and arrests were ongoing. Outside of the Capitol, a large crowd gathered to “support those getting arrested on the inside.” The total number of protestors has not been determined, but JVP posted on X that there are 10,000 protestors outside the Capitol building and 500 more “are inside to demand an end to the Israeli and U.S. government’s genocide in Gaza.” Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who have been calling on Biden to work toward an immediate ceasefire, spoke to the crowd of demonstrators before they entered the Capitol Building. “I wish all the Palestinian people would see this. I wish they could see that not all of America want them to die. That they are not disposable, that they have a right to live,” said Tlaib, the only current Palestinian-American member of Congress.

Greene requests Capitol Police preserve footage, police reports from House protest demanding Israel-Hamas cease-fire - Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is requesting U.S. Capitol Police preserve all surveillance footage and photos, police reports and arrest records from all House office buildings on Wednesday following a large protest on Capitol Hill that demanded a cease-fire in Israel and Gaza. A large group of protestors began a demonstration inside the Cannon House office building on Wednesday, urging Congress to act on a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip. The protest, organized by Jewish groups Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow, involved numerous demonstrators chanting “ceasefire now,” and holding banners with the same message. Posting a copy of a letter she sent to Capitol Police Chief John Thomas Manger, Greene wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that she was “formally requesting” Capitol Police “preserve all video surveillance footage, photographic evidence, police reports, and arrest records from all House Office Buildings on October 18, 2023.” “By launching an insurrection in the Capitol complex, these actors caused elevators to be shut down, staircases and hallways to be blocked, exits to be made inaccessible, and official legislative business to be obstructed, putting Members of Congress, their staffs and Capitol visits at risk,” Greene wrote in the letter. The Georgia Republican called on the Committee on House Administration to investigate the incident and review all footage and evidence from Capitol Police, writing the “insurrectionists involved must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” Greene railed against the protests in a series of posts on X, calling the protest “an insurrection of Capitol Hill.” Greene also claimed Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who spoke to a crowd of demonstrators on Wednesday, was leading the protest, calling her a “Hamas Caucus Leader.” Tlaib, along with Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo) who also spoke to demonstrators, have called on the Biden administration to work toward an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Capitol Police did not confirm the total number of protestors arrested, but said arrests were “ongoing,” and that three people had been charged with assault of a police officer.

CDC ends Biobot Analytics contract for wastewater surveillance of COVID pandemic - As of September 27, 2023, one of the few reliable sources of information on the real state of the COVID pandemic in the US was halted. The contract between Biobot Analytics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide extended data for the public health agency’s National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) ended. Instead, the CDC awarded the $38 million contract for up-to-five years to Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) on September 26, 2023. However, a glance into Verily’s COVID dashboard, WastewaterSCAN, offers little in terms of comprehensible data in regional or national terms. It simply states, “Medium: Downward trend and medium concentration in the last 21 days.” The last Biobot report indicated the levels of SARS-CoV-2 nationally were rising again, with the Northeast accelerating and the rest of the country seeing levels plateau. Last update from Biobot Analytics on SARS-CoV-2 virus concentration in wastewater. The available graphics and trends in SARS-CoV-2 wastewater levels are limited to the wastewater site and have not been aggregated to provide a coherent picture. And reviewing the CDC’s limited graphics, as of September 28, there has been a precipitous drop in the number of sites reporting. Last update from Biobot Analytics on SARS-CoV-2 virus concentration in wastewater. [Photo: Biobot Analystics] It appears that the disruption in wastewater data is another deliberate attempt by the CDC to further dismantle any semblance of organized real-time data on the state of the pandemic. Such shifts in contracts usually take place over a span of time to assure a seamless transition on the data being presented.

Pfizer to price COVID treatment Paxlovid at $1,390 per course (Reuters) - Pfizer on Wednesday (PFE.N) said it will set the U.S. price for its COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid at nearly $1,400 per five-day course when it moves to commercial sales after government stocks run out, more than double what the government currently pays for it. The new list price, which does not include rebates and other discounts to insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, is $1,390 per course, Pfizer said in an emailed statement. The U.S. government paid around $530 per course for Paxlovid it has made available to Americans at no cost. Paxlovid, the most commonly prescribed at home treatment for COVID-19 in the U.S., will remain available for free to patients there until the end of the year, Pfizer said. Under an agreement with the government, the drug will also stay free of charge for patients insured under the Medicare and Medicaid programs through the end of 2024, and to uninsured and underinsured patients through 2028. In Pfizer's clinical trial, Paxlovid was shown to reduce hospitalizations and death by around 90% for unvaccinated people at risk for serious disease. In another trial, Pfizer was not able to show benefit for those considered at standard risk, including vaccinated patients. Influential U.S. drug pricing watchdog the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) said last year that its suggested price range for Paxlovid based on the benefits and value to patients was between $563 to $906 per course.

Senate votes to nullify CFPB's small-business data collection rule - — The full Senate voted 53-44 in favor of a resolution to repeal the CFPB's small-business data collection rule, sending the Congressional Review Act resolution to the House. The votes against the resolution, originally introduced by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., in June, were primarily from Republicans. But three Democrats — Jon Tester of Montana, John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — also voted in favor of the resolution. Independent Senators Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Angus King of Maine — both of whom caucus with Democrats — also supported the resolution. Kennedy, on the Senate floor on Wednesday, said that the CFPB's 1071 is too wide in its scope of who would be required to provide information from small-business owners and in what banks would need to ask. "Well, the CFPB has taken our work and totally perverted it," he said. "The CFPB has propagated a rule that totally perverts our intention of section 1071 of the Dodd Frank Act." Of those lawmakers, Tester and Sinema were the only members of the Senate Banking Committee to break ranks. Sinema, however, is leaving the committee for a seat on Appropriations, and will be replaced by the newly appointed Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., on the banking committee, according to Senate leadership. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, urged Democratic lawmakers to vote against the resolution on the Senate floor. "You don't need reports and studies to know that most Ohioans don't get a fair shake from big banks and the financial system," he said. "But you do need accurate information to fight back. That's why, in 2010, Congress required the CFPB to get that information, and this spring, the CFPB issued a rule to finally implement the law and bring transparency to the small-business lending market. We're talking about basic data on the borrowers' demographics, loan pricing, application approvals and other critical information — just like we do with mortgages."

Democratic senators introduce bill establishing Supreme Court term limits -- A group of Democratic senators introduced a bill Thursday that would radically change the makeup of the Supreme Court, amid ongoing concerns over court ethics and its increasingly conservative makeup. The legislation would appoint a new Supreme Court justice every two years, with that justice hearing every case for 18 years before stepping back from the bench and only hearing a “small number of constitutionally required cases.” “The Supreme Court is facing a crisis of legitimacy that is exacerbated by radical decisions at odds with established legal precedent, ethical lapses of sitting justices, and politicization of the confirmation process,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said in a statement. “This crisis has eroded faith and confidence in our nation’s highest court. Fundamental reform is necessary to address this crisis and restore trust in the institution.” Only the nine most recently appointed justices would hear appellate cases, which make up a bulk of the court’s work. All living justices would participate in a smaller subset of cases under the court’s “original jurisdiction,” such as disputes between states or with foreign officials. The bill was introduced by Sens. Booker, Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and it was co-sponsored by Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). Calls for Supreme Court reform grew louder this year after ProPublica revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of perks from conservative political donors. Further investigations have uncovered multiple significant and undisclosed gifts from politically connected friends over his time as a federal judge.Justice Samuel Alito also took a luxury vacation paid for by an influential conservative donor while in the judiciary, another investigation found earlier this year.The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill earlier this year along party lines that would require the Supreme Court to create and abide by a code of ethics. Unlike lower courts, Supreme Court judges are not beholden to an official ethics code.

Biden campaign joins Trump’s Truth Social platform - The Biden campaign Monday joined Truth Social, the platform founded by former President Trump, pushing its message on a platform largely dominated by the former president and his followers. “Well. Let’s see how this goes. Converts welcome!” the campaign wrote in its first post on the platform under the handle @BidenHQ. The campaign followed up with another post that featured a video clip of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) criticizing Trump’s record on the national debt. “A thing about campaigns is sometimes you just do things for the lolz,” Rob Flaherty, a deputy Biden campaign manager, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, of the decision to join Truth Social. Fox News first reported that the Biden campaign would join Truth Social, which Trump founded in 2021 and launched in 2022 after he was suspended from what was then Twitter and other major social media platforms following the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. Trump has since posted almost exclusively on Truth Social. He has more than 6 million followers on the platform, which is a fraction of the roughly 87 million he has on X.

Poll finds support for exploring alternatives to democracy, using violence to stop opponents A new poll found that American voters have a mutual mistrust of the other side and are open to exploring alternatives to democracy, and that a share of both Democrat and Republican voters believe it is acceptable to use violence to stop the opposing party from achieving its goals. A majority of voters that support President Biden or former President Trump believe that electing officials from the opposing party in 2024 would create lasting harm in the United States, according to poll results released Wednesday by the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Forty-one percent of Biden supporters say they believe people who support the Republican party and its ideologies have become “so extreme in what they want that it is acceptable to use violence to stop them from achieving their goals.” Likewise, 38 percent of Trump supporters say it is OK to use violence to stop Democrats from achieving their goals.

Judge agrees to ‘narrow’ gag order limiting Trump attacks on witnesses in Jan. 6 case - A federal judge said Monday that she would impose a gag order barring former President Trump from attacking future witnesses in his election interference case, as well as prosecutors, court staff and their families. Judge Tanya Chutkan said Trump’s status as a candidate did not give him carte blanche to level a “smear campaign” against those involved in the case, saying that “First amendment protections yield to the administration of justice and to the protection of witnesses.” She declined however, to grant an order with the breadth requested by the Justice Department in September, declining to limit any speech attacking her or the District of Columbia, saying the court would use the jury selection process to ensure it does not pick jurors swayed by Trump’s repeated attacks on the city. The extent of Chutkan’s order was not entirely clear, saying she would describe only the “contours” of her decision Monday, while drafting a formal ruling later. Still, she clarified the “narrow” order would not stop Trump from attacking President Biden or claiming over the course of his campaign that the prosecution is politically motivated — an assertion the Justice Department again denied during the hearing. “This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses,” Chutkan said. “This is about language that dangers the administration of justice.” The decision came after a request by the Justice Department to limit attacks that included disparaging, inflammatory and intimidating remarks about the case. It’s something prosecutors said was needed to block Trump from using his reach as a former president to influence the case, while Trump’s team said it was overly broad and would chart new ground in impinging on the free speech rights of a presidential candidate. Chutkan said her ruling reflected the realities of being a criminal defendant — at one point noting Trump’s four different criminal cases — and saying release conditions allow for restrictions on speech and that “Trump does not have the right to say and do exactly as he pleases.” During the more than two-hour hearing, Chutkan in particular took issue with Trump’s statements calling special counsel Jack Smith a deranged thug. “I cannot imagine any other criminal case where a defendant is allowed to call a prosecutor deranged or a thug,” she said. “I will not permit it here simply because the defendant is running a political campaign,” Chutkan added.

Trump told to quiet down during NY civil fraud trial --A New York judge asked former President Trump to pipe down after he grew animated while a witness testified against him in his civil fraud trial. Judge Arthur Engoron issued the warning after Trump threw his hands up in frustration and conferred with his lawyers during real estate appraiser Doug Larson’s second day of testimony, according to The Associated Press (AP). Kevin Wallace, a lawyer with the state attorney general’s office, requested that Engoron ask the defense to “stop commenting during the witness’s testimony,” noting that Trump’s comments were audible on the witness side of the room. Engoron then asked everyone to keep their voices down, “particularly if it’s meant to influence the testimony,” the AP reported. The admonition came during Trump’s second bout attending his sprawling fraud trial in person. He was also in attendance for the start of the trial earlier this month, where his frustration similarly dictated the proceedings. The former president often grumbled, scowled or threw his hands up before exiting to deliver fiery stump speeches in the courthouse hallways. When that rage manifested in attacks on court staff on Truth Social, Engoron issued a limited gag order barring Trump or other parties in the case from posting or speaking about his employees. Trump has called the trial a “witch hunt” and lambasted both Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James for their roles in the case. He has denied any wrongdoing. James sued Trump, the Trump Organization and Trump’s two adult sons — Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — last year, claiming they engaged in decades of fraud by falsely inflating and deflating the value of their assets to receive lower taxes and better insurance coverage. James’s office is asking for $250 million in financial penalties and a ban on Trump and his children serving as officers or directors of New York companies. Before the trial even began, Engoron found that James had proved the crux of her case, ruling that Trump and his co-defendants were liable for fraud. The decision stripped some of Trump’s business licenses and increased the likelihood he might lose control of some of his famed properties — the same ones that catapulted him to fame, television success and eventually the White House. Trump’s legal team appealed the ruling and asked for a stay in both the decision and the trial until an appeals court could hear their case. The New York appellate division declined to stay the trial and most of the ruling, but did halt the cancellation of Trump’s business licenses.

Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia election interference case -Trump-aligned attorney Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts in the Georgia 2020 election interference case Thursday after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors, the second defendant in the sweeping case to do so. Powell appeared before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to enter her plea, just days before her trial was scheduled to begin next week. “How do you plead to the six counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties?” asked Daysha Young, a Fulton County prosecutor. “Guilty,” Powell said. McAfee accepted Powell’s plea and said that she cannot withdraw it. She was sentenced to six years of probation, a $6,000 fine and $2,700 restitution. She will also be required to “testify truthfully” in future proceedings and must turn over any documents requested by the district attorney’s office. Powell was also required to submit a “letter of apology” to Georgia residents, which her lawyer indicated she had already done. Powell is the second of 19 co-defendants in the case to plead guilty. The other 17, including Trump, have denied any wrongdoing. Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who was also charged, pleaded guilty late last month to five counts of the same charge Powell did. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) indicted Powell on seven charges in August, accusing her and the others of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act statute by entering a months-long conspiracy to try to keep Trump in power following the 2020 election.

Chesebro becomes second Trump lawyer to plead guilty in Georgia - Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who wrote a series of memos devising the Trump campaign’s alternate electors strategy in 2020, pleaded guilty to one felony Friday after reaching a deal with Georgia prosecutors in their election interference case. Chesebro, 62, was set to go to trial Monday and would have become the first defendant in the case to do so. He has now avoided that prospect at the last minute by pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents during a brief proceeding before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. His guilty plea comes one day after Sidney Powell — a former Trump campaign lawyer who was set to be tried next week alongside him — accepted a plea deal with Georgia prosecutors. Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts and was sentenced to six years of probation. A third defendant, former bail bondsman Scott Hall, pleaded guilty last month to five misdemeanor counts.

Hunter Biden prosecutor to appear for closed-door congressional testimony, AP sources say – (AP) — The special counsel overseeing the Hunter Biden investigation is expected to testify before a Congressional committee behind closed doors as a GOP probe into the Justice Department’s handling of the case continues to unfold. In a rare step, David Weiss is set to appear for a transcribed interview before members of the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 7, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press Friday. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the closed-door appearance. It comes months after an Internal Revenue Service agent testified as part of a GOP probe that the investigation into the president’s son was “slow-walked” and mishandled. Weiss has denied one of the more explosive allegations by saying in writing that he had final say over the case. Questions about Hunter Biden’s business dealings have been central to a GOP-led impeachment inquiry into the president. That’s been led in part by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, who was also running for speaker Friday in a drawn-out election that’s largely brought legislative business to a standstill. The Justice Department has previously offered to let Weiss testify about the authority he had over the investigation, noting that it is an “extraordinary step” for a prosecutor to speak to Congress while the criminal investigation is still open but saying it is warranted due to deep concerns about “any misrepresentations about our work that could harm public confidence.” Weiss is expected to make a single appearance next month. However, the Justice Department noted in a letter to the Judiciary Committee last month that he could be called on for public testimony after the investigation is over. Weiss, who also serves as U.S. Attorney for Delaware, has been investigating Hunter Biden for five years, and the case was expected to come to a conclusion with a plea deal on tax and gun charges that spared him jail time this summer. But the agreement imploded after it came under scathing GOP criticism as a “sweetheart deal” and a judge separately raised questions about the terms in court.

AI-caused financial crisis ‘nearly unavoidable’ without regulation: SEC chief - The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned that a financial crisis caused by artificial intelligence (AI) is “nearly unavoidable” in the next decade without further regulation of the rapidly advancing technology. “It’s frankly a hard challenge,” SEC Chairman Gary Gensler told the Financial Times. “It’s a hard financial stability issue to address because most of our regulation is about individual institutions, individual banks, individual money market funds, individual brokers; it’s just in the nature of what we do.” “And this is about a horizontal [matter whereby] many institutions might be relying on the same underlying base model or underlying data aggregator,” he continued. Gensler predicted that a financial crisis could occur in the late 2020s or early 2030s, warning that multiple institutions basing their decisions on the same models could lead to herd mentality and undermine stability. “I do think we will in the future have a financial crisis … [and] in the after action reports people will say ‘Aha! There was either one data aggregator or one model … we’ve relied on,’” he added. Under Gensler’s leadership, the SEC is seeking to rein in the use of AI by broker-dealers and investment advisers with a new rule proposed in July. The rule, which has faced pushback from Republican lawmakers and industry groups, would bar firms from using predictive data analytics and similar technologies, including AI, in a way that puts their interests above those of investors. Gensler told the Financial Times, however, that the proposed rule does not solve the “horizontal issue” that he warned could eventually produce a financial crisis.

Tether freezes 32 crypto wallets holding $873,118 linked to terrorism and warfare in Israel, Ukraine - Tether froze 32 virtual wallets linked to crypto-funded terrorism and warfare in Israel and Ukraine, according to a media release published Monday.Tether, which issues the world’s largest stablecoin of the same name, says it has been collaborating with the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing of Israel in its efforts. The collective value of the frozen addresses is $873,118.34.Tether’s U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, dubbed tether or USDT, has a market cap of $83.5 billion and offers dollar exposure to those in many markets across the world who wouldn’t otherwise have access. The company has also battled troubling allegations of wrongdoing for years with Tether’s business practices having been called into question, as well as the state of its reserves.Tether’s newly named CEO, Paolo Ardoino, said in a statement, “Contrary to popular belief, cryptocurrency transactions are not anonymous; they are the most traceable and trackable assets. Every transaction is recorded on the blockchain, making it feasible for anyone to trace fund movements. Consequently, criminals foolish enough to employ cryptocurrencies for illegal activities will inevitably be identified.”Tether has periodically frozen and returned stolen funds to rightful holders. The company says it has helped 31 agencies across 19 global jurisdictions to freeze $835 million in assets connected to crime. Also, in November 2022, the company complied with a request by law enforcement to freeze $46 million worth of USDT belonging to bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.

Judge denies Bankman-Fried’s request for a delay of trial while his Adderall arrives -- The criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried will continue as scheduled, even after lawyers for the former FTX CEO asked for an adjournment, given their client’s lack of access to prescribed medicine. In a late-night appeal to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Sunday, attorneys representing Bankman-Fried requested that he be given his 12-hour extended-release 20mg dose of Adderall on Monday before being taken to the courthouse for the trial, which resumed at 9:30 a.m. They argued that the defendant urgently needs his long-release Adderall, otherwise, he would need to take some time off from the trial, which could put the former crypto billionaire in prison for the rest of his life. Attorney Mark Cohen’s letter to Kaplan adds that Bankman-Fried has “not been able to concentrate at the level he ordinarily would” without his prescribed medication. “Bankman-Fried has been doing his best to remain focused during the trial for the past two weeks, despite not having his prescribed dose of Adderall during trial hours,” the letter to the court said. After the jury exited Monday, Kaplan addressed the issue, saying that he got notice that the extended-release Adderall that was requested would not be available until Thursday. The judge added that he had not observed a problem with Bankman-Fried in court and was inclined to proceed as planned. He did acknowledge that he was not a medical professional but noted that he had not received any updated medical opinions on the matter. “I can’t have lawyers giving drugs to people on trial,” he said.

Sam Bankman-Fried Trial Jury Sees His Profane Messages About Regulators (Reuters) -The prosecution in Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial on Wednesday showed jurors a slew of profane messages he sent journalists complaining about regulators, challenging the image the FTX founder cultivated as a proponent of cryptocurrency oversight. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan overruled objections by Bankman-Fried's lawyers and allowed the jurors in Manhattan federal court to see a profane message he sent to a reporter for the news website Vox days after FTX collapsed in November 2022 complaining that regulators "make everything worse." Jurors also saw a profanity-laced message Bankman-Fried sent a journalist for crypto news site The Block on Twitter, the social media platform now called X, that made reference to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler. In the message, Bankman-Fried suggested that U.S. lawmakers were "dumb" and "about to hand the industry to Gensler on a silver platter." The SEC is viewed in cryptocurrency circles as more hostile to the industry than another federal agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In the trial, which began on Oct. 3, Bankman-Fried stands accused of looting billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to make investments, donate to U.S. political campaigns and prop up his hedge fund, Alameda Research. Prosecutors have said his political donations were meant to promote legislation favorable to cryptocurrency. The former billionaire has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy. Bankman-Fried, 31, could face decades in prison if convicted. Bankman-Fried's lawyers had sought to bar prosecutors from introducing the messages with the Vox reporter as evidence, arguing that the defendant sent the "off-the-cuff musings" after the time period at issue in the trial and that the language would bias the jury against him. In arguing for allowing the jury to see the messages, prosecutor Danielle Sassoon said that they were "highly probative" of his true state of mind at the time, noting that Bankman-Fried later told the reporter he thought the conversation had been off the record. Vox ultimately published the messages. Bankman-Fried wrote that his prior statements in favor of regulating cryptocurrency were "just PR," meaning public relations. "It doesn't reflect his honest intent at the time when he was engaging with regulators," defense lawyer Christian Everdell said outside the jury's presence, arguing against allowing the messages as evidence. Prosecutors have said they could rest their case as soon as Oct. 26. Bankman-Fried's lawyers have said he is considering testifying in his own defense.

(Crypto) Empire State of Mind: Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly met with Bill Clinton and Kathy Hochul in NYC 2 months before FTX collapsed -- In early September 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, had an emotional conversation with FTX lieutenant Nishad Singh about how his now-shuttered crypto hedge fund had siphoned approximately $13 billion from his now-bankrupt crypto exchange. “I was blindsided and horrified,” Singh, former head of engineering at FTX, testified on Monday. But just weeks after his conversation with Singh, and less than two months before FTX collapsed, Bankman-Fried, according to court documents, was ping-ponging through New York City as he hobnobbed with some of the world’s most influential and wealthy personalities, including former President Bill Clinton, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, chairperson of oil behemoth Saudi Aramco. Emails and calendar invites exhibited at court on Tuesday—primarily to prove that New York prosecutors have the jurisdiction to bring charges against the crypto founder—show that Bankman-Fried had the politically powerful at his beck and call.After an alleged meeting with NYC Mayor Eric Adams in March 2022 at Osteria La Baia, which offers customers “a journey to Italy without leaving Manhattan,” Bankman-Fried ventured back to Manhattan on Sept. 16 to meet with Hochul from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at (most likely) the Capital Grille, whose menu features filet mignon, “a timeless entrée prepared to your liking.”Cellular phone data confirmed that the former FTX CEO was indeed in Manhattan during scheduled meetings with both New York politicians, according to an FBI agent who did a forensic analysis of Bankman-Fried’s phone. However, a spokesperson for Hochul did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune about where she met with Bankman-Fried and what, if any, entrée she ordered. And neither did the press team for Adams immediately respond to whether their meetup indeed mirrored a “journey to Italy.” Then, on Sept. 20, the former FTX CEO was scheduled to meet with Bill Clinton, once the leader of the free world, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the New York Hilton Midtown. Cell data, again, confirmed that he was in the vicinity. And yet again, media representatives at the Clinton Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment fromFortune on the details of said encounter. Bankman-Fried not only had a taste for political power but for money, and court exhibits illustrate that he spent part of his visit to New York looking to drum up capital, including a late-night dinner at The Pierre, a five-star hotel that overlooks Central Park.It was there, according to a calendar invite and subsequent cell data, that Bankman-Fried dined with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the chair of Saudi Aramco and governor of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. (Media representatives for Saudi Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) And the next day, emails indicate that Bankman-Fried met with even more moneymen, including Khalid A. Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s minister of investment, as well as Alfred Chuang, founder and general partner of Race Capital, a venture outfit.According to testimony from three lieutenants-turned-government-witnesses, Bankman-Fried was trying to raise money to fill what eventually would be exposed as an $8 billion hole in FTX finances after the former CEO allegedly directed staff members to use customer funds. Saudi money never materialized, FTX collapsed, Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire crumbled with it, and he eventually ended up indicted by the Justice Department.

Read the secret Signal messages that could help put SBF behind bars - Much of the government's case against Sam Bankman-Fried hinges on the testimony and text messages from those in his crypto inner circle who turned against him late last year after the implosion of FTX and sister hedge fund Alameda Research.Of the dozens of items entered into evidence in the first three weeks of the trial, a bank of messages on encrypted app Signal paint perhaps the clearest picture of Bankman-Fried's alleged crimes.Bankman-Fried faces seven criminal counts, including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, that could land him in prison for life. Bankman-Fried, the son of two Stanford legal scholars, pleaded not guilty to all charges.In trying to prove its case to a Manhattan jury, the government has presented a series of Signal exchanges involving Bankman-Fried; Caroline Ellison, his ex-girlfriend and the ex-CEO of Alameda Research; and former friends and top business execs Gary Wang, Nishad Singh and Ryan Salame. They date back to November 2021.The messages gave jurors a rare look inside the casual conversations that culminated in a scheme described by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams as "one of the biggest financial frauds in American history."CNBC is quoting directly from the Signal messages that were entered as evidence and did not make spelling or grammatical changes in them.Caroline Ellison, former chief executive officer of Alameda Research LLC, center, arrives at court in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. The Signal thread dubbed "small group chat" includes Ellison, Bankman-Fried, and Joe Bankman, the defendant's father, who advised the company on tax-related issues and other things. Also in the group were Ramnik Arora, a former product lead for FTX; Ryne Miller, who was the company's general counsel; and Constance Wang, ex-operating chief; as well as Salame, Singh, Wang and four others.Prosecutors are relying heavily on text messages sent among FTX and Alameda Research executives in the case against Sam Bankman-Fried. The thread begins with two messages from Bankman-Fried posted at 3:47 a.m. on Nov. 7, 2022, the day FTX announced a liquidity crisis and began searching for cash to plug the gaping hole in its balance sheet.At the time, Bankman-Fried pretended in public that all was well."FTX is fine. Assets are fine," he wrote in a tweet that day. The post has since been deleted.But as Bankman-Fried was tweeting reassurances and promising that customer funds were safe, executives were growing increasingly alarmed at the expanding shortfall, according to prosecutors. In the "small group chat" thread, Bankman-Fried put forth some "potential todos," including halting withdrawals, sending a "confident tweet thread" and reaching out to firms such as Silverlake, Sequoia, and Apollo as they "wake up over the next few hours" to try to shore up cash.Later that morning, at about 5:22 a.m., Salame linked to a tweet from an anonymous crypto trader saying, "cant wait for my FTX airdrop for not moving any of my funds."Bankman-Fried chimed in with different ideas about how to take advantage of the post in an apparent effort to provide false hope to FTX customers that they'd receive free tokens if they kept their funds on the platform.. The next day, Nov. 8, Ellison appealed to the group for help on optics and public messaging.She wrote, "multiple people internally asking me whether they should continue to make statements to external parties like 'Alameda is solvent.' should i suggest they stall instead? just stall on responding to their messages? or what?"That's the same day FTX issued a pause on all customer withdrawals. The price of FTT, FTX's native token, plummeted by over 75%, and a high-tech bank run was in full force. Out of options, Bankman-Fried turned to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who announced he'd signed a nonbinding letter of intentto acquire FTX.Prosecutors are relying heavily on text messages sent among FTX and Alameda Research executives in the case against Sam Bankman-Fried. On Nov. 9, Ellison again looked to the group for guidance about how to handle the now infamous all-hands meeting of Alameda's roughly 30 employees. She proposed saying, "Alameda is probably going to wind down" and that there was "no pressure" to stay but help with "stuff like making sure our lenders get paid" would be "super appreciated." Bankman-Fried suggested she say something about there "being a future of some sort for those who are excited." Ellison ended up divulging a lot more than that in the staff meeting. "Alameda borrowed a bunch of money," which it used to make investments, Ellison said at the meeting, a secret recording of which was played by the prosecution. But as crypto prices fell, "FTX had a shortfall of user funds" and then "users started withdrawing their funds" and they "realized they would not be able to continue." When she was asked by a staffer whose idea it was to plug Alameda's loan losses with FTX customer money, she said, "Um, Sam, I guess," and giggled. "FTX basically always allowed Alameda to, like, borrow user funds, as far as I know," Ellison said on the recording. Meanwhile, a day after signing the nonbinding purchase agreement, Binance withdrew the offer, citing reports of "mishandled customer funds" and federal investigations. Prosecutors are relying heavily on text messages sent among FTX and Alameda Research executives in the case against Sam Bankman-Fried. Zhao, an early investor in FTX before becoming a principal rival, had made himself a central character in the FTX downfall days earlier.On Nov. 6, he tweeted that because of "recent revelations that have came to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books."

Sam Bankman-Fried used $1.2 billion of customer money to buy out Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, witness says. Will CZ pay it back? -- When the government called Peter Easton, an accounting professor at the University of Notre Dame, to the witness stand on Wednesday, his testimony was unsurprising: Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, took customer funds for years.To buttress his conclusions, the accounting professor pointed to examples of when Bankman-Fried, now on trial for fraud, deployed customers’ cash and crypto: venture investments, political donations, and a $2.2 billion buyback of equity in FTX from Changpeng Zhao, CEO of rival crypto exchange Binance. And $1.2 billion of that $2.2 billion—denominated in the cryptocurrencies BUSD, BNB, and FTT—specifically came from customers, Easton said.Representatives for Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune about Easton’s testimony and whether Zhao will be asked to return the funds. A spokesperson for the FTX estate declined to comment.The Binance CEO has previously brushed off concerns over receiving that money from Bankman-Fried. “I think we’ll leave that to the lawyers. I think our legal team is perfectly capable of handling it,” he said in response to whether he was prepared to send that money back to the FTX estate.But now that a witness for the government has explicitly said that over half of the more than $2 billion Zhao got from Bankman-Fried came directly from customers, how, if at all, have Binance’s legal obligations changed?Mark Pfeiffer, a bankruptcy lawyer at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, toldFortune that both U.S. bankruptcy law as well as state civil law provides the FTX estate multiple ways to “claw back” funds from Binance.Federal law allows the FTX estate to get back money either previously sent out in an effort to defraud its creditors or if a deal occurred while FTX was insolvent and lawyers can prove it was a bad business decision. The deal has to have occurred within two years of an entity declaring bankruptcy, which happens to be the case with Bankman-Fried’s share buyback. “If you’re purchasing your stock at the time you’re insolvent, that’s always going to be a problem,” said Edward Morrison, a professor at Columbia Law School who specializes in bankruptcy law.And civil law across most U.S. states is even simpler. “If I borrow your car and sell it to a third party, you, as the owner of that car, can sue the third party to claw it back,” Pfeiffer said.Morrison, the Columbia professor, added that even if the FTX estate could persuade a judge to compel Binance to return at least the $1.2 billion, actually getting that money back is another issue. (He also added that bankruptcy law with respect to financial markets can get complicated, so Binance may have obscure legal defenses.)

The secret life of Jimmy Zhong, who stole – and lost – more than $3billion - Athens, Georgia, is home to the University of Georgia, and the police there are used to college town-type crimes: break-ins, bar fights and assorted rowdiness. But the 911 call that came in on the night of March 13, 2019, was unlike anything the Athens-Clarke County Police Department had ever encountered. On the phone was 28-year-old Jimmy Zhong, a local party boy and Georgia alum who frequented Athens’ drinking establishments. He wasn’t like the other town rowdies – Zhong was also a computer expert who had an unusually robust digital home surveillance system. Now, he was calling to report a crime: hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto currency that he said had been stolen from his home. Thinking of all that lost money, Zhong was distressed. “I’m having a panic attack,” Zhong told the dispatcher, according to a recording obtained by CNBC. Zhong turned down the dispatcher’s offer of an ambulance, and began trying to explain the situation. “I’m an investor in bitcoin , which is like an online thing,” he said. What happened next would bring an end to a nearly decade long manhunt and solve one of the biggest crimes of the crypto era. And it also would lead to the largest seizure of cryptocurrency from an individual in the history of the Department of Justice. Zhong’s emergency call that winter evening sent investigators down a long digital trail that led back to the earliest days of bitcoin and revealed a dark truth about the universe of hackers and coders responsible for the creation of cryptocurrencies. It’s a world where heroes and villains traded places and could even be the same people. None of it would go at all the way Zhong wanted. The 911 call didn’t produce a suspect in the theft from Zhong’s house. Athens police were dealing with one of their first crypto cases and unfamiliar with the shadowy underworld, and they failed to make progress in the case. [...] What had captured the investigators’ attention was a 2012 hack in which someone had stolen 50,000 bitcoins from a site on the dark web called Silk Road, according to court documents CNBC reviewed. That site was one of the earliest crypto marketplaces, where anonymous buyers and sellers exchanged all manner of illicit material. It was full of drugs, guns, pornography and other stuff people wanted to keep secret. Over the years, the value of the bitcoin stolen by the Silk Road hacker had soared to more than $3 billion, according to court documents. Investigators could track the location of the currency on the blockchain, which is a public ledger of all transactions. But they couldn’t see the identity of the new owner of the funds. So they watched and waited for years as the hacker transferred funds from account to account, peeled some away, and pushed some of it through crypto “mixers” designed to obscure the source of the money. Finally, Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics company that was tracing the digital wallets containing the stolen Silk Road assets, saw the hacker made a tiny mistake. He transferred around $800 worth to a crypto exchange that followed established banking rules, including so-called know your customer processes, requiring real names and addresses of account holders. The account was registered in Zhong’s name. The transaction took place in September 2019, six months after Zhong’s 911 call to the local police.

JPMorgan Chase Paid $1.085 Billion in Legal Expenses in Last Six Months; It’s Still Battling Hundreds of Charges and Legal Proceedings on Three Continents -- By Pam and Russ Martens: October 20, 2023 ~ At some point, federal regulators, the Senate Banking Committee and the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice are going to reach the same conclusion that we reached quite some time ago: JPMorgan Chase is a criminal enterprise in drag as a federally-insured bank. JPMorgan Chase is the largest U.S. bank, with $3.9 trillion in assets and 4,863 Chase Bank branches sucking in mom and pop deposits across the United States. According to its regulators, it is also the riskiest bank in the United States. And, two trial lawyers have written a fact-intensive book describing how the bank resembles the Gambino crime family. The bank’s admission to five criminal felony counts since 2015 and spiraling rap sheet would seem to back up that theory. Now comes the latest revelation in the bank’s own 8K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday. Somehow, in just two quarters – the span of a meager six months – this one bank has managed to spend a stunning $1.085 billion on legal expenses. The bank spent $665 million on legal expenses for the three months ended September 30, 2023 and $420 million for the three months ended June 30, 2023. (See footnote (a) on page 4 of JPMorgan Chase’s October 13 SEC filing at this link.) Reading deeper into its most recent 8K filing strongly hints that this bank is not only a serial criminal enterprise but it is also a full employment program for Big Law. Throughout this year, Big Law firm WilmerHale has been racking up a lot of billable hours defending JPMorgan Chase from highly credible charges brought by the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands in a federal lawsuit that the bank “actively participated” in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of minors by serving as his cash conduit for more than 15 years. While the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands filed extremely heavy evidence with the court to back up her charges, WilmerHale pursued a scorched earth legal strategy of smearing officials in the U.S. Virgin Islands that brought them to a cheap settlement of $75 million in September. WilmerHale also represented JPMorgan Chase this year in a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. Given that 15 JPMorgan Chase employees had visited Epstein at his Manhattan mansion where Epstein’s sex slaves were in abundance and their testimony at trial might have added new scandals to the bank, JPMorgan also settled that case for the generous sum of $290 million in June. (Plaintiffs lawyers were to get $87 million of the $290 million.) WilmerHale also opened up another billing track (and damage control track) by suing one of JPMorgan’s former officials, Jes Staley, attempting to load the blame for the bank’s sleazy dealings with Epstein (a registered sex offender and well-documented sex trafficker of minors) onto Staley’s shoulders. That narrative pretty much fell apart when a former FBI official, hired by opposing counsel as an expert witness, introduced court documents showing that different bank employees had funneled more than $5 million in hard cash to Epstein over a decade, sometimes as much as $40,000 to $80,000 a month, without filing the legally required Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The Staley case was abruptly settled in September for an undisclosed sum of money. JPMorgan Chase also paid more legal fees this year to the Big Law firm Paul Weiss to get a very problematic case dismissed in federal court. That case named the Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, as a defendant, along with specific members of its Board of Directors. The thrust of the case was that the same members of JPMorgan’s Board of Directors who brought Jamie Dimon to the top leadership position at the bank, were also, verifiably, engaged in business dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. Before that case could be fleshed out for the public with depositions and discovery, Judge Jed Rakoff very conveniently dismissed it. (See Rakoff’s background with Paul Weiss here.) Big Law firm Sullivan & Cromwell got a nice feather in its cap under former President Donald Trump (now indicted on 91 felony charges himself) by sending its law partner, Jay Clayton, to be the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (notwithstanding the fact that Clayton had represented 8 of the 10 largest Wall Street banks prior to becoming their “watchdog”). One of its clients was JPMorgan Chase. This year Sullivan & Cromwell brags on its website that it scored a big win “for JPMorgan Chase and the trillion-dollar syndicated loan industry, with the Second Circuit ruling that interests in a syndicated loan were not securities under federal securities laws.” One can’t be sued for securities fraud if the instrument in question is not defined as a “security.” Big Law firm Covington & Burling, whose revolving door sent law partner Eric Holder to be the head of the U.S. Department of Justice under President Obama, along with its law partner Lanny Breuer to head the DOJ’s criminal division under Holder, represented JPMorgan Chase this year in resolving a federal lawsuit for $499 million among a group of banks over charges that they conspired to stifle competition in the stock lending business. JPMorgan Chase discloses in its current 8K filing with the SEC that it is not just battling charges here in the U.S. It reports that it is under investigation by the Swiss Competition Commission relating to EURIBOR, the benchmark short-term lending rate in Europe. JPMorgan Chase also advises that “In December 2016, the European Commission issued a decision against the Firm and other banks finding an infringement of European antitrust rules relating to EURIBOR. The Firm has filed an appeal of that decision with the European General Court, and that appeal is pending.” JPMorgan Chase is also under criminal investigation on the continent of Asia. The cases we have cited here are just the tip of the iceberg. The bank indicated in a recent SEC filing that it is involved in “several hundred” legal proceedings.

JPMorgan Chase Has Lost a Quarter Trillion Dollars in Deposits in Last 7 Quarters — Fortress Balance Sheet or Leaky Sieve? -- By Pam Martens and Russ Martens --On May 1, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced that First Republic Bank had failed and that it was being sold to JPMorgan Chase. At the time, JPMorgan Chase was already the largest and riskiest bank in the United States. The sweetheart deal the bank got from the FDIC to take over First Republic included the FDIC eating 80 percent of any losses on single-family residential mortgages for 7 years and 80 percent of any losses on commercial loans, including commercial real estate, for five years. The FDIC also provided JPMorgan Chase with a $50 billion, five-year fixed-rate loan at an undisclosed interest rate. According to the filing that JPMorgan Chase made with the Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday, the deal also gave JPMorgan Chase something that it desperately needed: deposits. According to the 8-K filing that JPMorgan Chase made with the SEC on October 13, the acquisition of First Republic Bank added $47.2 billion to its deposit base in the second quarter and $66.7 billion in deposits in the third quarter.As the chart above indicates, JPMorgan Chase suffered outflows of deposits in every quarter of 2022. It got a brief respite from inflows of deposits in the first quarter of 2023, as a result of the March banking panic that impacted smaller banks, then outflows took hold again. Excluding the deposits from First Republic Bank, JPMorgan Chase has lost $248.38 billion in deposits over the span of the last seven quarters. One doesn’t expect that at a bank that continues to trumpet its “fortress balance sheet.”Even including the large amount of deposits that JPMorgan Chase gained from scooping up First Republic, the bank still bled $19.4 billion in overall deposits between the second quarter of this year and the end of the third quarter on September 30, according to JPMorgan Chase’s SEC filing on Friday, October 13. Adding to the appearance of desperation at JPMorgan Chase to shore up its deposit base, on September 28 Wall Street Journal reporter Rachel Louise Ensign revealed that JPMorgan Chase was offering a shockingly high 6 percent interest on a 6-month certificate of deposit. There were three catches to get the deal: it had to be new money coming from outside the bank; the minimum investment was $5 million; and the money had to be deposited by September 30. The date of September 30 just happens to be the last day of the quarter, the cutoff for the bank to report its final tally for deposits at quarter end.By soliciting a minimum of $5 million in new outside money to get the 6 percent CD, the bank would appear to be effectively soliciting to grow its already eyebrow-raising amount of uninsured deposits. The FDIC insures deposits up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank. The Wall Street Journal article is silent on how the balance of the $5 million would be protected. After the second, third and fourth largest bank failures in U.S. history over the span of seven weeks this past spring, the FDIC has awakened to the dangers of U.S. banks holding large amounts of uninsured deposits – whether they are uninsured because they exceed the $250,000 insurance cap per depositor/per bank or are uninsured because the deposits reside on foreign soil. Large holdings of uninsured deposits contributed to the bank runs at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March, which toppled the banks and forced an FDIC receivership at both banks until they were eventually sold. (First Republic Bank also had a large amount of uninsured deposits.) To send a warning to the mega banks on Wall Street about their own vulnerability to uninsured deposits, as well as to cover the DIF’s losses, the FDIC released a proposal on May 11 to levy a special assessment based on the individual bank’s holdings of uninsured deposits as of December 31, 2022. The assessment would amount to a charge of 0.125 percent of a bank’s uninsured deposits above $5 billion. The charge would be spread over eight quarters according to the proposal.

Bank of America’s Deposits Fall, But at Slower Pace than JPMorgan Chase → By Pam and Russ Martens --Bank of America is the second largest bank by assets in the United States, topped in assets by only JPMorgan Chase. Both mega banks have seen a steady decline in deposits since the first quarter of 2022. But the decline in deposits at Bank of America represents just 65 percent of the deposit outflows that have occurred at JPMorgan Chase in the past seven quarters. (Bank of America, as the chart above shows, did report a small uptick in deposits in the current quarter.) At the end of the first quarter of 2022, Bank of America held $2.046 trillion in deposits. According to the 8-K filing the bank made with the Securities and Exchange Commission this morning, as of September 30, 2023 Bank of America’s deposits had declined to $1.885 trillion, a shrinkage of $161 billion. In the same span of time, JPMorgan Chase shed $248.38 billion in deposits. (We have excluded the deposits gained by JPMorgan Chase from its purchase on May 1 of the failed First Republic Bank, so that we are making fair comparisons.)The mega banks are unaccustomed to facing such fierce competition for deposits. As long as the Federal Reserve kept interest rates artificially low by setting its benchmark Fed Funds rate close to zero and buying back trillions of dollars of Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities from the street (Quantitative Easing or QE), the mega banks had little to fear in the way of competition for deposits.Today, short-term Treasury bills are yielding over 5 percent; credit unions are offering more than 5 percent on Certificates of Deposit; community and regional banks have also entered the arena to compete for deposits. Another major competitor has been money market mutual funds. On September 3, Yahoo! Finance reporter David Hollerith wrote this:“Money-market fund assets reached a new all-time high this week as interest rates above 5% continue to attract investors at a time when the Federal Reserve appears determined to keep rates elevated for some time.“About $14 billion poured into money-market funds in the week through August 30, according to data from the Investment Company Institute. Total assets reached $5.58 trillion, versus $5.56 trillion the previous week. It is the highest total since the data was first collected in 1992.”It should be pointed out that money-market funds are not FDIC-insured and have broken the buck.According to data provided by TreasuryDirect, new account openings in 2022 surged to a total of 2,956,790 from a total of 460,057 in 2021 – an increase of 543 percent in one year. Even more impressive, the total par value of the savings bonds and Treasury securities purchased in those accounts went from $9,711,113,646 in 2021 to $87,775,900,168 in 2022 – an 804 percent increase.Deposit outflows are not the only thing the mega banks have to worry about. Bank of America included the following charts in its earnings presentation materials this morning, showing its growing net charge-offs and provisions for credit losses:

Regulators extend comment period on Basel III endgame proposal - Regulators have extended the comment period on a recent joint proposal to amend capital requirements for large banks and initiated a process to gather more information about the potential impact of the changes.Banks and other interested parties will now have until Jan. 16, 2024 to weigh in on the so-called Basel III endgame package put forth by the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The extension adds more than six weeks to the original 120-day comment period that was set to close on Nov. 30.The Fed also launched a data gathering campaign on Friday, through which banks can disclose information about their current capital levels and their balance sheet compositions. Institutions will also have until Jan. 16 to submit this information.The moves come after months of pushback by banks and their representatives, politicians and various other interest groups against the endgame proposal, which would amend risk-capital standards applied to all banks with at least $100 billion of total assets. Opponents have raised various issues with the reform package, ranging from concerns about specific provisions — such as the elevated risk weights applied to certain mortgages — to broad-based opposition to additional regulatory capital obligations. Common refrains also concerned the length of the comment period and the lack of analytical detail about the impact of the proposed changes.The Bank Policy Institute, a lobbying group that represents large banks, said Friday's announcements should be the first of several steps taken by regulators to address the "significant problems" with their capital proposal."The agencies should have engaged in rigorous economic analysis of the proposal's costs before, not during, the comment period," BPI President and CEO Greg Baer said in a statement. "As a matter both of good policymaking and legal compliance, they must also give the public ample time — 120 days — to analyze and comment on the results of the impact study after they are released."Baer also reiterated BPI's call for the agencies to re-propose the rule change after making changes. When regulators issued the notice of proposed rulemaking on the package, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr said the central bank intended to "collect additional data to refine our estimates of the rule's effects."

Why nondepositories have a stake in bank capital rules - Kurt Johnson, chief financial officer of nondepository lender and servicer Mr. Cooper, joked about the unlikelihood of presence on the bank-capital proposal panel at the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual conference in Philadelphia Monday.But he also said there could be serious implications of the rule for nonbanks if it moves forward in its current form, particularly those that have financing lines secured by mortgage servicing rights."When these capital requirements come down, it's not just the banks that are going to be affected," Johnson said.Not only could warehouse lines of credit be impacted by the U.S. version of international Basel rules, and financing secured by mortgage servicing rights may be too, he said.Some banks have found mortgage servicing rights attractive as investments and collateral; they've demonstrated their value as a natural hedge that offsets declines in mortgage lending to consumers when rates rise.But servicing rights also have a relatively high risk-weighting because they're considered subject to market risks that could make them difficult to liquidate through a sale under certain conditions, and the capital proposal is likely to magnify that concern."We've really been active in purchasing MSRs given the downturn on the origination front. This limit of capital on MSRs will definitely cause regional banks and bigger banks to pause and look at that strategy," said Becky Crain, senior vice president, real estate products at Regions Financial.That would also have an impact on whether or how much depositories want to lend against servicing rights to independent mortgage banks."They have to think, 'What happens if there's something that goes wrong, and we have to take that collateral, what does that look like on our balance sheet?'" Johnson said.

Some delays in cross-border payments are intentional: Fed's Bowman - Not all payments delays can be addressed by new technology, Federal Reserve Gov. Michelle Bowman says, nor should they. In a Tuesday morning speech on responsible innovation, Bowman said she supports the industry's pursuit of novel solutions for payments activity but argued that some facets of the ecosystem are slow by design — and should remain that way. "It is important to not only thoroughly understand what technological innovations can do," Bowman said, "but also what these innovations should be able to do within the broader context of a robust, well-functioning banking and payments system." Bowman, who sits on the Fed's internal committee on payments, clearing and settlements, cited requirements aimed at curbing financial crimes and the financing of hostile militant groups as examples. "In these cases, the perceived barriers in existing payment systems are established for important public policy reasons and are not limitations resulting from the existing technology itself," she said. During the prepared remarks, Bowman touched on several categories of innovation that she has spoken about in the past, including a retail central bank digital currency, or CBDC — for which she sees no clear use case — and stablecoins, which she warned could be destabilizing if not properly regulated.Bowman also weighed in on potential innovations in wholesale payments, those between two banks or banks and other financial institutions. Other Fed officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, have said these types of transactions could be a more sensible — and more attainable — application of distributed ledger or CBDC technology.Fed's Barr calls for multiple 'exploratory' scenarios in stress tests -Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr made the case for including multiple "exploratory" scenarios in the central bank's annual stress testing program.In a speech delivered at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Stress Testing Research Conference on Thursday afternoon, Barr highlighted several shortcomings within the Fed'scurrent approach to stress testing and argued that including more varied tests would help individual banks as well as broader financial stability."The stress test needs to continue to evolve," Barr said. "Introducing multiple exploratory scenarios — both for the broader macroeconomic scenario and the global market shock for trading banks — would be beneficial for supervising potential risks on bank balance sheets."Following his prepared remarks, Barr said the Fed intended to include global market shock scenarios and a "macroeconomic" exploratory scenario in next year's stress test.Barr pointed to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year as proof that the current approach to stress testing is insufficient. He noted that the Fed's severe scenario in the annual test tends to revolve around a recessionary environment in which unemployment is high, housing prices plummet and interest rates are falling, yet SVB failed despite none of those factors holding true.He added that the current approach does not capture potential contagion of stress in the banking sector to other parts of the financial ecosystem, such as funding markets."These network effects may result in losses across the system not fully captured by our stress tests," Barr said. "While the severely adverse scenario is calibrated to historical recessions that have included contagion, our stress tests may not fully capture the evolving interconnections in today's financial system."Barr said the current, limited approach to scenario testing is too uniform to effectively test the resilience of individual bank balance sheets. While he acknowledged the importance of transparency within the testing regime given its impact on capital requirements, Barr said the use of the same tests year after year "may encourage concentration across the system in assets that receive comparably lighter treatment in the test."Under the current regime, if a stressful scenario causes a bank's common equity tier 1 ratio to fall below the level registered on the previous year's test, it must add the difference between the two years to its stress capital buffer. So if a bank's equity ratio falls from 6.5% one year to 6% the following, its buffer increases by half a percentage point. Barr said the addition of exploratory scenarios would not change this approach.However, the result of the enhanced testing could impact capital requirements for individual banks in a different way.

Fed to consider rules governing debit card swipe fees - — The Federal Reserve next week will hold a meeting to vote on revising the fee that merchants pay to banks when customers shop with debit cards, the central bank said Tuesday. While the Fed did not specify whether it would lower or raise the fee, experts anticipate that the central bank will cut it by around 10-20%. That's because the cost of computing power has fallen since the Fed set the rate more than a decade ago, and because of the advent of chip-based debit cards, said Jaret Seiberg, a financial services analyst for Cowen Washington Research Group. The move from the Fed is somewhat delayed, Seiberg said in a note. "The Fed was expected in late 2022 or early 2023 to re-examine debit interchange pricing," he said. "We believe that got pushed to late October thanks to the regional bank troubles in the spring." Currently, merchants pay card issuers 21 cents and 0.05 percent of the transaction value, a rate that was set pursuant to a section in the 2010 Dodd-Frank law called the Durbin Amendment, which requires the central bank to set that rate for banks with at least $10 billion of assets. The Fed, at their meeting next week, will likely start a rulemaking process that will include a public-comment period, at which point credit card issuers and merchants will have the opportunity to weigh in. "We'd expect that process to take 9-12 months, and any final rule is likely to be challenged immediately by the issuers in order to delay implementation," said Jeffries analysts in a note. "The prospect of a legal fight after any published rulemaking leads us to believe that any proposed change is unlikely to be implemented within the next two years."

Texas launches new review of big banks over energy policies Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office said it's reviewing whether 10 financial companies, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, violate a Republican-backed state law that punishes firms for restricting their work with the oil-and-gas industry because of climate-change concerns.The probe pertains to companies that are members of groups seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the office said in a letter to bond lawyers on Tuesday. The office announced that it was reviewing companies that are members or affiliate members of the Net Zero Banking Alliance, Net Zero Insurance Alliance, Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance or Net Zero Asset Managers."This office is reviewing whether companies or any affiliates that are members of a Net Zero Alliance are companies that boycott energy companies in violation of Senate Bill 13," Leslie Brock, assistant attorney general, said in the letter.The probe is one of Paxton's first major actions since his return to the Attorney General's office after facing impeachment proceedings earlier this year. He was cleared of 16 articles of impeachment alleging corruption and bribery last month after being charged by the Republican-led House of Representatives. The Net Zero Banking Alliance, convened under the United Nations, includes a group of banks that have committed to "financing ambitious climate action to transition the real economy to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050." More than 130 banks are members of the alliance, according to its website.

Banks ask CFPB to crack down on data aggregators Eight bank trade groups have petitioned the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to define data aggregators as larger participants subject to regulatory supervision. In a 10-page letter sent Tuesday to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, the bank trade groups asked the bureau to issue a larger participant rule before implementing a separate rulemaking on consumer access to financial data. The trade groups also called for the CFPB to define the services of data aggregators as a financial product or service. The trade groups argue that the explosive growth in data aggregation services has created more risks for consumers — particularly to data privacy and security — which could result in uneven enforcement. A group of banking trade associations called on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra to make a concurrent data access rule specifically for data aggregation companies to subject them to the same type of CFPB oversight as banks. "Banks and credit unions are regularly supervised and examined by the CFPB, whereas non-depository institutions such as data aggregators and data users are not examined by the CFPB," the trade groups, led by the American Bankers Association, said in the letter. The letter comes as the CFPB is in the thick of writing a rule around consumers' access to their own financial data. The rule, known as Section 1033 for its place in the Dodd-Frank Act, seeks to clarify standards for how fintechs access bank account data. It also would ensure that banks provide consumers access to their own bank account transaction data including costs, charges and usage data. The CFPB expects to release a small business outline for the data access rule in November. The CFPB is expected to issue a larger participant rule either in tandem with the 1033 rulemaking or on its own to define the market they would supervise. A number of data aggregators, including Plaid and Envestnet Yodlee, have asked the CFPB to supervise them, joining a diverse coalition of nonbanks and consumer groups endorsing oversight. Many data aggregators say their products are designed to put consumers in control of their data and where it is shared. "Proactive supervision is … critical to identifying data privacy and security risks before any harm is done to consumers, and to prevent the reverse-engineering of legally-protected commercial information," the letter stated.

CFPB open-banking plan would restrict sale or misuse of consumer data - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a long-awaited proposal on open banking that seeks to give consumers more control over their data while limiting the ability of third-party companies to sell or misuse personal financial information. The plan, issued Thursday, would give consumers a legal right to grant third parties access to bank account transaction data. The data access proposal — authorized by section 1033 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 — would require financial institutions that offer checking accounts, prepaid cards, credit cards and digital wallets to allow customers to share their data safely with, or transfer the information to, another provider. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said that companies that gain access to a consumer's data would only be able to use it for the specific reason authorized by the consumer. Companies that received the data cannot use or sell it for their own benefit — including by feeding it into algorithms or artificial intelligence for unrelated activities such as targeted marketing."Companies receiving data can only use it to provide the product people ask for — and for nothing else," Chopra said on a press call with reporters. "When a consumer permits their data to be used by a company for a specific purpose, it is not a free pass for that company to exploit the data for other uses."Chopra said third-party fintech companies will not be able to hold on to personal financial data indefinitely. If a consumer chooses to end a relationship with — or cancel services from — a third party, that entity would have to stop collecting and using the consumer's data, and would be required to delete the data it already possesses. Still, it is unclear yet how the CFPB would police fintechs and other Big Tech firms in this area. In announcing the notice of proposed rulemaking, the CFPB said that "people could be certain that their data would be used only for their own preferred purpose — and not for financial institutions or tech companies to surveil and manipulate."A senior CFPB official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, provided an example: A company cannot get access to a consumer's data in order to give that customer a loan and then sell the data to another firm. The official said the rule differs from past approaches in which consumer disclosures have been the primary means of protecting privacy.The open-banking rule is viewed as one of the most important rulemakings that will be undertaken by Chopra. The bureau's proposal hews closely to an outline of its plan that the agency released last year. Chopra said the CFPB expects to finalize the rule by late 2024.Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, said the CFPB needs to address the issue of liability because nonbanks are not currently held to the same standards as banks on data security, privacy and consumer protection. Last year, banks urged the CFPB to issue a larger participant rule that would subject data aggregators to regulatory supervision on par with banks.

Chopra: Open banking helps small banks 'steal the lunch' of big banks | American Banker - — A recently proposed rule giving consumers more control over their banking data could provide a unique business opportunity for smaller institutions to compete with their bigger peers, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra told a conference of minority depository institutions and community development financial institutions. Speaking at the National Bankers Association annual conference Friday afternoon, Chopra said that CDFIs and MDIs should look beyond concerns about compliance costs associated with the CFPB's open-banking proposal and instead consider the opportunities that it presents to level the playing field with larger banks that have consistently made up a greater share of the consumer banking market. "I want everyone to really accept the fact that every community is moving much more digital," Chopra said. "And you cannot look at open banking as a compliance burden only — you have to look at it as a business opportunity, too. And the more we focus on what the business opportunity is, about how you can steal the lunch of your bigger competitors — that is going to be key." Chopra went on to say that the access to prospective customers' banking data — even prospective customers who may be located far away from their physical branches — can allow smaller institutions to offer uniquely tailored loans and services. "You can use that information to offer new and different products," Chopra said. "I actually think open banking will allow many of you to offer lines of credit that will take away from the credit card industry at better rates, [and] will allow you to offer business loans in different ways. And I think we are very eager to figure out how to make sure that is the result."

Banking and community advocacy groups trade accusations of dirty pool — The American Bankers Association and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition are engaged in an unusual exchange of accusations of intimidation and misrepresentation that puts regulators in the middle of the clash, according to letters obtained by American Banker. The ABA wrote in a recent letter to the Federal Reserve that it fears the NCRC could retaliate against the ABA's members for their support of its lawsuits against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The NCRC disputed the claims that the ABA levied against them in a follow-up letter to the Fed, saying that the industry group "didn't ascertain basic facts prior to writing the heads of the bank regulatory agencies, who we believe have better things to do." The fair-lending advocates called the ABA's concerns that it would retaliate against its member banks an "astounding and seemingly malicious leap of logic." The Fed declined to comment on the letters. The clash centers around a pair of lawsuits brought by the ABA against the CFPB. The first challenges the legality of the bureau's March 2022 policy change that expands the applicability of the bureau's authority to punish unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices to include a variety of noncredit financial products like checking and savings accounts. The other is an ABA challenge to the CFPB's final rule implementing section 1071 of the Dodd Frank Act, which requires banks to disclose data on small-business lending. ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols sent a letter to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Oct. 13 saying the NCRC had written to some of its member banks, asking whether those banks support the ABA's litigation against the CFPB, or, as the NCRC put it in its letter dated to an unspecified day in September, "support our efforts to uplift our underserved communities."

FHFA, stakeholders struggle to pin down costs in credit score update -Lenders and vendors are seeking guidance from the Federal Housing Finance Agency on what the expense involved in its congressionally-mandated credit score update will be and how to manage it, but an FHFA adviser recently said that's a question the industry itself must answer."Are there ways to mitigate costs? Frankly, you're all going to know better than me or any of my colleagues at FHFA how to go about doing that," Dan Fichtler, senior adviser, capital markets, when asked about this at the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention.He encouraged stakeholders to offer feedback that the FHFA could design policy around, which was in line with the agency's tendency to respond to concerns about policies that affect the two mortgage investors it oversees by asking for direction on how critics think the matter should be handled.But providing input on the issue is tough for lenders and vendors given that the move from one older score to two newer ones is still somewhat open-ended.The version of the subject-to-change timeline for the transition — currently set for completion by the fourth quarter of 2025 — confirms its end goal is a move to two updated scores from a single older one with optional flexibility to pull two reports rather than three.That fact that lenders have recently been through a score price hike, and may have to juggle potentially three credit metrics of that type during the transition has made the industry wary of the future costs, even with the potential savings from dropping one of the three reports.While dropping a report could be efficient on its face and the FHFA and Standard & Poor's have said they find the difference between two and three negligible, one credit bureau recently pushed back with research questioning whether that's true for individual borrowers.There are still a lot of uncertainties on implementation that may play into costs, like how to manage the two-step process involved in vetting the new score data before using it, said Shawn Jobe, head of business development, Informative Research.Adding further complication to figuring out the costs is the fact that credit scores and reports expenses are embedded throughout the full span of the mortgage process from origination to servicing, said Piper Beveridge, vice president, strategic relations, ICE Mortgage Technology. "There's at least 30 integrations with our partners that need to be updated," she said. Counterparties that work with lenders, such as mortgage insurers, also will need to vet the new score changes and data, Beveridge said.

MBA Survey: "Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 0.31% in September" - From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases to 0.31% in September - The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) monthly Loan Monitoring Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 2 basis points from 0.33% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior month to 0.31% as of September 30, 2023. According to MBA’s estimate, 155,000 homeowners are in forbearance plans. Mortgage servicers have provided forbearance to approximately 8 million borrowers since March 2020. In September 2023, the share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 1 basis point to 0.18%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 8 basis points to 0.57%, and the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) decreased 4 basis points to 0.35%. “The number of loans in forbearance dropped in September, but the overall performance of servicing portfolios and loan workouts declined slightly,” . “MBA’s baseline forecast has a recession in the first half of 2024. Several factors – including unemployment increases, rising property taxes and insurance, the resumption of student debt payments, and possible natural disasters – may affect loan performance in future months.” This graph shows the percent of portfolio in forbearance by investor type over time. The share of forbearance plans has been decreasing and declined to 0.31% in September from 0.33% in August. At the end of August, there were about 155,000 homeowners in forbearance plans.

30-year fixed mortgage rate just hit 8% for the first time since 2000 -The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 8% Wednesday morning, according to Mortgage News Daily. That is the highest level since mid-2000.The milestone came as bond yields soar to levels not seen since 2007. Mortgage rates follow loosely the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury.Rates rose sharply this week and last week, as investors digest more reads on the economy. On Wednesday, it was housing starts, which rose in September, though not as much as expected, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.Building permits, an indicator of future construction, fell, but by a less than the expected amount. Last week, retail sales came in far higher than expected, creating more uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s long-term plan.These higher rates have caused mortgage demand to plummet, as applications fell nearly 7% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.“Here’s another milestone that seemed extreme several short months ago,” said Matthew Graham, chief operating officer of Mortgage News Daily. “The fact is that many borrowers have already seen rates over 8%. That said, many borrowers are still seeing rates in the 7s due to buydowns and discount points.”The homebuilders are using buydowns to help customers afford their homes. They do this through their mortgage subsidiaries.While they had used the financing tool very sparingly in the past, it is now the top incentive among builders, according to industry sources.“Although our mortgage company has been offering slightly below market rate loans most of this cycle (just to be competitive), the full point buydown for the 30-year life of the loan we’ve been referring to recently as a builder incentive is not something we had done in previous cycles, at least not on the broad, majority basis we are doing so today. You might have found it on select homes in the past on an extremely limited basis,” said a spokesperson from D.R. Horton, the nation’s largest homebuilder.The average rate on the 30-year fixed was as low as 3% just two years ago. To put it in perspective, a buyer purchasing a $400,000 home with a 20% down payment would have a monthly payment today of nearly $1,000 more than it would have been two years ago.

30-Year Mortgage Rates Hit 8.0%; California Home Sales Down 21.5% YoY in September -- Today, in the CalculatedRisk Real Estate Newsletter: 30-Year Mortgage Rates Hit 8.0% Excerpt: Mortgage News Daily reports 30-year fixed rate mortgages rose to 8.0% today (for top tier scenarios). This will mostly impact closed sales in November and December, and strongly suggests we will see new cycle lows for existing home sales over the winter. Note: The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is scheduled to release September existing home sales tomorrow, Thursday, October 19th, at 10:00 AM ET. The consensus is the NAR will report sales of 3.94 million SAAR, down from 4.04 million in August. Housing economist Tom Lawler expects the NAR to report sales of 4.00 million SAAR for September. Due to the impact of Hurricane Ian in September 2022, existing home sales are up year-over-year in Florida, and that might have kept seasonally adjusted sales from hitting a new cycle low in September (it will be close).

NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decreased to 3.96 million SAAR in September; New Cycle Low -- From the NAR: Existing-Home Sales Fell 2.0% in September Existing-home sales faded in September, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Among the four major U.S. regions, sales rose in the Northeast but receded in the Midwest, South and West. All four regions registered year-over-year sales declines. Total existing-home sales – completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – waned 2.0% from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.96 million in September. Year-over-year, sales dropped 15.4% (down from 4.68 million in September 2022). ... Total housing inventory registered at the end of September was 1.13 million units, up 2.7% from August but down 8.1% from one year ago (1.23 million). Unsold inventory sits at a 3.4-month supply at the current sales pace, up from 3.3 months in August and 3.2 months in September 2022. The sales rate was slightly above the consensus forecast and close to housing economist Tom Lawler’s estimate Sales in September (3.96 million SAAR) were down 2.0% from the previous month and were 15.4% below the September 2022 sales rate.The second graph shows nationwide inventory for existing homes.According to the NAR, inventory increased to 1.13 million in September down from 1.10 million the previous month. 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 third 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 down 8.1% year-over-year (blue) in September compared to September 2022. Months of supply (red) increased to 3.4 months in September from 3.3 months the previous month.The fourth graph shows existing home sales by month for 2022 and 2023. The fourth graph shows existing home sales by month for 2022 and 2023. Sales declined 15.4% year-over-year compared to September 2022. This was the twenty-fifth consecutive month with sales down year-over-year. This was a new cycle low, below the 4.00 million SAAR in January 2023.

Home Prices Fall Further. Peak was June 2022. Demand Crashes, Price Cuts Jump, Supply & Days on Market Rise by Wolf Richter • The national median price of previously owned houses, condos, and co-ops fell to $394,300 in September, down by 4.7% from the peak 18 months ago, in June 2022, according to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) today. June is usually the seasonal price-peak of the year, but June 2023 was below the peak in June 2022 for the first time since the Housing Bust, and prices skidded lower since then. Due to the price plunge last year in July through September, the median price was up year-over-year by 2.8%, but that was a lower rate than the 3.2% year-over-year in August (historic data via YCharts): Price reductions jumped to 37.5% of active listings in September, blowing by the pre-pandemic highs, as sellers are getting more motivated to sell their homes while buyers have vanished at these prices (data via realtor.com): Sales of previously owned houses, condos, and co-ops crashed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.96 million homes in September, the lowest since the depth of the housing bust in 2010. Compared to the Septembers in prior years (historic data via YCharts):

• From 2022: -15.4% from already depressed levels
• From 2021: -35.9%.
• From 2019: -26.8%.
• From 2018: -23.6%.

The NAR demands its easy-money heroin back from the Fed. “The Federal Reserve simply cannot keep raising interest rates in light of softening inflation and weakening job gains,” whined NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun in the press release, because the NAR is a lobbying group for Realtors, and Realtors make commissions off every sale they handle, coming and going, and as sales volume plunges, their income plunges.The industry has gotten hooked on the heroin of the Fed’s easy money between 2008 and 2022 that caused mortgage rates to plunge below 3%, and home prices to inflate to the moon, and now they hate the normalization of interest rates, and they want their heroin back. Obviously, Realtors and the NAR could boost sales volume by pressuring their clients to lower asking prices by a big chunk to bring them in line with 8% mortgage rates, and these lower prices would bring out the buyers, and that would help getting the market out of the deep-freeze, but no. It’s much better to whine to the Fed about handing out more heroin.Actual sales – not seasonally adjusted annual rate – fell 18.9% from the already depressed levels in September 2022 to 347,000 homes. January and February usually mark the low points of the year; June marks the peak volume and the end of “spring selling season.” During the second half, sales careen lower. The actual sales data offer a better picture of sales and seasonality than the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales above (data via NAR):

Housing October 16th Weekly Update: Inventory increased 1.8% Week-over-week; Down 3.5% Year-over-year -Altos reports that active single-family inventory was up 1.8% week-over-week.
This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research. As of October 13th, inventory was at 546 thousand (7-day average), compared to 537 thousand the prior week. Year-to-date, inventory is up 11.3%. And inventory is up 34.8% from the seasonal bottom 26 weeks ago.The second graph shows the seasonal pattern for active single-family inventory since 2015. The red line is for 2023. The black line is for 2019. Note that inventory is up from the record low for the same week in 2021, but below last year and still well below normal levels.Inventory was down 3.5% compared to the same week in 2022 (last week it was down 4.3%), and down 42.3% compared to the same week in 2019 (last week down 43.8%). In 2022, inventory didn't peak until late October, and it appears same week inventory will be below 2022 levels for the remainder of the year - depending on when inventory finally peaks this year! It also seems likely that inventory will be above 2020 levels (dark blue line) sometime in the next few weeks. Mike Simonsen discusses this data regularly on Youtube.

Housing Starts Increased to 1.358 million Annual Rate in September --From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions: Privately‐owned housing starts in September were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,358,000. This is 7.0 percent above the revised August estimate of 1,269,000, but is 7.2 percent below the September 2022 rate of 1,463,000. Single‐family housing starts in September were at a rate of 963,000; this is 3.2 percent above the revised August figure of 933,000. The September rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 383,000. Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in September were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,473,000. This is 4.4 percent below the revised August rate of 1,541,000 and is 7.2 percent below the September 2022 rate of 1,588,000. Single‐family authorizations in September were at a rate of 965,000; this is 1.8 percent above the revised August figure of 948,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 459,000 in September. The first graph shows single and multi-family housing starts since 2000. Multi-family starts (blue, 2+ units) increased in September compared to August. Multi-family starts were down 31.4% year-over-year in September. Single-family starts (red) increased in September and were up 8.6% year-over-year.The second graph shows single and multi-family housing starts since 1968. This shows the huge collapse following the housing bubble, and then the eventual recovery - and the recent collapse in single-family starts. Total housing starts in September were below expectations and starts in July and August were revised down slightly, combined.

Near Record Number of Multi-Family Housing Units Under Construction - The first graph shows single and multi-family housing starts since 2000 (including housing bubble). The second graph shows single and multi-family starts since 1968. Total housing starts in September were below expectations and starts in July and August were revised down slightly, combined. The third graph shows the month-to-month comparison for total starts between 2022 (blue) and 2023 (red). Total starts were down 7.2% in September compared to September 2022. And starts year-to-date are down 12.1% compared to last year. Starts have been down year-over-year for 15 of the last 17 months (May and July 2023 were the exceptions), and total starts will be down this year - although the year-over-year comparisons will be somewhat easier in Q4.

Marco Rubio Attempts To Stop Biden's Green Housing Plan | HuffPost Latest News -Every three years, local governments and industry officials from across the United States come together to update the model building codes used in all 50 states ― adding requirements for some insulation here, or new windows there, to cut back on how much energy it takes to keep a new house lit and warm.By law, federal agencies are supposed to swiftly assess those new codes and, as long as they really do save energy, make meeting them a requirement for obtaining a government-backed loan to purchase a new house. Since a sixth of all new homes are financed with loans from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Federal Housing Administration or from the Department of Agriculture, real estate developers who want to sell what they build have a strong incentive to make sure their houses meet the criteria for federal financing. Yet in apparent violation of the law, the federal standards haven’t been updated in years, and remain at 2009 levels.In May, the Biden administration moved to finally update the eligibility rule for housing loans, requiring that all new homes the federal government helps purchase be built to the latest and greenest codes ever adopted, cutting back on energy use by 35% and shaving $74 million per year off the utility bills of people living in those houses. While the new rules are still crawling through a slow bureaucratic process, they could take effect by next year.But not if Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) gets his way.Last month, Rubio introduced an amendment to a federal budget bill that would stop the process in its tracks, barring HUD from using any money from Congress to “impose updated minimum energy efficiency standards” on new housing loans.The Senate could vote on the amendment as early as this week, as part of a government funding agreement to help avoid a shutdown when the last-minute budget deal that Congress passed earlier this month expires on Nov. 17.

Abandoning the Poor --On the island of Manhattan, where I live, skyscrapers multiply like metal weeds, a vertical invasion of seemingly unstoppable force. For more than a century, they have risen as symbols of wealth and the promise of progress for a city and a nation. In movies and TV shows, those buildings churn with activity, offices full of important people doing work of global significance. The effect is a feeling of economic vitality made real by the sheer scale of the buildings themselves.In stark contrast to those images of bustling productivity stands an outcropping of tall towers along the southern end of Manhattan’s Central Park. Built in the last 20 years, those ultra-luxury residential complexes make up what is unofficially known as “Billionaires’ Row.” The name is apt, considering that millionaires and billionaires have flocked to those buildings to buy apartments at unimaginably high prices. In 2021, the penthouse on the 96th floor of 432 Park Avenue was listed at an astonishing $169 million (though its Saudi owner has since slashed the offering price to a mere $130 million). No less astonishing these days, such lavish, sky-high homes often sit empty. Rather than fulfilling any functional role, many serve as nothing more than speculative investments for buyers who hope, one day, to resell them for even higher prices, avoid taxes, or launder dirty money. For some among the super-rich, flush with more money than they know what to do with, Billionaires’ Row is simply an easy place to park their wealth.Those empty apartments cast a shadow over a city full of people in need of affordable housing and better wages. Reaching from the southern tip of Manhattan into Brooklyn lies the most economically unequal congressional district in the country. To the north, in the Bronx, sprawls the nation’s poorest district. Just last week, the New York Times reported that, based on 2022 census data, “the wealthiest fifth of Manhattanites earned an average household income of $545,549, or more than 53 times as much as the bottom 20 percent, who earned an average of $10,259.”In New York, where land is a finite resource and real estate determines so much, it is a cruel irony that the richest people in the world are using their capital to literally reach ever higher into the clouds, while back on earth, the average New Yorker, grimly ensconced in reality, lives paycheck to paycheck, navigating a constant storm of food, healthcare, housing, transportation and utility costs.Extreme economic inequality, characterized by a small class of the very wealthy and a broad base of poor and low-income people, may be particularly evident in cities like New York, but it’s a fact of life nationwide. In September 2023, the wealth of America’s 748 billionaires rose to $5 trillion, $2.2 trillion more than in 2017, the year the Trump administration passed massive tax changes favoring the rich. The new 2022 census data offers a very different picture of life for the nation’s poor in those same years. In fact, the numbers are eye-popping: between 2021 and 2022 alone, the overall Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) rose by nearly 5%, while child poverty doubled in size. The U.S. Census Bureau uses two measurements of poverty: the Official Poverty Measure (OPM) and that SPM. The OPM, it’s widely agreed, is shamefully feeble and outdated, while the Supplemental Poverty Measure casts a wider net, catching more of the nuances of impoverishment. Still, even that has its limitations, missing millions of people who flutter precariously just above the official threshold of poverty, constantly at risk of falling below it.

Retail Sales Increased 0.7% in September - On a monthly basis, retail sales were up 0.7% from August to September (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 3.8 percent from September 2022.
From the Census Bureau report: Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for September 2023, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $704.9 billion, up 0.7 percent from the previous month, and up 3.8 percent above September 2022. ... The July 2023 to August 2023 percent change was revised from up 0.6 percent to up 0.8 percent (±0.1 percent). This graph shows retail sales since 1992. This is monthly retail sales and food service, seasonally adjusted (total and ex-gasoline). Retail sales ex-gasoline were up 0.7% in September. The second graph shows the year-over-year change in retail sales and food service (ex-gasoline) since 1993. Retail and Food service sales, ex-gasoline, increased by 4.3% on a YoY basis. The increase in sales in September was well above expectations, and sales in July and August were revised up.

Our Drunken Sailors Now Guzzling Directly from Punch Bowl: Powell, You Looking? Splurging Online, at Restaurants & Auto Dealers. YOLO --By Wolf Richter Total retail sales, including at bars and restaurants, jumped 0.7% in September, after the upwardly revised 0.8% jump in August, and the 0.6% jump in July. Over the past three months annualized, retail sales jumped by 8.7%, a sharp acceleration from late last year and earlier this year.Compared to a year ago, retail sales rose 3.8%, seasonally adjusted. Our beloved drunken sailors, as we’ve come to call them because they just refuse to slow down, went on another buying binge at retailers, fired up by the biggest income increases in decades.The chart above shows the three-month moving average to tamp down on the monthly squiggles that can obscure the trends. Retail sales outran inflation in goods by a wide margin. Retailers sell goods, and inflation has shifted from goods (from retailers) to services that retailers don’t sell, and the prices of many goods that retailers sell have dropped. The CPI for durable goods has dropped 2.2% year-over-year. The CPI for nondurable goods rose 3.2% year-over-year. Combined, total goods inflation rose by 1.5% year-over-year, less than half the year-over-year increase of retail sales of 3.8% (my discussion of CPI inflation, including lots of charts, is here).Disposable income outran inflation in goods by a wide margin. That’s where the money or the additional spending came from. Disposable income jumped by 7.3% year-over-year, outrunning goods-inflation of 1.5% by a wide margin.Retail sales are not a measure of “consumer spending.” Consumer spending is far broader than retail sales. Consumer spending includes spending on goods at retailers but is dominated by spending on services that retailers don’t sell, and we track this overall spending by our drunken sailors separately and adjusted for inflation.Among the big retailer segments, the standouts were ecommerce retailers (which include the ecommerce sales of brick-and-mortar retailers, such as Walmart’s ecommerce sales), auto dealers, and bars & restaurants. Clearly, consumers are operating on the time-honored principle of YOLO. All dollar amounts are seasonally adjusted. All charts show the three-month moving average to reduce the monthly squiggles that can obscure the trends. The charts are in order of magnitude of the segment, from biggest to smallest:

How Widespread Is Price-Fixing in the US Economy? - On September 28, the Justice Department continued its efforts to reduce wage- and price-fixing cartels in the US economy.This time the DOJ filed an antitrust lawsuit against Agri Stats Inc. for running anticompetitive information exchanges among broiler chicken, pork and turkey processors. Agri Stats allegedly collects, integrates and distributes price, cost and output information among competing meat processors, which allows them to coordinate output and prices in order to maximize profits. That, in turn, means grocery stores and consumers pay much more.Here you can see what effect the information sharing has had on pork prices:(9graph) It sure took the DOJ long enough to get on the case as Agri Stats has been the subject of several private antitrust lawsuits in recent years. Details from Investigate Midwest:Agri Stats — a widely utilized, privately-held data and analytics firm for the meat processing industry — has been named in more than 90 lawsuits since 2016, making it the second-most sued company in the industry over that time span (Tyson Foods is first). All the lawsuits accuse the company of facilitating anti-competitive behavior because, with the almost real-time data, meat processors can see what their counterparts are planning…Most allegations are similar, even across industries. Meat producers “conspired and combined to fix, raise, maintain, and stabilize the price of” product, reads the first lawsuit, filed in 2016 on behalf of Maplevale Farms, a New York food service company.Wholesale and retail price data from the USDA reflects a rise and stabilization in consumer prices since early 2008, when the conspiracy is alleged to have started affecting the market, particularly in pork.Agri Stats paused its turkey and pork reporting in the face of these private antitrust lawsuits, but according to the DOJ, “has expressed an intent to resume such reporting after these lawsuits’ resolution,” and Agri Stats’ scheme continues to this day in the chicken processing industry.It would be nice to see the DOJ go after price- and wage-fixing schemes that aren’t first uncovered by private lawsuits. To glean some insight into Agri Stats, they would have only had to walk a half mile across Washington DC to the US Department of Agriculture. That’s because the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has long purchased data from Agri Stats. From Investigate Midwest:

Industrial Production Increased 0.3% in September --From the Fed: Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Industrial production increased 0.3 percent in September and advanced at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the third quarter. Manufacturing output rose 0.4 percent in September, the index for mining moved up 0.4 percent, and the index for utilities decreased 0.3 percent. At 103.6 percent of its 2017 average, total industrial production in September was 0.1 percent above its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization moved up 0.2 percentage point to 79.7 percent in September, a rate that is equal to its long-run (1972–2022) average. This graph shows Capacity Utilization. This series is up from the record low set in April 2020, and above the level in February 2020 (pre-pandemic). Capacity utilization at 79.7% is at the average from 1972 to 2022. This was above consensus expectations. The second graph shows industrial production since 1967. Industrial production increased in August to 103.6. This is above the pre-pandemic level. Industrial production was above consensus expectations, however the previous month was revised down.

New York City Will Send Migrant Families to Flood-Prone, Far-Off Tents -- Mayor Eric Adams announced two striking policy shifts for migrant families with children on Monday afternoon, in his latest attempt to get people to leave city shelters and discourage new arrivals from coming into them. City Hall said it would begin distributing notices to families with children telling them they had to leave and reapply for shelter after 60 days, while families with children entering the system would be sent to a cavernous tent shelter at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn when it opens in the coming weeks. Until now, migrant families with children have been placed in individual hotel rooms spread out across the city.Removed from the nearby neighborhoods of Marine Park and Flatlands, the flood-prone and marshy Floyd Bennett Field, a former airfield, is about a five-mile trip from the nearest schools.In a press release, the administration called the forthcoming facility there a “semi-congregate setting,” saying that “privacy dividers with locks will be installed to provide approximately 500 families with children a place to stay.”Other than as a brief emergency measure after Hurricane Sandy, the city hasn’t placed families with children in congregate settings since the 1980s, according to Josh Goldfein with the Legal Aid Society, a practice they fought to ban because of the dangers children face in such settings, like their vulnerability to sexual abuse.While the city said that the notices would go out to migrant families, it would need state permission to send those to people who are currently staying in shelters overseen by the Department of Homeless Services. The city would need a state waiver in order to dole those notices shelters overseen by the Department of Homeless Services, which is where the majority of migrant families reside. City Hall Spokesperson Charles Lutvak said they were working closely with state agencies but declined to say if the city had been granted such a waiver. The new plan comes as the Adams administration has gone to court to try and suspend the city’s decades-old right to shelter for adultsThe Coalition for the Homeless and the Legal Aid Society slammed the city’s new plans.“To be denied safe shelter after 60 days is devoid of any humanity and is a stain on our city’s long-standing reputation as a welcoming home for all,” said Redmond Haskins, a spokesperson for the two groups. “Private rooms, not open cubicles, are needed to ensure the safety of families with children and to reduce the transmission of infectious disease, among other obvious reasons.” Haskins said they would consider seeking an injunction if the announcement violated a 2008 consent decree which dictates the rights families have in shelters, or other local regulations.

Wadea Al Fayoume: Palestinian-American boy fatally stabbed near Chicago had just celebrated his 6th birthday — In the photograph that introduced millions of people to Wadea Al-Fayoume for the first time, the kindergartener is seen celebrating his sixth birthday at his home near Chicago. With one hand on a blue “Happy Birthday” hat on his head, Wadea stands in the warm light of the home, surrounded by presents. On a shelf behind him sits a wooden sign proclaiming “home.” A birthday video is seen playing on the living room TV. Inside that same home – and just eight days after that photo was snapped – Wadea was stabbed 26 times by his family’s landlord because he was Muslim, authorities have said. The “ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis” was why the boy and his mother – who also suffered more than a dozen stab wounds but survived – were targeted, according to the Will County Sheriff’s Office. The 71-year-old suspect has been charged with murder and hate crimes, among other charges, and was ordered to be held without bond during a court appearance Monday.

School bus driver charged with kidnapping in Oklahoma incident - An Oklahoma bus driver is facing kidnapping charges after allegedly refusing to release students from his vehicle until they were quiet.Surveillance video from inside the bus shows the driver, 68-year-old Thomas Young, refusing to allow anyone to exit and after a tense dispute with a few middle school students Friday afternoon in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb east of Tulsa."Everybody be quiet I'm not moving until I don't hear any speaking," Young can be heard yelling in the video. "You think you can get away with stuff. I run my bus a certain way I don't care what the other bus drivers do. You obey me."One student told the driver that they needed to be home in 10 minutes to which he replied "I don't care be quiet."The Broken Arrow Police Department charged Young with kidnapping and child abuse for the incident, according to FOX 23.Young had been a driver for the school for slightly over a year and received no complaints or similar incidents prior to Friday, according to the districts Chief Communications Officer Tara Thompson. Friday was his second day taking that specific bus route and he was running 30 to 45 minutes late.Thompson said that while bus drivers do have the authority to enforce school rules, Young did not follow the training protocols while attempting to quiet the students.The driver eventually stopped his vehicle on the side of a main road where students then tried to exit the bus, Thompson said. Video shows banging sounds which Thompson identified as parents trying to get their kids off the vehicle."There are students who open the back of the bus and jump out while the bus is moving which is a huge safety issue," Thompson said. "There were lots of things that went wrong in the scenario. The students didn't respond well, the driver didn't respond well."

Steroid-using US high school athletes more likely to sustain concussion, study finds --More than half of US high school athletes who use anabolic steroids report having sustained a concussion, compared to around a fifth of those who do not use steroids, a new study published in the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine finds.Kennedy Sherman of Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine at Cherokee Nation and colleagues used data from a Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) survey to examine the incidence of steroid use and concussion in US high school athletes.The researchers found that 3.7% of such athletes reported previous steroid use and 20.7% reported having sustained a concussion. For athletes who did not use steroids, 19.6% reported a concussion, but for those using steroids, the rate of concussions was significantly higher at 54.6%.The use of anabolic steroids by US high school athletes is a well-documented problem. Most athletes use them to increase muscle strength and lean muscle mass which can lead to an increase in body mass index (BMI). The use of anabolic steroids can also lead to severe, long-lasting and sometimes irreversible damage. They can cause early heart attacks, strokes, liver tumors, kidney failure, male infertility and psychiatric problems, as well as having behavioral impacts such as increased aggression and anxiety, and decreased impulse control.Kennedy Sherman says, "The neurobehavioral shifts of steroid use may lead to increased aggressive play and a subsequent heightened risk for concussions. Moreover, athletes using steroids are likely to have higher muscle volume and increased muscle strength, amplifying the momentum and impact of head-on collisions. Steroid use and concussions each have numerous health consequences, and when occurring together in a person, these effects may be amplified."

Homecoming dance postponed at Cleveland school after Friday shooting — The Cleveland Catholic Diocese announced it has postponed Saturday night’s homecoming dance at Cleveland Central Catholic High School and moved the homecoming football game to another location after police said a 15-year-old boy was critically injured in a shooting near the school. The teen was injured in the Friday afternoon shooting, Cleveland EMS Interim Deputy Commissioner Chris Chapin told FOX 8 News. The shooting happened after school was dismissed on Friday. “All on-campus activities have been canceled for [Saturday],” said Cleveland Catholic Diocese spokesperson Nancy Fishburn. “The school has moved the homecoming football game off campus with no spectators. The homecoming dance will be rescheduled for a later date. On Monday, only faculty and staff will report to school, students will not have classes or any instruction on October 16,” Fishburn added. Officials told FOX 8 News the shooting stemmed from an altercation. “This was an isolated incident and everyone else is safe,” read a statement from the diocese Friday. Police officers at the scene investigated a backpack found on the grass on school grounds. Officials originally said the weapon used in the shooting appeared to be a pellet gun but later said it was a real gun. Caley Gallagher and other neighbors that spoke with Fox 8 reporter Tino Bovenzi said crime is becoming a major issue in Slavic Village. “Yeah it’s definitely getting worse,” she said. “That’s not only a concern for children but just the general public. [My] boyfriend has me take basically like a concealed pocketknife sometimes where I go just to make sure I’m safe. Because we can’t trust people at the gas stations and stuff if I have to go.” She thinks the Cleveland Catholic Diocese is making the right call to reschedule school functions for safety. “I couldn’t imagine having homecoming or anything immediately after that,” Gallagher said. “It would set too much of a negative vibe for everybody.” Police told FOX 8 News they are still searching for suspects.

Dispute Over Power Lines Centers on Lack of Comma in 1948 Document - - High school students from two eastern Ohio counties will have a chance next week to observe legal arguments made before the Supreme Court of Ohio. Some might feel like they instead are in an English class.In the school auditorium of Buckeye Local High School in Jefferson County, the Supreme Court justices will consider a long-standing dispute regarding six words and a comma. At issue is what the phrase “right to trim, cut and remove” means in a 1948 legal document.Ohio Edison Company, which has a 1948 easement allowing it to keep plants and other obstructions on a person’s property from interfering with overhead electric power lines, believes the language permits it to use herbicide. The Corder family, which owns Harrison County farmland including 12.1 acres with an easement granted to Ohio Edison, argues that the power company can’t spray chemicals but can only use tools to cut or trim plants and then remove what was pruned from the property.Along with Corder v. Ohio Edison, the Court will hear two other cases at Buckeye Local on Wednesday, Oct. 25. The justices will be presiding before an audience of about 500 students from Jefferson and Harrison counties.

School leaders across Texas are waiting to learn how lawmakers will vote on the school voucher bill during the special session. Public school leaders across Texas are waiting to learn more about what will happen to legislation supporting school vouchers. The legislation would open doors for parents of students attending public schools giving them a choice to switch to a private school using taxpayer funds. Not everyone agrees with Gov. Greg Abbott's school choice plan, including the superintendent at Fort Worth ISD. "We desperately ask one thing and one thing only to fully fund our schools," said FWISD Superintendent Angelica Ramsey said. Ramsey and her team serve nearly 75,000 students on 140 campuses with the help of state funding. So, she said she's not too happy about the school voucher bill on the special session agenda right now. During her one-on-one interview, Ramsey shared what she would say to lawmakers in Austin who have voted or are scheduled to vote on the voucher bill during special session. "I'd remind them that the state of Texas is in the bottom 10 in funding for public education," said Ramsey, "What we've never been able to get is full funding, and our children deserve that. Our staff deserve that." During the Texas Legislature special session, the Senate already passed its version of school vouchers. It's in danger of failing in the house. Abbott has traveled across Texas promoting school choice. He is also sharing on social media how much parent support he has for the voucher program. The school voucher choice would give parents up to $8,000 in taxpayer money, which they could use at a private school to pay for uniforms, textbooks, tutoring, and even transportation. "We're looking at diverting public funds into private schools, and that isn't what the Texas Constitution says," Ramsey said. Ramsey said she believes in school choice but not at the cost of public schools, which offer far more to students. "There isn't another school district, charter or private that provides free breakfast and lunch and free after school for our students and free transportation and hundreds of programs to choose from," Ramsey said. "This last Spring, we had almost 19,000 students taking an advanced academic's course with about 500 students receive their associate degree before their high school diploma'" Ramsey. "I don't care really what the state has to say about how we're doing." Ramsey also talked about the future of the number of school buildings, school safety and why she believes FWISD test scores may not reflect the district accurately when it comes to their learning curve and how they stack up against other districts locally, statewide and nationwide. "I would love us to reframe our conversations around standardized testing. We serve a very different demographic. More than 40% of our students in Fort Worth are bilingual. At the secondary level, it goes up to almost 70%," said Ramsey, "That means that our students are learning a second language, acquiring a second language and the content. So sometimes when we test all in English, we get one data point." Right now, there are no plans on the state level to change standardized testing to accommodate students based on first and second language. FWISD is currently going through an inclusive master facility plan and a strategic planning process. Right now, there is no plan to close any of their campuses. However, based on city growth, the district hopes to plan what it would need building wise for grade levels and populations numbers.

How a pair of bills would reshape education funding in Texas — Texas Republican leaders say they’re on the cusp of delivering both parental freedom and a massive investment in public schools this year. Democrats say the majority party is holding public school teachers and students hostage over a voucher program with roots tracing back to segregation. What would the legislation that’s being considered in the Texas Legislature’s special session actually do, and how might it affect parents and students in Bexar County? Last week the state Senate signed off on Senate Bill 1, which would create a new $500 million program to fund education expenses for students who leave or have left the public school system. It also approved Senate Bill 2, a $5.2 billion public school funding package that would increase teacher pay, school security budgets and the per-student allotment over the next four years. The fate of the two proposals now rests in the state House, where Gov. Greg Abbott hopes the new public school spending will help lure lawmakers on board with the program to fund private school tuition — something members of both parties have long rejected. Senate Bill 1 would allocate $500 million from the state’s general fund for the creation of an education savings account (ESA) program. Starting in 2024, students who want to leave the public school system could apply for an ESA worth up to $8,000 per school year to fund private school tuition, school supplies, private tutoring and other education-related expenses laid out in the bill (Section 29.359). Applications would also be open to students currently attending private schools, or who are enrolling in school for the first time. The bill doesn’t place any new requirements on private schools or other institutions that receive the ESA money, such as regulating their curriculum or which students they accept. The program’s $500 million budget would fund ESAs for roughly 50,000 students in its first year, equivalent to roughly 1% of the 5.5 million students in the Texas public school system. The bill says students who enter the program would automatically remain in it until graduation, but the $500 million funds the ESAs only for one school year. Public schools receive funding from the state based on their average enrollment numbers, meaning the school districts will lose money for each student who uses an ESA to pursue an alternative form of education. Data compiled by Every Texan estimates what that revenue loss could look like for each district if their enrollment decreased 1%. For example, Every Texan’s analysis shows Alamo Heights Independent School District would lose roughly $400,000 if 1% of students utilized ESAs. Lottery system: If there are more applicants for the ESAs than funds available, students will be selected by lottery, with preference toward students from low-income households and students with disabilities.

Texas House Republicans unveil priority voucher bill | The Texas Tribune -- The House Republican leading efforts on ”school choice” legislation submitted his version of a voucher proposal Thursday night, calling for boosts to public education in exchange for implementing a capped education savings account program. House Bill 1 laid out a different approach than the Senate’s version, which was approved last week, that would award families $8,000 to use for private education.The bill from Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Killeen, would give parents 75% of the average amount that each school receives in per-student state and local funding, allowing them to use that for private school tuition or some other approved expenses.Gov. Greg Abbott has been pushing all year for a school voucher program, and his office indicated Friday that the new bill was insufficient. Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said in a statement that Abbott spoke with House Speaker Dade Phelan on Friday morning and let him know the legislation “differs from what the Governor’s office had negotiated with the House’s leadership team selected by the Speaker.”The House bill would also raise the state’s basic allotment — the base amount of money the state gives a district for each student it’s educating.That amount, currently $6,160, has not increased since 2019. For the first year, school districts would receive a minor increase in the basic allotment, raising it to $6,190. In the second year, the allotment would increase by another $310.The state provides other funding beyond the basic allotment, meaning the amount used to determine how much education savings account money parents are eligible would be higher. The state would be required to determine that number by Jan. 15 of each year.To address calls to improve teacher compensation, educators would receive a one-time $4,000 bonus. Additionally, school districts would be required to spend 50% of the additional state funding, stemming from the allotment increases, on salaries for full-time employees, excluding administrators.For now, Abbott has yet to add public school finance and teacher raises to the agenda and lawmakers can only pass his priorities during a special session. He called lawmakers back to Austin earlier this month to pass an education savings account program and said he would only add other public school priorities to the agenda after vouchers pass.

Protests erupt across US college campuses after Hamas attacks | CNN video - CNN's Nick Watt reports on tensions at college campuses across the US, from Harvard to UCLA, following the attacks by Hamas on Israel.

Billionaire Ronald Lauder threatens to pull funding if UPenn doesn't do more to fight antisemitism — Billionaire Ronald Lauder, a powerful financial backer of the University of Pennsylvania, is threatening to cut off donations if the school doesn’t do more to fight antisemitism, CNN has learned. The threat from Lauder, one of the heirs to the Estee Lauder cosmetics company, marks the latest fallout from donors and alumni alarmed by a Palestinian literary festival that was held on campus last month prior to the Hamas terror attacks on Israel. Even before the Palestine Writes Literature Festival started, UPenn leaders acknowledged it would include speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks. “The conference has put a deep stain on Penn’s reputation that will take a long time to repair,” Lauder wrote to UPenn President Liz Magill on Monday in a letter obtained by CNN. “You are forcing me to reexamine my financial support absent satisfactory measures to address antisemitism at the university,” Lauder wrote. The Palestine Writes festival has created a backlash that prominent donors, including billionaire Marc Rowan and former US Ambassador Jon Huntsman, who have vowed to cut off funding. Rowan called for Magill to resign and trustee Vahan Gureghian did step down late last week. Lauder said he had two people taking photos at the Palestine Writes festival and two more who listened to the speakers, who were “antisemitic and viscerally anti-Israel.” Organizers of the Palestine Writes festival denied that it embraced antisemitism, according to UPenn student newspaper The Daily Pennsylvanian. UPenn did not respond to a request for comment on the Lauder letter, but the university has stressed it did not and does not endorse the speakers or their views. Lauder, whose fortune is estimated at $4.6 billion, according to Forbes, serves as president of the World Jewish Congress, an organization that aims to protect Jewish communities around the world from discrimination. “I have spent the past 40 years of my life fighting antisemitism around the world and I never, in my wildest imagination, thought I would have to fight it at my university, my alma mater and my family’s alma mater,” Lauder wrote in the letter.

Wexner Foundation cuts ties with Harvard over 'tiptoeing' on Hamas — A nonprofit founded by former Victoria’s Secret billionaire Leslie Wexner and his wife Abigail is breaking off ties with Harvard University, alleging the school has been “tiptoeing” over Hamas’ terror attacks against Israel.The Wexner Foundation’s decision to end its relationship and financial support for Harvard is the latest fallout amid criticism from donors who were alarmed by the university’s initial response to the attacks and to an anti-Israel statement issued by student groups.The end of Wexner’s support comes as college campuses across the United States are in turmoil over responses from students, professors and administrations to Hamas’ attack on Israel and the ensuing war. Big donors have pulled money from a number of high-profile universities. Students have protested and some have been publicly shamed for their views. A handful of faculty have been lambasted by students and administrations for sharing controversial views. And university leaders are clinging onto diminishing support as some fight for survival.“We are stunned and sickened by the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians,” the Wexner Foundation’s leaders wrote in a Monday letter to the Harvard board of overseers.The Wexners, whose fortune is estimated to be $6 billion, according to Forbes, specifically cite the statement released by a coalition of student groups that blamed solely Israel for the terror attacks by Hamas. “Harvard’s leaders were indeed tiptoeing, equivocating, and we, like former Harvard President Larry Summers cannot ‘fathom the administration’s failure to disassociate the university and condemn the statement’ swiftly issued by 34 student groups holding Israel entirely responsible for the violent terror attack on its own citizens,” the Wexner Foundation letter reads. “That should not have been that hard.”

Tobacco purchases rise following restrictions on e-cigarette sales, study finds --The immense popularity of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, among young people has led many policymakers to restrict the sale of flavored varieties. But rather than nudging people away from "vapes," as these e-cigarettes are called, such measures could backfire by driving users to instead buy conventional cigarettes, a much more dangerous product, according to researchers at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH).In a large-scale, long-term analysis of policies and sales data, the researchers found that for every 0.7 milliliters of "e-liquid" (the consumable content inside e-cigarettes, also known as vape juice) that goes unsold due to flavor restrictions, 15 additional traditional cigarettes are sold. The substitution was especially evident among cigarette brands popular with young people aged 20 and under, suggesting that flavor restrictions may increase smoking among youth as well as adults.The results suggest that this type of policy, which is intended to curb nicotine-related harms, may instead magnify them."While neither smoking nor vaping is entirely safe, current evidence indicates substantively greater health harm from smoking than vaping nicotine products," said first author Abigail S. Friedman, an associate professor in the YSPH Department of Health Policy & Management. "These policies' public health costs may outweigh their benefits."

Rite Aid seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it deals with lawsuits and losses - Rite Aid has filed for bankruptcy protection and plans to sell part of its business as it attempts to restructure while dealing with losses and opioid-related lawsuits. The company said Rite Aid stores will continue to fill prescriptions, and customers will still be able to visit its locations or shop online while it goes through its voluntary Chapter 11 process. But that process also will allow it to speed up its plan to close underperforming stores. Going through Chapter 11 will help “significantly reduce the company’s debt” while helping to “resolve litigation claims in an equitable manner,” Rite Aid late Sunday. Rite Aid Corp. said in its federal bankruptcy filing that it runs more than 2,000 stores. Most of its locations are on the East and West Coasts. The Philadelphia company, which is marking its 60th year in business, has posted annual losses for several years and has been cutting costs and closing stores as it dealt with long-standing financial challenges. It has said it expects a net loss of as much as $680 million in the current fiscal year, which will end next spring.

CDC ends Biobot Analytics contract for wastewater surveillance of COVID pandemic - As of September 27, 2023, one of the few reliable sources of information on the real state of the COVID pandemic in the US was halted. The contract between Biobot Analytics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide extended data for the public health agency’s National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) ended. Instead, the CDC awarded the $38 million contract for up-to-five years to Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) on September 26, 2023. However, a glance into Verily’s COVID dashboard, WastewaterSCAN, offers little in terms of comprehensible data in regional or national terms. It simply states, “Medium: Downward trend and medium concentration in the last 21 days.” The last Biobot report indicated the levels of SARS-CoV-2 nationally were rising again, with the Northeast accelerating and the rest of the country seeing levels plateau. The available graphics and trends in SARS-CoV-2 wastewater levels are limited to the wastewater site and have not been aggregated to provide a coherent picture. And reviewing the CDC’s limited graphics, as of September 28, there has been a precipitous drop in the number of sites reporting. It appears that the disruption in wastewater data is another deliberate attempt by the CDC to further dismantle any semblance of organized real-time data on the state of the pandemic. Such shifts in contracts usually take place over a span of time to assure a seamless transition on the data being presented.

Risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome 6 times higher after COVID infection, study suggests A new study from Israel ties COVID-19 infection to an increased risk of a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) within 6 weeks, while mRNA vaccination was linked to a decreased risk of the rare but serious autoimmune disease.Researchers from Lady Davis Carmel Medical Center in Haifa conducted a nested case-control study involving 3,193,951 patients aged 16 years and older not previously diagnosed as having GBS seen at Clalit Health Services from January 2021 to June 2022. Each patient with GBS in the 6 weeks after infection was matched with 10 randomly selected control patients who did not have GBS.A chronic illness with no known cure, GBS occurs when the immune system attacks the nerves, causing symptoms such as weakness and tingling in the hands and feet that spreads to the upper body and may lead to paralysis, shortness of breath, abnormal blood pressure, and difficulty walking. Most people recover with few residual effects.Two thirds of GBS patients reported that they had symptoms of a respiratory or gastrointestinal infection in the 6 weeks before GBS diagnosis. A total of 76 patients were diagnosed as having GBS during follow-up and were matched with 760 control patients. The average age of GBS patients was 56.3 years, and half were women.Nine of the 76 GBS patients (11.8%) and 18 of 760 controls (2.4%) had tested positive for COVID-19. Eight (10.5%) of GBS patients and 136 (17.9%) controls had been vaccinated against COVID-19, nearly all of them with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

COVID can worsen lower urinary tract symptoms in men - Research in the Journal of Internal Medicine indicates that SARS-CoV-2 infections may worsen lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in men, based on 18,000 men treated for LUTS in Hong Kong in 2021 and 2022.This study, the authors say, is the largest to show COVID-19 can result in increased rates of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), or enlargement of the prostate, resulting in a number of urinary symptoms. The study suggests the male reproductive tract is a site for COVID-19-related inflammation and pathophysiology.The study included outcomes among 17,986 men seeking treatment for LUTS. All patient records were gathered from Hong Kong Hospital Authority, the sole healthcare provider in Hong Kong. All patients were on monotherapy for LUTS, in the form of long-acting alpha-1 adrenoreceptor blockers, and seen between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2022.Case patients had a positive PCR test for COVID-19 while seeking treatment for LUTS, and controls were negative. A total of 10,651 patients had a positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2.The authors found striking differences between urinary symptoms in cases and controls. The group with SARS-CoV-2 had significantly higher rates of retention of urine (4.55% versus 0.86%), bacteria in the urine (9.02% versus 1.97%), and blood in the urine (1.36% versus 0.41%).

CDC study: People with HIV have elevated COVID reinfection rate -- A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-led study finds that people with HIV (PWH) have higher COVID-19 reinfection rates than those without HIV (PWOH). The study, published yesterday inEmerging Infectious Diseases, involved 453,587 adults in Chicago infected with SARS-CoV-2 from their first infection through May 2022. The investigators matched COVID-19 test results and vaccination data to Chicago's Enhanced HIV/AIDS Reporting System."HIV can compromise the immune system; persons with HIV (PWH), especially those not receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), might be vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection," the researchers wrote. "Understanding how COVID-19 affects PWH is important because approximately half of PWH are >50 years of age and have higher rates of medical comorbidities, compared with persons without HIV (PWOH)." A total of 5.3% of the 453,587 COVID-positive residents were reinfected, including 192 of 2,886 (6.7%) PWH and 23,642 of 450,701 (5.2%) PWOH. Reinfection rates among PWH were 66 per 1,000 person-years, compared with 50 of 1,000 person-years among PWOH. PWH had a higher adjusted rate of COVID-19 reinfection (1.46 per 1,000 person-years) than PWOH.Among reinfected residents, PWH were older (median age, 43 years) than PWOH (36 years). Relative to PWOH, PWH were more likely to be men (79.3% vs 40.9%) and Black (53.7% vs 27.0%) and to have received a primary COVID-19 vaccine series and booster (31.8% vs 22.1%). Of those reinfected, PWH were less likely than PWOH to be unvaccinated at their first infection (87.5% vs 91.0%).

SARS-CoV-2 persistence, low serotonin may cause long-COVID symptoms -In a study published yesterday in Cell, University of Pennsylvania researchers suggest that a reduction in the neurotransmitter serotonin caused by SARS-CoV-2 persistence in the gut leads to the neurocognitive symptoms of long COVID.The authors, who conducted a large-scale study using blood and stool samples from clinical studies and mouse models, said their findings could apply to other postviral syndromes.A subset of long-COVID patients had components of SARS-CoV-2 in their stool samples months after infection. The remaining virus, or viral reservoir, provokes the immune system to release proteins that fight the virus (viral RNA-induced type 1 interferons). The interferons cause inflammation that reduces intestinal absorption of the amino acid tryptophan and leads to abnormal blood clotting.Tryptophan is a building block of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, a chemical messenger between nerve cells in the brain and body mainly generated in the gastrointestinal tract. Serotonin helps regulate memory, sleep, digestion, wound healing, and the vagus nerve, a neuronal system that helps the body and the brain communicate.When persistent inflammation impairs the absorption of tryptophan, circulating serotonin levels plummet. This, in turn, disrupts vagus nerve signaling, which may cause neurocognitive long-COVID symptoms such as memory loss.Replenishing tryptophan or serotonin (through treatment with serotonin precursors or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor [SSRI] antidepressants) in patients with neurocognitive long-COVID symptoms reversed memory loss in mice. Physicians treating patients who have long COVID have had to rely on self-reports to determine if their symptoms are improving, the authors noted. "Now, our research shows that there are biomarkers we may be able to use to match patients to treatments or clinical trials that address the specific causes of their long COVID symptoms, and more effectively assess their progress," co-senior author Sara Cherry, PhD, said in University of Pennsylvania press release. Co-senior author Benjamin Abramoff, MD, said that previous studies had suggested that SSRIs could be an effective way to prevent long COVID. "Our research now presents an opportunity for future studies to select specific patients for a trial who exhibit depleted serotonin, and to be able to measure response to treatment," he said.

Prepandemic ICU performance related to lower COVID mortality rates -Yesterday in Chest, a review of intensive care units (ICUs) across 10 Brazilian states shows that those with lower mortality rates pre-pandemic saw lower COVID-19 death rates.Moreover, efficiently managed ICUs also saw lower mortality from the novel coronavirus, suggesting that hospital management is directly linked to patient outcomes. The study included a total of 386,528 adult patients seen in 33 private Brazilian ICUs from January 2018 to December 2021. Of those patients, 35,619 were admitted to ICUs with a COVID-19 diagnosis. Researchers used two metrics to determine if ICUs were considered highly efficient before the pandemic: in-hospital patient mortality rates and resource-management metrics in the intensive care centers. COVID patients were most often in their 50s and 60s, and 64.7% had one or more comorbidities upon ICU admission. A total of 18% required invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). Among those requiring IMV, in-hospital mortality was between 13% and 54%, and adjusted in-hospital mortality for all ICU patients was wide ranging, from 3.6% to 63.2%. The least-efficient ICUs, as determined by performance before the pandemic, were independently associated with increased mortality (odds ratio, 2.30; 95% confidence interval, 1.45 to 3.62) after adjusting for patients characteristics, illness severity, and pandemic surge, the authors said. Moreover, during pandemic peaks of activity, high-performing ICUs showed less variability in patient mortality and a quicker return to baseline after each wave of activity. The effect was seen most greatly in the first year of the pandemic.

COVID infection can damage the brains of dogs, study suggests - Dogs experimentally infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant but not showing neurologic or respiratory signs of COVID-19 had evidence of degenerative brain disease on necropsy. The study, led by Konkuk University researchers in South Korea, was published late last week in Emerging Infectious Diseases. The research team intranasally infected six female beagle dogs with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta virus. The six dogs shared cages with six dogs that weren't experimentally infected. Three uninfected dogs inoculated with a placebo served as controls. The investigators obtained nose-throat, mouth-throat, fecal swabs, and blood samples from the dogs at 10 different time points. At 10, 12, 14, 38, 40, and 42 days postinfection, one infected and one contact dog were euthanized for necropsy. SARS-CoV-2 was detected in a low percentage of nose-throat and mouth-throat swabs in infected and contact dogs. "Remarkably, we found that the viral titers were higher in the nasal and oral mucosa of dogs in the contact group than in those in the infection group," the authors wrote. "That finding could be attributed to the role of the nasal and oral cavities as routes of virus entry for the contact group, resulting in higher replication of the virus at these entry points." In the early stages of infection, dogs in the contact group showed more severe inflammatory responses in the trachea and bronchioles than were seen in the experimentally infected dogs, which the authors said is consistent with previous studies showing that contact transmission can lead to higher viral concentrations and faster onset of pathologic changes in the upper respiratory tract. Antibodies were detected in the blood of infected dogs as early as 4 days postinfection. No significant changes in body weight or temperature were observed, and none of the dogs showed neurologic or respiratory signs of COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 DNA was detected in the brain at weeks 10, 12, and 14 postinfection only. Infected dogs exhibited abnormal changes to the blood-brain barrier (BBB), primarily at weeks 38, 40, and 42 days. Necropsies at all time points uncovered evidence that the virus had severely damaged BBB cells and crossed the BBB.These signs, the researchers said, indicate that SARS-CoV-2 can produce pathologic changes to the BBB's structural and functional integrity. "Such changes may allow entry of peripheral molecules and immune cells into the brain parenchyma during the early infection period," they wrote. "Collectively, the pathologic changes concur with the typical signs of small vessel disease (SVD),"they wrote. SVD is generally caused by the narrowing or blockage of small blood vessels in the brain. The results of staining of brain sections demonstrated neuroinflammatory responses in the white matter of infected dogs. Infiltration of immune cells indicating pneumonia led to a thickened lung alveolar septum in infected canines.

COVID mRNA vaccines offer strong protection for young kids, data reveal -A study yesterday in JAMA Network Open based on outcomes seen among Singaporean children ages 4 years and younger showed good protection for two doses of monovalent mRNA COVID vaccines during an Omicron surge.The authors said the findings support vaccinating this age-group, despite low incidence of severe disease or hospitalization.The study was conducted from October 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023, after all Singaporean children ages 1 to 4 had been vaccinated with mRNA two-dose vaccines in a community vaccination campaign following approval of vaccines for this age-group in August 2022.The 6-month study period coincided with an Omicron XBB surge in Singapore, during which schools remained open, mask wearing was optional, and close contacts of COVID-19 cases were allowed to remain in school if well.A total of 121,628 children (median age, 3.1 years) were included in the study, contributing 21,015 ,956 person-days of observation. A total of 45,693 children (37.6%) had a prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, with most having had prior infection during the earlier Omicron BA.1/2 wave, the authors said.In kids with no previous COVID-19, vaccination was 63.3% effective in protecting against infection. Protection was higher, 74.6%, in those with a documented prior infection. Data were insufficient to assess vaccine effectiveness in fully vaccinated children with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, the authors said.

COVID-19 vaccine uptake in pregnancy linked to previous vaccine acceptance - Pregnant patients who accepted recommended tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) and flu vaccines in pregnancy were more likely to also get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a new study in the Journal of Infection.Though COVID-19 vaccines are safe and recommended in pregnancy, uptake has been low as vaccine hesitancy and misinformation has overshadowed the use of the vaccines. Several studies have shown the vaccines do not negatively affect pregnancy outcomes or hinder fertility, two claims rampant on social media.The present study used data from the California Immunization Registry to look at the vaccine history of all pregnant patients who delivered at a single site from December 2020 through March 2022.According to the authors, of the 7,857 patients who delivered during the study period, 4,410 (56.1%) accepted the COVID-19 vaccine in pregnancy. And of those who accepted the vaccine, 97.6% also received an influenza vaccine in pregnancy, and 88.5% received a Tdap vaccine.Advanced maternal age, obesity, Asian race, and private insurance were all correlated to COVID-19 vaccine uptake, the authors said. Younger pregnant patients, Black patients, and those on public insurance were less likely to get the vaccine.Importantly, the study found no difference in pregnancy outcomes among those who did and did not get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Study sheds light on immune response to COVID breakthrough infections - While COVID-19 breakthrough infections—a SARS-CoV-2 infection that occurs after receiving COVID-19 vaccines—can occur, for healthy individuals with vaccine-induced immunity, these breakthrough infections do not often cause severe disease. There has been limited research to uncover why these breakthrough infections do not lead to severe infections, until now. A team led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania identified potential clues that may enhance current vaccines through a detailed analysis of immune responses to breakthrough infections, published recently in Nature Immunology. Immunologists generally have limited data on the dynamics of the immune response during breakthrough infections. In this study, the researchers set out to remedy that shortcoming for SARS-CoV-2 by cataloging immune responses to omicron breakthrough infections in unprecedented detail. In their study, researchers examined the responses of B-cells (which produce antibodies) and T-cells (which can kill infected cells directly) in fully vaccinated individuals who became infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the early part of the omicron wave. They found that both B-cell and T-cell responses to these breakthrough infections are enhanced in vaccinated people, compared to unvaccinated people, generating the necessary "immunological memory" to prevent more severe infection. The results also suggest that vaccine-primed memory T cells have an early-responder role that may be critical for preventing severe COVID-19. "By identifying the contributions of memory B cells and memory T cells early in breakthrough infections, we now have clues to bolster the current vaccines and help further prevent the spread and impact of breakthrough infections,"

Vaccine refusal linked to mistrust in health authorities -Refusal of COVID-19 vaccines has been a feature of the pandemic since the vaccines were first made available in late winter 2020 and early 2021.In a new study in JAMA Network Open, authors review 28,000 interviews on vaccine uptake and hesitancy conducted in Hong Kong and Singapore from February 2020 through January 2022 to determine what was driving vaccine refusal.Until the Omicron wave in late 2021 and early 2022, Hong Kong had one of the lowest COVID-19 prevalence rates across the globe. But with Omicron, death tolls in Hong Kong soared to 39.3 million people per day, the highest death toll in the world. "While Hong Kong’s cumulative COVID-19 deaths per capita remain lower than the UK and US, it has far exceeded high-income economies in Asia-Pacific," the authors said. This was likely linked to low vaccine uptake: 82.4% of adults in Hong Kong aged 80 years and older were unvaccinated or had received only one dose during the Omicron BA.2 variant phase of the pandemic, compared to just 9.0% of adults in in SingaporeThe authors of the present study used 20 waves of questionnaires and data to understand the vaccine refusal and compared results to those seen in Singapore, which had one of the highest rates of vaccine uptake in Asia.Participants came from the FAMILY Cohort, a prospective population-based cohort study in Hong Kong. The group was asked about vaccination in the decade before and during the pandemic. In total, 28,007 interviews were included.

Researchers estimate 1% or 2% of hospital patients in England caught COVID after admission -During the country’s second COVID wave, 95,000 to 167,000 hospital patients in England were infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the hospital, partly due to a lack of single rooms, suggests astudy published yesterday in Nature.University of Oxford researchers analyzed data on in-hospital COVID-19 transmission, probable pathways of spread, and factors tied to elevated transmission risk at 356 National Health Service (NHS) hospitals during England's second pandemic wave, from June 2020 to March 2021."Hospital transmission directly affects patients likely to have multiple factors associated with poor outcomes; it puts healthcare workers (HCWs) at risk and compromises their ability to provide safe patient care; it disrupts service delivery; and it can have a major role in disseminating infection to vulnerable groups in the community," the study authors wrote. An estimated 95,000 to 167,000 hospital patients (1% to 2% of all admissions) were infected with SARS-CoV-2 over the study period. A time-series analysis suggested that patients who acquired COVID-19 in the hospital were the main source of viral spread to other patients."Increased transmission to inpatients was associated with hospitals having fewer single rooms and lower heated volume per bed [the volume of heated areas divided by number of beds]," the researchers wrote. "Moreover, we show that reducing hospital transmission could substantially enhance the efficiency of punctuated lockdown measures in suppressing community transmission."

Pfizer to price COVID treatment Paxlovid at $1,390 per course (Reuters) - Pfizer on Wednesday (PFE.N) said it will set the U.S. price for its COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid at nearly $1,400 per five-day course when it moves to commercial sales after government stocks run out, more than double what the government currently pays for it. The new list price, which does not include rebates and other discounts to insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, is $1,390 per course, Pfizer said in an emailed statement. The U.S. government paid around $530 per course for Paxlovid it has made available to Americans at no cost. Paxlovid, the most commonly prescribed at home treatment for COVID-19 in the U.S., will remain available for free to patients there until the end of the year, Pfizer said. Under an agreement with the government, the drug will also stay free of charge for patients insured under the Medicare and Medicaid programs through the end of 2024, and to uninsured and underinsured patients through 2028. In Pfizer's clinical trial, Paxlovid was shown to reduce hospitalizations and death by around 90% for unvaccinated people at risk for serious disease. In another trial, Pfizer was not able to show benefit for those considered at standard risk, including vaccinated patients. Influential U.S. drug pricing watchdog the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) said last year that its suggested price range for Paxlovid based on the benefits and value to patients was between $563 to $906 per course.

Need for Paxlovid in poor countries far outstripped supplies in 2022, report says In 2022, the number of people with high-risk COVID-19 infections in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) exceeded supplies of Pfizer's antiviral nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) by 8 million or more treatment courses, finds a new analysis by Public Citizen and the Health Global Access Project (Health GAP).The news coincides with Pfizer's announcement of planned US Paxlovid price hikes and the release of the US International Trade Commission report on access to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics subject to World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property rules. The report may help guide US deliberations on exempting COVID-19 treatments and tests from some WTO procedural requirements to facilitate access in LMICs. Using public data from supply agreements and the World Health Organization, Public Citizen determined that LMICs had procured about 916,120 Paxlovid courses in 2022, compared with a minimum need for 9,135,953 coursesDrug corporations' high prices, contract secrecy, and monopoly supply all suppress demand, and make it harder for resource-starved health agencies to purchase the treatment they need to care for people. The countries received 780,000 of those courses through bilateral supply agreements with Pfizer and 135,120 through the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator. The COVID Treatment Quick Start Consortium donated another 1,000 courses."At a minimum, ten times more people needed Paxlovid than had any chance to receive it in developing countries, and that almost certainly significantly understates the problem," Peter Maybarduk, JD, director of the Access to Medicines program at Public Citizen, said in the news release.He attributed the problem to intellectual property barriers, weak health funding, and failures to appropriately support the world's COVID response. "Drug corporations' high prices, contract secrecy, and monopoly supply all suppress demand, and make it harder for resource-starved health agencies to purchase the treatment they need to care for people," Maybarduk said.

Estimates of rates of long COVID in Africa vary greatly -Research providing estimates of long COVID rates in Africa is scarce, and a new study published in The Lancet Global Health shows estimates across the continent vary greatly, from 2% in Ghana to 86% in Egypt.The study was based on a review of scientific literature published from December 1, 2019, through November 23, 2022, on any study type in Africa with participants who had symptoms for 4 weeks or more after an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. The researchers identified 24 peer-reviewed manuscripts, reporting on 9,712 patients from eight African countries. Comparing symptoms at 1-month and 3-month follow-up, one study observed a declining trend of long COVID, from 82.1% to 66.7%. The lowest prevalence—2%—was seen in a study from Ghana, and a 5% prevalence was noted in a cohort study of Ethiopian children. "On the basis of reported prevalences in the included studies, the most common symptoms were neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as fatigue and headache," the authors said. "Pain sensations, such as chest and muscle pain, were more frequent than respiratory symptoms, such as dyspnoea or shortness of breath.Three studies assessed risk factors for developing long COVID and found female sex, older age, non-Black ethnicity, and low level of education linked to the condition.With more than 12 million long-COVID cases reported across the world, seroprevalence data suggest a pooled prevalence of 65.1% in Africa. Most cases on the continent, however, are not severe, likely because of a younger population. Africa also has low vaccination coverage, the authors said, and the studies included in this review occurred when 0.1% of the population had been vaccinated against COVID-19."In Africa, where vaccine coverage is low, the findings of this review should reignite discussions on the true toll of COVID-19 on the continent and guide advocacy and policy efforts to scale up effective interventions, including for vaccine uptake," the authors conclude.Investigation links Salmonella outbreak to wild songbirds An outbreak of salmonellosis that sickened people in 12 states during winter 2020-21 has been linked to wild songbirds, researchers reported today in Emerging Infectious Diseases.The outbreak of illness caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium was first identified by public health officials in eight people in Oregon and Washington state in February 2021. Whole-genome sequencing determined that the isolates collected from the patients were genetically related to one another as well as to an isolate from a pine siskin (a type of finch) collected in Oregon in December 2020.To identify additional cases and find the potential source of the outbreak, investigators analyzed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's PulseNet database (which tracks foodborne and waterborne illness), interviewed case-patients about potential exposures, and conducted postmortem examinations of dead songbirds collected in Oregon, Washington, and California.A total of 30 case patients in 12 states were identified (20 in Oregon, Washington, and California), with illness-onset dates ranging from December 26, 2020, to May 19, 2021. Patient ages ranged from younger than 1 to 89 years. Fourteen patients were hospitalized.Of the 22 patients interviewed, 14 reported having a bird feeder on their property, 7 had contact with living or dead songbirds in the week before illness onset, 18 had pet dogs, and 7 had pet cats. Overall, 16 cases could be linked to wild-bird exposure, either by direct contact with birds, contact with bird feeders, or indirect contact with companion animals that may have come into contact with birds.

Trial clarifies safety risks with cefipime, piperacillin-tazobactam --The results of a randomized trial answer some important questions regarding the comparative safety of two antibiotics used for empiric treatment of adults hospitalized with acute infection, researchers reported late last week in JAMA. In the Antibiotic Choice on Renal Outcomes (ACORN) trial, investigators with Vanderbilt University Medical Center compared cefepime with piperacillin-tazobactam in adults prescribed antipseudomonal antibiotics within 12 hours of presentation to the emergency department or medical intensive care unit. While both drugs have similar activity against gram-negative bacteria, some observational studies have reported an association between piperacillin-tazobactam and acute kidney injury (AKI), while others have suggested links between cefepime and neurotoxicity.Patients were enrolled and randomized 1:1 to receive either drug from November 10, 2021, to October 7, 2022. The primary outcome was AKI, measured on a five-level ordinal scale, or death by day 15. Secondary outcomes included incidence of major adverse kidney events at day 14 and number of days alive and free of delirium and coma within 14 days.Among the 2,511 patients (median age, 58 years; 42.7% female) included in the primary analysis, the highest stage of AKI or death was not significantly different between the cefepime group and the piperacillin-tazobactam group. There were 85 patients (7%) with stage 3 AKI and 92 (7.6%) who died in the cefepime group, compared with 97 patients (7.5%) with stage 3 AKI and 78 (6%) who died in the piperacillin-tazobactam group (odds ratio [OR], 0.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80 to 1.13).The incidence of major adverse kidney events at day 14 did not differ between the cefepime group (10.2%) and the piperacillin-tazobactam group (8.8%; absolute difference, 1.4%; 95% CI, −1.0% to 3.8%).However, patients in the cefepime group experienced fewer days alive and free of delirium and coma within 14 days than those in the piperacillin-tazobactam group (mean, 11.9 days vs 12.2 days; OR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.95)."Among hospitalized adults in this randomized clinical trial, treatment with piperacillin-tazobactam did not increase the incidence of AKI or death," the study authors concluded. "Treatment with cefepime resulted in more neurological dysfunction."

Study highlights deadly impact of antibiotic resistance in Latin America and the Caribbean -- A systematic review and meta-analysis highlights the deadly impact of infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in Latin America and the Caribbean, researchers reported yesterday inEmerging Infectious Diseases. To assess the lethality of MDRO infections in Latin American and the Caribbean, researchers reviewed studies published from 2000 through March 29, 2022 that estimated the case-fatality rate within 30 days of infection with a drug-resistant organism. Of the 54 studies that met the inclusion criteria, 49 were from Brazil (29), Argentina (8), Colombia (6), and Mexico (6). Of the 49 studies that reported the source of patients, all included hospital patients, 18 consisted of intensive care unit (ICU) patients, 20 included both ICU and non-ICU patients, and 43 included high-risk populations. The most commonly studied MDRO was methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).The overall unadjusted case-fatality rate related to MDRO infection was 45%, with higher lethality observed among patients infected with MDRO than among patients infected with non-resistant organisms (pooled adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.58 to 2.37). Attributable lethality was two times higher in patients infected with MRSA than with non-MRSA infections, and patients with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus infections were four times more likely to die than those with vancomycin-susceptible Enterococcus infections.Higher lethality was also observed in those who did not receive appropriate empirical treatment (OR, 2.27; 95% CI, 1.44 to 3.56) than those who did (OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 0.99 to 2.56).

Study of Klebsiella bacteria in Ghana finds resistance concentrated in clinical settings --A genomic study conducted in Ghana found that the most worrisome antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes in Klebsiellabacteria were primarily found in clinical settings, African and European researchers reported yesterday in The Lancet Microbe.For the One Health study, researchers collected samples ofKlebsiella bacteria from hospitals, residential areas, and farms in Tamale, Ghana. Their aim was to capture as many rural and urban points of potential Klebsiella transmission within and around the city, then use whole-genome sequencing to assess the prevalence of AMR genes in different settings.While Klebsiella is a major human pathogen, the authors note that is also an "ecological generalist" that lives in many environments and can spread AMR genes in different settings. They wanted to see how different sectors might contribute to the public health burden of drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, particularly in a low- and middle-income country (LMIC) with poor sanitation and hygiene, where people live near animals. Among the 620 Klebsiella-positive samples collected around Tamale, 27% were from hospital patients, 23% were from water, 14% from environmental surfaces, and 13% from farm animals. From these samples, 573Klebsiella isolates were sequenced, 370 of which (65%) were Klebsiella pneumoniae. Although AMR-associated genes were observed relatively frequently in non-clinical sources (0.7 AMR gene classes per isolate), they were concentrated in clinical sources, with the highest levels found in hospital patients (6.5 AMR gene classes per isolate) and hospital environment sources (4.8 AMR classes per isolate). Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase genes were mainly found in hospital patients (14 of 22 isolates) and the hospital environment (3 of 5 isolates). Genes encoding carbapenemases were found in only 2 clinical isolates."Overall, the available evidence indicates that clinical settings are the hubs of both AMR and its successful transmission, even in LMICs, which provides crucial information for designing future interventions to curb the success of multidrug-resistant Klebsiella," the study authors concluded.

Wisconsin, Illinois confirm measles cases - Health departments in two Midwestern states—Wisconsin and Illinois—have reported measles cases, according to official statements.In Wisconsin, Milwaukee’s health department last week reported an infection in a Milwaukee resident who works in Waukesha County. City, county, and state health officials are working to identify people who may have been exposed.Meanwhile, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) on October 13 announced that a measles infection has been confirmed in Cook County, which includes Chicago. The case is the state’s first since 2019. The patient is unvaccinated and had been exposed during international travel. The patient’s rash began on October 9, and the IDPH said the infectious period likely ranges from October 5 through October 13. Sameer Vohra, MD, IDPH director, said the case is a reminder that up-to-date vaccination can prevent the disease. "I urge everyone to make sure they and their family members are up-to-date on measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine and all other age-appropriate immunizations," he said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of September 29, a total of 29 cases have been reported this year in 16 jurisdictions.

Deadly diphtheria outbreak reported in Guinea - The World Health Organization (WHO) today said a diphtheria outbreak in Guinea has sickened at least 538 people since July, 58 of them fatally, for a 10.8% case-fatality rate, with young children the hardest-hit group. The outbreak is centered in Siguiri prefecture in the northeast, and overpopulation is among the contributing factors, given that the illness, caused by Corynebacterium diphtheria, spreads through direct contact or through the air by respiratory droplets. The WHO also said diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) vaccine coverage in Guinea is low, at an estimated 47% and is even lower (36%) in the region experiencing the outbreak.Other challenges in Siguiri prefecture include lack of well-trained healthcare workers, a poorly resourced healthcare system, and the fact that the country is juggling several other outbreaks, including pertussis, polio, and rabies. The WHO said the risk of further diphtheria spread in Guinea is high, with the regional threat moderate and the global threat low. The WHO also warned that the global diphtheria antitoxin supply is very constrained, due to a limited number of manufacturers and other large outbreaks under way in multiple parts of the world.

Studies: Undetected mpox unlikely, household spread limited - A new study in Emerging Infectious Diseases describes two attempts by researchers to assess how many missed mpox cases were in San Francisco and the United States in general during the 2022 outbreak, while another study in The Journal of Infectious Diseases finds low household transmission of the virus among children.Because mpox is not endemic in the United States and the rash for the virus commonly appears on genitals, the researchers for the first paper hypothesized that clinicians may have misdiagnosed mpox as another sexually transmitted infection, such as herpes simplex virus infection or syphilis, or other conditions, including hand-foot-and-mouth disease, varicella zoster virus infection, and even spider bites.The first study conducted to assess the prevalence of misdiagnosed mpox was a prospective serologic survey among men who have sex with men (MSM) in San Francisco, California. The study took place at four health clinics in San Francisco that regularly treat MSM for sexually transmitted infections (STIs)."Mpox was probably undiagnosed in a small subset of symptomatic patients during the height of the mpox outbreak in the United States," the authors said. "The highest percentage positivity was among those who reported sexual behavior that places someone at increased for STI/HIV."Though most US mpox cases have been among MSM, some cases among children, most often household contacts of cases, have been reported, but the secondary attack rate for children living with infected adults is not known.In The Journal of Infectious Diseases study, researchers used a database of California kids ages 16 and younger who were household contacts of confirmed cases to calculate attack rate. A total of 129 pediatric contacts were identified through August 31, 2022.Eighteen of the children developed symptoms, 12 (66.7%) underwent mpox testing; 5 of those (41.2%) were confirmed cases, 6 (50.0%) were negative, and 1 (0.8%) had an indeterminate result. Six symptomatic children were not tested for mpox (33.3%), the authors said.Six infected contacts were identified, which means a secondary attack rate of 4.7% (6 of 129). Te median age of infected children was 4.5 years, and 4 of the 6 kids were Hispanic/Latino.

Researchers document dramatic increase in cervical cancer in Appalachian Kentucky -- While the overall incidence and death rates from cervical cancer have dropped in the U.S., the opposite has been occurring in Appalachian Kentucky—a steady increase. The death rate from cervical cancer in Appalachian Kentucky is now twice that of the national rate.A team of cancer population scientists from MUSC Hollings Cancer Center and the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center documented the increase through investigation of county-level data from 2000 through 2019. Their findings are published this month in JAMA Network Open."The rapidly growing disparities that we're observing in the Appalachia region are disturbing, particularly in the era of screeningavailability and advancements," said Ashish Deshmukh, Ph.D., senior author on the paper. He is co-leader of the Cancer Control Research Program at Hollings.Krystle Lang Kuhs, Ph.D., co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at Markey and a co-author on the paper, said the findings underscore the importance of ensuring that every woman has access to preventive services."With advances in HPV vaccination and screening, cervical cancer is now a completely preventable disease," Kuhs said. The researchers analyzed data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results for Kentucky and found that cervical cancer incidence in the Appalachian region increased nearly 3% per year over the last decade. The death rate also trended upward in the Appalachian region, at 4.5% per year. Meanwhile, the rates in non-Appalachian counties in Kentucky, as well as nationally, are declining. Deshmukh, who studies the epidemiology of and prevention pathways for cancers caused by HPV, previously documented a nationwide increase in cervical cancer in women in their early 30s. That paper, published in JAMA, noted that one possible reason for the increase was because of a decline in screenings among women in their 20s. This publication was a result of collaboration between Deshmukh and Kuhs after they compared notes and reflected on the challenges that both South Carolina and Kentucky face in getting prevention and screening services to rural areas. "We started exploring patterns in cancer incidence and mortality, as a result of our mutual curiosity, and we found this disturbing rise," Deshmukh said.

Pertussis in adults aged 50 and older costs UK about $290 million yearly, study estimates - Pertussis (whooping cough) costs among older adults in the United Kingdom are high, at about £238 million ($290 million) per year, with the greatest expense among those aged 55 to 59, estimates a studypublished late last week in Vaccine.Researchers from the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management in the Netherlands and tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) vaccine maker GSK in Belgium estimated annual individual and combined medical, patient, and indirect costs of pertussis among older UK adults from 2009 to 2018.Pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory tract infection caused by Bordetella pertussis bacteria and spread through the air. It can affect people of all ages, causing coughing and vomiting, but it can be particularly severe in those aged 50 and older. In 2020, the total cost of pertussis in the United Kingdom was roughly £238 million ($290 million). Indirect costs such as those from lost productivity and informal care made up 67% (£159 million [$194 million]) of the total cost, followed by medical costs for diagnostic and medical care (28%; £66 million [$80 million]), and patient costs such as transportation and medications (5%; £13 million [$16 million]).Costs were highest for patients aged 55 to 59 years, followed by those 60 to 64 years and those 50 to 54.Visits to general practitioners or nurses accounted for the highest proportion (over 50%) of medical costs, while diagnostic tests (about £13,000 [$16,000]) had the least impact. Transportation accounted for most patient costs (£10 million [$12 million]). Lost leisure time (45%; £72 million [$88 million]) was the largest contributor to indirect costs, followed by lost productivity (£71 million [$86 million]).

Nipah antibodies in Indian bats - The Indian Council for Medical Research has confirmed Nipah virus antibodies in 12 bats collected and sampled from a village in Kozhikode district, where the country’s recent outbreak in humans was reported. The results were reported by Kerala state health minister Veena George at a media briefing, Manorama online reported. The outbreak, which began in early September, resulted in six cases, two of them fatal. India has reported two other Nipah virus outbreaks from Kozhikode district in recent years. Fruit bats are known to harbor the virus, which in humans can cause severe infections that have high case-fatality rates of 45% to 75%. There are no specific treatments or vaccines, but development of countermeasures is a high priority for global health groups.

Chad reports its first dengue outbreak - Chad has reported its first dengue outbreak, though it has experienced other arbovirus outbreaks before, including chikungunya and yellow fever, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.The country’s health ministry declared an outbreak on August 15, and so far, 1,342 suspected cases have been reported, 41 of them lab confirmed. One death was reported among the patients with lab-confirmed cases.The outbreak started in Ouaddai province in eastern Chad, currently the outbreak epicenter. Illnesses have also been reported in three other provinces. So far, the dengue virus serotype that is spreading in the country isn’t known.The WHO said Chad has limited surveillance, clinical, and lab capacities. It put the risk of further spread as high, owing to favorable conditions for mosquito spread and an evolving humanitarian crisis due to an influx of refugees from Sudan. The risk to the region is moderate, given movement of Sudanese refugees and Chad nationals, the WHO said, adding that the global threat from the event is low. Chad's last mosquito-borne illness outbreak occurred in 2020, when it experienced a chikungunya outbreak that resulted in more than 34,000 cases.

Americans aged 51 to 60 file a quarter of Lyme disease health claims - From 2018 to 2022, more Americans aged 51 to 60 years filed private health insurance claims for Lyme disease than any other age-group, according to a new infographic from the nonprofit FAIR Health.The 51-to-60 age-group made up 23.5% of Lyme disease claims, followed by those aged 41 to 50 (18.8%), 31 to 40 (14.1%), 19 to 30 (14.0%), 61 to 70 (13.9%), 0 to 18 (11.3%), and older than 70 (4.3%).Caused by Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, Lyme disease is spread through the bite of blacklegged (deer) ticks. Symptoms. typically include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic "bull's eye" skin rash. If untreated, joint, cardiac, and neurologic complications may ensue.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that roughly 476,000 Americans are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease each year, but it cautions that the number is probably an overestimate because some patients are treated presumptively in clinical practice. The infographic's other results include:

• In 2018, the top five states generating Lyme disease claims, in descending order, were New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. By 2022, the top state was still New Jersey, followed by Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.
• Lyme disease claims were more common in rural than urban areas in June and July, but the opposite was true from November to April.
• Except for the older-than-80 age-group, malaise and soft tissue-related diagnoses were more common among Lyme disease patients than other patients.

Avian flu hits poultry flocks in Colorado, North Dakota -As part of an ongoing rise in detections this month, Colorado and North Dakota reported the reappearance of highly pathogenic avian flu in poultry, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said in its latest updates.Both events involved backyard poultry, but a few other states have reported recent outbreaks on commercial farms. Colorado’s outbreak occurred in Weld County at a location housing 30 birds.In North Dakota, the virus struck a 10-bird flock in Williams County. State animal health officials in astatement said though detections in wild birds have declined, the virus continues to be a source of disease among domestic birds. In other US developments, the US Fish and Wildlife Service yesterday reported early findings on a highly pathogenic avian influenza vaccine trial in endangered California condors, following an outbreak in the spring. Following two doses, 60% had an antibody response expected to provide partial protection against death, and 10% had titers expected to protect fully against death. Results are pending on the one-dose and control groups.Officials said that, based on the findings, 14 more condors that are slated for release will receive the two-dose series.Elsewhere, Norway and Poland reported H5N1 outbreaks in poultry, both in backyard flocks, according to notifications from the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). Poland’s outbreak, its first since July, occurred at a location that has 80 birds in West Pomerania province in the country’s northwest. Norway’s outbreak, its first since February, involved a location with 19 birds in Trogs og Finnmark County in the far north.

Five states report more avian flu outbreaks in poultry flocks | Five states reported more highly pathogenic avian flu outbreaks in poultry, including Minnesota and South Dakota, where the virus struck again at commercial turkey farms, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said in its latest updates.Four are states—South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, and North Dakota—that recently reported detections, which began picking up in early October after very low levels over the warmer months. Also, Washington reported its first detection in poultry since February. The state’s new outbreak involves backyard poultry at a location with 10 birds in King County. The latest outbreaks in Montana and North Dakota also involve backyard birds.In Minnesota, the virus struck another turkey farm in Meeker County. The location has 72,100 birds. South Dakota reported turkey farm outbreaks in two counties, one in Faulk County affecting 49,700 birds and one on a Mcpherson County farm housing 65,000 birds.In other US avian flu developments, APHIS also reported about 60 more detections in wild birds from multiple states, mainly involving hunter-harvested waterfowl.

Federal government declares 21 species extinct - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) declared 21 species extinct Monday, including 10 birds and two freshwater fish. The species, which the agency removed from the list of those protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) due to extinction, are part of a list of 23 that were proposed for delisting two years ago. At the time, the proposed list included the ivory-billed woodpecker, which at the time had its last commonly accepted sighting in 1944. However, the woodpecker was not among the final list. “The Service will continue to analyze and review the information before deciding whether to delist the ivory-billed woodpecker,” the agency said. Earlier this year, ornithologists from the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, Pa., said they had seen an ivory-billed woodpecker, the latest of several officially unconfirmed sightings since the last commonly accepted one in 1944. FWS outright withdrew the delisting proposal for another species in the original list of 23, the Hawaiian perennial herb Phyllostegia glabra var. lanaiensis. Species included in the final delisting include the Bachman’s warbler — a bird species previously found in Florida and South Carolina — as well as several Hawaiian species, including the large Kauai thrush, the Molokai creeper and the po’ouli. FWS also delisted the little Mariana fruit bat and two fish species — the San Marcos gambusia and the scioto madtom — and eight mussel species. Of the delisted species, all but two were first listed as endangered before 1990, and none had a confirmed sighting in the 21st century. The advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife said the delistings illustrated the need for FWS to increase its funding for endangered species conservation. The group has called for the service to increase its ESA budget from $331 million to $841 million.

Mystery of why more than 2,000 gray whales have died along US coast since the 1980s may have been SOLVED - and the reason is haunting Over 2,000 gray whales have turned up dead off the Pacific coast, timed to three unexplained mass die-off events — and scientists now believe they know why. Back in 1986, Gray whale populations had made an impressive comeback from the brink of extinction, after the International Whaling Commission issued on an all-out ban on commercial whaling. But researchers have since tracked a series of new and more mysterious mass deaths of the majestic sea mammals — including an ongoing wave of research that has linked them to climate change. For decades, marine researchers had speculated that the deaths were the natural result of the gray whales' post-ban population boom, as their growing numbers found a new equilibrium within the northern Pacific food chain. Now new research has dredged up evidence that the recent 'unusual mortality events' might actually be the result of shrinking Arctic ice, which has dwindled stocks of the whales' preferred food: coastal crustaceans, like shrimp and scuds. In effect, these thousands of gray whales appear to have starved to death as their ecosystem disappears beneath them.

Biden administration identifies additional impacts to tribes from proposed mine road - The Biden administration said the construction of a road that would be expected to facilitate mining operations in Alaska would impact more tribal communities than previously thought. The administration on Friday afternoon issued a supplemental draft environmental review of the project, known as the Ambler Road, that was approved during the Trump administration. The draft review found 66 communities that could be impacted, while the Trump administration identified 27, the Biden administration said in a press release. These communities include those that depend on local caribou and fish, and almost all of them are associated with a tribe. “The latest draft includes additional data and analysis informed by robust Tribal consultation and cooperation, on-the-ground perspectives, and public input,” said Steve Cohn, Alaska State Director for the federal Bureau of Land Management. The road in question would run through the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, a currently pristine and roadless location. According to the National Park Service, it contains “rugged peaks, glaciated arctic valleys, wild and scenic rivers, and many lakes” as well as forests, caribou, wolves, grizzly bears and black bears. The road would seek to connect the Ambler Mining District in northwest Alaska and the Dalton Highway. When it approved the project in 2020, the Trump administration cited the potential for the road to provide access to areas with significant copper and cobalt deposits. These minerals are used in various clean energy technologies. The International Energy Agency has projected meeting the Paris Agreement’s goals could increase demand for copper and rare earth elements by more than 40 percent and nickel and cobalt demand by 60 percent to 70 percent. The draft assessment did not say whether the Biden administration was planning to ultimately block the road or allow it to move forward. But it is yet another choice Democrats face on mining, weighing environmental impacts and the potential for extraction of minerals that could be used in renewable energy.At least one environmental group urged the administration to block the project. “You can’t bulldoze through millions of acres of wilderness, migration routes, rivers and a national park without causing major destruction. The Biden administration should revoke the permits for this harmful road and keep Alaska’s wild places intact,” said Cooper Freeman, Alaska representative at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a written statement.

Dispute Over Power Lines Centers on Lack of Comma in 1948 Document - - High school students from two eastern Ohio counties will have a chance next week to observe legal arguments made before the Supreme Court of Ohio. Some might feel like they instead are in an English class.In the school auditorium of Buckeye Local High School in Jefferson County, the Supreme Court justices will consider a long-standing dispute regarding six words and a comma. At issue is what the phrase “right to trim, cut and remove” means in a 1948 legal document.Ohio Edison Company, which has a 1948 easement allowing it to keep plants and other obstructions on a person’s property from interfering with overhead electric power lines, believes the language permits it to use herbicide. The Corder family, which owns Harrison County farmland including 12.1 acres with an easement granted to Ohio Edison, argues that the power company can’t spray chemicals but can only use tools to cut or trim plants and then remove what was pruned from the property.The legal dispute began in 2017 when the Corders filed a lawsuit in Harrison County Common Pleas Court seeking an injunction to prevent Ohio Edison from using herbicide. The Corders maintained that spraying herbicide was hazardous to their organic farming and to a family member’s health. Ohio Edison has been skeptical of the family’s dedication to organic farming and allegations that its spraying will cause health concerns.The case reached the Supreme Court in 2020 on the issue of whether the Harrison County trial court could interpret the easement or if that duty belonged to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The Supreme Court ruled the trial court should determine what the parties meant by the phrase “right to trim, cut and remove.” In 2021, the trial court found the language didn’t authorize using herbicide. Ohio Edison appealed the decision to the Seventh District Court of Appeals, which affirmed the trial court’s decision. Ohio Edison appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which agreed to consider the case again.

Wildfire Smoke Leaves Harmful Gases in Floors and Walls − Air Purifiers Aren’t Enough, New Study Shows --When wildfire smoke turns the air brown and hazy, you might think about heading indoors with the windows closed, running an air purifier or even wearing a mask. These are all good strategies to reduce exposure to the particles in wildfire smoke, but smoky air is also filled with potentially harmful gases. Those gases can get into buildings and remain in the walls and floors for weeks.Getting rid of these gases isn’t as simple as turning on an air purifier or opening a window on a clear day.In a new study published in the journal Science Advances, colleagues and I tracked the life of these gases in a home exposed to wildfire smoke. We also found that the best way to get rid of the risk is among the simplest: start cleaning.In December 2021, several of my friends and colleagues were affected by the Marshall Fire that burned about 1,000 homes in Boulder County, Colorado. The “lucky” ones, whose homes were still standing, asked me what they should do to clean their houses. I am an atmospheric and indoor chemist, so I started looking into the published research, but I found very few studies on what happens after a building is exposed to smoke. What scientists did know was that smoke particles end up on indoor surfaces – floors, walls, ceilings. We knew that air filters could remove particles from the air. And colleagues and I were just beginning to understand that volatile organic compounds, which are traditionally thought to stay in the air, could actually stick to surfaces inside a home and build up reservoirs – invisible pools of organic molecules that can contribute to the air chemistry inside the house.Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, are compounds that easily become gases at room temperature. They include everything from limonene in lemons to benzene in gasoline. VOCs aren’t always hazardous to human health, but many VOCs in smoke are. I started to wonder whether the VOCs in wildfire smoke could also stick to the surfaces of a house. I worked with researchers from across the U.S. and Canada to explore this problem during the Chemical Assessment of Surfaces and Air, or CASA, study in 2022. We built on HOMEChem, a previous study in which we looked at how cooking, cleaning and occupancy could change indoor air. In CASA, we studied what happens when pollutants and chemicals get inside our homes – pesticides, smog and even wood smoke.Using a cocktail smoker and wood chips, we created a surprisingly chemically accurate proxy for wildfire smoke and released small doses into a test house built by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST’s house allowed us to conduct controlled chemistry experiments in a real-world setting.At first, the house took up these smoke VOCs – on floors, walls and building surfaces. But once the initial smoke cleared, the house would slowly release those VOCs back out over the next hours, days or even months, depending on the type of VOC.This release is what we call a partitioning process: During the smoke event, individual VOC molecules in the air attach to indoor surfaces with weak chemical bonds. The process is called adsorption. As smoke clears and the air cleans out, the bonds can break, and molecules “desorb” back out into the air.

How gas utilities used tobacco tactics to sell more gas stoves - In the late 1960s, natural gas utilities launched "Operation Attack," a bold marketing campaign to bring lots more gas stoves into people's kitchens. The gas utilities called Operation Attack their "most ambitious advertising and merchandising program ever." But as it got underway, concerns were becoming public about indoor pollution from gas stoves, including household levels of nitrogen dioxide. Around the same time, Dr. Carl Shy, a federal public health researcher, was looking into the health effects of nitrogen dioxide. In 1970, Shy published a study showing that families exposed to greater levels of the air pollutant nitrogen dioxide outdoors had higher rates of respiratory illness than families in less-polluted areas. The research caught the attention of the gas utility industry, and they asked Shy for a meeting. When they met, Shy heard from the gas industry something Americans are now learning about, more than 50 years later: the potential health risks from cooking with gas stoves. "They are the ones who told me that the gas stoves produce nitrogen dioxide because of their high temperature," says Shy, now 91, at his home near Durham, N.C. "They said the hoods above gas stoves were really not powerful enough to pull out the nitrogen dioxide." But in the following decades, the gas industry argued the opposite, asserting that range hoods could clear up this pollution. And it has contended that fumes from cooking food are more of a problem than the fossil fuel pollution of nitrogen dioxide. The narrative was part of a lengthy campaign by the gas utility industry to popularize gas stoves. Yet as it advertised the appliance, the industry also financed its own research into the potential harms from cooking with gas. Those industry-backed reports confused consumers and muddied the science that regulators relied on about the potential dangers of cooking with gas, according to an investigation by NPR and documents uncovered in a new report from the Climate Investigations Center (CIC), a research and watchdog group.

A classic El Niño winter is expected this year, forecasters say - El Niño will drive what could be a warmer or wetter winter in parts of the US this year, according to an outlook released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday. But don’t worry, snow lovers. El Niño – a natural ocean and weather pattern in the tropical Pacific – could also mean higher snow chances in some atypical spots and fuel more potent northeast snowstorms, forecasters say. El Niño is forecast to be strong this winter and reach the most significant level since a very strong El Niño fostered the warmest winter on record across the US mainland during 2015-2016, according to NOAA. While no two El Niño winters are the same, this shift typically brings wetter and cooler weather to the South while the north becomes drier and warmer. And that’s exactly what’s expected this winter. Above-average temperatures are likely across much of the northern US, according to NOAA’s outlook. Parts of the Northwest, Great Lakes and Northeast have the highest likelihood of above-average temperatures. This will be a dramatic change for parts of the Northwest after last winter ended cooler than average for the region. It’ll be yet another warm winter for the Great Lakes and Northeast. Last winter was one of the warmest on record for both regions, according to data from NOAA. When forecasters predict above-average, temperatures for an entire season it doesn’t mean there won’t be any cold, just that old bouts may be less frequent and last for shorter periods of time. Outside of an area of near-normal temperatures expected for parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Texas, there is not a strong signal across the rest of the US, according to NOAA. Much of the southern half of the country has equal chances of being near normal, above normal or below normal. The same cannot be said of precipitation. A large area of the southern US from the Plains through the Southeast is expected to see above-average precipitation this winter. This precipitation could fall in the form of rain, snow or an icy mix of both. More precipitation would be welcome news for some states that are battling intense drought, including Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Southern cities like Lubbock, Texas, and Little Rock, Arkansas, average less than 8 inches of snow per year, but even these minimal snow amounts climb during an El Niño winter. This southern precipitation pattern is one of El Niño’s winter signatures. El Niño tends to shift the jet stream south over the US. Because the jet stream is essentially a river of air that storms flow through, storms can then move across the South with increased frequency and increase the chances of precipitation.

Category 4 Hurricane Norma threatens Mexico while Tammy nears Caribbean - Hurricane Norma prompted concerns for heavy rain, flooding and mudslides in Baja California late Friday through Sunday after rapidly strengthening into a Category 4. Norma, now tracking northward in the eastern Pacific Ocean, is the strongest of three tropical systems that forecasters are currently watching. Want to know how your actions can help make a difference for our planet? Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter, in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. In the Atlantic Ocean, Tropical Storm Tammy developed late Wednesday to the east of the Windward Islands. It could eventually become a Category 1 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said, and has the potential to produce several inches of rain and isolated flooding in portions of the Lesser Antilles — the island chain bounding the Caribbean and Atlantic — as well as the Virgin Islands on Friday through this weekend. Both storms could generate “life-threatening” swells and rip currents, the Hurricane Center added. Norma’s maximum sustained winds nearly doubled between early Wednesday morning and early Thursday morning, jumping from 65 mph to 120 mph in just 24 hours. The storm joins a growing number of tropical systems that have met the criteria for rapid intensification in recent years, which is defined as a storm that undergoes a 24-hour wind increase of at least 35 mph. As of 11 a.m. Thursday, Norma’s peak winds were up to 130 mph; the storm was centered about 245 miles southwest of Manzanilla, Mexico, and about 410 miles south of Cabo San Lucas. Norma was forecast to remain near its current intensity on Thursday before starting to weaken by early Friday. Norma was forecast to track northward during the next few days and still be near hurricane strength upon reaching the southern tip of Baja California this weekend, possibly making landfall near Cabo San Lucas. There was some disagreement among models whether Norma will stall just southwest of Baja California, slam into it head-on, or sideswipe it to the east. A hurricane watch was in effect for Baja California from Todos Santos to Los Barriles.

Tropical Storm “Tammy” approaching the Leeward Islands, expected to strengthen into a hurricane - Tropical Storm “Tammy” is expected to strengthen into a hurricane by October 21, 2023, as it moves towards the Leeward Islands. Heavy rains, wind, and potential flooding are expected to begin today, affecting several Caribbean islands. Tammy is expected to strengthen to a hurricane by Saturday while it moves near or over portions of the Leeward Islands. Tropical storm conditions are expected to begin in portions of the Lesser Antilles within the tropical storm warning area this afternoon or evening, with hurricane conditions possible within the hurricane watch area on Saturday. Additional watches and warnings could be required later today. Heavy rains from Tammy will begin to affect the Leeward and northern Windward Islands today, spreading into the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico over the weekend. This rainfall may produce isolated flash and urban flooding, along with isolated mudslides in areas of higher terrain. At 12:00 UTC on October 20, 2023, Tropical Storm “Tammy” was located 150 km (93 miles) northeast of Barbados and 290 km (180 miles) east-southeast of Martinique. The storm’s maximum sustained winds were 100 km/h (62 mph), with a minimum central pressure of 1 000 hPa. The storm was moving west-northwest at 11 km/h (7 mph). On the forecast track, the center of Tammy will move near or over portions of the Leeward Islands tonight and on Saturday, and then move north of the northern Leeward Islands on Sunday.

Hurricane Norma heads for Mexico’s Los Cabos resorts, as Tammy becomes hurricane in the Atlantic(AP) — Hurricane Norma gained strength and once again became a major storm Friday as it took aim at the twin resorts of Los Cabos at the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula in the Pacific.In the Atlantic, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tropical Storm Tammy had grown into a hurricane, with winds of 75 mph (120 kph). Hurricane warnings were issued for the islands of Guadeloupe, Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, and St. Kitts and Nevis.The center said Norma had 120 mph (195 kph) maximum sustained winds and was located about 195 miles (310 kilometers) south of Cabo San Lucas. The Category 3 storm was moving north-northwest at 8 mph (13 kph). Hotels in Los Cabos, which are largely frequented by foreign tourists, remained about three-quarters full and there has been no major move by visitors to leave, Baja California Sur state tourism secretary Maribel Collins said.With rain already falling in Los Cabos, some flights in and out were canceled Friday, and airports would close Saturday, according to the local civil defense office. The government posted 500 marines to the resort to help with storm preparations, and municipal officials said that as many as 39 emergency shelters could be opened if needed.

Storm Babet triggers UK’s first Red warning for rain since 2020 - Storm Babet is forecasted to bring heavy rains and severe winds over parts of Ireland on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, and the United Kingdom on Thursday and Friday, October 19 and 20, triggering the UK’s first Red warning for rain since February 2020. The Met Office has issued a Red warning for rain as Storm Babet is forecast to bring exceptional rainfall and impactful wind to parts of the United Kingdom. A Red warning for rain, in effect from 18:00 on October 19, 2023, to midday on October 20, specifically targets the east of Scotland, including Brechin, Forfar, and Kirriemuir. This is the first Red warning for rain issued in the UK since Storm Dennis in February 2020. Rainfall measurements are anticipated to be between 100 – 150 mm (3.9 – 5.9 inches) within the Red warning period, with some locations expected to see up to 200 – 250 mm (7.9 – 9.8 inches). This substantial rainfall is expected to lead to flooding, posing a danger to life, affecting homes and businesses, and severely disrupting travel. What to expect:

• Danger to life from fast flowing or deep floodwater
• Extensive flooding to homes and businesses
• Collapsed or damaged buildings or structures
• Road closures and bus and train service delays and cancellations
• Dangerous driving conditions because of spray and flooded roads
• Loss of power and other essential services, such as gas, water and mobile phone service
• Communities completely cut off, perhaps for several days

Storm Babet leaves a trail of destruction across Scotland and Ireland, affects transportation in Sweden, Norway, and Germany - (4 videos) At least two people were killed during the onslaught of Storm Babet in Glen Esk, Scotland on a Thursday afternoon, October 19, 2023, marking a somber note in the cascade of adversities brought about by the storm that saw hundreds of homes evacuated and over 20 000 households plunged into darkness. Severe flooding was also reported in parts of Ireland, where an investigation is now in progress as to why red warnings were not issued for areas that witnessed devastating effects. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) reported that Angus experienced the UK’s highest rainfall on Thursday. Waterside Perth in East Grampian led with 164 mm (6.5 inches), followed by Invermark at 153 mm (6 inches), Charr at 133 mm (5.2 inches), Murton at 101 mm (4 inches), Glenmuick at 97 mm (3.8 inches), and Forter at 95 mm (3.7 inches). In response to the storm’s severity, emergency services initiated a door-to-door evacuation of approximately 400 homes in Brechin, Angus. Sepa also expanded severe flood warnings to include the River Esk in Aberdeenshire and identified additional villages, such as Logie Mill and Craigo in Angus, and Marykirk in Aberdeenshire, as high-risk areas for flooding. River levels were projected to surge an unprecedented 5 m (16.4 feet) above average. Aberdeenshire Council increased its emergency preparedness, advising residents to prepare for immediate evacuations and expanding the number of rest centers from two to five. YouTube video The Police confirmed the tragic loss of a 57-year-old woman, swept away at Water of Lee, Glen Esk, shortly before 14:00 LT on October 19. Her body was recovered around 16:00 LT, and a formal report will be forwarded to the Procurator Fiscal. On Friday, October 20, officials confirmed second death — a 56-year-old man who died in the same area. Wave heights reached 6 m (20 feet) in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, a spectacle last seen in 2014, according to paddleboarding instructor David Jacobs. ScotRail cancelled a large number of rail services, while schools in Angus were closed. Babet also wreaked havoc across Ireland, with some counties experiencing devastating flooding and millions in damage. An investigation is in progress as to why Met Eireann decided to maintain a Status Orange warning despite the devastating effects reported by the Mayor of County Cork who witnessed the intense flooding destroy cars and homes across his county. Mayor of Cork Frank O’Flynn told Newstalk Breakfast that the warning should have been red as this would have prepared schools and businesses for the impact of the storm, and some damage could have been prevented. Met Éireann meteorologist Eoin Sherlock said that Met Éireann’s data had supported the decision to issue an Orange warning, despite one or two weather stations creeping into Red territory. Additionally, Danish meteorologists issued their highest warning for very dangerous weather on Friday and said levels of some inland waters were expected to rise up to 240 cm (8 feet) above normal — in some places exceeding the 100-year event. In Sweden, meteorologists warned of extensive flooding affecting roads and railways along the southern coasts. Water levels are expected to drop on Saturday morning. Norway’s second-largest city preemptively closed a bridge, and regional ferries and air traffic faced delays and cancellations. In southern Sweden, multiple train and bus services were suspended, leading local transit operator Skanetrafiken to advise against using public transport. In Germany, flooding occurred in the cities of Flensburg, Kiel, and Wismar on the Baltic coast, disrupting streets and railway lines. Services on Roedby-Puttgarden and Gedser-Rostock ferry routes between Denmark and Germany were suspended. On the North Sea coast, high winds caused very low water levels, leading to the cancellation of ferries to some islands.

Over 275 lives lost as severe floods hit Adamawa, Nigeria - Relentless rainfall has plagued Adamawa State in Northeast Nigeria since October 5, 2023, culminating in devastating floods that have claimed 275 lives as of October 19. The situation worsened with the release of water from the Lagdo Dam in neighboring Cameroon, prompting emergency alerts and responses across various regions. Heavy rainfall began affecting Adamawa State in Northeast Nigeria on October 5, 2023, with the situation escalating into severe flooding, particularly following the release of water from the Lagdo Dam in neighboring Cameroon on October 7. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) swiftly issued an alert on that day regarding the threat of rapid flooding along the River Niger and River Benue Basin, urging immediate activation of an emergency response plan in several states including Adamawa. The alert proved timely as water levels in Adamawa State began rising significantly, leading to extensive flooding that swept through 14 out of 21 Local Government Areas (LGAs). The floods resulted in substantial infrastructural damage encompassing roads, shelter facilities, health institutions, Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) sites, schools, and various other community facilities. The Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency (ADSEMA) released a report outlining the extent of the displacement crisis that unfolded. Over 8 504 households or 51 043 individuals, have been displaced. The majority of the displaced are women, children, and the elderly, who are currently residing in 11 temporary settlements across five LGAs namely Yola South, Yola North, Lamude, Madagali, and Demsa. As per the data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as of October 19, the floods have claimed the lives of 275 individuals, affected nearly 30 000 people across 114 locations, and damaged 120 houses. The most severely impacted LGAs include Fufore, Demsa, Shelleng among others, with emergency response focusing on meeting the priority needs in food, shelter, household, and hygiene items. The floods have exacerbated existing humanitarian needs, exposing individuals, mainly women and children, to undignified living conditions. The lack of adequate shelter has forced many to sleep in open or crowded spaces, thereby increasing protection and health risks. With the situation still evolving, the focus remains on providing essential services and support to those in dire need, as authorities and humanitarian organizations work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering and mitigate further risks.

Asteroid 2023 TO17 flew past Earth at 0.14 LD - A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2023 TO17 flew past Earth at a distance of just 0.14 LD / 0.00036 AU (54 381 km / 33 791 miles) from the center of our planet at 14:33 UTC on October 14, 2023. Since the beginning of the year, our space observatories have identified a total of 77 asteroids whose orbits come within 1 lunar distance from Earth’s center. Asteroid 2023 TO17 was first observed at Catalina Sky Survey, Arizona, U.S. on October 15 — one day after it made its close approach to our planet. The object belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and has an estimated diameter between 3.2 and 7.2 m (10.5 – 23.6 feet).

Asteroid 2023 UB flew past Earth at 0.15 LD - A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2023 UB flew past Earth at a distance of just 0.15 LD / 0.00039 AU (58 638 km / 36 436 miles) from the center of our planet at 19:08 UTC on October 15, 2023. Since the beginning of the year, our space observatories have identified a total of 77 asteroids whose orbits come within 1 lunar distance from Earth’s center. Asteroid 2023 UB was first observed at Catalina Sky Survey, Arizona, U.S. on October 16 — one day after it made its close approach to our planet. The object belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and has an estimated diameter between 2.6 and 5.9 m (8.5 – 19 feet).

U.S. Leading Global Carbon Capture Race, and Deep-Pocketed Energy Firms Likely to Benefit - Every energy company, it seems, wants to get into the act to advance carbon capture for their natural gas and oil operations, as well as their petrochemical facilities. Dozens of U.S. projects are on the design table, but many remain in limbo, as investors await clarity about permitting, financing and tax breaks. Many energy industry experts view carbon capture utilization and sequestration (CCUS) as a necessary component for the world to achieve its net-zero carbon ambitions by mid-century. Is it possible? According to Wood Mackenzie researchers, it is, but there are hurdles to jump. “Energy efficiencies, renewables and alternative fuels will not be enough to meet net zero by 2050,” said Wood Mackenzie’s Mhairidh Evans, who leads the CCUS global research. “We need a...

Ethanol and Carbon Capture on the Great Plains --Residents of the Great Plains are pushing back and are for now at least slowing down (for now) a multi-state carbon capture and storage project that would help lock in ethanol production across the corn belt for the foreseeable and turn North Dakota into a climate sacrifice zone.Summit Carbon Solutions’ $5.5 billion plan is to “capture” carbon dioxide from ethanol plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota, turn it into liquid, and pipe it to North Dakota where it would be buried underground.It is one of many carbon capture projects being promoted and supported financially by the Biden administration as just the latest greenwashing distraction. The project, should it be completed, would also lock in long term the ethanol boondoggle.Similar CO2 pipeline plans are being considered across the country after the federal government increased tax credits to $50 for every metric ton of carbon a company “sequesters” even though many such projects involve injecting the captured CO2 into depleted oil fields to help boost oil production.Those federal tax credits are necessary to prop up the carbon capture & storage technology and provide the fossil fuel industry with another excuse to keep drilling and burning. The question is, will the project ever materialize?It was looking more like a long shot after North Dakota regulators unanimously rejected the company’s plan back in August. But in a shocking move, those very same individuals recently granted a request to reconsider their denial of a permit for the Summit project for a 2,000-mile pipeline network that would carry carbon from 30-some ethanol plants.North Dakota is an attractive option to dump the liquid carbon because of its regulatory control over the wells, which it assumed in 2018. That authority formerly belonged to the Environmental Protection Agency. The belief is that oversight will be more lax, making it easier and more profitable to dump carbon there. It also makes it more dangerous. From Bold Nebraska:In the event of a carbon pipeline rupture or leak, an explosive plume of CO2 gas can emerge, odorless and colorless, an asphyxiant that can suffocate all living beings, and prevent combustion vehicles like cars from starting to enable an escape to safety. This happened in 2020 in Satartia, Mississippi. Details from Huff Post: It was just after 7 p.m. when residents of Satartia, Mississippi, started smelling rotten eggs. Then a greenish cloud rolled across Route 433 and settled into the valley surrounding the little town. Within minutes, people were inside the cloud, gasping for air, nauseated and dazed.Some two dozen individuals were overcome within a few minutes, collapsing in their homes; at a fishing camp on the nearby Yazoo River; in their vehicles. Cars just shut off, since they need oxygen to burn fuel. Drivers scrambled out of their paralyzed vehicles, but were so disoriented that they just wandered around in the dark.Denbury Inc, then known as Denbury Resources, operates a network of CO2 pipelines in the Gulf Coast area that inject the gas into oil fields to force out more petroleum. While ambient CO2 is odorless, colorless and heavier than air, the industrial CO2 in Denbury’s pipeline has been compressed into a liquid, which is pumped through pipelines under high pressure. A rupture in this kind of pipeline sends CO2 gushing out in a dense, powdery white cloud that sinks to the ground and is cold enough to make steel so brittle it can be smashed with a sledgehammer.

Navigator CO2 pipeline is canceled, but Illinois opponents say the fight isn’t over The company Navigator CO2 announced on October 20 it is nixing plans for a 1,300-mile pipeline to take carbon dioxide from ethanol plants across five states to be sequestered in Illinois. While Illinois residents who have stridently opposed the pipeline celebrate, local leader Pam Richart said, they are wary another pipeline will be proposed to serve sequestration sites in the state that Navigator has not taken off the table. Illinois residents are continuing to push for a state moratorium on carbon dioxide pipelines, though such bills in the state legislature are unlikely to advance this year. On October 10, Navigator withdrew its application for a certificate of authority before the Illinois Commerce Commission, needed to allow the company to use eminent domain for the pipeline route. Opponents greeted that move with cautious optimism, noting that Navigator had previously withdrawn a proposal in January only to refile it in February with an expanded pipeline route. Under Illinois Commerce Commission policy, that expanded proposal had to be decided upon within 11 months. Pipeline opponents had worried Navigator was trying to restart the clock as the deadline drew near, since commission staff had raised objections and noted that Navigator had only 15% of the agreements with residents it would need to pursue the route without eminent domain. On October 20, Navigator released a statement saying: “The development of Navigator CO2’s pipeline project has been challenging. Given the unpredictable nature of the regulatory and government processes involved, particularly in South Dakota and Iowa, the Company has decided to cancel its pipeline project.”In late September the company had officially paused its permit-seeking process in Iowa, following a permit denial in South Dakota.Richart said by email that while opponents are relieved, “we also know that the tax incentives from the federal government for carbon capture, transport and storage likely mean another entity will pick up Navigator’s project or find a different route through Illinois.”

The US just made its biggest-ever investment in the grid - The Biden administration is making a historic investment in the core infrastructure of the energy transition — the country’s power grid. On Wednesday, the Department of Energy announced $3.5 billion in grants to expand capacity for wind and solar power, harden power lines against extreme weather, integrate batteries and electric vehicles, and build out microgrids that can keep the lights on during power outages. The announcement named 58 projects across 44 states eligible to receive federal funding. When matched by funds from state and local governments and utility and industry partners, they will represent more than $8 billion in investment.All told, it’s the ​“largest-ever investment in America’s grid,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a press briefing from Locust Grove, Georgia, one of the locations that will receive some of the funding. The $3.5 billion is the first major round of funding from the DOE’sGrid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships Program, created by 2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which has $10.5 billion available to expand transmission lines, improve grid resiliency and deploy ​“smart-grid” technologies.That total is far more than the last major federal investment in grid infrastructure, the $3.4billion in stimulus grants issued by the Obama administration in 2009. But the need for grid investments has also grown dramatically since then.Climate change is intensifying heat waves, winter storms, droughts and floods that have led to increasingly severe power outages, including the deadly February 2021 grid outages across Texas and blackouts across Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Ida in September 2021.Meanwhile, the renewable energy projects that must be built at an unprecedented pace and scale to mitigate climate change are facing yearslong backlogs to connect to transmission grids, which themselves aren’t expanding nearly fast enough to meet the increasing demand for clean electricity to power vehicles, heat buildings and supplant fossil-fueled power plants. The projects announced Wednesday are aimed at all of these challenges, Granholm said. The investments in transmission grid expansion are expected to enable more than 35 gigawatts of renewable energy to come online within this decade, a 10 percent boost in nationwide grid capacity, she said. Others are ​“hardening the grid against extreme weather so we can limit outages and restore power more quickly when disaster strikes,” and deploying ​“cutting-edge satellite-monitoring systems to identify and to address threats like wildfires.” Large-scale grids aren’t the only targets, she added. The funding will help build more than 400 microgrids — combinations of on-site generation, batteries and power control systems that ​“serve critical facilities like hospitals and emergency centers and shelters” in New York, Michigan, Louisiana, Tennessee and other states, Granholm said. The selected projects also prioritize communities that are ​“ignored or overlooked for far too often, including rural, Native and low-income communities,” according to Mitch Landrieu, the Biden administration’s senior advisor and infrastructure coordinator and former mayor of New Orleans. The Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships funding is subject to the Biden administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which pledges to direct 40 percent of federal climate-related funds to historically disadvantaged communities. The projects will also create ​“good-paying union jobs,” Granholm said. More than eight out of 10 projects selected either contain labor union partnerships or will involve collective bargaining agreements, she said.

Global electricity grid must be upgraded urgently to hit climate goals, says IEA - Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), has warned that the equivalent of the entire global electricity grid – 80m km of grid – needs to be added or refurbished by 2040 to hit climate targets and ensure reliable power supplies. Global investment in energy grids needs to double to more than $600bn (£492bn) a year by 2030 to hit national climate targets after “over a decade of stagnation at the global level”, the IEA said. Demand for electricity is predicted to surge as many consumers switch to low-carbon alternatives to traditional products, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles. Companies in heavily polluting industries, including steelmakers, are also looking to electrification to help them decarbonise.The Inflation Reduction Act introduced by the US president, Joe Biden, has encouraged investors to back renewable projects in America, while Europe is attempting to respond. There are fears that these efforts could be hampered by poor connections between where power is generated and where consumers live, as well as a logjam in hooking up to national grids.Renewable energy developers have repeatedly complained about their struggles to gain connections for their projects to the grid and accused the government of lacking vision. In the UK, some projects face waits of up to 15 years, and National Grid is attempting to cut delays.The IEA said renewable projects offering at least 3,000 gigawatts of power were waiting for connections to their national grids – five times as much as the solar and wind capacity added globally in 2022. Birol told the Guardian: “Governments need to open their eyes – if we want clean electricity, we not only need clean electricity generation, but we need to build grids. It has been a blind spot of the clean energy transition programmes of governments.” There are also concerns over a decline in grid investment in “emerging and developing economies, excluding China”. The IEA warned that delays in grid investment and reforms would increase the reliance on gas, pushing up carbon emissions and putting a goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels “out of reach”. It said that the world’s electricity use needed to grow 20% faster in the next decade than it did in the previous one to hit stated goals. The agency said governments needed to support the expansion of supply chains and extra training to upgrade grids, and planning systems needed to be improved. It recommended better coordination between planners of grid upgrades and renewable projects, improved processes to engage with the public on planning, and the increased use of digital tools to counter intermittency, when renewable power supply does not match demand.

Utilities still moving way too slow on clean energy - Very few U.S. utilities are taking the real-world action needed to combat the worst harms of climate change. And with the tens of billions of dollars in clean energy incentives created by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, utilities have even less excuse for delay.These are the conclusions from the Sierra Club’s latest report tracking how ​“many utilities are unprepared” to comply with the Biden administration’s pledge to cut U.S. electricity-sector emissions by 80 percent by 2030 compared to a 2005 baseline.That’s admittedly an aggressive decarbonization target compared to the pledges from many large U.S. utilities to zero out their carbon emissions by 2050. But it’s in line with what’s needed to deal with the climate crisis, and even the utilities that have set that 80 percent goal for themselves are mostly failing to take the steps needed to meet them, Sierra Club warns.“The utility industry is not moving at the pace that’s necessary to respond to the climate crisis,”Leah Stokes, an energy policy analyst, said in a statement introducing the report. ​“They still don’t have adequate plans to retire dirty coal plants, stop building gas plants, and build new clean energy. That’s what we know they have to do.” The new report is the third in a series tracking 77 U.S. utilities whose 50 parent companies are the most heavily invested in existing or planned coal and fossil gas plants. To earn a top grade on the report’s A to F scale, utilities must be on course to close all existing coal plants by 2030, halt plans to build new gas plants, and deploy much more solar, wind and other carbon-free generation capacity, along with batteries and other energy storage resources.Sierra Club’s first report in 2021 found that only two utilities — Northern Indiana Public Service Co. and AEP’s Public Service Company of Oklahoma — earned an A. Meanwhile, some of its worst performers included big utilities with much-publicized goals of reaching net-zero carbonby 2050, including FirstEnergy, Duke Energy, Dominion Energy and Southern Company, as well as those with no stated goals such as Berkshire Hathaway.The second report in 2022 found little improvement. The utilities on the list still planned to keep a substantial amount of coal-fired generation open past 2030 — two and a half times more capacity than they planned to retire. And while they collectively had plans for 150 gigawatts of new solar, wind and energy storage by 2030, they also planned to build nearly 38 gigawatts of new gas capacity by then.

Southwestern Pa. is part of "transformational" investment in clean hydrogen | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — President Joe Biden on Friday announced a “transformational” investment in clean energy as the federal government approved seven hubs to produce clean hydrogen,including one involving Western Pennsylvania and nearby states.The Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (Arch2), a West Virginia-led effort that also includes Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio, combines the production of hydrogen from natural gas with carbon capture and storage. The Department of Energy awarded up to $925 million to the effort. Hubs are part of Mr. Biden’s plan to shift the country from fossil fuels to clean energy and curb the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. This year is expected to be the warmest ever recorded, according to the WorldMeteorological Association, and Mr. Biden has set a goal of no net carbon emissions by 2050.The administration projects the Arch2 effort will create 18,000 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent jobs, and Mr. Biden said many of those will replace lost jobs in the coal industry.Appalachian hydrogen hub gets green light, and up to $925 million, from feds“The hydrogen hub will bring another source of good-paying jobs to the coal communities so workers who powered our nation for generations can now work and produce clean hydrogen,” Mr. Biden said. “They deserve it. They powered us for so long. The same communities that were once thriving coal mining and powerplant towns will now be the center of our new clean energy economy.”Mr. Biden spoke at the Tioga Marine Terminal in Philadelphia, with signs proclaiming “Bidenomics: Investing in America.” The location was near where another hydrogen hub will be located, taking in southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub (Mach2), aims to generate hydrogen from renewable, natural gas, and nuclear sources and use it for chemical manufacturing and transportation. The proposal was approved for up to $750 million under the hydrogen hub program. The federal government has earmarked $7 billion from Mr. Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law to jump-start a clean hydrogen industry, to be matched with an expected $43 billion in private-sector investment. The president called it “one of the largest advanced manufacturing investments in the history of this nation.” Not everyone applauded the announcement. Rob Altenburg, senior director for energy and climate at the environmental group PennFuture, said he was concerned that the program could “delay the essential work we must do to maximize the deployment” of proven energy-efficient and clean-energy technologies. “Our concern is that production of hydrogen using fracked gas or diverting our focus from other decarbonization priorities threatens to increase the region’s carbon emissions and act as yet another subsidy for the fracking industry,” he said. “Those hubs are about people coming together across state lines, across industries, across political parties, to build a stronger more sustainable economy and to rebuild our communities,” Mr. Biden said.It was his eighth trip to the City of Brotherly Love this year, not surprising given that Pennsylvania is the most populous presidential election battleground state, one that likely will determine whether Mr. Biden wins a second term next year. He made a pitch for support from a crucial constituency: organized labor, which helped him flip Pennsylvania and other northern battleground states that supported Donald Trump four years earlier. “When I think climate, I think jobs,” Mr. Biden said. “Good paying jobs. Union jobs. The reason I’m so pro-union is the middle class built America. Wall Street did not build the middle class. Unions built the middle class.” Mr. Biden won 56% of the votes of union households in 2020, up from the 51% who supported 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton four years earlier, according to CNN exit polls. Meanwhile, Republican Donald Trump’s share of the union vote fell from 46% in 2016 to 40% in 2020.

Davis-Besse hydrogen hub project doesn’t make the cut - It doesn’t look as if this area will be a hub for producing hydrogen anytime soon. Supporters submitted an application to produce it at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant but now bad news about that application. The Department of Energy did not select the Davis-Besse project for its hub initiative. It’s a disappointing day for the people who put this project together. The hope was to make the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant a major source of hydrogen.Using the technology and resources already at the Davis-Besse, the idea was to leverage that into a new push to produce clean hydrogen fuel from a $7 billion investment by the Department of Energy.That fuel could be used in a variety of places from trucking and transportation to the Cleveland Cliffs hot briquette iron plant. The Davis-Besse application was spearheaded by the University of Toledo and backed by local businesses pledging to buy that energy.The local application made it through several rounds of the process. In the end, 7 projects were selected nationwide. The only one with any parts in Ohio is the Appalachian hub which will use natural gas to produce hydrogen and store the carbon emissions. Davis-Besse’s plan would have used both nuclear and solar power. Two clean energy sources were hoped to help the bid. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who championed the project, said Friday in a statement: “While we were not one of the seven final locations chosen, I am encouraged by the impressive network of public-private partnerships assembled for the proposal that put our best foot forward in competing for a hydrogen hub.”In addition to the positive environmental effects of hydrogen hubs, the multibillion-dollar investment brings with it thousands of jobs. Jobs we won’t see here. The project from the Midwest which include Illinois, Indiana and Michigan said it may be spread to other states in the Midwest in the future.

What to know about DOE's hydrogen hubs - New details are emerging about the Biden administration’s landmark plans to build out a U.S. clean hydrogen industry. On Friday, the Department of Energy named the seven winners of $7 billion in federal funds to establish regional hydrogen hubs. The hubs — funded through the infrastructure law — are part of the administration’s efforts to jump-start an industry it sees as key to achieving climate goals. The aim is to demonstrate everything from the production and storage of hydrogen to its transport and consumption. “All across the country, from coast to coast, in the heartland, we’re building a clean energy future here in America, not somewhere else,” President Joe Biden said while announcing the hubs in Philadelphia on Friday. Advertisement From 79 initial proposals, DOE chose the following: the Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub, Appalachian Hydrogen Hub, California Hydrogen Hub, Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub, Heartland Hydrogen Hub, Midwest Hydrogen Hub and Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub. Many of the winning proposals are backed by state government leaders and industry partners. The Midwest hub, for example, is a coalition of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan — supported by politicians like Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), as well as such companies as Air Liquide, Ameren Illinois and Atlas Agro. The mid-Atlantic hub is supported by Democratic members of Congress representing the region, including Delaware Sens. Chris Coons and Tom Carper and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester. The administration hopes the hubs will produce 10 million metric tons of “clean” hydrogen annually by 2030. But much about the projects remains unknown — and dependent on negotiations with DOE. In interviews with E&E News, hub leaders shared additional details about how the networks might operate and what to expect going forward. Nearly all hydrogen created in the U.S. today is extracted from natural gas through steam methane reformation. The emissions-intensive process produces what is known as “grey” hydrogen — or “blue” hydrogen when combined with carbon capture and storage. Four recipients — the Appalachian, Gulf Coast, Heartland and Midwest hydrogen hubs — include blue hydrogen in their plans, though the infrastructure law only mandated one. That has drawn the ire of environmentalists, who argue blue hydrogen is not emissions-free, partly because of the potential for methane leaks during the production process. “This is worse than expected,” Clean Energy Group President Seth Mullendore said after the recipients were announced Friday. “The fact that more than half the hubs will be using fossil gas is outrageous.” Critics have also pointed out that many of the industry partners backing the hub projects include oil and gas companies. The coalitions are a mix of private-sector groups — often including renewable energy developers — and government stakeholders. Proposals have also looped in universities, utilities, environmental groups, community organizations, labor unions and tribal nations, among others. “The massive build out of hydrogen infrastructure is little more than an industry ploy to rebrand fracked gas,” said Food & Water Watch Policy Director Jim Walsh in a statement Friday. “In a moment when every political decision that we make must reject fossil expansion, the Biden administration is going in the opposite direction.” The White House has emphasized that roughly two-thirds of the $7 billion pot is “associated” with the production of “green” hydrogen, which uses electricity from renewable sources. Two of the chosen proposals — in California and the Pacific Northwest — are making green hydrogen their focus, while three other hubs plan to include green hydrogen alongside hydrogen made with natural gas (blue) or nuclear energy (pink). Many hubs plan to use several methods for hydrogen production, but the exact mix may change depending on which projects make it through the DOE negotiations process. The Midwest hub, for example, told E&E News it’s pursuing an “all-of-the-above” strategy and has projects for green, blue and “pink” hydrogen. The mid-Atlantic hub in southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey will also generate hydrogen with nuclear reactors. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has described clean hydrogen as a fresh business opportunity, especially for the natural gas industry, which has supported the concept of sending hydrogen to market through its pipeline network. Lawmakers like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — who said the Appalachian hub will make West Virginia the “new epicenter of hydrogen” — have pushed for continuing to use natural gas to make hydrogen in his state. “Natural gas utilities are committed to exploring all options for emissions reduction as demonstrated by the 39 hydrogen pilot projects already underway and are eager to participate in a number of the hubs,” said American Gas Association President and CEO Karen Harbert in a statement Friday.

‘So many ways hydrogen can go wrong’: Hub announcements viewed with caution -- The Friday announcement that seven projects had been selected to receive $7 billion in seed money to kickstart the production of clean hydrogen across the country was billed by President Joe Biden’s administration as a major step toward slashing carbon emissions, creating thousands of domestic jobs and positioning the U.S. as a clean energy leader.“I’m here to announce one of the largest advanced manufacturing investments in the history of this nation,” Biden said during an appearance in Philadelphia.”Seven billion dollars in federal investments that’s going to attract $40 billion in private investments in clean hydrogen.”However, there’s also criticism over a lack of transparency by the Department of Energy around the application and selection process and those who are dubious about the ways some of the newly minted “hydrogen hubs” intend to produce the gas, which the administration called “crucial to achieving President Biden’s goal of American industry powered by American clean energy.” Hydrogen, which releases no carbon emissions when burned, is seen broadly as a key part of cutting emissions from hard-to-decarbonize sectors of the economy, such as steelmaking and cement manufacturing, aviation, shipping and other areas. There’s more controversy around uses like blending it with natural gas to burn in power plants or for heating. How climate-friendly hydrogen is depends on how it’s produced. Currently most hydrogen in the U.S. is produced using natural gas, so-called “gray” hydrogen. “Green” hydrogen is produced by an electrolysis process with clean energy. “Blue” hydrogen is fossil-fuel derived but coupled with carbon capture, in which CO2 is filtered out of emissions and stored. Four of the projects (the Appalachian, Gulf Coast, Heartland and Midwest hydrogen hubs) that the DOE announced as winners will use fossil fuels to produce hydrogen. (In the bipartisan infrastructure law, Congress required that at least one hub “demonstrate the production of clean hydrogen from fossil fuels.”) “There are so many ways hydrogen can go wrong. … We’re really concerned with the number of projects that rely in part or in whole on fossil fuel-based hydrogen production,” said Julie McNamara, a deputy policy director at Union of Concerned Scientists’ climate and energy program. “For hydrogen to be a clean energy solution, it has to be cleanly produced and it has to be strategically used.” In some scenarios, environmental groups worry the hydrogen could actually increase U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. A report last month by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, an Ohio nonprofit, found that the U.S. government “significantly understates the likely impact of producing hydrogen from fossil fuels on global warming.” The assumption that 1% of the methane being used to produce hydrogen will be emitted into the atmosphere is “far less than recent peer-reviewed scientific analyses have found and that has been identified by airplane and satellite emission surveys,” the report says. It also notes that using fossil fuels to make hydrogen cleanly depends on the “overly optimistic and unproven assumption that hydrogen production projects will be able to capture almost all of the carbon dioxide they create.” In short, said David Schlissel, one of the report’s authors, blue hydrogen is not a great idea when you consider emissions from the entire process, from producing natural gas to shipping and storing the hydrogen and the unknowns of trying to use carbon capture and storage at scale. “We fear, and it’s based on our analysis, that the money the government is going to spend on blue hydrogen production is going to result in the continued emission of greenhouse gases for decades,” he said. “We worry about the waste of money. But we really worry about the waste of time and giving fossil fuel companies the opportunity to build infrastructure that depends on their continued operation. That’s the real concern, to keep the world addicted to fossil fuels.”

New York Company Has Big Role in West Virginia’s ARCH2 Hydrogen Hub | Marcellus Drilling News --New York State has made no bones about the fact that it HATES fossil energy — particularly natural gas. The state has banned fracking, permanently (for all time), preventing abundant supplies of natgas from being extracted within the state, dooming counties in Upstate to economic poverty. The state has blocked multiple gas pipelines from Pennsylvania into NY. It has banned new residences and businesses across the state from connecting to and using natural gas beginning in 2025. And lately, the state has begun to force natural gas-fired power plants to close. Yet sitting on the stage in Morgantown, WV, on Monday with West Virginia and Ohio officials and politicians there to commemorate and brag about WV’s big win in attracting a grant for a hydrogen hub, was the CEO of a New York company — a company that will play a key role in (and get gobs of money from) the WV hydrogen hub.

Fossil Energy-Hating Ohio River Valley Inst. Hates Hydrogen Too - Marcellus Drilling News - The Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) is nothing more than a front group, another name for the ultra-left, biased, and virulent anti-fossil fuel Heinz Endowments. ORVI pokes its head up periodically to issue “reports” (i.e., propaganda) bashing fossil energy, like a recently updated report claiming the shale industry didn’t create any jobs or economic benefit in the Marcellus/Utica (see ORVI Updates Fake Report Claiming No $ Benefits from M-U Fracking). Pure B.S. Yesterday, the same B.S. was spread on thick for reporters attending an all-day event in Pittsburgh, except yesterday’s ORVI session hated on hydrogen. Yep, the left hates hydrogen energy–an energy that burns clean and doesn’t produce any CO2. Go figure.

Furious residents lambaste agency for falsifying letters of support: ‘This is not OK’ - - Lies can cause damage in almost any situation, but falsehoods by one dirty energy company have ignited a firestorm in Ohio.The Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) allegedly received dozens of pieces of mail from supposed Ohio residents in support of expanding fracking in parts of the state.However, many of those residents whose names were on the letters shockingly said they had never written a single one nor expressed support for fracking.The letters were originally sent from the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), a nonprofit partly funded by dirty energy industry interests, according to the watchdog Energy and Policy Institute.The CEA submitted more than 1,000 letters to the OGLMC, with the general sentiment that permitting “energy development” would increase investment in state parks..It takes between 1.5 million and 9.7 million gallons of water to frack a single well, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, and wastewater can leach out and contaminate groundwater and land.Fracking also contributes to air pollution via flaring, venting, and accidental release of planet-warming methane gas.Many residents who allegedly sent letters to the commissions shared that they didn’t even know what fracking was nor supported exploration into the land beneath Ohio’s state parks.“Fracking destroys the water table, the land, it destroys everything,” said Charles Leftwich, a Cleveland resident whose name appeared on one of the letters. “It doesn’t need to be taking place anywhere near a state park, that’s why it’s a state park.”“This is not OK,” said Brittany Keep, mother of a 9-year-old girl who allegedly submitted a letter to the commission. “She definitely did not submit that draft.”Opponents of fracking in Ohio are demanding that the fraudulent letters be taken off the record in deciding if the commission should look into fracking in the state.Many opponents also expressed that falsifying support letters undermines the legal system of public comments.This isn’t the first time the CEA has come under fire. In 2014, the organization submitted 2,500 public comments to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin supporting a rate hike for electricity.However, several alleged signees said they were misrepresented and opposed the rate hike. In 2016, the company submitted 347 supporting letters in favor of the Nexus Gas Transmission pipeline.Fourteen individuals came forward claiming that they never signed a letter nor gave anyone permission to use their names.Opponents of fracking are outraged by the findings and the effort to undermine the public comment process.“The public commenting process is critical to decisions that will determine the fate of our Ohio state parks, wildlife areas, and other public lands. Where does the buck stop in ensuring that Ohioans whose names are on these comments actually submitted them?” commented Cathy Cowan Becker, a Save Ohio Parks steering committee member.Other individuals are asking for a legal inquiry into the CEA and its processes. Molly Jo Stanley, the Southeast Ohio Regional Director for the Ohio Environmental Council, called on the OGLMC to investigate all public comments to determine their authenticity. “This is yet another attempt by fossil fuel interests to undermine our democratic processes for their own financial gain,” Stanley said. “Ohioans deserve to know that the public record of comments accurately reflects what the people of Ohio want for their public lands.”

Ohio oil and gas industry accident data boost worries about drilling under state parks --Public records show Ohio regulators log hundreds of incidents each year dealing with chemical releases related to the oil and gas industry. Such events raise critics’ concerns about plans to drill for oil and gas under state-owned parks and wildlife areas. While most problems happen at rigs and wellheads, which will be outside the parks, critics say airborne releases of methane or other chemicals would not be limited to property boundaries. And they fear that runoff could reach groundwater or surface water sources for state parks and nearby areas. Jenny Morgan, a volunteer with the group Save Ohio Parks, said she asked the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for public records after Rob Brundrett, president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said in a radio appearance last month that environmental problems and safety-related events “are certainly isolated events” when considered in light of the amount of industrial activity over the past 13 years. Morgan said the ODNR documents provide a very different perspective. She also noted an event earlier this week, where a gas leak at a Guernsey County well pad triggered a mandatory evacuation within a half-mile radius. The sheriff lifted the order Monday night, but cautioned residents to seek medical attention if they had headaches, dizziness or trouble breathing.The ODNR spreadsheets sent to Morgan last week show approximately 1,530 incidents from the start of 2018 through Sept. 10 of this year.Agency personnel classified three events as “major” or “severe,” meaning they presented relatively high degrees of public safety or environmental impacts. They took up to a day or longer to control and required involvement by multiple agencies.A “major” event on July 11 required the evacuation of more than 450 people in Columbiana County due to a well pad gas leak, for example. Another two dozen incidents rose to the level of “moderate” events. ODNR’sspreadsheets say those events involved “considerable” public safety or environmental impacts. Problems took up to 12 hours to control, often with involvement from multiple agencies. Chemical releases exceeded various regulatory reporting thresholds. Roughly 790 events during the nearly six-year period fit into ODNR’s “minor” category. The spreadsheets indicate those situations were stabilized in less than four hours with minimal public safety or environmental impact. On Sept. 4, for example, a landowner accidentally struck a line with a brush hog, causing a gas leak. On Aug. 29, crude oil from a small flowline leak in Carroll County reached a dry ditch. On April 24, a Guernsey County site had a combustor fire while a truck was loading up at a well pad. A Jan. 7 “loss of well control” led to small amounts of brine on the soil and drainage area for a Noble County site. Many of the remaining 600 or so events on the spreadsheets reflected referrals from other agencies, cases where ODNR gave technical assistance and matters outside the scope of ODNR’s oil and gas management work.Events within ODNR’s jurisdiction dealt with oil and gas or brine and other fluids from both conventional and fracked horizontal wells.“We’re just astounded at the fact that you could have this number of accidents and say that the oil and gas industry is safe,” said Melinda Zemper, another Save Ohio Parks member. The group is planning a rally at the Ohio Statehouse on Friday, Oct. 27, at noon.

Activists Rally Over Pending Fracking on Ohio's State Lands - Cleveland Scene -- A governor-appointed commission could begin approving fracking leases on Ohio's state lands as early as next month. Jenny Morgan a volunteer for the group Save Ohio Parks who will be rallying experts and environmental activists in Columbus Oct. 27, said fracking and related infrastructure are linked to increased childhood cancers, fertility and hormone disruption and a host of other negative health effects. "Gas and oil drilling, hydrofracking is anything but (safe)," Morgan contended. "The waste stream is radioactive waste that has to be re-injected, has to be carted away by trucks. It's light pollution, it's noise pollution, it's air pollution." Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 507 into law this year, which mandates the state approve permits for oil and gas leasing on state-owned land. The fracking industry and other supporters of the legislation argued expanding fracking to state lands will benefit communities economically and keep energy costs affordable. Morgan pointed to polls in recent years showing most residents are either strongly opposed, somewhat opposed, or unsure about fracking as a means of energy production in their state. "We're going to make our voices heard," Morgan asserted. "Even though they have told us that our voices don't matter and shown us that our voices don't matter, we're still going to stand up and insist that this not happen." According to the Yale School of the Environment, health effects increasingly linked to living near fracking include cancer, low birth weight, disruptions to the endocrine system, nose bleeds, headaches, and nausea.

Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Corner: Save Ohio parks - Randi Pokladnik - When HB 133 passed back in 2011, Ohio’s Republican legislators made it known that public lands were not protected from fracking. “The most significant aspect of HB 133 is the creation of the Oil and Gas Leasing Commission, which will oversee and coordinate the leasing of land owned or controlled by a state agency, state university or college for the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas.” After the passage of this bill, Ohio’s citizens expressed their anger over the opening of our lands to this extractive process. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources worked hand in hand with the industry trying to convince the public that fracking was safe. At one point, Ohio citizens protesting fracking state lands were referred to as“environmental activist opponents” and “skilled propagandists.” In 2014, then Gov. Kasich reversed his position and the issue seemed to be a moot point. But, during the lame duck session of December 2022, HB 507, dubbed the “stuffed chicken bill,” passed along party lines. The bill not only declared that fracked gas was green energy but also resurrected the issue of fracking state lands. This bill was passed and signed into law without any public comment period.Now Ohio’s citizens wait while the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission, an industry biased group appointed by Gov. DeWine, decides to approve or not approve the nominations to frack thousands of acres of state lands, including the entirety of Salt Fork State Park, Wolf Run State Park and Zepernick Wildlife Area.Make no mistake, those so-called “skilled propagandists,” aka concerned Ohio citizens, have done their very best to educate the commission. The commission members often seem totally unaware of anything related to fracking, as well as their responsibilities as commission members; including their ability to deny nominations. Citizens have sent countless comments, many citing peer-reviewed studies like the Physicians For Social Responsibility Release 8th Compendium of Scientific, Medical, Media Findings On Risks, Harms Of Fracking And Oil & Gas Infrastructure, that describe the health effects, environmental issues, and safety issues that come with fracking and its infrastructure. Citizens are doing the research that should be done by the commission. During commission meetings, citizens are only spectators who can watch and listen but not ask any questions of the commission. According to the statue, the names of the companies nominating state land for fracking leases shall be kept secret. Citizens deserve to know why and how the commission decides to approve or not approve submissions. Democracy in Ohio is practically nonexistent.. Southeastern Ohio will soon be part of the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) where methane gas obtained from fracking would produce hydrogen using heat, steam, and pressure. Proponents refer to it as clean hydrogen because they plan on capturing the carbon dioxide generated using unproven carbon capture technology. This is not clean energy. A study published in Energy and Science Engineering said, “The carbon footprint to create blue hydrogen is more than 20% greater than using either natural gas or coal directly for heat, or about 60% greater than using diesel oil for heat.” Once again, Ohio’s Appalachian communities are becoming a mineral colony for the fossil fuel industry. Those $925 million federal dollars being appropriated for the hub could be used to support energy efficiency, real clean energy, and local jobs. Hub supporters say that the projects will create 3,000 full-time jobs, but the citizens of the fracked counties of Appalachia Ohio know jobs promised are not jobs realized. Fracking did not bring economic prosperity to local communities. “Hydrogen is another bait and switch from an administration that continues to break its promises to aggressively tackle climate change and help communities achieve a just, equitable transition to renewable energy,” said Soni Grant of the Center for Biological Diversity. The Appalachian hub, ARCH2, has as one of its partners EQT Energy, the nation’s largest gas producer. The reason our region was chosen for this hub becomes obvious: Utica and Marcellus Shale gas.

Leasing Activity Picks Up in Noble & Guernsey Counties in Ohio - - According to an article in Ohio Country Journal, interest and activity in eastern Ohio’s oil and gas leasing has been growing in some new areas. Those areas include, says Clif Little, Ohio State University Extension educator in Guernsey County, portions of Guernsey and Noble counties where there hadn’t been interest in the past. Little specializes in, among other things, oil and gas leases. He’s the author of “Important aspects of an oil and gas lease” (copy below), chock full of good tips for landowners either leasing for the first time or looking to re-lease.

Residents return home after gas leak causes evacuation in Greene County – Multiple people were evacuated from homes in a Fairborn neighborhood Tuesday afternoon after a gas leak, according to Fairborn Fire Department Battalion Chief Adam Howard. Tuesday morning, a utility crew was out working in the Brookstone neighborhood off Trebein Road, near Hobson Freedom Park, when they accidentally drilled a hole into a natural gas line, Howard said. Natural gas was immediately released into the atmosphere at high concentrations from its underground line, causing a prompt response of firefighters and police, Howard said. When crews arrived on the scene, firefighters went door-to-door asking permission to enter homes and test for gas levels. CenterPoint Energy also responded to the scene quickly and worked to shut off the gas. 13 homes were evacuated during this time due to them being in the estimated hot zone. Fire crews established the hot zone where there was the greatest threat for the potential danger of natural gas exposure. Howard said crews on scene had to work with multiple wind changes, which caused the hot zone to be larger than usual. . Local school dismissals were delayed as they couldn’t have children walking through the neighborhood while crews were still trying to contain the leak. CenterPoint isolated the gas leak and the scene was cleared by 3:26 p.m. Before leaving, firefighters went door-to-door to homes in the hot zone to make sure no gas was accumulating in confined areas. Howard said if gas got into confined areas, like homes, and found an ignition source, like a water heater, then an explosion could have occurred. Greene County EMA assisted evacuees and bussed them out of the area, as firefighters were unsure how long it would take to get the leak under control.

Natural gas line ruptures close roads, prompt evacuations - The Times Leader — Cadiz Fire Department, Hopedale Fire and EMS Department and Cadiz police responded to a major gas line rupture around noon Wednesday. The break occurred near the intersection of Cunningham Avenue, Deersville Avenue and West Warren Street. The three roads remained closed during the repairs. Harrison County Emergency Management Director Eric Wilson said that a contractor working on the roads in the area breached a gas line. He said that Columbia Gas started working to repair the gas line right away. He said that no one was injured. Wilson also said that the fire departments used gas monitors to check the safety of homes and determined that no residents needed to evacuate. Columbia Gas originally estimated that repairs would take approximately three hours but faced delays. After talking to Columbia Gas Wednesday afternoon, Wilson said that repairs would be completed by 8 or 9 p.m. Wednesday and the roads would remain closed until then. Wilson said that the natural gas is odorized and has a “rotten egg smell.” “It’s odorized to let people know that it’s in the air. Residents should call 911 immediately if they smell it in their homes,” he said. Wilson said symptoms such as headache, nausea and vomiting can be a sign of inhaling natural gas. He said residents should seek medical attention immediately if they experience any of these symptoms.

EIA Oct DPR: Big Drop in Shale Gas Production in M-U & Haynesville -- The latest monthly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) for October, issued yesterday (below), shows EIA believes shale gas production across the seven major plays tracked in the monthly DPR for November will *decrease* production from the prior month of October — by a huge quantity. This is the fourth month in a row EIA predicts shale gas production will decrease for the combined seven plays. EIA says combined natgas production will slide by 451 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) — nearly half a billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). The Marcellus/Utica, called “Appalachia” in the report, is predicted to decrease by a massive 194 MMcf/d in November compared with October, the biggest decrease in gas production for any of the seven plays.

14 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Oct 9 – 15 | Marcellus Drilling News --New shale permits issued for Oct 9 – 15 in the Marcellus/Utica gyrated once again, dropping to about half from the previous week. There were 14 new permits issued last week, versus 23 the week before. Last week’s permit tally included 12 new permits in Pennsylvania, no new permits in Ohio, and 2 new permits in West Virginia. EQT was the top permittee for the week, drawing 6 permits in Greene County, PA. PA General Energy was second with 4 permits in Lycoming County.CLEAN ENERGY E&P | ENERGY COMPANIES | EQT CORP | GREENE COUNTY (PA) | JKLM ENERGY | LYCOMING COUNTY | MARSHALL COUNTY |PENNSYLVANIA GENERAL ENERGY | TIOGA COUNTY (PA)

Research by Public Health Experts Shows ‘Damning’ Evidence on the Harms of Fracking - Hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas is linked to an array of health harms, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma and birth defects, according to the latest compilation of studies on the impact of fracking on human health. The ninth edition of a “compendium” of scientific, medical, government and media reports on the industry’s health effects, released Thursday, contains references to almost 2,500 papers that add to evidence that fracking has an array of negative impacts on human health, the authors say. The number of studies collected is now more than six times what it was when the first compendium was published in 2014, but the conclusions are the same, said Dr. Sandra Steingraber, the lead author, and a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and Concerned Health Professionals of New York, which jointly published the 637-page document. Many of the studies were based in Pennsylvania, which produces more natural gas from fracking than any other U.S. state except Texas, and has a relatively high population of about 12 million people, giving researchers more opportunity to determine the effects of fracking on public health than in more sparsely populated fracking states such as Wyoming. “The new studies corroborate and support the older studies and we can see the same patterns in state after state where fracking is practiced,” Steingraber said. “The fact that there is lots of new data that support the older data means that the case against fracking is ever more damning.” In noting that a wealth of new data has confirmed earlier studies, Steingraber said that while researchers have known since 2017 that children living near fracking sites in Colorado have higher rates of leukemia than their peers who don’t live in those locations, new studies in Pennsylvania are now showing the same thing, she said. The Yale School of Public Health found in a study published in 2022 that Pennsylvania children who grew up within a mile of a natural gas well are twice as likely as other children to develop the most common form of juvenile leukemia. The study, included in the new compendium, also found that children born to pregnant women who lived near fracking wells were nearly three times as likely as other newborns to be diagnosed with leukemia. In August 2023, research by the University of Pittsburgh, also part of the new compendium, showed that children living within a mile of a natural gas production well were seven times as likely to suffer from lymphoma, a rare kind of childhood cancer, than those who had no such wells within five miles of their homes. Overall, the studies in the new compilation found evidence that people who live near unconventional oil and gas production and distribution sites, such as well pads and compressor stations, are exposed to toxic airborne pollutants such as benzene and formaldehyde, diesel exhaust, fine particles and nitrous oxides, leading to respiratory and skin problems, nervous system complaints, and heart issues at higher rates than in other sectors of the population. More than 200 of the studies found that groundwater in the United States is being contaminated by some 2 billion gallons of water a day forced underground at high pressure during fracking, or injected into some 187,000 disposal wells that take highly toxic fracking waste. Surface waters, too, have been contaminated by spills and intentional discharges of toxic wastewater from fracking, also known as produced water, increasing downstream radioactivity and polluting waters with heavy metals, endocrine disruptors and toxic disinfection byproducts, the compilation said. Of about 1,000 chemicals used in fracking, some 100 are estimated to be endocrine disruptors of human reproductive and developmental systems, and at least 48 are potentially carcinogenic, it said. Whether residents are exposed to soil, water or air contamination from the fracking industry, the result is a “public health crisis” given that some 17.6 million Americans live within a mile of at least one active oil and gas well, the compendium said.

Inside West Virginia’s Chernobyl: How a radioactive facility has become a party spot in Marion County - It’s around 4 p.m. one fine summer afternoon on a West Virginia hilltop when Dr. Yuri Gorby, a former Department of Energy scientist, gets the first clicks on his Geiger counter. He is wearing a full-body plastic protective suit, and using the device to survey a span of odd brownish dirt near the dilapidated main building of Fairmont Brine Processing, a fracking waste treatment plant that ceased operations in 2017.“These are the highest readings I’ve ever seen!” he shouts. “You want to come over here!”I follow Ohio organizer Jill Hunkler past a graffiti-covered security shack and a vaguely Satanic-looking circle of busted up furniture to find the 62-year-old scientist wearing a look of deep concern. The clicking — hauntingly familiar from Hollywood depictions of Chernobyl and post-Apocalyptic scenarios — continues to quicken as Gorby walks toward the flame-scarred husk of the frack waste processing building. Bending over the odd brownish dirt, the clicks become furious beeps, like a smoke alarm gone haywire, before merging into a high-pitched wail, a sound reminiscent of an emergency room patient flatlining. Gorby freezes. A microbiologist who worked for years at a federal radiological lab in Washington state, he understands very well the meaning of the nerve-rattling screech.“The unit is maxed out,” he says.His Geiger counter, known as the Ludlum 3000 Digital Survey Meter, is reading around 7,000 counts per minute, or just under 2 millirems per hour. Working at those levels for one week (never mind the 70- or 80-hour weeks common in the oil and gas industry) could take a worker over yearly safety limits set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.The radioactive dirt is far from the day’s only disturbing discovery. The moat of scuzzy water surrounding the processing building also reads radioactive. So, too, the mud that coats the floor of a second building, littered with empty beer cans that testify to the site’s popularity as a party spot, presumably for local teenagers. “Kids are screwing there,” a former oilfield worker would later tell me, pointing to a soiled mattress, with the authority of an Appalachian who grew up partying at shuttered industrial sites. Indeed, condoms litter the facility grounds.Opposite the treatment building, a pond of radioactive water is contained by a grimy white liner stained orange from the metals in the brine. Near it, in the unloading area, we find a crumpled bathing suit. “My god,” says Hunkler, “did they go swimming!?” And on the other side of the unloading area, rows of gigantic red, blue and green containers known as frack tanks send the Geiger counter into another string of beeps. Next to the tanks are a set of open dumpsters filled with bags of trash, metal scraps and wet heaps of yellowish-white goop that resembles oatmeal. “I hope you didn’t touch that?” says Gorby of the goop. “It’s highly radioactive.”That dirt and water samples from Fairmont Brine Processing reveal “deeply concerning” levels of radioactive materials — radium, thorium, polonium, bismuth and various isotopes of radioactive lead — would be news to the vast majority of people in Fairmount, West Virginia, the largest town in Marion County. When it rains, runoff from the site flows down the hill and toward Fairmont’s 18,000 residents. The homes are not only visible from the abandoned plant, they are so close you can hear their lawn mowers and the barking of their dogs. These people have no idea they are living beside a fracking waste treatment plant so radioactive that a levelheaded Homeland Security official, adhering to counterterrorism protocols, would order the place wrapped in tape and direct the nearest radiological SWAT team to round up the bad actors responsible for the mess. Nor do the towns further to the north know that the runoff threatens to contaminate the Monongahela River, which flows into Pennsylvania and provides drinking water for Pittsburgh.

MVP construction continues -- as do protests - More than 4,200 construction workers, spread out along the 303-mile path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, are laboring to finish the project by year’s end. Perhaps the biggest challenge in meeting that deadline are the hundreds of water bodies that have yet to be crossed by the largest natural gas pipeline ever to be built in Virginia. Crossing rivers, streams and wetlands — either by diverting the water flow long enough to dig a trench through them for the buried pipe, or by boring a tunnel beneath them — has proven to be a time-consuming task. Since work resumed in midsummer, 92 crossings had been completed through Oct. 1, according to Mountain Valley spokeswoman Natalie Cox. About 330 remain, she said. “It seems like MVP still has a long way to go,” said Peter Anderson of Appalachian Voices, one of more than a dozen environmental and community groups that have fought the pipeline in court. “We think it is unlikely that the company will be able to complete the project by the end of this year — not just based on the construction reports, but also because of the complexity of some of the major river crossings,” Anderson said. Anderson mentioned crossings of the Elk, Gauley and Greenbrier rivers in West Virginia and work in the Jefferson National Forest, which was stalled by legal challenges in 2018. The pipeline must also pass through the Roanoke River at the Montgomery-Roanoke county line. In filings with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Mountain Valley has outlined plans to drill a 316-foot long horizontal tunnel, through which the pipe will run at least 6 feet beneath the river’s bottom. Construction crews will dig two pits, one nearly 31 feet deep and the other about 22 feet, on either side of the river to accomplish the boring. The job could take up to 90 days, according to documents filed with FERC in 2020. Mountain Valley has agreed to notify the Western Virginia Water Authority, which operates the Spring Hollow reservoir about 1.2 miles downstream from the site in Lafayette, when it plans to begin work. No such notification has been made as of last week, water authority spokeswoman Sarah Baumgardner said. Cox declined to provide details on specific work locations, citing “safety and security” reasons. In the past, the joint venture of five energy companies building the pipeline has paused construction during the winter months, in the years when it was not already stalled by litigation that has long delayed the $6.6 billion project. This fall and winter, work will continue when it is safe to do so. “With the pending winter months, weather forecasts and advisories will be taken into account when scheduling the remaining project work,” Cox wrote in an email. State environmental regulators have cited Mountain Valley more than 300 times with violating erosion and sediment control regulations since 2018, allowing harmful sediment to be washed from the pipeline’s 125-foot wide right of way.

Mountain Valley Pipeline-requested injunction against opponent declined by judge — A Montgomery County judge declined to issue an injunction Friday against a woman described by Mountain Valley Pipeline lawyers as a leading opponent of the highly divisive project. Emily Satterwhite of Blacksburg is helping to organize a “mass action weekend” starting Friday in which protesters are encouraged to block construction of the natural gas pipeline, the company said in court papers. Satterwhite — who is out of town on business this weekend — has done nothing wrong and is engaging in “core First Amendment speech” in opposing what she sees as an environmental disaster, her lawyers said. “MVP clearly doesn’t like these grass roots, I understand that,” attorney John Fishwick of Roanoke told Circuit Judge Robert Turk. “But there’s nothing wrong with asking people to join a grass roots organization.” In denying Mountain Valley’s request to enjoin Satterwhite from going onto restricted pipeline property or encouraging others to do so, Turk said there are already adequate legal remedies available to address such conduct if it happens. Since work on the pipeline began in the New River and Roanoke valleys in 2018, dozens of opponents — including Satterwhite — have been charged with misdemeanors for chaining themselves to construction equipment or blocking work in other ways. As Mountain Valley attempts to put the pipeline in operation by year’s end, the company has asked for civil injunctions against a growing number of protesters. A separate case was filed in September against more than 40 individuals and two organizations. “There’s no sign that it’s going to stop,” a company official testified Friday, listing the protests as one of the hurdles it faces.

MVP Startup Slipping into Early ‘24 as ‘Unforeseen Factors’ Delay Progress - Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC (MVP) has pushed back the in-service date of its 303-mile, 2 million Dth/d natural gas conduit from late 2023 to early 2024, citing unexpected setbacks since resuming construction this summer. Project co-sponsor Equitrans Midstream Corp. in a Form-8K filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pointed to “unforeseen factors” that have “substantially affected the pace of construction” for the long-delayed Appalachia-to-Southeast pipeline. The operator also said the total cost of the embattled pipeline would swell to around $7.2 billion. Equitrans had previously estimated a budget of $6.6 billion.

Another delay, cost increase for Mountain Valley Pipeline - It will take longer and cost more than earlier projected to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the project’s lead partner says. After repeatedly telling investors and the public that it planned have the natural gas pipeline in service by the end of this year, Equitrans Midstream Corp. has pushed that goal back to sometime in the first three months of 2024. The disclosure — which was the latest in a series of construction delays and budget overruns for the troubled pipeline — was made late Wednesday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Building the 303-mile pipeline that passes through Southwest Virginia will cost $7.2 billion, up from a previous estimate of $6.6 billion. “Certain unforeseen factors have substantially affected the pace of construction and account for more than half of the increase in estimated project costs,” Equitrans said in the filing. The Pittsburgh-region based company has a 48% ownership in the joint venture, which is comprised of four other energy firms that include a subsidiary of the parent company of Roanoke Gas Co. “The ramp up of MVP’s contractor workforce has been slower and more challenging than expected, due to multiple crews electing not to work on the project based on the history of court-related construction stops,” the SEC document states. Construction of the buried pipeline started in 2018, but has been delayed time and again by legal challenges that raised concerns about its negative environmental impact on the rural and mountainous land through which it passes. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed construction to resume this summer, after Congress passed a law that fast-tracked completion of a pipeline that has faced fierce opposition since it was first announced nearly a decade ago. “Despite getting a greenlight from Congress, MVP can’t finish this project,” Denali Nalamalapu, communications director for the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights coalition, said in a statement.Supporters say Mountain Valley will supply needed natural gas, drilled from Appalachian shale formations, to markets on the East Coast. The pipeline runs from northern West Virginia, through the New River and Roanoke valleys, to connect with an existing pipeline near the North Carolina line.

Mountain Valley pipeline delayed: 4 questions answered - Completion of the closely watched Mountain Valley pipeline will be delayed until next year, and its cost will exceed $7 billion, the project’s lead developer said Wednesday. The updates from Equitrans Midstream mark the latest twist in the saga of the controversial natural gas project, which received Congress’ blessing earlier this year. Mountain Valley won’t come online in 2023 as planned because of “unforeseen factors” that slowed the pace of construction and boosted costs, Equitrans said in a regulatory filing. That disclosure arrives after the Supreme Court handed developers of the Mountain Valley pipeline a critical win in July, undoing a construction freeze and allowing work on the gas project to restart. How regulators and courts tackle remaining questions about the project’s safety could still shape its timing — though legal and energy experts don’t expect opponents to be able to stop it. Earlier this month, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the lead developer of Mountain Valley announced an agreement to address safety issues. That came after an August notice from PHMSA raised concerns about the integrity of the pipe, including issues around installation and prolonged exposure of some segments to the sun’s rays. Pennsylvania-based Equitrans, which will operate Mountain Valley once it is finished, said the agreement outlines measures that are intended to reassure the public of the pipeline’s integrity. Before the agreement was issued, critics wrote to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking for construction to stop while developers conduct an analysis on all pipes that will be installed and look for any potential damage to its protective coating. But FERC has been approving a number of developer requests, including the addition of temporary access roads and allowing the withdrawal of water from streams for construction use. FERC has sent letters to Mountain Valley developers approving the company’s requests, citing the June debt ceiling law and the agency’s June order authorizing all construction activities on the pipeline. Mary O’Driscoll, a FERC spokesperson, declined to comment on a letter to the agency that requested a pause on construction. For many residents in southwest Virginia, the return of construction is the last thing they wanted. Some told E&E News this summer that they felt betrayed by the inclusion of the Mountain Valley-related provision in the debt ceiling agreement known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. The law requires expedited approval for Mountain Valley and blocked judicial review of permits “necessary for the construction and initial operation at full capacity” of the pipeline. Once a major thorn in Mountain Valley’s side, litigation against the project has dwindled. One case focused on eminent domain — Bohon v. FERC — is still alive in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, but it’s unclear how much of a threat it could present to the pipeline overall.In a request to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit this week, the Virginia landowners behind the long-shot suit asked for an emergency injunction to "halt irreparable harm" and stop the taking of land through eminent domain. The landowners requested the freeze on construction while the court takes up their legal challenge. If Mountain Valley is completed as planned, opponents said the possibility of a leak or an explosion will always linger in the minds of communities along the route. Equitrans has stressed its focus on building and running the pipeline safely. Natalie Cox, an Equitrans spokesperson, said more than 300,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines have been “successfully built and are operating safely” across the United States, including “in steep, mountainous and karst terrain.” “Pipelines are recognized as by far the safest means for transporting the energy necessary to power modern life,” Cox said in an email last month. As construction continues and protests occur along the project's path, here are four questions that remain about the Mountain Valley project:

Towboat owner pleads guilty in oil spill along West Virginia-Kentucky border - The owner of a towboat that sank and spilled oil into a river along the West Virginia-Kentucky border pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal pollution charge. David K. Smith, 55, of Paducah, Kentucky, entered the plea in federal court in Huntington, West Virginia, to discharge of refuse into navigable waters. Smith owned River Marine Enterprises LLC and Western River Assets LLC. His towboat, the Gate City, sank while docked in the Big Sandy River in January 2018, discharging oil and other substances. The city of Kenova, West Virginia, closed its municipal drinking water intake for three days while regulatory agencies responded to the spill, according to court records. A November 2017 Coast Guard inspection of the vessel determined it could harm public health and the environment due to the threat of an oil discharge. Officials said at the time the vessel had the potential to spill 5,000 gallons (18,927 liters). An administrative order required Smith to remove all oil and hazardous materials from the Gate City before Jan. 31, 2018, but Smith admitted he had not complied at the time of the spill, prosecutors said. Smith also said a contractor that was supposed to remove oil from the vessel before it sank could not access it safely due to site conditions. Smith faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. His companies each face fines of up to $200,000 and five years of federal probation. Smith's sentencing was set for Feb. 26, 2024.

The Biden Administration Has Begun Regulating 400,000 Miles of Gas ‘Gathering Lines.’ The Industry Isn’t Happy - After decades of industry resistance, federal safety officials are finally starting to regulate a huge part of the nation’s pipeline system. With little attention from the mainstream media, the Biden administration has begun imposing new rules on some 400,000 miles of gas pipes. Many are bigger and more dangerous lines laid since the boom in fracking. Bill Caram, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, said the move is way overdue. Explosions on the lines, he said, “have killed people and injured people and it’s high time these lines were regulated.” Erin Murphy, a senior attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, called it “a significant step forward.” At issue are what the gas industry refers to as “gathering lines.” These are pipelines that carry gas directly from drilling sites. They run mostly through rural areas and tie into processing plants, which, in turn, pump the gas in big interstate lines to population areas. The failure to impose any safety standards on the lines or even to know where they are has long been a big hole in safety oversight. But that hole has grown far larger as operators have laid thousands of miles of new pipe to accommodate fracking. Those lines have been wider in diameter and operate at higher pressures than older pipelines, undermining a regulatory system reflecting earlier technology. The first part of the new rules kicked in earlier this year when the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for the first time required operators to file basic reports about these pipelines, including their total miles, ages, widths—and any leaks the firms had become aware of. Such reports must be filed now for every gathering line in the United States. The reports cover about 400,000 miles of pipe—and the first round of reports filed this year showed that the industry, even while acting only on a voluntary basis, found and fixed more than 5,000 leaks last year. More stringent rules are to take effect next year for the biggest of the gathering lines, those more than 16 inches in width or near residential buildings and more than 8.6 inches. For the first time, operators will be required to carry out regular surveys for leaks and repair them. For these bigger lines, they will also have to install above-ground markers and new anti-corrosion controls and conduct public-awareness campaigns to alert nearby residents to the lines. These rules will apply to about 20,000 existing miles of the total 400,000 gathering-line mileage.

U.S. Adding 8.6 GW of Natural Gas Power This Year Amid Record-Setting Demand - The United States expects to add 8.6 GW of natural gas-fired capacity to its power generation fleet in 2023 as demand for the fuel breaks records. So far this year, 10 natural gas-fired power plants totaling 6.8 GW have come online, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Natural gas consumption in electricity generation soared this past summer, setting monthly records of 47.3 Bcf/d in both July and August. EIA sees natural gas power sector consumption averaging 35.3 Bcf/d for full-year 2023, up 6%, or 2.1 Bcf/d, over the record levels observed in the year-earlier period.

Kinder Morgan Forecasting 20% Natural Gas Demand Growth by 2028 Driven by LNG, Mexico Exports - Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) is advancing numerous projects across its vast Lower 48 natural gas pipelines footprint as LNG and Mexico export demand continues to rise, management said Wednesday. The midstream giant kicked off the third quarter earnings season touting robust volumes and demand across its gas network during the period. “This quarter KMI continued to benefit from strong demand for our natural gas transportation and storage services,” said CEO Kim Dang. “And the future is bright as we expect natural gas demand to grow by more than 20% through 2028, led by liquefied natural gas exports, exports to Mexico and power generation. “Our network of interconnected assets is ideally located to serve those export markets, and our 700 Bcf of operated natural gas storage...

Climate activists rally to halt new U.S. exports of natural gas - The Washington Post - Environmentalists are gearing up for their next giant climate fight: They want to force a showdown with the Biden administration over the massive expansion of U.S. natural gas exports. Less than a decade ago, U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas — LNG for short — didn’t exist. Now they are growing so rapidly that the United States last year became the world’s largest gas exporter. The trend has given Washington more influence abroad, while raising big questions about its environmental legacy. President Biden has thrown his support behind the industry to help European allies, which in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have sought more U.S. gas to break a years-long reliance on Russian energy supplies. But environmentalists fear that by investing billions of dollars in new terminals to chill and ship U.S. gas abroad, the industry is locking in more planet-warming emissions when Biden has pledged to zero out climate pollution. That has led environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters and famed activist Bill McKibben, to target gas exports in an emerging campaign. More than two dozen new or expansion projects are under construction or under consideration. Opponents say that buildout far exceeds what is needed and will further burden communities of color on the Gulf Coast and other parts of the country. They want Washington to better judge the cumulative impacts of these projects before granting more permit approvals. “The real news is we’re in 2023; it’s never been hotter,” McKibben said in a video news conference Tuesday. “So why on Earth are we even talking about figuring out a way to spew yet more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere? … It doesn’t make sense.” The mounting pushback illustrates the Biden administration’s challenges in balancing national security concerns with climate pledges, while also recognizing domestic political realities. Biden enraged young climate activists and others this year by approving the Willow oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, even as the White House argued it was legally obligated to sanction it in some form. But the greenhouse gas emissions associated with just one LNG export project, known as Calcasieu Pass 2 or CP2, would be 20 times as large as those from Willow, according to an analysis by Jeremy Symons, an environmental consultant and former climate policy adviser at the Environmental Protection Agency. “The Willow project was a carbon bomb, but the CP2 project is a megabomb when it comes to climate change,” Symons said in an interview. Shaylyn Hynes, spokeswoman for the project’s owner, Arlington-based Venture Global, said that U.S. gas exports provide other countries an alternative to dirtier fuels, including coal, which has seen a rebound in global demand in recent months. And LNG is still critical to helping Europe and to delivering energy to millions of poor people globally, Hynes added in an email.

143 coal plants and a punch in the face - (video) The young people were angry. The man in the blue suit was angry. They expressed their anger in different ways. The young people, angry because of the U.S. government’s inadequate response to the climate crisis, organized a disruptive but non-violent protest at a policy conference last week, during which they confronted Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg onstage and expressed outrage at his department’s recent controversial decision to approve a massive new oil terminal offshore of Freeport, Texas. The man in the blue suit, seemingly angry because of the 21-minute disruption, followed the protesters as they left and struck one of them in the head. A brief video clip of the incident provided to HEATED shows the unidentified man forcefully grabbing and shoving Izzi C., a 24-year-old organizer with the new youth-led direct action group Climate Defiance, as they exit the stage area and enter the lobby at the one-day iMPACT MARYLAND conference. “I did not see it coming at all,” said Izzi, who asked to withhold their last name to maintain privacy. “It felt like this person had fully punched me in the face.” The act of violence did not appear intended to stop the protest, nor did it appear intended to protect others. The also did not appear to be a member of law enforcement; a Department of Transportation spokesperson told HEATED he is not an agency employee or member of Secretary Buttigieg’s security. “I was not in front of this person,” Izzi said. “It was a complete act of anger, and there was no reason for it. What shocked Izzi most about the actual violence, however, was not the fact that it occurred. (This kind of thing happens all the time during acts of civil disobedience, they said, particularly from law enforcement). Rather, it was the lack of reaction from the dozens of conference attendees who witnessed it. ”None of the attendees asked if I was alright,” Izzi said. “Nobody around me said anything. Nobody did anything.” It felt as if many of the attendees at Thursday’s seemingly climate-friendly conference believed the man in the blue suit was justified in his anger—but the young protesters were not justified in theirs. Perhaps the attendees simply didn’t understand why the protesters felt the need to disrupt their professional event. If that is the case, we can explain. The answer lies in four massive, controversial proposed crude oil export projects currently planned off the Texas coast. Should all of these projects be approved by the Biden Administration and operated at full capacity, The Guardian reports the four terminals “would expand U.S. oil exports by nearly 7 million barrels every day” and result in an astounding “24 billion metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions once the transported oil is burned.” This is equivalent to operating 6,424 coal plants for one year—or, if divided by the average 45-year lifespan of a coal plant, 143 coal plants for 45 years. This does not bode well for future generations, as the International Energy Agency has warned that no new major fossil fuel infrastructure can be built if the world is to avoid dangerous, irreversible levels of warming.

One key step in the energy transition? No new gas lines. -Some buildings in the future could feature one notable difference from many that exist today: no connection to a gas line. That’s one of the recommendations in a sweeping report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released Tuesday on what it will take for the United States to reach its ambitious climate goals. The report suggests states and municipalities consider adopting bans on new gas lines in areas that haven’t previously been served by natural gas. 10 steps you can take to lower your carbon footprint Rethinking gas infrastructure is one example of the major changes experts say will be necessary to help the country realize its net-zero carbon emissions goals by 2050. Lawmakers have passed packages, such as last year’s Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021, that provide funding and a roadmap for slashing emissions. This new 600-plus-page report contains more than 80 recommendations for how to effectively implement these existing policies and support an equitable energy transition. “Our report shows the ways in which you can achieve a low-carbon economy and net zero by 2050 through dozens and dozens of things that governments, households, businesses and investors can do,” said Susan Tierney, a member of the committee that wrote the new report. “The thing that’s the most challenging is not just that it’s solvable technically, but that it is solvable in a durable way.” The case for fewer gas lines One key element in the recommendations is to plan for a future no longer dominated by fossil fuels, Tierney and other experts say. As the country moves toward electrification, it wouldn’t make sense to continue adding gas lines to serve locations that eventually may be required to electrify, said Tierney, an expert on energy policy at Analysis Group, an international economic consulting firm. “You might just require electricity in the first place and not extend gas pipelines into new areas where they are not going to be used for very long,” she said. “That is not the way business is done now, and that could lead to some pushback.” But Richard Meyer, an executive with the American Gas Association, a top industry trade group, said efforts to ban natural gas would, in part, result in higher costs for consumers.

New York State’s Natural Gas Ban Challenged by Major Business Groups and Labor Unions - A New York law enacted by Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this year to ban natural gas appliances and infrastructure in new buildings is facing a legal challenge by a coalition of businesses and labor unions. Hochul in May signed into law the All-Electric Building Act, included in the state’s fiscal 2024 budget. The law would require nearly all newly constructed buildings to be all-electric, beginning in 2026 for smaller structures and in 2029 for larger ones. However, business groups and labor unions want the new law tossed. Plaintiffs include Mulhern Gas Co., National Association of Home Builders, National Propane Gas Association, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1049, Plumbers Local Union No. 200 and the AFL-CIO. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court..

Cracking Cancer in East Texas - -- As oil and gas production has grown precipitously in Texas, so has the state’s petrochemical industry. Aside from petroleum, diesel and a wide array of gasoline types, oil and gas are the primary components in a range of other products, including plastics and rubber. While the environmental and health effects of drilling, fracking and refining are well reported, the effects of this correlated boom in the petrochemical industry is much less widely discussed. However, the effects for local populations as well as the planet at large are oftentimes dire. The Environmental Integrity Project is a non-profit organization with a close eye on the petrochemical industry, and has published extensively on the subject. Courtney Bernhardt is the organization’s research director and has been particularly focused on the effects of ethylene production, a precursor chemical that is the basis for a staggering array of plastics products, as well as propylene, a highly flammable gas product that is found in many prepackaged foods, on store shelves across the world. Both propylene and ethane are derived from Texas’ abundant natural gas. Ethane is produced in so-called “ethane crackers,” large industrial complexes in which natural gas is heated to create the precursor. Even a cursory visit to the coastal areas of Texas in which fossil fuels are refined and reconfigured shows the scale of this industry. Bernhardt and the Environmental Integrity Project recently published an extensive list of ethane production sites in the coastal region. More than half of the sites surveyed are listed as “high-priority violators” by the Environmental Protection Agency, meaning that their output of net emissions is much higher than the legal limit. The effects on communities within the emissions zone of petrochemical plants are drastic. Ethylene oxide is in itself a cancer-causing chemical, which is emitted at high rates by the “crackers” which produce it. Ethane oxide and benzene are two additional toxins emitted in the thousands of pounds per year. “You get kind of a brew of hazardous chemicals coming off of these things,” Courtney Bernhardt says about the plants.Much of the environmental pollutants that affect the surrounding communities go back to the so-called flares, Dr. Sahu explains in an interview with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation: “Flares are devices that are used to combust waste gasses in the petrochemical industry, and waste gas means things in the process that have no value, so they have to be disposed of in a safe manner.” While some mechanism for flaring is necessary in nearly every petrochemical facility to allow for the possibility of emergencies in which volatile materials must be disposed of quickly, many plants in Texas also burn off compounds simply because they cannot be harvested profitably. While the traditional chimney-like “stacks” can be tested for pollutants, the same is not the case for the open flames by which material is flared off. “There is no stack, it’s literally just a flame, and the exhaust and the products of the flame literally go directly to the atmosphere. They therefore don’t have a location where you can put an instrument and test it.”

BP cross-state gasoline pipeline fails in Branch County... {freep.com} A 10-inch diameter gasoline pipeline running across southern Michigan failed Tuesday evening, releasing more than 8,400 gallons of gasoline .

US oil is back, and Exxon's $60 billion deal isn't the biggest signal - After three and a half years, a tripling in the S&P 500 Energy Index, and many soon-to-be-forgotten culture-war volleys, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Oct. 12 that U.S. crude oil production had hit an all-time high of 13.2 million barrels per day, entirely wiping out Covid-era losses of more than 3 million barrels per day.The news came a day after a $60 billion deal betweenExxon Mobil and independent oil producerPioneer Natural Resources. The combination of recovering production, sustained pressure from Wall Street for cost containment and high stock dividends, and consolidation like the Exxon-Pioneer hookup is not a coincidence. The energy sector's big stock move in 2021 and 2022 was mostly a recovery from a disastrous decade for Big Oil, when tens of billions of cash flow were lost on unprofitable fracking wells, and of a consolidation that was good for company profits, dividends and shareholder returns. The foundation of the 2010s oil business was cracking when Covid broke it, said Rob Thummel, senior portfolio manager at Tortoise Ecofin in Kansas City, Mo. Monthly production topped out at 13 million barrels per day in November 2019 and hit 9.9 million by February 2021. "Capital discipline in the U.S. industry hasn't gone away, and oil is at $85 to $90 a barrel," he said. So, what brought Big Oil back, and what's next? Here are seven important factors that played into U.S. oil's recent history and will influence its future.

With More Business Built on Carbon Capture, SLB CEO Says Natural Gas Key to Energy Transition - The global energy sector is benefiting today from long-cycle developments, SLB CEO Olivier Le Peuch said Friday, lifted by more carbon capture expansions, offshore exploration and the realization that “natural gas is a critical source for the energy transition.” During a third quarter conference call, Le Peuch offered his insight into results for the world’s No. 1 oilfield services company, which he said “is continuing to seize this multiyear growth cycle.” Overall market fundamentals “remain very, very compelling for our core business,” he said. “Performance is being driven by the diversity of our portfolio,” including new technologies and integration. “Looking ahead, we believe the market fundamentals remain very compelling for our business…

Fed energy survey reflects expectations for half-year – Energy producers surveyed recently in Oklahoma and across the region reported a decline in activity in the last quarter but expectations for some pickup over the next six months. That’s according to the most recent energy industry survey conducted by the Kansas City branch of the U.S. Federal Reserve. The bank serves the Fed’s 10th District, which includes Oklahoma and all or portions of Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and New Mexico. Among other things, industry leaders in the district said that oil prices needed to be at $64 per barrel on average at least for drilling to be profitable and at $90 per barrel for the region to see any substantial increase in drilling. Natural gas prices need to be at $3.45 per million Btu (British thermal units) on average for drilling to be profitable and at $4.36 per million Btu for drilling to increase substantially. Firms reported what they expected oil and natural gas prices to be six months, one year, two years and five years from now. The averages expected prices for benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude were $91, $88, $88 and $83 per barrel, respectively. The average expected Henry Hub natural gas prices were $3.06, $3.34, $3.97 and $4.83 per million Btu, respectively. Those surveyed also were asked what they expect the U.S. rig count to be in six months relative to current levels. Nearly half, 48%, responded that they expect the number of rigs to be slightly higher; 45% expect it to be about the same; and 3% each expect it to be either significantly higher or slightly lower. “It is becoming ever more difficult and expensive to drill and operate. The best spots (geologically) for the best wells will become rarer to find,” one respondent wrote. “Gas demand is staying flat or increasing while ability and willingness to drill for gas is declining,” another said. “District drilling and business activity declined further in Q3, but revenues grew after declining for three consecutive quarters, and employment continued to increase at a moderate pace,” Kansas City Fed Branch Vice President Chad Wilkersonsaid. “Firms’ sentiment for future activity improved in light of increased commodity prices.” The survey monitors oil and gas-related firms located in the 10th District, with results based on total firm activity. In addition to projections for oil and gas prices and drilling activity, survey results reveal changes in several indicators of energy activity, including capital spending and employment. All results are diffusion indexes – the percentage of firms indicating increases minus the percentage of firms indicating decreases. Year-over-year index results were mixed, the Fed said. Drilling/business activity declined moderately while revenues, profits and supplier delivery times decreased at a lesser pace than last quarter. Access to credit turned negative. Wages and benefits indexes grew further even as both employment indexes cooled.

FERC Approves TC’s GTN Xpress and Two Natural Gas Pipeline Expansions - FERC on Thursday granted final approval for TC Energy Corp.’s Gas Transmission Northwest Xpress (GTN Xpress) project. The project is designed to add 150,000 Dth/d of transport capacity through upgrades to compressor stations in Athol, ID, Starbuck, WA, and Kent, OR, along the existing Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) system. GTN Xpress is fully subscribed under precedent agreements with Cascade Natural Gas Corp., Intermountain Gas Co. and Tourmaline Oil Marketing Corp. The larger GTN system supplies gas from Western Canada and the Rocky Mountains to utilities, power generators, and residential and commercial..

Feds OK natural gas pipeline expansion in Pacific Northwest over environmentalist protests (AP) — Federal regulators on Thursday approved the expansion of a natural gas pipeline in the Pacific Northwest over the protest of environmental groups and top officials in West Coast states, who said it goes against the region’s plans to address climate change and could pose a wildfire risk. The project, known as GTN Xpress, aims to expand the capacity of the Gas Transmission Northwest pipeline, which runs through Idaho, Washington and Oregon, by about 150 million cubic feet (4.2 million cubic meters) of natural gas per day. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave it the green light in a vote on Thursday. TC Energy plans to modify three compressor stations along the pipeline — in Kootenai County, Idaho; Walla Walla County, Washington; and Sherman County, Oregon. Compressor stations help maintain the pressure and flow of gas over long distances in a pipeline. Environmental groups criticized the decision. In a statement, Audrey Leonard, staff attorney for environmental nonprofit Columbia Riverkeeper, said it represented a “rubber stamp of unnecessary fracked gas in the Northwest” and accused the energy agency of failing to listen to U.S. senators, governors, state attorneys general, tribes and members of the public. Leonard said potential spills and explosions on the pipeline, which was built in the 1960s, would not only harm the environment but also present a heightened wildfire risk in the arid regions it passes through. “An explosion of that level in eastern Washington or eastern Oregon would be catastrophic,” she said. Leonard said Columbia Riverkeeper will appeal the federal regulators’ decision and submit a petition for a rehearing. The pipeline belongs to TC Energy of Calgary, Canada — the same company behind the now-abandoned Keystone XL crude oil pipeline. The company said the project is necessary to meet consumer demand and welcomed the decision in an emailed statement. Environmentalists and officials opposed to the project have expressed concern about TC Energy’s safety record. Its Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline exploded in Strasburg, Virginia, in July and its existing Keystone pipeline spilled nearly 600,000 gallons of bitumen oil in Kansas last December. The 1,377-mile (2,216-kilometer) pipeline runs from the Canadian border through a corner of Idaho and into Washington state and Oregon, connecting with a pipeline going into California.

‘Every square inch is covered in life’: the ageing oil rigs that became marine oases -- On a recent August afternoon, Ann Scarborough Bull motored out two miles from the coast of Santa Barbara onboard a research vessel called the Danny C. The marine biologist and her colleagues had an unusual destination in their sights: a disused oil platform that loomed ahead like a forgotten skyscraper reaching up from the horizon. The team wasn’t interested in the platform itself, but what lurked beneath. When they reached the ageing structure, named Holly, they lowered a car-sized remote- controlled vehicle under the waves. There, they saw hundreds of thousands of juvenile rockfish finding shelter amid the hulking metal structure, alongside waving white anemones, clusters of mussels, and silver jack mackerel. The seasoned marine biologists have been observing this remarkable spectacle for years. Holly, which was put out of use in 2015, is one of 27 oil rigs built off the coast of California decades ago that have become hotbeds of biological activity. While not natural structures, their platforms have been embedded into the muddy seabed long enough to become part of the ocean environment, providing a home for creatures like mussels and barnacles, which in turn attract larger fish and sea lions that find safety and food there. After two and a half decades of studying the rigs, Bull says it’s clear to her: “These places are extremely productive, both for commercial and recreational fisheries and for invertebrates.” Now, as California and the US shift away from offshore drilling and toward greener energy, a debate is mounting over their future. On one side are those who argue disused rigs are an environmental blight and should be removed entirely. On the other side are people, many of them scientists, who say we should embrace these accidental oases and that removing the structures is morally wrong. In other parts of the world, oil rigs have successfully become artificial reefs, in a policy known as rigs to reefs. For Milton Love, a scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was on the boat with Bull, it’s a matter of ethics. . “It kind of crept up on me at some point that removing these things is immoral.” The fish don’t know they are complicit in a fossil fuel infrastructure that is causing a climate crisis – they just see a hard structure and invertebrates attached to it, and a place to hide. Bull agrees. “If you take away habitat, then there’s no going back,”she says. “You would never allow the willful destruction of a kelp bed, or of a rocky reef, even though rigs have similar biodiversity.”

Alaska development agency sues federal government over canceled oil leases - Alaska’s industrial development agency on Wednesday sued the Biden administration in an attempt to revive its Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas leases.The lawsuit filed by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority alleges that the Department of the Interior violated federal laws and its own regulations when it canceled refuge leases last month.Interior’s actions were politically motivated and illegally deprived AIDEA and the state of the economic benefits that would come from drilling in the refuge’s coastal plain, an area that is known to contain oil, the lawsuit argues.“Cancellation of the lease agreements eliminates AIDEA’s property rights in exploring and developing these leases and prevents all of the expected benefits that would have come from developing an oil and gas program on these lands, seriously harming AIDEA,” said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.AIDEA was the main bidder in the ANWR lease sale held in January 2021 as one of the Trump administration’s last actions. One small oil company and one Anchorage real estate company submitted the only two other bids.Ultimately, the authority wound up with seven leases in the refuge coastal plain and was the last entity holding leases there. The other two participants canceled their bids last year and were refunded.The debate over oil drilling in the Arctic refuge has raged for decades. Supporters of drilling, including most Alaska political leaders, have argued that the area would provide valuable oil supplies. Opponents say oil development would irreparably damage the environment, including the Porcupine caribou herd, a huge herd that crowds into the narrow coastal plain each year to give birth to its young.The 2021 lease sale, mandated through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 signed by then-President Donald Trump, was the first competitive auction of exploration rights there. The sale failed to draw any bids from major oil companies.President Joe Biden, in an Inauguration Day order, temporarily barred any exploration work on the ANWR leases. That was followed by action in June 2021 by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland that suspended the leases and launched a new study of environmental impacts from oil development in the refuge coastal plain.

Canada’s $26 Billion Investment In Trans Mountain Pipeline May Not Pay Off -The Trans Mountain Expansion Project promised in the 2010s to help Canada’s oil sands producers get their crude to the Asian markets from the Pacific Coast. After years of delays and enormous cost overruns, the expanded oil pipeline currently owned by the federal government of Canada is about to enter into service early next year.The government has never intended to keep its ownership in the project that carries crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia on the Pacific Coast and which will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 300,000 bpd.Canada has started talks with indigenous groups interested in buying ownership of the expanded project. But pipeline operators and institutional investors are not too keen to buy the Trans Mountain Expansion Project, analysts tell Reuters, because of the high costs of financing for companies and because many investment funds prefer not to sink money into fossil fuel projects these days.An ongoing dispute over the proposed shipping tolls of the pipeline amid the huge construction cost overruns is also muddying the waters for potential buyers.All these hurdles suggest that the federal government of Canada may never fully recover the more than a dozen billion U.S. dollars of costs to have the project up and running.At the start of the project, fierce opposition in British Columbia forced Kinder Morgan to reconsider its commitment to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline. So the Government of Canada reached an agreement with Kinder Morgan back in 2018 to buy the Trans Mountain Expansion Project and related pipeline and terminal assets. That cost the federal government $3.3 billion (C$4.5 billion) at the time. Since then, the costs for the expansion of the pipeline have quadrupled to nearly $22.6 billion (C$30.9 billion) and could continue to increase.At the end of September, Trans Mountain received a ruling from the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) that approved its proposed deviation to pipeline routing within the previously agreed to the right-of-way on Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc (SSN) lands near Pipsell (Jacko Lake), BC. The approved change of route in the section means that the pipeline could be fully completed and in service in early 2024. The project remains in the $22.6 billion (C$30.9 billion) “range,” and only 16 kilometers of pipeline are left to lay, Trans Mountain CEO Dawn Farrell told Calgary Herald’s Chris Varcoe last week.Indigenous-led group Project Reconciliation and Chinook Pathways, a partnership between Pembina Pipeline and Western Indigenous Pipeline Group (WIPG), are interested in bidding to own the whole or part of Trans Mountain.But other potential buyers, which years ago may have been interested in getting their hands on such a large energy infrastructure project, may stay away. High financing costs with the high interest rates and the reluctance of many institutional investors to be associated with fossil fuels is limiting the pool of possible new owners of Trans Mountain.

Vancouver Island communities seek oil tanker ban during rough seas - Communities along Vancouver Island’s south coast want to a ban imposed on tanker ships during adverse weather conditions when spill response teams are unable to operate due to rough seas. Local councils in Metchosin and Sooke are getting behind a lobby asking B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman to push Transport Canada for the ban. They will also request provincial assistance for spill response equipment, protective gear, shoreline response strategies, and community evacuation plans. Sooke Councillor Tony St-Pierre said the action won’t stop tanker traffic, only stop it from travelling when not possible to mitigate disasters. He added the response to Heyman could prevent downloading on communities and make sure they have the necessary equipment in case of a spill. The move comes even as some councillors express doubts it would have the desired effect. Al Beddows pointed out that Sooke has vigorously fought over the years to limit tanker traffic. In 2014, a non-binding referendum was held where about 70 per cent of voters opposed the expansion of oil tanker traffic through coastal B.C. waters. “I don’t like the idea of those tankers coming up and down the coast, but the (Trans Mountain) pipeline is almost done. It’s not going to change things. We are going to get those 400 tankers a year,” he said. “If we write a letter I’d like to think it would have some influence, but I have a feeling it will have absolutely no influence.” The Trans Mountain Expansion project runs from Edmonton to Kinder Morgan’s Westridge Marine Terminal and the Chevron refinery in Burnaby. The project involves twinning an existing oil pipeline built in 1953 and is expected to result in a significant increase in oil tanker traffic in Vancouver and Victoria waters, servicing destinations like California, China, and other foreign buyers. To enhance spill response capabilities, KOTUG Canada and Trans Mountain will manage a fleet of tugboats stationed at the new oil response base at Beecher Bay, near East Sooke. The base is part of a broader $150-million expansion by the Western Canada Marine Response Centre, which extends to Sidney, Port Alberni, Nanaimo, and Ucluelet, in preparation for the increased spill response demands associated with the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

Ksi Lisims LNG Signs Up as Customer for TC’s Prince Rupert Pipe System - TC Energy Corp. has landed Ksi Lisims LNG as a potential customer for a dormant but still approved pipeline across northern British Columbia (BC), the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) system. Led by the Nisga’a Nation and a group of Canada’s largest natural gas producers, Ksi Lisims also has filed for environmental approval to develop the 12 MMty facility on Canada’s west coast. The information about PRGT was disclosed in a filing to the BC Environmental Assessment Office. PRGT’s design calls for 450 miles of 48-inch diameter pipeline to transport natural gas from the Montney Shale. The line as designed would initially deliver 2 Bcf/d and be expandable to 3.6 Bcf/d. The agreement, according to the Ksi Lisims filing, would allow work to be conducted on PRGT

U.S. Grants Amended License as Shell, Trinidad and Tobago Pursue Venezuelan Natural Gas Deal - The island nation of Trinidad and Tobago is aiming to take a “significant step forward” in gathering Venezuelan natural gas to support domestic demand and LNG exports after the United States granted an amended license, according to Energy Minister Stuart Young. In a press conference late Tuesday, Young said he expects to complete negotiations with Venezuela to buy natural gas from the offshore Dragon field after the U.S. Treasury Department agreed to allow development partners to make payments in both hard currency and humanitarian contributions. Young said the ministry plans to continue meetings with Shell plc, Trinidad’s state-owned National Gas Co. and the government of Venezuela to “get into the granular level of detail” for pricing Dragon field gas.

Gazprom’s Plans for Reviving Russian Natural Gas Production Challenged by Financing, Competition - Future prospects for Russia’s largest natural gas producer, Gazprom PJSC, are challenging as it works to outpace both foreign sanctions and domestic competition from independent firms. Unhappy over the Kremlin granting an LNG export license to Russia’s second largest natural gas producer, PAO Novatek, Gazprom told Russian regulator’s the Murmansk liquified natural gas project would reduce domestic gas supplies crucial for power and industry needs. Despite these objections, the Murmansk export permit was approved and is expected to become effective in November. “With LNG exports providing a significant source of income to Russia, the less risky bet is to...

Russia's Gazprom launches small-scale liquefaction plant - Russian gas giant Gazprom has recently launched a small-scale liquefaction plant in the Amur region of Russia’s Far East. The liquefaction plant, implemented by Gazprom’s unit Gazprom Helium Service, is located in the Svobodnensky district in the Amur region. Back in 2021, Gazprom Helium Service and Russian Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (RFEADC) signed a cooperation agreement for the creation of this liquefaction complex. According to a Gazprom statement issued last month, this is the region’s first such facility. The newly built complex is the key facility in the pilot project for off-grid gas supplies in the Amur region, it said. The capacity of the complex is 1.5 tons of LNG per hour, or 12,600 tons per year. Gazprom said the product output will be built up as the consumers become ready to receive liquefied natural gas. The main LNG consumer will be a gas boiler house which is currently under construction in the Amurselmash urban district of Belogorsk, the second largest city of the Amur region. Once ready, the new boiler house will replace the existing fuel oil one which currently provides heat and hot water to 37 apartment buildings, two kindergartens, a school, and a community center, Gazprom said. LNG-powered freight trucks will bring the fuel to Belogorsk in special cryogenic tanks. As of today, the construction of the receiving, storage, and regasification system is nearing completion in the vicinity of the gas boiler house, Gazprom said . The system will serve to store LNG at constant temperature, convert it to gaseous form, and then supply it to the boiler house, it said. Capacity boost

QatarEnergy Signs Another 27-Year LNG Supply Deal for Europe - QatarEnergy said Wednesday it has agreed to supply Shell plc with 3.5 million tons (Mt) of LNG from its massive North Field expansion project for nearly three decades. LNG The liquefied natural gas would come from the 32 Mt/year North Field East (NFE) project and the 16 Mt/year North Field South (NFS) project. Shell was awarded equity stakes in both NFE and NFS last year. The super-chilled fuel supplied under the deal would be delivered to the Gate LNG import terminal in the Netherlands starting in 2026 for a term of 27 years.

QatarEnergy inks huge LNG supply deal with Shell - State-owned QatarEnergy and UK-based Shell signed two long-term LNG sale and purchase deals for the supply of up to 3.5 million tons per annum of LNG from Qatar to the Netherlands. Qatar’s energy minister and chief executive of QatarEnergy, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, and Wael Sawan, CEO of Shell, signed the SPAs during a ceremony in Doha, according to a statement by QatarEnergy issued on Wednesday. Under the SPAs, LNG will be delivered to the Dutch Gate LNG terminal located in the port of Rotterdam starting in 2026 for a term of 27 years. LNG giant Shell has capacity rights at the Gate terminal owned by Gasunie and Vopak. Moreover, the LNG volumes will be sourced from the two joint ventures between QatarEnergy and Shell that hold interests in Qatar’s North Field East (NFE) and North field South (NFS) expansion projects. SShell’s partnership in the North Field LNG expansion projects is made up of a 6.25 percent share in the 32 mtpa NFE project and a 9.375 percent share in the 16 mtpa NFS project.Together, NFE and NFS form the wider North Field expansion project to increase LNG production from the North Field, adding 48 mtpa to Qatar’s export capacity and bringing it to 126 mtpa.Last week, QatarEnergy also signed two deals with TotalEnergies for up to 3.5 million tons per annum and a period of 27 years. These supplies are intended for the Fos Cavaou LNG receiving terminal in southern France.

Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG workers call off strike - Workers at Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG plants in Western Australia have agreed to suspend industrial action planned for Thursday and will now vote on new agreements on pay and conditions.The Offshore Alliance, which includes the Maritime Union of Australia and Australian Workers’ Union, said in a social media post on Wednesday that its members on the Chevron facilities voted 94 percent in support of an in-principle agreement to suspend protected industrial action.Previously, unions representing workers at the 15.5 mtpa Gorgon and the 8.9 mtpa Wheatstone LNG export terminals and the Wheatstone offshore platform in Western Australia decided on September 22 to suspend strikes.Chevron accepted recommendations made by Australia’s FWC and the parties have been working to complete the drafting of the enterprise agreements since then.However, the Offshore Alliance said earlier this this month that Chevron has “reneged on the commitment they gave to the Fair Work Commission to incorporate FWC’s recommendations into the Chevron EBA’s for the Wheatstone and Gorgon facilities.”Chevron’s workers decided to resume strikes on October 19 and the Offshore Alliance provided a notice to Chevron Australia on October 9.The parties, with the assistance of commissioner Bernie Riordan, have been working since the last week to resolve the remaining issues in order to progress drafting of the proposed enterprise agreements.On October 14, workers voted again to resume the strikes on October 19.The Offshore Alliance said on Wednesday that its members on the Chevron facilities are now reviewing the proposed EBA’s which “lock in key employment conditions and union standards.”“Members are now reviewing the draft enterprise agreements and are awaiting Chevron commencing the access period so that members can review and vote on the three proposed agreements to cover the Chevron and Wheatstone facilities,” the alliance said.

China's LNG imports drop in September - China’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports dropped in September after rising for seven months in a row, according to customs data. Data from the General Administration of Customs shows that the country received about 5.69 million tonnes in August, a drop of 2.8 percent when compared to the same month last year. LNG imports in September also dropped compared to 6.30 million tonnes in August, when they rose 34.1 percent year-on-year. China imported 51.13 million tonnes of LNG during January-September, up by 10.1 percent compared to the same period last year, the data shows. However, Chinese LNG imports fell last year due to due to very high spot LNG prices and Covid lockdowns, which affected economic activity. LNG imports dropped compared to the January-September period in 2021 when China imported 58.48 million tonnes of LNG. Including pipeline gas, China’s gas imports rose by 8.2 percent year-on-year to 87.76 million tonnes in the January-September period this year. The country’s pipeline gas imports rose by 4.9 percent in September to 4.46 million tonnes, the data shows. Japan was the world’s top liquefied natural gas importer in 2022, overtaking China, but both of the countries took fewer volumes when compared to the year before. However, China has overtaken Japan in the first half of this year. Japan’s Ministry of Finance has not yet released its data for LNG imports in September. The country’s LNG imports dropped by 9.6 percent year-on-year in August to about 5.67 million tonnes. During the January-August period, Japan imported some 43.38 million tonnes, down by about 2.18 million tonnes compared to China’s 45.51 million tonnes in the same period.

Up to $1.2 billion insurance cover for marine oil spills 16 October - Maritime NZ has published guidelines about a major increase required in insurance cover or other financial security for marine oil spills from offshore installations. Amendments to the Marine Protection Rules Part 102 now require owners of offshore installations to have insurance or another form of financial security from a third party of up to $1.2 billion. This is an increase from approximately $28 million. Maritime NZ Director, Keith Manch, said the insurance or other form of financial security is in addition to the unlimited liability imposed by the Maritime Transport Act for spill response costs and compensation for pollution damage to property. The certificate of insurance provides assurance that the money that would be needed is available to meet the costs of clean up and compensation for damage to property in case of an oil spill. Marine Protection Rules Parts 131 and 102 regulate offshore installations. They require an oil spill contingency plan and insurance or another form of financial security to cover the costs of clean up and damage to property.

Poll: Majority of Israelis Blame Government for Hamas Attack - A new poll found that the vast majority of Israelis say the Hamas attack on southern Israel was caused by a failure in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a smaller majority want Netanyahu to resign once the conflict is over.In the poll released by the Dialog Center, 86% of the people asked, including 79% of supporters of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, said the surprise attack from Gaza was a failure of the country’s leadership.The poll also found that 56% of respondents want Netanyahu to resign at the end of the conflict, and 52% also want to see the resignation of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.The Hamas attack on October 7 has raised questions about how the Israeli government could not be aware that such a large operation was about to be launched from Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade since 2007 and is under heavy surveillance. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) on Wednesday confirmed reports that said Egypt warned Israel before the attack that something big was coming. Netanyahu has also come under criticism for his strategy of propping up Hamas to divide Gaza from Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. “Those who want to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas,” Netanyahu said at a Likud party meeting in 2019. “This is part of our strategy, to differentiate between the Palestinians in Gaza and the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).”

Israel Says No Humanitarian Aid Into Gaza Until Captives Released - An Israeli minister said Thursday that Israel would not allow any humanitarian aid into Gaza unless Hamas releases Israelis it has taken into the enclave.“Humanitarian aid to Gaza?” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz wrote on X. “No electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home.”The comments came as human rights groups are pleading to allow aid into Gaza to prevent the enclave’s hospitals from turning into morgues amid a relentless, indiscriminate bombing campaign. Gaza’s sole powerplant has been turned off due to a lack of fuel, and hospitals only have a few more days worth of fuel to power generators.“As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues,” said Fabrizio Carboni, regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross.Doctors Without Borders also issued a statement on Thursday calling for humanitarian aid into Gaza. “Millions of men, women and children are facing a collective punishment in the form of total siege, indiscriminate bombing, and the pending threat of a ground battle. Safe spaces must be established, humanitarian supplies must be allowed into Gaza,” the statement said. On Thursday, Egypt received a shipment of humanitarian aid for Gaza from Jordan, but it’s not clear if it will make it into the besieged enclave. Israeli TV has reported that Israel threatened to bomb aid trucks that enter Gaza from Egypt.

Israeli President Says There Are No Innocent Civilians in Gaza - Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Friday that civilians in Gaza bear responsibility for the Hamas attack on southern Israel as Israeli bombs are killing scores of people in the besieged enclave. “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog said, referring to Gaza, which is not recognized as an independent nation. “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true.” Herzog claimed that civilians in Gaza “could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.” Proponents of the collective punishment of Gaza often claim the civilians living in the enclave elected Hamas. But the last time Gazans participated in elections was in 2006, and many of the enclave’s current citizens were not at voting age or even alive at the time, as about half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are children. Hamas’ party won the 2006 elections, but a government was not formed based on the results. After the elections, fighting broke out between Hamas and the rival Fatah party, which was encouraged and backed by the George W. Bush administration. The fighting led to Hamas taking power as the de facto governing body in Gaza in 2007. The Hamas takeover was used to justify the Israeli blockade on Gaza that started in 2007 and is still in effect today, giving Israel the power to impose a “complete siege” on the enclave in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. Since the Hamas attack was launched, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 2,450 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The number includes 724 children and 458 women.

Israel Bombs Syria's Aleppo Airport for Second Time Within 3 Days - Israeli airstrikes hit Syria’s Aleppo airport for the second time within three days, again knocking it out of service amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. “At about 11:35 pm on Saturday, October 14, 2023, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial attack from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, west of Lattakia, targeting Aleppo International Airport, which led to material damage to the airport putting it out of service,” a military sourcetold Syria’s SANA news agency.“This new act of aggression affirms the criminal approach of the Israeli occupation entity, which is clearly embodied today in its continued crimes against the Palestinian people and the massacres it commits against innocent civilians, including women and children,” the source added. On Thursday, Israeli airstrikes targeted both the Aleppo airport and the Damascus airport, putting them out of service. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the Aleppo airport was struck again on Saturday, just a few hours after it resumed service. The Saturday airstrikes mark at least the 27th time Israel has bombed Syria this year. Sources told SOHR that Israel’s purpose of targeting Syria’s airports amid its Gaza onslaught was as a warning to prevent Iranian military flights into the country. The sources added that “the two targeted airports had not witnessed any arrival of the military shipments of the Iranian militias and that the Israeli targets came only to put the two airports out of service.” Israel frames its bombing campaign as airstrikes against Iran and Hezbollah’s presence in the country, but the attacks frequently kill Syrians and damage civilian infrastructure.

Israeli Military Says It's 'in Formation' to Strike Gaza City - An Israeli military spokesman said Sunday that Israeli troops are “in formation” to strike Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip as Israel is expected to launch a ground incursion into the besieged enclave.“Gaza City is where the focus and the hub of Hamas activities are, that is where most of the commanders are, most of their infrastructure and their ability to continue to operate,” said Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, according to NPR.The New York Times reported on Saturday that Israel’s plan is to invade and capture Gaza City and attempt to wipe out Hamas’ leadership. The operation is expected to involve tens of thousands of troops and will be Israel’s largest ground incursion since at least 2006 when it invaded Lebanon.Besides sending in the infantry, the incursion will include tanks, commandos, and mine sappers. The force will receive support from Israeli warplanes, attack helicopters, and artillery fired from land and sea. The US is strongly backing Israel as it’s preparing to invade Gaza and launching relentless airstrikes on the enclave.The invasion force will face stiff resistance from Hamas militants and other groups that will join the fighting. The Israeli incursion of Gaza is expected to lead to months of brutal urban warfare in one of the most densely populated places in the world. Israel’s long-term plans and whether it would eventually withdraw from Gaza City if it’s successfully captured are unclear.Ahead of the expected ground invasion of Gaza, Israel calls for northern Gaza to be evacuated, an area that’s home to 1.1 million people. Israel said the residents should move to southern Gaza, a huge movement of people that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said is likely “impossible.” According to Middle East Eye, at least 70 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike while attempting to flee to the south.

Iran Says It Won't Enter War With Israel Unless Israel Attacks First - Amid concerns about Israel’s onslaught in Gaza escalating into a regional war, the Iranian mission to the UN said Sunday that it would only enter the fighting if Israel attacked Iran.“Iran’s armed forces will not engage, provided that the Israeli apartheid does not dare to attack Iran, its interests, and nationals. The resistance front can defend itself,” Iran’s UN mission in New York told Reuters.Also on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned Israel that a ground invasion of Gaza could spark a regional war with “resistance” factions, referring to Hezbollah and Shia militias that operate in Iraq and Syria.“If the measures aimed at immediately stopping the Israeli attacks that are killing children in the Gaza Strip end in a deadlock, it is highly probable that many other fronts will be opened. This option is not ruled out and this is becoming increasingly more probable,” Amir-Abdollahian told Al Jazeera.“If the Zionist entity decides to enter Gaza, the resistance leaders will turn it into a graveyard of the occupation soldiers,” he added. On Saturday, Amir-Abdollahian met with Hamas officials in Lebanon and Qatar and also stopped in Iraq and Syria. Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged some fire on the Israel-Lebanon border, and there have been some casualties, but there’s no sign yet that Hezbollah has decided to launch a major attack. Amir-Abdollahian warned on Saturday that he’s learned of “the scenarios that Hezbollah has put in place” and said that “any step the resistance will take will cause a huge earthquake in the Zionist entity.”

Top Iranian envoy warns ‘preemptive action’ against Israel expected soon - Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Monday warned that preemptive action against Israel could be expected “in the coming hours,” due to its bombing of Gaza, according to Iranian state TV. Amirabdollahian said that Israel — which is waging an air campaign against the Palestinian militant group Hamas with a ground invasion expected soon — won’t be allowed to take such actions in the Gaza Strip without repercussions. “Leaders of the resistance will not allow [Israel] to take any action in Gaza … All options are open and we cannot be indifferent to the war crimes committed against the people of Gaza,” Amirabdollahian told state TV, as translated by Reuters. “The resistance front is capable of waging a long-term war with [Israel] … in the coming hours, we can expect a preemptive action by the resistance front,” he added. “If the crimes in Gaza do not stop immediately, new fronts will be opened.” Israel since Oct. 7 has been at war with Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. The conflict has claimed more than 4,000 lives and counting on both sides after Hamas’s deadly surprise assault on Israel by land, air and sea. The conflict has unsettled the region, with U.S. officials concerned that the Iran-backed Hezbollah might choose to open a second front in the fight. Hezbollah and Israel last fought a monthlong war in 2006. “We want to send a pretty strong message. We do not want this to broaden, and the idea is for Iran to get that message loud and clear,” new Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown said last week. Iran, which also backs Hamas, has denied any involvement in the planning of that attack, but the country’s leaders have seemed to revel in Israel’s intelligence failure in not suspecting Hamas’s plans. Earlier Monday, Amirabdollahian posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that “time is running out for political solutions” to the war.

Iran Calls For Middle East States to Start Economic Escalation Via Oil Embargo On Israel - Iran is calling for an oil embargo on Israel over the latest deadly air strikes on the Gaza Strip amid growing tensions in the Middle East just as U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Israel.Iran wants “an immediate and complete embargo on the Zionist regime by Islamic countries, an oil embargo against the regime,” according to a statement from the foreign ministry on Telegram quoted by Bloomberg. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has also called for Muslim countries to expel their respective Israeli ambassadors if they have diplomatic relations with Israel. Amirabdollahian warned, “If the war crimes do not stop and the ongoing genocide by the apartheid Zionist regime in Gaza continues, the situation in the region will spiral out of control”.Amirabdollahian met with his Kuwaiti counterpart on the sidelines of an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)’s Executive Committee in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.The emergency meeting is taking place hours after a missile strike on a hospital in Gaza killed about 500 people, with Israel’s army and Hamas blaming each other for the attack, which sent oil prices jumping by more than 2% early on Wednesday.Meanwhile, U.S. President Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday to discuss the conflict. Following the bombing of the hospital, a meeting of Arab leaders and Biden in Jordan was canceled. Biden claimed that, from what he has seen, the explosion at the hospital was not carried out by Israel but by “the other team”.Israel is a small oil importer, but the further escalation of the Hamas-Israel war into the wider Middle East is not being ruled out, and analysts are increasingly concerned about supply from the world’s most important oil-exporting region.With Saudi Arabia also taking a pro-Palestine stance in its recent conversations with the U.S., the possibility for a quick end of the fighting is fading away while the possibility of greater regional involvement appears to be rising if oil prices are any indication.

Report: Israel's Gaza Ground Invasion Delayed Due to Fears of Hezbollah Attack - --The Jerusalem Post reported Monday that Israel has yet to launch a ground invasion of Gaza over fears that Hezbollah could launch a major attack from the north.An Israeli ground incursion appeared imminent on Friday and Saturday after Israel told 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate north Gaza, but now it’s unclear when the invasion will start. The New York Times previously reported that the invasion was delayed due to weather conditions.Sources told The Jerusalem Post that Israel was worried Hezbollah could be waiting until the bulk of the Israeli military is committed to the ground invasion in the south to open a second front in the north.Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire on the Israel-Lebanon border, and there have been casualties, but the Post report said Hezbollah’s attacks have been at a “fairly low threshold.”The report comes as Iran is warning that the “resistance” in the region, referring to Hezbollah and Shia militias operating in Iraq and Syria, might take action if Israel’s bombardment of Gaza doesn’t stop.“The resistance front is capable of waging a long-term war with [Israel] … in the coming hours, we can expect a preemptive action by the resistance front,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday. “If the crimes in Gaza do not stop immediately, new fronts will be opened.”The US has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups to the Eastern Mediterranean in the name of deterring regional actors from entering the war. The implication is that if Hezbollah does launch a major attack on Israel, the US might directly intervene, which means a major regional war.

Hundreds Killed in Israeli Bombing of Gaza Hospital - Israeli airstrikes targeted the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday night, killing hundreds and wounding many more.According to Middle East Eye, at least 500 people were killed, mainly women and children. The hospital was packed with Palestinians wounded in other strikes and people seeking refuge from the constant Israeli bombardment. If the numbers are confirmed, it would mark the single deadliest Israeli airstrike that’s ever hit the besieged Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes also pounded southern Gaza on Tuesday, where Israel told Palestinians in the north to evacuate to. According toAP, the airstrikes in the south killed dozens of civilians and one senior Hamas leader.

Egypt Says Israel Is Not Cooperating on Delivering Humanitarian Aid to Gaza - Egyptian officials said Monday that Israel is not cooperating on allowing the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza as the enclave is being pushed to the brink due to relentless Israeli airstrikes and a total siege.According to Al Jazeera, Cairo said the Rafah border crossing that connects Egypt and Gaza has been rendered nearly inoperable due to continuous Israeli airstrikes in the area. The border crossing was closed last week as Israeli bombs fell nearby, giving Palestinians in Gaza nowhere to flee.Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry also said that Israel was not allowing citizens of other countries to exit Gaza. “Until now, the Israeli government has not taken a position on opening the Rafah crossing from the Gaza side to allow the entrance of assistance and exit of citizens of third countries,” Shoukry said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed on Sunday that the Rafah border crossing would reopen for aid soon, but the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that no deal had been reached. “There is currently no cease-fire and humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the expulsion of foreigners,” Netanyahu’s office said. Blinken was back in Israel on Monday and, according to Axios, told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that allowing aid into Gaza was vital to maintaining international support for Israel’s bombardment and expected ground invasion.Israeli officials have previously said no humanitarian aid can enter Gaza until Hamas releases the captives it brought into the enclave. “Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home,” said Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz.Since Katz’s comments, Israel has said it turned on water for one community in south Gaza, but Hamas and other authorities inside the enclave have denied any water is flowing. Gazans are resorting to drinking salty and sewage-contaminated water.As of Monday night in Gaza, at least 2,808 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 853 children and 936 women. Over 10,000 people have been wounded in the bombardment.

They followed evacuation orders -- an Israeli airstrike killed them the next day — When Palestinians in north Gaza heeded the warnings issued in the Israeli military’s phone calls, text messages, and fliers advising them to head south, they thought they were fleeing to potential safety. The Israeli Defense Forces issued the guidance Friday, telling all civilians in north Gaza to evacuate to areas south of Wadi Gaza “for your own safety and the safety of your families” as the IDF continues “to operate significantly in Gaza City and make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians.” However, some Palestinians who followed the evacuation warnings and fled their homes in search of safety suffered the very fate they were running from: Israeli airstrikes killed them outside of the evacuation zone. The killings underscore the reality that evacuation zones and warning alerts from the Israeli military haven’t guaranteed safety for civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where Palestinians have no safe place to escape Israeli bombs. A plume of smoke rises in the sky over Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike on Monday. Israel is at war with Hamas. Here's what to know In the early hours on Friday, Aaed Al-Ajrami and his nephew, Raji, received a phone call from an Israeli military official – warning him to get everyone he knows and head southwards immediately, the nephew told CNN. Despite following the instructions and successfully fleeing south of the evacuation zone, Aaed’s family was killed by an Israeli airstrike the next day. An audio recording of the phone call obtained by CNN reveals the details of the brief conversation – which included the IDF’s instructions to flee south of the evacuation zone and no guidance on how to get there. Raji said once they realized who was calling, they recorded the conversation so they could share it with other family members. “All of you go to the South. You and all your family members. Gather all of your stuff with you and head there,” the officer told them. Aaed wanted to know what road would be safe to take and what time they should leave. “It doesn’t matter which road,” the officer replied. “Do it as fast as you can. There is no time left.” Aaed heeded the warning. By sunrise on Friday, he headed south with his family and relatives to stay with friends in Deir Al Balah, a city roughly eight miles south of Wadi Gaza and outside the evacuation zone. The next day, an Israeli airstrike in the area destroyed parts of the building where Aaed’s family sought refuge – killing him and 12 other members of his family, including seven children. His nephew Raji, 32, was staying in a different building nearby when he heard the explosion and feared the worst. He rushed to the scene after receiving a call telling him that his uncle’s family members were amongst the victims.

Gaza crisis threatens to spill over border into Egypt | Financial Times - An Israeli military spokesman on Tuesday offered some advice to Palestinians seeking to flee his country’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip: “get out” through the “open” border with Egypt.The problem is that the Rafah crossing in the south of the Palestinian enclave was closed, with news outlets reporting that it had been damaged after an Israeli air strike nearby.The office of military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht later issued a clarification while the Israel Defense Forces said there had been “no official call by Israel for residents of the Gaza Strip to exit into Egypt”.But his comments underscored how the conflict ignited by Saturday’s deadly Hamas incursion into Israel — the worst attack on the Jewish state since it was founded — quickly threatens to spill over its borders. In particular it highlights Cairo’s long-running concern that Israel wants to push its troubles dealing with Hamas-controlled Gaza on to Egypt. “Israel, as the occupying force, has responsibilities towards Gaza under international law. It cannot give these up” and shift the problem on to Egypt, said Ahmed Kamel al-Beheiry, an analyst at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “seeking to broaden the crisis and put pressure not just on the Gazans but on neighbouring countries too”, he added.Netanyahu has advised Gazans to “leave”, even though Egypt is the only logical place they can go to, given that they cannot flee into Israel. Egypt has worked with Israel to keep the more than 2mn Gazans packed inside their teeming coastal enclave. Cairo controls Rafah, the main crossing for any Palestinian seeking to enter the outside world. Egypt and Israel co-ordinate extensively over border security and there is trust between their security agencies. Cairo is also acutely aware of the sympathy that many of Egypt’s 100mn population have towards the Palestinian desire for statehood. On Sunday, a day after the mass Hamas incursion in which at least 900 Israelis were killed, an Egyptian policeman killed two Israeli tourists in the city of Alexandria. The first Arab state to normalise relations with Israel in 1980, Egypt has since played an important mediation role in wars between Israel and Hamas by working to secure ceasefires. The complicating factor this time is that more than 100 Israeli hostages are in the hands of Hamas and its allies. The militant group has threatened to execute a hostage every time Israel bombs a residential area without advance warning. “Pressure from within Israel on Netanyahu to negotiate might impact when the mediation starts.”

Oil Falls on Reports US Pressuring Israel to Delay Assault -- West Texas Intermediate futures reversed lower in afternoon trading Friday in reaction to a Bloomberg report suggesting U.S. and European allies are pressuring Israel to delay a ground offensive into Gaza to win time for negotiations aimed at releasing more than 200 hostages. The Palestinian militant group Hamas released two American hostages on Friday, according to multiple reports. The move could open the door for more hostages to be released from captivity in Gaza in the coming days, with U.S. and European officials now urging Israel to delay its ground offensive. Oil prices swung between large gains and losses this week as investors monitored Mideast tensions for signs of potential spillover into a larger regional conflict. . So far, oil production in the region remains unaffected but there is the risk that Iran could get involved on behalf of its subsidiary, Hamas, that sends prices sharply higher. Goldman Sachs estimates Iranian oil production could be 400,000 bpd lower next year as a result of recent developments, which would lift the Brent oil price forecast for the second half of 2024 by $5 to $105 bbl. The United States issued new sanctions this week on people and companies based in Iran, China, and Venezuela, for enabling Iran's ballistic missile and drone programs, the Treasury Department said. The sanctions targeted those who have supported the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the defense ministry in the production and proliferation of the missiles and drones, Treasury said in a statement Wednesday. In financial markets, a combination of strong macroeconomic data and recent comments from Federal Reserve officials suggesting the U.S. central bank is done with hiking interest rates pushed bond yields higher this week, while pressuring the U.S. dollar index. The working assumption is that the rise in longer-term yields could potentially substitute for another rate increase that slows the economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stressed this week the economy has held up much better than anyone expected despite the Fed's aggressive monetary tightening campaign. "It could be the case that the interest rates haven't been high enough for long enough. We certainly got a resilient economy on our hands," noted Powell during a speech at the New York Economic Club on Thursday. Similar sentiment was echoed in comments by Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic and Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker, who asserted that it's time to hold interest rates steady and allow the economy to absorb past hikes. "Bunch of our policy tightness still has not gone through the whole economy. The outlook for the economy is likely that we are not going to see a recession, but we will be gradually slowing down with inflation coming down to its 2% target over time," said Bostic to CNBC. This week's macroeconomic data offered more evidence of a resilient U.S. economy amid the backdrop of strong consumer demand and a tight labor market. High-frequency unemployment claims dropped to a nine-month low 198,000 in the most recent week, with the large states of Texas, New York, and California, driving the decline in first-time jobless applications. Meanwhile, September retail sales jumped 0.7% after an upwardly revised 0.8% gain in August, marking the sixth consecutive month of growth in aggregate consumer spending. NYMEX WTI futures for November delivery expired $0.62 lower at $88.75 bbl, with the next-month December contract settling the session with a $0.67 bbl discount against the expired contract. International crude benchmark Brent on ICE slipped $0.22 to $92.16 bbl. NYMEX November ULSD futures declined $0.0164 to $3.1566 gallon, while front-month RBOB futures added $0.0119 to $2.3736 gallon.